| Go Fetch! |
| Summary: | Justin and Anais share a glass of wine on the parapet at Four Eagles tower and are joined by Lothar, whom they hadn't met yet. Justin shows some of his humor. |
| Date: | 24/09/2012 |
| Related Logs: | None off hand? |
| Players: |
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| Roof Terrace, Four Eagles Tower |
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| This is open to the air except for the rookery at the opposite end of the open walkway. Parapets and crenellations are about. |
| September 24th, 289 |
Sunset comes late in the summer, but it approaches the Roost now, along with a change in the air that betokens the coming of wind and rains. The breeze off the water is strong, whipping around parapets, and those who've been at the Roost since Lady Anais' arrival know that it means the lady is most likely to be found on the roof, enjoying the weather. Odd as it may be, most are glad to see her out of the reading room and the cellars of late, so it's only Nina and Kincaid, her handmaid and guard, who attend her at the moment, having their own conversation a short distance away while Anais leans her elbows on the stone, leaning out over the edge of the roof to watch the gulls.
The clouds have thickened up. Earlier they were more broken with sunlight spilling down between to make the water glitter. The waves are whipped up, rough coming in against the rocks far below. The sound of the pounding surf, muted as it is all around the tower's height is loud enough this evening to obscure the sound of Justin's boots and spurs as he comes up the stone steps.
Reaching the top, he stand quietly a breath as the wind catches at his dark hair. He brings no book this time, no staff to set up his dinner to sup, he carries only a bottle of wine and a few cups. Incase he did run into anyone else taking the air up here tonight.
Probably expecting to see some of their new arrivals out and about, he smiles a little when it is instead Anais. Justin walks over to greet her, "Good evening, goodsister. How fair thee?"
Lothar comes up onto the terrace as he's exploring the tower that will now be his home and glances around at the view from up here and blinks, "Well this is a pretty view don't see much of the ocean from the Vale…" He spots some people up here and heads over to them, "Hello, you two look familiar I'm sure we've been introduced but everything's so new right now that I've forgotten most names and faces already." He smiles a little sheepishly, "And well how to get back to my room." He grins as he looks out at the water, "But at least there's the ocean, oh and I'm Lothar, Lord Bolland's youngest."
Anais looks over her shoulder at Justin's approach, smile flickering when she sees the wine. "Not so poorly. The wind was changing, though, and I've been in the reading room all day triple checking the books before I meet with Lady Tressa," she sighs, reaching up and twisting her hair into a makeshift plait over her shoulder, though her bangs are still whipped by the wind. "I'm hoping to make a better impression with her than I did with Lady Evangeline. I don't think I've the energy to have another battle like that." Lothar arrives as if on cue, and she turns to consider the young man with a crooked smile. "Welcome," she says amiably. "I'm Anais, and this is Justin. A pleasure to meet you, Lothar."
The bottle is set down, as well as the cups, in the low part of the crenulation upon the wall. The wind isn't so strong as to knock them off for it comes across at an angle, the cups in the lee of the stone that rises on the left. Justin lays his hands to the bottle to open it, pausing to turn his head when he hears another voice. What is it with him trying to open wine? The act seems to draw the new family members out of thin air.
"Lothar … " Justin draws the antler handled knife at his belt, "Let me welcome you to Four Eagles Tower." Only, instead of lunging at the younger man to try and gut him, the slightly older Terrick uses the blade's tip to help pry out the bottle's cork. It goes with a sudden POP and there it flies off with the wind. Tsk. They'll /have/ to drink the entire bottle now, won't they? "Care to join us for a bottle of Charlton red?" Alas, they haven't any Terrick wines to offer, yet.
Lothar gives each a quick bow, "Pleasure to meet you both and I'd love to join you for some wine if it's not too much of a burden." He steps up to try and block some of the wind and watches the cork fly over the edge, "Did we need that?"
Without missing a beat, Justin glances after the cork at Lothar's question, "Yes, go fetch it." He says it straight faced, then winks at Anais while he reaches over to pick up the first glass and pour.
Anais rolls her eyes at Justin, smile quirking. "He doesn't mean that," she adds to Lothar, reassuring. "I think the three of us can enjoy a bottle of wine without falling over the edge, though. Are you settling in all right?" she asks. "Given the number of guests we've had moving through the tower lately, there shouldn't have been much of a chance for any dust to settle in the room."
Lothar glances over the edge, "Ser… I can't even find my own room, do you really think I'll be able to find the way down to the ground floor without jumping off the edge of the tower? It'd leave such a mess that way too cleaning for days to get the blood and the guts off the courtyard, and my poor mother would be devistated and well my father…" He shrugs, "I don't know if he'd even notice for a while." He grins and nods, "Settling in just fine m'lady it is a bit of a climate and scenery change from the Vale though. There's also the whole getting dragged away before finishing my time as a squire hope I won't have to start all over with that here."
Well, that all makes Justin laugh! Amusement lightens his grey eyes and instead of handing the first glass of wine to Anais as he intended to do, he instead hands it to Lothar, "Good to see you have some sense. Especially of humor." That brings up Justin's dark brow, "To whom were you squired and for how long?" The second glass is poured and that one he hands to Anais before he finally pours his own. "You will learn the tower quickly. The layout is fairly simple, the keep built 200 years ago by our forefathers to withstand precisely the sort of attacks the Ironborn threw at us. A lesser keep would have fallen."
"I'd really prefer if you didn't jump," Anais laughs, though she leans over the edge a bit herself. "With my luck, someone would probably decide I'd pushed you." As though to forestall any such efforts, she actually hops up to sit on the lower part of the crenellation herself, apparently oblivious to the drop below. "As for squiring, I'm sure there's a knight here who can take you on. Assuming your father approves, of course," she adds, nose wrinkling briefly before she hides her expression behind the glass Justin hands her, taking a sip.
Lothar grins and accepts the wine, "Sense of humor is a must… Have to make up for my father not having one, and I was squired to Ser Rolstad Hunter from the Vale for the past three years with a few years before that being trained by my father, not a fun time to say the least. And I'm sure that I'll learn my way around the tower, unlike my other siblings I honestly can say I may have been born here but I have no memories of this place at all, it's like we moved to a new land completely for me." He nods as he takes a sip from his glass, "That's the bottom line to it isn't it? If my father approves he is a hard task master m'lady but I'm sure he means for all his sons to become knights and follow in his glorious footsteps…" He points down at the ocean, "Look see there's one filling in with water…" He peers a little at the ocean, "Wait no that's the sea not quite that big maybe only half it's size."
Not at all sure what the fellow is babbling on about the water, the rest of it Justin understands just fine. He glances out at the ocean but returns his attention to his cousin, "I rather expect your father has a sense of humor. Whether you or I have seen it or not. It may well be a wicked glint in his eye you'd rather not see, for all I know." Justin takes a sip of his own wine, keeping half an eye on his goodsister and Anais's chosen perch. He leans against the risen portion of the wall close to her himself, relaxed. "There's a few good knights here without squires. Ser Kell for example, except that he's a commoner so that won't due. There's myself, without squire, and my other cousin, Ser Dmitry. Let's see… Ser Inigo, and Ser Darion. No, wait. I do believe Darion just took on a new squire just today." Musing, Justin's baritone adds, "I myself was squired down in Riverrun, to the Lord Paramont's House, as was your father."
"Ser Kamron," Anais suggests, leaning against the stone next to Justin and flashing a smile for Lothar's commentary for his father's footsteps. "He's a decent knight, and has Lord Patrek's regard. Your father may not think much of his age, but he's still Lord Mallister, and it would be wise for him to be friendly with someone from the family. And he's fun," she adds with a smile for Lothar.
Lothar nods, "I'm just worried about having to go through all the training and proving myself again. But it sounds like there's plent of squireless knights running around the Roost…" He blinks, "A Mallister here? And yes Ser, my father did squire down with the Lord Paramount although I don't think he'll want me to be straying too far from home this time, I do believe I was one of the delays in returning to the Roost."
Justin sips his wine, listening then to the other two. "Ser Kamron has a squire already. Percy, whom rode with me to Heronhurst recently. Ser Martyn also has a squire, though a knight of enough reknown or wealth certainly might take on more than one squire at a time. I have great respect for, and call Ser Kamron friend. He is the one who knighted me, after Ser Haffrey was slayn by the Ironborn."
There's a glance to Anais, then back to Lothar, "Yes, there are several Mallisters staying with us - though, at the moment they have taken a trip to Heronhurst to help settle the lady Muirenn in for a visit with Ser Otto Erenford's family. She and he are betrothed. However, the others should return within the next week or so."
Studying the younger Terrick, Justin slightly gestures towards Lothar with his glass, "You wouldn't go through training all over again. Whoever wishes to consider you would want to feel you out. Learn where you skills are, how much work you yet need. But ultimately, your placement would have to please your father, most likely. I rather have the expectation that he is not an easy man to please."
"Ser Otto might be as good, actually," Anais muses. "Though the Mallisters already have the Erenford alliance with the marriage for Muirenn. I can't imagine you've much longer left to be squired, have you?" she asks, arching a brow over at Lothar and looking him over more closely. For all she was the lady of the keep the night before, she's much more comfortable now, perched on the parapets and drinking wine while the wind whips around them. Not that it stops her from thinking about the affairs of the Roost, apparently. "A Haigh might be useful," she muses.
Lothar hmmms, "That'd be for the Knight who knights me to decide but I'm about a month out from my 18th nameday, already almost a full year behind my father in getting knighted, and no ser he's not easy to please, I've learned that he admires action and decisiveness over being indecisive. Tends to anger him for some reason. I'm decent with all the knightly weapons as it stands, my father made sure of that, but I enjoy and seem to actually be good at archery, no clue at all where that came from."
"Well, I wasn't knighted until after my 20th Nameday myself. Which is far more common than some wish to admit. 18's all nice and lovely, but all the training in the world from the wisest men doesn't mean a man's ready. And some like to see them prove themselves, first. Ser Haffrey was one of the latter. He wanted me blooded in battle, not some tournament, before I had earned my spurs - only, the day I was blooded, he bled the more and died of his wounds, after."
Seven, how he misses that man's friendship. Justin knocks back the remains of his glass of wine. He licks his lips ere he adds low, "I admire action and decisiveness over indecision myself. Though, there are also times it is more prudent not to be hasty, to wait and see. Too much of that though and you end up with men like Walder Frey."
Anais perks up a bit. "I like archery," she informs Lothar, smile flashing. "Perhaps you can come out and shoot with me one morning. I was taking lessons from Kain, but he seems to be fading back into the woods again of late. Too many people coming through the village and the keep for his tastes." She takes another sip of her wine, turning her face out to the wind and the water with a contented sigh. "I prefer action myself, as well. I tried explaining that to Lady Evangeline once. That sitting and waiting and doing nothing wasn't something I could do. I don't think she entirely understood that."
Lothar nods, "I don't think that I'll be knighted anytime soon I'm not the exceptional warrior my father was, and it sounds like you had a good knight and mentor Ser I could only hope that my father will find one that he deems appropriate for me and isn't intimidated by him." He glances over at Anais, "Kain m'lady? I don't think I've heard of him yet but I'd love to go shooting sometime soon m'lady, I'd love to get out into a hunt sometime soon as well, see what the terrain around here is like."
"Kain is the Huntmaster here at the Roost. A commoner, but a very capable man. He and I have tracked both bandits and game together. As for hunting…" Justin pours himself a refill of wine and looks to see if the others wish for their glasses to be topped up as well. "We have weekly hunts up in the western Highfield lands, formerly held by House Camden. I haven't been in a while and thought I would go soon. Perhaps you, your father, and whomever of your brothers wish, may accompany us. Besides a few kinds of stag, there is bear and boar to be had."
Anais looks a little wistful at the talk of hunting, but knows better than to make that request. Instead, she enjoys the breeze for a bit, thinking things over. "We should likely hold a proper welcome for Lord Bolland and the family as well, actually. A hunt before that would be good, so we can put out a proper spread. "
Lothar hmmms, "I think the rest of the men of my family would love to go for a hunt, although if you tell my father there's a bear he's liable to go after it with his bare hands… Or at least a short spear." He grins at the thought of a feast, "That sounds absolutely divine m'lady a proper spread of food would be very welcome for me and I'm sure the rest of my family would love the warm welcome… Or at least the food we have been on the road for a while before we got here."
Justin gives a slow nod to what Anais proposes, "Yes, that should be easy enough to arrange. I'll lead the hunt in the coming week and then we may all gather for a family dinner. That will give my uncle time to speak with my father, and for the two of them to … hash out a few things. It will also allow time for his family to settle in and rest before there's any expectation upon them, from us." The Sheriff of Terrick's Roost looks back to Lothar, "We'll be pleased to have you. I'm decent with a bow myself, though I'm liable to prefer spear. So, we'll see how your father takes the invitation and mayhap, he'll join us."
"I'll speak with Cook about side dishes, then," Anais nods to Justin, pulling her hair over one shoulder and letting her cup dangle from her fingers. "I'm…interested to see what comes of your family's arrival here, Lothar," she admits, looking over with a flicker of a smile. "I'll confess, I've had my share of disagreements with Lord Jerold of late. I only hope your father doesn't cause him to…push back more forcefully."
Lothar shrugs, "I honestly don't know why we've come back only that the Crimson Axe said it's time to return but if I know the man he's going to make sure that Lord Terrick becomes more forceful when it comes to ruling the Roost and her lands. From what I understand from my trip here he's been in mourning which is to be expected."
The evening reverie is disturbed by a rider below who gallops madly into the courtyard. The sound of iron shod hooves upon stone can be heard even up at the parapet at the top of the tower, despite the murmur of the sea. There's shouting down below, then the rider dismounted runs into the hall. Justin has paused to walk to get a better view, looking down and trying to listen.
He glances to the other two, "Excuse me. Something is afoot." After a moment, there's a voice down the stairs shouting up, "Ser Justin!" It is more than enough to make him leave his glass and jog a few strides to the stairs and begin to descend rapidly. Surely the others will follow quickly to hear the news.
