"So, what are you in for?" A common prisoners way to break the tension he found fitting by the summons and imprisonment on the lavish waiting room. A cage is a cage and he wished to spread his wings.

Eine was finishing one of his meals for the day while waiting to be admitted. Nothing more than a handful of nuts, berries and slips of jerked squirrel to be washed with a wineskin. He had already played his panpipes, had some food, now he was just bored. He had been warned that drawing a weapon, even to sharpen or shave an apple, would be bad form at minimum. He offered the blackberry brew to anyone else willing to swig the sweet sangria as he longed for the real outsides.

No shade of the forests, no hip high hay to wade through, no knee deep muck to tromp over. The only redeeming quality of the city was the animals: The rats of the sewers, the dogs of the alleys, the horses in the streets, cats in the windows and the birds on the roofs. Not to mention the insignificant ants walking around on two legs.

That last one made him chuckle as he imagined itty-bitty outfits on ants going in and out of a hill Just as the summons were announced. He retained enough formality to stand and dust himself off before taking back the wineskin if anyone imbibed. Time to see what the ant queen wanted with a ranger and whatever these others were.