Roderigo (Sebastian)

Enter ANTONIO and SEBASTIAN

ANTONIO
Will you stay no longer? nor will you not that I go with you?

SEBASTIAN
By your patience, no. My stars shine darkly over
me: the malignancy of my fate might perhaps
distemper yours; therefore I shall crave of you your
leave that I may bear my evils alone: it were a bad
recompense for your love, to lay any of them on you.

ANTONIO
Let me yet know of you whither you are bound.

SEBASTIAN
No, sooth, sir: my determinate voyage is mere
extravagancy. But I perceive in you so excellent a
touch of modesty, that you will not extort from me
what I am willing to keep in; therefore it charges
me in manners the rather to express myself. You
must know of me then, Antonio, my name is Sebastian,
which I called Roderigo. My father was that
Sebastian of Messaline, whom I know you have heard
of. He left behind him myself and a sister, both
born in an hour: if the heavens had been pleased,
would we had so ended! but you, sir, altered that;
for some hour before you took me from the breach of
the sea was my sister drowned.

ANTONIO
Alas the day!

SEBASTIAN
A lady, sir, though it was said she much resembled
me, was yet of many accounted beautiful: but,
though I could not with such estimable wonder
overfar believe that, yet thus far I will boldly
publish her; she bore a mind that envy could not but
call fair. She is drowned already, sir, with salt
water, though I seem to drown her remembrance again with more.

ANTONIO
Pardon me, sir, your bad entertainment.

SEBASTIAN
O good Antonio, forgive me your trouble.

ANTONIO
If you will not murder me for my love, let me be
your servant.

SEBASTIAN
If you will not undo what you have done, that is,
kill him whom you have recovered, desire it not.
Fare ye well at once: my bosom is full of kindness,
and I am yet so near the manners of my mother, that
upon the least occasion more mine eyes will tell
tales of me. I am bound to the Count Orsino's court: farewell.

Exit SEBASTIAN

ANTONIO
The gentleness of all the gods go with thee!
I have many enemies in Orsino's court,
Else would I very shortly see thee there.
But, come what may, I do adore thee so,
That danger shall seem sport, and I will go.

Exit ANTONIO

When Sebastian finally stops falling, he lies with his face in the damp dirt for a few long moments.

"I'd give you a 9," a dry voice interrupts his daze. "Out of 10, I mean, it'd probably have to be a 4 out of 5, because that last bump was frankly pathetic."

"... what," Sebastian manages, levering himself up slowly, and stopping on spotting an overly large frog. He glances sideways, and sees no one else. "Were you speaking just now?" he hazards to it.

The frog croaks, loud. Sebastian feels very embarrassed.

Then it winks.

30 Minutes Later

The frog's name is George, and he doesn't think highly of Princes or Lords, so Sebastian has very carefully explained that he is a shipwrecked (and ... forest-wrecked) merchant.

In exchange for protecting Sebastian from Monsters (apparently quite common in this land), and Dangers Of Many Types, George has persuaded Sebastian to come to his home nearer the mountains and help him build a house worth living in.

Sebastian looks back up the hill he has fallen down, and knows what lies above it is his sister's ghost and an unearthly fog.

He hammers a stick into the ground with a rock, and tries not to think of it as escape while he follows George to the west.

3 Months Later

Sebastian sighs and cleans off his hands, backing up from the house he has built.

"House" is perhaps an over-charitable term, but it's the one he's decided to use. The structure's not large, but it is sturdy. And mostly water-proof, from the strategy of "wait until it's raining, hammer boards over the parts that leak".

He feels like it is likely missing something. Real bedding, or curtains, perhaps - the current ones are cloaks from fleeing Princes (Sebastian has no skill in sewing). They have two neighboring Monsters, a Griffin who never speaks to Sebastian in the west (but never the less lets him draw fresh water from the stream neighboring his pool), and a ferocious Unicorn named Chester to the east.

But, his friend has decided it's enough to begin wooing a Princess with. A specific Princess, not a general one -- hired by one of the dragons in the closest of the mountains to do cooking, or something, Sebastian's not entirely sure how the process works. He's carefully avoided interaction during her conversations with his amphibian companion as she gathers herbs and so forth.

Wiping his hands clean, he bids his friend farewell, and goes back to the hill he came down.

It is not many steps to the room 1221, though they feel endless by the time Sebastian's crested them. He does not inspect his room on entering it, barely taking the care to aim before falling into bed and sleeping for some uncountable number of hours.

On waking, his head is foggy with exhaustion, and he realizes he overtaxed himself the day before. Still, he finds after some minutes the energy to roll out of bed and begin to undress, that he does not sleep the whole night clothed.

As he does, he realizes slowly that the room he's been assigned has not be cleaned out from the previous patron -- there is a cape across the back of a chair, and at the desk that chair is married to there are stacks of books. The only title he can make out, in the half light, is VAMPYRE, printed large along the spine, white-on-dark-red. He knows not what to make of it.

More comfortable situated, he burrows under the comforters and sleeps again.

The boy -- man? who walks into Milliways is mostly stable on his feet, but doesn't look very well.

His brow furrows, and he unconsciously reaches up to touch it. It is not damp with fever-sweat, at least.

"... There were not so few steps between my bed and an inn." Unless he forgot them?

Maybe he forgot them.