Weege woke up in the unfamiliar room and stretched his long, lanky limbs. He rubbed his tired eyes and squinted into the pitch darkness, but his sight wasn’t adjusting. No light filtered through the heavy blackout curtains, so he rolled out of bed and stumbled blindly across the room to pull them open.

A bright stream of warm orange light from the constant daylight sun streamed in through the window.

Weege turned to take in the room he had barely noticed when he sleepily checked in the previous “night.” On this side of RilVea, the sun never set, hence the blackout curtains.

His ship had touched down on the surface late yesterday, though no one looking around would have known it. RilVea’s sun scorched the crust continuously, leaving the surface a barren, blinding wasteland, which probably explained why he hadn’t spotted a single soul when he landed.

Weege hadn’t known much about this planet, only that he needed to get away. He had planned to stop briefly, stretch his legs, rest at the fabled B&B he’d heard whispers about, and then fly on to his next destination.

Stepping out onto the baked earth yesterday, he had pulled his hood low to shield his eyes and delicate, semi-aquatic skin from the oppressive heat. Looking out over the empty expanse, he had assumed the inn was a myth. There’s no way anyone can survive in this heat, he had thought. Especially not someone from an ocean world.

He had decided to wander in a quiet circle near his ship just to get his legs moving, keeping a safe distance from the deep orange arches and gaping chasms in the rock. No reason to chance falling into a random abyss, he had told himself.

That was when movement flickered in his peripheral vision.

“Thank gods, people!” He whipped around as a little green thing hopped by, seemingly out of nowhere… he whipped his head around left and right, looking for where it may have come from; it was hopping along roughly ten feet away, obviously on a mission. It didn’t even turn to look at him.

Weege shrugged and decided to follow the little guy; maybe the creature knew something that he didn’t. He originally expected to maybe spook it once he started moving around, but still, it never turned around, didn’t even inspect Weege’s ship or act like it realized anyone was there with it.

Weege knew nothing of the creatures on this planet, but he was a biologist on his own planet, so it seemed unusual for this creature to be so unbothered.

Maybe it was the top animal on the food chain, or maybe it had some sort of defense that Weege couldn’t see from afar. Since the animal didn’t seem bothered, he tried to get closer to it, but it was hopping pretty fast over the uneven and cracked rocky terrain.

Weege got so distracted he forgot to keep track of the direction of his ship behind him, but he was already invested in following the peculiar creature that had captured his interest. He didn’t have too much time to panic about potentially being lost, though, before he even realized the creature was approaching a large open-mouthed cave.

By this point, Weege was starting to huff, his breath shorter and shorter; his body wasn’t used to the extremely dry heat of this planet. His planet had A LOT of water on it. Honestly, thinking about it, he hadn’t seen a drop of water the whole trek to the cave… how do the animals live on this planet? Weege thought he might’ve seen some sparse plants along the way, but how? He hadn’t seen a drop of water on the ground or a cloud in the sky along the whole trek.

He finally reached the cave where the creature had entered. He was hesitant at first, not sure if he was about to enter an animal’s den. Even with the light streaming from all around, the cave seemed pretty dark and almost like it was obscured by something. He started to walk forward into the cave slowly, cautiously. There was a soft pressure and then a little pop, as if he was passing through something.

Weege had experienced magic in many different forms, but hadn’t experienced anything like this before.

Right in front of his eyes, it was like the cave’s light was turned on. Weege saw rows and rows of cultivated plants, some with things that looked like fruit hanging from them, others with flowers, and all of them weirdly colored.

Hopping through the rows was the little green creature he was originally following. He looked up to see a building… no, an Inn… The Inn!

A sign hanging from the front of the building said “The Wayfarer’s Inn,” and all his stress melted away.

This was the place he had heard about. The place that was known for taking in any species who needed a place to stay, no matter what they looked like or how they sounded.

Unfortunately, Weege had to be concerned about his appearance on other planets; he never wanted to scare people, but his race typically didn’t look like others, and he had heard of some planets not being okay with that. He had chosen this planet because of how inclusive the Inn was rumored to be, and with his exhaustion fully setting in, he started to just not even care.

He trudged forward, like death on his feet; before he knew it, he was flopping down into a bed.