Tilting her mug back in the cradled winds, the small beer was poured in an elegant arc into the shadowed void beneath the wizard's hat and hair. There was a sound a bit like water bubbling in a brook but no scent of spilled beer, or the splash one would expect on the seat or floor if she was indeed actually hollow.
Fizzbunches naturally lapped it up, hilariously getting foam on his whiskers, but he drank heavier than was seemingly possible for such a small frame as a cat and was already on his third serving.
It reminded Jewel of how she used to drink her small beer before she figured out how to drink from a proper mug like a lady.
And Tsulogothulan?
The Bog Wizard stared at the mug and occasionally took incredibly languid blinks accompanied by deep gulping sounds in the general area of their? throat.
And the level of small ale in the mug dropped in ponderous trembling jumps with each raising of their? oversized eyelid.
Jewel had no idea how that worked, but Wizards were supposed to be strange creatures.
There was a further uncomfortable silence, even after everyone was drinking!
The void of conversation between her family and their 'guests' got tenser and more squirming with insinuations until finally Lothlar broke it, laughing so jovially it was like a hammer through one of the colored glass windows in the village temple.
"Hah! Well I honestly can't say how much I appreciate your hospitality already Lord Rochford! A good solid drink being one of the least of them but still welcome!"
His words were sharply clipped and a little more rounded in places than anyone Jewel had heard speak before. It was not anything like Fizzbunches or Tsulogothulan.
He chugged a hearty gulp from his mug of small beer before belching appropriately and heavily.
"Truly no offense to them but my companions, being esteemed Lord, Lady, and Other Sorcerers have hardly been bothered by the trials, pains and filth of the road. And our road has hardly passed an inn or village on our way here."
Fizzbunches gave a pronounced snort of disagreement. Which prompted a breathy wordless admonishment from Tsulogothulan
"So I must say, getting a decent and even HOT bath and a solid meal is more than welcome after the journey we've had to reach you! Praise be to you, Lord Rochford!"
Which prompted a toast that all raised their drinks too. Fizzbunches and Euewyn did so by levitating their drinking vessels without touching them.
The tension partly broken, Mother took on her role in family hospitality to further carry the conversation.
"So, from whence have you traveled to meet us? I must admit that I'm not familiar with the lands of any of your titles."
Jewel could see this drew Alexander's attention as well, her brother leaning a bit over the table to see the knight past their mother and the leafy autumn wizard.
Although Mother had left the address open to all their guests, it was only the knight who filled the emptiness that no one else seemed willing too.
"Well, I was drawn up on this quest when Honorable Lord Sorcerer Fizzbunches came through Garmendan. He had a small caravan for this business already but at the time it was just his lordship as part of the noble personages."
There was a palpable lack of comment from the lapping tongue of the wizard as he seemed engrossed in his small beer.
"Then we met up with lady Euewyn shortly passing through her briar forest."
The just mentioned autumn wizard continued to not make anything resembling the sounds of speech. But it was with far less disdain then the cat had managed to pack into his own silence.
She even turned to look between the knight and mother and offered some rather enthusiastic nods that rustled her leaves violently.
"And again with the Bog for the honorable Weird Tsulogothulan. They both had arranged it beforehand with the Lord Sorcerer, apparently. Although I admit the business of wizards was not part of my quest."
Which got a nod, earning a pause in the Bog Wizard's literally consumptive staring contest with a yet 'untouched' mug of small ale, along with a soft whispered comment.
"To be honest I'm quite glad to have had your companionship for the journey, my good knight. Lady Sorcerer Euewyn, I fear, has almost forgotten how to speak in any audible manner herself!"
The Autumnal Weird nodded in agreement and shrugged lightly.
"Lord Fizzbunches is direct and not one to waste his voice. It would have been an entirely less lively trip if it was just us three Weirds."
A wordless grunt and another impromptu toast from Lothlar was matched by everyone but Fizzbunches (although he did raise his head and nod to the gesture before returning promptly to draining his bowl).
And then the first dishes began to stream in from the kitchen, most of the servant staff of the manor appeared present pitching in with aprons with obvious signs of use and mess upon them.
It was a bit strange, actually. Normally they would have called up serfs from the nearby village for the feast.
But here was just about everyone that served the household except the footmen themselves making a show to carry all the dishes.
And as for the dishes?
Well, first was mostly just a few salted and roasted medley of the smaller turnips and other root vegetables.
Fizzbunches turned his nose up to the offered vegetables and his plate was skipped before insult could be given but the other guests seemed amiable. Lothlar practically inhaled the meager fare with a laugh and loud chewing before continuing his tale of their journey.
"So after the Bog we split from the caravan, traders had business towards places with actual civilization-"
The other food continued to arrive as he extolled the adventure. It was honestly the usual boasting and careful gossip and scouting report Knights always brought to their father.
Jewel began tuning out the hunts for wild game and the tales of various creatures, threats and sightings that knights tromping on a quest through the wilderness accumulated like dust.
There was something very peculiar about the dishes being offered to them.
It was decidedly not anything much more spectacular than her family's usual supper of roast haunch from a recently slaughtered bull, pig or ram. Plus a somewhat peculiar diversity of roast birds of many varieties and more assorted cooked roots, vegetables and other sundry with a smell of heavy pork fat, salt and dried herbs in the mix.
But otherwise there was not a lot of anything particularly artful. The bread was fresh yet plain, there was nothing but a few dried winter fruits from last year's summer harvest. And nothing like what even the casual neighborly feast to share news and affirm alliances generations old.
It was all similar to the small beer serving as a starter.
Fine for private family dinners, but this was not the fare for entertaining guests except in the sheer variety of different animals being offered to devour (which Jewel enjoyed and was making a note to maybe request something a bit similar if with proper flair for her next hatching day).
But even then the additions, despite being an eclectic mix of different fowl that had been cooked and prepared, did not really fit together and had no themes.
Actually the smell of different hearths rather than the usual great roasting pits spoke that perhaps a few of the manor staff's own servant meals were going to this feast. In fact, she recognized that particular whiff of char and firewood!
The hen that Fizzbunches was laboriously chewing every scrap of meat off of most certainly had been in the hearth whose smoke was in the air while she was flying around the manor before her bath!
This was not right at all, not even the most casual of welcome feasts was so slapdash as this.
And Father never called such a tithe as to claim the very supper right off the tables of the village like that! He took great offense whenever one of their neighbors did something even slightly similar.
Her parents would have been livid if this was the food delivered to even a minor knight's feast.
But yet it was here and happening and they were not angry with any of it, even appreciative and apologetic to the staff working in positions quite unusual from their normal roles and duties.
She gave Father a furtive glance of worry and tried to catch his eye looking intensely at the roast hen that lord Fizzbunches was halfway through rendering down to stripped bone.
He raised his hand ever so slightly, keeping it below the edge of the table so only she would notice it. A placating but hidden gesture.
Yes, Father knew precisely what was going on here and he was asking her to not bring any further attention to it?
To trust him? She was not entirely sure.
Mother offered a smile across the way and a slight dip of the head and a gentle brushing of her hair behind one ear.
So she knew as well?!
This was a totally impromptu feast, and yet it was also the best that her parents could expect of the manor staff!? In fact, if she was reading it right, Jewel was not to draw any attention to that?
That spoke to even Father and Mother having been required to arrange this feast on incredibly short notice!
Just what precisely was going on here?
Jewel tried to ignore the weight settling in her gut that had nothing at all to do with her usual meal portions or the grinding churn of bones being rendered down to dust in her throat as she swallowed her own roast hens.