The sun had begun melting behind the horizon, saturating the sky in orange by the time Hugo saw me limping up the road. Relief flashed across his face but faded just as quick. Eyes wide, he shouted to me as he ran closer, brandishing a crude knife. "Altairis! Behind you!" Hugo squealed, frantically waving his blade at the space right behind my left shoulder where Lanugo hung in the air.

"No! Stop, Hugo!" I demanded as I grabbed his frail wrist, forcing the weapon to drop from his hand. "It's alright. His name is Lanugo, he's a friend." I explained with a tired, shaking voice.

Hugo didn't bother to hide his disbelief, and took a second to eye the fluffy cow-printed demon floating behind me before nodding. "Al-Alright." I let go of him. "If you say so, Altairis. It's just, you look like death and I know sanguini's like blood something awful. . ." he replied, his eyes wandering over to Lanugo once more.

"Y-Yeah, it's fine. . . Just. . ." I was consumed by exhaustion, and couldn't stop from sagging forward, the world tumbling all around me as I did.

Hugo caught me and quickly wrapped my arm around his neck for balance, then snaked his other hand around the small of my back, accidentally pressing hard against one of my broken ribs. I hissed in pain, but he didn't flinch away like I'd expected him to and instead kept his grip on me firm and sure.

"What happened to you? Didn't I tell you to be careful?" he asked as we made our way into the town proper, Lanugo keeping close to me. "Erinn's been in a state all day, you know."

I took my time explaining all that had happened since he had seen me leaving last night. I omitted parts here and there, partly because I didn't have much energy left for talking and partly because I didn't need anyone thinking I was a ghost seeing loony.

"Now that you mention it, a woman came barging through town just a while ago and dashed into the inn." Hugo replied after listening to my tale.

"Older, buxom woman with silver blue hair?" I wheezed.

Hugo looked away from me as he blushed. "She was, uh, quite attractive, actually, but the expression on her face was absolutely terrifying."

I tried to laugh, but it turned rough and awkward in my pain, never making it past my lips. "You think that's scary, you should have seen her skinning the beast I felled. She's a lot more than a pretty face." I winced, it hurt to talk so much. ". . .Hey, take me to the Inn, will you?" I asked with what I hoped was more smile than grimace.

"Of course!" he exclaimed, trying his best to pick up the pace without aggravating my injuries. "Erinn will help get you sorted, don't worry." he assured me, the quavering in his own voice betraying his worry.

As Hugo helped me towards the inn, we passed by Yvette and the young boy from the other day having a highly animated conversation. Noticing us, Yvette's expression turned from girlish delight to utter shock, and the two of them raced to our side. Their mouths were moving, but I couldn't focus enough through the settling haze of pain to understand what either were saying. I could only feel Hugo's voice rumble deep in his chest in reply, and through heavy lids, I saw the children scatter.

Soon it became too hard to keep lifting my feet, so Hugo practically drug me the rest of the way to the inn. Little to my surprise, as he opened the door, Patty was already there. She stood in the middle of the front room, cleaner than I had seen her before; her shiny, long hair was neatly combed and tied together close to the nape of her neck with a thick black ribbon, and while she couldn't have had the time to bathe, she had significantly less grime on her hands and arms. Her sharp eyes were scanning the inn's details while Erinn was in front of her desk, hands gripping the front of her spotless apron in worry, with a face to match.

The two of them must have been in the middle of some discussion, but I could hardly hear their voices. I was too weak and hungry for sleep, too distracted by the enticing warmth of the fireplace and siren song of dreams to even care. Then I felt Hugo's chest rumble again, saying something to get the other's attention. As both faces turned toward me, I finally lost my will to fight the coziness of the inn any longer, and everything went black.

I woke to the pleasingly soft sound of Lanugo snoring, and the sweet smell of tiger lilies tickling my nostrils. The bright orange flowers sat on a small table across from where I laid freshly bandaged, and through the window behind it I could see that night had come in full while I slept. I knew it couldn't have been long however, as I still felt each pain as acutely as before. Not daring to sit up just yet with my ribs in shambles the way they were, I took shallow breaths and tried to will myself back to sleep. That's when I realized I wasn't alone.

"So when Dad was in Stornway, people used to call him the 'Inncredible Inntertainer'?" I heard Erinn say, her voice soft, confused.

"You better believe it, honey! He was the best of the best! He was only a young guy back then, but he set up his own inn from scratch and totally put his rivals out of business!" Patty's utterly confident voice declared, with no small amount of pride.

"Goodness! I can't imagine him being like that." Erinn exclaimed. "He always seemed so unadventurous to me, and he said he was happy to run even the smallest of inns as long as we were together." she trailed off weakly, as though choked by memories that hadn't surfaced in a long time. I couldn't see her face, but I could imagine it pretty well; her bright eyes unfocused and distant, her lips parted ever so slightly in thought as her head drifted to one side. . . Whenever I had seen that sad expression, I'd hear this very same tone in her voice.

Patty charged forward with the conversation, either unwitting or uncaring how it was effecting Erinn. "Yeah, that's the funny thing. . . Why would a guy like Edwinn choose to ship out to a hick town like this?" she said with a light sigh before quickly moving on. "Well, I guess that's water under the bridge. The thing is, his old place in Stornway is in real trouble right now. We were all kinda hoping that the Inncredible Inntertainer would make a comeback and get things on track again. I just can't believe I didn't know he died two whole years ago. I mean, gee! I'm so sorry, honey." she finished, rather unconvincingly.

"Not at all. I'm just sorry that you came all this way for nothing." Erinn replied, stressing the last word ever so slightly.

I could practically hear the smile in Patty's voice. "Hey, no apology needed. I mean, I got to meet you instead, right? You're coming back with me to Stornway." she declared.

Something in my chest suddenly ached at the thought. Angel Falls without Erinn? Who did this woman think she was?

"Um. . . I'm afraid I don't think that's possible. I have my hands full with this place as it is." Erinn said, rushing to add, "And I just find it hard to believe that dad was some kind of legendary innkeeper."

Patty chuffed. "Hard to believe!? You can't argue with the facts, honey. And I can see you're a chip off the old block too. I've got a knack for seeing people's strengths, ya know."

I heard the sudden scrape of a chair, as if someone abruptly stood. "Oh dear. It's getting late and I really need to get started on supper. You'll have to excuse me." Erinn said, obviously uncomfortable with the direction of their conversation. As I heard the doorknob turn, she spoke again. "And please. . . I can't go to Stornway with you, so stop trying to talk me into it!" she shouted, tears staining her voice as the door shut equally loudly behind her.

It was disturbing to hear Erinn so upset. I couldn't understand why she was so affected either; if she didn't want to leave, all she had to say was no, right? I propped myself up onto my elbows, wincing at how the motion tugged at my wounds. That way I could see Patty as she stood at the door, one arm crossed around her waist, the other hand resting by her mouth and her distinct eyes half lidded in thought.

With a slight hiss, I twisted myself out from under the warm embrace of the covers, trying my best to not disturb Lanugo's rest. I was louder than I thought, as both Lanugo and Patty shifted their gaze my way in mild surprise. For his part, Lanugo didn't seem bothered, and bounded from the foot of the bed and landed in my arms, light as the head of a dandelion and twice as soft. I smiled, and shuffled stiffly into the inns entrance to greet Patty.

Her face shone in sudden recognition. "Hey. . . Yeah, I thought I recognized you. You're the dream team that helped me out back at the ruins. You look way worse than I remember!" she said, looking me over with a half smile. "But seriously, thanks again for that."

I wisely kept to myself how much I was starting to regret my decision.

Again, Patty crossed her arm and put her finger against her mouth in thought. ". . . You know, while you're in the helping mood, honey, you couldn't try to twist Erinn's arm for me, could you?" she said as innocently as a grown woman could. "I can't let that kind of talent go to waste. It'd be good for her too, you know?" she said as she gave me a practiced smile, steepling her fingers together underneath her chin. A portrait of girlish innocence, practically refined into weaponry.

All the same, such charms fell flat in my eyes. It wasn't hard to tell Patty was a single minded shark of a woman, interested only in getting what she's after and nothing more. And she's proven that she would use her looks, her connections, a young girls dead father, and the girl's injured friend to accomplish that. She was a far more fearsome individual than she would like others to believe. I. . . did not like her very much.

"I'll certainly go have a talk with her, don't you worry." I said quietly as I brushed past Patty and towards the door, Lanugo snuggly in my arms.

I heard a warm chuckle behind me as I left. "I never do, honey."

Scarcely a second after the door closed behind me, Ivor appeared, looking frazzled. "Hey, I saw Erinn trudging over to her house just a moment ago and she didn't look very happy. She was acting really odd, I said hello, but she didn't seem to hear me. What's going on?" he asked, clearly concerned. But before I could explain, his dark eyes grew wide as he reeled backwards and pointed a long, accusing finger at the furry bundle in my arms. "And just what in the Almighty's great bushy beard is that thing doing inside the town!?" he demanded nearly a whole octave higher.

I gave him a tremendous sigh. "Didn't Hugo come by to explain or anything?"

He shrugged rather nonchalantly. "Well sure he came by, but I didn't have the patience for whatever tosh he was going on about." he huffed. "What a crummy gatekeeper, letting in some airborne rodent like that. Who knows what kind of diseases it has." he said, squinting suspiciously at Lanugo's cheerful face.

"Well they let you into town so I wouldn't say the standards have dropped any." I quipped.

Ivor raised an eyebrow. "Wow, someone's got their sassy britches riding a little high today, don't they? You know, we do have rules about things like that," he said, pointing again at Lanugo, "for a reason. So explain yourself before I have you, Hugo and it thrown into the wilderness where you all belong."

I grumbled, too tired to bully my way past him, and had a seat on the inn's step as I begun to recount the story I had told Hugo earlier, this time with Ivor casting an uncharacteristically harsh gaze down on me the entire time. He'd probably hate to hear it, but he looked remarkably like his father at the time.

As I recounted my tale, I put emphasis onto how helpful and sweet Lanugo had been, how adorably he had watched over me every time I was incapacitated, how very noble he was for a monster. I expressed in no unsure terms that had I anyone I could trust and rely on to help me on this very grave favor for Erinn, then I probably wouldn't have taken so long or gotten so hurt, or run into Lanugo at all! But alas, I was just a lone minstrel doing what I thought was a favor for a friend, and was so desperate as to enlist the help of a monster on the way simply to survive.

All in all, I did my best to shame Ivor for not being there to help me help Erinn. It was unfair, I knew, since I could never drag someone into danger like that anyway, but if it helped him get off my back, I wasn't above exploiting his near hopeless feelings. I probably would have felt bad about such a tactic if it had actually worked.

"Stop." Ivor said, holding his hand up. "I see where you're going with this. You're terrible at telling stories, you know that? Absolutely no subtlety; you're an utterly rubbish minstrel."

A smile tugged at the corners of my mouth. "Yeah, I guess I can't argue with that. But can't you understand?" I said more seriously. "He's a sweet little guy, and he's had plenty of chances to try snacking on people and he hasn't so, don't go trying to toss us out, alright?"

Ivor huffed and turned his head, relenting. "Sure, sure, whatever. Just be sure to keep him out of sight before everyone starts to panic. You do not want my father finding out about that. . . thing. Oh and," he said, leaning in close with a sinister little grin, "if I catch that flying diseased cow anywhere near my neck, I'm punting it into the fireplace and using the ashes to deodorize our cat box, understand?"

I hugged Lanugo tight to my chest and leaned as far away from Ivor as I could. "Suuuure thing, friend. Uh, I think we're gonna go now. . ."

"Wait!" Ivor pleaded as he stepped back, dropping his threatening stance. "So, tell me what's going on with Erinn. It's about that Patty woman you rescued, yeah? What did she do?" he asked, his voice suddenly stony.

I explained what I had heard in the inn, and what Patty has asked me to do.

Ivor didn't take it well. "No way! That Patty woman's trying to recruit her? Surely Erinn wouldn't think of leaving here and going to live in Stornway!" he shouted, snapping his eyes around wildly as if looking for someone to agree with him and tell him how ridiculous the idea was.

I wished I could. I didn't want Erinn to leave, and least of all with a woman like Patty, but it wasn't going to be that simple. I rested a hand on Ivor's shoulder and tried my best to calm him down, but I couldn't bear to give him false hope. Instead, I excused myself and Lanugo, needing some time to think before I went to see Erinn. I. . . wasn't sure what I would say if she told me she really was thinking about leaving.

It shouldn't have bothered me so much, after all, I was planning on leaving eventually too. But the idea that at least she would still be here watching out for everyone, watching out for people like Ivor and Hugo and Yvette, made me feel at ease. Made me feel less guilty about focusing on my own worries.

Though I was careful to keep my distance lest someone go into shock over Lanugo, I still heard snippets of gossip here and there as I made my way around town. The whole place was abuzz with talk of the mysterious new visitor at the inn. I suppose it was much the same as when I first arrived, although the talk about me was how I'd managed to make such a scene and almost get myself killed, the rumors swirling around Patty were about her uncanny beauty and possible connections to Erinn's father. The things said weren't entirely mean spirited, but some were hardly fair either.

"Did you see that woman? Apparently she's some old 'friend' of Edwinn's. My imagination's running wild already!"

"That woman staying at the inn is a real beauty. Her name's Patty, apparently. Imagine marrying a woman like that! Hoohoo! I can hardly contain myself!"

"I can only assume she must be a friend of Edwinn's from his time in Stornway. He never did talk much about the nitty-gritty of his life there."

I wondered, could Erinn's father really have been involved with a woman like her? Even just as a friend or business partner? I didn't know the man, but the way people spoke of him made me imagine he was where Erinn got her gentleness and determination, and it was difficult to think of someone like that getting along with someone like Patty.

That was just it though, I didn't know Edwinn and I certainly didn't know Patty. I was just trying to convince myself Erinn wouldn't leave, rather pathetically. I knew that, and yet I still couldn't stop mulling it over in my mind like a selfish daydream.

"Hey!" I heard a youthful voice call out. I turned towards the sound to see the young boy Ivor and I had spoken to after we had gone to check the landslide. His bowl shaped hair had been trimmed since then, no longer covering his eyes in a curtain of brown strands. He didn't look upset with me like he had been when we last spoke, so I smiled and waved him over.

"Listen to this!" he demanded as he approached, his tiny hands balled into eager little fists at his side. "I saw you with something totally weird!" he accused.

I looked down at Lanugo and stammered. "A-ah, this is just a, uh, a stuffed t-toy! Nothing strange about that!" I assured him.

"Huh?" the little boy tilted his head in confusion, only then noticing the teeny sanguini in my arms. "Oh, cute!" he cried as he squeezed Lanugo's large, bat-like ears between his hands. "Ahahaha! It feels so real!" he said, beaming up at me.

To his credit, Lanugo didn't budge an inch, and calmly allowed the young boy to dig his hands into his fur, tug on his wings, and push against his teeny nose without complaint.

"Hey, I'm glad you like my, ah, toy, but it's getting late, so you should probably run on home now, right?" I asked, hoping to rescue my furry friend without incident.

The boy looked around, realizing how dark it had gotten. "Oh! yeah, I guess so. Oh, but what about the pink light you had earlier? I really wanna see it again!" he said, determined.

I furrowed my brow in thought. "Pink light? I'm afraid I don't know what you mean."

He frowned. "A strange ball of light was flying around after you when Hugo brought you to the inn. I said something about it, but he said you needed rest so I waited till you were awake to ask you to show it to me. So please?" he pleaded in earnest, clearly unaware I had no clue what he was talking about.

I hadn't noticed anything like that, though I wasn't exactly in the right state to either. All the same, I was unhappy to let him down for a second time. "I'm sorry, but that light didn't belong to me. But maybe you'll see it again tomorrow night. You should go home and eat a big meal and get a lot of sleep so you'll be ready for it, right?" I said, attempting to soften the blow.

He instantly perked up in the way only children can truly manage and nodded vigorously as his eyes lit up like stars. "Right! And, and, I'll drink all of my milk tonight and eat all of my carrots even though they're evil, so nothing will get past me!" he declared before running off, ostensibly to be the perfect child. For a night, at least.

Confused and absolutely worn out, I began making my way back home, unable to avoid Erinn's answer much longer. I stopped at the center island and knelt down with a grimace. Lanugo gleefully hopped out of my arms and fluttered around the heavy spray at the foot of the fall as I dipped my hands into the river and began to drink. Once I had my fill, I leaned back on my hands and stretched my feet forward, watching my little winged friend have the time of his life dipping in and out of the water. I knew I should keep him on a shorter leash, but nearly everyone had turned in for the night and it was hard to resist letting him have his fun.

With a deflating sigh, I fell backward and laid out underneath the stars. They lit the night up in a wall of fire bright enough not to be outdone by the moon, and it comforted me. After all, they were the womb my people sprung from, and they were where I would return to at the end of all things. I hoped so, at least. Closing my eyes, I listened to the sounds of the night enveloping me; the roar of the waterfall, the low continuous chirping of insects, the gentle shift in the trees as the wind swept over the town. . . It was a very different place from the Observatory, so why couldn't I shake this feeling of nostalgia?

Wiping one exhausted tear from my face, I slowly sat up through clenched teeth and saw Lanugo paddling towards the edge of the little island. He was completely soaked, his fur hanging about him in long matted clumps like cow-print seaweed. "Oh, yikes. Come here you silly little thing." I chuckled, lifting him out of the water. Dejected that I refused to carry his soggy, spongy body, Lanugo was forced to waddle along the ground after me, too heavy to fly.

It didn't take long to reach Erinn's from there, though I kept my pace slow and deliberate for both mine and Lanugo's sake. What I saw when I got there however, stopped me cold.

There was a ghost. A very familiar one, in fact, staring at the front door, his incorporeal back turned to me. "You." I seethed.

"Waaah! Y-you g-gave me a fright!" He exclaimed as he clamored and spun around to face me. "D-Don't do that again, will you?" he asked, one hand clutching his chest, where his heart used to be.

"Just what do you think you're doing creeping around people's houses, hm?" I asked, impatiently tapping one foot as I scowled at the man.

He opened his mouth to defend himself, but cut his excuses short. "W-wait a minute! You can see me!? But I'm dead!" he yelled, looking at me with horror, as if I were the strange one.

"Yes, I know." I said, hands on my hips. "It's a thing I can do, and this isn't even the first time we've met, or don't you remember tricking me into opening up a certain enormous beast infested dungeon, huh?"

The ghost composed himself and smiled apologetically. "I had a feeling that you saw me back at the Hexagon too. That's quite a strange talent you've got there. Ah, sorry, I haven't introduced myself, have I? I'm Erinn's father, Edwinn." he said, extending his hand out in greeting, only to awkwardly pull it back as he remembered he couldn't touch anything.

"E-edwinn?" I whispered. No wonder he looked familiar the first time I had seen him, it was hard to tell with his features shifting under the moonlight so readily, but it was there in his face that I could see her clearly. Erinn's nose, her chin, her cheekbones; they had all belonged to him first. "What. . . are you doing here?" I managed to say.

He reached a hand behind his neck and lowered his head "I fell ill two years ago and died suddenly. But as you can see," he said, gesturing to himself, "I still haven't managed to leave this mortal realm entirely. And you are?"

"Oh, right, how impolite of me. I am Altairis." I said with a slight bow as I tried my best to seem far more dignified than I currently looked.

"Ah, Altairis. . ? . . .Really? R-Really?" he began to stammer as worry washed over his features. "B-But. . . Altairis. . . Isn't that. . ? Aren't you the village Guardian?" he asked, as if it were the most impossible thing in the world.

I opened my mouth to answer him, but I was interrupted by a painfully shrill noise piercing the night. "Hey! Hang on a minute!"

The noise was sudden and remarkably loud, but I couldn't identify the source. Not until I looked up towards the sky and saw a curious bright pink light come crashing down towards me like a miniature comet and collide directly with my upturned face.

"Ouch!" we griped in tandem as the light hit me and recoiled back into empty space. The impact caused whatever veil that was in place to fade away and left something quite interesting behind.

She looked like a young woman; thin, with tanned skin and a thick head of golden blonde hair that was adorned with a vividly pink carnation nearly the size of her face. She had on a dress far more cosmopolitan than what the girls of Angel Falls would wear; a tight, loudly colored orange and yellow thing that laced up the front, with a matching pair of shorts that peeked out underneath the hem. Her legs were covered with delicate black stockings that rose to her thighs and at her feet were a pair of shiny matching pumps. Looped around her neck were many strands of brightly colored beads and from her back sprouted a pair of shimmering pink wings - dainty as the petals of a flower. Most curious of all though was her body; she had the proportions of a young adult, just shrunk down to a third of the size. In all my studying, I had never seen anything quite like her.

"Oi! watch where you're flapping standing! I may be skinny as a rake, but I still need a bit of room for maneuvers!" she shrieked, narrowing her gold-flecked eyes in my direction.

Before I could find my voice again, she interrupted, one tiny hand resting on her hip in annoyance. "Never mind, I forgive you. Now, old man!" she said, suddenly shouting as she rounded on poor Edwinn. "What was that rubbish you were just sprouting?"

The ghost looked positively bewildered "I, er. . . I'm not sure what you mean."

The girl rolled her eyes with such force and drama her whole body moved with the motion. "You were on about Celestrians, right? I wondered the same thing at first, but this mess of a minstrel hardly foots the bill." she replied, gesturing towards me.

"Hey! I don't usually look this rough!" I argued, though ultimately ignored.

"I don't see a halo, do you?" the obnoxious twerp said as she floated above my head. "And I don't see any wings either." she continued as she buzzed around behind my back. "Bit odd for a Celestrian that, wouldn't you say?"

Edwinn looked at me in all of my bandaged and broken glory and frowned "I suppose you're right. . .Though, while we're on the subject of odd, who and what are you?" he asked.

She snorted as she laughed, hands on her hips in defiance. "Ha! Wouldn't you like to know?" she asked raising an eyebrow in our direction.

We stared back at her in silence.

". . .Yes, I suppose you would." she chuckled to herself. "Then I'd better introduce myself."

With a silly little twirl in the air, she rested her chin on the backs of her hands, large eyes glittering in our direction and kicked one foot up in a flourish as she gave us an exaggerated wink. "I am supreme, stupendous Stella, stunning skipper of the sky-soaring Starflight Express! Ta daa!" she said in an over the top voice, throwing her hands into the air, absolutely beaming with pride.

She was met with only the monotonous din of cicadas filling the night as Edwinn and I stared blankly at her.

My mind was reeling. She couldn't have. Did. . . did she really just mention the Starflight?