Alfred turned to Tabitha. “You know I could try to…”
“No you could not,” she interrupted. And the proud halfling brushed past him to exit the ward.
In the hall, the stench was far worse. Surely, Alfred’s nostrils had been filled with the musk of decay already, but this acrid air was somehow beyond. Indeed, the bodies above appeared to be more far gone than their own… the bodies in their own ward that is. The again, if he and his acquaintances were stuffed in there alongside the dead, then…
Alfred heard the boards beside him whine a little under some weight, followed by a light thud. He turned to see the third of his companions, the terrified creature that had tucked itself behind several chairs in the ward, now standing quite close to him. He watched her hop again higher than before, dropping back down again as nature intended. “No luck for you either, huh?” he asked.
She was shorter than Alfred expected, almost the size of a child when she stood up. Alfred realized this may be in part due to the fact that she seemed perpetually hunched over, but no she was young. Her facial features were hidden away behind grey and crimson scarves and the clothes on her back were little more than rags, perhaps vestments once that had since turned to moldering drapery. What stood out most were her eyes – yellow discs floating and glinting like a cat’s eye in the dark. It looked feral. It was the same look that frightened Alfred when they first encountered each other, but felt a little less menacing as she stood beside him in silence.