Tine rested wrapped up in his bedding and listened as the night watchman’s whisper-soft footsteps echoed in the darkness.  The door opened and closed; the guard had completed another check of his dormitory.  If the watchman stayed on his usual schedule, the next check would be just before dawn when the shift ended.  Tine slipped out of his bed and tugged the secreted rope out from under his pallet trying to make as little noise as possible.  The small grappling iron came out from his boot, and he headed toward the open window.  There was nothing to impede him from entering the floor above, nothing except the first rule he learned as a child, ‘do not enter the top floor; it is off limits’.  Well, that and the rune marked doors that would not open at a simple touch.   As far as he knew, none of the other students had been up there, at least any who were still at the school.  

Leaning out the window as far as possible, Tine swung the grappling hook toward the roof and grimaced with it clattered against the shingles.  He gave the rope a sharp tug and felt it catch, then eased himself off the ledge and up to the next floor, hoping the scraping of his feet on the outer wall would not wake anyone.  Using his smallest blade, he jiggled the lock until it opened, pulled back on the glass, and slipped inside.

The room appeared to be used but uncluttered.

Tine sat on the ledge and looked, listened, smelled… and waited.  There was a bit of a musty scent to the room, as if it was rarely used or aired. A soft rasping sound, not quite a snore, separated itself from the sounds of the night behind him.  As his eyes adjusted to the black on black shadows a serpentine shape  with a  largish head rose out of the depths.  There may have been more, but it was lost to the shadow.  Tine heard a gasp, realized he had made the sound, and tried to pull himself together before he woke the occupant of the room.

However, that was not to be, Tine realized as one of the creature’s eyes opened with a kaleidoscope of color, and looked directly at him. 

Tine stood his ground, or sat his ledge as the case may be, and stared back. 

“You are not supposed to be here, yet.” The thought formed in his mind, unspoken. 

“I was curious,” Tine whispered to the dark.

“Curious?” the thought carried laughter.  “What did you hope to find?”

“I’m not sure,” Tine said softly as he gathered his courage to come down from the ledge, “something that no one else had seen before.”

“So, did you find what you came seeking?”

Tine shrugged, “I’m not sure, are you something that no one else has seen before?”

“You have seen me,” the voice stated as Tine crept closer.  “In the dining room, in the hallways…”

“In my dreams…” Tine whispered.

“Yesssss,” the sibilant sound caressed Tine, “come clossser.”   

Tine closed the distance, and as his hand reached out, the world went black.

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