Inn-cident

Did they do it with mirrors?

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"Now you'll have the chance to tell Burnevere your excuse for keeping us all waiting forever and a day!"  said Loungealot as he opened the door to their room with his one free hand.

As the door swung open, something peculiar could be glimpsed.....Sir Burnevere was nowhere in sight.  The bags of gold, along with the box containing the Maltese Tortoise were all present, but Burnevere was gone.

"Ooh!  Look what you've done Flicker!  It took me so long to coax you back up here that Burnevere must have gone looking for us!  Now we have to go and find him.....blast it!"  Loungealot said growing even crankier than usual.

Flicker put the plates of potatoes down on the dresser near the door, and looked around.   Scratching his chin in contemplation, he voiced his curiosity about something.  "Hmmm...that's very odd.  There's only one staircase leading up and down.  Sir Burnevere wasn't anywhere in the lobby....and he was here when you came down just now, wasn't he?"

"Yes, and I must say that's beginning to feel like centuries ago, Flicker!"  Loungealot gave a caustic reply along with a look of severe annoyance at Flicker.

"Listen, m'lord, I'm sorry about all that....but can we please focus for a moment?  The point I was trying to make is that, if he was coming down the stairs just now...and he would have had to in order to reach the lobby.....how could we have missed him?"  Flicker voiced his reasoning.

Loungealot put the two ale mugs down on the dresser by the plates of potatoes.  He then shook his head.  "Honestly, Flicker, you're always so suspicious! It's perfectly clear what happened!"

"It is, m'lord?" Flicker questioned.

"Yes, it is. Burnevere, growing ever more hungry because you were too busy chatting with your girlfriend down there, decided to come see why it was taking us so long.  When he got to the lobby, he saw that I was taking care of things already, and decided to step outside for a breath of fresh air!"  said Loungealot with an air of certainty.

"But...leaving all this gold and the grand and fabulous Maltese Tortoise unguarded?  That doesn't seem much like Sir Burnevere, m'lord."  Flicker commented.

"Yes, well, tardiness doesn't seem much like you either, Flicker, so I guess we all have our off days...don't we, honourable squire?"  Loungealot said, rather unfairly using Flicker's new title to drive home his "point".

Flicker shrugged his shoulders.  "I suppose so, m'lord....it just doesn't seem like something Sir Burnevere would ever do." he replied.

Loungealot walked over to his bed and flopped upon it, the banisters creaking noticeably under his weight.  "The sooner you find him, Flicker, the sooner you'll get to ask him why he went out yourself." he called out to Flicker while laying on his back.

"Um, m'lord, I realise you're very tired....but to tell you the truth....I think it would be best if we went to search for Sir Burnevere together.  I think there may be something fishy about all this.  Probably best if no one stays in the room alone."  Flicker cautioned, instinctively feeling that Sir Burnevere would never abandon his post without good reason.

"Gadzooks, Flicker, were you born under an upside down horseshoe or something?!  You're always so terribly jittery....look at me for example...cool as a cucumber."  Loungealot replied, certain in his lackadaisical viewpoint.

"You are fairly calm, m'lord, and an admirable quality it is...but if I may remind you, the last time you said that, you ended up losing an archery tournament and very nearly caused Princess Flame to be married off to a villainous Hog."  Flicker recounted the experience as a cautionary tale.