The Innkeeper

The beaver-cats all huddled together as they observed Lex descend from the sky, but upon hearing his introduction they were all startled. That was not surprising. After all, Lex had introduced himself across the realm so he expected everyone to know the Innkeeper.

But instead of answering his question, the beaver-cats huddled together and began whispering.

"Lieutenant Jacob, thou still have a chance to redeem thy honor!"

"I would rather walk through seven incarnations of eternal fire," he said adamantly.

Once again, an incredibly dramatic exchange between the lieutenant and the captain began, all somehow without ever actually stating what the issue was. Lex wanted to help, but he had no idea where to begin.

"Gentlemen, perhaps I can help," Lex said as he stepped onto the wall with him. He found it funny that these beaver-cats thought they could hide their conversation by whispering when he was so close. Maybe they didn't have spirit senses yet.

"But first you would have to reveal the nature of your issue."

Haboob looked at Jacob, who turned his head away, and then looked at the Innkeeper.

"Actually, Innkeeper, we have traveled through hail and hellfury to be patrons at thy Inn, but alas, Jacob has left his purse with a group of orphans. Accepting a loan is a grave sin, or so he believes, so he has resolved himself to wait for us at the boundary and miss this opportunity."

Hail and hellfury? Had the weather changed at all in the region since he made the announcement? Perhaps outside his Inn, for inside it there had been no such changes. Moreover, all of that because he had no money? Really? He'd walk through 'seven' incarnations of hell rather than accept money?

"In that case, there is no issue at all," said Lex, giving the beaver-cats a large and warm smile. "You are all my first new guests since I have opened the Inn here. As such, to celebrate, your stay will be absolutely free."

The beaver-cats shuddered, and tears welled up in their eyes, as if Lex had done the most charitable thing in history. They looked up at him, and Jacob tried to speak, but he was too choked up.

Lex had to suppress the urge to laugh as he looked down at the super dramatic and adorable little creatures. He decided to change their name, at least for himself, to drama-cats. He was sure that their species had a proper, and quite noble name. But to him they would always be furry little creatures with a penchant for taking things too seriously.

"No need to say anything," Lex said when he realized that they truly were speechless, and on the verge of breaking into actual tears. "Come, let me show you around. Some of our other services are not active yet, but you can still stay at the Inn as long as you like."

There was no such promotion for new guests from the system, though he had no doubt that if the system weren't overburdened it would be flooding him with quests right now. Instead, he just decided to pay for the dozen drama-cats himself.

One moment they were all up on the wall, and the next Lex teleported them to the Manor. At this point, he would normally delegate the tour to one of his workers, but he decided that the drama-cats deserved his personal service for a while longer.

"This is Midnight manor, the center of the Inn. From here, you can take golf carts all the way to Main street, or any of the other settlements you like. There's a bay in the back, if you'd like to go swimming. Food and drink are available at any time of the day on order. This place is usually more crowded, but many of our guests are cultivating at the moment which is why it seems so empty."

"What manner of creatures are these?" Haboob wondered out loud as he observed the few human guests walking around. "We have entered the land of giants!"

"We accept guests from all races, so expect to see many new things here. But speaking of giants, aren't the native creatures here all larger than humans?"

That seemed to be true not just for the animals, but the plants and insects as well. The small size of the drama-cats was actually strange here.

"Our most gracious host, we spend our time underground, and so do not know the size of other land dwellers. One of the reasons we have come to the Inn is to see if our people can live on land here, free of persecution from other land dwellers! For too long have the hounds of discrimination set their sights on our people, and treated us like prey. We have no choice but to burrow into the ground and hide."

"Well, you are all welcome here at the Inn. Our workers take care of security here, so you do not need to be wary of any discrimination. We do not tolerate rule breakers at the Inn."

"Gracious 'and' noble, what a character our host has," one of the other drama-cats said as they observed the Inn.

Lex did not comment on the praise he was getting, and instead began giving them a tour of the Manor. It occurred to him that he lacked underground facilities, in case his guests preferred them.

To be more specific, there were places underground he had prepared for subterranean guests, but he had done so casually and not brought it up to standard. A moment was all it took for him to design a complex underground settlement, complete with a network of roads, houses, shops, meditation rooms and more. Then he put it a short distance away from the manor towards the east.

From the surface it was not evident, but in the time it took them to tour the manor, Lex had constructed an entirely new, massive part of the Inn. Admittedly, wanting to see the drama-

cat's reaction when he told them he built that for them was a strong motivator for his actions.