He came back to the waking world at the sound of a soft scraping. Resisting the urge to open his eyes, Inodhill sent his senses out, trying to deem if the source of the scraping sound was a threat. To the casual, or even attentive, observer, he would look as if he was still sleeping. But he was mentally wide awake, controlling his breathing, letting his chest rise and fall in the pattern of sleep. A very valuable skill, that. He’d been able to glean much information several times before in that fashion.

Several moments later Inodhill sighed and turned to face the source of the scraping noise.

“Stupid cat…”

The said animal raised its head and stared at Inodhill quizzically before shaking down its brown fur and returning to its meal of dead crow.

Inodhill looked about and saw that the sun was just about to rise from behind the forest, the green hell that was his home. Akanista was a forest nation of sorts, with most of its land mass covered by tropical greenery. Besides the monastery hiring out its agents on a contract basis, the nation also serves as a stop-over port along one of the major sea-trade routes of the world. As a result, there were many port towns along its coastline, although if one was looking for variety, one would be sorely disappointed.