Enjoying a quiet dinner

Inea was alone in her room on the second floor of the village's only inn. She was currently enjoying her dinner and feeling a bit annoyed after spending almost the entire day in the nearby forest, searching for a very rare herb that could be found there.

Inea had reached the village just after sunset the previous day and immediately a member of the local militia had approached her, warning her to stay away from two of the houses – apparently both families were sick and in order to avoid spreading the illness the village's wise woman wanted the rest of the villagers to stay away. After speaking with the wise woman – who also turned out to be the Mayor's wife – Inea had agreed to find a rare herb that was needed for the medicine that would cure the sick. In exchange for her help the innkeeper – who also turned out to be the village's Mayor – had given her free room and food for as long as she remained in the village.

Thus, after waking up early, Inea had gone to the forest and started searching... only to discover that this particular herb was indeed very rare. It had been almost sunset by the time she found enough and had returned to the wise woman, who immediately started preparing the medicine.

At least the forest was quiet and there was no real danger to worry about, just some forest animals. Inea though, still feeling annoyed that she had wasted an entire day on something that she had expected to take a couple of hours at most. “Mmm, the food is pretty good...” She mumbled to herself as she took another bite.

An insistent knocking on the door interrupted her dinner. “Who is it?” She called out, not bothering to get up.