Dashyl's Quest

From the position of the moons, Dashyl could tell dawn was near, they had to be quick, the curics often woke at sunrise to begin their day. The night watch was asleep, just as Fretly had said she would be. They tiptoed past her and crept quietly into the main hallway. Other smaller hallways that must lead to recovery rooms like theirs branched off the main hallway at regular intervals. There must be so many rooms, Dashyl thought.

The main hallway ended at a pair of wooden swinging doors. “The kitchen is through here,” Fretly said as he entered the doors. As Dashyl entered, he noticed Fretly opening a cabinet at the far end of the large kitchen. You could feed an army with this kitchen, Dashyl imagined.

Fretly returned with two sacks full of something. “I stashed this food for us. This will last us long enough to find other stuff to eat, I hope.”

Dashyl took the sack of food and put it in his backpack. Fretly did the same, cinched his straps tight and said, “Ok, this is it. We’ll head to the laundry room where we should be able to get out. Once we’re outside, run to the nearest cover: trees, other buildings, whatever.”

The two made their way through the room where Fretly had found Kilkarak’s journal. Fretly was right, there were drawers built into the walls from floor to ceiling with locks. Some were overflowing with paper and parchment. Four wooden writing desks sat among the rows of drawers. Eventually the drawers gave way to bookshelves with ladders leaning against them so the curics could reach the topmost level of dusty, old tomes.

Fretly stopped at a single swinging door. “This leads to the laundry. I haven’t been past here, I’ve only peaked through and I’ve seen piles of clothes. Let’s go.”

Indeed, the room was where the curics did their laundry. Just as Fretly said, the room was like a patio, almost, with the far end open to the outdoors. They crept close to opening, crouched low and scanned the horizon. The moons had set and it was dark.

Fretly pointed to a cluster of trees. “I think we can run to that one pretty quick and then get a sense of where to go from there.”

“Right,” Dashyl said, tense.

“What are you two doing,” called out a voice behind them. “I come in here to start boiling water and I find you two creeping around.”

The two glanced over their shoulders to see the night watch wagging her finger at them with one hand and holding the swinging door open with the other.

“Run!” Fretly shouted. And run Dashyl did.