Dimly Lit Inn

  The innkeeper's oil lamp cast swaying shadows as Lady Eileen's retinue ascended creaking stairs. Each step groaned under armored boots, wooden planks threatening collapse.

  Reaching the garret, the innkeeper pushed ajar a splintered door.

  Crimson moonlight spilled through balcony windows onto a spartan room: cracked desk, barren bookshelves, threadbare brown bedding. Despite being the "best" chamber, mildew choked the air—damp, suffocating.

  Eileen's nose wrinkled involuntarily.

  "None better?" her grizzled knight growled.

  "None, milord." The innkeeper lit twin lamps with trembling hands.

  "Then yield your own—"

  Steel gauntlets seized the man's collar, hoisting him midair. Oil lamp nearly crashing, the innkeeper whimpered.

  Eileen raised a finger.

  "Enough." Her voice cut frostily. "Dawn approaches. All quarters serve."

  The knight lowered his prey, bowing stiffly. "As you command."

  Alone now, Eileen inhaled putrid air, coughing into her glove. She flung balcony doors wider, letting night winds scour the room. Moonlight kissed her sword hand—knuckles whitening around the hilt.

  Screams erupted below. Hooves clattered.

  "After him!"

  "Don't let it escape!"

  Leaning over the rail, Eileen glimpsed a cloaked figure darting through torchlit chaos—knights converging from all alleys.

  "A lich... truly?" Her eyes widened.

  The quarry vanished, leaving trampled stalls in its wake.

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  Before she could ponder, her chamber door burst open.

  Grizzled knight scanned the room urgently. "Milady! You're unharmed?"

  "Unscathed."

  Adam sprinted through alleys like a gale, black cat swinging in his grip. Canopies ripped, vegetable carts splintered, stable rails snapped underfoot. Knights thundered behind, lances gleaming, turning the tranquil hamlet into bedlam.

  Miraculously, two skeletal legs outpaced steeds.

  The lich moved with uncanny agility - grasshopper-leaping over mounted knights, hamster-squeezing through ratholes, even disassembling mid-stride to evade attacks. Arrows merely pierced his cloak, lodging between ribs before being plucked out and discarded.

  "Devil take it! Fetch nets!"

  "I'll mince him for hound feed!"

  "There! Corner him!"

  Knights wheezed through labyrinthine alleys, dizzy and spent.

  "Who knew bones could run?" The cat cackled as scenery blurred. "Thought you'd scatter like firewood!"

  "Triple Gale Spells enhancement!"

  "Now that's proper lich villainy!"

  Their laughter choked as Adam skidded to a halt, pivoting. A knight's lance thrust came inches from his skull - until Adam ducked, scooping up...

  "You idiot! I have nine lives!" The cat screamed, realizing Adam was reattaching his dislodged jawbone.

  When the cat regained composure, their predicament worsened - encircled by knights, squires, even pitchfork-wielding peasants.

  Silver-armored captain rode forth, triumphant. "Nowhere left, vermin!"

  "Mercy! I'm just a stray!" The cat yowled uselessly in human ears.

  Inn Balcony

  Lady Eileen observed the spectacle, flanked by her retinue. Below, knights formed defensive perimeter.

  Blood moonlight illuminated Adam's polished cranium and tattered cloak. He scanned the quivering spears aimed his way - humanity's first close encounter with a lich in millennia.

  Petite frame matching human adolescence, crimson-tinged bones shimmering, soul-fire eyes trailing ghostly afterimages. Though differing from legends, sufficiently terrifying for nursery tales.

  Adam exhaled spectral mist like storybook villains. Then: "My apologies. I'll rebury bones and draft penitent letters." The telepathic message stunned the crowd.

  Eileen's eyebrow arched. "Surrendering?"

  Her grizzled knight scratched his beard. "Lich... apologizing?"

  "Disgrace!" The cat hissed. "No villain capitulates pre-battle!"

  "Peaceful resolution preferred," Adam insisted.

  Silver captain misinterpreted: "He fears us! Charge!"

  The mob surged like starved hounds. Adam's small frame vanished beneath the dogpile.

  "Stop shoving!"

  "Who's spearing my arse?"

  "I've got hi—that's my foot!"

  Amid chaos, Adam wriggled free through someone's legs, cat in tow.

  "Why not fly earlier?" The cat screeched as Adam chanted.

  "Still practicing!"

  They catapulted skyward in a parabolic arc, crash-landing into a hay shed across town - bones scattering.

  Silence.

  "After them!" The silver captain rallied.

  Eileen exhaled, smirking. "Fool lich. Greater fools pursue."