Scrolls of Alexandria (Private)

[Stilia Medusa]

It wasn’t her first visit to Africa, but she had only been within the country of Egypt before. So the gorgon had flown across the Mediterranean, visiting the coasts of several countries and absorbing the culture of each place during her stays. But eventually she wandered back, to the country that had previously been the only one in all of Africa she had seen. How could she resist Egypt? Egypt. The beautiful land, with gems hidden among the golden desert sands. Filled with knowledge, beauty, it was one of the rising stars in the development of civilization. People had figured out irrigation to survive in the harsh conditions, thousands of years ago. They developed writing, language, and were vigourously religious. How could one whom sought out knowledge not be drawn to this beautiful place? It was like a calling beacon of light to the Medusan known as Stilia, who’s one true love was and will always be knowledge. And to quench her thirst, she travelled to it’s famed desert.

She had never before been able to truly enjoy Egypt. Every time she had come, it was because she had been called upon to help, like her old friend Cag’uuror, defeat a Sphinx that was rampaging about. They were beautiful creatures, and quite cunning, so she had yet to kill one. She was perfectly fine in just scaring it off and having it settle down. She would rather avoid the death of such a magnificent being anyways.

Since she had been flying the Mediterranean coast, she settled down in Alexandria during the night, a small speck flying through the cooling night air, unseen in the dark. She landed outside of Egypt’s second largest city and wandered inside, in the form of a human woman. She knew it was dangerous, to wander this unfamiliar land at night, and began to seek a hotel. Tomorrow, instead of hunting sphinxes, the gorgon planned on seeing hotels and ancients runes. Study the beautiful calligraphy of hieroglyphics and see the fading statues of ancient Pharaohs of this land. She was quite giddy with excitement of all the new things to learn. But of course, a place to stay was needed for this night first. Sadly, it was the priority.

[Thanatos]

Egypt, the desert of lost knowledge. Thanatos has traveled through Egypt many times but was never able to stop and read or learn any thing. This time he took a detour through Egypt to be able to stop for a while and discover more about this land of mystery while on his way to China. Thanatos didn't care much for the sand but the stories and knowledge that laid underneath it is what he cared about most of all. He wanted to know what secrets this land holds under the ever shifting sands.

Morrigan was enjoying the sun during the day, stretching her wings she would take off and fly around in the air a bit, following Thanatos. Once night hit she quickly hunkered down for the night on his shoulder. The reaper was mostly traveling at night but stayed out of the more public places while he had the scythe, even in his human form it seemed to make people nervous. As he walked down the main empty street of Alexandria in his true form he looked for a place to stay and keep his scythe safe while he was out during the day.

Thanatos came across a hotel, quickly shifting to his human form he placed morrigan and his scythe on the railing outside while he walked into the building to talk to the owner about rooms.

[Stilia Medusa]

It was considered a three star hotel apparently, but Stilia highly doubted it lived up to such expectations. She noticed a foreign beetle scurry by when she entered the shabby lobby. Dirt and grit were on the apparently never cleaned carpets, and she wrinkled her sensitive nose at what would have been a faint odor of sweat, sex, and garbage to humans but a very prominent odor of all the above to her. The poor Medusan’s face couldn’t help but grimace, but she still walked up to the wood counter (covered with a few coffee stains that had never been cleaned and that have permanently soaked into the wood, giving it a Dalmatian appearance) to talk to the very-bored looking clerk. He was greasy, and just as dirty looking as the hotel itself. Stilia knew how to read basic Arabic, having studied it to read such literary works as the Quran, as well as the basics of other fascinating written languages like hieroglyphics. But she couldn’t speak a single word of it, and still sometimes had to refer to guides to read the many languages. Greek and English were the easiest languages to flow from her silver tongue, but as she highly doubted that anyone here spoke Greek, she tried her hand at English. “Hello Sir, what is the cost of a room?”

The clerk made a strange strangled snort of a sound, and with the two tiny black beads he had for eyes (probably appearing even smaller than they were due to his pig-like face and over-sized nose) gave the woman a look over. She wasn’t in her true form, nor even her true face, but rather a rather undistinguished, plain looking girl. His accent was thick, but Stilia managed to understand “Three-hundred and forty Egyptian pounds.”

Stilia nodded and pulled out the money, which roughly equaled fifty American dollars. She placed it on the table silently, and the clerk searched through his desk until his sausage fingers pulled out a key, which he dropped unceremoniously on the desk. Stilia scooped it up, disgusted she was paying fifty dollars to stay in this dump, but it was dark and she had no idea where the next nearest place would be or if it would be any better. Anyways, fifty wasn’t a horrible price. She completed the registration (all with false info, since as a Gorgon she didn’t exactly have her own I.D) and was about to go to her room when suddenly the door opened. A man walked in, seemingly human, but her sensitive snake nose twitched.

This man was very odd, smelling of death and his breath of corpses. His interesting odor made her forget of the greasy clerk’s sweatiness. She paused a moment, observing this unfamiliar face, and wondering what had just walked through the door.