Thunder of Thanasis How Many Pubs Are There In Thanasis?

[Nadya]

Outer City, Thanasis
Cullen | Jensen | Danika


"What are we celebrating?" Asked the barkeep as she filled a number of steins with an housemade ale that made this particular pub interesting compared to the rest.

Nadya leaned against the bar, grinning. She had changed out from her training leathers after a Recruits blue dragon managed to singe it during today's drills, but she had insisted to their group to not look like Ascendants and just enjoy the first free weekend they were given leave for. They were not to don those training or riding leathers until the end of the weekend, and to bring their hearty energy for a night of pub crawling.

They could recover for the rest of the two days before reporting back to the Wall by the dawn they were expected back.

"Four months, Bess. Four stupid months I have not been able to see all my friends all at the same time."

Bess whistled, chuckled as she placed down each stein on the bar and accepted the coin Nadya handed over. "They work you that hard, do they? I suppose that is only right with a new Rising no doubt to start soon."

Nadya made a face, "Gods, a new class of Recruits for me to teach dragon behaviour to." A particular lesson Nadya had been excellent at teaching. There surely was an irony there somewhere when her own dragon refused to fully trust in her, the rider he chose to bond with in the first place.

"Well, if you and your friends want a second round, it will be on the house. Just tell my father I said so!"

Nadya Caliar blew a kiss to the woman before grinning, expertly handling each stein's handles in both hands before moving over to the table herself and her Ascendant friends were occupying. "Remember, no stragglers! No one," She handed out the drinks, "will be left behind."

 

[Danika]

Danika grinned as she pulled her stein towards her then took a large swig. It was big enough that she might have needed two hands to lift it if she had not spent the past two years forcing her remaining arm to be strong enough to wield a hammer. She took a hearty gulp of the beer and let out an appreciative sigh. It had been a long time indeed since she had spent a night in the pubs like old times.

"I'm not sure Cullen can keep up," she gave an overly dramatic sigh. "Remember last time we ended up putting him in a wheelbarrow and pushing him home?" It had been a few days before their Marked friend would face the Rising and none of them had known if they would see him again. Which was why they had all quietly brought him more pints than the rest of them had drunk. He'd done pretty well considering, and Danika now had a secret suspicion the curse marks made a person hyper tolerant to alchol.

Which was, of course, cheating.

 

[Jensen]

"If I remember right, you were in the Wheelbarrow too not long after," Jensen chided his twin with a smirk that only grew when Danika stuck her tongue out in his direction. "Wheelbarrow jousting - wasn't that what you called it?"

"I stand by my sport - I think it would make an amazing spectacle," Danika sniffed and Jensen didn't bother to hide his laughter. It was ridiculous enough when they did it on the Cockatrice's, let alone the Wheelbarrow. Though, he supposed, it would be entertainment enough for the drunks. His hazel eyes shifted from his siter to Cullen then.

"Are you looking forward to being back on the Wall with a dragon at your back? It'll certainly make some people think twice before they speak."

 

[Cullen]

Cullen gave Nadya a wink in gratitude as she handed him a much-needed drink. He far preferred his quiet solitude than the bustling energy of taverns, but there was no way he could refuse such a gathering after so long in their combined company. He quietly appreciated the siblings' banter, his dark eyes shifting between them as he sipped from his stein.

"Aye," he began with a quiet laugh, "I've still got the scars to remember it by." He took another sip, the ale's warmth spreading through him, easing some of his tension.

"And having Meala at my back definitely changes things. I get a nicer room for one thing..." he agreed with a light smirk. He'd hoped it might put him more at ease, but If anything it had made him more paranoid that something might happen to his bonded. He still preferred to rest in his cavern in the mountain.

"How's the wedding planning going, my Prince?" Cullen raised a brow as he looked to Jensen. It'd been a bitter pill to swallow when he'd heard of his friend's betrothal to the Princess. As lovely as he'd heard she was, the Royal family were dangerous, and had taken everything from him, with a little help from their friends. Still, the small smile he wore was genuinely hopeful of Jensen's happiness.

 

[Nadya]

Nadya made a face. "I do miss punching some noses of those that so much as breathed wrong in Cull's way." Not only did people on the Wall get the message that Caliar was going to stick by her friend, but also she had to begin to act more of an Ascendant looking for that sweet promotion to High Ascendant.

But at Cullen's sublte dig at Jensen, Nadya grinned wickedly at the Araelor male. "Oh, do tell! You're the first of us all to get married off!" And to the Princess of Thanasis no less. Jensen had one anomaly on the beaches of Malakath, almost died, and had the Princess bring him back form the brink of death to be declared a hero and then win by marrying into the Royal Family. She had met the Princess once, at some soiree, but Nadya didn't enjoy those types of things much as of late.

"Dani, surely we need to make him a wheelbarrow to remind him of the good days of his peasant life." She snorted into her stein.

 

[Danika]

The the sound of her brothers future title all facades of lamentation vanished and the redhead threw back her head to laugh - much to her brothers displeasure. He seemed to sink further under the table as heads turned in their direction in an attempt to see what it was that had tickled Danika so thoroughly tears were leaking from her eyes.

"Maybe that's how we should get him up the aisle," she wiped one of the tears, cheeks still creased with her smile that revealed her dimples.

 

[Jensen]

Jensen sunk into his chair until his chin could have rested on the table in front of him, his cheeks almost the same shade as his hair.

"Please don't call me that," Lord was bad enough and thankfully he only had to deal with that title in formal situations like when dealing with the farmers back home on his fathers behalf or the odd royal soiree he had been announced at. He was not sure how he was going to handle Prince and all the bowing and scraping that came with it. He took an extra long swig of his ale and grimaced as Nadya poked him further to answer.

"I'm leaving everything to her really, she's the one who has to leave her home..." he took a deep breath. "Aside from her family terrifying the shit out of me... she seems..." lovely, caring, beautiful, sweet... "Nice."

His eyes cut across to his marked friend and he sat up to reach across the table.

"Do you hate me for this match, Cullen?" The pain at such a thought shone in his eyes. For whilst they may have had such different lives, Jensen was a man of the Wall. What he had gone through with Cullen and Nadya made them family.

 

[Cullen]

Cullen gave a husky laugh, reaching a casual arm around Nadya's shoulders. "Always got my back, Gonads.." He grinned, shaking his head at the girls' hilarity.

His gaze shifted back to Jensen, his brow furrowing at the question. "I could never hate you, Jens. You're a brother to me." He paused, his voice dropping to a quieter tone. "Just... be careful. The King and Queen were one thing, but those Princes are psychotic."

He lifted his stein, his eyes serious but warm. "To sticking together?" he proposed.

 

[Nadya]

All the laughter in her died as soon as Cullen ruined the moment by calling her by the nickname they had all turned to using when they wished to annoy her. Others on the Wall had tried to get away with hit, but in her younger years, she had made them all think twice on getting on her bad side.

But Cullen, Danika, and Jensen never feared the Caliar rider.

She couldn't just chastise him here and now when he was warning their friend about the Royal Family. Nadya raised her stein, clinking it beside Cullen's and giving Jensen and Dani a wining smile, before staring at Cullen probably a fraction longer than she intended to. "To sticking together."

 

[Danika]

Danika and Jensen both echoed the words the others toasted as their mugs clashed against one another sloshing ale over their hands. The twins shared a grin before drinking up.

As the first to finish, Dani slammed her mug down and then pushed up from her chair.

"Are we turning this into a pub crawl or what? If I remember there's 12 taverns from down here all the way back up to the main plaza. One pint in each, for old times sake and before my brother becomes a stay at home husband," she patted her brothers head as he groaned.

 

[Jensen]

Cullen's concerns were uncomfortably close to his own so he was glad when Nadya brought them back to the purpose of their visit to the pub. He gave his friends arm one last squeeze to show he had heard and appreciated the warning before setting about downing his own drink. Despite knowing Danika their whole lives he still had no idea how the petite redhead managed to finish an ale so quickly. He set his own stein down a beat later with a small curse that she had won yet again. The curse quickly turned to a groan as she brought up his impeding nuptials once again but this time it was more light hearted.

"Yes," he stood and slammed his hands on the table. "Let's go get royally fucked."

 

[Cullen]

"Only one in each?.." Cullen smirked as he finished his drink and dragged the back of his hand across his lips. "I thought this was a celebration. Or, was it a commiseration?.." his brow furrowed as he feigned confusion, but he couldn't hide his grin for long and slapped Jensen on the shoulder.

"Either way. Only one of us is getting royally fucked and I think your fiancée might want say in all of us joining in." he shrugged. "But we could get drunk!" he laughed.

"Onward then."

 

[Nadya]

Nadya was quiet as she finished her drink with quick succession, dabbing the back of her hand at her lips to catch the droplet that escaped. She grinned at each of her friends, the smile that would no doubt still grace her expression over the course of this night.

"Easy now, Cull! We do not want our blushing bride here to get all bashful before the next pub." Still, she stood up and gathered all their empty steins and rounded the table to go return them to Bess. It was always best to keep a good rapport with barkeepers, she had found. Returning to her friends, she outstretched her hands to Danika, asking for her to join her.

"Shall we make the boys go to Rosita's and try her spirits?" It was a culinary feat the way they paired spirits and fruits and infused water, even styled in different glasses and garnished with the prettiest things. Such a place was popular with the female population, but Nadya knew that if she begged enough, the boys would agree.

 

[Jensen]

Jensen's cheeks were a furious red.

"Cullen!" he hissed, eyes darting around the room in case anyone had heard. The royal ordinance had gone out last week and there were few people now in Thanasis who didn't know Jensen was due to marry the Princess. That made it even more important they watched what they said. People were listening for any little bit of scandalous gossip.

Thankfully most people seemed too drunk to care.

He groaned when Nadya mentioned spirits.

"I'm going to remember nothing about this night, am I?" he bemoaned to Cullen as the girls led them on.

 

[Danika]

Danika snickered at Cullen's joke, especially when it turned Jensen a delightful shade of red that matched the shade of their hair. Lightly bumping her shoulder against her brothers she then stepped up to Nadya's side and clasped her hand as they wound their way out of the first inn.

"Oh! Yes, Rosita's is a perfect next stop," she grinned and cast a glance over her shoulder at the two lads ambling after them as they made their way down the cobbled street. "Especially as Cullen wants to do more than one in every bar. When I passed earlier I saw a sign for some kind of drinking competition..." it took a little persuading for clients to trust Rosita's newest spirits so she tended to turn it into a challenge. For a city full of dragon riders liked nothing more than a challenge. They seemed to forget the risk to their personal health if they thought it might earn them some kind of glory.