Chapter 5

The sky was painted with beautiful swirls of orange, magenta and blue. Streetlamps have already been lit, and many people were retreating to the comfort of their homes for the evening. Firesword, Dizbob and 4I Falcon paced down the streets of the town (named Tweed, according to a signpost they had passed earlier on) in search of a place to stay for the night.
Tweed had seemed a much, much more advanced town then Rapulum. There were many businesses, permanent settlements, and the like around, and the street was filled with passing cars* (though the number of cars was not a very large one). After walking a fair distance, Dizbob and his group had reached a building, which appeared to be a hotel.
“This seems like a good enough place to stay,” Firesword entered the building and signaled the others to follow him.
The manager was a wealthy looking rabbit. He had gray fur, and was rather short in appearance. His voice resembled that of the voice of snobby, rich businessmen caring only for themselves and only wishing to further increase their fortunes. Firesword had bought Dizbob, 4I and himself separate rooms for the night. 4I Falcon seemed to be extremely grateful for this, as it has been a long time since he had slept in a proper bed.
The hotel itself was in fair condition. It seemed to be cleaned regularly, and most the graffiti on the walls had been brushed out (although a few out of the way places have been missed). The hotel didn’t shine with quality and perfection, but nor was it broken down or rat infested in any way. Firesword had suggested that they should sleep early tonight, as they will be waking up quite early next morning. Thus, as it was already pitch black outside, they all went to rest.

Solomon Blacksirthe slithered through the bushes surrounding the hotel. Through an informant he had been told Dizbob would stay in this town overnight, and he had been tracking them ever since they entered the town. Now, as he was sure by now that they were fully asleep, he decided to make his move. He entered the hotel as casually as he could, and the manager looked up at him.
“I’m here to visit a friend, he told me he would be staying here overnight, his name is Firesword I believe…Do you happen to know where he is?”
“I’m sorry sir, but I’m not permitted to disclose that information unless the proper identification is given.”
Solomon quickly became irritated. He reached into his pocket and took out a few gold coins, and slid them across the table. “Its urgent..”
The manager looked down at the coins, then back up at Solomon. Solomon could see he was not going to take it, so he took out more coins from his pocket, and put them on the table. “This is all I have with me, now if you would be so kind…”

*The cars in Cuniculosus were not the modern, gasoline powered cars you had probably been imagining. The cars ran on a complex system of fans and gas which kept the cars levitated above the ground by a few inches (as long as there was enough oxygen around), but prevented the cars from going much higher than that. This had proved to be more beneficial to the environment, although more expensive to construct.

The manager looked down at the coins once again. The strange man had offered 23 coins, which was not a petty amount, and all he asked was the whereabouts of one of the customers. It seems mysterious that he would be willing to pay so much for this information, as well as he doesn’t have any identification of any sort…the manager thought, then again, 23 coins…And if anything unpleasant happen, I could just say he held me at knifepoint to acquire the information. The manager gave a quick smile, and opened up a book on his desk. He flipped to the most recent page. “Ah yes, Firesword. He’s come in here earlier on with a group of two others. They are staying on the second floor, the first 3 rooms to your right.”
Solomon gave a quick nod and jogged towards the second floor. As soon as he was sure the manager nor anyone else was around, he drew out his blade from his sheath. I’ve prepared a special one for you, Dizbob, he thought to himself. As he got up to the second floor another thought struck him. Darn it, I forgot to ask which specific room who is staying at…no matter, I’ll just kill all of them.
The second floor of the hotel room seemed to be a long hallway filled with rooms. On one end was the staircase leading downstairs, on the other the hallway bent to the left and Solomon couldn’t tell what was there. Nor did he care. There were lamps hanging from the ceiling of the hallway keeping it lit during the night. He was about to quietly open one of the doors and enter in, until he heard a sound.
4I Falcon woke up with a groan. How long have I been asleep? Argh…its my god(-) bladder again. I knew I should’ve just taken a leak in the bushes or something. Great. I hope this hotel has a bathroom. He slowly got up out of bed, still yawning, and stumbled towards the door.
Solomon froze. Oh god(-)it. If he sees me, he’ll surely yell and wake up all the others. He had no time to hide nor was he close enough to make any sudden attacks. As the door opened, he saw the rabbit stumble out, and walk further down the hallway, without looking back at the staircase. What luck! Solomon thought. He eyed the rabbit closely (although he could not see his face as the rabbit was walking away from him), and although he looked slightly familiar, he was nobody Solomon recognized. My first task here is to get rid of Dizbob, but who says I can’t slaughter a few more sheep in the process. Solomon grinned, and began to tiptoe towards the rabbit. As he was getting nearer, the bones in his foot made a cracking sound. Oh crap he thought. He quickly pulled the knife up the sleeve of his muddy, black shirt.
4I Falcon turned around and saw the rabbit standing there. His eyes were blurry from the sleep and he couldn’t make out the features. “Say there, you, do you happen to know where a bathroom could be found here? I feel like I could just let it go in the middle of this hallway right now..”
Solomon had thought the rabbit might do a certain number of things once he spotted him, but this was not one of them. “Uh…” he tried to think of something to say.
“Never mind, I’ve got a feeling that its down this here hall,” 4I Falcon looked closely at what the rabbit was wearing, “Dear god what did you do to your clothes? Did you spend the entire day crawling through the underbrush or rolling through mud or something?”
Solomon took offense to this. He wanted to run up to the rabbit and stab him on the spot, but he knew this would be unwise as the rabbit would definitely scream.
“Anyways then, I’ll be off to the bathroom while I can still hold it in. Fair luck to you.”
As 4I Falcon turned around and continued to stumble towards the end of the hall (where apparently the bathroom was), Solomon gave a quiet sigh, and decided to go back to business. He would take care of that annoying rabbit afterwards, first there would be Dizbob. He opened up the door to the room next to him and snuck in, closing the door behind him. He spotted Dizbob lying asleep on the bed. This would be a day long remembered, Solomon thought, When the great Dizbob falls by my dagger while he so peacefully sleeps. He slowly walked towards the bed and held the knife above Dizbob. Goodbye, Dizbob! There was a loud, piercing scream.