"Welcome to The Dragons Rest," the man sitting at the front dest greets us with a cheery smile on her face, "is this your first time in our humble establishment?"

"Nope," Kara says with a big grin, stepping up and putting twelve coins down. "One private room please."

"We have new rooms available, would you like to book one of the themed rooms?" He instantly follows his question up with an offer "They normally are twenty coins but I will make an exception for such a lovely family, eighteen coins."

Oh, they must have expanded. I've noticed that there are quite a lot of properties for sale.

"Deal!" Kara yells out, putting six more coins on the counter before anyone can point out that we aren't actually a family.

Does he think Merah and Vikram are our parents? They are older than us but Fleur wouldn't really fit in with that image due to her being somewhere in the thirties, I think. I obviously am not as good at gauging ages as I thought.

He points us to our room and offers to wash our stuff. Kara and I agree but the others put their equipment in the other bin, wanting to clean it themselves. I grab the cube Cinder gave me.

The room is large, way larger than the one we were in last time, with a huge pool of water and a bridge. There are two curtained off changing areas by the side, beautifully painted fabric separating it from the rest.

The bridge is made out of wood and arches over the water, beautifully contrasting with the small waterfall in the back wall. The water streams over the pool and drains into the smooth stones surrounding it, vanishing to somewhere.

The walls are smooth wood with cobbled stone at the bottom, providing a very nice atmosphere.

Vikram, Fleur, Kara and I quickly undress and wash off, jumping into the water as Merah changes last.

"This is great," Fleur moans out as she sinks into the water, sitting on one of the small flat spaces beneath the bridge. "I might have to visit a lot more often… You have great taste, Kara."

"Yep," she agrees, glancing at Fleur's chest while she stretches.

We all decide to sit under the bridge, gathering around the lantern hanging from it like a bunch of moths.

I investigate the cube but it appears to be a normal crystal. It's unnaturally smooth and emits some very faint light but that's everything special I can discern about it.

"Are you really a Winchester, " Kara asks Fleur, keeping some distance.

"Yeah," she confirms. She scowls at Kara, leaning against the edge. "You don't believe all that nonsense the Porrels spew, right? My family doesn't engage in anything like that."

Kara makes a non-committal noise but doesn't answer.

Porrel is a huge merchant company that works closely with Tharon, so Winchester has to be another merchant company. Even though Porrel is known to work with Tharon, they have a shining reputation.

It probably just hints at them being incredibly corrupt but I don't directly deal with them either way. They are way too far away for that.

Merah comes out from the curtain with only a towel around her chest, accompanied by four whistles.

"Asshats," Merah says, walking over. It looks like she stumbles for a split-second before she continues like nothing happened. She sits down at the edge and puts her feet in the water.

"Come on, we just want you to feel comfortable like Fleur and Kara," Vikram tells her with a grin.

Kara sides with Vikram. "Yeah, no need to be ashamed and hide yourself, even the guys are naked."

"Just because you two have less to hide, doesn't mean she is ashamed," I say aloud, closing my eyes to relax.

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Two rocks fly my way and hit me in the chest and head, Kara and Fleur taking personal offence to what I said. I kind of deserve it but flip them off either way without opening my eyes, we Chosen have to stick together.

"Asshole," Kara insults me.

I can just imagine her sulking, sliding closer to Fleur.

"It's fine," Merah says, splashing her feet in the water. "I expected these two to be so crass but I didn't expect it from Vikram."

Vikram tries to ignore the two as best as he can, talking with me "So we obviously spent most of our time here but what did you guys do? I can't imagine your story has been boring, Death."

I open my eyes and turn to him. Kara actually slid closer to Fleur. "We almost got eaten by a hydra, killed an entire city, got kidnapped, picked a fight with the Stokes, personally negotiated a new deal with Cinder, destroyed a dunecrawler nest and a magical parasitic mushroom, and then came here," I list off, deliberately stating the worst of it all.

Vikram, Fleur and Merah just look at us in silence as the waterfall gurgles in the background.

"What," Kara asks, sliding an arm around Fleur.

Merah stares at me. "Is that why your back is full of scars?"

"Most of those are from before," I explain, sliding down to press my back against the wall, hiding the scars. It's stupid. "One or two are from a dragon I fought a while ago."

Fleur chuckles. "What is your life?"

"Some of this, some of that," I explain, thinking of something else to tell. Most of the ridiculous stuff I am willing to share happened after meeting them. "It's more ridiculous than it sounds."

A huge grin spreads across Karas face as she elbows Fleur in the side. "He's got a girl waiting for him now so expect it to get a lot more boring. "

Vikram runs a hand through his hair as he asks me "A girl, really?"

"She's just a…" I trail off, unsure of what to say. What is she? We only talked while I taught her runes or showed up at her work. Now that I think about it, we never talked about why she wanted to see me and I am certain that Kara didn't drag her to me because she showed interest in runes. "Friend, I think."

"Yeah, right," Vikram says, putting his hand on my shoulder. He doesn't sound convinced. "I am happy for you, kid. Coming home after a long adventure is one of the best feelings there is, cherish it."

"Ok, old man," I answer. Why do they have to treat me like a kid? I am an adult! "But she's only a friend."

"Sure, sure," he says. "We'll see."

The same grin she had earlier returns onto Kara's face but I stop her before she can even start. "Don't you dare bring that up now."

She sweetly asks "Why, because they'd never believe that she's just a friend if they knew?"

"No, because you'll only tell them what you think was funny about the whole thing and even I know that it sounds like we fucked."

"Didn't you," Fleur asks with a similar grin to Kara. What did I do to deserve these two meeting?

I don't dignify her question with a response and just level a glare at her. She was grumpy when we made fun of her sleeping with Kara so I don't think she has any right to do this. Bringing that up might be bad faith, so I stay silent.

"Alright, let's stop the teasing," Merah states, it kind of sounds like an order she knows she can't enforce, a strong recommendation. "Do you like her?"

"She's nice," I confirm. I am interested if she'll continue to study runes or drop them and she was pretty nice and honest when we talked.

Merah gently smiles before turning to the lantern. "That's all that matters."

"Moving on," I say. She is really earning the motherly aura she is radiating. She might actually be able to convince us to help if we stayed too long. "Is there a new sheriff in town already?"

"Nope, but Vikram got the position offered to him," Merah points out in a somewhat accusatory tone. She probably disagrees with his decision to decline.

A white face stares at me from inside the water- no, it's a reflection from the wall.

A horrid white face with beady black eyes and missing lips stares right at me. Its missing lips reveal black gums and jagged interlocking teeth that are tightly pressed together. The eyes gleam with an eerie luminescence, giving of a frighteningly intelligent feeling.

Kara notices me staring at the water. "Are you alright?"

I look up to her and at the wall. It's completely blank, a few planks of wood with a nice polish, but no face.

I look back at the water and angle my head so I can see the same spot, but only see a messy hole. It appears like something an animal might dig.

"Does anyone have a mirror?"

"Yeah," Fleur says. She lifts herself out of the water and walks over to the bags, grabs a pocket mirror and tosses it towards me.

She misses and I have to fish it out of the water but I flip it open and instantly notice a hole where the face used to be.

"Something is messing with our vision, " I declare, running over to my stuff and starting to gear up. "There was a face in the wall but I could only see its reflection, some sort of monster."

A chorus of swears rings out from everyone except Merah as they rush out of the water.