Nothing. Lucy was staring out the window at the Anderson's house. The group had spent the day looking around for where the shens might be hiding out at night. They had found nothing. No place big enough to hold the group of twelve demons, no place hidden enough to keep them all. Lucy sighed to herself. The whole idea of helping out the children in this village was starting to look more and more hopeless.

"Well, maybe there's another way to defeat these demons?" Ray glanced over at Lucy with a questioning look. Lucy just shrugged.

"I don't know."

"Man, those things looked like ghosts." Jason muttered something under his breath. "I'm really doubting you can physically harm them, and even when I hit the thing with my spell, it just seemed to disappear."

"Well gee," Janet rolled her eyes. "You know, when you hit them with fireballs, most things tend to disappear. I wouldn't stick around if someone was flinging fireballs at me either."

Jason glared over at Janet. "Oh really? Mind if I take you up on that offer?"

"Do you two mind?" Lucy snapped quickly at the two bickering windians. Her eyes flashed with the message that she was in no mode to hear them arguing. "Some of us are trying to think."

"Well try not to hurt yourself." The words came out of Jason's mouth before he even realized what he was saying. The startled expression on Lucy's face might have been enough to have gotten any of the other members of the group to apologize after making a comment like that, but Jason just brushed it aside and kept talking. "Anyway, we wouldn't even be stuck in this whole mess if we just left town like Mrs. Anderson had said to when we met her outside the Inn."

"The Inn!" Lucy's eyes lit up suddenly. "That's it! Why didn't I think of it?"

"What?" Janet shook her head in confusion. "Run that by me again?"

"The Inn! It was full when we got here, remember? The Innkeeper had said that a bunch of travelers had come in and were staying in the Inn. I'm willing to bet that when they appeared is when the children also started getting sick." Lucy began to pace around the room quickly. "It just makes sense! The Inn is big enough to hold all of them. No one's going to be in those rooms to bother them at night, it's the perfect place for them!"

Ray chuckled a bit uncertainly. "I guess so, huh. Too bad none of us thought of that before. So... how are we supposed to reach them at the Inn?"

Lucy turned to stare out the window again; her eyes fixing on the form of the Inn, watching it darken in the dimming glow of the evening. "Well we'd need a key to the rooms."

"Problem." Janet raised an eyebrow at Lucy. "The Inn is already full. The Innkeeper certainly isn't going to be handing us out any room keys to rooms that were already reserved by other people."

"Why not?" Lucy turned and gave Janet a curiously look. Janet stared back at her in wonder.

"Well... well... why should he? I mean, if you were an Innkeeper, would you be handing out the keys to rooms that people are already staying in just because some strangers came up and asked nicely for them?"

Lucy shrugged absently and turned back to staring out the window. "I guess not." Janet stood there wondering for a while whether or not her friend's question had even been a serious one in the first place. It was hard to tell with Lucy.

"Maybe we could just sneak in after dark?" The idea came from Jason. Janet glared over at him.

"It would be you to think up something like that."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jason snapped quickly back at Janet. "I wasn't even talking to you!"

"Yea well you're lucky anyone was listening anyway."

"Will you two knock it off?" Brandon glanced back and forth between Janet and Jason. "I think we're all nice and tired of hearing your arguing. If you insist on keeping up these fights, at least go to another room." He absently fingered the hilt of the rapier as is dangled from his side. Janet and Jason just continued to glare at each other for a few more moments, but neither one said anything more to each other.

"Well, I don't really think it'll do us much good to try and break in. I'm sure there's going to be some sort of security alarm at the Inn... and anyway, don't most Innkeepers sleep in their own Inn? Incase someone comes by a night or something."

Ray nodded. "That's right. It'd be risky to try and break in, the Innkeeper might catch us." He scratched the back of his neck in consideration. "Although, I suppose if we could try and find a way in that he might not notice..." Mrs. Anderson's call from the kitchen that dinner was ready caught the attention of the group.

"We'll talk about this more after dinner." Lucy walked away from the window and towards the kitchen; Brandon and Janet close in tow. Ray followed quickly after, leaving Jason alone in the living room. The windian had his arms folded across his chest and was leaning on the wall beside the chair he had used for a bed the night before. He was staring at the ground, muttering to himself a few random words. His eyes glanced over to where his crossbow was perched up against the side of the chair. Jason blew a few strands of hair from his face and walked over to his weapon, crouching down the examine it, his mind all the while was elsewhere on other topics. He kept thinking back to how the others had kept questioning him why he was here with them.

"Why am I here..." he muttered to himself and poked at the crossbow. Maybe earlier he would have admitted that he was here to make sure Lucy was okay, but by now he really didn't care. Lucy had the other three to take care of her. She really didn't seem to want Jason around anyway. None of them seemed to. It was true, he could easily just turn around and head back home, but he didn't want to. He'd rather deal with Janet then have to head back home to where Troy and Candice were waiting to make his life a living hell. Jason absent-mindedly ran his fingers along the crossbow again as he thought. He'd even rather put up with that dragon, Ray, then have to head back home and deal with everyone else.

"Hey, you coming to dinner?" Ray's voice startled Jason out of his thoughts and the windian stood and turned to glare at the dragon for disturbing him.

"I'm coming." He muttered again and stalked over to the kitchen, shoving roughly past Ray as he did. The dragon only shrugged. "Just making sure."

* * *

"So, okay, I think we should head over sometime late tonight. It'll be dark out so no one can see us, the Innkeeper should be asleep by then, the shens won't be around, and we'll be more likely to figure out a way in when we're standing at the building itself." Janet looked over at Lucy for approval of her idea. Lucy seemed to be considering it.

"Well, it sounds like a plan, I mean, it's the best we've heard so far." Lucy turned her gaze to Brandon. He shrugged.

"Alright." Lucy sighed as she once again stared out the window to the large form of the Inn. Her eyes wandered up to the sky, and then turning, she looked at the clock hanging on the wall. It was only eight o' clock. "I'm going to go up and sit with Robert." Lucy made her way over to the stairs and disappeared. The other four travelers glanced uneasily at each other. Leaning up against the wall, Brandon unsheathed his rapier and began to examine it out of boredom. Janet picked her gun up from where it had been laying on a small pine chest that stood near the doorway. She headed over to the couch and plopped down onto it, taking a bit of her skirt and shined the weapon as she hummed quietly to herself. Ray took up pacing around at the base of the stairs, every so often glancing up when he heard a noise to see if Lucy had reappeared. Jason let his eyes scan over the room. He could hear Mrs. Anderson in the kitchen washing the dishes. Feeling a sudden urge to move about, he began to fidget with his hands, brushing his hair from his face quickly, then shoving his hands into his pants pockets, just to take them out again, brush them against his shirt, then put them in his jacket pockets, and then repeat the whole process over again.

"Stop doing that, you're driving me nuts." Janet hadn't even looked up at Jason but she could see his movements from the corner of her eye.

"Stop humming, it's making me go insane." Jason glared back at her and began pacing back and forth in slow, long strides.

"You already are insane, Jason."

"Don't you two start that up again." Brandon glanced up from his rapier and gave each of the windians a testing look.

"Well if he'd just stop fidgeting around so much!" Janet motioned to Jason as she glared over in response to Brandon's gaze at her. Jason shot a look of annoyance over to Janet.

"You're not bothered by his pacing!" He motioned over to where Ray was still walking back and forth in front of the stairs.

"He's not in my direct line of vision!"

"Well there's your problem, if you'd just stop looking at me all of the time-"

"I do my best to not even note your existence when it's possible!" Janet threw her gun down and jumped up from her seat, her hands on her hips and peering over at Jason with a dangerous look on her face. Jason had taken a step towards her and opened his mouth to respond when the sound of Brandon's blade smacking into something made Jason look over at the windian guard. Brandon wasn't leaning up against the wall anymore. He was glaring over at Jason, tapping his rapier lightly against the palm of his hand like a school teacher might tap their ruler when they were waiting to get a students attention. Jason fidgeted uneasily under the look of the black winged windian.

"I'm gonna... go for a walk." With a quick jab of his thumb, Jason motioned to the front door, then turned and made his way quickly out of the house before anyone had time to respond. Ray stopped in his pacing long enough to glance at the door in worry.

"Are we sure it's okay to let him out on his own?"

"Why not. Jason's a big boy." Janet muttered sourly under her breath as she took her seat on the couch again. "If we're lucky, he'll find the well and fall into it or something."

Jason pulled his jacket close around him as he walked towards the main entrance of Forest Cape. The sky was clear, bright stars twinkled down from the ever-darkening sky as a cold wind blew through the town. Jason's wandering footsteps seemed to follow his thoughts as he drew closer to the entrance of the little village. Home. Maybe he would just head back now. He paused at the opening of the town and stared out to what stretched on beyond it. Fields, forest, somewhere back there was Windia. Jason shoved his hands in his pockets to keep them from the chilling wind. If he started back now, it was a little more then a day to Windia from Forest Cape.

Maybe I could just head back now. They don't seem to want me here anyway. Jason stared off into the night. True, if he went back to Windia, he'd have to put up with Troy and Candice. Then again, he'd have David and Chad around. Jason's thoughts began to wander a bit more. How were Chad and David doing anyway? Did they miss him? Did they wonder how he was doing? He thought briefly back to a few days ago when they had been playing volleyball up at the beach just north of Windia. A few days ago they were having the time of their lives just hanging out together. Now Jason wondered if he was ever going to see them again. He began thinking a bit more about heading back to Windia. He probably would have left right then and there if it wasn't for two things.

First of all, Jason had left his crossbow back at the Anderson's. He'd have to go retrieve it before he left. Jason wasn't about to make a days journey through those woods again without some form of protection other then his spells. Spell casting has a way of wearing one out quickly when done in great amounts.

Second of all, Jason was suddenly distracted from his thoughts of leaving by the soft creaking of a door opening. He turned to see the Innkeeper peeking out of the Inn long enough to click off the outside light, and then vanish back into his building. The soft click of a lock was heard shortly after. Jason watched as the lights began to go out inside the Inn, and finally the entire building was covered in a veil of darkness. Jason had no idea what time it was, but he guessed it was almost ten. That was the closing time for most Inns. After a few brief moments, the windian made his way over to the Inn.

He stepped up to the front door of the large dark building and, reaching out, touched it lightly. Taking a step back, his hand still on the door, Jason scanned the front of the building, gazing up at the windows that loomed above the door on the second story. They were dark and empty, and for a moment he thought he had seen the faintest flicker of movement through them. It was gone in an instant and Jason shook his head, figuring it to be just an image of his imagination. Carefully, he moved his hand from the door to the door handle and tried to open it. It was locked.

Duh. He muttered quietly to himself, wondering why he had even bothered trying when he already knew it would be locked. He leaned down and stared at the keyhole. I wonder if anyone knows how to pick locks?

Standing back up, he tapped a finger lightly on the door again and stepped away from it, circling over to the right side of the building. His eyes scanned the stone wall as he looked for any way of entry. There were only two windows, and they were both on the second floor. Jason looked about for anything like a tree, or perhaps a ladder that would have been left lying out. Anything that would help in reaching the windows. He found nothing. With a sigh, he continued around to the back of the building.

Nothing different there. Two windows on the second floor. Jason stared up at the windows for a bit. They were just as dark and empty as the two at the front of the Inn. He was about to head around to the last side of the building when he thought he saw movement in one of the windows. Jason shook his head quickly and looked back up. Nothing. They were just as dark and empty as they had been when he had first looked at them. With a shrug, he made his way around to the last side of the building.

Of course it was the same as the others. Jason stared up at the two windows and waited. He didn't know why, or what he was waiting for, all he knew was he had the feeling that if he waited he would see something. He wasn't disappointed. He had been right about seeing a flicker in the other windows, only it wasn't a flicker of movement, it was a flicker of light. Just a brief, soft glow, like the glow of a small candle that one might carry around the house when doing late night inspections. Jason watched curiously. He wondered about if the shens were up in those rooms like Lucy had thought they were. He wondered about when they'd leave with the children to the orchard. He wondered about who it was who was walking through the rooms with the light. Jason watched as the flicker left the first window and appeared in the second window as the holder of the light moved from one room to the next. Jason continued to watch as the faint light hovered about in the room for a bit, then faded off and finally vanished altogether, leaving the windows dark and empty once more.

"Well, I wonder what all that was about." Jason mused quietly to himself as he turned and began back towards the Anderson's. It was really getting much too cold for him outside, and he thought that perhaps the others would want to come look at the Inn soon. Maybe they'd have more luck finding a way in.