"Splendid." Mundy mutters, walking over and taking a sum of money from his desk. As he counted it out meticulously, Cliver spoke up.

"I can get you the wood you need myself." He said. "I was only out here to see if my fathers investment was going smoothly. Now that the beast is dead I'm free to go where I please."

"You are expected back at St.Paul's camp." Mundy said, rising and handing the money in a sack over to Lilith.

"I'll write pops, he'll understand." Cliver replied, then noticed that Mundy was giving him the stinkeye. "And I'll tell him that this endeavor is going about as well as he expected it would."

This seems to mollify the man, who goes back and sits behind his desk to begin eating again. "Don't let me keep you." He says, waving everybody out.

Right before they were booted out of the room, Drek slammed the door open and made a scene. Liith began sweating profusely before clamping the feather weight drunk's mouth shut with the hand that wasn't holding the puppy and shoved him out, glaring daggers at him.

"Why did you say that in front of our client, stupid?" She whispered with venom in her voice. "And what do you mean you don't know where Sky is? Gosh diddly darn dang it, Drekven, you're my number two here and you let this happen the moment I take my eyes off of you?"

"I wull admit that my jugmint is pearhaps slightly imperred."

*Sarrai'a seeing the door's open and the business appearing to be wrapping up gets up to head out and then sees Drek burst drunkenly into the room business was occurring, prepares to move out quickly before noticing that Sky was missing and follows the smell of feathers, after getting Caelus*

Cliver walks out of the office. "How many drinks did you accept?" He asks.

"Obviously." Lilith hissed, "Now let's grab everyone we can find and let the pups relieve themselves outside."

She then entered back into the main hall, grabbed everyone she could find and shuffled them all out outside so she could place the wolf pup down and let him find a place to go...after all, if his sister had reached her limit, then this little guy couldn't be holding up too well either.

Lilith then looked to Cliver, "Are you sure you're fine helping us out more? You really have no obligation to, so there'd be no hard feelings."

*Sarrai'a joins the group leading Sky with Caelus over her shoulder* "Found Sky and got Caelus, I'm a little worried he's been out for a really long time now."

Sky wasn't sure she wanted to return but does anyways. She likes Sarrai'a, and doesn't want to abandon her newest... family? Friends? Whatever they were to her, she did enjoy them. Just not all the staring humans. She goes with Sarrai'a and rejoins the group, scanning them for injuries.

Drek holds his chin and thinks hard for a good while before turning back to Cliver.

"One I think."

"You absolute maniac..." he replies with wonder to Drek, trying to decide whether the man was pulling his leg or not, before Lilithe distracts him with a question.

"I meant what I said back there Lilith." He answered. "If you guy hadn't show up when you did I'd be dead. Besides which..." He scratches the back of his head, trying to find the right way to put this. Besides which, her story was ugly. He didn't have the details, but by and large he didn't need them. Once he'd found an ugly story it wasn't something he could just let go because, more often than not, there was a monster waiting at the end and monsters had to be fought. "I just want to help. I like you guys."

He looks over at Sarrai'a as she comes up, looking grimly at that man on her shoulder. Speaking of ugly stories...

"I think the best we can do is care for him and hope he wakes up."

Lilith's eyes widened at how sincere and kind the man before her was being. Her cheeks glowed slightly as she smiled.

"Why thank you, Cliver, you're very sweet. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we quite like you too."

The puppy was done relieving himself, and pawed at Lilith to pick him back up again since he missed the warmth. She bent over and scooped the little wolf and placed him in the neckline of her dress, where he sat content with his front paws sticking out.

"We would love to have you accompany us further, if that's what you wish." She then turned to Caelus, "I don't think he'll wake up any time soon...we should get him to a bed he can rest in for a while as quickly as possible." He demeanor faded from flattered to guilt-ridden. The poor guy won't wake up for who knows how long and it was entirely her fault.

Emmerling smirked and stood himself up straight. His narrow eyes looked down on Mundy and the food on the table. “Hah! Perfect. I will get right to it.” He pulled from his coat pocket a piece of folded parchment and placed it on the desk before Mundy with a lingering stare awaiting his signature.

When Drek burst into the room, Emmerling gave him half a moment of consideration before scratching Rhubarb’s ear. “This one has had a bit to drink.” He said with a half tone voice.

“Don’t ya worry miss, I’m the finest carpenter in Fort Mundy,” he smiled to Lilith. “Of course by that, I mean I am the only one.”

As Mundy dismissed them, Emmerling waited a moment for his signature before snatching up and following the others out of the room and into the great hall.

“Oi! Doubled my share!” He shouted over the din, raising his contract in a fist above his head. A handful of the men gestured with respect. The rest looked away with resignation as they prepared for a day of hard work without the drunk. Emmerling’s shoulders rolled and he braced himself beneath the weight of the chest of carpenter’s tools on his back. Tools of an assortment that he had collected over the length of his life, through some hard work, but mostly diligent attendance to projects. “I’ll be back! Thomas you gotta fix the wall at some point. An’ Andrew, I think you should build them outhouses.”

Andrew gave a heavy sigh and Thomas leaned back in his chair with a smile on his face.

“So, is this some kind’ve failed guild eh?” Emmerling asked as he came up behind the bulk of the group.

Lilith looked around to see that Clover had up and disappeared...not that she could blame her after being exposed to a camp of loggers. Honestly, she doubted that the nymph would be back, especially since her anger towards the business as a whole wasn't shared. It was then when she heard it, being called a "failure of a guild". Now it would be fine to call her a failure of a guild master, because she was, but no one would say that about her new teammates, andno one would say that about Elliot's precious guild.

"I guess you could call us a failure," Lilith gritted her teeth, "if you consider 40 brave souls sacrificing their lives to protect a desert kingdom from an ancient dragon the size of a mountain a bunch of failures despite successfully driving the dragon away."

*Sarrai'a both in response to what this new comer had said about the guild and the reaction of Lilith, snarled at the man, and moved closer to Lilith*

“Eh?” Emmerling smacked his lips in response, “I see. Ya’ll killed a dragon.”

His head bobbed slowly in contemplation. He had never seen a dragon, and for that matter he had never seen a desert before. Emmerling’s entire existence was a microcosm of life. Waking up and working and sleeping. Never travelling far from home. His complexion was localized, his accent was familiar. Emmerling was not one who had ever been more than fifty miles from his home, and the slow creep of a resting face softened his expression. He was content with his lot in life.

“I ain’t callin’ your guild a failure. I am askin’ if it is some kind’ve failed guild.” Emmerling repeated. “Ye know, as in it hasn’ been successful currently. Ya’ll need to repair your guild hall, ya sound like ya’ve been havin’ financial troubles too.”

The fat man tugged sharply on the leather straps on his shoulders pulling them tight. “If it ain’t workin’ as intended then it is failed.” Emmerling grunted as he fished along his belt for a wine skin. A low wheezing cough rolled up from his throat and he quickly drowned it beneath a gulp of wine. “Now, I ain’ tryin’ to get in an argument ‘bout semantics.”

Emmerling’s brow furrowed and his gaze narrowed as Sarrai’a snarled at her. With a wipe of his chin he looked over the woman, “Why are ya growlin’ at me?” He turned down to Lilith, “Why is she growlin’ at me?”

*After hearing his explanation of what he meant, Sarrai'a relaxes* "Because I thought you had insulted my pack."

Hearing the man's explanation, Lilith calmed down, realizing that she had been too hot headed and the Carpenter meant no harm.

"Sarrai'a's just a little protective...kind of like how these little guys will be once they get older." Lilith explained, signifying the wolf pup in her bosom and the one in Drek's arms. She then turned her head back to her companion and rubbed her hand in soothing motions. "Now, now, don't be rude."

"I'm sorry about overreacting a little." *With that said she retakes her position for traveling and adjusts Caelus so he is better positioned for carrying*

“Pack hmm?” There were two wolf pups that Lilith showed off. One with her, and another that a superiorly drunk young man carried. The sight of Drek gave Emmerling a light smile. He had his first beer at ten, and he had not been able to concentrate properly. Words slipped his mind and his reflexes had been dulled. Generally he had made a mess of things that night that the potter did not forget for several months. Drek reminded him of his youth.

“These ain’t a pack. They’re people.” He tore himself from a reign of nostalgia and turned to Sarrai’a, “We ain’t animals. Least we shouldn’ act the part.”

Emmerling picked up the pace slightly as the group trudged headlong into a muddy causeway in Fort Mundy and toward the gatehouse. His heavy brow reddened with the effort, and a sheen of sweat started across his face. The carpenter was used to the weight of the tools on his back, but the effort still sped his heart to a race, and it urged a continued wheeze from out of his throat. Through the camp they went, and they passed faces familiar to him, those that waved respectfully to the guild members and with quiet salutations to Cliver and Emmerling.

“Some of these men’ve been here for some months.” He said stepping beneath the gatehouse with a huff of breath. “Me? I’ve been here bout a year. It’s good work, very good work.” Emmerling nods to himself not caring if anyone was listening to him or not. “ ‘fore we go any further, do ya’ll have all you came with? Where’s the Halfling?”

His dark eyes dully glazed over the band and then over the fort before he abruptly said, “I am Emmerling if ya’ll didn’t hear and cared to find out. I’m a carpenter. Best damned one in this region.”

Sky was surprised by this exchange, but keeps quiet. She didn't want to stay much longer, and was eager to leave. But she still sticks to Sarrai'a.