Anteel- "Behind Closed Doors" Expert 1

The remaining half of the candle cast faint light across the barrels and shelves of the store room. Shadows danced between crates of dried goods and tiny flares reflected off the half empty bottles stacked side by side. Yhavin, the Innkeep found little comfort in the familiar sight of his tiny "office". The fact that he was bound tightly too an arm chair and had been for quite a while now didn't help this. This wasn't the first time he had been drilled for information. He knew alot about the black market in his, and nearby towns. This was the first time however, that he had been broken. He looked down past the tears pooling in his eyes at his only free appendage. Bound impossibly tight at the wrist, His huge paw of a hand gripped a heavy red rag tightly. It had been white not an hour ago.

The figure before him was pacing back and forth very patiently, never making much eye contact. He stoped to look how far the candle had burned from time to time. This time he stood near it as it light up his wicked smile. He had been playing with Yhavin's severed finger like a man tossing a coin for luck. He now held it out over the flame of the candle ever so carefully, watching with a sick childlike fascination as the skin peeled back and bubbled. Yhavin felt like he was going to vomit.

"Oh my dear friend...How this town suffers. Even you, safe in your inn have felt the effects of this awful plauge. You must be quite troubled, no doubt from stress. Your clients are dying, your food supply is dwindling, and now you have told me all the secrets you swore to so many people you would keep. Your running out of friends dear Yhavin."

"Pleas m'lord...I've told you everything. I know of no One-Eye elf, or of any key wearing lizards, or of any bounty hunters..." He broke off crying before he could say any more. "Please master, just let me off an' I'll....I'll give ya all me coin. I has a daughter M'lord. She needs her Pa'." Yhavin stoped talking as soon as he noticed the man was now behind him. He felt a rope slide around his neck.

As the shadow paced around him in circles he could feel the rope tightening around his throat. He gagged back spit and blood from his broken teeth. The tears stopped finaly.

"Dear friend...Listen to yourself. The sickness has taken your mind no doubt. You must be malnurished. Perhaps the plague has found your grey brain and began to devour it. Now, I believe you have not yet told me but a fraction of the information you hold in that fat head of yours."

The figure stopped in his tracks, and like a cobra strike his leg shot out and kicked Yhavin and the chair flat on his back. The wind tried to fly out of him but the tightness of the rope choked it back. He felt dizzy. Hand over hand the figure pulled the chair back onto its legs using the rope and Yhavin's neck. He could feel the muscles and bones of his neck stressing to their limits and he tried to gasp for air. When the chair thumped back onto its feet Yhavin caught a glance of the man holding his new leash. He saw the pendant clasping his cloak in place, and his eyes went wide as the stories and rumors flooded into his mind.

"...Grey Owl...The...Hunter..." He choked on his meager breaths.

The figure stopped. It seemed like minuets passed before he moved or even said a single word. The flicker of the candle just washed over him again and again. Finaly he looked up and caught Yhavin's eyes in a gaze like a hungry hawk. His smile was gone. Those eyes...

"Oh dear friend...While there are few in worse spots that you right now, there are still people who you should not wish to be.... Someone who knows who I am for example. That is a very bad person to be my dearest dear friend."

With a snap of his wrist the rope flung loose from Yhavin's neck and in a panic he gasped for air. He opened his wide mouth and gasped like a mudfish, for it may be his last. In the blink of an eye Grey Owl was on him clasping his mouth shut with a gloved hand and pinching his nose like a crab. He was so afraid it took him a moment to feel the warm shape on his tongue. He handn't even noticed him slip the slimy weight into his mouth. He understood immediatly and the taste of his severed and cooked finger made him nautous to the point of fainting.

"Now my poor, sick, hungry friend" His lips curled back into a smile as he slowly mouthed the word "Chew".

By the time the candle had burned out he had told him everything.