It was incredibly cold in the castle, even with his blankets tucked tightly around his body. The wind kept whistling through uncovered holes in the walls and ceilings, and he was fairly certain he could hear rats scuttling around. All in all, Vikas was not having a great night's sleep. He growled and flung his blankets onto the floor, rising from his bed like a vampire from a coffin. The wolf muttered incoherently as he got up, nearly tripping on an empty bottle of beer. His night had been spent drinking alone, presumably to celebrate his new independent lifestyle, but mostly out of loneliness and the terrible feeling that is homesickness. Now his head hurt and he was too sleepy to walk properly. It wasn't even light out yet, he wasn't prepared to deal with a hangover.
Vikas walked to the edge of his temporary bedroom, about to lean over and grab a piece of dried meat off a shelf, when he heard what sounded like a voice. He was uncertain whether the sound had actually been a voice or just more of the irritating wind, but he figured it was best to be safe and find out. He stepped outside of his room and looked down the hallway, not bothering to put on clothes just yet. He was too groggy to care about his appearance. He didn't see anyone. He rubbed his eyes, yawned loudly, and looked again. No, there was something there. He had definitely seen a movement by that pile of crumbled stone. He took another moment to conclude that there was a child somewhere over there. He slowly shifted from his bipedal form into his lupis form, grateful that he hadn't bothered to put anything on. The shift, which was normally painless, had somehow irritated his poor brain more, and aggravated his headache.
He padded down the hall, nails clicking loudly against the floor. "You alright over there?" he called out, cringing at the echo of his own voice. [/html]