Just Another Day

They continued the rest of the way in silence. Inside the cave were many towers with rounded tops. Each was three levels tall and had a staircase winding around the outside of it. Large windows were cut into the sides where the staircase didn't wrap. Even with the steps there would be one wooden door per level braced with iron trappings. Torches were spaced apart on the railings to provide a warm, dim light. Shanku wondered how much hassle it was to maintain those torches.

Deep in the cave, close to the back, Rin finally began to lead Shanku up one of the towers. All the windows on this tower had bars on the window. At the top, Rin unlocked the heavy wooden door and pushed it open with a low creak. Rin shoved her inside uncermoniously.

"Make yourself at home. You'll be here a long time," he said stuffily. "An attendant will be along shortly to bring your supper."

He closed the door behind him as he left and Shanku could hear the grinding and metallic click as the key was turned in the lock. Aside from the light of the torches coming through the barred windows, it was dark inside.

Hope de 'tendant brings some light too. Shanku grumpily looked around. There were solid ledges or tables before each window that curved with the walls and the tiles in the room. One had a mat on top of it and a small straw pillow. Assuming it to be the closest thing to a bed she would get, she sat down on the edge of it and drew her knees to her chest with her wings resting over the side. There wasn't much of a view. The next two rows of towers before her looked to also have bars on the windows. Some looked to be occupied, most seemed vacant.

After some time, the sounds of a she-kurach talking with Rin came from outside her door. The lock turned and in stepped the attendant. She had grey fur and a dark mane. Her wings were a deep brown and black. Shanku kept quiet and continued to stare out the window. The attendant also kept quiet. She put down a plate of food and an oil lamp on a table by the other window. The light revealed there to be a water barrel between the bed and supper table, and a shelf as well holding shallow bowls, spoons, and cups. The attendant filled one of the cups with water, set it on the table, and promptly left.

Shanku looked over at the plate the attendant had left. A bit of bread, some dried meat, and hard cheese. Shanku's stomach growled loudly and she didn't mind how tough the meal was. She remembered tales Doctor Newbury had told her of those starving that accidentally killed themselves by eating too heavily and too hastily when they had food again. With great difficulty, Shanku restrained herself to nibbling at one thing for a long time until it was finished with ample drinks of water inbetween.

After having her greatest test of patience, she looked around the rest of them room. It was a plain, soft grey, as the rest of the tower. The floor and ceiling were a reddish color. The walls were cut from large blocks of stone easily a foot thick and three feet wide. The tiles she presumed would be even thicker and were about a foot wide. Aside from the bed, table, and cutlery, the only other item in the room was a chest on the other side of the table. Naturally, it was locked.

Shanku shook her head and stretched out on the bed with her wings cupped to her sides. She must now wait in this room of stone and iron to see who or what this "escort" will be, and how long she would have to be held prisoner of the Highland kurach.