By the time Mila got around to kicking open the door to the Wander Inn, the dinner crowd proper had arrived and nobody batted an eye at her rowdy entrance other than the proprietor herself. Darimash gave a heavy enough stare at the abused door for everyone.
While Mila strode in like she owned the damn place, bundle of magic ingredients under one arm, Grant scampered in behind, starry-eyed. He had worked up the nerve to ask a few more questions on the way over, none all that relevant to Mila’s actual job, and had managed to do the whole thing without stepping on Mila’s tail, both literally and metaphorically. She figured he deserved a treat for that at least.
They stopped by the table that Hughestace was now guarding, and he gave a silent nod as items were placed before him. “This is Aluca’s magic shit. They did not have… a lot of things, so I just grabbed extra of what they had on sale. Here, lemme…,” Mila started as she began to peal open the bundles from the grocer with one of her blades. “The preserved stuff, with fresh foods going to Naw-Naw. Gonna have to get canvas and some spare rope on our way out.”
There was another nod given but Mila was already turning away, shoving stuff into Grant’s arms and holding up her own package of bacon to then make their way to the bar. It was still dinner, so it was not yet crowded where the drinks were served, and the two spots closest to the kitchen were thankfully open. Mila hopped up to the standing perch while her still-star-struck follower stood awkwardly behind, now balancing a number of less packaged goods.
Naw-Naw, assumably due to a divine gift, had complete awareness of whatever kitchen space they were in. As such, they did not even need to look up to call out, “One minute, hon’! Just gotta-“ followed by a roaring sizzle as veggies were dumped into oil. That bought the chef enough time to step out and begin collecting Mila’s haul.
“Also lookin’ for today’s dinner, if ya got the time, Naw-Naw? And I figure the others haven’t ate?” With Hughestace it was hard to tell, but he had looked a bit peckish?
A long, furred snout bobbed in return as big hands plucked bacon and pork and potatoes from the grocery-bearers. “A meal for ev’one and ya new friend, then,” came the decree and Mila bounced a bit on her perch, off-loading the last items from Grant onto the bar top as Naw-Naw retreated.
“I can’t infringe, that ain’t-“
“Dude. They’re a follower of the Goddess of Feasts, that ain’t infringing.” Mila’s tail tip swept up and waved back and forth. “Plus you helped me out, helped us out. Plus plus, it’ll help keep things from bein’ too serious if you eat with us.”
Sure, they all still had things to do to get ready, but the actual planning was all done, more or less. Just the enacting was left to do. But without a bit of a distraction, they were liable to spend all dinner just going through the things they had already checked four times over.
Nah, Grant’s naive excitement was largely harmless and would help liven things up. That and paying him back for his help was an easy thing. Once the foodstuffs were laid out on the bar, Naw-Naw having swept through again already, Mila hopped down and made her way back to the table, Grant not offering up any further protests. Telit’s chair had been put back while she was gone, so she asked and found an unused one and waddled it over, offering it up to Grant, who nervously took it.
“We’re getting dinner in a bit,” she informed her elven companion, and got a quiet grunt of acknowledgement. It was only as he started putting papers in a stack to cubby for the time being that Mila realized he had been going over a map, as if they had not gone up to Kraddel a dozen times before. A break would be good for everyone.
She helped stash most of the things in the booth cubby and took the magic stuff in hand. “I’ll get the others too. Don’t worry if he’s quiet Grant, it’s not personal, he’s just a… ‘only talks when he has something to say’ type.” She turned away, heading for the stairs, as she parted with “I just never shut the fuck up!”
Up the stairs she went, making her way down to Aluca’s room first, knocking heartily. When the door swung open, she held aloft her spoils and offered them forth. “Couldn’t get some things, and the prices were whack. Got extra of the one cheap ingredient. Dinner imminently, and a guest! A fanboy,” she summarized, retreading some of what she had told Hughestace before she realized she was coming up anyway. She turned away, leaving the tall fellow to silently mouth ‘fanboy’.
“I’ll be down,” was the response once the mage’s confusion was pushed through and his door clacked shut as he went to put his stuff away, leaving Mila to slow her walk as she neared Rora’s door. She almost reached up to rap her knuckles against the wood but paused, blushing just a little bit. Should she be doing something special? Probably not….
A few moments of hesitation continued their war, but finally she struck the door, drumming out half of a short tune. After a couple of seconds, the tune was completed from the other side and Rora swung the door open, doing her own bit of controlled beaming.
“I figured you could use some food,” Mila stated, sliding to the side and sweeping an arm to guide the way down the hall that they both lived on. It earned a chuckle, though, which felt mighty generous.
“Why Mila, asking me to dinner already?” Rora teased, her tail sliding over to bump against Mila’s ankles.
Another blush, this time where Rora could see and appreciate, given her sly smile. “Hardly. Just knew everyone could use a break, and the kid working the grocer’s went out of his way to help me. Repaying him with some good food felt like a good thanks.”
Rora’s laugh felt extra special, and that definitely had no connection to the butterflies in Mila’s stomach. “And that has nothing to do with Naw-Naw doing all the cooking, I am sure.”
“It helps. The dude, Grant, clearly wants to be an adventurer too. Figured sitting at the cool kids’ table would be a treat for him.”
Although, as they got to the bottom of the steps and actually saw Grant, it seemed like he might be anxious enough to be ill. He was jittery in his chair and practically clawing at the ceilings, all under Hughestace’s silent gaze. The elf was hardly the judgmental sort - he hung out with them, after all - but if one did not know him, his reserved nature definitely came off as weighty, and maybe it had been cruel to leave Grant to him.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Too late for double-thinking that, though, and instead Mila walked past, slapping Grant on the elbow in greeting and causing him to jump vertically like a spring-loaded cat. She pointedly did not laugh, instead waiting for Rora to get up onto the bench and maybe staring a bit more conspicuously than she had before. “You’re not allergic to anything, right? Shoulda asked before.”
“Oh, uh, no. Nothing that I know of.”
“Good to hear it! Naw-Naw just might be the best chef this side of The Blood.” Mila situated herself in her own seat, her wily tail curling between herself and Rora to brush at her leg. “Honestly, I suspect they’re secretly whatever royalty is for cookin’, slumming it with us to stay secret.”
Grant gasped, eyes wide, and his buying the blatant tall tale got Mila an elbow to the side as she failed to keep from laughing this time, just a little.
“Don’t listen to her, she finds the truth malleable sometimes.”
“Only when it’s entertaining! I would never lie if it weren’t entertaining. That’s like… in my creed or something. My motto? Slogan?”
“A motto or slogan is something small. A creed could include this rule about lying amongst other things.”
The two kobolds continued to go back and forth on which aspect of Mila’s branding would best include that she would only ever lie if it were suitably funny, and both Grant and Hughestace became quiet audience to the not-bickering.
Naw-Naw was the one to break it up before there was a true consensus made, but disrupting the discussion with plates of mashed potatoes piled high with diced ham, molten cheese, and lots of tasty green fixings was likely the safest way to do it. The gnoll made two trips for all the plates, and then another two to bring things of water and a bowl of chippies, bright green and somewhere between tortilla chip and pork rind. The perfect way to eat the meal though, once Mila had taken her plate and proceeded to mix the food together.
As her mad culinary science was wrapping up, Aluca finally managed to drag himself down and into his seat, nodding. He rubbed at his eyes as he focused on something not text for the first time in a while, probably, but with everyone now here, it meant a round of introductions were in order!
Mila cleared her throat, then took a sip of water to wash down the chippy fully. “Alright! Everyone, this is Grant, who was a big help with shopping and getting the stuff back here. Grant, everyone!”
As Mila started to go back in for her food, Rora cleared her throat and gave a pointed look that very loudly read ‘that was not a proper introduction for the rest of us and you probably should not leave Grant hanging, no matter how good the food is’. It was a powerful look.
Mila faux-coughed. “And everyone is composed of Aluca here, Naw-Naw, Hughestace, Rora, and myself, Mila, who you have met before. Professional vagabonds!”
“A pleasure to meet you. I apologize for her behavior.”
“Al’ays a pleasure t’ break bread with a new face.”
“Hello.”
“Nice to have you this evening! I hope your day is going well,” came all the greetings in the same order as they were introduced. When your work involved a good bit of travel and working for or alongside other folks, a group tended to be pretty good at rattling off the niceties, and this time they even all meant them!
Grant continued to be wide eyed and unsure of what he should be doing exactly, and he started and stopped before deciding on a straightforward, “Hi. I’m Grant. I, uh, work at my parents’ store.”
Mila nodded at that. A fine starting point if any! “So aside from hanging out with only the best folks like us, what do you get up to?” She prompted, looking to get him out of his shell a bit. This was a distraction from their work, after all, and she suspected that if they got to brooding as a table, it would inevitably turn back to that work.
“I read some, I guess. And I’ve been learning to play the guitar, a little. I’m not good though,” he put forth after some contemplating.
That kind of negative vibe was blood in the water to Rora, though. “You might not be good yet! But that’s still better than the rest of us!” Which was absolutely true. Rora was the most musically inclined out of all of them, and she only sang. “And we’re going out of town. You can borrow some books ‘till we get back, unless someone has anything against the idea?”
There was a round of assents and Rora was smiling. “We’ll have to load you up before you’re on your way, then!”
“Oh, I couldn’t, and you hardly know me fr-“
“You helped Mila out, which means you helped us out. Plus, they’re books we’ve all read before. We might want to read them again, but it’ll give you plenty of time. And Mila knows where you work, right?”
“Mmm, it’s the fancy store, thataway,” Mila gestured in the correct direction in the midst of stuffing her face. Naw-Naw had pan-fried the ham or *something* and it was the perfect crunchiness to feel against her teeth.
“Again, we’ll be out of town for a while. If we aren’t back, you can come here and return them to Darimash,” Aluca added, tilting his head at the woman who looked a little put out that she was having to work at her own business again while Naw-Naw ate.
Three out of five of the adventurers vouching for the book lending seemed to be the tipping point for Grant and he bobbed his head. “I’ll take utmost care of anything you would let me borrow,” was a solemn oath that got cracked smiles across the table.
From there, it fell into everyone quizzing Grant on what he liked to read. That he apparently liked mystery-thriller stories the most put him closest to Hughestace’s reading tastes, although they did differ in the specifics. The elf liked his mysteries smaller scale and with protagonists who were busy doing other stuff (often baking or making tea), while Grant naturally wanted adventurers cracking conspiracies and facing down cults.
Mila had, in her years on both planet earths, faced down exactly zero cults. She had bumped into a few, sure, but no force in any earth, fantasy or sciencey or otherwise, could slow down Amway and Co.
It was an enjoyable way to spend dinner, and Grant did not seem to mind that he was listing out elements of his favorite novels only for the details to be picked apart for inaccuracies. He was actually eating it up, and it felt like he wanted to be taking down notes or something as he talked, now fully out of his shell.
“So you can’t summon water out of nothing?”
“No,” was Hughestace’s curt reply, but Mila felt the need to explain.
“It’s a complicated whole thing. There’s always some kinda… impetus? That needs to come from something. Be that a god, fancy words and an ingredient list, or how a place is supposed to be.” She shrugged - the nitty gritty details had never stuck with her before and it all, from a Scienceland perspective, *did* break conservation of matter, as far as she knew. “It may look like nothing to you or I, but it’s still somethin’.”
“Huh. That does sound like a lot more than the books make it out to be.”
Rora, making her way back to the table with a curated selection of books to lend, gave a smile. “Never let the facts interfere with a good story though, right? Like Mila’s creed. Here you go!”
Grant took in the stack and started to go through the refusing again, but Naw-Naw stopped him. “Don’ be worryin’ ‘bout it. Jus’ take good care of ‘em, and next time ya can bring ‘em back, take some others. Alright?”
And that was enough to get him to accept the books and get moving, now that it was late enough his parents were probably worried. The whole lending thing did seem to catch a spark in Aluca’s eye, Mila noted, and he was silently mulling over that, or something else entirely, as the group resettled and affirmed that they were mostly ready.
Mila still had to do the packing up, but she was not too worried. Taking a sleeping bag, rolling it up tight, and jamming it on top of a stuffed backpack were pretty easy.
And after that, a long night’s rest, and several more *looks* directed at her and Rora by the others, they would be back out onto the road. Not enough time had passed to make any of them antsy for it yet, but it would also be one of those not-entertaining falsehoods for them to say they wanted to stay in town forever. Rat-Hate was nice enough, but ‘enough’ carried a whole lot of weight.