Beyond What's Known

Chapter 14

Siobhan definitely knew her audience. Alana shouldn't have been surprised, given that Siobhan hosted a bed and breakfast. She definitely would have to be able to handle the 'breakfast' part. But still, Alana was impressed at the sheer volume of food on the long dining room table. There were a couple large bowls of pasta, several jars of varying kinds of pasta sauce, several baskets of breadsticks, and two bowls of salad.

"This is enough for me, but I dunno about the rest of ya," Kord laughed, even though they all knew that even Kord wouldn't be able to clear the table.

"Thank you, Siobhan," Alana laughed, taking a seat. She was between Eli and Trixie on one side, and the other side hosted Pronto, Kord, and Junjie, with Siobhan at the head of the table next to Eli and Pronto and Sam at the other end of the table between Trixie and Junjie.

"It's no problem, I've been wanting to get some good cooking in for a while now," Siobhan said nonchalantly, smiling as the slingers began loading their plates. Junjie eyed the others carefully, looking like he was making sure these caverns didn't do anything notably different from his at the dinner table. "Not the best I ever made, but not half bad when you're just trying for a large volume."

"It's perfect," Eli assured. "Thank you for being such a great host. We really appreciate it."

"Stop thanking me," Siobhan grumbled, but her smile didn't fade. "Just givin' back a bit. Don't amount to much compared to what you slingers give. Sorry the rest of this town can't see that. They're all riled up. In a few days, they'll calm down, and be rightfully ashamed."

Trixie scoffed, taking a pause from devouring a heaping plate of spaghetti.

"Good. They should be," she said.

"You sure showed them, though," Kord laughed, glancing up at Alana. "You looked real mad, all glowy like that."

"I felt real mad," Alana sighed, breaking off a piece of breadstick and handing it to Ash, who blew some flames on it to toast it nearly to char before chomping into it. "I hope I didn't make things worse. I knew we talked about being transparent about the whole caverns thing, but I don't think that's what any of us had in mind."

"Pronto would have made an excellent figurehead to this new era of knowledge, but you did the best you could!" Pronto exclaimed. "Perhaps next time we drop a bombshell, you should let Pronto, though. I am very talented at talking to the masses!"

"I will keep that in mind," Alana laughed. "I'm not planning on doing that again, though. The videos on the SlugNet better do their job and circulate so we don't need to have that conversation again."

Junjie cleared his throat, speaking up from his corner of the table.

"I do not have any experience with the people of these caverns. Are they usually so... rattled?" he asked carefully. "It certainly was unexpected behavior, given that your group protects them."

Eli, who had already somehow eaten three breadsticks and half a plate of spaghetti, shook his head. Luckily he took a moment to actually swallow before talking.

"It's not usually like that. Some people hate us, don't get me wrong, but usually people are either neutral or like us," he said. "The people who hate us are usually trying to do something bad, so it was a little weird to get so much hate from townspeople. Usually civilians who don't like us are super rich and in tight with the bad guys, or older people who are mad that I don't do things just like my dad did."

"Which is a load, nobody's Will Shane 'cept for Will Shane," Siobhan noted. "You're doing great, kid."

Eli just smiled, and even though it was hinted with sadness, Alana knew he appreciated hearing that, especially when just a little while ago he was being shouted at for not living up to his father's reputation.