The Creature: Secrets of the Servant Girl

Chapter 2 - The Vumeran with No Clothes

I was cold. I was hungry. I was also naked, and so I pieced together a few scraps from a beached sailboat on the coast. It was dingy and brown, covered in sand, and scratchy against my skin, but it would have to do. Everyone in the city wore clothes, so I'd need to do my best to wear them in order to fit in.

I wondered, surely, there were clothes that felt better than this.

As I walked up the city gates, one guard elbowed the other and, in a hushed tone, said, "Look, Yates. What's this all about?"

Yates whispered back, "What's a child doing out here? She looks feral."

"Feral. Abandoned. Maybe washed up on shore from a shipwreck. Don't judge, Yates, you know the Gods don't look kindly on those who judge."

Yates looked at him as if he were dumb. "We're guards, Ryke. That's all we do is judge. We judge threats."

"Yes, but," Ryke gestures, "She's just a child."

I did my best to look innocent, like even with the circumstances, that I belonged. The pendant hung conspicuously against my chest.

"Eh!" Yates called out. "Child, how have you found yourself out on the coast?"

Through shaky breath, I croaked out a response. I wasn't used to using my voice. Underwater, Vumerans could send high pitched pulses through the water that communicated better than any spoken speech. "I woke up here. I've lost my memory." I swallowed the buildup of saliva as I clearly lied through my teeth.

The guards fell for it though, or at least pretended to. Perhaps they pitied me, even though they may have suspected I was lying.

To be honest, they weren't very good guards if they were falling for my scheme. But as Ryke told Yates, the Gods probably didn't look too kindly on those who judged others. So I'd spare the guards my own judgement.

I knew I was arrogant. It was a trait my mother had always chided me for. I thought I knew best. It's what led to the murder of my family. I hated that part of me, but it was almost like an immediate reaction. I couldn't help it. At least, that's what I told myself. I knew it was an excuse.

Ryke leaned down in front of me. "Tell you what. Me, being the kind-hearted soul I am—" Yates rolled his eyes, "See, I'm going to take you to the inn. Thankfully we are on good terms with the innkeeper seeing as how guards are kind of the ones who protects 'em from the troublemakers. So we're going to get you a free room for a few days. But listen. I don't know where your parents are. You're going to have to find a way to make some coin. I know you're young, but you can do it. I believe in you, whelp."

Yates rolled his eyes, again. "Oh, come on, Ryke. Surely this isn't necessary. Jerry's going to tack this onto our drink tab and you know it."

Ryke looked over his shoulder. "Perhaps if you didn't drink so much, you wouldn't have to worry about your drink tab."

Yates grumbled to himself. Ryke led me down cobblestone city streets. The roads were dotted with beautiful flowers, and wild grass surrounded many of the cityfolk's houses. After turning down a few roads and passing a horse-drawn carriage full of giggling teen girls with the driver looking absolutely exhausted, we made it to the inn.

"Here we are," Ryke gestured. I read the sign. Thankfully, mother had taught me to read the script of humans in the neighboring city. Thank goodness she did. The inn's sign showed it to be 'The Cloudy Tavern,' supposedly named after the first drink they began serving – according to Ryke – called Cloudy Bourbon. The drink was so successful, the inn was able to shut down one of the other three competing inns.

As I walked in, I was assaulted by a mixture of different smells – several spices, drinks with strong bitter odors, the smell of what must have been human food, and lastly... blood. I could smell the blood coursing through the veins of the humans in the inn.