Long ago, somewhere deep in the jungle...

In the jungle, sits a llama with their head lowered, and thunder resounding above them. One crack of thunder and lightning shocks the llama and the poor creature lets out a scream. As the rain begins to fall, so does the llama's tears, along with the sounds of whimpering and sobbing.

'Would you take a look at that? Pret-ty pathetic, huh?
Well, you'll never believe this, but that llama you're looking at was once a human being--'

'Woah! Hold your horses there, Kuzco. Or should I say 'Hold your llamas'? This isn't just your story anymore,'

'Wait-! Who're you?!'

'I'm the Dungeon Master! Well, it would sound weird if people call me that, so just call me Dee! Anyways, I'm afraid you're not the focus of this story here, Kuzco. Not anymore, at the very least,'

The cameras jerks a bit as the llama curls up on the rock, and narrator Kuzco lets out sounds of protest.

'Wha-?! Hey!!!'

'Let's bring our attention to the band of misfits. The true focus of the story. The uniting factor for all stories to come!'

Everything is a blur of colors, as though somebody just spun the camera rapidly, before it settles on a tavern and diner, in the capitol of the Empire of the Sun...

---

It seems to be another sunny day. The grand capitol city seems to be bustling with the citizens going about their normal business. It is not hard to notice the palace upon first glance in this city. After all, it is built as a giant face wearing a crown, sitting atop stone stairs. It easily dwarfs all of the other buildings in the capitol.

A handful of wandering destinies have gathered at an establishment that functions as a tavern, inn, and diner known as 'Mudka's Mead & Meat Hut'. The interior is full of customers, and like any other tavern and inn, they have a job board for all adventurers from all walks of life.

Most of the heroes have come here by ship. But one in particular came to this place by a unique set of circumstances...



Upon first entering the tavern/inn/diner, each individual is greeted by the waiterss, who heaves a heavy sigh,

From the moment he he set foot on the Empire's shores, the Huntsman felt as if he was being watched. Even when he was totally alone, he could always sense some kind of presence observing him. He eventually came to the conclusion that someone was using magic to keep track of him. But who? It couldn't be the Queen. The magic mirror couldn't actually show anything, only describe it. Perhaps it was one of the people he had been sent to find? He hoped so. If it was a powerful caster like the ones he had been ordered to hunt down, then such a power knowing of his presence did not bode well.

Putting these thoughts aside for the time being, the Huntsman decided to find somewhere to eat as the first faint feelings of hunger made their presence known within him. Eventually happening upon a tavern/inn/diner, the Huntsman made his way inside and was greeted by a world weary waitress. "Welcome to Mudka's Mead & Meat Hut, Home of the Mead and Meat. What'll it be?"

The Huntsman opened his mouth to request a table for one and a single Mead and Meat, but a sudden flash of strange intuition changed his words. "A table for eight and eight Meads and Meats, please." The Huntsman said. "My companions will join me shortly." It was only when he was seated at his table and the waitress had gone off to process his order that the Huntsman realized that what he'd intended to say had been completely different from what he had actually said. But how could that have been? Had he just be paying incredibly poor attention to his words? Or was there something stranger afoot in the Empire of the Sun?

Even though things didn’t go exactly as she had hoped, Ariel was still excited to be in the human world. After becoming a human, the current took her to some place far away called The Empire of the Sun. Nowhere near to where she met Eric the first time. But it didn’t matter. She was certain she would find him again. Besides, she did want to explore the human world anyway!

Apparently humans were willing to pay to hear some singing. After scrounging together some human money from performances on the streets, she had gotten a bunch of new human treasures from human world. Everything she could need for an adventure.

Now she had wandered into a Tavern. As soon as he entered, she was greeted by a older human woman Welcome to Mudka's Mead & Meat Hut, Home of the Mead and Meat. What'll it be?“

Ariel wasn’t sure how to respond to that question. She looked around, there were a bunch of humans gathered around enjoying food and drink. It was when she saw one human who was sitting alone at a large table, that she knew what to say. “Actually, I’m with him.” She replied as she enthusiastically walked to the table.

She sat at the table next to the man. It was her first time having an actual conversation with a human! She had to make a good first impression. “Hi… hello… um… what’s the appropriate word to use?” Suddenly, a shiny object caught her attention. Her eyes widened with excitement. “Oh my gosh! A dinglehopper!” She picked up the fork, and started brushing her red hair with it. Only stopping when she became aware of several patron’s eyes on her. She smiled sheepishly and put the fork down. “Um… did I use that wrong?” Was Scuttle wrong about what that object was?

@rush99999

In a failed attempt to take his mind off the presence he could feel observing him, the Huntsman had retreated into his thoughts. But he returned his focus to the world around him when he noticed someone approaching the table. The Huntsman looked up to see an enthusiastic, red haired girl who looked to be around the same age as Snow White moving to join him.

“Hi… hello… um… what’s the appropriate word to use?” The girl asked the Huntsman, seemingly a little unsure of herself.

"Either of the words you used is fine." The Huntsman told the girl with a small yet reassuring smile. But before he could say anymore, the girl noticed one of the forks on the table.

“Oh my gosh! A dinglehopper!” She exclaimed in excitement before picking up the fork and using it as a comb.

The Huntsman wasn't entirely sure how to react to this. He knew foreign cultures could be strange, but he never expected this.

Eventually, the girl became aware of several patron’s eyes on her, the Huntsman's included. Causing her to smile sheepishly and put the fork down. “Um… did I use that wrong?” She asked.

"Y-Yes." The Huntsman said, finally finding the words. "That... dinglehopper you called it? That's actually called a fork. It's used to eat food that's either too hot or too messy to touch. I'll show you when the food gets here. For now though, what's your name?"

After finally wandering out of the woods, Mabel looked curiously at the buildings around her, and the grand palace on the hill, so fun. But this definitely wasn't the sleepy little town she'd been spending the summer in. She clutched her brother's dumb book tighter as she scurried alone through the crowded streets. As she walked, her stomach started to growl. It had been a while since she'd eaten, and she decided to head toward what seemed to be a popular eatery.

"Welcome to Mudka's Mead & Meat Hut, Home of the Mead and Meat. What'll it be?"

Mabel was a little taken aback by how emotionally worn down the waitress seemed, but she enthusiastically replied, “Hi there! Meat I guess? Is mead the only drink on offer? 'Cause I'd really like some juice, maybe apple juice, or grape juice, orange juice, maybe guava. . . oh, and maybe a map? Do you have a map? I seem to have gotten a wee bit lost? See, my brother was fighting this dum-dum and I fell down this hill, and. . . Oh! Never mind, he looks pretty outdoorsy, he probably has a map!” A few steps towards the Huntsman, Mabel leaned back, “I'll still take that meat though.”

Reaching the table where the outdoorsy man was talking to a beautiful red haired young woman, Mabel showed little concern for what conversation in progress she might be interrupting, “Excuse me! Hi. So, uh, I was wondering if you might have a map I could burrow, or look at. Or maybe you could just point me in the direction Gravity Falls? That might. . .”

She looks over the table, realizing how many empty seats there still were and immediately became distracted from her train of thought,“Oh, say, are you guys having a party? I love parties! The cake, and the music, and the dancing!”

Before the red haired girl could answer the Huntsman's question, another girl arrived. This one was younger than the first and had brown hair rather than red. More notable to the Huntsman though, she wore a sweater with a shooting star on it and carried a tome. Was this one of the people the Queen has bade him to find? Either way, she seemed lost. So the Huntsman felt compelled to help her. "I... wouldn't exactly call this a party, child." The Huntsman said, having hunted meat for far too many banquets to see something this simple as a party. "I would say this is more of a... meeting really. As for your question about a map, I've only just arrived, so I don't have one for here yet. I do intend to buy one once I have had something to eat though. In the meantime, why don't you have a seat and tell us who you are."

Not even one day as a human, and she had already made a fool of herself. She put her face in her palm and turned a shade of red from the embarrassment. The man asked for her name, and she was about to give it, when a new human joined the table. This one a girl younger than herself, dressed in bright colors, and featuring a pattern she had never seen before. She said something about a map, but Ariel was more interested in the parties she was talking about.

“I love parties!” Ariel responded even though the man just said this gathering wasn’t one. “We have all sorts of festivals and celebrations where I come from. Though admittedly, a lot of the ones I end up at are rather stuffy, formal affairs… I’m sure the ones here must be way more exciting! What’s cake? I’m sure it must be wonderful if it can be compared to music and dancing!”

Then she remembered the man asked her a question. ”Oh right. My name is Ariel. Um… If you haven’t already guessed, I’m not from around here. I guess you could say I’m a real fish out of water…”

Her arrival at this strange new place had been a shock, then a relief and lastly a sorrowful happenstance. When she first awoke in this land, she felt soft grass under her skin and quickly found herself to be lying in a forest of some kind. When she realized she was not in Atlantis anymore, first she felt shocked. That this was possible at all! There were other people out there, other civilizations! And that meant she was right, she could find help. Relief washed over her. The Heart of Atlantis had answered her call. It had to be, she could not fathom a different explanation. Although not for the lack of trying.

She would walk up and down, talking to herself to clear her mind, trying to conceive a different explanation. But there simply was no other explanation. This led to the convenient conclusion that the Heart had sent her here specifically because there'd be people here who could help. After her initial relief and euphoria about this discovery, Kida had to come to terms with the fact that her connection to the Heart had broken. Her necklace although seemingly undamaged didn't give off any light anymore and would not even heal a simple cut. It filled her with deep and all encompassing sorrow to realize she had lost the connection. But she refused to believe this could hint at the Heart having died. Surely she was just too far away. Surely the Heart of Atlantis was just weakened temporarily due to the immense power it must have cost to send her here.

Determined, Kida began to wander the woods and find her way to an area she suspected to be civilized. She saw people wandering the streets, buildings in different sizes, and a language she could understand. There was one particular building she felt drawn to. She took one whole day to stake out the place from a safe distance and just memorize the amount of people who'd come and go before she first set foot into the street and into the building. It turned out to be a place that served drink and food. Something called mead was apparently a kind of beverage people in this land enjoyed. Of course, she knew what meat was, though it had been a long time since she had seen this many plates of meat be produced in a day. Her people mostly consumed what the sea gave and most of that were various kinds of fish and sea life.

Kida, hungry after a day without food - she had not dared consume any berries or plants from the woods and she had not dared to hunt just yet -, decided it was a safe bet to ask for one of the meals. Though with no means to pay, the lady looked her in the face stone cold and sent her away. Her question about how to gain money to pay with was left unanswered. She returned shortly after with a few coins and the question if it was enough money to buy her a meal. Suspicion plagued the lady's face but she accepted the pay and served Kida her meal.

The money in question had indeed been stolen. She had watched the people on the streets, had followed one or the other and observed their behavior until she had seen enough transactions with the coins that she could sneak one or two without being seen. Rinse and repeat, she soon had a few desperate coins. Enough for a meal.

She been here for three days now. She had eaten meat meals and even drank mead - it was a horrible beverage, she loved it! She had followed one randomly selected person throughout the entire day to find out what they'd be doing. It was nothing spectacular. She had began to trust the woods would not poison her and consume various berries and plants she felt had resemblance to Atlantean ones she knew to be safe. She also found some fruit and bread to be sold down the street by an outdoor vendor where she snuck a few and later paid for some. (Though that money had been stolen, so really it wasn't better.)

She didn't know why she stuck around but she just felt that this mead and meat place was of importance. The Heart had sent her here and her gut told her it had to do with this specific building. So she sat for at least one, sometimes two meals and waited hours for something to happen. People were staring at her as she stuck out from the rest. Once or twice a kind person had attempted to make conversation with her, mostly by asking where she was from. She had vaguely deferred the question, she'd come from "far away". In these conversations she learnt that she could earn coin by doing work, exchange her labor for some coins then later exchange the coins for things she needed. Not too complicated. If nothing would happen today, she might just have to find a way to earn coins that way. She couldn't continue stealing, people would begin to notice.

But this time when she entered the mead and meat place, something was different. She already felt it before she stepped through the door but when she saw the strange group, people so clearly not from around here they stuck out like a glowing crystal, she knew it for certain. Her steps brought her right up to their table before her mind could make a plan as to what to say. Was she supposed to just ask for their help? Explain that the Heart had sent her here to meet them? Would they help her if she was honest or would they think her insane? She didn't know how people from this land or any other acted and she didn't know if tales of Atlantis had survived and if so what they said about her city.

"You picked the right place to find a good meal. I recommend the drink. They call it mead, it tastes horrible and that makes it good somehow. It's funny cause meat and mead sound the same but they're not. One's a meal and one's a drink."

"This is very true." The Huntsman agreed with the observations on meat and mead made by the third strange girl to approach the table now. "We have eight seats here and eight meals on the way. You are more than welcome to join us if you'd like to."

The man walked into town in silence. He stuck out rather easily, what with his Wuhou attire and wide-brimmed straw hat that protected his eyes from the sun. Shang attracted some stares some of the local women but he paid them no heed. He couldn't imagine what would've brought Mulan so far outside of their home country. But regardless, he was able to follow news and rumors that seemed to indicate that a young woman of the same nationality had once traveled through this direction. That was all Shang needed to in order to find himself in this Empire of the Sun.

But the morning dragged on and the former Captain was beginning to realize that he had not yet eaten a meal, as indicated by the low growl of his stomach. When he asked around he was pointed in the direction of a place called "Mudka's". The locals swore up and down they had the best meat and mead there. Well Shang wasn't exactly one for drinking spirits, but a hot meal with meat would do him so good. And so several minutes later, the ex-soldier pushed open the door and entered the little... was it a tavern? Or an inn? It was hard to tell by its looks. But either way he was immediately greeted by the sight of a bored-looking old lady.

"Welcome to Mudka's Mead & Meat Hut, Home of the Mead and Meat. What'll it be?"

"I'll... have your famous meat, please. And just water for the drink will be fine. Or tea, if you serve that here. Thank you." replied Shang, his tone very polite and respectful. He even put his hands together and bowed his head. A common gesture of courtesy where he came from, but around here? It looked a little strange, probably. But as always, Shang paid no mind to whatever stares or strange looks he was given by those around him.

He looked around for a place to sit. Instinctively he wanted a place where his back would be to the wall. Of course, that was probably just his military training influencing him there. He found a good enough looking table in the corner and decided to take a seat there. Coincidentally it happened to be the next table over from where a man, a girl, and two women were sitting. All of them looked foreign, though not from Wuhou like him. Shang just offered the group a courtesy bow as he had done with the woman from earlier and silently sat the table he had selected. Once he did, he finally took the straw hat off his head and sat it down on the seat next to him. And it was at this time that Shang finally let himself relax a bit. But not too much. He was a stranger in a strange land, after all.

Mabel turned to the red haired woman, Ariel, in excitement, “You've never had cake? Lady, let me tell you, it's great, it's like a rainbow for your mouth!”

(Not sure Ariel would have seen a rainbow either.)

She turns her attention back to the huntsman, pulling herself up into one of the empty seats, “Well, my name's Mabel, rhymes with table. . . Anyways, I don't really need a map of the city, so much as a map of where this city is in comparison to the city where I need to be. Gotta get back to my bro-bro before he goes insane. Not sure if he's more worried about me or this stupid book right about. . .”

Her attention was distracted again as another beautiful young woman, this one with white hair, approached. Her thoughts on food, and mead seemed simply expressed, but quite understandable. Mabel looked curiously at the man, he didn't seem to know who he was expecting, so much as just inviting people to join.

After his banishment, Kovu traveled further and further from the Pridelands and Outlands. The grassy plains eventually turned into a dense forest. Even upon reaching that, he just continued forward. The feline didn't know where he was heading. It felt like a strange force was guiding his path. He encounter a couple of strange creatures he never seen within the area of his home. Some even show fear upon laying eyes upon him. He was able to trade some of his kills for this thing the mostly furless creatures... humans called money. Although, he had yet to need it for anything.

There was strange shiver down Kovu's spine when he crossed a specfic spot of the forest. He proceeded cautiously through the dense undergrowth until he somehow reached the edge of it. His green eyes landed on structures he had never seen. Part of him wanted to slink back deeper into the jungle, but there was a bigger pull to explore this new environment. Kovu wasn't sure what this strange... instinct was. Maybe it was just a past remembrance of the adventurous youth he once was. Whatever the reason, Kovu decided to follow it for now. He pulled his hood over his head and made his way to this new location. Those furless beings that often found him unpleasing at a glance populated the area. The lion kept his hood on and carefully took shadier paths with fewer people.

Empire of the Sun is what he overheard this place was called. Beings would go in and out of this strange stone structures. A strong scent of meat permeates the air. He carefully tracked it down. As his eyes locked onto the place where delicious smell wafted from, that strange feeling emerged again. Kovu could only assume he was supposed to enter it. Smoothly, he entered and was greeted by... a human with a tall red mane on their head.

"Welcome to Mudka's Mead & Meat Hut, Home of the Mead and Meat. What'll it be?" She sounded female, though he wasn't quite sure, female lioness didn't have manes, but most humans did. He didn't quite understand the question. As he scanned his surrounding, Kovu came to the conclusion that this was a location where one brings their hunt and feasted on them.

"Meat." Kovu answered what he believed he was supposed to before his eyes landed on a peculiar group. There it stayed. The weird guiding instinct was telling him to go there. Ambling over silently, he attempting not to draw too much attention to himself, Kovu found himself at the edge of the chattering group. His piercing green eyes glowering from the edge of his hood. He realized just standing and staring was probably intimidating for the smaller creatures. "Hi, my name is Kovu. I don't know why but my instincts led me here."

The Huntsman opened his mouth to reply to Mabel's revelation that she was lost and needed to fin her brother. But before he could, two more arrivals made their presence known. The first was a foreign looking man who bowed to the group without a word before seating himself at a different table. The Huntsman answered the bow with a nod of his before his attention was caught by the arrival of the second newcomer.

"Hi, my name is Kovu. Something the Huntsman could only describe as a humanoid lion spoke up. I don't know why but my instincts led me here."

"You... aren't the only one." The Huntsman said as he recovered from the initial shock of this new arrival's appearance. "I'm pretty sure everyone at this table has been brought here through some strange means or another. And with you here, this table now only has three empty seats left. Something tells me that there will be three more people sitting with us before long." Though he didn't say what that something was, the Huntsman knew it himself. It was the rhymes that the Queen had taught to him before he left on his mission. Already he could put two of the poems to the people who had joined him. Mabel's was the rhyme of the shooting star far from home and Kovu's was the rhyme of the beast.

This was a disaster.

What was suppose to be a simple boat ride ended up into a big mess that left Shi Long stranded from home, in an unknown land, with little more than what he could've cobbled together from the wreck. Since leaving China, he took a boat eating eastward, but a storm had forced the ship off course. He thought he would be safe inside with the protection of his heavy stone armor, but it was that same armor that nearly spelled his doom when he fell off the boat. Turns out stone sinks, and thus Shi Long was forced to abandon his armor and cling onto some driftwood. He had no idea how long he had been out, but by the time he reached land he was starving. But where he found himself was nowhere like China. Everyone dressed and looked differently, and the local language was very different from what he was familiar with.

However Shi Long was no stranger to living off the land. Despite having spent most of his recent life catered by the Fa Family, his origins had taught him how to survive in nature. Even if these plants and beasts were different from the ones at home, he adapted quickly enough. And first thing's first, he would need to get a new set of skin. So cobbling together a suit of armor from wood and making a wig from darken strips of vine, Shi Long created a rudimentary disguise of a wandering warrior, complete with tough looking hair and a vicious looking mask disguising his very inhuman face. Granted he was also quite short. He would've tried to rig a more complex leg system to look more imposing, but lacking the resources and tools he had to make his Stone Dragon armor, he would just have to settle for being a particularly short warrior.

But his skills in crafts were largely limited to weapons and armor, and he couldn't eat it. He had subsided on wild berries and river water for a while, but he could feel knots in his gut yearning for something with more sustenance. He wanted to improve his disguise more, but alas his hunger won out. Shi Long visited a nearby town to test his disguise and for the most part folks didn't seem to pay him too much mind. Granted he got a lot of looks, but no one stopped him, so he assumed everything was okay. Looking for a place to eat, one of the more popular places based off what people were talking about seemed to be some sort of Mead and Meat hut. Shi Long has heard of mead before, it was a sort of honey alcohol. He certainly could use a strong drink and a warm meal, so Shi Long made his way to this hut.

Unsurprisingly, the place was busy. Lots of people eating and drinking, and the waitress was droll and bored as usual, but that was good for Shi Long. She probably won't ask too many questions as long as Shi Long was a paying customer. But ever wanting a good deal, Shi Long noticed a large table full of strange and colorful characters. Now granted being a stranger in these strange lands, Shi Long was unfamiliar with anyone. But he's been through town and has a general idea of what locals looked like, and this group looked far from local. If anything one of them looked almost familiar, or at least his style of dress was very similar to his home country of China. Another lost foreigner? Or someone connected to the strange happenings that lead Shi Long on this journey in the first place? Either way, it was something worth investigating.

Confidently striding up to the table, Shi Long ran into his first issue: He was too short to actually stand over the table. So Shi Long raised his hand, the only thing that could go over the table, to make his presence known. "Greetings! I take it that you all are travelers as well. May I take this seat?"

"By all means." The Huntsman said to the hand that requested a seat at the table. "With you here that leaves only two chairs left to fill."

The waitress writes down each and every order, and and answers each request with an affirmative. All of the party would notice that she addresses almost everyone as "Honey". However, in Li Shang's case, she called him "Handsome".

While the party gathers and speaks with each other a bit, the waitress soon comes out with the ordered food and drinks. While the diner's foods look...appealing enough to eat in presentation, everyone from all walks of life (from fine dining to having to eat what they could get), can all tell that the food...is not of high quality.

The waitress delivered quite a spread to the large table of six. There were burgers(?), there were steaks(?), and there were...bugs?! When the party's eyes land on the rolled up bug dish, the waitress answered the lingering question, "Special of the Day, the Roly-Poly in celebration of the Emperor's Birthday tomorrow," She also delivered the meads to the adults and a cup of orange juice to Mabel. The mead's coloration doesn't look right for those who drank it before, and Mabel realizes that the orange juice looks like someone actually took an orange, and simply squeezed it over a glass.

After that, she delivered a steak and special roly-poly to Shang, along with a cup of tea.

---

While the party continues to talk amongst themselves, and possibly eat and drink, another guest enters the diner. This peasant is tall and burly in stature, but he has a peaceful demeanor. He is wearing a green poncho and a simple brown cap on his head. He takes a seat at one of the empty tables and sighs. He places a rolled up scroll on the table, away from the end towards the floor more towards the window as he looks at the menu.

---

The sound of clattering on a table can be heard.

"What-What is that?"
"Oh, it's just the fate deciding dice. Don't worry about it,"

Kuzco immediately gulps in worry.

"Fa-Fate Deciding?"

---

The Huntsman, Li Shang, and Shi Long don't really notice the peasant or the scroll on the table.

For Shang, the waitress informed him in passing, "Let me know if you want anything else, Handsome," She gave a casual wink that could be flirtatious in a tired way. She even slides a napkin towards him that had...numbers and words written on it? on the table surface towards him. ...Was she flirting with him?

The Roly-Poly dish smell is revolting for all three who weren't paying attention to their surroundings. All three cannot help but feel their gag reflexes start to act up.

Ariel was confused again. “Ok, but what’s a rainbow? There are so many new things to explore here!”

Soon more and more people arrived, and including one who called himself who looked like no human Ariel had ever seen before. Then their meal arrived, and even though Ariel had never had human food she could tell this wasn’t of good quality. She was reluctant to even put it in her mouth…

Another man soon arrived and sat at a different table with a scroll that had a face that looked like the palace she had heard people gossiping about on the way over here. Nothing unusual about that. That was untill she noticed these suspicious men in black approaching his table. She sensed something was wrong, and felt like she had to act.

Ariel reached into her bag, and pulled out one of the human treasures she bought. A lyre as the humans called it. An instrument that made music. “Hey, would you all be interested in a concert?” Ariel played her instrument, and started to sing.

We gathered here together enjoying a snack
When in came these scary men in black

With their beady eyes and arrogant stance
Thinking they're cool, but they don't stand a chance

They strut around like they own the place
But let me tell you, they're a total disgrace
Their words are venom, their hearts filled with spite
But we won't let their darkness overshadow our light

So let's rise above their insults and jeers
We'll keep smiling, despite their sneers
For their words may sting, but we'll stand tall
Unfazed by their attempts to make us fall

We'll spread kindness, love, and joy each day
Because negativity is not the way
Together we'll build a world that's united
Leaving behind those who are misguided

So let them wear their black suits and frown
We'll keep on dancing, painting the town
Their insults won't bring us down, you'll see
We're stronger than that, filled with positivity.

She laced the insulting words of her song with magic.

A bulky human responded that the rest of the people here were also guided by a similar instinct. He glanced at the others, very skinny and small humans. He was encouraged to take a seat, which cause Kovu to stare for a bit before sitting down. Couldn't say he understood, was this necessary? Was there something wrong with the ground? The lion being stared down at it for a moment... it didn't look like it was anything bad to sit on. He just pegged it at a human thing. Just before he turned his gaze away, a pair of arms popped waving talking to the group. The man who he assumed was like the pride leader of the group spoke to him as well. This tiny person gave off a very strong foresty smell that was different from the other scents.

That woman with the towering red mane eventually brought some very curious looking... kills? The bug at least looked like something he had seen before even though it was enormous. A foul-smelling bug... that Meerkat and Warthog back from the Prideland would probably love this. The meat looked like it was just a smaller portion of a kill the color wasn't red like he was used to. The burger thing was something he had never seen. He lowers his head level with it and examined it closer... was that meat between... something? There seemed to be some kind of leave in there too. Kovu examined it from all different angles. But his confusion didn't seem to lessen... Also apparently honey-colored drink was Mead. There was a slight sweetness in the wafting off it when he gave it a whiff.

After a moment no one else seemed to be venturing in and eating. With a bit of uncertainty, Kovu went for the safest bet, the slab was oddly-colored meat. He picked it up with his clawed hands, sniff it before he brought it to his mouth, and ripped off a chuck... it tasted a bit strange and tougher than he was used to. It was no freshly killed gazelle, but not bad enough to refuse to eat. He continued to tear pieces off with his fangs as he scanned the area. He noticed a burly human with a rolled-up scroll, the little symbol on it looked like the weird-shaped stone formation that stood higher in the mountainous area. Kovu didn't think much more about it than that.

Suddenly the human with the long flowing red mane began strumming a melodious tone and singing a song. Kovu was at a loss at why she would suddenly do that... Though it wasn't too uncommon to spontaneously break into song, he just resumed eating the food presented to him.

The two men stopped in their tracks in the middle of the diner when Ariel started singing and brought them up. They look at each other confused at first before their attention remained on her. One of the bandits raised a hand to his head in pain and let out a hiss of pain.

"Oi! Oi, Geeves! What's wrong?!"

"Ow! That singing...! It actually hurt!"

The bandits glared at Ariel and they angrily spoke to her,

"Oi! What's the big idea?!"

"Yeah! Didn't anyone teach ya to mind yer own business?!"

"Perhaps we oughta teach her a lesson!"

One of the men in black raises two fingers to his mouth and lets out a shrill whistle, before the both of them unsheathe their weapons ready to fight Ariel.

When the waitress brought forth the food, the Huntsman didn't mind the low quality meat on offer. As a servant, he was used to subsisting off of the food deemed unfit for the feasting tables of those he served. But just as he was about to tuck in, the Huntsman felt the presence again. He felt as if it were speaking with someone, but he heard no conversation beyond those that were taking place on other tables. The Huntsman also got the sense that some sort of decision was being made, but what that decision was he did not know.

The Huntsman was pulled from his thoughts by Ariel suddenly rising from her seat and beginning to sing an insulting song to a pair of men in black clothing. At first he wasn't sure what was happening, but as threats were made and blades were drawn, the Huntsman decided figuring things out would have to wait. His first instinct had been to reach under the table to grab the longbow he'd set down alongside his backpack, but he paused when he remembered that Mabel was present. He didn't enjoy the thought of shedding blood or killing in the presence of a child if he could avoid it, but there would be no avoiding either of those things if he started loosing arrows. And so the Huntsman pulled away from his bow and drew his shortswords, holding them in a reverse grip so he would be better able to strike with the pommels.

Rising from his seat, the Huntsman dashed over to where the two men in black were preparing to attack. The whistle one of them gave was no doubt a call for back up. Regardless, the Huntsman was not about to let any harm come to Ariel. And so he ran past the girl and place himself between her and the men. "No harm will come to her while I draw breath!" The Huntsman declared as he readied himself for the fight.