Despite the incredulity of the waitresses, Lilly and Doctor Lens were imbuing in fine beverages long before noon.

"Isn't it a bit early?" asked the maid, the one who typically served breakfast. 

Lens pulled out document from her cloak. "I'm a medical doctor, and in my professional opinion that my patient here need some hard apple cider." She indicated the tired and dirty looking missionary, dark shadows under Lilly's eyes. The waitress relented at the sight. 

Another patron had entered the restaurant, one of the night watch getting done e with his watch. Sitting down at a table, he took a quick glance in the room. "Hey Petals, where's that one dog?"

The waitress stopped at the table. "What dog?"

"The mutt I see in here every night before my shift starts, with that one pegasus fellow."

"Don't know, she's not our pet. Why are you interested?"

"Huh, I thought that she was sort of a mascot of this place."

Petals shook her head. "Nope, just another customer. Speaking of which, don't you eat breakfast at your apartment, Pathfinder?"

"Don't have much time today, and I'm still on duty. Watch master is having us check the forest - apparently something spooked the Baldies last night when they were working the graveyard. Went to the watch station, but we didn't check it out 'til dawn."

"Aww, how sad," Petals mockingly said. "You had to leave your desk to actually do some work." 

"We found… well something."

Petals looked at Pathfinder with a confused expression. "Eh? Well what did you find?" 

The stallion closed his eyes and shook his head. "We think it might be a hoof."

"Think?!" 

"Could be from a deer … Look, it's way too early to talk about this. Just get me some juice and oatmeal", he said. Pathfinder didn't want to eat anything too hard, not after seeing the blood. He still had an investigation to conduct - needing to go deeper in the forest and make sure it was an animal. 

During this conversation, Lens was listening to the pair's conversation. Lilly was busy drinking and focusing on the music being played in the background. Her eyes were drooping, face less tense, a slight blush on her face and nude scalp. She didn't hear Pathfinder. [i]Good, the last thing Lilly needs is another scare [/i], thought the Scholar. [i] But I hope the Town Watch doesn't find anything. I wonder if the Noxferus been bribing them. [/i] Her thoughts went to the Doctor and the tome he sought. [i]Lightwing should be on his way back, hopefully on a airship on the Golden Pines parcel route.[/i]

In fact Lightwing and two other Scholars were on the road to Woodwatch. They had arrived sooner than they expected, but it was still long walk to the settlement.