Tales of An Escapade

Eleventh Chapter

  An awkward apology and a trip with twelve beers later, the group was enjoying their drinks. Livi took about one sip before she realised that Peita in fact did brew very great beer.

 "So how did the talk with my sister go?" asked Vastice.
  "Pretty great," grinned Ane. "Am I right, Livi?"
  "Shut up," muttered Livi and she awkwardly took a sip.
  "Not that great, I'm guessing?" Vastice laughed. "Don't worry. You're one of the many."
  "That doesn't make me worry less," replied Livi. "I kind of could've ruined our bond with Peita."
  "Do we need Peita for anything valuable?" asked Ane to Pitér and Tully.
  "Only she can bring us to the Eastern Bay, for she holds the information to the portals," answered Tully. "We might need to pull some extra effort if we want her trust."
  "What exactly did happen?" asked Jarco.
  "I insulted her a tad," shrugged Livi.
  "Good job," replied Jarco sarcastically. "Can we fix it?"
  "Of course you can," Vastice beamed. "She has a tender heart underneath those thousand layers of coldness, harshness and brute."

  "Sounds easy to make her trust us, then," sighed Ane. "Well, now that we're here we could take the time to explore Taverness."
  "Time's running out bit by bit, honey," Tully warned. "Evil knows no such thing as time, but their clock's still ticking rapidly."
  "Everyone is just so supportive today," Ane replied, before she took a huge sip of her beer.
  The group had found an inn nearby and immediately took four rooms. Ane, Elliot and Bethil took the top right room, Jarco, Daphne and Livi took the top left room, Lewir, Marrie took the bottom right room and Tully and Pitér took the bottom left. Before they went to their bulks and slept, they did have dinner together. A table for ten was a tad large, so they shoved two tables together. They'd ordered a king's feast meal before they dove into the deliciously smelling food. It was paired with big cups of alcohol as well to smoothen the tension.

  "What a treat!" smiled Ane.

  "So, Ane... tell us a bit about how you got this group of fine young people to fight at your side," said Pitér.
  "Elliot and Bethil were the ones with me from the start. Elliot has been my best friend ever since I could remember, and Bethil and I used to be classmates, surprisingly. Fate brought us together. Jarco, my beloved teacher, could not bare to see his young student alone, so he had decided to tag along. Not much later, we met Livi and Daphne, former rogues. We met Ghordo, Rok and Korlos. I am sure you have heard of them. They were... deceitful, if I may say that. Daphne and Livi later joined us on our journey. Unfortunately, halfway through, we lost each other. This led through meeting more allies. Aethul, Mounty and Mint, Hallan and Marrie. Most of us were just headed to the Western Bay back then. So after we had defeated Hayres, Aethul remained with his brother, Sarkhan, and Mounty and Mint remained there as well, but you know that. Willis, our dear friend who helped us out grandly at the battle, stayed there too. So... now we are here. People mainly joined us to reach their destination, but I suppose that the ones who truly belong with us on this quest are still here with us." 
  "Sounds quite idyllic," smiled Tully.
  "Fortunately it is true," Ane replied.

  They continued to eat whilst chattering, drinking and laughing.
  "I heard there's a feast tonight," said Pitér. "Mind to check it out?"

  "A feast? What type of feast?" asked Elliot curiously.

  "A feast with tons of beer, cute fairy lights, garlands, loud music, maybe some drama and romance," smiled Tully.

  "I would not really mind all that much," said Ane. "Anybody else?"
  The majority of them agreed to join, and they convinced the leftovers to tag along. Dressing up for the occasion would be quite appropriate as they were still all wearing their rather dirty fighting clothes, so they went ahead and bought some simple outfits to fit Taverness' steampunk style. Corsets, leather vests, puffy trousers, leather boots, accessories in gold and bronze and fluffy skirts was quite a different to their usual, simple attire.