[Luminary Commons] Roasted Delights

[Diamond Rat]

Day 5 Fall 510
The Luminary Commons

Diamond Rat perched on a snowy scaffolding overlooking the Luminary Commons. The sparrow knew that all the food was there because the building became crowded around the same time that she was hungry. Sparrows weren't much for having a keen sense of smell, at least compared to big mammals, but there was almost drool coming out of Rat's beak for all the delicious scents wafting out of the Commons. She could hear the murmurs of people, the clink of plates, and, when the door was closed, the aurora crackling above.

Rat shivered and puffed up her feathers. The light streaming out of the windows made Rat long to be inside, warm if not safe, despite all the people going in and out of the doors.

A woman in white furs gasped as a sudden wind knocked her hat off. Several tougher-looking humans laughed it off as they huddled into their coats, locks of their hair flying in different directions. The fierce wind lit into Rat with icy claws and fangs. It bullied her off the scaffolding, and her talons didn't grip tightly enough. Rat fell into a snowdrift. The whole way down, she was a whirlwind of curse words and loose feathers.

The sparrow shook off all the ice crystals and puffed up even more. Gathering her courage, Rat made a mighty...Okay, it wasn't really mighty at all, it was just a series of hops winding through people's feet as they walked. Rat totally felt mighty up to the point where she felt the need to squeeze against the Commons wall to keep herself hidden from view. Her beak chattered.

The door was a heavy mahogany thing. People walked in and out constantly, and it swung slow enough that Rat felt confident she'd be able to sneak in at an opportune moment. The sparrow had to fight a moment where she imagined the door squishing her. She hopped, narrowly avoiding feet. The instant she entered the threshold, warmth flooded her feathers and she paused to swoon. The smell of delicious food hit her square on the face next. And then--Sharp, cold wind from the door opening and the air pressure changing.

Rat felt herself sucked backwards. She scrabbled on the ground with her talons as she was mercilessly pulled backwards. Suddenly, the door slammed shut and nearly deafened Rat. Head ringing, Rat power-hopped...Okay, it wasn't really powerful at all, just so everyone knows. It was just a faster hop than normal, almost panicky. Rat headed for a cavelike thing that she later realized to be a table.

Breathing rapidly, Rat hid behind the leg of a chair. Hopefully the chair's occupant wouldn't notice her---Wait. Wait a second. What was all this stuff on the ground.

Oh.

OH.

HOLY CRAP. WOW.

That was a lot of crumbs on the ground! Wowww. It was like the crumb motherload. Rat's sense of panic vanished, and she started shoveling delicious, delicious sparrow food into her beak. She was going to be the fattest bird in Avanthal by the end of the night, not including the rotisserie game fowl being roasted in the kitchens.

[Viktor]

Viktor had to stiffle a laugh as he watched the sudden influx of hungry customers lunch time rolled around. He had thought ahead and arrived early to avoid this very event. While they were all waiting impatiently for their food, he was happily eating away at some slightly more rare than rare done deer, some kind of fish whose name he didn't dare try to pronounce for fear of completely trashing it, as well as some odd rolls had been stuffed with some meat he didn't recognize. The meat itself was good, the only problem was tearing away the roll around it. He had spent the last while extracting the meat, winding up getting more crumbs on the floor under and around his chair. No one was shocked to see how much food he had, although if there were any doubts about him being part polar bear this would serve to put those to rest. The food was only half of the meal though, the rest of his hunger was satisfied by the intoxicating aroma of the works of the members of the Winterflame hold doing what they did best in the kitchens. He had been a tad dissapointed to discover that Nennvar wasn't running things tonight. He always seemed to have a pot of what was likely the closest thing to edible perfection in the form of a seal stew whenever Viktor walked in. It was generally only eaten by the kelvics of the Icewatch, mainly because it was little more than a meaty soup, without a vegetable in sight. They were in there of course, for nutrition's sake, but certainly not the main attraction. His attention drifted away from what he was doing as he got more and more distracted by thought of the delicious meal. He wound up accidently knocking a stack of napkins off the table, along with an unused spoon. The sound of the fallen utensil hitting the ground snapped him out of his trance and he leaned down to gather the victims of his wandering mind. It was then that he noticed a small bird happily picking away at the remains of his rolls from earlier. It was a curious sight, seeing a bird that close, but his social side got the best of him. "Well, I'm glad someone likes those things. Why ruin meat by hiding it in bread?" He said to the bird in a soft, calm voice, trying not to frighten the bird. He didn't expect a response, but he figured most animals, even if they weren't kelvic, could at least understand common, if not speak it.

[Diamond Rat]

Rat spat out a crumb and jumped.

"OW!"

She hit the underside of the chair. Scrabbling to her feet and flapping her wings, crumbs flew everywhere. Rat hopped. She poofed up her feathers. And, panting, she attempted to rear back and look threatening.

There was this HUGE FACE and it was LOOKING AT HER. GIGANTIC FAAAACE. Its breath smelled like meat! It might have said something in a really soft soothing voice! Rat didn't know! Like hell was she going to think clearly about this! Wagh! @*#&!

"Muh--These are MY crumbs!" she chirped, "Mine! I found them FIRST! So back off, Mister!"

As if something with deer and fish on his breath would want crumbs, but Rat figured she'd take off real quick if the enormous thing decided otherwise. There was totally an escape route if she flew towards the kitchen. Yeah! Totally!

[Viktor]

Viktor closed his eyes as the bird kicked up some crumbs with the paniced flapping. He didn't like the bread when it was in his mouth, much less in his eyes. When he opened them, the bird seemed rather angry, all poofed up and chirping away. It was actually quite cute, although he did his best to keep from laughing. "Easy now, I don't bite. Not birds anyway, too hard to catch!" He said with a grin. "But I'm sure you would like to eat in peace, so I'm just going to go back to my own food and leave you too yours." With that he sat back up, debating on what to tear back into first. after a bit of debate he stabbed a bit of everything onto his fork and jammed it into his mouth. He tried to make a comment about how good it was, but all that came out was a series of muffled noises.

[Diamond Rat]

Rat stayed poofy as the enormous face talked to her again and went out of view. Aha, she was victorious! She'd totally scared that guy away. Mwahahaha.

"Oh yeah, sure, you don't eat birds because you can't catch them," said Rat, after a moment where she composed herself, "Right. I believe you, Mister. You just go back to eating your not-birds. I won't tell anyone."

The giant was totally scared of her. Totally. Rat could TELL. She was a master of FEAR. She was a ferocious bird! Rar! Rarararar!

Rat celebrated her supreme scariness by gorging on crumbs and chirping with her beak full.

[Viktor]

As he began debreading his second round of rolls, Viktor got an idea. Being careful to start from the opposite side he had stuck his head down on, he began to make a trail with the crumbs, winding around in a series of random turns, drawing more than a few odd looks seeing as how no one else seemed to notice the small bird beneath his seat. Once he turned his attention away from the crumbs however, everyone who was looking quickly turned away again. Quietly he waited to see if the bird would notice the trail and start following it, gobbling up the crumbs along the way.

[Diamond Rat]

Diamond Rat ate, and ate, and ate. Being so small, she was very good at spotting little bits and pieces of stuff to eat. She was unaware that she was being baited to hop in a neat little figure-eight, and then a spiral, and then a weaving pattern through the legs of the chair.

Had she known, and had she been hungry, Rat would have felt very insulted. Since she still believed she was in control of this situation, she didn't make a single peep. These were very high-quality crumbs! Rat had to pay all of her attention to them! Usually the stuff she ate was stale.

[Viktor]

Viktor stifled a laugh as the bird followed the trail, pleased with himself for his feigned control of it's actions. He was tempted to try and work out a way to lead it up to the top of the table, but as hard as he tried, he simply couldn't find a way to make it work. He simply piled the rest of the crumbs on the table a little away from his plate. "The rest are up here, if you're interested." He offered, not bothering to look down this time, yet again drawing a few puzzled looks. With that said, he started working his way through the fresh pile of liberated mystery meat.

[Diamond Rat]

Rat was pecking at the last few crumbs between her toes when she heard the rumble of the bearman's voice. She fiddled with the crumb in her beak, poking it with her tongue and turning it around. What? He was saying something about the rest. Sometimes larger creatures were difficult to understand because their voices were so loud (According to Rat, anyway, who was also prone to being distracted by coins).

Rat said nothing in response to Viktor. Instead, she hopped over to the spare coin she'd found under the table, and nudged it into a place where it might be easier to nudge it out the door later. She was getting pretty full, so the allure of the coin kept her from responding to the offer of an entire pile of crumbs for at least five minutes.

When it was time, Rat decided to sneak up on the crumbs. She did this by fluttering up the side of the table, hooking her claws over its edge, and then slowly, sloooowly pulling herself forward, and using the pile of crumbs to keep her tiny sparrow self TOTALLY HIDDEN.

SHE WAS SNEAKY!!!

[Viktor]

Viktor was completely lost in his meal, happily gorging himself on the different tastes and smells. Even if he had been paying attention he probably wouldn't have noticed the bird creeping up behind the pile. He was trying not to make a mess, but he was only a few napkins away from having to soil his shirt sleeves. He downed the last of the bits of mystery meat and latched onto an entire baked cod, only managing to stop himself from completely throwing manners out the window at the last possible moment. He took up his knife and fork and began breaking the fish into sizable chunks. "It makes no sense. Why dirty untensils when we are born with hands?" He quitely grumbled as he worked the knife through the tender meat. Sure, it was the polite way to eat, but he could have been half way through the fish already, and saved the poor sap who got saddled with cleaning duty a bit of work.