Dark Forest Family Roadtrip

Chapter Seven

The van chugged into the motel parking lot. Everyone sat in silence. Hawkfrost did not want to be the one to break it, but somebody had to.
He cleared his throat, "Ok. Let's go in,"
Nobody raised any objections. Everyone was too tired at this point to do anything more than sigh, and climb out of the dirty old van.
The motel was small. Some might call it humble. But Hawkfrost had a better word for it: garbage.
The gang headed inside, silent as ever. Behind the counter was an elderly man. There was kindness in his eyes. Apparently, Tigerstar didn't care.
"Listen up, windbag," Tigerstar started, catching the kindly old man off guard, "We need-" he paused. "How many rooms do we need,"
"One for each of us?" Darkstripe suggested, though nobody seemed to listen, as Darkstripe's idea was stupid.
Ashfur also said something, from somewhere within his swollen face. It sounded vaguely like, "I mead intermediate minimal a mention". It was probably just some nonsense.
"Two rooms," Mapleshade said. She wasn't asking, of course, "One for me, one for the rest of you,"
Tigerstar shrugged, "Two rooms, old man,"
The old man pointed to his name tag with a shaky hand, "My name's Purdy, actually, nice to mee-"
"I'm not here to make friends, Permy, I'm here to pay for two rooms,"
Hawkfrost nudged Tigerstar out of the way, "What he means to say is, how much do the rooms cost?"
Purdy squinted, and adjusted his reading glasses. "That would be," he drew out the 'be' as he scrolled over a small piece of paper, "$45 dollars per room, and 45 times two is" he pulled out a calculator, "$90!" Purdy smiled, proud of himself.
"Ok, do we have $90?" Hawkfrost asked, turning to the others. They all numbered something about the economy, except for Darkstripe who excitedly raised his hand. Hawkfrost sighed, "Yes, Darkstripe?"
"One of those bikers dropped their wallet when they were beating the shit out of Ashfur. I managed to grab it after they left. Cause, ya know, you guys left me behind at the-"
"Yes, we know," Thistleclaw said mockingly, "We left you behind at the gas station. Move on, dude,"
Darkstripe shot Thistleclaw an annoyed look. But he continued, "I checked, there's at least $500 in cash in this thing!" He pulled out a bedazzled black wallet with the words "BRICK" written in big red letters.
Hawkfrost snatched the wallet and rifled through it. "Huh. Never seen this many hundred dollar bills in one place. Weird. Anyways," he pulled out a hundred dollar bill and slid it to Purdy, "And that's $10 in change,"
Purdy smiled, "Alrighty! Thanks fer stoppin' by folks!" He handed Hawkfrost two keys. Hawkfrost muttered a thanks and slid the keys into his pockets.

The room was small, and the walls were covered in the ugliest wallpaper Hawkfrost had ever seen. The ugliness of the wallpaper was only outshone by the creepy paintings on the wall. Hawkfrost shuddered. Those things were definitely haunted.
Luckily, there were a total of two beds. Tigerstar claimed one and Brokenstar claimed the other. Thistleclaw had tried to convince Tigerstar to give up his bed, but ultimately settled with a rather cushiony chair. Nobody tried to argue with Brokenstar, who had a gun.
Hawkfrost had been fortunate enough to pack a sleeping bag, which he set up on the ground. Ashfur had passed out on the ground, so it was assumed he would be sleeping there. Darkstripe refused to sleep on the ground, thinking it was too dirty. Instead, he grabbed a few spare pillows and threw them in the bathtub. Hawkfrost did not know how that was preferable to sleeping on the ground, but he had gotten beyond the point of asking questions.
Mapleshade, of course, had claimed her own room.