Welcome to Almusilaa

Chapter Four

We had the rest of the afternoon free. As soon as we finished our lunch, hotel staff informed us that our room had been upgraded for the remainder of our stay.

We followed Charlie upstairs so she could grab her stuff before we were led by a man in a fancy uniform to our new room. It was up on the top floor. We had to cram into an elevator to get there. Once there, the same man led us to a door and produced a key with a flourish. Then he unlocked the door and pushed it open.

Room was a bit of an understatement. It was a large suite, with a decent sized living room with four doors branching off. A small kitchenette was tucked in a corner, opposite a large window that looked out into the city.

We immediately split up to explore.

"I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but the hotel owner wished you to have the wolf suite, equiped with fur resistant carpet and animal friendly toilets."

Animal friendly toilets? Sure, sign me up. Charlie threw open the doors as she let the man know there was no inconvenience and told him to thank the owner for his thoughtfulness.

There were two bathrooms, both were large and equiped with a bath, a shower, a toilet and some sort of weird porcelain basin. There were also two bedrooms with two three tier bunk beds and a dresser crammed in each room.

"Why so many beds?" Cooper asked the man.

"Werewolves like to travel with members of their pack. An alpha will usually bring five body guards, their spouse and their spouse's body guards." He explained patiently.

"Really?" I asked, looking to Charlie.

"I didn't know that. I've only had one werewolf friend but they were very tight lipped about pack life." She said while flopping on the grey sofa. "Oh yeah, this is comfy." She said laying down.

"Check out the TV!" Tyler said enthusiastically. "Can you imagine Grand Final Night with this baby?" He said, practically drooling at the large flat screen mounted on the wall. He jumped up on the couch, careful not to dislodge his friend.

Daniel, the mouse familiar, was so small that he was in constant danger of being stepped on. Tyler had taken it upon himself to look after him. Now Daniel hung on Tyler's back almost constantly. It was also handy since Daniel had to take a hundred steps to every one of Charlie's since he was so tiny. Tyler was bigger and could keep up easier.

"You also have access from this room to a selection of payed TV services. Will that be all?" The man asked. Charlie sat up to look at the man.

"Yes, thank you sir." Charlie said politely before lying back down. The man blushed before backing out of the room.

Charlie reached for the TV remote and browsed through the channels.

"You guys want to watch a movie?" She asked. She flipped through the channels until she came upon Spider-Man into the Spider Verse. "How about this?" She asked.

Everyone agreed and settled down in front of the TV. I hated the memories that this movie brought up and didn't want to watch it, but I didn't say anything because I didn't want to ruin it for the others.

My family had gone to see it when it came out in cinemas as a special Friday movie night treat. We had gone to Pizza Hut first and eaten the all you can eat buffet before we saw the movie. In the dark theatre I had sat between my dad and Adam as we watched the movie.

I felt a pain in my chest as the memories surged forward. I couldn't take it anymore and walked off to find something else to do. I looked through the bedrooms and explored the bathroom. I pushed the door closed before trying out the 'animal friendly' toilet.