As Ember begins to wake up from the best nap she has ever remembered having, she can already tell that things are very different now without even needing to open her eyes. The first thing she notices is the cool night air on her neck, the usual discomfort caused by her collar nowhere to be found. Next, she registers that her head is resting on something warm and fuzzy, and something is brushing through her hair comfortingly, though the shape of the appendage is somewhat odd and definitely not a finger or hand. Lastly, her ear twitches slightly as she hears soft breathing coming from directly above her, her whiskers even feeling the movement of air coming from the mouth of whatever is there. The figure must have noticed something that told them that Ember had woken up, as she whispers to her moments later.
“Rise and shine, though it's still pretty late as the lack of aforementioned shine can tell you.”
Ember opens up her eyes and immediately locks gazes with a pair of piercing violet orbs sticking out from a face obscured by shadows that even her [Nightvision] is having difficulty piercing. She instinctively stiffens in a mixture of wariness and surprise, though the shadowy figure quickly identifies herself after feeling this.
“Don't worry, it's me, Chloe. Sorry about how dark it is, the guardhouse doesn't really have any windows to let in much moonlight. Also the front door got shut by the wind earlier and I didn't really feel like moving to open it back up.”
It takes Ember a few seconds to process what Chloe says, though she is still a bit confused on what is going on, so she prompts an explanation from the Demoness.
“Guardhouse?”
“Oh right, duh. So after the fight went down, we headed back to Littlecreek, and I had Charlie and Pudicity drag the other two into the cells upstairs.”
Ember jerks upright at hearing that, immediately smacking her head into the woman’s chin above her accidentally, and she apologizes after taking a moment to rub at her own head.
“Sorry,” she says, simply, before soon continuing, “But wait, they are still alive? Why?”
Chloe hesitates when she hears this, but soon answers the question.
“I felt like you should be the one to decide how they should be dealt with. I mean, that bastard Weston pissed me off, but he's your torturer. You should be the one who ends things on your own terms, not mine.”
Surprise fills Ember at this revelation, and she grows thankful of the strange woman’s actions almost instantly, but before she can put that thankfulness into words, Chloe continues speaking.
“If you go up the stairs, the first door you come across is a storage room. There should still be a couple weapons up there if you need them. The manacles up there are still in good shape, so I had the four of them put them on, though the cell door is still unlocked if you need to get in.”
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Ember listened attentively to her speech, though she just kept sitting there for a couple minutes, just processing everything. In a single day, her entire life got flipped around drastically, and now she has been given her tormentors lives to do with as she pleases. It is just a lot for her to deal with, though it doesn't take her long to come to terms with what she needs to do. She climbs up to her feet and looks around for the staircase upwards in the dim room, eventually catching sight of it due to the slim illumination coming through cracks in the building.
“Oh, be careful heading over. I'm kinda big so I ha-”
Chloe’s words cut off as Ember stumbles off the tabletop and crashes onto the floor, as she was not expecting a sudden drop. Though she does manage to prevent herself from faceplanting due to her high Dexterity.
“Oops, I guess I should've mentioned that I set us up on top of one of the guardhouse’s dining tables. Unfortunately I don't really fit on the benches anymore.”
Ember dusts herself off as she listens to the somewhat sheepish explanation coming from Chloe, though the Tigerkin girl is glad that the darkness is also hiding her own blush at the somewhat clumsy fall. Instead of responding to the {Countess}, Ember just hurries over to the stairway, and climbs up it quickly, only stopping to glance back at Chloe once right before reaching the second floor, calling out with a quick “Thank you” before heading out of sight.
As soon as I hear Ember’s footsteps moving about above me, I collapse backwards and spread out on the tabletop, making sure to slowly rest my now bandaged arms, though I still wince at that gentle contact. Even with my bedsheet-bandages completely covering my upper arms, the slightest of touches still sends jolts of searing pain whenever my singed skin makes contact with anything. I even had to use my tails to brush through Ember’s hair to comfort her instead of my fingers, as the moment all the excitement died down, both of my arms exploded in pain. I nearly dropped the girl on the way back because of it. Wind blowing against the injured appendages was painful enough for me to go out of my way to construct my makeshift wrappings out of one of the inn’s bedsheets.
Muffled shouting from above breaks me out of my musings, coming from what I assume to be Ember and Weston. I can't really make out anything they are saying, but I listen anyway as I stare up into the darkness as I lie on my back, trying to ignore the pain wracking me all over. The shouting match only lasts a couple minutes before Weston’s booming shouts are suddenly cut off, a thumping soon following.
Now why couldn't you just do that yourself.
I begin to drown out the noises from upstairs as I process how my thoughts begin to betray me.
“You should be the one who ends things on your own terms” my ass, you just want an excuse to not kill someone.
I curl up into a ball as I hear another thump from above, the falling of another body ringing in my ears.
They were going to enslave you, put that goddess-forsaken tattoo back on your hand, and attacked you without a second thought, and yet you couldn't kill a single one of them.
Tears begin to well up as a third thump rings reverberates in my skull.
“Coward.”
My whisper is followed by silence, though choked sobs barely reach my ear through the floorboards moments later. Footsteps heading away from the crying person come just after and head towards the stairway, but I don't bother looking over at whoever it is and stay curled up on the table. Step after step on creaking floorboards is the only sound other than the muffled sobs from above, and it only takes seconds for the figure to reach me, her gentle hand reaching out and grasping my shoulder comfortingly.
“I'm done, how about we move somewhere more comfortable for some much needed sleep.”
Ember’s voice betrays no emotion, though I might not be able to tell due to my own emotions wreaking havoc in my head. I let her guide me out of the guardhouse and over to the inn, mixtures of dizziness and nausea twisting up with my pain to make navigating for me difficult. We climb up the inn’s stairs, and I ignore the curious gazes coming from three young women with leather collars, one with a slightly bloody bandage on her chest, who peek out from some of the rooms on the second floor. Ember takes notice of that, but guides me up to the third floor and into the first room on the left, which just so happens to be the former Innkeeper’s room. A weary giggle escapes my lips as I glance over at the burlap sack resting against the bed, but as I am led to the bed, I collapse onto it, my legs sticking past the end by a decent bit, and sleep claims me in moments.