It wasn't usual for the kitchen to run this late without serving. It also wasn't usual for Warnado to wait for it to serve. Normally, he would acquire a taco to sate his appetite, but according to the chef, the inn was out of certain key soup ingredients and would have to improvise, and he was rather interested in tasting the result.
Warnado rocked a silver ballpoint pen of unknown origin between his fingers. He'd summoned it from somewhere, to be sure, and he'd done so deliberately. Since his discussion with Astro and Shadow he'd been thinking a lot about these little things he did and just how he did them. Besides, he usually used it to summon tacos, and if he could figure out where he was summoning them from… Ooh mamma, that would be him set forever.
The rest of the people sitting at the table were also hungry and restless and not by choice. All except for Shadow, who sat at the table patiently. Amanda was absent. Warnado was worried about her. She acted like everything was alright, but he suspected that the nightmares made a more lasting impression than she was letting on.
Fristad was wearing the harness now. Since the book was taken away from him, he was starting to seem like an entirely different person. He was starting to irritate Warnado. He seemed too optimistic and carefree given what he did and the events of the past few days, almost as if he barely remembered them.
"On the other hand," Warnado countered himself, "who knows what the book did to him?"
Meanwhile, Kay and Steve were sat at the end of the table lightly arguing over whether Nexus zombies were capable of sleeping. Tyron had dozed off and lay slumped against the table next to them. Whether he had drifted off due to the heat or pseudo-scientific pedantry was another question altogether.
"Well, they are still biologically human, for the most part." Steve said. "So it matters whether they close their eyes or not but I'm not-"
"So, we agree, they are mostly human! Following that line of reasoning, if they need to eat and drink just like their non-undead counterparts, to be fair at less regular intervals, it stands to reason they also need sleep every once in a while."
"I don't disagree, but there's a gap there between what you're saying is the cause and the most likely effect."
"What else do you suppose they do while standing still for such long periods?" Kay pressed, using an upper-crust accent Warnado was starting to recognise as designed to impress. "Barring the galvanizing influence of a necromancer?"
Steve shrugged and looked about disbelievingly: "Being zombies."
Jennifer said, "Sorry to interrupt, but I think there's something happening outside."
All ears at the table turned toward the windows. The rest of the dining tables seemed to quiet down as well. Several people could be seen running across the road. Trails of ender teleportation particles appeared soon after, followed by the muted sounds of struggling screams and grunts. Then there was silence again.
"Something tells me those endermen didn't come to reprimand those people for running and screaming," Steve said, his former smile curdling into a grimace.
"Well, given our previous interactions with certain local endermen…" Astro paused for effect.
In the corner of his eyes Warnado saw Shadow stand up, some of her runes glowing brightly. She said in a commanding tone: "That was a scouting squad, a bigger one will come in approximately five minutes. They will search the buildings too, already did for some of the ones down the street. Someone needs to get Amanda from her room now. Then you need to flee the town while you can. I'll try to buy you time."
Warnado stood up. "I'll get Amanda."
Shadow said: "Don't worry about me, I'm not at risk here. I will find you once you are out. Be safe." With those words Shadow disappeared from the room to… somewhere.
Warnado then dashed out of the dining hall and up the stairs, leaving the rest of his friends at the table sitting in suspense.
Kay cleared his throat and announced gravely, "I can't foresee Warnado taking very long to bring Amanda. But supposing he does, we should take Shadow's warning as it is, and leave in five minutes." He thumped the still-sleeping Tyron on the side. The dreamer growled and squinted at Kay, who flatly concluded: "Need my armour back, friend. Time to get on a war footing."