Ladies of Fort MacNiel Girls' Night

When Sarea had finally finished her lament for the men of the tavern, she looked up from her instrument and over at Idina and her friends, who were sitting there, smiling at her in thanks for the beautiful music before they turned around and continued conversing. Happy that she'd made others happy, she looked at the men around her, who were awfully silent for once. 

In the eyes of each drinker, tears began welling up grandly and twinkles appeared on their faces. "How...beautiful a piece." Commented the one who'd suggested she play a lament in the first place. The one in the green tunic stood up and turned to him. "Played by an even more beautiful creature." Was his comment, to which the reply from all the drinkers was an riotous applause.

Not forgetting her manners, Sarea bowed graciously, happy that they enjoyed her piece, and looked back up with a smirk. "I know a few others, of course." She began. "In fact, why not have a jig? Who doesn't love a good dance?"

The men and women cheered in approval, a sign which led Sarea to lift her flute back to her mouth. "This one I learned by ear from a French Innkeeper. My friend Faljere used to love this one." She said, trying to hold back the lump appearing in her throat at the mention of the renegade monk. Shaking her head, she looked at every individual in the room and smiled. "Feel free to dance." She suggested.

As she began playing, the song seemed quite slow and simple, and the drinkers were slightly dulled by the sound; however, it soon picked up speed and sound, and very shortly after the harmonies being pulled from the instrument sounded like a full band of strings, woodwinds, and brass, accompanied by cheery drunken voices singing along to the melody. The men and women smiled gleefully like children and got up from their seats before beginning to dance whimsically to the piece.

Lila blinked and paused. Dancing? Her ears flicked back, but she swallowed hard and nodded anyways. The worst that could happen would be tripping over her feet, or bumping into someone. Besides, Idina looked awfully happy at the prospect of dancing.

(Sorry for the shortness, am attempting to multitask)

Maximus needed a drink. Badly.
He'd spent most of his morning training new recruits who didn't know which end of the sword to hold, and the rest of the day on strategy meetings with Gavin, who, though he was his friend, could get very frustrating when he got an idea in his head that he liked. They had argued for hours on how best to populate the fifth kingdom, if at all. In the end the only agreement they could come to was to take what they needed from the kingdom and seal the gates until they needed access to the kingdom. Maximus chuckled to himself at the thought of Gavin having an entire backup fort hidden underground.

Stumbling into the Redwall Tavern, as was his usual habit after a long day, Maximus ignored everything in the room until he got the bar, where the barkeep smiled broadly and quipped: "General, I swear you spend more time here at night than you do in bed!"

Maximus returned the man's greeting with a chuckle, saying "Then quit making such good ale, or else I may need to purchase a permanent room upstairs." he said, slapping a few coins down on the counter.
The barkeep passed him his usual; a Dwarven ale mixed with the monk's spirit-fire ale. It was powerful enough to knock a seasoned drinker on his ass and he'd still have enough left in his glass to tranquilize a horse. It was perfect. Maximus took a long drink, emptying a quarter of the flagon in one swig. Sighing loudly, he finally looked around and noticed an elven girl playing music and people dancing in the far corner of the tavern; he set his flagon down a moment to listen.

Keeping her feet moving, the blonde healer scanned around herself. The tavern in its entirety seemed to have assimilated to Sarea's music (with the exception of a man down the bar whom she did not recognize and paid no heed to), and on all sides of her were people dancing merrily. No one seemed to give a damn about their movements, and Idina delighted for a moment in the knowledge that she wasn't the only haphazard danced around. Another fair-haired figure caught her eye: Idina's grin broadened to see Thea enjoying herself on the dance floor as well.

A sharp pain shot up her leg, and she brought her foot up quickly to avoid having her bare toes trodden on a second time. The sobering pain brought her attention to a different subject: where had Lila gone? Continuing her bouncing, Idina looked between heads and shoulders every time she took to the air.

A pair of antlers stood out among the leather and canvas of the other bargoers. There she was! Grateful for her petite structure, the healer wove between the dancers to reach the Kinto on the edge of the crowd. She beamed up at her, still ecstatic from the song and the dancing. "You alright?" she asked, noticing how close the caribou was keeping her shoulders and hands.

A thought ran through her mind, and a warm smile crossed Idina's face as her hands found Lila's wrists and she grasped them lightly; she kept a gentle grip that could easily be broken, but with the intent if reassuring Lila. "Would you like to dance with me?"

As the dancing started and Idina and Thea moved away from the table, Lila kept her head down and slunk around to the edges of the happily-moving crowd, guilt creeping through her head at near-abandoning her two other friends. Dancing really wasn’t her thing, and neither were crowds. She pressed her back up against the wall, twirling the end of her rope belt through her fingers as she watched the swirling fabric and flailing limbs of the dancers. Her ears flicked up at the much closer sound of footsteps.

Lila glanced up first through her flowers and hair before straightening more fully at the sight of Idina coming towards her. A half smile and a shrug at her question and then Lila’s eyes widened at the grasp on her wrists. Her fingers flinched but she remained still, letting Idina keep her hold and continue talking. She could feel herself blushing at the closer proximity, keeping her eyes trained downwards but giving a small smile and nodding at Idina’s second question.

Dancing could be a disaster yes, considering Lila’s lack of grace and the current crowded state of the tavern, but on the other hand she would be dancing with Idina. An acceptable trade-off in Lila’s opinion.

Lila watched Idina's bouncing somewhat warily, though her smile grew wider. She let Idina move her arms around, following the movement slightly. She shifted her weight from side to side with the swinging of their hands, trying to at least seem a little less awkward. Lila kept her gaze trained on her shuffling feet, ducking her head and laughing quietly.

(Yay more short posts whoops sorry : /)

The melody of the jig played by Sarea had gone from slow to quick to riotous to seductive and finally back to riotous for it s grand finally, as everywhere around her men and women leapt onto tables and tapped their feet rhythmically to the jig as others gathered around the tables, shouting in drunken joy. Even the large man with the braided hair had let himself more loose and was swinging around like a small girl, his cloak swaying around like a flowing skirt much like her friend Idina would wear.

Idina. Sarea thought to herself as she readied the last few measures of the piece, looking over the the young girl bouncing giddily up and down and in figure-eights around her kinto friend Lila and beside Thea, the druid from the Fort's upper council. The three seemed to be enjoying themselves, Idina most of all, and bringing an end to the song made her rather upset; she'd never seen these many people so joyed by her music. But, as her old mentor once stated: "The best part of a song is its ending, for when a song ends, you get to play another." Sarea had always taken that motto wherever she went and usually learned shorter pieces in order to play more songs people, or just for herself.

But she wouldn't just let the song die like any old piece; no, it had to have its moment. With a wave of her body, followed by the flash of her skirt and cloak, she played the last little riff of the piece with such enthusiasm she could have been perceived as a thespian on a stage. As it had begun, the music ended with the sound of a full orchestra and boisterous cheering from the patron's, including the bartender and a weathered-looking man at the bar, wearing a black and red tunic with chainmail underneath, all covered by a cloak and shoulder-length black hair.

"Wonderful!" Yelled the braided man with a lively applause towards Sarea, who bowed gratefully to the patrons. "Of course," she began humbly, "it wouldn't have been as good without the lot of you dancing." She smiled specifically to Idina and Lila as she said the words, even though they were directed to the whole tavern.

It was getting late, but not late enough, and the lamps in the tavern remained lit. Sarea knew the night was still young, much like herself.

Yes, she would continue soon enough.