Something large loomed over the small girl lying in the bed, the sun shining through the single window. It reached out and shook her. Freya moaned and rolled away from it. The sun had come too quickly and she did not want to leave her bed. The thing shook her again and she growled, “What do you want, Maul?”

“I am not your beast,” Replied the figure.

Groggily, Freya's mind pulled itself from the fog of the deep sleep that she had been enjoying. Springing up, the girl stared at the figure, it was the innkeeper. Sighing in relief, the girl growled again, “Is it normal for you to wake your guests?”

In the corner, Maul still slept but grunted his agreement as he rolled over. The innkeeper's fat face scrunched itself up indignantly, “Girl, I don't normally employ my guests in the kitchen.”

The sleep quickly faded from the girl's mind as she remembered what her companion had gotten her into. Sighing again, though this time in annoyance, Freya nodded and slowly gets out of the bed, “Very well, I will be down in a minute.”

The innkeeper's gaze still held her own for a moment before he turned and left the room, leaving a few words behind, “Better be no longer or I will throw you and that thing out.”

As soon as the door closed, the girl sat back down on the bed and glanced at the man sleeping in the corner. Other than rolling over, Maul showed no intention of waking anytime soon, a good thing in Freya's mind. Her companion seemed to prefer the dark of the night, something the girl also liked better than the sunlight. Freya's hands moved to her boots, they are clearly worn out but still provided enough protection for her feet. The tough leather groaned as she pulled the tongue forward and slipped her foot inside. She quickly did the same with the other one.

Standing, she sneaked across the rickety floor beneath her feet, hoping it would not creak and wake Maul. Fortunately for Freya, the girl's ability to sneak seemed better this morning that it had been last night when she had tried to sneak out. She opened the door and slipped out of the room, closing it carefully behind her. Her feet led her down the hall to the stairs and down to the first floor of the inn. 

Despite the time in the morning, there were already patrons sitting at the tables, some probably still sitting there from the night before. The girl weaved her way around the tables, heading for the bar. When she reached it, Freya nimbly hopped over it to the other side, where she came face to face with the innkeeper again, “My establishment is not a playground for you and you pet.”

Nodding her head in acquiescence, the girl said nothing, though she had plenty of words she wanted to hurl at the man, most of them curses. Waving her on, the innkeeper turned away from her. Freya quickly moved to the door of the kitchen. Through the doorway she could see the large piles of dishes that loomed over those scurrying about inside. As she stepped through and moved closer, she knew they had to have stopped washing anything since the previous night when she had agreed to do them. 

The girl wanted to scream, she hated such menial work and she hated that smug fat bastard behind the counter. Still, the man had worked out a rather fair deal when she had been looking for a place to stay, though it would only last another week. Shrugging in defeat, the girl set about doing her task. 

While her hands worked, her body moving mostly on auto-pilot, the wheels in the girl's mind continued to turn. [i]“I was supposed to meet my contact last night. The Unburdened seem like a very wary group and I wanted to do it without Maul. “[/i]

When she thought about her companion, she remembered that he was also the reason she was doing these dishes, [i]“Gah, he is such a pain in the ass! So unruly...and he never listens.. Still the beast tells no lies...”[/i]

---

Back upstairs in the room, Maul stirred and blinked his eyes at the sunlight that beamed down on him. Growling at the light, as if it might retreat, the man tried to bury his head into his arms. The light continued to shine upon him. Leaping up, the man howled at it in rage but it still changed nothing. Angrily, he began to beat his fists upon the floor, hopping from one foot to the other. 

When the sun still did not hide from his anger, the beast snapped. Grabbing the bed, Maul tried to throw it out the window at the ball of fire in the sky. It slammed against the wall surrounding the window, too large to fit. This only seemed to make the man angrier. [i]“Would you stop it already? You're embarrassing...”[/i]

The thought flitted through the beast's mind, and had he been saner he could have confirmed the truth of the statement by simply looking out the window. In the alley below, those that were passing through had stopped to look up at the man. Maul hesitated for only a moment, the thought flitting away as fast as it had appeared in his mind, before he continued to bang the bed against the window. 

A few moments later, he seemed to realize that what he had been doing was futile. Dropping the bed, so that it lay against the window, Maul grabbed at the straw under it. When only a few small handfuls of straw would come lose from under the bed, his rage flared right back up and he beat his fist against the floor again. Outside the door of his room, the creature could hear those that had begun to leave their rooms in an effort to determine what the commotion they heard might be. 

Suddenly feeling caged, the beast went berserk. His fists slammed into the wooden frame of the bed, over and over again, until it finally broke. With a shattering sound, the window behind the bed also gave way, raining glass down upon those still watching below. The splinters that dug into his hands, did not bother the man as he continued to beat the bed in an effort to push it out the window, to try and escape the room. 

---

Down in the kitchen, Freya is pulled from her thoughts by the commotion upstairs. Instantly, the girl knew it was the man in her room causing it. She dropped the dish in her hand and raced out of the kitchen. Vaulting over the counter, she took the steps two at a time and found herself in a hallway full of people. At the other end, she could just barely see the doorway to her room. 

Slipping through the crowd, something that would normally be easy due to her size was hindered by the the small width of the hallway. Before she could reach the door, Freya heard the shattering of glass and curses to herself. With more determination she pushed through the crowd, elbowing those in unseemly places that would not give way. Finally, she reached the door and turned back to the crowd, “This is my room. I'll handle it. You can all disperse now.”

Without waiting to see how the crowd reacted, the girl grabbed the door and opened it. Ducking though the doorway, she finds herself in the room, with no other occupants. The bed lie on the floor in pieces, mixed with glass and straw. Cursing again, the girl went to the chest and grabbed the few things she had in it, “Well, we cannot stay here anymore...”

Climbing out the window, she looked down at the people in the alleyway. When she followed the line of their gaze, Freya could see the shape of her companion leaping from building to building. She grabbed onto the roof and swung herself up. Standing, she began to run after her companion.