A bird with an invitation

Maddie had just got back from buring Jono in Avalon. She really hadn't felt like working after what she had learned, but that would be selfish, and she needed to get her mind off on how to tell Gawain what she had learned. She made her way from the room to the bar where she saw Tasha and the new gent that had checked in. "Hello you two, is there anything I can get you?"

He looked over at the Lady that gave him the room and smiled.

"Yes there is my Lady. Um....I would like a chicken salad with no dressing and what would you like Lady Tasha?"

Maddie grinned at being called a lady again. She wrote down chicken salad with no dressing and waited to see what Tasha wanted.

Tasha smile up at Maddie. "Chicken sounds good. Grilled, with some steamed rice and a dinner salad with ranch?" It may have sounded like a lot of food, but Tasha knew Maddie wouldn't go overboard with the portions. "And an ale please sweety." That sounded like a good dinner to her.

Maddie wrote down Tasha's order. She excused herself and went into the kitchen. and started the food cooking. While it was cooking, she filled a pitcher of ale and brought out to the table with two glasses. She poured Tasha and Ha'Ruil two glasses of ale. She placed each one down in front of them, then sat the pitcher down. "Your food will be ready in a few minutes."

With that she went back to the kitchen to finish their food.

He takes the glass and takes a sip from it, sighing.

"So are there any questions you would like to ask me?"

He has asked her a few questions it was only fair for her to do the same.

Tasha thought for a moment. Dinner was going to be very quiet if conversation depended on her. She took a drink of her ale while she tried to think of something to ask him. Once she swallowed she spoke. "Why New Haven?" She figured something had to bring him this way instead of another.

Maddie had been finished up Tasha's and Ha'Ruil's dinner. She even fixed a plate of raw ribeye for Levathain. She noticed Tasha was hitting the ale at a moderate pace. That wasn't good considering what she had been through. Maddie quickly assembled the plates on a tray and walked out.

"Ok I have a chicken salad with no dressing for the gentleman, and a grilled chicken with steamed rice and fresh salad for my favorite Aunt." Maddie placed the plates down in front of each of them.

She then took the plate of raw Ribeye and sat it down in front of Levathainand petted her head. Maddie had the power of mental telepathy with animals. As she petted Levathain she talked to her quickly. ~Hey there old friend. Listen I don't know much about this guy Tasha is with, but you might one keep an eye on him if ya know what I mean. Tasha is still healing.~

She then stood up and looked at Tasha. "Aunt Tasha, perhaps you would like some Tea to go with your dinner instead of the ale?"

He chuckled at her question.

"To be quite honest I have no idea. I go where the wind takes me. And this time it brought me here to New Heaven."

He saw that Lady Madeline was bring them their meal. He put his hands together.

"Thank you Lady Madeline."

With that he looked at the salad before grabbing his fork and stabbing a leaf of lettuce and a piece a chicken.

Tasha nodded to him as he spoke. "I lived that way for a bit. Until I found an old friend." Maddie brought dinner. Tasha smiled, she had even thought to bring Levi something to eat even though she had not said she was hungry. "Thank you very much Maddie." Even though Tasha had never officially become Maddie's Aunt, she didn't mind the title. It made her feel like she had family. Not that she didn't, but this was different.

She watched as Maddie fed Leviathan. It made her smile. Did you know panthers could purr? She looked at her plate and smiled. She added soy sauce to her rice and then mixed her salad up. Maddie had done a great job cutting the lettuce into small pieces. Made it so that Tasha didn't have to cut her salad to eat it. And she had used butter in the rice as well. That was the thing with families. They knew each other that well.

Levi purred for Maddie when she pet her. Sounded a bit like a boulder rolling down a mountain. ~No worries Maddie. I've checked him out. I think he's just looking for a friend right now, and who wouldn't want to be friends with my human? But I've got my eye on him. And if he steps out of line, the pack will know.~ The pack. An odd thing for a panther to reference. But there was a pack, of sorts. One big happy family around here. As dysfunctional as all get out. Especially given these two panthers hung with wolves.

When Maddie asked about the tea Tasha smiled. "Maddie, I'm fine. There was no damage done that night in the Battle Gym. You three made sure of it. And I appreciate it. This is still my first glass, I'm fine." It would have taken at least two pitchers to get the were drunk. More to get her sauced. Tasha knew her limits. She had no plans on getting sauced. She looked down to her side and saw that Levi had began to eat. She smiled as she took a bite of her juicy grilled chicken.

He was taking bites from his salad. Just looking at Tasha every once in a while.

"Are there any other questions you would like to ask Lady Tasha?"

There were a few more questions he would like to ask but he will get to those later.

Tasha was so not the asking questions kid of girl. She had to think before she could come up with something. It wasn't because she didn't care. She just never knew what to ask. But if she thought hard enough, she usually came up with something. "So where were you before the winds brought you here?" There, that was something. Small talk was much easier when the conversation wasn't on her shoulders.

He was half way done with his dinner and when she asked that he just kind of looked at her. He leaned back and put his hand on his chin.

"My Lady that is a most excellent question. Well lets see here. I have been traveling for a very long from city to city, from forest to forest. Mostly forest to forest. I pretty much go with the flow when it comes to place. But when it is a place that I have not been around I like to just walk around and take in then sights. I could be in a place for a couple of years or a few days."

He takes his fork and stabs into his salad again taking a bite from his salad.

"So tell me what do you do?"

She finished the bite of food in her mouth before she spoke to him again. "Well, I'm a healer. I make jewelry as a hobby. Other than that, I just hang out with my friends. Can I ask a favor of you? Could you just call me Tasha or even Tash please? No offense but the whole my lady thing, it's kinda ... Too formal." She wasn't trying to offend him. She wished she had more to tell him about herself, but it was too soon to discuss her disease with him, and there were some things about herself that she just didn't do any more.

He smiles as he puts down the fork.

"Well then how about m'lady then?"

He just smiles before taking a hand into a pouch on his belt.

"Well since you are a jeweler maybe you have do something with these."

He takes his hand out and puts in the middle of the table a raw and uncut ruby and emerald.

Tasha sighed slightly. "I really would prefer Tasha or Tash. I understand that you are simply trying to show respect. But would you not be showing me more respect if you respected my wishes as to how I was addressed?" Ok, so she was stubborn. He would learn that eventually if he ran into her often enough.

He sat the stones upon the table and she looked up at him before picking them up. The emerald was the color of her eyes, the ruby the perfect shade of a purplish pink. True ruby's were not really red. Her hand went to her neck as she pulled at a long chain that had disappeared into her dress and was nearly unseen.

Once she had the jewelers loop free from the confines of her dress she flipped it open and placed it to her eye. She looked at each of the stones one at a time, holding them up to catch the light and filter it through for her eyes to see. "They are exquisite. Where did you get them?" She was giving them both a good looking over. They were good sized stones, they would take a cut nicely.

Maddie had been standing behind the bar cleaning glasses and listening. She grinned to herself when Tasha told Ha'Ruil how he could respect her wishes. Even after all Tasha had been through she still had her spunk.

He shakes his head before smiling at her.

"How about a compromise? How about I call you "miss" until we get better acquainted?"

It seemed fair, or at least he thought so.

"As for where I get them. I get them from the animals of the forest. Well what I mean is that the burrowers of the forest come across these gems and more on their way to make a burrow or they are just digging around in the ground of the forest. So when I come across them they give them to me. I use them for trade mostly for money or rooms and things like that."

Tasha was already smiling as she examined the stones. Her smile widened a little. "I think I can live with Miss. Thank you." She looked up from the stones in her hand and smiled directly at him. "They are magnificent stones." She placed them back upon the table where he had put them. "Thank you for asking me to join you for dinner, it was very thoughtful of you." She ate another bite of her food.

Once her mouth was empty again she thought she would tell him the thought that had crossed her mind when he said burrowing animals gave him the stones. "I don't get gifts from burrowing animals, they tend to fear me." Another bite as she wondered if he was going to leave that one alone or not.

He just smiles as he eats, he swallows what he was eating before talking.

"Well you are very welcome. And besides it has been a while since I am eaten with such a lovely lady opposite of me. Normally its the animals of the forest. And the stones are for you Miss. I have more and besides you can do something with them."

After her last comment he just looks at her.

"What do you mean Miss?"

Maddie about dropped a glass at Tasha's last comment, and it was hard to keep a straight face so she turned her back to them and sent Tasha a mental link. ~Tasha, are you trying to scare him?~

~Maybe ...~ Tasha almost laughed at Maddie's comment. She looked at Ha'Ruil when he said the gems where for her. "The stones, they're too much. Such an expensive gift." She smiled. She hadn't exactly said no, she wasn't trying to insult him. She would think about it for a moment. In th mean time. A question begged to be answered. "Because I tend to chase them down and eat them." That was the simple truth.

He arches a brow at that comment.

"Do you mean to tell me that you run on two legs and spear them or something?"

If that was the case he looks extremely confused because why would a human do that.

"If that is the case I do not mind at all, I mean sometimes we have to kill animals to survive."

Tasha smiled. She looked him dead in the eyes so he could see exactly what secrets those emerald orbs of hers held. "Nope, no spears. And not two legs either." Usually she killed for food. Sometimes she killed for sport. Should she tell him that too? After all, when the full moon is out ...

He looks at her directly into her eyes and he notices that her eyes were more of a cats eyes than anything else.

"Ah I see. I guess you are a shifter?"

He did not know what else to call it.