Differences in The Wandering Inn 1.01
After a few minutes the traveler stood up.
She blinked around the room and wondered who she was,
why she was here and—
Blink.
Blink.
She’d lost her train of thought.
At least she remembered her name.
Sort of.
Was it a bad thing that she was so tired she was having trouble remembering who she was?
Erin.
Erin Solstice.
It was impossible to forget a name like that,
no matter how hard she tried.
She had two first names,
and both of them could have belonged to a girl or a boy.
Actually,
Erin sounded much more like a boy’s name in her opinion.
But it was hers,
and at this moment it’s about all she had.
Hm.
Inventory check.
Still sitting in her chair,
Erin felt at her pockets.
- After a few minutes,
- the traveler sat back up.
- No,
- not a traveler.
- She hadn’t intended to travel anywhere tonight.
- The young woman frowned as she rubbed at her face.
- She’d been going to the bathroom and…
- she must have taken a wrong step somewhere.
- A really big wrong step,
- because instead of walking into her bathroom and seeing the comforting sight of porcelain,
- she’s suddenly found herself in a cave,
- nose-to-nose with a—
- Dragon.
- The young woman shot to her feet,
- heart pounding.
- She looked around and remembered she was in the inn.
- But the memory was fresh,
- and her burned arm—she felt at it and winced.
- “This is no dream.”
- But it felt like one.
- It felt like she was in a dream,
- because that would be so much easier to explain than reality.
- The reluctant traveler took a deep breath,
- and then another,
- and coughed.
- “Dusty.
- Ahem!”
- She tried to rationalize what was happening.
- First things first.
- “Who am I?
- I’m Erin.
- Check!
- We’re off to a good start.”
- She smiled weakly.
- That’s right.
- Her name was Erin.
- Erin Solstice.
- It wasn’t an easy name to forget.
- And though it was hers,
- she did object to parts of it.
- For instance,
- Erin could have been a boy’s name,
- and she was a girl.
- At least,
- she had been a girl.
- Erin poked herself with a frown.
- “Yep,
- still a girl.
- Glad to see that didn’t change.
- Now…
- inventory check.”
- She felt at her pockets.
- She had…
- Wonderful.
Erin had hoped she’d brought her smartphone with her,
but she was without even that basic necessity.
- Erin had hoped her smartphone would be with her,
- but who carried their phones to the bathroom?
Most travelers begin their journeys well-prepared.
Ordinarily,
if Erin had known she would have ended up in this place she would have brought along with her a backpack crammed full of essentials.
But she hadn’t planned on this adventure.
She hadn’t even known it was about to happen.
How does one travel to another world?
Magic is probably one answer,
or maybe an intricate device of scientific achievement.
Perhaps a summoning portal,
or a mystic ritual summoning a hero from another world.
All these are valid options and yet…
- “Everyone sensible,
- that’s what.”
- Most people began their journeys well prepared.
- If Erin had known she would have ended up in this place,
- she would have brought along a backpack crammed full of essentials.
- And a gun.
- To fight off the little green men.
- But she hadn’t planned this adventure.
- She hadn’t known it was going to happen.
- How did one travel to another world,
- or another…
- another place?
- Erin’s forehead wrinkled as she thought.
- This was clearly no virtual reality,
- she didn’t remember being drugged or abducted,
- and she was fairly certain she wasn’t crazy,
- although her present situation made a good case to the contrary.
- But if any of those logical,
- real-world explanations didn’t fit,
- that only left…
- Magic.
- Erin didn’t believe in magic normally,
- but seeing a Dragon an hour ago had changed her outlook on the existence of the fantastical quite rapidly.
- And yet…
- there had been no summoning portal,
- no mystical ritual or feeling of stepping into the void.
- Heck,
- there hadn’t even been a loud ding to indicate something had happened.
She hadn’t even opened the wrong door,
or stepped through a wardrobe or anything.
Yet at some point she must have turned the wrong way,
because instead of the wonderful sight of white porcelain and water she ended up looking down the snout of a—
Erin’s eyes opened and she sat up in her chair,
heart pounding at the memory.
- She hadn’t opened the wrong door or stepped into a wardrobe.
- Erin clutched at her head.
- This was impossible.
Speaking of which,
the inn.
Erin looked around.
What a strange place.
She’d never been in a building made almost exclusively out of wood.
- However,
- if she was insane,
- she was still sitting here in her head.
- So Erin looked around cautiously.
- The inn.
- What a strange place it was.
- Erin had never been in an inn—or even a building made exclusively out of wood before.
- But there it was.
- Wooden walls,
- wooden beams in the ceiling,
wood floor…
was she in some kind of medieval world?
- wooden staircase leading up…
- “Am I in some kind of medieval world?
- Some kind of fantasy world?”
The haunting emptiness of the inn struck her hard the more she looked around.
At first she’d just been pathetically grateful to find some kind of shelter in the wilderness.
The instant she’d seen the building across the grassy plains she’d ran for it full-speed.
But now having found it,
Erin was not at ease.
- The haunting emptiness of the inn struck Erin harder the more she looked around.
- At first,
- she’d just been pathetically grateful to spot any kind of structure in the rolling grasslands she’d found herself in.
- Erin had run towards the inn full-speed.
- But now,
- having found herself in the inn,
- Erin was ill at ease.
- It was so empty.
So dusty too.
Although the inn’s main room was large and spacious she still felt crowded.
Maybe it was all the empty tables and chairs.
And the long counter at the end of the inn definitely felt like it should have a bartender behind it,
serving a lovely cold drink of—
- So dusty,
- too.
- Really dusty.
- And although the inn’s common room was large and spacious,
- the large round tables and chairs made it feel smaller.
- A long counter at one end of the inn gave Erin the impression of a bar.
- She felt there should have been a bartender behind it,
- polishing a mug and serving her a lovely cool drink of—
- And hungry.
Time to think of something else.
“Well,
at least I should clean this place up,
right?”
There wasn’t much confidence in her words though.
To begin with,
why bother cleaning up a place that’s not yours?
Back home,
Erin never bothered to clean up her room most days.
But still,
the sheer amount of dust on every surface was almost suffocating.
Erin never considered herself an OCD type personality or particularly fond of cleanliness.
Even so,
she felt it was probably better not to raise a small dust cloud every time she sat down.
- Time to think of something else.
- She took a deep breath and coughed.
- Then sneezed.
- “This place is disgusting!
- Someone should clean it up!”
- She paused.
- After a second Erin looked around.
- “…
- I guess that means me.”
- There wasn’t much confidence in her words.
- Why bother cleaning up a place like this?
- On the other hand,
- it was so dusty that Erin was sure that if she tried to sleep she’d choke to death or cough her throat raw in the night.
- Plus,
- it would be nice not to raise a cloud of dust every time she sat down.
“—Besides,
- “Besides,
- this is a good place to rest.
So Erin fell back on one certainty.
If a room is dirty,
its common sense to clean it up,
right?
So her first movement in this inn and indeed her first conscious decision in the world she had come to was simple:
- So Erin fell back on the one truth she could cling to.
- If a room was dirty,
- it should probably not be.
- So she decided to clean it up,
- and made her first conscious decision since coming to this world.
- It was a simple goal,
- a humble ambition:
- Certainly,
it wasn’t the most inspired action ever,
- it wasn’t the most inspired of decisions,
- but Erin had an entire plan based around that simple action.
…
- It was a very dark stairwell that looked down on Erin as she put her first foot on the stairs.
- The young woman looked up and gulped.
- Due to the size of the ground floor,
the second floor was quite high up and so the staircase loomed like the bones of some kind of dark monster.
At least,
that’s how it looked in the darkness.
- the second floor was quite high up and the staircase was…
- ominous,
- to say the least.
- It looked like the bones of some gigantic monster in the darkness.
- Erin ascended the staircase.
It seemed as though ever second stair creaked or groaned loudly as she placed her weight upon it,
- It seemed as though every second stair creaked or groaned loudly as she placed her weight upon it,
- and the sounds echoed in the dark inn.
- To Erin,
it felt like she was stepping on landmines –
each time she heard a loud creak her heart sped up and caught in her throat.
- it felt like she was stepping on landmines—each time she heard a loud creak her heart sped up and her heart caught in her throat.
- keeping her voice low so as not to—to wake up anything that might be up there.
At that thought her heart skipped another beat and she paused halfway up the stairwell,
- At that thought her heart skipped another beat,
- and she paused halfway up the stairwell,
- shaking slightly.
This is stupid.
- “This is stupid.
- There’s nothing up there.
Nothing!
Oh yeah?
There could be anything up there.
Like more of those goblin things or—or a dragon!
- Nothing!”
What?
How would a dragon fit up there?
- She paused.
- “Okay,
- maybe there is something.
- I don’t know.
- There could be—more of those Goblins?
- But there’s probably not a Dragon,
- right?
- Right!
- Don’t be stupid.”
What about the dragon in the cave?
It was real.
It was totally real!
I nearly died!
At that Erin shuddered and her racing thoughts froze in place at the memory.
- Hesitation.
- Another step.
Dragon.
There was no other word for what she’d seen.
A monster right out of fairy tales,
and when she’d seen it—
- “But a Dragon could be up there.”
Her fingers touched the burns on her arms and she winced.
The pain was all too real.
And after that she’d ran and ran and the small green men had chased her.
- Erin took a step back down.
- The stairs creaked.
- She scolded herself as her heart thumped painfully.
- “Don’t be stupid.
- How would a Dragon fit up there?
- But Goblins?”
- She paused and shuddered at the thought.
- The Dragon was one thing.
- Her left hand touched at the burns on her right shoulder and she bit her lip at the pain.
- But then the cuts on the back of her legs twinged and she remembered.
- The Dragon had burned her as she’d run away screaming.
- She’d run and run,
- and then the small green men had found her and chased her.
- Goblins,
not aliens that is.
- not aliens,
- that was.
- Actually,
- aliens probably would have been better.
Aliens don’t try to stab you with knives.
- Aliens didn’t try to stab you with knives.
- Erin gazed upwards.
It was dark on the second floor of the inn.
- The darkness on the second floor waited for her.
- Long shadows made the chipped and faded wood ominous.
- But it was just an illusion,
- a trick of the mind.
- She knew there was probably nothing up there.
- the fear of the dark and the unknown.
So Erin hesitated.
- So,
- Erin hesitated.
- But she knew she had to climb.
The wet curtain-rag raised a cloud of dust into the air,
- The wet curtain…
- rag raised a cloud of dust into the air,
- making Erin stumble away,
- coughing and hacking.
She waited until the dust had settled to and tried a different approach.
- But the actual task of cleaning was in fact very easy.
Carefully,
with exquisite care and attention to detail,
Erin shoved the dust off the side of the table and onto the floor.
- Mainly,
- what Erin did was push the dust off the side of the table and onto the floor.
- After that she went back over the rough surface with another pass of her cloth until the table was clean.
Everything was clean.
Except for the floor.
- However there was one place that Erin had avoided the entire time.
- Namely,
- the floor.
- It was only natural.
- Erin had nothing like a mop and she’d been pushing all the dust onto the floor the entire time.
- As such,
- huge piles of wet dust clumped together everywhere.
- Erin kicked at a pile and shrugged.
She’d been shoveling dust onto the floor to clean everything else up,
so now huge piles of wet dust clumped together everywhere.
Erin eyed them,
thought about cleaning them up for a half a second and decided her work was done.
“This is why brooms were invented.”
- “Well,
- when you compare it with the tables and chairs…
- ”
Erin sighed and tossed the dustrag into the bucket.
She wiped at her forehead and found she was covered with a layer of sweat.
- She could only laugh at her strange results.
- Clean tables,
- dirty floor.
- You could eat your dinner off the tables,
- at least.
- And who cared about floors?
- Floors were for stepping on,
- not sleeping.
- Erin wiped at her forehead and found she was covered with a layer of sweat.
- And—was it nightfall already?
- Yes,
sometime in her cleaning efforts the rain had ceased and the visible light had decreased until the inn was a mass of shadows.
Now everywhere was spooky.
- sometime in her cleaning efforts the rain had ceased and the visible light had decreased until the inn was nearly pitch dark.
- Now,
- instead of everything being a mass of shadows,
- there was nothing to see at all.
—But at least the ground floor was reassuring.
She’d cleaned it,
and so it was hers in a way.
- “So it’s not scary,
- but terrifying.
- Great.”
- At least the ground floor was reassuring.
- Erin looked around the room,
- her eyes spotting the moonlight reflected off the smooth tabletops and chairs.
- Yes,
- this room did feel a bit better.
- She’d cleaned it and thus made it hers,
- in a way.
- That made it safe.
- Here she was,
lost in a terrifying world without a clue where she was and what was her first move?
- lost in a terrifying world without a clue where she was,
- and what was her first move?
- Clean the room.
Her eyes lowered.
- Her eyelids lowered.
- Her breathing grew slower.