Walking into their room, Dawn couldn’t help but be impressed. She khey would have fahings outside the vilge, but it didn’t prepare her for what she was seeing. The first thing to catch her attention was the bed, it was far rger than even her mother’s bed bae, and the sheets looked much fluffier as well.
Wandering over to it, Dawn pressed down on the bed, finding it far softer than any she had known so far, even softer than the fur of her bedroll. It still wasn’t as fluffy as Niphru though, which made her smile slightly. She also tested the pillows, finding them quite soft as well.
Turning around, she began poking about the other furniture, which was also much rger than bae, though she had to admit she preferred the quality of the chairs and drawers bae, even if the seats here were softer.
Having finished looking through the bedroom, she pulled Niphru out of her hood and id him down on the bed before petting his head.
A short cough made her look up, having fotten that Lara was there. As she looked over, Lara asked, “What type of dog is that? I haven’t seen anything like it before.”
“Oh! I am sorry, I was so distracted I fot you were there! Niphru here isn’t a dog, he is a fox we fouhe vilge,” Dawn replied.
Upon hearing the word ‘fox,’ Lara stepped ba surprise, her hand going to a knife on her belt.
Seeing this, Dawn ed herself around Niphru while quickly exg, “Stop, he isn’t a threat! He is my friend, and he is Awakened! Even a mage from the capital firmed it and he helped save the vilge, as well as my life!”
Lara’s eyes wide this, and she rexed slightly, though she didn’t remove her hand from her on. Instead she stepped forward as she inquired, “How certain are you that it is safe? Foxes are known for fooling people before killing them.”
“HE is safe! Niphru is a person too, not a beast! He has been a part of our vilge for quite a while and helped a ton with killing the beasts in the forest, as well as helping by giving information about them since he scout better than people. And besides that, he ’t do anything…” Dawn sighed and looked down as she said this, before tinuing, “When our vilge was attacked by a Bck Tide, Niphru was on the front line defending us, and I was knocked over the wall by act right into a swarm of them. Niphru did something that crippled him in order to save me. He barely even move at all right now…”
Hearing Dawn’s story, Lara focused on the fox more closely, notig that even through all this, it had barely even twitched, though it did have its eyes focused on her hand gripping the knife. sidering that fad what Dawn had said, she rexed her grip and moved her arm back to her side before remarking, “If you are certain, I will trust you on this. But be aware that any as it takes reflect upon you, and foxes are widely feared, food reason. It would be best if you let people think it is just a dog, like I thought.”
Lara shook her head and tried to rex, holding her open hands to the sides to show she wasn’t going to do anything. As Dawn sat back up, she walked to the end of the bed, crouched doulled a small cot from uhe bed and brought it over to the door.
As Lara advanced, Dawn stiffened for a moment before notig she wasn’t headed towards Niphru, then rexed again. When Lara pced the cot beside the door, it suddenly struck her that the woman inteo use the cot to sleep, and it looked quite unfortable. sidering this, she looked back at the bed, and noticed it had two pillows, grabbed one of them, tested the weight, and then threw it, smiling as it flew right over Lara’s shoulder, bounced off the wall, and nded on the edge of the cot before flipping over into the middle.
As the air fluttered around her, Lara jumped to the side in surprise, notig the pillow was the source as it flew by her. After nding, she sat back up and gred at Dawn for a moment before chug and shaking her head. “You really shouldn’t do something like that to someone who is armed, you scared me with that! And it is quite rude to scare yuard,” she excimed.
“Humph! You deserve it for treating Niphru like a thing instead of a person even after being told otherwise. You were rude to my friend,” Dawn huffed at her.
Lara looked back, and noticed the fox move its head up and down slightly as it looked at her before looking back at Dawn, who hadn’t noticed. With a sigh, she apologized, “I am sorry, Dawn, it is incredibly rare to see an Awakened animal, so it is hard to think of them as people.” As Dawn opened her mouth to reply, she turned her head to look directly at the fox and tinued, “And I apologize for treating you as an animal, Niphru. I ’t say it won’t happen again, but I will try my best not to repeat it.”
Dawn closed her mouth, cutting off her attempt to reply out of surprise. She hadn’t expected Lara to apologize to Niphru as well, though it made her feel much better. With a smile, she responded, “Thank you for your apology, especially for apologizing to Niphru too, I’m sure he would tell you he appreciated it if he could still do so!”
“Wait… Niphru could talk before? Why hasn’t he since you got here?” inquired Lara.
Dawn looked at Niphru sadly, scratg behind his ears before replying, “I’m sure you knoisted foxes make use of illusions, right? Niphru learned how to speak using his illusions, but he hasn’t been able to use them since he saved me. He is slowly rec though, and hopefully he will return to good health soon.”
“I see,” Lara said, “additionally, did you want to explore the town while waiting to be able to meet Lord Jerald?”
“Oh, yes, I had fotten about that, thank you for reminding me! Just let me finish looking around here first,” Dawn responded as she turo pick up Niphru again.
As Lara went to sit o, Dawn turned and headed towards the window before asking, “Why is it that the window has bars on it?”
“From what I’ve heard, back when it was ging from a vilge to a town, several people fell out of the windows while they were drunk, and one of them died, so they put bars up to stop it from happening again,” Lara answered.
Dawn looked out the window, marveling at how much she was able to see from up here, watg people bustling throughout the town below. As she turned and began heading towards the bathroom, she replied, “That is pretty unfortunate. Maybe they shouldn’t have gotten drunk, though, then it wouldn’t have been a problem.”
Lara chucked and shook her head befreeing, “I think the same as well, but everyoells me I am crazy and that people have to drink. I never did uand that, no one in my family ‘needs’ to get drunk.”
With a few guesses as to what to expect, Dawered the bathroom, immediately identifying the bathtub, and quickly puzzling out the toilet and sink. After just a moment of ption, she guessed the purpose of the knobs beside the pipes stig out of the walls, aed by turning the red one on the sink. As warm water poured out, she smiled, gd to have figured it out before trying it out. sidering that they had fire sources downstairs, she figured they had a way to move water they heated around the building.
Walking back to the door, she led Niphru bato her hood, nodding to Lara, who opehe door for them. As they left, Dawn locked the dain before taking a moment to memorize where the room was, then they headed back down to the streets to wahe town.