The Call to War

Chapter 4

Arthur and Tess walked over and joined the others by the fire, where Claire appeared to be cooking something in a pot hung just over the fire.

"Well you two look like a happy couple," Claire observed as they joined them holding hands. "I take it you two are ok now?"

Once seated Tess leaned her head on Arthur's shoulder and smiled.

"Yeah we're good," Arthur replied.

"Well clearly not too good, you two look way too put together to have just Oww!," Adam started, before Durden punched him in the back of the head. "What was that for?"

"Stopping you before you went too far," Durden replied.

"Ok, well anyway. Arthur, Sylvie said you missed a few meals today, so here," Claire said as she handed him a wooden bowl and spoon.

The contents appeared to look like chicken noodle soup, as it had noodles, vegetables, and some kind of white meat, but only thicker looking, and gelatinous. Arthur took a spoon full and closed his eyes as the food entered his mouth. He pulled out the spoon and looked down at the contents.

"Yeah, Claire's not exactly known for her...cooking," Theo started before Arthur raised the bowl to his mouth and leaned back as he used the spoon to push it all into his mouth.

Upon swallowing the last of it Arthur held out his bowl. "Could I have some more please?"

"Sure," Claire replied excitedly as she took the bowel and scooped more into it.

As this happened Arthur noticed everyone other than the twin horns members staring at him. "What?"

"Did you actually like that?" Thomas asked.

"Claire can't cook worth a damn. Her food is barely edible," Theo explained, resulting in Claire jabbing him in his side below his ribs. "Gahh!"

"Don't listen to them, eat all that you want," Claire replied with a smile as she handed Arthur his bowl, and her free hand rested on the pommel of her sword.

"To be honest, all I've eaten since I left was whatever I hunted or found, and if it was something I found like fruit from a tree or bush, I usually had to kill some beast for it. So pretty much unseasoned roasted meat has been the main part of my diet," Arthur explained, before pouring the gelatinous food down his throat again. "So in comparison, this is gourmet fine dining to me right now."

"Oh, so the only reason you like Claire's food is because you haven't had a decent meal to compare it to in so long," Jerry teased.

Without looking Claire shot a small fireball at Jerry, who allowed himself to fall backwards, narrowly dodging the attack.

"So," Arthur said as he handed his bowl over for a third serving. "We've only been talking about me, but what about the rest of you, what have you all been doing since I left? The Asura have only been filling me in on the state of the war, so I know about The Wall, and the clearing of the dungeons, but they didn't bother telling me about my friends and family."

"Well," Helen said to start things off. "We've been doing almost everything. Defending The Wall, scouting and clearing dungeons, tracking Alacryan troop movements." She then leaned over and nudged Jasmine beside her. "Jasmine's the one who's been really doing interesting stuff."

"Oh yeah? Whatever it was it must have been pretty intense, I can see you're almost to mid silver," Arthur replied as he looked to his former mentor, bodyguard, friend, and surrogate big sister.

"I became Pasta Bloom's disciple," Jasmine replied as a rare faint smile formed.

"You mean the old retired lance that runs a pub out in the beast glades?" Arthur questioned to make sure they were talking about the same person.