The beginning of a beautiful relationship - Part I

Peeking out from under the pile of large animal skins (he guessed that they were Guntu Bear skins, but he had never seen one in this flattened form before) Skeetr could see three men transferring some items from a woven basket to a large stone table, but he could not clearly see what the items were. One of the robed figures then dropped something and Skeetr could see it was an organ of some kind and almost retched at the site. Whether they were human remains or from some animal, he could not tell and preferred not to know.  

A simple messenger ("errand boy" was what his last employer called him), Skeetr had delivered a note to a large, dark skinned man outside the Lazy Priest in the town of Mercester. Never having received such a large sum of money for one job before, Skeetr first stared at the small pile of gold in his hand, then proceeded to count it. Now oblivious to everything but his new fortune, Skeetr did not hear the man's quiet command to stand back. There was a blinding flash! Skeetr crouched to a small ball as an instinctive reaction. Opening one eye and looking up, Skeetr could see the large man walking away from him through a door. Shock and fear flowed through him as he looked around the dark room. Apparently, by not heeding the man's warning to stand aside, Skeetr had been caught in his teleport. Skeetr had heard tales of dungeons and crypts, even seen the outside of a few of the less scary, but never ventured inside. 'Until today', he thought to himself. Hearing noises coming closer to the room, Skeetr crawled beneath a pile of skins.  

Because of the robes, Skeetr assumed these three to be mages or clerics of some sort and knew that he was lucky that they hadn't sensed his presence yet. The three muttered to themselves while performing their work. Skeetr remained silent and still. As a messenger traveling between towns, Skeetr would hide from any strangers passing on the trail and he would sleep in trees for protection at night. He was quite a stealthy boy, but he did not think in those terms. These skills would contribute to preserving his life. After hours of waiting and with the warmth of the skins above him, Skeetr fell asleep.  

He awoke to silence. The weight of the skins seemed to press on him less than he remembered and hoped that he was imagining it, because the only other explanation would be that the mages had removed some skins from his pile while he slept. The room sounded empty and he peeked out once again. All was quiet and dark, so he crawled out, stretched a bit and started to sneak out the one open door. This place seemed abandoned, so Skeetr crept down the hallway to his right. Feeling more relaxed due to the silence around him, Skeetr moved a bit quicker. 'Better to leave this place sooner than later', he told himself. Coming to a door on the left, he decided to explore all options for an exit, so he placed his ear against the door to listen for noises inside. The door suddenly opened! Before him stood the large man to whom he had delivered the note. They both jumped back in surprise. The man, being startled, didn't move for a half-second. He then regained his composure and decided what should be done with this whelp in the other half of that second. A ball of electricity flew from his fingertips. Skeetr had other plans form in his head during that second half-second and took off like an arrow shot down the hall to his right. The back of his shirt smoking from the burst of electricity exploding against the wall behind him.