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e walked east for hours, my legs soon feeling more like lead than appendages. The sun had found its way behind us as the day passed, and it was now uncomfortably warm on my back. I had stopped crying, but every once in a while a surge of regret would cause an unpleasant weight to form in my chest. Nothing was said between the dragon-kin and I, and we both preferred it that way.

As evening approached, a lone human structure came into view. A fading sign hanging from its side declared it an inn. Though the building was not up to my normal standards, the thought of lying down was too intoxicating to resist. I simply pointed at it, and headed for the front door.

A creaky chandelier hung from the tall ceiling in the main room, casting strange patterns of light on the mismatched sets of unoccupied tables and chairs. Levent closed the door behind us, sending a plume of dust across the floor, and I wandered into the room. No one was in sight.

“Hello?” I ventured. A moment later an answer came in the form of several crashing noises from the basement. I heard someone run up a flight of stairs, and the innkeeper finally popped out of a doorway across the room. He was skinny, pale, and his dark hair and clothes were disheveled.

“Room for the night?” he asked distractedly, rushing behind a small counter and pulling out a thick ledger book.

“Two, please,” I said clearly but quietly, fearing that anything louder would cause the frantic-looking man to crack. It was then that he finally looked at us. First, he became even gaunter at the sight of Levent, who was lurking a few feet away. When he looked at me, however, his face brightened contrastingly. His strange and sudden grin was unnerving, but I was just too tired to care.

“Yes, of course,” he muttered nervously, flipping through the dusty book until he came to a blank page. A stick of charcoal had found its way into his hands, and he began scribbling away illegibly. “Twenty coppers for the rooms, if you please.”

I tugged the bag off my shoulders and rummaged around for my money. The price was steep for the quality of the place, but I hardly noticed. Levent was not exactly volunteering to pay, and he actually seemed like the type to just sleep outdoors rather than bother with staying at an inn. I resigned myself to pay for the both of us.

I took a handful of coins and pushed them across the counter. The man