A quiet return

[Juniper Onyx]

A small figure can be seen arriving by ferry in the middle of the night. Cloaked in a disheveled robe and leaning slightly on a cane, he approaches the Hemp Necktie Inn with a belabored sigh. "Ah! Good to be back again", he says. Seeing no-one about, he slings his bag over his shoulder and hobbles toward the Inn, where a lonely lantern lights the Innkeeper's table.

The figure reaches in his robe and pulls out a key, looking at it intensely. Nodding, he moves to the stairs, walks up and toward the "Greenbriar" room with it's locked door. Slowly with trepidation, he tries the key to the lock and twists. "Click" goes the lock. The figure lets out a sigh of relief and opens the door, enters and closes the door.

Inside among the dust and cobwebs, is the painting he made himself of his former home of Greenbriar before the devastation. There was the meeting table and chairs for the former Farmer's Guild he had tried to start before he was called away. Everything was here just as he'd left it! "Could it be?" he asked to himself, and rushed over to the chest. Opening it with a groan, he exclaimed and nearly knocked himself over with glee! "It's all here!! The Gold, the gems, all the wealth of my lifetime! It's still here!"

Sounds could be heard down in the Inn of someone dancing upon two feet and a stick. Grimacing, the Innkeeper ignored it for about 5 minutes and then wondered why it stopped.

Upstairs, a small halfling, now 73 years of age, could be seen snoozing upon a dusty bed.

The next morning, he awoke and started cleaning up the room, went to see the Innkeeper about keeping the room, making amends about his bill and exploring the Isle for changes, new faces and news of people he had known.