From atop her new horse, courtesy of the checkpoint's stable, Ashi could view a very welcoming sight. A town, surrounded by wooden walls, built up against a raised hill with a small stone castle on top. It was, loosely, a mott-and-bailey.

Food. A bed. Just relaxation awaited her. The idea of taking a day, or even multiple days, to do nothing sounded sublime.

Unless she did something to mess it up. She gave a faint grin as she scratched at the horse's mane. “Hopefully no mind readers,” she commented, the horse whinnying in response. Though, she ruefully realized, she'd already doomed herself here. Presumably, this was the town that staffed the border, and eventually they'd send a change in the guard, who would notice that the previous guard was dead. If she was still in town then, the townsfolk would certainly put together that she – the person who went through the gate last – is suspicious. And if they matched her weapon to the wounds, they would know. And fighting a whole town would not be worth staying in relaxation for a few extra days.

It was decided then, she sighed. A short stop. Perhaps for the best though, she had not yet come any closer to her goal. Perhaps the people here knew of Indigo, which meant she'd need to ask. Even less time to relax, she silently mourned. At least the food would be cooked for her.

She dismounted.

If this horse was from here, someone might recognize it, and that would be an immediate problem. So, she tied it up to a tree, making sure it was surrounded by plenty of greens, for food and cover, and began making her way to the palisade on foot. As she got closer, the tree cover got more scarce. They must have cleared a good number of trees to prevent monsters sneaking up on them. What monsters even lived here, so far south, in the new heartland of civilization? Poetic, she smiled to herself.

The road wound up to the wall, and as she entered its long shadow she looked up to see helmeted faces looking down at her. She waved. They did not wave back.

As she reached the gate proper she lowered her eyes to see the gate and... no obstacle. A guard standing to the side nodded at her – Ashi smiled at them in return and kept walking. Now that she considered it, it made sense there would be no strict guardianship of this gate. That was what the checkpoint was for.

Not that she'd be left unobserved – guards patrolled the streets too, she noted. And despite her short stature, she'd always stand out; her ears and tail twitched as she felt a momentary frustration towards her ancestry. But it would do not good, she sighed to herself, because there was no way she would cut off her ears.

Speeding up, she crossed across the road and made for a noticeably tall building bearing the hanging sign of a lizard – the sign was bordered by second-story windows, meaning this was likely a lizard-themed place to stay.

And indeed it was, pushing her way through the door revealed an open dining room with a large mural against the far wall of a giant lizard climbing over mountains and looking down at a defenseless village. Its unexpected nihilism made her smile – had the creator of this piece seen a creature so horrifying it seemed to dwarf mountains?

The atmosphere of the place did not match its backdrop, as it was calm and suffused with a positive air. A few conversations of varying volumes competed with each other in the air. The windows gave the whole building a nice warm lighting.

She approached the counter and looked up the average-height man staffing it. Producing some money, she put it on the counter. “One night,” she told him.

“Only?” he asked. She nodded confirmation and he took out a few coins, letting her reclaim the rest. “If you want to stay longer in the same room, you have to pay before midday.”

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As she put the money away the man opened a book and picked up a pen. “Your name?” he questioned. She quirked her lips, but lacked the creativity for anything but the truth.

“Ashi.” He looked at her, and she lightly sighed. “A-S-H-I.” He nodded and wrote it down. “Room 3-2, two flights up, on the left.” Exchange complete, he closed the book and put it down. She in turn went for the stairs.

She found the door with a brass '3-2' on it and swung it open. The room inside was plain, she noted with a smile. Though it wasn't without it's own lizard-shaped details – the base of the bedside lamp was a lizard and on the wall a close-up portrait of a gecko looked at her. She set her bag on the floor and went over to the window, looking out over the bustling town she'd found herself in. Small but full of life. And hopefully, full of information. But first, she spun around and flung herself onto the bed. It wasn't as good as her old bed, but it was better than the ground, and she found herself contentedly napping for a few hours. After she woke, she returned to her bag and pulled out the Indigo letter. Leaving her bag behind, she left the room and went back downstairs.

The desk man greeted her at the bottom with a key raised in his hand. “You forgot your key,” by way of explanation. She took it and kept walking. The sun was high and the quest for information would be long.

The first stop was the library, to look for a map. She quickly managed to locate one, and looked over it.

All in all, the world wasn't that big. There were only a few nations, eight exactly, and the majority were crammed down into the south.

The Wastes were indeed to the north, and – she noted with a small amount of satisfaction – she had indeed gone south. She would have run into a town before a border otherwise. That meant this town was Klam.

Running her finger along the edge of the paper, she continued scanning her eyes across the cities and towns until – Lugarden. She grinned slightly. It was a country over, and along the southern coast. She looked over the roads connecting her to the distant city, and then returned the map.

The next step would be more challenging, and she debated a moment in her head before deciding its risk was minimal, so she approached the library staff, currently reading a book embossed with a mountain growing a giant flower off the top. She notices Ashi standing before her – the lack of footsteps allowing her to reach the desk before being noticed – and quickly closed the book and turned to her with a smile.

“Do you know anything about Indigo?”

The woman took a moment to think. “The flower or the dye?”

Ashi sighed. “Neither.”

The woman's face betrayed her confusion. “The... color?”

Ashi looked up to the ceiling, trying to think of what word was most likely to be. “Company?” she tried, before thinking a bit more, “Organization?” she tried again. Finally, with a spark of inspiration, she dug out the letter and looked over it. “Research,” she finally announced, “Indigo Research.”

Unfortunately, that didn't seem to help the woman much, who could only shrug. “You can try the basement, we have an archive,” she offered. Ashi nodded her understanding and went off to the stairs.

The basement was clearly not visited as often as the main floor. The ground wasn't dusty, but the shelves were. The man sitting near the stairs seemed surprised as well, putting down a copy of the same book the woman upstairs was reading – perhaps the library staff had a bookclub.

The thought made her smile as she requested anything they had on 'Indigo Research,' though the man's confusion before he left to look did not inspire any more confidence. Though, she mused to herself, it made sense: Indigo seemed, whatever it was doing, like it preferred to keep a low profile. After all, someone like her should know about Indigo more than the layperson, yet she only knew the name and their method of acquiring people – unless the attempted kidnapping wasn't standard procedure, of course.

Of course, after going around the whole floor, the man returned with nothing. He seemed apologetic, but there was nothing else in the library for her so she took her leave.

She stretched out upon returning to the outside, the sun warming her body, as she contemplated where to go next. Though her shifting stance brought the answer quickly to her attention, her boots.

Mind made up, she began searching for a place to get an insole – or, as she quickly found out, a fitting for an insole, leaving her having to sit still as her feet and boots were measured. The listed price was almost enough to make her walk out immediately, but the comfort that would be afforded from shoes that actually fit won out the end and she forked over the money with a minimum amount of regret.

Though, just as she was settling down to wait for her shoes to become wearable, there were loud noises and shouts in the distance, causing her ears to perk up.

There was screaming.