11-30-03

Characters involved:
Sundew
Lain
Rahier
Maria
Earblade
Artigo

Salamandastron: Northwestern Side
Farther north, on the northwestern side of the mountain is more coast and the ever looming prescence of the mountain. To the north is coast and to the west is the ocean. The beaches between the mountain and the ocean look like a prime battleground area..
Exits: [N]orth [W]est to the sea, Circle around [W]est, Circle around [N]orth

To the northwestern side of the mountain, the sea, relatively calm for such a day, ebbs smoothly towards Salamandastron. A large, weathered and battered table has been carried out onto the beach, around which most of the Long Patrol hares sit. All manner of food graces the table, from the youngest hare's favourite to that of the oldest. Away from the table, further up on the beach, a very large bonfire has been made, every stick or chunk of driftwood has been found, dried and piled up in preparation for the afternoon.

Sundew can't help but smile at the hares gathered around the massive table, slightly cold as it may be, all eager and waiting to start the meal lest the food gets cold. She decides that the wait has been long enough and stands up from her seat at the head of the table. She clears her throat and calls the attention of the hares, clasping her paws in front of her as she does so. "Right," she begins, "Now I know you're all hungry and ready to dig in, but I just have one thing to say.." Ignoring the groans from a few of the younger hare, she chuckles and finishes her sentence. "And that is.. dig in!"

Smiling at Sundew's comment, Lain glances down at her plate, food seeming to pile itself onto the dish. Blinking, she looks up and to the side, giving a thankful nod to the Major sitting next to her and quietly sifting through her mixed plate. Ducking slightly as a dish is passed overhead, she glances upwards to make sure that the food actually stays on its plate, not jumping out like a frog from a frying pan.

Little Tommy stifles a sob as he peers, almost level with the table in front of him, muttering to noone in particular "Timmy would've loved this...Old Bob would have shed a quiet tear...". He hangs his head, slowly nibbling on a small morsel. He looks up as a passing hare, quite a recognisable one with one ear and the badge of a colonel, ruffles his headfur. Earblade gives him a wink and carries on further down the table towards his spot.

Rahier is back to his typical, resplendent self, now that he isn't all...red. :P Identifying with the leverets at the table, the healer fidgets as Sundew talks, tossing in his own dramatic groan at the delay. But.. dig in! Rahier's barely contained enthusiasm is released.. grabbing several nearby pastries in a flash of paws, nearly upsetting another hare's drink. All the food manages to make it to his plate, of course-- and further, into his mouth. "Yrmph!" Good, apparently. ;p

Lily, sniffling over by the salad, glances Tommy's way as she catches his words. She swallows, sucking on her lower lip childishly. The sweet girl blinks back tears and nods. "Y-yeah, Timmy would h-have been hopping with e-excitement," she whispers, joining Tommy. The hare lass shuffles her feet, falling silent.

'Oh no I am late.' Maria hustles out from the mountain towards the crowd of hares, she stops when she stops her limp run as she gets closer to the Table, looking around for a place to sit, hopefully near a certain buck of her choice. The librarian moves slowly down one end looking at all the faces trying not to draw too much attention.

Chatting idly to the hares on either side of her, Sundew fills her plate, welcoming the warm pasties and crunchy salads piled before her with 'mms' in between sentences. Every now and then she glances down the table at the others doing likewise.

Quietly eating and giving a few nods to some sympathetic passerby hares, she shrugs quietly to herself, not really enjoying the attention as she squirms in her spot. Glancing up and noticing Tommy, she quickly scans the faces of nearby hares, wondering quietly to herself how many were lost in the last battle.

Earblade takes his seat and starts to eat quietly, washing it down with a tankard of ale as provided very kindly by the hare on his right, Neville, the barhare in charge of the recreation room for the mountain. He lifts the tankard with a nod of greeting to several hares across the table from him and then glances back down the table to the diminuitive hare from earlier. Little Timmy is now chatting quietly to a haremaid of a seemingly similar age, Earblade grins to himself, "Poor lil' fella, doesn't know what hes letting himself in for" he says with a grin, nudging Neville and pointing downwards towards the small hare.

A cloud of sand rises up as Artigo bolts across the beach toward dinner, late, as usual. He quickly takes a seat and, without pausing to catch his breath, loads up his plate with all sorts of foods, practically spilling over the edges of his plate. He briefly nods in greeting to his friends before digging into his meal. Can't let the food get cold, you know.

Rahier has been on the lookout! Well...between bites. But Maria is spotted, nonetheless. "Urf!" Calls the healer, spraying the unfortunate hare next to him with crumbs. Gotta remember to swallow, first. Composing himself, the healer tries again, waving a scone-holding paw at the librarian. "Hey!" And lookit that, his...enthusiastic eating made the other hare vacate the seat next to him for another. ;p Woohoo! Rahier turns back to his plate.

Blinking up at Rahier as he fully sprays the poor hare over with crumbs, Lain chuckles quietly to herself, turning back to her salad, not bothering to look who exactly the healer is waving at. Maria, no doubt. Hrm.

Sundew notes with some amusement Rahier's eagerness, munching on several potato scones all at the same time. She pauses briefly to take a mouthful of salad and a sip of her light ale, surveying the hungry hares before her- some too engaged in their meal to talk, others nattering between mouthfuls and many just bickering over who gets to eat what. She decides against telling them that there's plenty more of the same food up in the kitchens..

Maria's eyes dart toward the voice calling out to her. She smiles sauntering her way towards Rahier, "Hello." she says upon getting closer, she looks at the previously occupied seat and shrugs sitting down, seeing how the hare had not gotten any food yet. "Big feast." she says reaching for one of the scones on a tray close by.

Earblade double-takes down the table, "Wait a minute....thats not Timmy. Hrm, Timmy was always at ease around that Lilly lass, must be Little Tommy, never could tell those little beggars apart. Hrm, well if Tommy's there then little Timmy must be around somewhere." Earblade catches a look on the face of a hare in front of him, "Wot? Wot did I say?" he asks in confusion. The hare whispers in his ear and his smile fades, "Ah...I see. Poor lil' mite" He goes to stand and go over to the young hare but Neville catches his arm and gives his head a short, sharp shake, "Best not Eary, prolly don't wanna think bout that right now y'know?" says the barhare. Earblade sighs and resumes his seated position, his appepite now somewhat diminished.

Finishing his second plate of food, Artigo belches rudely. "'s gettin' kinda chilly out 'ere." He shudders. "'ey, when we gonna light the bonfire?"

Sundew chuckles and leans back in her seat, meal finished and belt considerably tighter than before. Wiping crumbs from her whiskers, she glances at those still eating and nods to Artigo. "We'll wait a few minutes 'til all these 'uns are finished up, unless anyone wants to light it now?"

Artigo's eyebrows raise in excitement. He gets a childish, mischievous look on his face as he grins. "I wanna light it now!" He rubs his paws together mock-evilly.

Sundew grins and finds that she herself is quite excited. Quite unusual. Must be the weather. Clearing her throat, she shouts in a rather un-Sundewesque manner, "All those in favour of lightin' the bonfire now say AYE!"

Rahier plows through another scone or five, pausing once to considerately grin at Maria. One ear perks suddenly at the Colonel's loud shouting. Hrmph. The healer turns his crumb-sprinkled face towards her, giving something of an unenthusiastic, "Aye..." Too much fire yesterday, maybe. ;p

Maria finishes her scone and reaches for a pot of tea, pouring a little into her cup, looking over at Rahier, "ooh, a nice evening by a fire, I have not sat around a big bon fire in a long time." she says with a smile, sipping her tea.

A small chorus of young leverets, half way through some turnip pie, all look up at the Colonel's shout and, excitedly jumping up and down, squeals of 'Aye!' 'Yes!' and 'I want to do it!' can be heard throughout the party.

Artigo grins, standing up from his seat he walks over to the large pile of sticks. His grin slowly turns upside down. "Uh... er... anyone... anyone got a light?"

Sundew, having anticipated this problem, already sent a young, fit leveret up to the mountain to fetch a torch. Chuckling at the eager figure speeding down the beach trying his best to keep the thing lit, she gestures towards Artigo, who is promptly handed a still faintly glowing torch. The leveret collapses on the sand in exaustion.

The pyromaniac practically jumps up and down with excitement. He gently blows on the torch, watching the flame grow to a decent size. He then reaches down with the torch and ignites the pile of sticks. The fire starts out small, but grows rapidly. Artigo steps back a few paces due to the heat pouring off of the fire.

Sundew watches a few of the younger hares glow with excitement as they snatch a bowl of chestnuts off the table, dashing off in search of sharp sticks to roast them on. Sundew positions herself near the fire, settling down on the sand and stretching her paws out to the warmth.

Sufficiently stuffed, Rahier vacates his seat at the table, and makes for the now-lit bonfire, with a volume of crumbs shaking from his tunic as he goes. A small hop, and he hunkers down onto the sand, pulling his knees up to his chest. Ahh, warmth. His gaze moves from the fire, to the group of leverets. Cute. :p

Blinking as the flames of the to-be bonfire lick at the dry wood, consuming the fuel in little time, Lain smiles a bit, leaning back and holding her urge to join the other leverets. Something just seems to click to join them but she resists that urge, glancing over her shoulder at the Major who urges her forward. Hmm...

Earblade wanders over to a locations that'll be suitably warm once the bonfire starts to heat up, he kicks the sand out a bit so it makes a small depression for him to sit in. Once seated, with cup of spiced wine in hand, along with the ever present Neville, he leans back, far too comfortable in this now warm spot.

As the fire starts to grow and Sundew's head tilts forwards onto her knees, the chatter around her seems further and further away.. Until a sprawling duo of two wrestling leverets crashes into her. The Colonel is roused with a start, falling back onto the sand, she sees the cause of her wakening and can't help but laugh.

Maria stands up a few moments later her self, not feeling real hungry she refills her glass of tea and nods to the hare next to her turning towards the fire. She takes a sip of the tea once again searching out Rahier, moving slowly over to him she smiles sitting down next to him, gazing at the fire at first and then towards the leverets, smiling softly.

Rahier grins as Maria sits, looking over at the sudden Colonel-commotion with a raised brow. The healer snickers. "S'good that we don't have t'worry 'bout those damn corsairs no more, aye?" Asked of the surrounding few, in an enthusiastically raised voice. Well. At least he's happy... despite the losses of the oft lamented poor Timmy and Old Bob. A requiem for NPCs.

Sundew looks up at Rahier's mention of corsairs. "Aye, blimmin' vermin.. shot of the lot of 'em, and about time too.." She munches on a roasted chestnut idly, trying to keep her eyes open and resisting the urge to wander back to her dorm to sleep

Maria turns her head to glance at Rahier as he makes his comment, her ears laying back against her head, "A time for remembrance of all the beasts lost because of those vermin." she sighs and looks down, thinking of all the hurt beasts and those who were affected by the Confederation.

Rumbling and loud, a snort erupts from the now sleeping form of Earblade. Neville looks over at the retired colonel and shakes his head with a grin, he then looks to little Tommy, who sits staring wordlessly into the fire, a tear runningly slowly down his cheek to drop silently onto the sand. Lily, who for some reason had gone rather quiet after her initial attempts at quickly gaining his affections, sits next to another male hare, occasionally glancing over and pouting at the form of the diminuitive Tommy.

Sleepily, Sundew notes the slumbering Earblade and chuckles fondly. Picking herself up, she wanders over to Artigo and murmurs, "I'm gonnaa head up to the castle now, wot, no sleep last night because of.. well.. you know, time for a late afternoon nap.. must be gettin' old!" With a nod to a few others, she picks her way through the scrambling leverets and pads gently through the sad back up to the mountain, leaving the others to have fun.

Maria glances back to the fire, watching the leverets play and roast their chest nuts, she looks over at Rahier again and smiles "Its nice being out side and not having to worry about what is in the shadows." she says quietly, looking back at the leverets.

Rahier grunts as he's spoken to, gaze drifting to her. "Hrm?" Inattentive! Quickly making up for his lack of response, due to the fascinating fire, ;p the healer slings an arm over her shoulders. "Sure is..." A small chuckle. "No more random kidnappin's an' th'like either." :P

As the night carries on, the hares of the Longpatrol, either in groups, couples or alone when they've woken up to find their friends already inside, start to move indoors. The hizz and crackle of the bonfires becomes more subdued, their heat already fading, loosing the fight against the cold sea air closing in. The tables and furniture are taken back inside and one by one the bonfires are exitnguished. As the last hare begins to leave he notices a dark shape in the sand, carefully nudging the slumbering hare he helps them up and inside the mountain. The end of an enjoyable night for all the residents of Salamandastron and a well deserved rest lies ahead.