Snippet #2341099

His statement had frozen her in her tracks, and he let the smile spread slightly across his face. She had turned around to see her speaker, though he could not actually see her face, which was hidden by the hood. From her stooped stature, one might guess she was fairly old, or at least weak. But her hands indicated otherwise, being as smooth as silk and definitely not the hands of an old lady. Her hands didn't tremble as she held the strange looking object, and save for the rather weak cough he was offered, after she had confirmed what he had already believed, she seemed quite steady. So if she had been making it up, why was she continuing the charade?

Then she seemed to backtrack, contradicting herself. Though Ayden had to admit he hadn't actually remembered hearing her say she wasn't ill. He placed one hand behind his head in partial confusion, his fingers moving through his hair as he played with the back of his cap. It was a tossup, either she was making up the illness to get what she wanted, or she was exaggerating an illness to get what she wanted. It didn't really matter which way it was, and Ayden wondered why he was even pondering it. Obviously, he had nothing better to do.

The look of confusion left his face as he dropped his arm and reached into his pocket, twirling the shiny pocketwatch as he leaned his head up against the pole to look down his nose at her.

"Charity huh?" Ayden remarked, the amusement only half in his voice. "Seems to me the only thing telling everyone that you are sick has done, has landed you with a strange glowing box with a strange indentation in the top, that probably doesn't even do anything. It certainly doesn't cook food," Ayden said, his eyes looking over the item in question with a critical eye. "And you certainly can't sleep in it."

His hand kept up the twirling motion as his other hand reached into his jacket pocket to pull out a gold coin that had slipped from the pouch. Holding it up to the fading sunlight, he peered at the indentations, the light showing that it was a large compressed coin worth about five. One turkey leg or two, he idly thought as he tossed the coin towards the hooded figure.

"Assuming you can convince anyone to sell you anything, have fun," he remarked, before moving off the pole. Turning about it, he left the hooded figure to her own devices, not waiting for her to say thanks. He stuffed the watch back into his pocket, before strolling into the inn. The people at the door didn't pay him any mind, as he had not been close enough to the ill or supposedly ill woman to make him contagious with whatever illness they all thought she had. Which was good, because his only concern of the moment was finding a nice place to sleep. And after weeks of running or wandering from farm to farm, it would be nice to sleep in soft bed.

"Hello," Ayden said cheerfully as he stood in front of the small wooden desk that served as the innkeeper's office. "I'd like one of your best rooms, preferably with a window view. How much would that be?"

"That would be ten coins per night, sir, how long will you be staying?"

"Oh, just the night, I'll probably be moving on afterwards," Ayden said as he reached into his jacket with both hands, being careful not to pull the pouch out as he dumped ten coins into his hand. "Name's Ayden," he added as he dropped the coins into the innkeeper's hand.

"Thank you sir, here's your key," the innkeeper said as he dropped a brownish silver key into Ayden's hand. "Have a nice evening."