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Holding up her glass up alittle as a sign that she heard what she said, Artemis went back to drinking.

Kitasu raised an eyebrow, but nodded to Sortha in acknowledgement before she left. With only the bartender, who was very quiet at the time, and Artemis around, she thought for a moment, then realized the boy and his caretaker were not here. Hmm.. now where could they have gone? She looked up from her drink for a moment and felt a bit dizzy... ugh, she was already tipsy. Even though she had set out to get drunk, she never enjoyed the process.

Half-drunk and dead tired, she placed a few coins on the counter and got up, waved to everyone, and headed up to her room. Once there, she locked the door, took off her clothes -- she just wore them for the pockets anyway, she wasn't actually indecent without them -- and promptly fell on the bed and into sleep.

(LOL is that really all? Alright.)

Hitori and Ketlin returned sheepishly. First Hitori had made him stay in the woods while he checked the premises, and now they crept in quietly to the main room to see if every one was awake and alive. Finding very few answers downstairs, Hitori decided to settle them both down in their room and wait for morning. This time, it was Ketlin that slept and he that stayed up inconsolable, watching the door and listening for noises from outside.

The stairs creeked under her bare feet as she walked down the stairs. Her head was low and her hair, usually held from the top hat in neat order, was splashed about her face and down her back. Dressed in a simple dress of dark blue, she made it to the last floor and looked about. The air was thick now, heavy from a current of pressure. Her eyes turned to look about, now milky jade without pupils. Her mouth was slightly gapped, and moved without words then stopped. In a moment, a multitude of voices flooded the room, which made it impossible to know what was said.

((OOC Note: Zafkiel, please ACTUALLY read what's going on before you post. It's early morning and a grand total of two, perhaps three people including the bartender, are up, and besides Artemis who seems to be talking with many voices, no one is 'chatting'. neutral ))

Kitasu sat up and yawned. Ah, another bright beautiful.. hangover. Aw man, she felt TERRIBLE. It wasn't just the large amounts of vodka and rum she had, but really the fight. She always felt awful the day after a fight. Sigh.

She stood up, still disrobed, and looked in the mirror. She was still in her standard battle form, which had caused social trouble as usual. She sighed.. she wouldn't really feel any better in a more humanoid form, but at least she wouldn't get people whining about how she looked like a lizard. Why could no one tell the difference between the bipedal dragon and a lizard? Oh, well. She took a small piece of chalk from her clothing, and drew a circle on the floor, then marked many straight and curvy lines inside of it.

It was a summoning circle -- really only the decent magic she could do, and she could only summon one creature anyway. It was a small flying dragon, who she named Dakke, which she had befriended a long time ago. She saved its life and found it a mate -- a very important thing to that race of odd little creatures -- so in return it offered to change her form for her whenever she summoned it, for the rest of her life. Pretty good deal, all in all, and it apparently didn't inconvienence the little dragon very much. She didn't know what else it did with its amazing shapeshifting ability, but whatever it was, the little creature was always in a good mood and never busy.

She whispered a quiet chant, and a small light hovered above the circle. Soon the light grew larger and took the shape of her old friend.

"Ah, hello there, Kitasu. How are you this fine day?" It was apparently always a fine day where the little creature lived, wherever that was.

"Hungover and tired, my dear friend. Could you please shapeshift me?"

"Sure thing, friend. What form would you like?"

"Something more humanoid.. more social. And not reptilian in any way, if you please."

Dakke nodded, then landed on Kitasu's offered arm. It spread its wings, and Kitasu started to slowly, quietly change. Soon the transformation was over, and her friend "waved" goodbye and disappeared into the same small ball of light, which itself faded out.

Kitasu sighed. She wanted to talk to Dakke more, but they always had to keep the mechanisms of her transformations secret -- they even whispered whenever they talked. If anyone found out what that small, secluded race of creatures could do, they'd never find a moment of peace, and would probably end up obliterated by the same kind of people as that jerkwad of a general she fought yesterday.

She looked in the mirror again, and stepped back, surprised. She was a grey-furred bipedal feline! She sighed. Dakke never would turn her into a human -- it seemed the little creature disliked humans in general. She turned her head, and sure enough, she had a dragon wing shaped hair clip. For some reason, Dakke always incorporated something draconic into whatever form he granted Kitasu. She looked down. She was dressed in purple robes. Very tasteful, and with plenty of pockets. She smiled and sighed, then erased all evidence of the summoning circle on the floor.

Happy with her current form, she unloaded the pockets of her old robe into her new clothing, stepped out of her room, and made her way down into the main area. The muse and two other women were there. She hoped they'd have a more positive reaction to this form than her other one... she didn't change forms in public often, but she knew she would be in another city soon, so now was as good a time as any.

As soon as people started to come Sorthat put her book away and put her cloak on again. looking and woundering what Artemis was doing.

((Don't worry about it. We'll just fit her post in like this smile )

Just as Hitori and the little boy Ketlin were coming down the stairs, new comers arrived by the front door, loud and chattery. They came as a group and seemed to know eachother, and then there was the small group of two or three people who had already been at the inn the night before. Cautiously, Hitori moved to sit beside the people he already knew. Ketlin didn't want to walk around the big group, though, and they ended up sitting near the stairs instead, right beside a new woman who was just sitting down. "Excuse me," Hitori muttered in a morning haze.

He noticed then that the muse was acting rather strangely. There were many more voices in the room than there should have been.

Her mouth snapped shut, breaking the voices back to the normal chatter of the bar. Her eyes where wide, and her expression startled as she stood erect once more, as if rigid. Even the newly formed wings on her back dared not twitch. Her pupils shot back to life, large and black, and then it seemed like the misty green of her eyes condensed back to the deep, vibrant green. Eyes normal once more, Artemis looked at Sortha and her brow pressed. "What the heck are you doing in my room?!" She barked.