Deserik liked alcohol.
Whenever he thought about the Lady; the disappointment and hatred in her eyes in the last moments he was by her side; her sharp words that cut him and damned him to an eternity of purposelessness and regret... all he had to do was drink until his thoughts were too muddled and dull to make sense, then he would cry until he fell asleep.
Jerry regretted introducing him to mead. Not because Deserik was drinking him into poverty; he wasn't – in fact, it only took a couple of glasses to make Deserik senselessly drunk.
It saddened Jerry to see Deserik like this. It was kind of pathetic. He didn't want to try stop him, though. Deserik was still doing his job, so if he wanted to drink to the brink of death every night, who was Jerry to stop him? A couple of times, Jerry actually believed that Deserik had drunk to death. He cried both times until he realised that Deserik was just deeply unconscious. He felt a little dumb, as he put Deserik to bed so he wouldn't get kidnapped. The third time it happened, Jerry simply concluded that Deserik was immortal, so he shouldn't worry about it.
Jerry could admit it; he was a pushover.
However, despite Deserik's unconventional eating habits and drinking problems; despite Jerry's lack of a spine, they had become good friends. Deserik had travelled to every corner of Fantastica and beyond. Jerry hardly ever left his tavern.
Deserik told stories of every Faerie creature in the land. He spoke of politics; the feuds between nations and how Lady Selica, Empress of Mortals kept them united.
Jerry told stories too, about his sisters, about his dream to be an inn keeper, meeting people from every face of the Earth. How he imagined being paid in good stories and strange items... until he realised, he needed money.
One day, Jerry was telling him about some leaves a traveller gave them.
"They fell from an Ancient Tree, apparently."
"Which Ancient Tree?" Deserik asked.
"Dunno, they didn't tell me." Jerry said, "they did make good tea, though – the leaves."
"They did?"
"Yes, it gave me colourful visions."
"Oh," Deserik said, slightly concerned. He realised, "I've never had tea before-"
"You haven't?" Jerry asked shocked.
"No."
And so, they spent the rest of the afternoon drinking tea.