After all the guests were seated, it was then that the banquet could be said to have officially started. Xinya who was conversing with his friends, could hear the dull roar of people voices all around him. The snippets of conversations flitted through one ear and out the other, but the cheeriness that the crowd exuded stayed with him.
Suddenly there was the clicking of glass, that quieted the the whole hall. Turning around, Xinya saw that it was the Mayor hitting a wine glass with a fork to get everyone's attention. Once the mayor was sure that he had the attention of the entire room, only then did he speak.
"My dear townspeople, I would like to express my gratitude to you all for coming to another of my monthly banquets." The Mayor started, while looking around the room at the different faces in the crowd. "I see many new faces in the crowd tonight, for those of you that don't know me I'm Ian Kingsley, the Mayor of this wonderful town."
