Wander town
From Create Your Own Story
"Well, thanks for the information. I think I'm going to go wander town, since it seems like I'll be here for a while," you tell Gabriella.
"Have fun," she replies.
You step out of the hotel into the crisp spring air. It's not a large town. You can walk from one end to the other in a matter of minutes. It's old, though. All the outlying streets are dirt, but at the center of town, they're paved in cobbles.
Everywhere you go, people stare at you. Finally, a young man comes up to you. "Were you really up at the castle?"
"Yes."
"What was it like up there? Why'd he let you go?"
"Er... it was kind of castle like, and he let me go because I asked to leave. Is he really that bad?"
"Yes, he is!" He relates to you much the same information Gabriella did, inserting that a half-human tiger ate his uncle years ago.
"This kind of stuff isn't possible," you assert. "Someone else would have done it before."
"I can prove it if you need me to," he says.
What can you do but agree?
He leads you over to a rather unremarkable house. A rather gristly old man opens the door a crack. "Matthias! To what do I owe this visit?"
The youth gestures to you. "This is the new lady in town, Melissa, who came from the castle. She wants to know about your arm. Melissa, this is Abel."
The man turns his attention to you. "You don't, do you? Well. Come on in, both of you. Gabriella's here. She was just telling me about you. We have an idea."
As he opens the door wider, you see that he's missing an arm. "How did that happen?" you ask, gesturing to his stump.
"That was from one of the doctor's creations," he says, sitting down. "He's especially fond of wolves, you know. It was sort of a wolf-shark hybrid. It grabbed my arm and wouldn't let go. It tore my arm clean off. Someone else shot it, but they let me keep it. Fair exchange for my arm, you know? I had its head stuffed and mounted." He gestures up above him. "Gabriella, can you take it down?"
Gabriella's standing in the way of the mounted head. But she takes something off the wall and sets it on the table. You take a look. Wolf-shark hybrid. Yup. That's a pretty fair name for whatever this is. It has a face like a shark's, but a wolf nose. Fur on most of it, and scales near the nose. Wicked teeth, too. This can't be real. You touch it. It feels real enough. It would have taken a master to taxidermy two animals together like this. "And you're expecting me to believe that Doctor Kreuger combined two live animals into this."
Abel comes up beside you. "I don't know how he did it, but he did. I've got the pelt, too, if you need more convincing."
"No, I'm good," you say. Your mind is reeling. You still don't know what to believe. "If he's such a menace, why don't you all oust him?"
The man and Gabriella exchange glances. Gabriella clears her throat. "To tell the truth, we'd like to, but we're kind of afraid to. Every month or two someone starts talking about raiding the castle, but no one ever does anything about it. We're not exactly experienced at that kind of thing, and if we were to fail, we're afraid of how he'd retaliate. Who knows what he has caged up there!"
She looks at you thoughtfully. "Now, you've been in there, and it sounds like he practically invited you back. If you could get in and open the doors from the inside, we might be able to do it."
Oh geez. This sounds dangerous. You look at the shark-wolf head again, and Abel's stump of an arm. Something does need to be done, but maybe what they're suggesting is a bit extreme. There might be an easier way to evict Doctor Kreuger.
