In a couple of hours we were in the next town over. It was a very small town, with houses sparsely spread out. There were no people on the streets, a weird smell in the air, and it just began to rain.

We rushed into the Inn. The lobby smelled of wildflowers. There was a plump woman in a green dress at the desk and she looked nice enough; she smiled as we walked up to her.

“What can I do for you boys?” She asked sweetly.

“We’d like a room, please,” I told her.

She told us the price and I handed her a gold coin. Her eyes went wide as dinner plates.

“Don’t be flashing that kind of coin around here like that,” she warned.

She turned her head to the open room on the left. Inside was a bar with all kinds of suspicious looking people; smoke from their pipes creating a haze over them. I apologized and slipped her the coin inconspicuously. She gave us a key and walked us to our room.

“If you don’t want to cross the bar,” she said sweetly. “You can put in a request for food with me and I will get it to the cook and make sure it is delivered to your room.”

“That’s very kind of you. Thank you.”

She nodded her head and left the room.

The room was very nice. There were two large bed covered with red blankets and a fire softly burning in a fireplace. It looked like the room was worth the gold coin I had paid. We sat on each of the beds facing each other. I let out a sigh.

“What an interesting place.” Leo said.

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“It really is. The receptionist was pretty nice.”

“She was, although I’m sure the coin we paid helped her attitude.”

We laughed.

When silence began to fill the room, Leo unwrapped the blanket and revealed the star shard. He sat there staring at it for awhile.

“You alright?” I asked.

“Yeah.” He paused. “Just processing it all. It’s amazing how much trouble this little secret has caused.”

“That’s true. Hopefully this wizard will get it out of our hands and we can go rebuild the cottage or even find a new place.”

“Hopefully.” Leo sighed.

He wrapped the shard back in the blanket and stuck it back in the bag.

“Let’s get something to eat.”

We put our order in with the recetionst and she passed it along to the kitchen staff. We quietly went back up to our room and waited for our food to arrive. When it did, we ate and then decided to take a nap.

Leo shook me awake with a finger pressed to his lips. I sat up alert but heeding his warning. I heard a shout from the hall. We stealthily cracked the door and had to hold our gasps in. The man that had attack our mother and burnt our home was now just a few feet from us.

He was shouting at a maid who was bursting into tears and telling him she didn’t know anything. We hastily shut the door and began moving a chair and a small table in front of the door. Sweat ran down my face.

“What do we do?” Whispered Leo.

I shrugged and looked around the room.

“I have an idea, but it’s not very good.”

I ran to the bed and began stripping it. I took the sheets and tied them together. I tied that to the bed post then let the makeshift rope dangle out the window. I tested it’s strength at then told Leo to go ahead; I would deal with the ruffian if need be. He made it safely to the ground and I soon followed.

When I reached the ground, we gave each other a look and ran out of town.