Chapter 7 - Getting down to business

I was sitting on the windowsill on the outside of the window, pondering my current situation. As much as I was excited to get out and explore, there was a minor problem: I was on the second floor! The building closest to the window, on my left, had a narrow roofed veranda running the length of that side of the courtyard. From there I would hopefully be able to jump over to the tree I had seen earlier, as it grew close enough to the veranda that one of its branches had grown out over the roof.

The problem was getting over to the roof in the first place, as it was too far away to reach from my perch by the window. There was some sort of timber beam that jutted out slightly from the wall, but it was aligned vertically, with the short side up, meaning I’d have precious little space to land on when jumping over to it. The ground along the inn wall was paved with some sort of loose stones, and the beam was high up on the wall. I would almost certainly hurt myself if I fell from there...

I shook my head and tried to focus. ’It’s not like a better way is going to materialize out of nowhere,’ I thought, sighing, ‘Might as well get it over with, I should at least be able to call out to Emma if I manage to hurt myself.’

I positioned myself on the short bit of windowsill that jutted out past the wall, aimed carefully at the thin beam, and jumped. As I flew through the air, I realized that I had misjudged the distance, falling slightly short. Stretching myself as far as I could, I managed to get my forepaws on top of the beam and quickly extended my claws. My back legs barely managed to do the same on the bottom of the beam and I scrabbled fiercely to get up. After a short moment, I managed to get myself on top of the beam and quickly jumped over to the roof before I could lose my balance on the thin surface.

I landed on the dark ceramic tiles of the roof, breathing heavily from the exertion and stress, and decided to take a moment to calm myself down. From my new vantage point, I had a better view of the inn, so I took the time to study the exterior wall of my new home.

The moon sat high on a cloudless and star-filled sky, providing ample light for my eyes to see with. The wall of the inn was made out of a smooth light grey stone, and I could only barely see the seams of bricks if I focused on the spot of wall nearest to me. Set into the wall along the bottom of each of the three floors there were thick and dark wooden beams of the same make as the one I had used to reach the roof. Interspersed evenly between the beams on the second and third levels were the beams that jutted out, like the one I had used to get to the roof. Windows were set evenly along the walls on all the floors, though slightly smaller and spaced further apart than what you would see on a modern building. Further along the wall, on the bottom floor, was a door with a stone path winding from it to the well in the middle of the courtyard.

Turning my eyes out to the rest of the courtyard I noticed that while there was enough light to see, my vision became blurred further out, making it hard to discern anything at all in the furthest reaches of the courtyard. Where my vision failed though, my hearing and sense of smell made up for it, picking up a multitude of interesting sounds and scents.

The cool night air was much more humid than the inside, carrying with it hundreds of different smells, which were hard to parse apart. Grass, dirt and general “nature” smells were pretty dominant, but there were also many smells of a more man-made nature: smoke from fires, hints of sewage as well as that sharp chemical smell I had smelled from the glass vials I had accidentally broken before.

My ears were flicking back and forth, trying to track the sounds coming from the courtyard as well as from the sky above. Sounds of what sounded like crickets came from the courtyard, while from above the intermittent shrills of some sort of bird filtered down whenever one of them passed by.

Having calmed down, I walked along the narrow roof to where the branches hung over it. The lowest parts of the branches were low enough that the leaves brushed against the roof, making the area under the branch look a bit like a leaf igloo, though one without an entrance. An odd sensation came from my whiskers as I started pushing through the leaves, it was as if I could see the leaves surrounding my head, and I felt a slight pressure from my instincts, warning me not to go further in. Frowning, I moved back and felt the sensation disappear. I tried again to move in between the leaves, pushing past the resistance and found that it was easy enough to ignore if I was prepared for it.

The odd synesthetic sensation of “seeing” with my whiskers came back as I pushed past the leaves, giving me an idea of what was around my head, even if I couldn’t see it. I experimented a bit by twisting my head back and forth, and found that there were whiskers all around my face, enabling me to “see”. While it wasn’t far, it gave me a very good idea of what was around my head, almost like a 3d map.

Having pushed past the leaves, I turned my attention upwards to see if I could find a way onto the tree. The structure of the tree was very horizontal in nature, with most of its branches stretching far along the ground before splitting up into smaller branches and twigs. One such far-reaching branch was the main culprit for the part covering the roof, hanging well within reach. The branch bowed slightly from my weight as I jumped onto it, but otherwise held strong. From there, it was a quick walk down the branch to the trunk and then a couple of easy jumps to get to the lowest branches of the tree.

Using the trunk as support, I managed the longer jump to the ground easily. As I landed, several crickets scattered away from me and I had to quickly quell my hunting instincts again. I was interested in trying out my Skills on the bugs, but I wanted to try something else first. Turning back to the tree I studied the distance up to the first branch.

‘I hope this works, otherwise it’s going to be some work to get back up,’ I mused.

Focusing inwards on my Skills, I activated Aided Climbing. Immediately the claws on all four of my feet were suffused with energy, the same energy as when I had used Claw Swipe before. I checked my status and noted that the regeneration for Stamina had changed to “Falling, slow”. Not wasting any time standing around, I focused on the task of climbing back up the tree. In addition to giving me a much better grip with my claws, the Skill also gave me a slight idea of how to use it, guiding me on how to move my limbs in order to more effectively ascend the trunk of the tree.

I kept the Skill going as I jumped back up to the branch hanging over the roof. Interestingly, the guiding part of the Skill did not stop working even as I walked along the mostly horizontal branch back to where I had jumped up. The information I got from it was a lot less useful, as it mostly pertained to how I could more effectively keep my grip. It did let me reach the end of the branch slightly quicker, though it was probably not worth it unless I was in a hurry.

‘Hm, I wonder how well it works going down?’ I wondered. A quick glance at my status told me I had a “Medium” amount of Stamina left. ‘Might as well try, then,’ I decided.

It seemed that going down counted as “climbing”, as I got about as much information now as when I was going up. My claws were less useful, since using them to pull myself along was less productive when descending the tree, but the intuitive part of the Skill made up for it by helping me judge distances more easily as well as making it easier to stabilize myself when I landed.

‘I should have used this Skill from the start, that beam would have been much less trouble,’ I mused, ‘Well, now I know how it works at least.’

Satisfied with my progress, I studied the courtyard. 'Now I just need to find a way out of here…’