CHAPTER 7

Sapphire followed Kurai through the forest, knowing there was little she could do. He was much stronger than her so she chose to simply follow and not argue. They stuck to the path the entire way, and surprisingly, encountered no monsters. It made sense for monsters to stay hidden for the day, but still there were many which hunted during the day as well. Neither she nor Kurai said a single word the entire way, his joyful aura having died down to a cold and calculating one. The environment was mostly quiet except the chirping of small birds who were sitting here and there, pecking at berries and sometimes glancing at the two travellers on the deserted path.

Sapphire's ears stood straight up in alarm as a wagon being pulled by a horse was visible ahead on the road, the sound surprisingly not making its way till here, the reason clearly being a layer of snow over the path ahead. Her mind could not think of anything to do that won't make matters worse, so she followed Kurai's advice and kept walking right beside him.

The person driving the wagon waved to Kurai and only gave her a cursory glance. He didn't even say anything and went ahead as if she didn't even exist. It came as a surprise to her after all those people that tried to hurt her, but maybe it was because Kurai was here. Maybe he was well known amongst the humans, a hero or similar probably.

He is powerful, and respected too from the looks of it, won't be a surprise if he was a hero, Sapphire thought to herself.

It didn't take them long to reach the village after that, the sun was just above the horizon and the village was already a few minutes away. The houses, as far as she could tell, were a cube of wood with a slanting roof, some big some small, and some didn't even have walls and were just a triangular roof of cloth with four supporting poles and were seemingly decorated with all sorts of items. A person stood behind a raised platform and called people over to have a look, wishing to show his collection of items to everyone Sapphire assumed.

It all looked bizarre to Sapphire, and she was completely lost with no clue what anything was or where to go. She just stuck by Kurai and walked behind him, not knowing just what might happen if she was to get lost, afterall she did glimpse skulls and bones of creatures in a wall-less cloth-roof house. Though no one gave her more than a cursory glance, people averted their eyes the moment Sapphire noticed them, as if they didn't wish to be looked at by her.

She pulled her scarf over her mouth and nose, leaving enough space in between to breathe. Kurai glanced at her when she did that but said nothing, a surprise to her after what he said in the forest. It did seem like he didn't like her doing that, but still chose to say nothing about it.

Through the snowy streets of the village he led her to a large box of stone with wooden frames and shiny windows. A small pole hung out from it with a piece of wood hanging down from it. It read "INN", not like she knew what that meant either, or how to pronounce the strange writing. Inside, there were many people wearing woolly and thick clothes sitting around on wooden objects with four legs, a sight Sapphire did not like much. There was also food being served on circular objects and liquids in cylindrical ones, none of which Sapphire knew of. The scent of food and drinks filled the entire building, though there were many other scents too, a fairly bitter scent being the most prominent, and seemingly belonging to one of the drinks.

As someone with absolutely no social experience, even amongst wolves, she felt a sudden urge to just head right back out, but she knew it would only draw more attention if she did. Not like there was any shortage of attention, afterall, everyone fell silent and looked right at the two the moment they entered.

Pulling his hat lower Kurai walked ahead to a small area at the back of the room surrounded by a raised wooden platform, a bit higher than Sapphire as she stood right beside it having followed him. There were silent whispers going around, and Sapphire could hear clearly the topic were Kurai and her, though she doubted if humans ears will be able to hear as clearly.

"A room for two," Kurai said standing right next to the raised platform.

The person behind it was a fat middle-aged man. A small moustache between his dry lips and thick nose, very short brownish hair on his head with similarly colored eyes. He glanced at Sapphire and thought for a while, as if contemplating something.

"That will be 2 gold," The man answered with a smile, not even attempting to hide his intentions, which Sapphire assumed were her not staying.

"This inn is in no condition to be charging that much," Kurai replied coldly, glaring from underneath the brim of his hat.

"Ah, but I can lower it to just 10 silver for you," the man said persuasively, "if you are willing to share the goods." He added in a low whisper.

In an instant Kurai grabbed the man by the collar of his jacket and glared right into his eyes, causing everyone who was watching to flinch. Sapphire edged slightly closer and behind Kurai, a bit scared from the sudden turn of events, and confused as she neither understood what the man meant, nor did she know what to do.

"I dare you to repeat that," Kurai snarled.

"Guards!" The man exclaimed.

Just as he said that two armed men wearing leather armor charged into the room. They looked around for a second, assessing the situation, before rushing straight towards Kurai. Shoving the man he was holding Kurai turned to the two armed men. One of them threw a punch at his face but Kurai dodged by slightly tilting his head to the right. He swept the legs of the man off the ground with a kick before pushing his head down with his left hand. He fell face first into the ground and groaned in pain as his nose clearly started bleeding.

"Surrender!" The other man exclaimed unsheathing his sword.

It was evident he was scared from his trembling, even Sapphire noticed that. She was surprised she managed to notice that despite only one thought in her mind. How is he so COOL, he is doing it all so effortlessly.

"Are you certain you want to use that? I won't go easy if you do," Kurai warned.

The man slashed his sword at Kurai. Spinning on his heel Kurai easily dodged the sword strike and struck the man's jaw with a roundhouse kick. The man spun around once before falling to the ground, unconscious. Standing straight up Kurai extended his right arm in the direction of the man in an instant. This, Sapphire failed to notice until she heard the sound and turned to it.

A throwing knife? I didn't even see that, it wasn't in his hand just a second ago.

A knife was embedded in the wall right beside the fat guy's head as he trembled violently. Kurai sighed at his sorry state and prepared to leave. He rubbed Sapphire's head and gently directed her to follow him. She did so without a second's delay as she wanted to get away from the stares of the many people which made her more uncomfortable than she ever felt before.

Getting out from there he led Sapphire to a similar looking building not far from there. This one was in a much better condition than the last one on the outside and looked much more welcoming. Kurai opened the door and led Sapphire in. The inside only consisted of a platform similar to the one which was at the back of the room in the previous inn, a young looking woman with black hair standing behind it. There were no people eating and drinking here and the entire area was empty excluding the three of them. There was a door on the side of the room with a staircase close to it leading up.

On seeing Kurai and Sapphire enter the woman behind the platform smiled brightly and bowed her head as a greeting. Sapphire did the same, not knowing how to react. She received a smile from Kurai and a muffled giggle from the woman, not understanding what they found funny and suspecting she did something wrong.

"A room for two," Kurai said, in a much more polite tone than last time.

"That would be 4 silver," The lady replied.

Kurai took out four silver coins from his pocket and was about to put them on the platform when Sapphire put two coins herself. He stopped halfway and looked at her with a confused face, not understanding why she did that.

"I can pay for myself," She mumbled.

The lady smiled and turned to Sapphire. "So two rooms?" She inquired Sapphire.

"I sure believe such an independent young lady would want a room all for herself, very noble like her." Kurai rolled his eyes.

Sapphire pouted angrily, "Sure, I will."

"Okay then-" The lady begun before being cut off.

"No, no, that won't do. Can't compromise with her safety still, this might not be the worst city out there but I still won't say this is safe, and I believe you know that as well." Kurai sighed shaking his head.

"You doubt the safety of this place?" The lady inquired with a wounded expression.

"Of this inn, no," Kurai replied, "of this town, very much so," he added.

"Fine then, a room for two, I am guessing all facilities?" The lady asked checking over things in her mind.

"Yes indeed," Kurai answered with a smile.

"For how long?" The lady asked at the end.

"Uh, not sure. I will pay the rent for every day on that day as we may leave at any time," Kurai answered after thinking for a moment.

"Would you like to eat right now or after getting refreshed?" She asked the two putting a small metallic object on the table.

"After." Kurai answered picking it up with a swing of his arm as Sapphire reached for it and walking up the stairs, gesturing her to follow him.

Sapphire followed behind him, feeling a lot safer around him than away, knowing he doesn't intend to hurt her in any way, not yet at the very least. There were many similar looking doors with three symbols written on each, such as '101', '102', and many more. Sapphire believed these were human runes for securing the movable wooden wall in place, though she did wonder why they changed every door in that case.

Kurai checked the metallic object in his hand and mumbled, "106, should be right around the corner."

Turning a corner he walked closer to one of the movable walls and inserted the metallic into a small hole. There was a click sound and Kurai pushed the wall open and headed in with Sapphire following behind. The room inside contained some large wooden objects inside of it, nearly all bigger than Sapphire and quite a few bigger than even Kuria. The one by a wall, and the biggest one, was an object made of a rectangular wooden frame covered by a soft looking thick rectangular white cloth, made of most likely wool, on top of it covered by a big blue cloth.

Kurai sat on it and so Sapphire did the same, not being able to think of anything better to do. It was just as soft as it looked and Sapphire lied down on it and rolled around a bit, calming her nerves as she let her body relax from the softness. Her body compressed whichever part it was on, the compression recovering just as she moved.

"That is very cute," Kurai smiled watching her play around.

She sat straight up in an instant, blushing slightly as she completely forgot he was there.

"Anyways, would you rather I wash you or you will wash yourself?" Kurai questioned.

"Wash?" Sapphire inquired tilting her head.

"Yes, washing your body with water. Wolves don't do that?" Kurai asked.

Sapphire shook her head slowly.

"Guess I will have to do it myself," Kurai sighed, "Not that I really mind but you might, sorry in advance and I request you do not bite me."

Sapphire tilted her head, not knowing what was going to happen.