"Hey, did you hear?" Tam tore through a leathery leg of meat with her sharp, demonic teeth. "The new branch that opened under the Heroes' Order?"
"More slaves." Jae clapped her hands. Cake mimicked her and patted his tiny claws together.
"Yeah, I heard about it. A lot of people from my village said they wanted to join." JD added. "Seems as though the world might be getting better afterall."
Jester and Roark shared a mocking snort.
"A world at peace? Oh, please." Jester's shrill but reverent taunt was heard through the dining hall.
"You don't think it's a good idea?" Mikaus scraped the edge of his lips with the corner of a napkin.
"No." Roark flashed his dark eyes at The Goat Lord, sipping from a round glass. "Must I remind you of the King over Grelch?"
The elvhen rogue was referring to a traitor who had once, long ago, been simply level with the champions. Darrylin Adrano, a greedy, selfish and prideful man who fed off the fruit of the champion's labor and sold them to multiply his wealth. To Roark's dismay, Darrylin succeeded and grew to be the richest among the champions. He forfeited his seat at the table to bask in his glory among those who blindly worshipped him, losing the respect of the continent.
"I'll fry that hoe, Roarky, just you wait." Jae declared.
"She's right." Sarfia nodded from the other end of the splendid spread of food. "No nemesis to you is a nemesis of yours alone. We're a family."
"To Family!" Nix chirped happily, raising a glass. "To The Heroes Of Thotvyle!"
"Here, here!" The table cheered, thrust their own glasses foward.
"A rumor is being passed through Stormshale that we'll be leading some of the newcomers. I'm not happy with that." Tam said. "Chances are, we won't even have serious initiates; just idiots who want to meet us."
"Hey! Be nice to our fans!" Nix scolded.
"Slaves!" Jae corrected.
"I've got no problem with it." Mikaus shrugged solemnly. "Could bring good opportunities for people like Lady Gracie and Elena."
"Gracia and Elena and suck my toes." Jae pointed below the table.
"We should wait and see what it brings us." Sarfia adjusted her glasses. "If nothing good comes of it, we can take it up with the royalty of Thotvyle.
Just then, in soared with shocking speed a light brown blur that crashed into the table, smashing plates and sending glass and food flying.
"KILL IT!" Jae shrieked, throwing out her hand and began channeling an unfriendly spell.
"No! Don't! For fuck's sake, don't!" A squawk following the creature standing up right. It was a bird the size of a turkey with black eyes and a corn yellow beak. Its wings animated like a person's would, gesturing for us to calm down."Hakuna your tatas!"
"More food?" Roark raised an eyebrow.
"No! Although, you need it. Anyways, I bring urgent news! There's-"
"Oh! Birb, what's your name??" Jae stared in awe.
"Huh? Why does that even matter? I'm Falcon, better known as Word Of The Falcon; I'm a messanger. Anyways, I have urgent-"
"Ew, there's feathers all over the meat." Tam wrinkled up her nose.
"That's what she said." Nix said quickly.
"GUYS!" Falcon squawked again, "LISTEN TO ME!"
"Don't be an attention hungry emo hoe, now." Jae frowned.
"I-- I don't even know how to reply to that." Falcon shook his head. "Listen! This is from the people above you. They want to send several of you to Meriseal to investigate a murder."
We all turned to Jester, who seemed to have shifted no emotion upon hearing his hometown's name. He simply bore holes into the brown bird with his dagger eyes.
"A carriage carrying a large amount of goods and gold was ambushed and the driver was killed. The gold and such was left but the passanger has gone missing." Falcon continued. Roark perked up at the mention of gold.
"They'd like to send whoever is willing."
"I'll go." JD, Roark and Sarfia said together. Jester just nodded slowly.
"Alright, depart immediately!" Falcon said and took off out the window he flew in from.
"Well," Sarfia pushed back her seat, "It's been a pleasure dining with you all again. We havn't all been together for a while."
"Yeah! It was good to see you all again." JD smiled.
"Yeah, yeah. Now go out and kick some ass." Kris winked.
"Don't die." Nix and Tam cried after the party as they pushed past the open doors.
--
A huge Happy Birthday to the lovely Sarfia ! May another year be another long, successful victory! All hail The Sorceress of Guilshold!
