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Iorlas laughed at Miyuki and impulsively hugged the young kitsune. She was just so cute!

"Then off we go!" she beamed, nudging her in her parents' direction.

Earendil grinned. "The size of the town doesn't at all influence the quality of the work," he commented. "If anything, I find that the smaller the town is, the better the work they have. At least, in my experience."

"I think Miyuki is hungry," Iorlas said with a giggle, looking down at the kitsune. "And to be honest, I am as well."

"As am I," Earendil added. "Are we supposed to meet the others for lunch, Lin? Or are we on our own?"

He wasn't sure if the plans had been made for everyone to eat together for lunch or supper.

Earendil grinned. "Then we have a choice before us. Shall we head back to the inn and hope the others are there so that Iorlas can meet them? Or shall we find somewhere else to eat so that we can have a quiet lunch?"

"I have no preference, though I admit I am looking forward to meeting the rest of your group," Iorlas spoke up quietly, holding the door open so that they could leave the shop. "And if I may make a suggestion - since Miyuki as yet does not know how to use her new staff, perhaps it would be best to leave it in your room until she learns? That way she will not be challenged by other children who are looking for a bit of fun."

"Well, it's all for fun," Iorlas assured Lin. "No one ever gets hurt."

She started leading them towards the inn. "They just like to compete against each other."

Now that Earendil was thinking about it, it made sense to him. Actually, he was a bit surprised that between River, Miyuki and Amalirahc there hadn't been any competitions yet.

"I'll carry it until we reach the inn, just in case," Earendil smiled. "Don't worry."

Iorlas led them down the street towards the town centre, where the inn was located. They had to pass the fountain in the middle to get to the inn, but there was a bit of a commotion on one side, and she found herself pausing to see what was going on.

Earendil stopped behind her and looked in the same direction as her. "What ..."

It seemed that just outside the inn door, a spar was going on. It wasn't with children, as Iorlas had warned about, but rather between two adults - a man and a woman. There were a few people crowded around to watch, and one person seemed to be going around and collecting bets for the bystanders as to who was going to win.

Above the fight, a falcon flew, obviously agitated, though it refrained from taking part in the fight itself.

"Is that Alassëa?" Earendil had to blink. Having lost his memory of what had happened when he'd been injured, he hadn't really seen her in action that he knew of, and he couldn't help but be impressed by her skill. The man she was fighting seemed to be just as good as her - it didn't seem that either one of them could land any blows on the other.

Earendil squinted, trying to make out the features of Alassëa's sparring partner.

"I have no idea," he had to conclude at last.

"He's the apothecary's father," Iorlas identified the man, laughter dancing in her eyes. "I haven't seen him challenge anyone in-" She caught herself, as if she were going to say something but changed it to something else, and concluded, "-a long time."

The two sparrers danced around each other, and the air was filled with the sounds of their staffs clacking against each other. The staffs themselves were little more than a blur, the contestants were moving so quickly.

Earendil glanced down at Miyuki and grinned. "Well, at least you know you're going to have a teacher who really knows what she's doing," he quipped. "You'll have to make sure to study hard with her, all right? Otherwise it would be a shame on her."

He had neglected to tell her this previously, but it was a smear on a teacher's honour when their students did not try as hard as they could to do the best that they could.

He turned his attention back to the spar, and his brow furrowed slightly as he tried to figure out what in the world Alassëa was doing. She seemed to be putting her staff in an awkward position in front of herself, limiting her movements - and yet, even so, she was still blocking every blow somehow. He had no idea what her plan was - it was something he had never seen before.

"I've never seen anything like it," Earendil replied to Lin, wondering how she was even managing to keep the blows that were raining down from hitting her.

Suddenly, without any warning, she ducked down and to one side, avoiding being hit and unbalancing her opponent; and at the same time she used her seemingly awkward grip on her staff to brace her staff against her body and sweep it sideways fast and hard against her opponent's ankles, which, combined with his flailing from the missed blow, send him to the ground.

The crowd was silent except for one person.

"Ha!" Aethos cheered, looking positively giddy. "I knew you could do it!"

The crowd seemed absolutely amazed, and they began to murmur to each other as the man who had been taking bets headed towards Aethos and presented him with a rather fat purse.