Although the corners of her mouth curved upwards, the faint crease between her brows betrayed the fact that Thalia was not content with Lorne's reply. She bit down on her bottom lip as she contemplated dropping the topic altogether, but decided to pursue it as she tentatively spoke up once more. "I don't think either the princess or Jacob really care about such things? Our group is made up of people of different statuses, after all, and I don't think not being royalty or noble makes you any less deserving of respect. That being said," Her tone suddenly became firm as she propped her hands up on her hips and frowned at him, "Don't call yourself a 'lowlife'. That's an awfully unkind thing to say, don't you think?" She held the frown for a few seconds longer before letting it drop from her face with a sigh. Emitting a short laugh and rolling her eyes at his flourishing bow, she nodded in thanks and stepped into the mess hall before him. A quick look around indicated that it was mostly empty, and that Jerod--who received a wave--was the only familiar face among the few who were still milling about. No doubt that at this hour, most people had already eaten and retired to their beds for the night. Thalia had to stifle a sudden yawn at the thought of sleep and moved forward to fill a plate with some of the evening's offerings. "We'd best eat quickly and then head to bed for the night," She murmured at the man while grabbing a glass of water, "Who knows what awaits us tomorrow." Despite the fact that not a lot had happened today for her, the pegasus knight was feeling surprisingly tired. Maybe all these meet and greets with her new companions was more draining than she thought? Shaking her head, she made her way towards the closest empty table and sat down. Absently eating her food, the girl cocked her head to the side and let out a little hum as she thought to herself. Tiring as the day was, it certainly had been exciting, hadn't it?

Isacc just was bored of all his walking around and decided if he could find anybody awake in the mess hall to talk to for abit hopefully he'd get sleepy after talking for awhile. So Isacc let out a yawn and stretch and began to head there he didn't find anybody on the way and the castle felt empty and very ominous though he couldn't quite put his finger on why it would feel ominous maybe it's beacuse of the size compared to his family's mansion is so different he could never imagine living in a castle. Isacc soon came to the mess hall and noticed a few people were in there it looked like Thalia, the barbarian guy who entered the feast randomly he then decided to grab an empty seat near the two and let out a small yawn showing his body is tired but he himself really isn't that tired at all. Isacc then wondered whether to try talking to either of the two or not but figured he may aswell stay silent for now but should probably at least say hello... "Hello there."

Still among the roads towards the Longfort The sun-baked earth crumbled to the feet of the combatants. The young man was at the ready with his broadsword clenched in hand challenging the eight bandits in front of him. The dead wind felt arid and the youngster's confidence began to raw sweat drops from the bandit's complexion as if nervous. It was ridiculous, there were eight of them and they felt as though they couldn't do jack against him. One of them shook their head. "There's eight of us and one of him! What are you waiting for? Slaughter'em!!" The bandits charged at him with sloppy and an uncoordinated formation-- but their zeal sure toppled a bit of the youngster's confidence to see them running with axes at the ready. His voice softened, as if whispering to his side. "Fyra...! Hurry!" He expected her to suddenly appear and ambush the first few bandits with her magic.

Nephene woke up with a snort and looked around sleepily. Hmmmmm it seemed she had fallen asleep in the barracks somehow, well she was hungry so she decided to go to wherever the mess hall was. After a bit of aimless wandering she sniffed some food, Nephene carefully followed the smell until she came into a room with some people she kinda knew in it. There was some guy with an axe, some girl she didn't know, and some man with a noble bearing. Nephene promptly ignored them and quickly got a bowl of gruel and started to inhale it, going for seconds and thirds.

"Truth ain't always kind." Lorne replied, not bothering to hide the snicker that slipped from his lips when Thalia put her hands on her hips and scolded him. Upon entering the mess hall, he quickly surveyed the area to find it rather empty, aside from an older looking sod with a beard and some ale. It seemed as though Thalia knew the guy, based on the wave. He made a note to try and introduce himself to that one when he got the chance. With haste, Lorne collected himself a nice big flagon of ale and a generous portion of whatever slop they were serving up in the barracks that night before following Thalia to the table she had selected. No sooner than he sat himself down did somebody else approach them out of the blue, the fancy pants from the feast earlier whom asked for his identity. The barbarian took a nice, long drink of the contents of his cup before he answered the noble, a steely gaze directed up at him as he spoke. Why he had even bothered to come down there was beyond him, but he assumed it was nothing good. "Yeah?" He asked, clearly assuming the noble wanted something. ____________ As the bandits made their crazed charge towards Adam, a figure revealed itself from the shadows of the small merchant wagon accompanying the lad. Clad tight in a long, dark cloak that concealed their features, the figure paced towards the brigands as shoved its way past Adam in the process with a huff. With every step towards the blindly charging fools, the figure gained more and more speed in their stride until a mere ten meters stood between it and the eight axe wielding fools. It was then that a bright, golden light emanated from the figure and lit up the night with a dazzling flash. A flash that, once receded, revealed a large four-legged reptile with metallic yellow scales and wide, ornate looking wings. The bandits tried their best to stop the charge upon the reveal of the wyvern-like creature, but for the first three it was far too late. For this beast was no wyvern, as it became amply apparent. A torrent of prismatic holy fire spewed from the golden dragon's mouth and cloaked the first man with its beautiful heat. With a quick jerk of its neck, the dragon spewed its flames in front of the group of marauders, forming a line of blazing glory that only spread upon touching the sparsely hydrated grass below. Another two of them men found themselves engulfed in the rapidly spreading fire, the last five definitely rethinking their strategy. As the beast reeled back to unleash more flame upon them, they broke and routed for the hills. With no more opponents to challenge it, the dragon slowly morphed its way back into its original shape, the cloak clad figure appearing once more. It turned, waltzing back towards Adam at a comfortable pace. As it reached him, it reaches up to pull back the hood of its cloak, the face of a pouting woman glaring at him. "The least you could do is say 'please' when you get me to save your ass, you know."

A shadow jumped into the fray in between the berserked bandits-- It's nimble and slender figure only meant that it was Fyra who dove head first into danger. "Hey--!" He shouted, but it didn't get through to her now-transformed dragon glittering like jewels far greater than gold. If it weren't because they were friends, he'd be sure to have sold her for a profit much higher. Unfortunately, they were too like-minded. The four-legged dragon cocked its head backwards and spouted holy fireballs from its maw, setting aflame anything that was flammable in its small-exploding wake. The bandits didn't see her coming, and they paid their prices in full for it. Adam could only snicker a little at his enemies now in utter chaos. Thankfully the fires didn't reach the branches of trees about, otherwise they would've had another problem at hand. The bandits dispersed in fear, yet something felt as if it won't be the last time he will encounter them... Maybe it's just plain old karma-- But he did it to only protect his own goods! Fyra slowly approaches the young man like friends, that lime coloured manakete of a girl was trotting its legs and swaying its hips to make way towards Adam. Her hood slightly obscured her complexion, but judging from the looks of Adam... "The least you could do is say 'please' when you get me to save your ass, you know." He sheathed his broadsword to his back, with a grin painted on his face towards her. "You're cute when you're grumpy. You should do that a little more when we're selling so we attract more customers. Actually, I think I'll like you better smiling." He turned to Fyra's back and pushed her forward by her shoulders towards the run-away cart. "I think you deserve an ice cream, whether you like it or not. Thanks for the assist."

Isacc quickly felt negativity from the barbarian Isacc figured the guy probably just doesn't like nobles which is fairly reasonable alot of nobles are bastards. The answer given by the barbarian to Isacc saying hi felt as if the barbarian thought he was wanting something and something that wasn't any good which of course was wrong Isacc simply wanted to know the people he'll be working with better. With a calm voice isacc said "Oh sorry was just saying hello seeing if I could get to know you since we'll be fighting side by side and all my name's Isacc and you?" Isacc hoped his tone of speech or mannerisms wouldn't bother the man and if it did he'd talk more casually Isacc also mentally prepared for whatever negativity would come from the barbarian's mouth.

Jerod snorted, coming back to full consciousness from the half, hazy dreaming he had fallen into, having finished his meal and spending much of his time drinking before the small group arrived. He barely remembered Thalia waving, which he had returned easily enough, downing another drink after who knows how many had been prior to that one. The barbarian was with her, and some noble came waltzing in afterwords. And even then, while they were talking, the spear woman who had aided him when the first crossed paths with the Champion of Naga entered and started wolfing down food, and he gave her a respectful nod in her direction. But she seemed rather determined to keep to her eating, and he rose, mug in hand as he wandered over to the small group gathering so far. "Ach, would ja look who drug themselv's inta th' mess 'all. Bluebloods, a knightess, lancelot lassie, an' a Feroxian na' less. Wha' dragged yer frigid arse out of th' far north, eh? And wha' bring's one o' ye blue bloods down 'ere t' slum it wit' us common folks?" Jerod grinned, clearly just giving the lot good natured ribbings. Well, not so good natured for the Feroxian, but he hid that well enough by mixing it in with the rest of the joking and ribbings being give to the others. But Jerod took a good natured draw from his mug, emptying the rest of its contents before glancing at the others, including the lance wielder in the question. "I ca' grab ye drinks if ye wan'. Gon' be grabbin' m'self another mug soon."

Nephene momentarily halted her... consumption of the apparently quite delicious gruel. "Hmmm i do like a good drink, i'd appreciate that greatly I would." She replied almost mimicking his accent at the end of his sentence. He talked funny, maybe people thought it was heroic, maybe she should try talking funny. She considered this revelation carefully while staring into the glop inside of her bowl. It seemed he was rough around the edges but his good natured tone took the edge of his jibs. He had called her lancelot lassie, maybe she could use that, THE LANCELOT LASSIE COME TO SAVE THE DAY. Hmmmm lassie didn't really fit though. Maybe if she changed it to lady...

Some time had passed since Marianne had fallen asleep, and it was still night when she found herself blinking awake. Mumbling some mismatched hexes to herself, she gently nudged Jacob away before realizing that she had indeed slept in his arms. This knowledge alone was enough to emit a dark blush on her cheeks and she instantly sat up to watch her sleeping leader more intensely. Giggling slightly, she spent a good two minutes in deep silence simply…well, er, watching him. “Hmm…fearless leader is so cute when he’s unconscious~ Did he really mean all those things to me….ah, that makes him so…even now, he’s still so interesting.” Reaching over, Marianne cradled the eye not covered by his eye-patch and began to fondle the lid tenderly. With delicate fingers, she opened his eye, stared at his pupil directly, and then closed it back up. She continued this for quite some time, humming to herself in a quiet tone. “Jacob, Jacob, tasty, yummy Jacob….open, close….open, close…open, close….”

Jacob groaned as he awoke opening his eyes, the uncovered one was greet with the sight of Marianne, how much had he had at dinner? Oh right, she had been creeping in his room and given him a gift then she got scary and fell asleep on him. Well at least he hadn't done anything he would regret, right? He sighed and slowly sat up. "Marianne, I need to work. Why don't you head back your room, I'm going to up most of the night." He got up slowly patting her head before walking over to his desk small litter with candles and letters. He began to scribble down notes and write to knights and nobles. He would need to get noble's to support the Exalt, these letter would help to make them see reason, each of them would addressed from him. It could only get better, well he hoped maybe the church hadn't sent a assassin out after him.

Upon hearing the familiar voice, Thalia instinctively sat up straighter, a hint of tension back in her shoulders. Her demeanor, which had been slowly becoming more easy-going, immediately went straight back to that well-practiced respect that she used when speaking to nobles and superiors. "Sir Isacc," She greeted, inclining her head towards him with a smile, "My apologies for having left dinner so abruptly. What brings you here?" Food was unlikely since he had just dined with the Exalt and the Champion, so...just wandering the grounds, perhaps? She apparently decided to take up the job of introductions, as she gestured towards the man who sat across from her. "This is Sir Lorne. And, um..." Apparently that was the end of that introduction, as she wasn't quite sure what else to say. Thalia realized that she hadn't asked a lot about him herself, so the most she could really offer was his name. Fortunately, Jerod made his way over to them then, and his greeting caused her to perk up and look around. Realizing that there was another young woman sitting near by--one that she recalled having seen arrive with the rest of the group earlier that day--the pegasus knight spun around on her seat to face her. "Oh, my apologies! We'll be traveling together from now on. My name is Thalia. And, um," Lips curled into a small grin, she shook her head at Jerod's offer, "Thank you, but I'll make do with my water. My alcohol tolerance is rather..." The girl trailed off in embarrassment.

Isacc noticed Thalia's reaction to him talking he wondered if maybe she just felt a little tense around nobles or just tries to be as polite as possible he knew it was just politeness but he didn't think he should be treated differently beacuse of his upbringing but he may aswell just accept it for now but maybe comment on it. He also noticed she said the barbarians name Lorne it was somewhat weird sounding but a names a name so doesn't matter. Deciding to be polite to Thalia's question Isacc in his usual calm voice with a smile said. I couldn't fall asleep so I was checking if there was anybody to talk to in here...Oh also Thalia I know I'm a noble but I'd like if you could treat me like you would anybody else I don't want to make you think beacuse I'm a noble I'm special or above anyone else here I'm not I'm your equal. Isacc then began to look more at the others in the room then looked at Lorne for a second to see if he could get any hints towards what the man may be thinking at the moment. Isacc then decided seeing as their as empty as they are and there is alot of free space he'd practice with his sword a little bit by swinging at the air for awhile. Isacc unsheathed his Iron sword Meline gave him early that day and began to swing it abit to get better used to the blade he swung in swift yet skilful swings much like you'd expect from someone whose trained using a sword from a young age. Isacc also in a calm voice while practising said. "So I'm a little curious what do you all think of our leader and the journey we will all be going on? And a little on why you decided to come along?"

Lorne did his best to hide his annoyance at how Thalia quickly switched from her more normal posture to an uptight one in the presence of the noble. It always irritated him, how the high born would command such respect to those lower than them, simply because they got squeezed out of a certain hole. It didn't help that he wouldn't get to know the girl very well when she was in 'knight' mode, thanks to her overwhelming sense of duty. Having earned his ire, it was probably for the best she introduced him to this 'Issac' fellow, lest he insult the high born boy with his attitude. Instead he took another long drink of the ale in his tankard. The fact another distraction came stumbling along was probably for the best, a drunken fellow with a beard who seemed familiar enough with everyone present but himself. His little remark about the frozen north earned an annoyed grunt from Lorne. "Same reason you dragged your drunken ass out of whatever hole you came from, no doubt." He answered casually, making no efforts to hide his hostility. Another lady came along, but he bothered not introducing himself to her, seeing as though so many others had already begun conversing. He'd rather bury his face in the booze than try to strike up conversation with a bunch of people he didn't know, or care to know in some cases. He did decide to answer the noble's question as to why he was following their 'chosen one' into battle, though. Even if the guy was haphazardly swinging a sword about as a means of showing off, he assumed. "Gold's all the reason I need to fight here. Doesn't much matter what I think of him if he's paying the bill." ______ "You're more useful to me alive than dead. I'd like it if you got into less life threatening situations in the future." Fyra responded in a matter-of-factly tone as she turned her back towards the merchant whose company she had come into. "For your information, I do smile around our customers. It's the reason we have all that gold you like to slobber over. The dragoness quickly tacked on. She rolled her eyes at his attempts to bribe her off with frozen confections, instead focusing on a quick jog towards their run away cart. Picking up just enough speed to catch it, the Manakete hooked a hand around the back and hoisted herself up into the back of it, resting comfortably as the vehicle continued to rush out of control away from Adam.

Marianne turned towards the desk, watching Jacob work in silence. How could he turn her away so easily? After all that had occurred a few hours before…she resolved then and there to ignore his orders. Huffing, she crawled deeper into his bed and placed her head on his pillow. He could spend the rest of the night plotting battle strategies, but frankly, she was getting some much needed sleep. “Fearless leader is so busy,” she muttered. “Always looking after the others. How interesting he is. So very interesting. I’m staying in here tonight,” she said with finality, already closing her visible eye to reinforce that statement.

"You're more useful to me alive than dead. I'd like it if you got into less life threatening situations in the future." She spouted with a fiery attitude. Fit for someone of dragon-kin as he thought while she passed beside Adam. He turned his boy around towards the direction of which the runaway-cart had fled to. "For your information, I do smile around our customers. It's the reason we have all that gold you like to slobber over." Adam could only laugh, for it is the truth. "Ha ha ha! And keep doing that I might start liking you more than gold." His cackles came to a stop once he realised that Fyra was nowhere in sight. It took him awhile until he decided; "Pah. My goods!" He followed the trail down by a quick burst of running until he could see it in the distance. He just imagined that she would give him the tongue as he struggled to catch the crazed cart move farther away... (Presumably, we've arrived at Longfort by some time later) The cart came to a complete stop once the brick walls of Longfort welcomed them with guards and archers sharply looking to the small party that was arriving soon and the border officer soon attended to the cart driver where he told everything that had happened in a quick and rushed babbles. A few minutes fly by and Adam arrives at the scene, harshly exhausted from all of the running he had been doing trying to make the cart slowdown so he could catch up, and soon keeled over to hug the earth. "Not... Enough... Energy... To sell..." He yelped out. "Hmm? Secret Seller? What are you doing here?" The border officer questioned. "Umm... He the y'ung 'un I b' t'lkin' sir!" The cart driver pointed toward Adam and the officer eyed at the girl behind them. "Then who's she?" Adam wanted to say something, but he was still trying to catch his breath.