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"Well" Auriel said to the wizard across from him, mouth full of stew. "The midget's givin' me like, ten bowls, just because I'm such a great hunter. Doubt I can finish them; you're welcome to a few."


He chewed the stew contemplatively. Auriel was pretty sure there were potatoes in there, but before he could tell he washed it down with a drought of odd tasting hobbit-ale.
 
"Very much obliged." Baznif cackled with a mouth full of soup, it running out of his mouth to stain his newly cleaned beard. "But back in my day, a growing boy like yourself would put back ten bowls by himself if he wanted to grow up big and strong." Baznif said with a wistful expression, staring off into the distance, watching something only he could see. After a few seconds he chuckled and took a swig from the flask before emptying it in entirety into the bowl of soup he was currently eating.
 
"Hmm. Maybe I should try to not grab whatever's closest when I fall... Dammit, be careful next time!" reminded Alagos himself silently for perhaps the thousandth time or so. He had been running a lot. About ten miles, long after his pursuers decided to give up. This was the usual course for him: walk into a seemingly friendly tavern (well, more like accidentally walking into the door, then opening it, in the process almost always slamming his fingers against something) - greet everyone cheerfully - talk with the barkeep about getting a few coins for magic tricks. The dangerous (at least for him) part came next: he would always unintentionally select the most well-known starter of brawls, or the nastiest person in the general vicinity, and so on. Unlucky doesn't even begin to describe him, especially when it came to selecting his victims for his magic tricks. This time wasn't unlike the previous shenanigans, he most bravely chose a seemingly harmless, but shifty-eyed hobbit. When he walked up to him, he began to explain the trick. That wasn't so bad. But when he touched the hobbit's shoulder, he suddenly saw something wooden quickly coming towards his stomach. The club made contact - apparently the hobbit was a notorious bandit who absolutely hated to be touched - and Alagos lost his balance, tripping backwards, almost onto another table. With his faulty reflexes, he grabbed the closest thing so he could hold himself from falling, which sadly proved to be the coin purse of a musclebound half-orc patron.


One can probably discern the following events, which culminated in Alagos being thrown out of the tavern, and him grabbing another coin purse, this time intentional. When this theft was found out, well... he ran. He ran so panicked he dropped the purse - as most of the times. The few times he didn't drop anything while running for his life from someone, a group of someones or a whole tavern of someones, he got at least a few coins to buy food. (He could conjure up food and water too, but he could only use that spell about one time a week.)


Alagos ran and ran, until he was so tired he had to stop. Fortunately for him, this point was at a handful of small hills with circle-shaped doors, which he recognized after a few moments of confusion as a hobbit village. After shaking off the last remnants of his panic, he knocked on the nearest door. He heards voices from in there, one too deep to be of any hobbit's. And two feminine voices, too. This made him a bit anxious, having had next to no luck with women. "...or almost anything else, for that matter." he murmured slightly disheartened. Alagos shook himself, knocked again, and raised his voice quite a bit. "Hey! I don't mean to be rude, but can you please let me in? I'm so... tired..." he trailed off into half-collapsing onto the door's frame. "Damn, Fleeman, get yourself together... This little run was nothing for you..." he scolded himself quietly, his voice cracking into a whisper halfway.
 
Upon hearing the rather short-frequented knocking and seeing how the other occupants had already settled down and were enthusiastically imbibing and ingesting, except for the elf whose demeanor in regards to exposing her facial features appeared similiar to his own, Tyrann rose from his seated position "No need for any of you to interrupt your feast, I shall open what can only be another fellow perpetrator of goodness's entry."


Opening the door wide in a quick movement, while joyousely saying "Hail, good fellow-", he was greeted by a visibly-exhausted figure who, having apparently leaned a bit too far onto the door itself, fell directly against the steel-clad frame of the massive knight, who quickly steadied the man before he could fall onto the ground "My apologies, good sir, I had not anticipated that someone so worn would wait outside."


Closing the door behind them to stave off the cold of the night, the knight, still supporting the man with one hand, asked "Please, sir, allow me to make amends by directing you to a seat at the round, that you may tell us your tale of woe!"
 
After a long day of traveling, Leonard finally found himself in a new village. He remembered how an incident back at the last village he was in had him kicked out. Oh wait! He could always go back to the village! No wait, he was kicked out.


Leonard hit his head thread times, once for his own stupidity once out of confusion, forgetting why he was hitting himself after the last. The last incident involved Leonard saying something, and so he could perhaps fit in better if he had said nothing at all. "I ain't gonna say nothin'." He repeated to himself over and over, at first out loud, then a bit more mentally.


After thinking to himself a bit, Leonard realized that the doors on the houses were very small. They were small elsewhere too, but they were especially small here. Of course, Leonard could simply be growing, and didn't realize it. Suddenly, Leonard's mind went blank- he smelled the scent of food lofting about in the air, and decided to follow the trail to a home which looked particularly lively, with noise coming from it as well as nice food smells.


Leanoard walked in, and then stopped. He knew this feeling all too well. "No wait! No, not this time! Please!" His voice sounded more civil at that moment, as he pleaded to himself or perhaps the gods until his incessant speaking degraded into a loud roar which made a crescendo as he stuck out and pounded his chest. "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"


The monster then rushed into the house, breaking the door.
 
As all the companions ate, drank and were merry, as Ted was bustling about making sure everyone had a feed, there was a great, thundering KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!! on his hobbit hole door.


As the door opened the Opener saw the great hulking figure of Thorbyn, he looked down at the Hobbit at the door, raising an eyebrow, in a lightning-fast movement Thorbyn grabbed the hobbit's arm, yanking it up into view, and then he let loose his thundering voice


"ORY! THIS HOBBIT IS BUT SKIN AND BONES, LIKE A BOY!" he looked down at the hobbit, his glare menacingly "you ain't no milk and bread lover are yeh? you eat meat right... drink mead, right?... I won't tolerate a weak little rabbits in my presence..." his brow furrowed as his glare intensified, but slowly, the man's focused terrifying eyes turned to those of joy, his great bearded face went from a frown to a beaming smile "HAAAH! look at yer face!" he lifted the hobbit up in a great embrace, shaking him around a bit as he did so "Teddy is it? i good name, an honest name!" he let Teddy down "show me to the others little man, i'll make sure they don't get too carried away in your home..."


Thorbyn invited himself in, following the noise to where the rest of them were "Alright you're all guests in this man's house, and as such i don't want to see any buffoonery... Lady Orydd" Thorbyn bowed to her, showing her the deepest respects before helping himself to a chair, grabbing a great mug "mind if i have a drink Lord Mumford?" Thorbn made no attempt to squeeze in, he sat as high and as wide as he wished, which was really pushing the bounds of what this small home could handle.


"I received a message to come here while i was out in the field, fool recruits couldn't find the sharp end of an arrow if it stuck them in the behind, and don't get me started on their sword and tracking skills, they're better off as potters and artists than soldiers and rangers"
 
Baznif stopped with a spoon half way to his mouth. He had to give it to the hobbit, the stew was simply amazing. It had a full, yet light flavor. The meat provided a strong, savory base while the vegetables and spices added highlights. The tastes built on each other, truly greater than the simple sum of his parts. However, it had lacked a certain 'kick'. Baznif had supplied that kick with the contents of his flask, a fairly potent derivative of the common potato.


The sudden arrival of two more men, each louder than the next, was little concern for the wizard. They seemed to have business with the door and the second hobbit respectively, and thus seemed unlikely to bother him. A second mouthful of soup brought a brief smile to his lips. He was learning in his old age to enjoy the simple things in life. A bowl of soup, rising sun, the smile of a beautiful woman, a properly executed machiavellian plot that sent his enemies into disorder, and of course, high proof liquor. Already the incidents from earlier in the day were gone from his mind, and it did not take much for the old wizard to begin to softly doze upright in his chair, his hat falling forward to obscure most of his face.
 
After having directed the young man to a seat at the table as would be proper for his disposition as a fellow follower of the shining light of goodness, another soul, a comparatively large individual, clad in a combination of different sorts of armor, entered, rather audaciousely proclaiming himself to be the apparent keeper of the law within the house's confines, right after having threatened the actual owner, all with a voice that once again disturbed the peace of the night for the poor neighbours and the neighbour's neighbours.


"Sir, by all my goodness-given respect..." Tyrann rose to his ceiling-restrained height, which even so had him precariousely close to crashing into the roof "Regardless of your earlier lack of politeness not only to house, but owner too, I must ask that you lower your voice, lest you further disturb the peace of the night for the people of the village-"


Further would the knight have lectured, had it not just been in this moment that a rather purposeful, massive frame forcefully entered, rather brutally breaking the door in the process of its unrelenting charge, its ravenous gaze set upon the food-filled table.


Overcoming his initial surprise, the knight turned to the... creature, its, or rather, as he assumed, 'his' features telling of some close descendance of the orcish species crossed with what might be the human one.


It might also be of importance to mention that, if the creature would follow the reason it entered in the first place, the knight would stand directly in its path to the table.


"... Sir?" the knight carefully questioned the intruder.
 
Catherine looked up at the man who had entered. His talk of recruits and the like had her riled up slightly, she wondered why... oh yes, that's right, he reminded her of the drill instructor she'd been assigned under when she'd joined up all those years ago, it was no wonder she was already feeling this way.


"Everyone has to start somewhere." she stated. Unable to keep the slight unease out of her voice.


"A Potter or an Artist can wield a sword with patience and training" she remembered old Gustav, whose drawings using the charcoal of the previous nights campfire had kept the whole regiment entertained, the drawing he'd done of the camp before the battle at the Ben'gahl ruins, his final masterpiece, was all she had left of him now.


"You should know as a soldier yourself that if you rush these things you may as well be sending them in with their spears pointing backwards, for all the good a sub-par group would do against a trained enemy." She took a deep breath, no, she didn't need to be remembering these things now.


"Anyway, you may call me Jacks, I'm not quite sure I caught your na-"


And then she was interrupted by a mighty crash as something kicked in the door.


Her hand flew to the handle of her short sword, staying herself from drawing the blade in such a cramped environment where she was surrounded by allies.
 
Anna was tired. She had been walking for hours, and her little feet were starting to grow numb. The poor girl didn't even know where she was going, Nor what she was going to do when she got there. She began to curse her luck, about ready to give up and cry, when she smelled it. A wonderful smell, of a delicious meal.


Approaching the source of the delicious smell, Anna came upon a strange half-house, half-hill structure. Inside, she could hear voices. Loud, blending voices, of a large group of people. Surely, so many souls would have plentiful food to share! Putting on her best "Sad face", Anna knocked on the door and began to whimper. Food would soon be hers.


"E-excuse me, kind sirs... Spare some food for an orphan?"
 
Opening the door, still chewing his food, Auriel stared down at the little girl, covered in dirt. Judging from that and her emaciated appearance, she was most likely starving. It reminded him of himself when he had to figure out how to get food. It turned out hunting wasn't a skill you learned in a day, and she didn't have the time to teach herself.


He handed her the bowl of now lukewarm hobbit-stew.


"I got ten bowls, son. Ten bowls."
 
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Leonard's voice did a decrescendo, as he turned back into his normal state. A little girl? An orphan? She's almost like a half version of Leonard! Though she did need to be a little bigger to be half. Oh look, stew! Leonard didn't have a proper meal since he last left a village. He took a bowl from the man's hands, and forgetting his manners, poured it down his throat, soup, bowl, small, and all.


To Leonard, the stew had a peculiar taste. It was much lighter than what he was used to, but still satisfying nonetheless. "Leonard like! Another!" The hulking giant sat down in front of the man and the little girl.
 
"Th-thank you sir," the girl started, taking one of the bowls and quickly shoveling it into her gullet. Only after she had finished eating the bowl did she realize that she was standing atop a broken down door. The one to the house she was currently in. Hunger can make people ignore even the most obvious of things.


"Excuse me, kind sir, but what happened here?" she asked, in her oh-so-sweet little girl voice. She hoped somebody had gotten in a fight. It was always interesting to look at the aftermath of a fight. Quickly, the bowl fell to the floor as Anna went into the house to inspect where the fight may have taken place, not allowing the man who had just given her life-sustaining nourishment a chance to respond to her early query. Anna was an easily distracted child.
 
As the little girl dashed inside the relative safety of the hobbit house.... hill thing, Auriel examined the half-orc. He seemed harmless enough, just hungry, and Auriel was feeling pretty trigger happy with the generosity now that he'd also received free food. It was probably karma. He acquired another bowl for Leonard.


"Ten bowls."
 
Finally reaching Hithegrove, a man wearing a black hood and a woman fully dressed in black looked around the empty streets. "We may be the last to arrive. I doubt they would have waited," the cloaked man said, shaking his head. As the two looked around as they walked through the village, the woman could not stop admiring the small houses that passed by. She was practically wondering what kind of people lived here. The hooded man was thinking the exact same. Upon hearing a crash to their left, the two had assumed they had found the right house. The man walked over ready to knock on the door, but surprisingly there was not one. "Excuse me. Is this Sir Mumoford's residence?" he asked wondering if he had the place.
 
Leonard laughed, leaving his jaw hanging. "Tank you!" He gratified the man, taking a bowl from the man's hands. Finished the ninth bowl, Leonard looked to the man again. "Mumma always says: 'remember your manners!'", Leonard told him with a mouth still full of stew. Leonard then inhaled the final bowl, shaking hands with the man. "Oh! And Leonard's name is Leonard!"
 
Auriel winced at the half-orc's iron grip, smelling the stew on his breath.


"The name's Auriel" he replied.


He briefly wondered whether it was a good idea to let a child wander unsupervised with the sudden appearance of a white haired guy. The Maker only knew what shenanigans he himself got into fighting animals.
 
"It would appear then that the situation has been disarmed..." the knight noted as he beheld how the now-docile half-orc, who introduced himself as 'Leonard', happily dug into his newly-aquired sustenance. Turning to the formerly unnoticed little girl who had, apparently, sneaked inside while the others were focused on the intruder, the knight, seeing as how she was rather burrowed in her meal, slowly approached her.


"Hail there, little-" he interrupted his sentence, as well as his gait, for just a second when he noticed her slightly-pointed ears, before he caught himself, eyes behind the helmet blinking, and resumed "... child, would you perhaps tell us what your name is? I am..." he hesitated once again, for but a moment "Tyrann."


Kneeling down before her in an attempt to make himself less intimidating, the knight carefully asked "Have you lost your way? Where are your... guardians?" He could not bring himself to say 'parents'.


Navi had, apparently, just kept sitting, watching what might have easily turned into a battle with wide eyes, though never stopping to eat her apple. Even if an observant watcher may have noticed that she looked at the newly-arrived girl with some amount of... apprehension in her eyes as her knight knelt before her.
 
"She's clearly an orphan" Auriel answered Tyrann, walking foward with his arms spread.


"I can tell because she reminds me of me. Also she told me she was an orphan."
 
"An orphan... I see..." the knight said, thoughtfully beholding the girl.


Looking upwards to Auriel, the knight gave as good a courteous bow as he could in his kneeling stance "Many thanks for giving her your food, sir, truly a noble perpetrator of goodness you must be. However, we can not truly take care of her, our quest will take us to the darkest of places against the most fiendish of villains, neither of which are the right aquaintances to make for little girls."


Casting his helmeted gaze anew at her, he asked "Child, do you have a place to stay, somewhere?"
 
Considering the sudden disarm-ment of the apparent Half-Orc who broke down the door, Catherine felt it was best to maybe put a new barrier between the ever stranger companions and this meeting.


And with a quick excusing of herself she rose and moved to where the door had been, finding on the other side of it's now hypothetical existence, (since it was of course hanging half off its hinges against the wall) a pair of seemingly new individuals to the clamour of a group waiting and eating and talking in the house.


"Yes, this is indeed his house." she stepped aside, allowing space for them to enter whilst simultaneously moving her hand onto the shortsword at her hip.


"What business do you have with him?" she asked inquisitively, noting the subtle strangeness of them both, of which it seemed was a common trait amongst those fated to become a part of this meeting.
 
"Do not fear. We are here for the same reason the rest of you," the two said simultaneously. The man removed the black cloak from his person saying, "My name is Rismond." "And my name is Mirana. It is a....pleasure to meet you all," Mirana said twiddling her fingers.
 
Anna looked at the strange man, and then back down at her feet.


"No, sir, I do not," she began, trying to remember how long she'd been walking. Was... Was he inviting her to stay with him, here? "Why do you ask?" She queried, cautious, but hopeful. This would be the first actual home she'd been able to live in in quite some time. A real house!
 
"Hmm..." Auriel considered the girl's words. "When I was your age, I had to put food on the table and be head of a small household." he remembered those hard years he spent learning how to identify edible foods through trial and error, and hunting larks with sharpened sticks he carved himself. He lost a lot of weight during that time.


"But I can tell you have nothing to start with. So, I'll tell you what kid. You can come with me, learn from me. I'll make a self sufficient man out of you."
 
Teddy had made his way to answer the door for the thousandth time and before he could say hello, his arm was grabbed he was immediately was called many things he could not dare to understand. His shoulders tensed and his eyes grew wide at such a sight. "I.. I.. I." he stammered, trying his best to form a sentence with all of his ability. Some could even say he appeared like he was about to burst into tiny little Hobbit tears.


If it hadn't been for the joyous laugh and lovely embrace, the Hobbit would've melted into his boots. "Yes.. I'm uh.. Teddy." he whispered, shivering while he made his way back into the main room. He stood there a few moments, nearly ignoring all the commotion around of food and laughs and wisdom, and even the new face of a orphan girl, who had no idea where she was. "Excuse me.. f-for a moment." he whispered, walking into his living room away from it all to take a seat, placing his head in his hands. Any moment he was about to explode. There were too many damn people in his house, his cellar was empty, his kitchen and door was ruined. Fantastic, simply fantastic.





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Orydd was one of the many laughing and sharing wisdom among the others, turning away to push her veil away and take a sip of her lovely red wine. "Welcome all, welcome." she said aloud, raising her glance and lowering it with much respect for everyone who had came, more than what she thought. She turned her head once and looked at Teddy who had left the room to go sit with himself, poor old Hobbit, already being overwhelmed with such chaos even before the adventure had started. Orydd let out a breath and eyed the small orphan girl who had shown up. "It won't be long until the sun raises and we'll be on our way, so I think we must discuss such plans before so."


 
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