Chapter 4: THIS is how Legends Get Started?

When I finally got to th craftsmans eatery I was so hungry I could devour twelve Gigas. As Soon as I found a seat I made my order to the first waitress who came along. The Place had improved in service quite abit since the second fall of the Shadow Lord, so I'm told. I was glad to hear it. I'd hate to have to eat out in a non-restaurant setting. That's just the way I am. I looked up at the waitress for a moment and noted her features, she was a Hume, pale white skin, hazel eyes, light burnette, medium bust... "AHEM", the look she gave me told me I'd better get to ordering.

"Ah yes, I'll have two Bird Eggs, sunny side up, 3 pieces of Black Bread, toasted, Two orders of Grilled Hare, a Goblin Pie, and two Large glasses of Chocolate Milk please." Did you think I was kidding when I said I was hungry enough to eat twleve Gigas? The waitress quickly scribbled down everything on her notepad thing and moved on to my two...er.. "Breakfast Partners" who, as it turned out, were not any less hungry then myself.

The Mithra girl, Silvie, ordered first. "Ooh ooh ooh, I'lll haaave, three orders of Elshimo Frog, two orders of Emperor Roe and FIVE orders of Forest Carp, annnnd a jug of Chamomile Tea, please." I shook my head and turned to the side, stifling the urge to laugh. I could just imagine what kind of thoughts were going through the waitresses head at that moment.

And finally she moved on to Silver( As I now called the Paladin). "Hmmmmmmm..." He seemed, to me at least, to be trying to make an overly dramatic diplay of his indecision about what he wanted. "I dunnnooooooo... ahhhhhhhhh..." THe waitress, at this point, looked like she might snap her pen in half, I suppose that meant she'd had a bad day. Sliver, for his part, didn't seem to catch the hint, but made his order." I'lllll haaaaaavvve... five orders of Galkan Sausage, three orders of Gysalh greens, three Herb Crawler Eggs, One Sausage Roll, aaaaaaaannnnnnnd..." He paused for an obnxiously long moment. a jug of Windurstian Tea please."

By now the poor waitress had taken up four or five pages worth of notepad. She seemed very reluctant to say her next line. "Will there be...anything else... sis and..miss?" I waved my hand dismissively.

"Thas all for me." I said eagerly.

"I'm good to go!" chirped the Mithra girl.

"All Set." Said Silver.

The waitress was barely able to disguise a sigh of relief. "Alright sirs and miss, your order should be ready in an hour, call me if you need me! the names Lauria." And with that she walked off... and quite a nice walk she had to...

"Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..." What the hell noise was that? Sounded like someon turning on a motorized vehicle... I turned around to see that the Mithra girl was glaring at me and the noise was coming from her as well. "Haviiing fuuuuun?" She asked with a false cheeryness and a very thinly veiled threat. About a dozen come backs came to mind, but considering that my challenger was both feline AND female, angering her further would likely reduce my life expectancy to something less than nano-seconds.

"Erm, heheheh, hehehehe..." I sunk into my seat and pinned my eyes to the ground.

"Now now, children, if you don't settle down we'll leave this instant." said Silver in a mocking parental voice. the Mithra immediatly assumed a "childish pounty mode and grabbed his shoulder.

"Ohhh, buuut Ethhhiisss... Arrrren't you gunnna scold him? You saaawww how he was olging that girrrrl." I couldnt believe what I was seeing, were all Mithra girls like this? I found it unlikely but, then, what did I know? I came from an island populated by Humes. Other races were seen on those occsins when trading ships came in but other then that...

"Huh Ethis? What's that?" I asked, it had occurred to me that I was unfamilar with that word. Silver was quick to inform me with that odd amiability of his.

"OH THAT"S RIGHT We haven't given you our names have we? Well, my names Ethis, Ethis Hunter." Silver, who was now Ethis, sayed with good humor.

"And I'mmm Silvie Vensi, I'm a Monk, and a White Mage on the side and... ei? Why am I tellin you all that? Nevr mind, forget what I said." Ooook, so the Mithra girl who was named Silvie Vensi was a liiiiiiiiiiiitle bit off her rocker. What was it about me that attracted such weirdos like Crane flies to a fly zapper?

"So, are you guys a team?" I asked idly, the whole introduction thing had only killed around ten minutes, that left an agonizing 50 more until that delicious glorious food arrived... That is, if my stomache didn't get eaten from the inside out by acidic fluids as it certainly felt right now.

"Huh? Nah, We're just travelin' together thas all." Ethis sayed as he patted Silvie on the shoulder. "She ran into some trouble in a forest nearby, I saved her and promised to lead her to the nearest safe place I could find, this was it, so, here we are." I nodded, that cleared up one thing, but that opened up a new set of questions.

"Ok, so then, what team ARE you on? If any? I mean, it aint exactly normaly for Paladins to travel alone without at least one partner right?" I asked, I'm not so sure I was actually interested in his responses, just noting that they seemed to kill big chunks of time which was good.

"I do have a team actually, in fact, I'm the groups leader. We're called the Radiant Vanguard." This caused me to burst out laughing. That had to be the cheesiest name I'd EVER heard.

"R-radiant Van-guard? Wh-what is that? A-a-ahaha- 'sat some kinda.. hahAHhahhaaaa..." I couldnt think of what to say, I ha been caught so utterly off guard by that name I couldnt even think straight. Ethis didn't seem to take kindly to having his choice of team name ridiculed.

"I'll have you know we're famous all across Vana'diel. Our purpose is to bring hope and insiration to others by turning back the shadowy forces that would destroy the peace we've known for almost 30 years now." He had quite the displeased mug plastered on his face as he said this, which didn't help his case all that much. Silvie, I noticed, had had to take a monumental effort not to burst out laughing as well.

"Ok ok, so then, where's this team of your's now? You get seperated from 'em?" I asked the final question that had bugged my mind.

"You could say that-" He said with an uncharacteristically somber tone, he cast his eyes down on toward the table and opened his mouth to speak again... But before he could a glorious and familar scent filled my nostrils. I turned to see Lauria heading Our way, seemingly having an effort trying to carry two trays with her, while one other tray was carried behind her by another waiter.

"FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD! GLORIOUS WONDEROUS FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD EATEAEAEAEATEEAT YAYHHAHAHAH!" Both me and Silvie had risen from our seats to chant the song of hunger, the fact that we both happenned to use the exact same lyrics was lst on me because at that moment all I could think of was consuming all that delcious delictable good ness that Lauria was delivering unto us.

She gave us both an 'are you insane' look. As did most of the other occupants of the Eatery... but who cared? I certainly didn't. The two of us sat back down giddily, barely able to contain ourselves when Lauria set those plates down in front of us. Quickly withdrawing her hand each tiem as though fearful she might lose it in the onslaught that occurred each time a plate was set down. Finally she managed to place the last plate down and fled before she became a causalty of our ravenous desires.

Ethis, for his part, was back in characterand then some, he was tearing into his food with the same if not greater ferocity them me and Silvie were tearing into ours. Even with how fast we were eating, in the end it took us an hour to finish it all. We all sat back an patted our bellies, sighing well contented sighs and simply sitting there, starin' off into space... then, quite suddenly...

"Welllp, I'd better get goin, my comrades aint gunna find th'mleves after all." said Ethis as he rose from the table, threw his share of money and tip onto it, and headed for the door.

"Hey wha? Yourrrr leaving?" Silvie asked with a pouty face.

"I gotta go, Silvie, 'sides, your safe here now, you need to experience this lifstyle on your own, partnering up with me at this point would just tie you down, adventuring is all about having fun." He paused and looked at her for a second, then at me. My eyes widened as I saw something click in his head. Ohhhhhhh no, no he wasnt!

"Why don't you go adventurin' with Carlin? I think the two of you are around the same skill level, and you seem to have a good dynamic goin' thas important when your adventuring with a group. Well good luck! Mebee we'll see each other again some day!" And with that the paladin known as Ethis Huntr left the eatery, and, for all I knew, my life. Suprisingly, I felt bad about this, I usually didn' get attatched to people who weren't family, and especially no as much as this in such a short amount of time, it had felt like the three of us had always been good friends.

But oh well, now he was gone. I got up, and also threw my share of money+tip on the table and headed for the exit. "Hey waiiiiiiiiit." shouted Silvie as I was about to open the door. She leapt over the table and in that single bound landed in front of me. "You wereen't just gunna leave me herrre werrre you?" she asked with a tone of childish innocence.

I stood there for a moment and considered. Did I want to leave her here? Well, on the one and she had become something of a friend, and Ethis had guessed that we'd go well together, him being a Paladin, and one who was a leader of what he made out to be some well seasoned adventurers, I figured I should trust in his jugement in the companion selection department. But n the other hand, I still wasn't sure I wanted to leave Bastok.

And I was more then certain that while Silvie had been in need of rescue earlier. She would no doubt be looking to go out adventuring again as soon as she'd taken care of business in town. I shrugged and looked at her. Hell, I had no real justification for not going on an adventure or two, what could it hurt to do that adventurin' with a good comrade? "Course not sweetie."

"Rrrrrrrrr, you just watch yourrrrrrself misterrrr perverrrrt." She growled, but this time it wasn't quite as threatening.

The two of us exited the eatery and headed down to the markets.

A/N wow, heh, two chapters in one day... almost, new reconrd, Yay me! please R & R (special thanks to Vivli for giving this story its first r& r!)