The travelers were currently walking through a secluded part of the road along the foothills to the left and near the arid grasslands to the right. The sun was shining brightly overhead, and the travelers’ sweat made their clothes stick to their bodies. 

Well, except for one of them, as he was a troll, which meant that his skin was made of stone, even though he looked quite human, what with the spikey obsidian black hair, the lean muscular body, pointed outwards facing ears, and two emerald green eyes. Extremely soft stone mind you, and by all accounts acts quite close to how a normal skin operates except for the fact that it never burns and is quite impervious to heat. The leading biologists of the day claimed that the stoney skin was in fact made up of a very special type of cell that formed a stoney cell for its membrane instead of the usually lipid, and as such gave troll skin its strange leathery feel. He had already forgone the blue shirt and had tied it around his waist, which only left his baggy grey pants that were made out of wool and was mildly uncomfortable to wear in the sweltering heat. His feet were caked in the dust of the road and were on the verge of cracking. He knew if he was to walk anymore, the sole of his feet might fracture and the lava that made up his blood might just spill out onto the ground.

His companion was a horned girl, with off-white hair, ruby-red eyes, porcelain white skin, a frilly white dress that was currently soaked in sweat and covered in dust, plus red shoes. She had a bright red backpack that was stuffed with books and other papers, and white stockings that she currently was wishing that she hadn’t chosen to wear. Her pink nail paint was still on at least, so that was some comfort. 

The troll opened his mouth and began to speak, his voice hoarse.

“Hey. Star.”

The girl turned towards him.

“Yes? What is it?” She said with a sigh. 

“How far is the next town?”

Star pulled the map out of her backpack to check.

“Let’s see … according to this, the next town is about another day’s walk from here.”

“STAR! I CAN’T WALK ANY FURTHER! I JUST WANT TO REST FOR A BIT.”

“So do I, Rock, so do I …. Wait, we’re in luck! There is a rest stop just up head! With food and stuff!” Star suddenly said excitedly. She folded the map, put it back in the bag, and peered over the horizon.

Her eyes strained as she struggled to make out a distance smear of black, but as they got closer, she could make out a wooden building with a faded sign out front that said “Uncle Jack’s Bed n’ Breakfast. (plus Lunch and Dinner too!)”

“Food’s back on the menu, Star!” Rock said, saliva already starting to drip from his mouth.

“Yeah but ….” Star kept the rest of the words to herself. As they were walking closer to the establishment, it looked as though the building was falling apart. There were cracks in the brick, and some of the wooden parts were falling off or were simply gone. 

“Man, this place is dump huh,” Rock said after a while.

“Does it look like we have a choice? You were the one that wanted to eat!”

“That’s true. Alright, let’s go in. I’m starving.”

Star gingerly opened the creaky old wooden door and a wave of dust and dank rushed out. She peered inside and saw a dimly lit large room that had a few tables with chairs strew across the room, an kitchen on the far right side of the room, a few windows that were dirty and only let in a little bit of light. The walls of the room, which seemed to be the reception/feeding area of the inn, were made out of dark oak planks, as was the flooring. There were paintings on the walls of various kings and nobles, and on the far left side of the room was a staircase leading up to the upper floors. When Star looked to her left, she was startled by a reception desk where a ginger boy with freckles was currently staring at the both of them, mouth agape.

He closed his mouth, shook his head, and began to speak. 

“Um, ahem, alright, uh, let’s see here,” he stammered. The boy closed the dusty old yellowed book he was reading and got up, brushing the dust off his clothes. He was wearing a white apron, a chef’s hat, and an orange shirt plus khaki slacks. 

“Are you here to check into Uncle’s Jack Bed n’ Breakfast?” He began nervously. “We serve lunch and dinner too you know. I can even make you some snacks … ?”

Rock slammed his palms on the boy’s desk and began talking excitedly: “Oh please, make us some damn eggs, sunny side up, and french toast. When was the last time I had french toast? With maple syrup, and maybe some bacon and sausages too while you’re at it?” 

The boy blinked, and then shrugged and said: “Sure, but that will cost you 10 rubles.”

“Oh sure, sure, we can pay. Star! Take out some money from your purse and pay this kid.”

Star sighed “Yeah, yeah sure. Give me a sec. Are you Uncle Jack by any chance?” She asked while fumbling around in her backpack.

The boy grimaced and said wearily: “No, that was my grandfather. I’m the only one still running this inn, sadly.”

Star’s face got a bit red as she looked embarrassed. “I … I’m so sorry, I didn’t know,” she stammered as she took the money out of her bag and placed it onto the desk.

The boy sighed. “It’s fine. You had no idea either way.” 

“My name’s not Jack, by the way,” he added as he took the money and put it in the register. “It’s Alex.”

Alex walked over to the kitchen and called out: “You wanted sunny side up eggs, french toast, bacon, and sausage right?”

“Yes please!” Rock said.

“You should really stop being so over-excited for food. It’s unbecoming.” Star said as they walked over and took a seat at the table right next to the kitchen. Since the kitchen was an open concept one, they could see Alex cooking up a meal. He took the eggs out of the fridge, cracked them with a spoon, and dropped the contents onto the oiled up pan. They fell and made a satisfying sizzle. He reached up to the cabinets and took up some spices, which he sprinkled over the eggs. While the eggs were cooking, he put on some of the bacon and sausage on one of the pans to start frying, as well as some french toast. The smell of the kitchen wafted over to the table Star and Rock was sitting at, and even Star felt her appetite rev up.

As soon as Alex served them their meals, they both began to dig in. Rock went full animal and was eating so fast that pieces of the food were all over his face, while Star elegantly cut the food up with a knife and fork, and then stuffed her mouth with the morsel and swallowed. Star was nobility after all, and royalty did not eat like bores.

“You know Star -” Rock said with his mouth full. He stopped, took a swig of water to swallow, and then continued. “Do you want to stay here for a while? My feet are tired from walking so much, and I dunno when the next rest stop is even going to come….”

Alex’s ears perked up. “Oh yes, in fact, just for you, I’ll offer a special discount. You can stay tonight for just 50 rubles,” he said hopefully.

Star considered this while a finger on her left cheek. “Just 50 rubles huh. I wonder if we can make that work ….”

“Come on, Star! Think about it! Soft beds! We wouldn’t have to sleep on rocks anymore.”

“Rock, you’re a troll. You are literally made out of rock.”

“Doesn’t mean I haven’t acquired a taste for the finer things in life since I began traveling with you, my sweet princess.”

Star rolled her eyes. “Ugh, I told you not to call me that. I’m just Star to you, alright?”

“D-doesn’ matter to me, anyway,” stuttered Alex. “Do you want to room for tonight?”

Star paused then shrugged. “Eh. Why not? We’ll just make up the money by monster hunting later. ‘Tis no big deal.”

***

Rock stared at the ceiling. It had orange stains on it, and lots of little dots. For some reason he couldn’t sleep right now, so he had begun trying to count all of the dots. It was an arduous process, but he was able to get up to five hundred before he gave up. Rock and Star were sleeping in the same bed, which, even though it felt like it hadn’t been washed in forty years, still felt much better than sleeping on the cold hard ground. He had erected a pillow wall between both of them. Originally that was Star’s idea, as she didn’t like the idea of sleeping with a guy very much, but Rock eventually started doing it because it turned out that Star liked to toss and turn a lot in her sleep. To prevent waking up with bruises in the morning, it was best to divide the beds into two halves.

Rock looked over at Star, who was currently in her nightgown and slept in a position that could only be called a reverse swastika. Her face looked quite peaceful, a far cry from the first days of their travels where she was stressed every night. Now Rock was the one who stayed up worrying while Star slept like a baby.

“Ugh, I can’t take this anymore.”

He got up, and, being careful not to disturb Star, opened the door to walk outside.

***

The hallway for the third floor was quite long. Alex had explained to them earlier that the inn used to be quite popular, back when the Augatrainian Empire still ruled this area and the road that Rock and Star were currently traveling on was still in use. As such, the inn had been expanded to be able to fit, at one point, thirty people at once.

Rock was planning on leaving the inn to go on a walk around the area when he noticed that he had been walking for an exceptionally long time and still hadn’t hit the staircase yet. Rock looked up and noticed that the staircase was still just as far from him as it was a minute ago.

“Huh.”

The more he walked, the more it seemed that he hadn’t moved a bit. 

This freaked him out a bit, so he began running. 

Still, he was stuck in the same place. 

Rock tried to do something different by running back to his room, but that was also too far. In desperation, he opened one of the doors and ran inside, only to end up back in the hall.

“What in the nine hells?”

***

Star was sleeping soundly in her bed.

Well, as soundly as Star could sleep anyways. Since Rock left, her body had expanded all over the bed, demolishing the formerly-inhibiting Great Wall of Pillows.and was closing in on the only free territory left on the bed, which was ruled by a quite old kingdom of bed ticks who, for the first time in 40 years, had to contend to a threat to their rule. This political instability led to sparks of revolution, and when the wooden floor suddenly sprouted arms and grabbed Star’s legs and arms, forcing her to wake up, the bed ticks were currently undergoing a political revolution that would eventually lead to the royalty being all beheaded and a democratic republic being instituted.

While the freshly elected democratic leader of the bed tick republic started slowly gaining more and more power, Star was trying to wrestle out of the wooden arms that had grabbed her.

“What in the name of ….”

Star attempted to struggle against the arms that were grabbing her, but to no avail. The wood started growing on her, in an attempt to try to reclaim the girl. She tried to resist some more, but then suddenly stopped. 

Star closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She held it for a bit, and then slowly let it out, making sure that the breath was reaching all parts of her body. She did this a few more times until she became acutely aware of every single part of her body moving and breathing as one. 

As her body became under her mind’s control, she then started to try to chill her body. The breaths became deeper now, stronger. With each breath she was letting out, she was giving away more and more heat, and soon the effects of the technique became clear.

Star used her mindfulness to make the area around her suddenly much colder, and, before either the bed bugs or the wooden arms had any time to react, they became frozen as the room became colder than ice. She snapped off the wooden arms off her body, and got up from her bed.

“Well, that was interesting. Didn’t expect to be attacked in my own room.”

She quickly threw her clothes back on, grabbed her backpack, and stepped outside the room before the wooden arms had any time to react.

***

Rock was having the time of his life, if by time you mean what may have been his last time alive.

The floor had suddenly sprouted arms and had tried to grab him, but he was able to dodge just in time. However, another arm was going to grab him when an icicle suddenly shot through it just in the nick of time. He turned around to see Star, who telekinectically took the icicle out and flew it back into her hand. 

“Kept you waiting, huh?”

“Yeah sure, whatever, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?”

“Look, I have no idea. I was having my beauty sleep interrupted by this weird stuff, and I’m quite cranky. But first, we need to figure out what’s happening. If you can keep the arms from grabbing me, I can try to figure out what’s the issue.”

“Protect the girl. Got it.”

Star placed her hands on the ground, closed her eyes, and concentrated. Rock, meanwhile, assumed a fighting stance and let the mana around him fill his body with strength. 

“Alright! You want a fight, let’s have it!”

Rock punched and kicked the arms that tried to grab them as Star used her magic to get a feel of the entire inn. Suddenly, her eyes snapped open.

“OH MY GOD, IT GOT ALEX!”

“WHAT?”

“Okay, so this weird monster infestation? It’s stemming from Alex’s room! We have to go and stop it there!”

“Uh, ok, where is it?”

“It’s … in the basement.”

“THERE’S A BASEMENT?”

“APPARENTLY!”

“Well alright, in that case, step back.”

Rock jumped, and then kicked the ground, hitting the ground floor, and then kicked the ground again, hitting the basement. Star jumped in through the wreckage before the inn had a chance to heal. 

In the basement, they saw in the center Alex covered in branches and roots, slowing getting the life drained out of him. Alex quickly punched the shit out of the wooden … thing and then grabbed Alex out of it. Star shook him awake.

“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!” Rock yelling in his face, getting bits of acidic saliva all over Alex.

“Uh, uh … I’M SO SORRY PLEASE FORGIVE ME!” Alex said frighteningly.

“What do you mean?” 

“Ok, so, I may have bought a magic charm off of a shady merchant who came in here a week ago. He said if I used it on this house, it would bring more customers. Buisness has been so slow you see, but I don’t want to give the inn up! It’s the only home I’ve ever had!”

“SO YOU USED A CURSED CHARM?” Star suddenly exclaimed.

“Star, do you know what it is? You’re the resident witch.”

“Yes, I do. They are charms made out of the dead bodies of fairies that prey upon the negative desires of the person that uses it. But in order for the charm to have taken over the inn entirely there would have to have been very strong desires indeed.”

Star and Rock both looked at Alex.

“I … I just don’t want to give this place up. I know that business is slow, but it’s all I have. I don’t want to leave!”

Star sighed, and then gave Alex a hug.

“Look, I know that leaving your home is scary, and stepping out of your comfort zone may not seem possible for you right now, but you can’t spend the rest of you life rotting away in this place. You'd be too good of a cook to live here in this inn. Tell you what, you can come with us to Foxtown, and maybe you can get a job in a pub there. How does that sound?”

Alex burst into a bunch of tears. “F-fine.”

Rock ripped out of the wooden structure an obsidian dodecahedron with runic writing out of it. 

“Is this the charm?”

“Yes! But only Alex can destroy it.”

Rock placed the charm in Alex’s hands.

“Come on dude, you have to let go. You can’t stay here forever, and you know that.”

Alex sighed, wipes his tears, and then crushed the charm with his bare hands.

“Oh no, the structure around is falling apart, let’s run before we get buried.”

Rock kicked a hole in the roof, and they began running from the inn as it collapsed. When they looked back, the inn had caught on fire and all they could do was stand here and watch. When the sun came up, all that was left was ashes.

Alex just sat there and cried.

Eventually, Rock put a hand on his shoulder and helped pick him up.

“Let’s go man. Foxtown is only a day’s walk from here.’