The Wandering Inn

9.55 (Pt. 1)

[I am taking a 1-update hiatus purely because this chapter is 70-80,000 words long. It’s in two parts; read the Author’s Note at the end for details. I worked hard, so I rest…hard? Something like that.]

(The Wind Runner, Book 10 of The Wandering Inn, is now available for pre-order on Audible and Kindle! The release date is September 19th! Andrea worked hard on the audiobook and check out this cover!)

It was a special day today. An important one filled with many things. Christmas?

Christmas.

A holiday that had wormed its way into another world like a parasite with a Santa hat. Today was Christmas, just as Erin Solstice had promised. Even if it had come earlier in other parts of the world, it was that special day in Liscor, at least. Everyone was ready.

Especially Erin.

Definitely Erin.

Lyonette was getting very concerned about Erin.

However, the [Innkeeper] couldn’t have missed the leafy boughs that were being strung up from the tiled shingles on each house, the mistletoe bundles being avoided by everyone except for a few very desperate-looking people loitering underneath, the ‘candy canes’ being sold by Barehoof Kitchens and adopted and altered by street vendors, or the red hats.

Surely Erin had noticed the preparations. She definitely had the date memorized, and she had sneakily, in her Erin-way, been preparing all month, right? Just like Erin used the big calendar Lyonette hung up on the 2nd Floor hallway with important dates circled. Like today. Lyonette had even done two circles, one red, one green.

Because Erin definitely also used that calendar*.

*(Erin did not use that calendar.)

It might have been that Lyonette was in denial. The rest of the inn’s family were figuring out how to broach the subject on the day of…Christmas. Which was today.

Numbtongue was of the opinion it’d be funnier to let Erin catch on since she was already out of time.

However, as a sleepy [Innkeeper] awoke, hair tangled, blinking blearily as she hunched over in her triple-layer blankets and stared ahead for a good eight minutes without really waking up—she eventually looked sideways and saw about eight people staring at her through her half-open doorway and freaked out.

“Aaaaah! I’m not dead!”

An interesting day. An important, special day. It had Christmas, people scrambling to buy presents, gatherings of old friends and enemies alike—like Wall Lord Ilvriss, who was attempting to spit in his clawed hand properly so he could give the Sisters of Chell a proper greeting under Xesci’s and Nerul’s supervision—doubtlessly hijinks, and—

Racism. The most special of all things.

——

It was an odd thing. Visma, Ekirra, and Kenva were running arou