"A little something for your thirst." Calais said as he allowed himself to drop onto a corner of her cloak.
"You are too kind." She said hearing her own recent conversation play out in her head.
"Smells like Greta is making pies." he said observantly. Lifting the spout of the waterskin to her mouth she allowed it's cool contents to spill on her face and neck before drawing several deep draughts. The efforts expended in their love making would require plenty of water and sustenance if it was going to hold with its current frequency and fire.
***
Melicore had spent a fair portion of the morning searching the guests rooms. His quest had begun the night before in ernest. His master's quarters had not yielded a tool of adequate function to meet his needs so he broadened his search to include the neighboring rooms. The two goblin-like caretakers of the house were an unknown element and would only be a last resort if his master's travel companions did not have the necessary equipment.

His first stop was in the room of the woman knight. The others called her Sell'lesst. It must be a name afforded those of noble upbringing. He imagined the etymology of the name had something to do with her not needing to sell something or trade something for goods and services. He speculated that human parents must have insight into the futures of their offspring. Clearly they knew she could get by on her looks and she would not need to persuade anyone with gifts to get their attention. Her footlocker was filled with all manner of weaponry and armor. He lingered for a moment breathing deeply as he pushed the leather underlayment of her armor close to his prominent nose. Ahh, he sighed. "Women." After a reflective moment he threw the armor back into the chest and slammed the lid.
***
"When I was younger I remember going hunting with my father. We were setting snares on a high mountain meadow. The animals there were too small to hit with an arrow, and leave anything that would be serviceable as a meal." Silverhawk rolled to face Calais before continuing. He showed me how to use sticks and rocks to make deadfalls. We managed to eat well for several weeks in this way. We noticed over time that we were catching fewer meals in this way. The traps were triggered, but no game was found within. Father took it as a personal challenge to improve the nature of our traps until we caught the creature that was undoing our work. We stayed a week longer in the mountains than we had originally planed and still never managed to trap the creature.

We had managed in the ten days we attempted to trap the creature to devise some of the nastiest traps we had ever conceived. Some of the triggers were so delicate that we risked serious injury just setting the traps."
***
Opening the door to the cleric's room offered ample opportunity to obtain the necessary tool. The footlocker contained the body of the deceased rogue. The ice-filled trunk did little to suppress the odor of wet rogue. The bottles of spirits chilling alongside the thief were a tempting distraction, but Melicore was on a quest and he would not be distracted until he found was he was looking for. The cleric's quarter yielded nothing of consequence either.

Next he moved to the quarters of the Dragon Shaman. His room was untouched save for some discarded armor cast onto the bed without a care given to its disposition. A quick check confirmed his suspicion. "Nothing Here" He licked his lips in rapid succession as he was prone to do when he grew anxious.

All that remained was the equipment of the two rangers. They would surely have what he sought. He entered the Man rangers room first. Except for the open shutter in the room there was no sign the ranger had been in the room. Melicore huffed indignantly and slammed the door.

As he opened the door to the last room he could see packs and equipment from both rangers had been deposited neatly near the stuffed chair against the wall.
***
"Calais, I feel I should warn you that I took measures to protect the belongings I placed in my room. I'm not worried about our companions or even the wizard for that matter, but I don't trust that wizard's familiar."
"What did you do?" Calais said, echoing her mischievous tone.
"Nothing lethal, I assure you! but if that little blue menace attempts... Well, lets just say he will sample some of his own mirth."
***
Melicore moved over to the packs, suppressing his desire to lift the packs and dump them liberally on the floor. He stopped dead in his tracks just prior to touching the largest of the packs. Something pricked at his subconscious. Inspecting the packs more carefully, he could see that someone had gone to the trouble of locking and securing all the packs.