A strong scent

[Chuckles]

((Ok, I'm willing to take another chance. But if this thread turns ugly too, then I'll just have him leave.))

Well, the children had been less than amused by him. That was nothing new. So with his cloak hiding him away comfortably again that small gust of cold air rearanged his face back to the one he was comfortable with again. Gone was the jumpsuit and the shoes and the anoying nose. He hated that thing.

He walked past the front desk. He had no reason to stop there, he wasn't checking in. He wondered down a hall and stopped. He looked in and saw a room with a television and a game table and such. A lounge maybe. It didn't matter what it was, her scent was very weak there.

He found another room in this hallway. It looked like it was maybe a meeting hall of some sort. He figured this would be a place she would frequent, but her scent was very weak in here too. So he moved on. Somewhere there was her scent and it was strong. It was then that he found his way down to the battle gym in the basement.

It would figure that her scent would be strong in this room. He walked around and took in the aroma of her. Oh, there were other scents in the room. And they were all stronger, but she had been here. She had been here a lot. He stood in the middle of the room with his eyes closed and just breathed. With as strong as her scent was here, she might be back.

[Rodent]

The weather was turning cold. This caused some of mother natures creatures to seek refuge inside of buildings where it would be warm. Such was the case at the moment. A rat, a simple rodent, was gnawing it's way through the outer wall of the Inn. And once inside, it would wind it's way through a previously unmarked path within the wall.

The insulation was warm, but it tasted terrible. And this little gray rat was hungry. So it chose to chew it's way through the wall on the other side. It didn't care what room it came out in, it could find it's way to the kitchen.

When the rat came out of it's new hole, it looked around. There was a lot of wide open spaces, at least it seemed that way to a rat. But in the middle of the room was a cloaked figure. It was standing as still as a statue. The rat watched it for a moment.

Thinking that the statuesque figure wasn't going to move, the rat began to inch it's way free of the hole. But it kept watching to see if the figure moved. The hunger was overruling common sense and so the rat was ready to run in search of a kitchen. Just as soon as it was sure that the coast was clear.

[Boots]

The rat would've had better chances with mother nature. Because this place had Boots.

Boots was the former cat of an Agent trained in Concealed Reconnaissance. The Agent adopted Boots when he was a kitten and trained him to help with this job. Get in, get the information, get out. If there was a message to get across get that done too. Do it fast, leave no trail, have no one see you coming or going.

When his owner died two years ago Boots needed a new job. Something cushy. He got one here. He liked it because the job was twofold. Get the information...and get the rats. Boots liked that second part because he hated rats. Boots did both of the jobs he was hired for now.

Where did the cat come from? Unknown. What did it look like? Unknown. Where did it go to? Unknown. The cat seized the rat in its teeth in a blink. Boots had a strong jaw. The rat wasn't going anywhere but with him. If the rat was unfortunate enough to survive he'd see his captor already had him back outside. Boots was that damn fast. And knew about ways around no one else knew about. It was the cat's job to know.

One thing was left behind. Something Boots had carried in here with him from another location at the Inn. A piece of the pamphlet for the inn that says. "reasonable rates available. see front desk.". In the gym there was no one or nothing else to see.

[Chuckles]

((So I see that others are guilty of the very offence I was accused of. After all,what if the rat had seen the cat coming? Or what if the rat was a shape shifter? Tsk tsk tsk.))

The sounds coming from the wall were not of much distraction as he was smelling the air and not listening for something. He looked down to where he heard the sounds coming from. Seeing the little grey menace a wicked grin curled upon his lips. Such a creature offered him so many options. He could attempt to lure the creature to him. For what purpose? Well, he could capture it, it could serve his purpose at some point. Or he could kill it, doing a service to the Inn. Or he could simply let it go about it's merry way.

But his decision was made for him with the entrence of the cat. He was a quick little bugger. The cat seemed to have radar for ears as it entered the room without so much as a sound or a movement of a door. It was almost as if the cat had poofed into existance simply because there was a rat around. Interesting. Yet, this was Rhy'Din, a poofing cat was nothing to be shocked by.

So Chuckles watched the exchange between the cat and the rat, and found himself rooting for the rat. And once whatever was to happen, happened, he turned to walk away. He did note the scrap of paper that the cat had left behind. "Shameless plug." And he made his way out of the gym.

Chuckles did make his way to the front desk then. But it was not for the reasons that one would think. The front desk would have to be passed in order to exit the Inn. He had grown weary, finding he was in need of food and rest. Neither of which he could find at this Inn. As he passed the front desk, on his way to the door, he ran his hand over the corner of the desk. And as he kept walking there was a gift left behind. It was a toy. One of those little wind up toys that waddled along like it's feet were controled by bicycle peddles. It was a clown, which held a knife, and made a stabbing motion with the knife as it waddled across the desk.

Once he was outside on the porch, that cold gust of wind came along. Perhaps he would return another time, to this Inn, to see what he could see. Perhaps not. Either way, the clown turned to a pile of dust and was carried away.

[Rodent]

((The wererat idea is a cute one, nice Laurell K reference, but no, I'll just play along. Thanks though.))

The rat looked up just in time to see the cat coming. It had let it's guard down by watching the cloaked being in the room. So before it could scurry back into it's hole in the wall, it was snatched up in the teeth of the cat and carried away.

The panic caused the rat to wiggle and try to escape. Which in turn snapped it's spine. The rat died before they got out the door.

[Sponsored content]