Spirit Animals: The War For The White Bloom

The Chiou of Eura

Apparently, having a emerald green snake coiled around your forearm made you a very hostile pedestrian. Raisha had barely escaped the last time she tried to get into Euran towns. 

Unlike Nottingshere and Shelleton though, Spiesall'ver was a lot louder and had a lot more than a bit of a population talking, walking and doing all sorts of stuff that normal people did. Easy to blend in. 

Oh. 

She had a living, breathing, venomous, scaly great beast on her shoulder. 

Raisha tried talking to the snake. No response. She tried pleading, ordering, whispering, and even telepathically convince her by saying "Gerry, please go dormant" over and over again in her mind. Gerathon just stared ahead, lifelessly.

It was dark by the time they decided to try their luck at one of the lodges at the edge of the town, close to the exit. Easy to get away in case somebody noticed that her shoulder was occupied by a snake more than half their height.

She entered through the northern gateway, which had a huge arch welcoming travelers, that said: 

"WELCOME, WEARY TRAVELLERS! TO SPIESALL'VER! THE CHIOU OF EURA!"

"Spies... All'ver?" She chuckled to herself.

Raisha didn't bother to read the rest of the fancy wiry script. Chiou of Eura was enough. Chiou was a word related to abundance or treasure or something in Euran. At least, that's what she remembered. 

                           〰〰〰〰〰〰

The lodge had a dry look. There was an old couple sitting inside and talking and smoking and drinking and laughing. There was nobody else in sight, and the Raisha felt weird. She almost turned around, but the woman had already noticed her.

She knocked on the open door. The lady tried to get up, wobbled, apparently decided it was better to remain seated, and plopped back onto the chair. The man spoke up.

"Whad-dya want?" his gruff voice had a hint of slur to it, but was still rude enough.

"Rest." Raisha replied, giving back the gruff tone. "Got a room?"

The man's eyes scanned her, and rested on the snake. 

Please don't notice it's a snake. Please... it's a shawl or something...

His index finger vaguely pointed at her shoulder. "What-?" he grumbled, but took another swig and his eyes lost their concentration.

"Got money?" he asked after several moments of stupor. Raisha had nothing, but she nodded affirmatively.

He got up, wobbled a bit, walked up to her and mimed lifting a bag. He walked with some difficulty, as if the "bag" in his hands was heavy. 

Raisha walked along him till he showed the way up a staircase and said, "Extra charges if you wanna me lug these up there." 

She stared at him quizzically till he turned around and went away. The staircase was in a bad condition but didn't creak much, and there were two rooms in the first floor. One of them seemed to have been occupied, so she took the other one.

The room was as glorious as a cowshed. There was a rough bed to one side, a table whose legs were bent in angles they usually weren't bent, and a lot of dust. Still, a room nonetheless.

Raisha's eyes drooped, as if she'd actually carried all the "luggage" the man was "carrying". Her head ached and her back protested at the sight of the bed. She glanced at Gerathon.  She too, looked very tired.