Kain awoke with a start as his head impacted with the floor of the Inn. "Not again," he mumbled groggily, "Not three nights in a row."

As he stood up, a sore spot on the small of his back confirmed what he already knew. Cecil had kicked him out of the bed again.

He looked back at the tangle of arms and legs that still occupied the bed. He shook his head in amazement. Whatever possessed Cecil to insist that everyone sleep in the same bed, Kain would never understand. "To save space," was all Cecil would say on the matter. Out in the field, it made a kind of twisted sense. They only had one tent, so it was either make like sardines or get rained on. But the Inn was another story. There were six perfectly good beds in the room. They could each take one, and still have one left over. But no. Cecil still insisted.

Kain didn't know which was weirder: Cecil's odd demand, or the fact that four presumably sane adults went along with it. Rosa he could understand, but Rydia and Edge and himself...?

He sighed. He probably could have gotten used to it, except that Rosa hogged the blankets and Cecil kept kicking him and he and Edge always fought over the pillow.

He looked down at the bed, and decided the spatial logistics of trying to fit himself back on were too much to handle. He decided to go to the Cafe.

The streets were empty except for a few people wandering around aimlessly. Kain avoided them. He'd made the mistake of trying to strikeup a conversation his first night here. He could never get more than one sentence out of most of them. The same sentence. Over and over. These people gave new meaning to the phrase "one-track mind".

Kain had long ago begun to wish he'd kept his mouth shut when Cecil talked back to the king. If he hadn't, maybe he'd still be back at the castle. He envied Yang, still unconscious in the fairy village. At least he had his own bed.

Thump!

He'd been so distracted that he hadn't noticed the girl walking in front of him.

"Please save us," she said, and continued walking.

Kain decided to try his luck and ask directions. "Excuse me, could you tell me where the-"

"Please save us."

"Yes, later. I'm looking for the Cafe-"

"Please save us."

Kain mentally kicked himself. He'd talked to this girl when he'd first arrived. She'd talked his ear off about the Giant of Bab-il, and how it was going to trample their town, then said "Please save us." and refused to say anything else. Kain looked up at the sky between two buidings. The Giant of Bab-il was there, in exactly the same place in had been the night before, and the night before that. He had wanted to go after it right away, as at the speed it had been going, it would have destroyed this town in a matter of minutes. But Cecil had wanted to gointo the forest around the town and kill some of the monsters living there first. And the Giant had waited. Perhaps the normal laws of space and time and evil villains didn't apply to Paladins. How else could you explain how he got 5 full-grown adults to fit on one bed?

"About the Cafe-"

"Please save us."

Kain gave up. In desperation, he entered one of the houses, hoping tofind someone sensible inside. It was empty. He did manage to find an Elixir potion, but as to why the owners of the house kept their Elixirs in the potted plant, he didn't want to guess. Everyone knew you were supposed to keep the Elixirs in treasure chests. There was a bed in the back room, and he considered using it, but decided he didn't want to risk the ire of who ever lived there.

When he finally found the Cafe, it was nearly dawn. Several people were seated in front of a stage, watching several dancers spin and turn in what passed for a dance. He tried to talk to the bartender, in the hopes of finally having an intelligent conversation. He was sadly mistaken.

"Drinks are 10 GP. Want one?"

"Well, okay."

He didn't try to talk to him again, for fear of wasting another 10 GP.

He stared into the cup. Cecil would come looking for him soon. He dreaded that. Since become a Paladin, Cecil had gone a bit loopy. Maybe the shock of actually seeing his own face for the first time in Odin-knew-how-long had pushed him off the deep end. It wasn't just the bed thing, either. That had been going on since before he and Kain had met. Now, he'd search through people's underwear drawers, looking for potions. He was seeing faces in the patterns of the mountains they flew over in the airship. And worst of all, he'd become obsessed with finding something called a "Pink Tail".

Kain looked down at the Elixir bottle he'd found. Oh Bahamut, he thought, I'm becoming just like him. He tried to rationalize it. He'd found it in the potted plant, and hadn't even touched the underwear drawer. But the conclusion was inescapable.

I'm losing my mind, he thought. Sleep. I need sleep.

When he'd been one of Golbez's followers, he'd had all the sleep heneeded. True, he'd spent most of the time in a mind-control-induced stupor, but it hadn't been all bad. Golbez's followers had a vocabulary of more than one sentence. Golbez had let him have his own bed.

Behind him, he heard Cecil and Rosa call to him from the door.

Dammit, where was Golbez when he needed him?