It was getting late in Estolad and most people were heading for the Inn. Rikane had been there for a while already and now watched the people enter. They were all not from around here like himself. Rikane didn't know why he was here. He didn't know if it was the fact that there were not many people here or maybe something else. The only thing he knew was that he was there.

He tried to hide his strange yellow eye color under his cloak but mostly failed, resulting in people staring at him. He started to wonder why he was this way. Why was he capable of transforming in a dragon? Why were his eyes yellow? The more he started to wonder the sadder he became. "Why me?" he said to himself. Others may think that being a half-dragon is useful but Rikane saw it as a handicap. "Yes, I'm different! Now stop staring!" Rikane shouted. The people quickly turned their heads and fastened their pace.

Even demons needed a place to sleep.

It was a cold and blustery day- the type that came around near the end of winter, heralding the arrival of spring in the showers that were not quite ice and not quite rain, but something solidly in between. More annoying than snow, colder than rain and only marginally safer than hail this idiotic weather was easily the stuff of nightmares for Vex who- despite hating Hel- was far more used to flames that seared an weather that froze and turned bones brittle and stiff. If she didn't get to shelter soon-

A cart rolled past, splashing snowmelt onto her. She railed half-heartedly at the stupid thing and then continued on. It was at times like these that the true nature of humankind manifested itself, and proudly. Here was the prime example of common human decency: "I don't give a flying flip for who you are or what you are. Just leave me alone." Yessirree do, she wouldn't regret watching this world crash and burn if it was all that was required for destroying Raku. Her eyes turned dark- the darkness of hate. That one deity... he would-

But she squashed that line of thought, again. She could reminisce for hours upon end about killing stupid people or stupid things but the first thing she needed was shelter. Her contract had been successfully completed but she hadn't been paid yet- she'd meet her contact, get her pay and move on with life once it turned midnight. Hopefully. The last time she had been stood up for contract reasons she had had to go around hunting for the blasted idiots for weeks on end. Crafty idiots.

Ah- finally! An inn. And now that these insufferable humans were trying to be all 'understanding' and crud she probably wouldn't have to permanently maim anybody.

So she opened the door and walked in.

"Fools" Rikane sighed. "Can't love what they can't understand" It had been one of the things that Rikane hated about fullblood humans. Their minds so weak. Only caring for themself and nobody else. Rikane turned his head down. He heard more people come in but he didn't care. "Probably all fullblood humans." he said to himself and stood up to leave to his room when he saw a non-human. A demon. "Finally!" Rikane said to himself. "Someone else they can stare at..."

And stare they did. Vex didn't mind, not entirely anyways. One got used to it after a few months of practice. And the utter uselessness of wearing disguises was only one of the reasons that Vex openly flaunted her nature. She sometimes wished she could snap her fingers and simply transform- but life was never so simple. Vex had once wielded magic- it was something she could feel, a longing and desire that had transcended death. But whatever otherworldly powers she had once possessed were long gone and her concentration was shot. She couldn't open a book of magick without losing focus in mere moments.

And that was bad- for a number of reasons.

She dropped the hood of her cloak before striding in boldly. Had she been more humanoid she would have no doubt been wearing boots. Manly boots that looked deadly. But she had hooves, and hooves were rather adverse to the whole concept of wearing footwear so she just walked in, hooves clacking hoping that she wouldn't get something icky stuck in it like the last time she walked into an inn. Bums should bother to clean the place. Never knew when a broken glass bottle would start a riot. Or just injure and peeve off a very, very, very inconsiderate demon.

Heck, she'd been involved in more bar brawls than she could count. Might not manage to kill the barowner, but it'd certainly put a dent in his little gold stash. And that was always good. Still, this was an inn and alcohol was secondary. Last time she had gone off to drink before paying for room and board she had been faced with a rather severe looking troll that was apparently a bouncer. She had also slept in the streets. With a few broken bones.

"Room for the night," she growled. "Whatever you got that's cheap."