[Rearing Stallions] A Place to Meat (Open)

[Fortenbras]

1st Day of Fall, 510
Night


Fortenbras stumbled through the doors, hungry to the point of collapsing. He headed over to a table located near the fireplace, where he felt he would be much more at home. The heat welcomed him as he sat at the table, and was immediately greeted by a fellow who introduced himself as Seth.

"Dinner, anything will do. And a gallon of ale."

He sat with his back to the fireplace, his eyes at the door entrance ahead of him. He did not understand how everything had happened, it all seemed like a jumble to him. He realized almost at once, that without food in his stomach, he wouldn't be able to think.

Seth headed over to him a few minutes later, a plate of food in one hand, and a gallon of ale in the other. Fortenbras pulled 8 sm from his gold purse, and immediately began to devour his food, not realizing that the waiter still stood by the table.

"Isurian, what brings you around these parts?"

He took a second to chew his food, swallowed, and began to speak.

"Seth, is it? I'm here because I've decided to explore the world outside of my home. I'm here to increase my skills in my trade, and to find purpose in my life. My name is Fortenbras."

He didn't realize how jumbled his answer was. He didn't realize that giving his name out so easily to someone he had just met was probably not a good idea. The Isurian had no idea what and what not to say, he was simply to inexperienced, almost like a child.

"Do not give out your name so easily my friend, one must earn it. Enjoy your food, and give me a shout if you need anything else."

Fortenbras grunted, gave a sharp nod, and proceeded to stuff his face as much as possible.

[Elhaym]

Pain stumbled wearily into the Rearing Stallion, her leather satchel in tow. The place was bustling as usual, but Pain was willing to deal with the crowds. Her hands were swollen at the knuckles, and her body visibly battered. Not to mention the shiner on her eye and the fat lip, and the nasty bruise just to the right of her mouth that was beginning to yellow. Truthfully, she simply did not have the energy to even pack a rice cake to eat right now. She just wanted to sit, and have a plate of food put down in front of her. She had been taking care of long put off errands all day, despite her battered condition.

"Hey hey hey! Look, fellas! It's the ol' artist girl who got beat up at the Coin!" a patron drunkenly slurred, his voice rising a bit above the hum of the voices in the tavern. Before she could even throw her hands up to resist, a group of men had gotten up from their seats to meet her near the door. This of course raised the ire of several men seated throughout the tavern, who half rose from their seats in anticipation of trouble. Obviously, knights that were off duty. Then again, a Syliran Knight never really went off duty.

The men however, were not looking for a fight. They playfully jeered with Pain, talking of some sort of fight that apparently had been sanctioned at a gambling establishment in town. From Pain's condition, it was a fairly certain guess that she had lost. The men seemed enthralled to see her up and moving, but after a few stutters and stammers, they subsided back to their chairs and resumed their drunken banter. Pain wobbled towards the back of the tavern, unable to fund an unoccupied table.

She stood there, a pitiful sight unless you were to look a bit closer. Her body was fairly chiseled, an odd trait for what the men had described as an artist. She looked like a fighter, after all. Looking like a fighter did not get you a free seat, and Pain spun her head around, double and triple checking the tavern for somewhere, anywhere to sit and eat.

[Damselian]

Damselian burst through the doors of The Rearing Stallion with a loud bang. He reached out quickly to shut the doors more gently behind him, uttering a "Whoops..." that seemed to pierce the din of the busy tavern. As he withdrew his hands from the door handles, the Akalak pulled his cloak tightly about himself. He shivered in the doorway as he turned on a heel, musing that it might be wise to buy warmer clothes before setting out for Riverfall. The warrior looked from one end of the room to the other, scanning the crowd for any familiar faces.

He spotted Fortenbras near the back of the tavern, just as the waiter departed from his table. His friend looked famished, feasting in the dim radiance of the fireplace. Dams realized that it would be best to leave him alone for the moment, allow him to enjoy his meal in relative tranquility. A slight grin spread across his lips at the thought, he would probably end up pissing Fort off if he sat down and started talking his ear off while he was trying to eat. Besides, Dams noticed another familiar face just a few yards from his friend. He had watched a brutal hand to hand fight at The Spinning Coin a few days ago. It was an exciting match, one that inspired him to meet the participants. What good fortune that he had spotted the young woman from the fight. She looked like she desperately needed a seat, her eyes scanning the room with a slightly hopeless expression. He began to walk across the tavern straight toward the young woman.

"Damn, it doesn't look like there's any open tables here," he greeted her. "We picked the wrong time to come to the Stallion for a meal, I'd say.." he said, stopping to stand beside her. "I saw your fight at the Coin, y'know. That was damn good. I was rooting for you all the way," he said, grinning at the young woman. "Really made me want to knock the smile off that guy's face, actually. Do you know him? Could you introduce me? I'd like to challenge him to a spar," he explained. "I would challenge you but ehh..You look like you could use another week or two of rest, to be honest" he joked, nudging her bicep gently with his elbow.

Turning to face her, Dams offered his hand, introducing himself "My name's Damselian, it's a pleasure." Finally he cut to the chase, gesturing towards the table where Fortenbras sat. Three empty chairs surrounded him, plenty of seating for now. "If you need a place to sit, please, join my friends and I at the table over here. I'd love to get to know you better, and I think you'll find that we're swell company if you can stand Isurian humor." he offered a beaming smile with his invitation, keeping his eyes on her own.

[Elhaym]

Pain looked up at the Akalak with a wary, squinty eyed expression as he made small talk intitally. When he mentioned the fight however, Pain's eyes fluttered as she recalled the final blow of the match and her still aching right wrist and forearm. She smiled a lopsided smile when he spoke of her condition, mostly because he was right. She looked, to put it bluntly, like shyke.

"Damselian." She said somewhat thoughtfully. She had heard of Akalak before, but never interacted with one. The denizens of Mizahar were many and varied, and Pain was mostly skeptical of all but humans such as herself. To her surprise, the few encounters she had with other races tended to be quite normal, and this one was no exception. He wasn't a freakish warrior seething for a fight. He seemed quite civilized, actually. "I'm called Pain. At this point i'd eat dinner with a Zith so long as I didn't have to cook it, so I guess I can handle your Isurian."

With that, she extended her swollen hand grasped his, accepting the handshake he had initiated. His hand was much bigger than hers, which surprised her once she actually had a chance to compare it to her own. When their hands parted, she looked towards the table he had motioned towards and began to move towards it. She was a bit shaky on her feet, obviously still feeling the effects of losing such a quick, yet brutal match.

As she plodded along towards the table, she turned towards Damselian and spoke in a slightly hushed tone. "His name was Stitch. He's really strange, but he isn't as cocky as you would believe... I think, he's actually a pretty decent guy. He's just a petching freak, is all." Pain bit her lower lip in an involuntary reaction to her profanity after she spoke, which caused her to wince visibly due to the gash running across the tender tissue. Sometimes, she forgot her manners. Quite a bit, actually.

The table was occupied by only one man, who seemed quite intent on devouring everything he could. Pain stopped short of taking a seat, instead waiting for some sort of introduction of invitation. One instance of bad manners was enough for a first impression.

[Talos Bulwark]

Talos had found himself, very suddenly, alone as his new found Isur friend had found some energy and sped off toward the Stallion. He had apparently been too hungry to even wait for Talos to accompany him in and Talos would have to pick up the pace if he was to be there to enjoy any of the meal at all. He turned his cautious walk into a hearty stride... well, hearty for an Isur but he was only five feet tall and it seemed circus like.

As he entered the tavern his friend had disappeared in the crowed and it took Talos the better part of three minutes to even locate Fort. Once he did he hurried to the bar and ordered up some food, potato soup and water... to start. The boy would need something thick to stick to his bones. He had no idea that Fort had already ordered up some food and found himself spending ten sm for nothing. When he turned about to get some directional on the table again he saw that someone had already approached Fort and was about ready to be seated. Talos would wait to see how it played out, he had to wait for the food anyways.

So many new people in one day...

A glint of misplaced uncertainty flashed across his spine as he wondered how it all would play out.

[Eanos]

It was not often that Eanos left the relative security of the forge. It wasn't so much that he felt threatened by the pace of life in the city, but more that he couldn't be bothered with dealing with the lesser races in a social setting. Business was one thing, but he saw no point in having to drink and socialise when he could be getting on with something far more useful in his own time.

But even the most solitary sometimes feels a degree of curiosity and Eanos had certain itches which he found hard to scratch in this city where the knights were ever present. So this day of all days he'd chosen to enter the tavern and now he stood just inside the entrance, his eyes quickly scanning the interior. It wasn't especially unusual to find another Isur, but it was rare indeed to find two of them. It was a chance to catch up and see if these two had more recent news of home, that city which was so far away.

A Vizerian was seated and a Coglias stood not so far in front of him. The three of them made an unlikely mix it seemed to him. Soldier, mage and priest. It was the sort of thing that were the basis of jokes, but likely only the three of them of the whole tavern had any idea that the Isur even had clans, so it was a secret which remained safe.

He shouldered forward and spoke quietly into the ear of Talos. "Izurdins blessings on this day that brings three of our people to this place."

[Azureus]

Azureus was sitting in the corner of the tavern enjoying his meal. He looked up and noticed an acquaintance stumbling through the door. He watched Fortenbras stagger over to a table, wondering if he was going to collapse from exhaustion. Azureus sat at his own table, viciously cutting his steak up into chunks. As he was sawing through the raw meat, blood poured out and consumed his plate. He started feasting on his meal, shredding it with his huge, powerful canines. As his teeth sliced through the meat, blood poured down his face. After finishing his meal, he raised the plate to his face and tilted it to drain the blood into his mouth. Just as he drank half of the blood from his plate, Damselian burst through the door, startling Azureus, causing him to throw his plate up in the air and cover himself in blood. With his quick reflexes, his hand shot out from the table and caught the plate before it could shatter on the floor. Not feeling comfortable covered in blood he wiped his face off with a cloth. He left enough mizas on the table to pay for his meal, including a tip for his waiter. He approached Damselian and his acquaintance standing in front of Fortenbras table. "You always got to make an explosive entrance, don't ya?" "You scared the bejeezus out of me. You made me spill the most delicious part of my meal all over my face!" Azureus sighed and shook his head at Dams. Azureus turned to Dams acquaintance to introduced himself. He looked at her, examining her wounds and her body. He realized that she was a fighter, by her figure and tone. "Who looks worse? You or the other guy?" After hearing her response, he turned to Fortenbras and extended his right arm for a handshake. After shaking Fortenbras hand, he looks toward Dams and asks "When are we going to be setting off for Riverfall?" Azureus was looking forward to the trip, he never been on a ship before, he was eagerly anticipating the departure. He was excited to meet a new friend that Dams had mentioned that they would be meeting up with in Riverfall. Dams had mentioned her name before but Azureus could not recall what it was. As this was his first big adventure, he was ecstatic. Exploring new territories provided an excitement on its own. He enjoyed meeting new people and viewing new scenery. He admired the unique beauty of each domain.

[Fortenbras]

Fortenbras had never pigged out so much in his life. It was with great effort, that he looked up from his food to notice one that looked like she'd been through the mill and back.

I wonder what happened to that one.

He once again looked back at his own plate, noticing how much he had left, he panicked, thinking that somehow, someone snuck up and ate most of his meal. It was a foolish split-second thought. He realized later that he may have not realized how much he had consumed, and that it may be time to order a second helping. As he was about to call to the waiter, the doors burst open once again to another somebody, this time however, he decided it best not to pry too much and to concentrate on his food.

He grabbed the dish and proceeded to pour it down his throat, breathing heavily after each gulp. As he shoved the last of his food down his throat, he noticed the two that had entered just recently standing by his table, as if awaiting to be invited to sit down.

That's odd.

He hadn't realized that as he began to speak with the two facing his table, Talos and another Isurian had entered the Rearing Stallion.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think I know who you are."

He spoke, focusing only on the beaten up warrior, too intimidated by the size of the Akalak that stood next to her. He did not realize that the Akalak was in fact the old friend his father had mentioned he would meet in Syliras. Regardless, he became tense, readying himself for the encounter that may or may not happen.

"Please sit, you look exhausted."

He once again spoke looking directly at Pain, still too frightened to acknowledge the big fellow next to her.

[Elhaym]

Pain was quite suddenly surrounded by strange people. Pain twisted her neck and widened her eyes are a very odd fellow who seemed to have spilled his dinner all over his himself engaged her in conversation. The small twitches of her eyes and mouth readily betrayed her discomfort in his appearance. Not soup, not ale, but the runny blood from a piece of meat seemed to saturate him.

"That's, uh... you... ugh." Pain stammered in response to his question. clearly somewhat disgusted. To her benefit, the oddity of a man quickly turned his attention to Damselian and began rambling on. It was only then that she heard the lone man sitting at the table she'd been brought to speak.

"Uh, likewise. This big fella told me I could have a seat here." Pain said, pointing her thumb at Damselian. He invited her to sit and she obliged, silently hoping the freak with no table manners wouldn't be joining the table. He was going on about an adventure of some sort.

"I just need a bite. I'm honestly not feeling too great right now, can't really use my hands to well..." Pain said, simultaneously gesturing to the growing crowd around her. "You know these guys? They're, uh, pretty inquisitive. I'm call Pain, by the way." She said, shifting her weight in her chair and propping her elbows on the table.

The man seemed locked in a nervous stare on her, but she guessed that it was more of a defense mechanism than a genuine attempt to be, well, creepy. Maybe he didn't know these folks too well after all. Indeed, his gluttonous meal had just been interrupted by three apparent strangers, and surely at this rate more would come.