After talking with his squad for a while, Emino finally turned around and faced the old lady. "Ehem, in any case, granny. I have two friends here who need a place to stay. You have free rooms, right?"
"Hmm, are those the two young lads you're talking about?" Turning to Talon and Arryn, she stared at them curiously with her weak eyes. She seemed to have some trouble with her vision as she had to squint to see them.
"Yeah, they are good people so I had to recommend your inn to them. See how nice I am, granny?"
"Good job, Emi boy. Make sure to repay me for taking care of you all these years." The woman replied.
"Haha, don't worry about that. Anyway, I will leave them to you then. We still have to report them to the guild so we gotta excuse ourselves now." Turning around, the man approached Talon.
"Granny is gonna handle everything else. Just take the day to rest and then we will meet tomorrow morning, ok?"
"Uh, thank you very much. I will see you tomorrow then."
"No worries. Have a nice day."
"Bye bye, Talon!"
"Have a nice evening!"
The twins bid him farewell excitedly while Lefa simply gave him a light nod. As for the last girl, Evi, she just walked out of the inn as quickly as possible.
With that, the only people left inside were Talon, Arryn, and the old lady sitting behind the desk.
"What's your name, kid?" She asked him.
"Talon."
"Talon, huh? You've got quite the name there, lad. What about the little boy over there? What's your name?"
"He's Arryn."
"Hm..." The woman rubbed her chin as she looked at Arrun. "Can't the boy answer for himself?"
"Sorry, he doesn't like to speak much. He is very shy." Talon replied with a serious tone.
"Is that so? Well, in any case. I assume you two are going to share a room? I have one with two beds if that's what you want." She said.
Talon didn't answer immediately as he looked down at the kid next to him for a moment. He knew what Arryn wanted at that moment.
"Yeah, please, one room, two separate beds." He said with a nod.
With that, the woman turned around, picked up a key, and handed it to Talon. "The room is on the second floor. Take those stairs up and Have a nice stay. The showers are in a separate section back there if you want to take one." She said.
"What's up?" He replied as he opened his eyes.
"I know I have no right to ask this but... A-Are you sure you're fine with me being here?" He asked with a hesitant look on his face.
That made Talon raise an eyebrow as he lifted himself up. "What are you talking about?"
"I mean... It's really dangerous, um, if anyone discovers that I am not a human, I won't be the only one to be in trouble. You will also get pulled in too. You might lose your life." The boy finally gathered the courage and said it.
Talon could see all the fear and worry in the boy's eyes and it only made him feel even worse for the kid. Even though this was the first time he had been to a human society in his life, the experience must've been traumatizing. Like having to live amongst monsters when you aren't one of them.
"As I said, you don't need to worry, kid. Nobody is going to recognize you as long as we are careful. Besides, even if they did, we aren't going down without a fight. At least I won't. They will have to do far more than what they might think is enough to get me down." Grinning menacingly, Talon touched his temple. "It's all about playing our cards right."
"..." The boy opened his mouth for a moment to speak before closing it again and turning away. Surprisingly, Talon's words didn't seem to have convinced him.
"Arryn..." Talon realized that quickly. "Are you hiding something from me?"
"..."
The boy only looked down further as if he was terrified. That only raised Talon's suspicion even more and made him stand up from the bed and approach the table. Then, he looked at Arryn with a serious expression.
"If there is something important, then you have to tell me. We need to work together if we want to get anywhere, no?" He tried to convince the boy to speak.
Hearing that, Arryn clenched his fists before he looked up. "I... I lied to you, Talon..." The boy said as tears welled up in his eyes.
"You lied to me? About what?"
"... I... *Sniff* When I told you that I had never seen a human being before... I was lying..." He said as he started crying silently.
"Wait. What?" Talon was frozen in his place as he tried to digest what the boy had just said. "So, that means you've seen humans before, no?"
"I have seen them, yes..." The boy nodded.
That was a huge shock for Talon. But, it wasn't enough to completely stun him in his place. He had already suspected that Arryn might've known way too much about humans for someone who had never seen one before.
If anything, their first meeting was proof of that. The boy didn't take a second to recognize that Talon was a human and reacted accordingly. For someone who only heard descriptions about humans, it should've taken way longer for him to recognize that.
Find adventures on m v l e m p y r
"But... If you saw humans before... That means, did humans reach the Divine Piercer?" That's when it hit Talon. "Wait..."
The boy looked up with a devastated expression. "Humans did attack us before... To be precise, it's the same people we met today... The Sky Seekers."
A//N: If you enjoyed reading, don't forget to support the book with GT and PS. Thank you!