Gil groaned, curling into a ball and tugging his thin blanket over his head. He twisted and turned on his temporary bed in an oversized pair of pajamas, unable to fall back asleep.

But it was not due to the pajamas he wore that he found folded neatly on the bed for his use. Nor was it due to the bed being uncomfortable or anything else inside the room. Even the magically floating glowing orbs, illuminating the entire area that he did not know how to turn off, did not phase his sleep. He slept like a baby even with the light on.

His attempt to return to sleep was futile due to the constant knocking on the wooden door to his room.

“Angus? Babe. Hello? Open up, darling. It’s me, Darla.” An unknown woman announced with a seductive bedroom voice.

Gil hoped his lack of a reply would make the bothersome lady looking for Angus leave. But she did not. The knocks turned into loud thumping as the woman pounded on the door and began to shout.

“Angus! I know you’re in there! Get up! Let me in! Let’s hang out!”

Gil unfurled his blanket with a scrunched face, jerking it off the upper half of his body, and stared with a blank expression at the ceiling. He pondered whether his decision to ask and accept Angus’s help was worth it. He sighed. Regardless of the annoyance at the door, he was still grateful to Angus.

“Seems Ang is a pretty in-demand guy by the ladies. Lucky oaf. But unlucky me. I can’t sleep with all the hollering outside.” Gil complained to himself.

“You want me to wake your neighbors, Angus!? Come on! Open this door right now!”

Gil worried about his neighbors. He recalled Angus’s last piece of advice for living longer by not bothering others. And he considered the screeching lady to be a bother to others.

“Ang’s not here!” Gil shouted to let Darla know.

“Who are you?! Why are you in Angus’s room?! And why are you calling him Ang?!”

A sudden earth-shattering thought crossed her mind.

“What are you doing with him?! Oh, my gods! No way! Angus?! Since when?!”

If Gil thought Darla was shouting earlier, he did not know any better. It was nothing like what was to come. The inside of the room rattled from the outburst from the lady, freaking out in front of Gil’s door.

“Open this door this instant! I must talk to Angus! When Angus?! How did this happen?! How many has it been?! Were you always-”

Gil tightly covered his aching ears from the screeching scream, unable to hear the lady finish her sentence. With no other choice, Gil walked over to the door to let the lady see for herself that Angus was not in the room.

The door was sturdy, but Gil was not certain how long of a beating it could take from all the constant pounding.

“Hold your horses, lady! Jeez! Ang, you have weird taste in women,” Gil complained.

As Gil unlocked the doorknob and took off the latch, suddenly, the door swung open, smashing Gil in the forehead. He fell over with a loud thud, sprawled out on the wood floor. He was out of it, seeing double of everything. Especially the crazy voluptuous brunette, who nearly stepped on him and ran into the room.

“Angus?! Where are you, darling?! You’re already out of the closet! There’s nothing to be ashamed of! This just means we have new ways to play!”

No response, but the lady did not give up.

She flipped the entire room, opening the tidy wardrobe, looking under the spotless bed, searching the clean bathroom, and checking every hidden dustless corner and crevice.

“Hello? Angus? Where are you? Did you use a skill to become invisible? Or maybe a scroll? Honey, there’s no judgment! Talk to me! Let’s discover this new side of you together!”

Angus could not respond or refute because he wasn’t in the room.

Gil could not respond either. His mouth stretched wide and froze, shocked by Darla’s outrageous words. Countless thoughts spun in his mind, baffling him to no end.

“Was Ang into men as well? He didn’t seem like it, dashing off last night to his lady, but you never know. But how many ladies does he have anyway? Men too, I guess? Not that I care. Good for him.”

Suddenly, something clicked in Gil’s head. Maybe it was because he was so tired yesterday, but Gil finally put two and two together.

“Wait. Does this mean this is Ang’s room? I thought it was a hotel of sorts that provided towels and pajamas. No wonder these feel so big. Wait. Was he hitting on me? No, he threatened me with a beating. Ang wasn’t going to try anything else was he?”

Darla broke him out of his dark spiraling thoughts, hovering over him with her curvy body.

“You! Where’s Angus?! Where’s your secret lover?!”

Gil glared up but then shyly averted his gaze. Still, he snapped up and immediately refuted, trying to focus only on her mesmerizing face.

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“What on earth are you talking about?! Ang is not my lover! I barely even know him!”

“Oh. So you’re his one-night stand. Ok, did he step out?”

“I can’t believe what you’re even saying! Ang was never here! There’s nothing going on between us!”

Gil’s image of Angus deteriorated to that of a playboy. He didn’t even know what to think of the mad woman before him.

“Huh? But you're wearing his pajamas? So why are you in his room then?”

“I didn’t know the room was Ang’s! He told me I only had a week here. So I thought this was the guild’s inn and that the pajamas were provided for guests along with the bedsheets, towels, and other furnishings.”

Darla slightly drooped her shoulders but did not apologize for wrongly accusing Gil. Gil gave the woman an odd face, wondering what was going on in her head. She did not look one bit remorseful but rather let down. He did not dare ask any further.

“The guild does provide such rooms on the lower floors but not this first floor. These rooms are only for high-ranking guild members.”

Darla pouted and made a confused face.

“This is so strange. Angus never lends his things. I know that for a fact. We can only share Angus. Never the other way around.”

Gil’s mouth nearly dropped to the floor from what he heard.

“Stop! I don’t want to know anything more about Ang! Keep me out of all of his and your private life. I don’t want to know! I already heard too much!”

Darla acted cute, touching her puckered lips, and gave Gil a curious look.

“Hmm… Such an innocent kid. No wonder Angus likes you. Fine, if you have no special relations to him, then what are you to him? You called him Ang. No one is allowed to call him that way, you know?”

“Huh?” Gil scratched the back of his head, thinking honestly about Darla’s question. He didn’t consider Ang and himself to be friends, not even acquaintances.

Darla’s face brightened up.

“We’re strangers. I just met him last night at the reception area. He let me stay here because I didn’t have anywhere to go, and I can’t return home.”

Her wild expectations were slightly let down. But something else caught her attention.

“Hmmm… Honest and straightforward, aren’t you? I see… I see…”

Gil could not see what she was talking about. He only saw her weird drooling expression. He made a note to himself to avoid the weird lady as much as possible.

“Now I’m curious. Tell me. Why can’t you go home? What’s your story? Were you kicked out by your family? Distressed? Needing to be saved?”

Gil did not like where her narrative was going. He felt an inkling of what was going on in her head but wanted nothing to do with it. He corrected her version of events.

“No, I was not kicked out. I’m lost, and there’s no way back home.”

“And that’s when Angus came in and saved the damsel from distress, right?! He helped you escape the cold and dark streets by lending you his room! And then you two-!” Darla bobbed her head up and down, holding her blushing cheeks and imagining her flowery version of events.

Gil looked at Darla with a deadpan face. He shook his head, knowing nothing would change her imagined misunderstanding. But suddenly, a different thought crossed his mind.

“Hey!” A light bulb flicked on in Gil’s head. “Maybe you might know?! Can you help me? How can I make a contract with a god or higher being to return home?”

Darla froze. The story and her future plans for Gil and Angus shattered. She now knew what Gil meant when he said he could not return home. But just in case, she asked to confirm since it was impossible.

“You. You're not an otherworlder are you?”

“Yes! I want to go home but can’t. Do you know how or who I should ask for help?”

Darla’s world turned upside down. Her understanding of Angus crumbled. The giant beefy muscular man she knew despised all otherworlders with a fiery and sometimes bloody passion. She was not fond of them either, but she knew not all otherworlders were necessarily evil. Some were, but everyone put their self-interest first. She understood that.

The skinny young man before her broke all logical understanding of Angus. He was an otherworlder that Angus allowed to stay in his room, but that should never be able to happen.

“Um, hello? You ok?” Gil asked, worried by the lady’s petrified face that was full of shock.

“You can’t be an otherworlder! This doesn’t make sense. Angus and otherworlders don’t get along. The two don't mix! It always ends horribly, and yet-!”

Her words made Gil seriously question what Ang held so deeply against the otherworlders. But Gil suddenly shuddered at the weird drooling expression, appearing again on Darla’s face as she stopped her speech short. He no longer knew what was going on now in that head of hers.

“Oh, my gods! This is so wicked crazy! It’s like forbidden love! Star-crossed lovers with a tragic fate!”

Gil did not know how the odd woman’s head worked. He could not grasp how she connected everything so weirdly, but his face turned serious. He was not going to let the madness go on any further.

“No! Stop! I’m putting an end to this twisted fantasy of yours! There is nothing between us! We will never cross paths again! Focus, lady! Can you help me? How can I go home? Where can I find a higher being that can take me back?!”

The thought of Gil leaving put a roadblock on Darla’s plans. She looked at Gil. Her interests would not work without him.

“Don’t know, otherworlder. If you don’t already know, then I think you're stuck here. Maybe it’s fate?” She did not lie. She knew of the contracts between otherworlders and the higher beings. An otherworlder with no contract was unheard of.

“Might as well get to know Angus really well. He’s a dependable guy. I think you could live here permanently and become his roommate if you asked really nicely.”

“Not happening! Enough of this. Out. I need to change and find some real answers.”

Gil attempted to shoo the unwilling lady out the door, but she did not budge, only smirking creepily at Gil. It resulted in him turning her around and pushing her out.

“Oh, so aggressive for such a cute kitten. We can explore that much more later, um, what was your name again?”

She clung to the door frame, unwilling to leave.

“Go! I need to change!” Gil shouted while blushing from touching the soft and supple skin of the woman.

“Then change. I don’t mind.”

“I do! Leave!”

“I won’t leave until you tell me your name.”

Gil grunted, giving in to the unreasonable lady. “Gil! Now go!”

“Ok, Gil. See you upstairs,” Darla said with a wink and left.

The door closed, and Gil collapsed onto the floor. He turned his back and leaned on the door, exhausted after waking up to the chaos called Darla.

“I want to go home,” Gil said, looking lifelessly at nothing on the wall.

“You’re already home, just ask sweet Angus to make it more permanent.”

Gil jumped up and turned around at the door in fright. Darla did not leave. She pushed the side of her head against the door, eavesdropping on Gil and his every action.

“Why are you still here!? Leave me alone!”

“Alright, alright, I’ll go!” Darla shouted back from behind the door. “Ok, no more jokes from me. I’m being serious. Angus is the most trustworthy man you can find here. And I mean out of everyone, be it a native or otherworlder. Keep in his good graces. Come on up when you’re ready. I’ll give you special service and help you out at the reception counter. I don’t discriminate when it comes to my job or my men.”

Gil could somehow picture the woman giving him a wink as she finished the last half of her talk.

Darla whistled, walking her way to the stairs. She giggled at her sly attempts to keep Gil in Angus’s room. She drooled, lost in her fantasy as she climbed her way up the first floor of the guild.

Gil dropped face first into the pillow on the bed with a thud. His body bounced on the springy bed. He lay face down, tired and not wanting to move.

“Should I get going? I don’t have much time to get myself in order. Ang gave me one week, and I sure as hell don't want to become roommates. Crazy Darla, she’s just as crazy as Ang. No wonder, birds of a feather flock together. Or I guess in their case, procreate together.”

Gil blushed, thinking about the alluring voluptuous woman. Her fresh scent still lingered in his nose, and the sight and touch of her supple body still was fresh in his mind.

“No! She’s crazy! And I need to get to work!”

Gil jumped up, stopping the flow of thoughts to his lower half. He ran into the bathroom, undressed, and showered, trying to use as little of Ang’s shampoo and soap as possible. Knowing he was now in someone else’s room, he did not want to take advantage of Angus’s kindness.

After drying himself, he put back on his clothes from the previous day. He didn’t want to wear anything of Angus’s outside for fear of Darla saying any unwanted weird remarks. He hung his towel separately on an empty rack in the bathroom to dry and made the bed, ensuring all the folds lined up perfectly. He was a bit OCD in that manner.

Walking out of the room with the circular wooden token in hand, which held the word “Angus” on one side and the image of a broadsword and a grimoire on the other, he closed the door and locked it with the key in his other hand.

He did not want to meet Darla again but knew she could help him with his next tasks.

“Ok, let’s do as Ang said and find three skills. Not sure how exactly, but maybe Darla can aid me with that.”

Gil dragged his feet, climbing the stairs, dreading what Darla might do. Or worse, find out about the illicit thoughts in that head of hers.