The servant paused, a tray full of empty tankards rattling slightly. "It is indeed. I'll bring you a bowlful in just a minute, if you'd like to seat yourself. Some fresh bread as well? Made just this morning." Order taken, they headed back to the kitchen.<br/><br/>* * * * *<br/><div class="floatright">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/4/4f/A099c61e24428cfee4fee43167068f37.jpg)</div>Taking Isabela's reply as an offer to join them, he rose, offering Leja his chair and pulling another over from a nearby table. He took a moment to move his meal before seating himself again. "Countess," he continued, turning to face Isabella once more, "While I have no wish to frighten you, or anyone else, if you had encountered the same kind of creature as I did, then you would deem caution only as prudence. The horrors awoken in Eisen since their land ravaged itself in war are not fireside tales to send a delicious shiver through one while sitting in comfort. They are real, and they are dangerous." His voice was pitched low, to not carry far beyond the table, but earnest.<br/><br/>"Now, until I know more, I will not say a monster haunts the night here, but they have little respect for country borders. I think perhaps the pain of the land keeps them mostly in Eisen, mostly in the South, but it is not unknown for them to roam far afield. I would hope that it is simply bandits preying on the road here, but if an Eisen horror has made it's way into this forest, then it must be found and stopped. If not, death will only follow death."<br/><br/>As if summoned by his words a scream rose in the air, muffled by distance and the walls of the inn, and cut off abruptly, but still close enough to carry clearly the sounds of pain and terror. Conversation in the inn stopped, cut cleanly as by a knife, and for a moment, the only sounds were the clatter of wooden plates and bowls bouncing on the floor from where they had been dropped. Standing over them was one of the inns servants, gone white as a sheet.<br/><br/>Imriel's chair hit the floor as it fell over backwards, so quickly did he rise. His blade was already in his hand as he started towards the door to seek the source of the scream.