The Black Gryphon

A sailor's heaven. The Black Gryphon Tavern offers cheap rooms and drinks. Although it's a little dingy, it's well known and liked by all.

When she reached the tavern, she walked inside and was not impressed by what she saw. About ten sailors inhabited the room, and all turned to stare at her. She became uncomfortable as she walked up and asked for a room.

The clerk gave her a weird expression as though he was wondering what in the world she was doing in a sailors tavern, but when she revealed a few gold pieces, he complied and gave her a room key.

Avoiding the curious gazes and maniacal laughter, she walked down the hallway and up a flight of stairs to the room number that was written on the key.

She unlocked the door with a click, and rushed inside. There was a small bed, a desk in the corner, and a nightstand. The room had bright blue wallpaper with a square design on it. She sprawled herself on the bed and quickly fell asleep, ignoring the fact that it was daytime and still very bright outside.

In the evening, Zereiya awoke to the sound of knocking on her door, and quickly crawled out of bed to open it.

There stood one of the men hired to take her luggage, and she realized that she had completely forgot about them. She took the bags from him then took a couple of silver coins out of her pocket, quickly handing them to him and locking the door without a second glance.

She laid the bags down on the floor and sat down on her bed, hoping that somehow, a day would pass by and she could go back home. She did love to travel, but not to dingy taverns such as the one she was staying in. Urging her inner adventurer to come out, she decided to go outside to look for any sign of action.

She opened the door and ran off in search of something to do.

Adillay pushed open the door to the Black Gryphon, and it creaked a little, but the inside looked nice enough... For sailors. It definitely was nicer than a burned-down house, however dingy it was.

The ten or so sailors broke into fits of laughter a Adilly walked through the door. She felt her face growing hot, and briskly walked to the clerk.

"Why are they laughing?" she whispered while glaring at the mischievous sailors.

"You're the second girl that's walked in 'ere today," said the clerk. "And we don get young ladies a lot in this place."

Ah, Adillay thought, So Zereiya's gotten here already.

"Well, what do ya want?" the clerk asked. Adillay could tell he was getting impatient.

"I would like a room, sir," she answered. "And I only have five coins, so I wouldn't mind a cheap one."

"Well, them rooms are all cheap," he told her. The whole room broke out in laughter. "Three coins, give 'em here." He patted the counter.

Adillay put the coins down, took her key, and made her way to her room as quickly as she could.

Her room wasn't as dingy as the main room was; the bedsheets were actually clean, and the windows, even though there was some grime on them, let light shine through.

Adillay set down her bag and sighed. With only two coins left, she hardly had enough to buy dinner. I guess I'll just have to starve tonight, she thought. I'll find Zereiya in the morning and maybe she can purchase me some breakfast.

The mattress on the bed wasn't very soft, but it was somewhere to sleep besides a cot that moved when the boat rocked. The bedside table wiggled a bit when you touched it, and Adillay decided that she wouldn't use the kerosine lamp on it. Thankfully, there was a hook in the ceiling, most likely to hang the lamp on, anyway.

The sun had set completely now, and Adillay decided it was time to get some rest.

Adillay woke up with a start.

She felt magic, on one of the docks; she was too tired to go all the way there, but she had enough energy to at least go downstairs and try to figure out what was going on.

Adillay almost tripped going down the staircase. When she got downstairs, she saw out the window that it was still dark outside, and she estimated the time to be around ten o' clock.

The door slammed open, and Adillay was glad she was far enough back where it couldn't hit her. Then, Zereiya ran in, right into Adillay.

"Adillay?" Zereiya gasped, clearly shocked at finding her friend at The Black Gryphon while she herself was running away from a crazy deranged man.

"Adillay I thought that you were arriving tomorow..." Zereiya stuttered failing at trying to keep her voice calm and controlled, not ready to tell her that her enemy was stalking her.

"Yeah, I figured you were here. The clerk," Adillay pointed in his direction, "Told me that you came through."

Adillay paused for a moment and then said, "You look like you've seen a ghost! Come on, tell me everything! But it'd be better if we don't stand here gawking at each other. Come on, let's go upstairs...

Zereiya followed Adillay to her room and spilled out the whole story from the time that she met Deran in The Royal Palace. She felt embarassed by telling Adillay about how scared she had been, but decided that it didn't matter; Deran was the kind of guy who could scare the heck out of even the toughest person...

She waited for a reaction from Adillay, who seemed lost in her thoughts.

Adillay was lost in thoughts.

"All I can say is that I woke up because I sensed powerful magic down at the docks. That was Deran, I'm sure of it. You weren't hallucinating."

Zereiya was speechless at this conclusion. Deran had never studied magic... had he? Well, alot could have happened the years that he was banished... But still, powerful magic? Deran? That just didn't seem right. Well, she supposed there was no other explanation to him disappearing and reappearing like that. Deran was using magic.

"Now, I'm tired and I'm going to bed. I'll let you go back to your room and think, but I need some sleep," Adillay said to Zereiya.

Zereiya bid her goodnight and went to her room. She sat on her bed and thought for while before going to sleep.

Deran was using magic. It was no hallucination, it was real! But she didn't want to believe that it was real. She wanted to believe that it was all just a bad dream, and that he had never come back in the first place. But she didn't always get what she wanted, did she? He was real. He was here. But what did he want with her?

She hadn't done anything to him. Well, yes, that, but she had regretted it deeply afterwards and apologized more than a hundred times! He couldn't still be mad about it, could he? It was so long ago!

And yes, she did consider him her enemy, but still! That wasn't reason enough to develop an elaborate scheme to scare her to death while using magic!

She pulled the covers over herself, and the instant before she fell asleep, she could have sworn she saw those same blue eyes gazing at her, whether she fainted or fell asleep from all her fatigue rushing to greet her, she did not know.

The next morning, Adillay woke to the sound of birds. Seagulls, to be precise.

The sun had already risen high into the sky; she was surprised at how late she had slept, but then remembered how she had stayed up until midnight talking to Zereiya. When she thought about Zereiya, she sprang up from the bed and quickly dressed into her gray tunic. Adillay then opened the door and walked down the short hallway to Zereiya's room.

Adillay knocked two times.

Zereiya was sleeping soundly until knocking on her door awoke her from her peaceful sleep. She grumpily got up from bed and prepared herself to yell at the sailor who was probably behind her door. She slowly turned the knob then slipped her head through the crack.

"CAN'T YOU LEAVE ME TO MY SLEEP? YOU ALREADY WOKE ME UP THE OTHER-- Oh. Wait, you're not-- Sorry!" Zereiya said, then quickly mumbled, "I thought you were someone else." She opened the door and let Adillay in her room.

"I could help you with Deran," Adillay told Zereiya. "Of course, you'd need to do a few things for me, too. I don't put myself in danger without payment, even if I'm putting myself in danger for a friend."

"Hmm..." Zereiya thought, wondering what could possibly be the worst thing Adillay could ask her to do in return. Upon finding nothing too bad, she hastily replied,

"Umm, okay." Of course, she knew magic too, but only healing magic. Nothing that could help her if she had an encounter with Deran.

"Of course, I won't make you do anything stupid in return, like wear yellow stockings and stand on your head for three days straight. All I need is a place to stay and a few coins... Maybe twenty or so. Just enough so that I can get by for a couple of weeks while helping you with Deran."

Adillay thought for a while, then spoke again.

"What do you want me to do? I mean, what should I do if I find Deran?"

"Of course. And about what to do with Deran... Well, I don't know. You're the one who offered to do something about him." She smiled brightly.

"I guess you could always make him dance like a monkey in the streets for coins... Or you could always be the "good guy" and let him go with the promise that he will never harm anyone ever again." She said sarcastically.

"I don't really know, and I don't really care either. Once you've found him you can do whatever you want with him just as long as I never have to see him again."

Zereiya paused and thought for a second.

"Well since he technically didn't harm me in any way besides scaring me to death, I guess you can just find out why he has come back."