Welcome to Gaia! ::

Donato followed along into the Great Hall without much comment. He had nothing much to say to the entire situation aside from a sympathetic grin to Eula. Upon finding his wrist released in the Great Hall and Eula making her way to the kitchens with an ever-growing entourage, he shifted awkwardly as he was left alone with Shaftin again. He heard the beginning of his speech with a bit of relief, before being brought up short by its conclusion. Should've seen it coming.... "Heh... yessir!" He promised with an embarrassed grin. Eula, come back... How she would laugh at his squirming. Well... then again.

Jude entered quietly, indeed from the cellars. He was lugging a wheel of cheese up from the cool, dark room beneath the kitchen. The mouse had grown in the past five years, although he was still rather small. At any rate, he wore the dark green habit of Friar under his great apron - he had been the de facto ruler of the kitchens for ages, he had just accepted that it was official at last.
He picked up the cheese and set in on a counter in the corner only to see a strange young hare nicking candied chestnuts! He opened his mouth to protest indignantly, only to see Faith heading for the plums.... He sighed. "Of course I understand, Mother Abbess..." He started with a cheery voice, belied by the glance he shot at the young chestnut-snatcher. "Um..." He lost a bit of his momentum as he saw the small crowd standing just inside the doorway. "Can I... help you all?"

Jude looked at the hare with raised eyebrows, blinking as he spoke with his mouth full. "Sorry, didn't understand a word of that...," although he didn't sound very sorry at all. He turned his face toward Eula as she began to explain, looking a bit embarrassed as she explained that the little raider was her brother. "Oh! Well, pleased to meet you," he offered to Payton with a trace of apology. He grinned at Eula, "Thanks, seven then. Go ahead, I'll bring out lunch in a few minutes," he said, shooing to preclude any offers of help. ...Jude and his kitchen.

Donato chuckled a bit at the shift in the tone of Shaftin's words. "Ah... it'll be three years this winter."

Eula smiled a little, pleased that Jude has actually taken her offer to join them for lunch. She shook her head a little. "You don't have to be nice to him, it's okay. He's just a little miscreant."

Payton swallowed what was in his mouth and frowned. "A what?"

"Can't have 'brother' without 'bother,' " Eula rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, well, you can't have sister without... si... tr... st.. er..." Payton blinked, a look of intense concentration on his features as he attempted to twist the letters around to insult Eula.

"That isn't working out for you," Eula laughed. "Come on, let's get out of Jude's way."

"All right," Payton had apparently given up and went to follow Eula out of the kitchen when he was tapped on his shoulder. "Huh?" he turned, and then he felt a chestnut stolen from his paws. "Hey! That's mine!" He twisted around to try and get a look at the culprit.

Shaftin was a little surprised by that. Two and a half years? He supposed he shouldn't be so surprised by it... it had been five years since he'd seen them. Still. Obviously this was not some flash in the pan relationship. Again, he wasn't quite sure what to think about it.

Well. "So what do you do here? How do you keep yourself busy?" He figured it couldn't hurt to get to know Donato a little better.

((Okay....))

The young hare jumped in surprise to find himself face-to-face, quite suddenly, with another creature. Though initially shocked by her sudden appearance, he didn't seem terribly put-off this time by her species. He'd recalled the fox has said 'bats' plural when she had been listing off all the creatures in the abbey. He looked momentarily relieved, in fact, that this creature appeared about his age - right until he got a face-full of bat.

"Ack! Hey! Don't-" he grimaced, throwing up his arms to ward off the overly friendly bat. "Just... mrgh... get... OFF," he shouted, finally sliding out of Gem's hold and stumbling back a few paces. He threw his paw out to catch his balance on the nearby counter, missed, and fell straight to the floor.

Which sent Eula into peals of laughter. Served him right! She looked apologetically at Jude. "Sorry about the delay, he-" she started laughing again, shaking her head. "We're going now... come on everyone, we're in Jude's way."

Payton, grumbling, picked himself up off the floor, shooting Gem a glance. After all, he hadn't exactly gotten a good view of her when she was clinging to him. Well... he assumed this was a bat? She had the same shape, wings, ears. He studied her with his eyes for a few moments, a little thrown off by the bright white fur, rather than Kusaa's dark fur.

Sniffing, he walked toward Eula, ready to leave the kitchen, attempting to discreetly rub his backside. "All right, let's go - dad's probably wondering what's taking so long."

Eula, all grins, moved Payton along. "I know you two will be the best of friends. In fact, Gem," and she called over to the little bat Dibbun, "you ought to spend as much time with Payton as possible, as he won't be here very long."

"But I-" Payton was ready to complain.

"Shh, hurry up. The longer you take, the longer you wait to eat."

Payton hesitated, as if still wanting to make a point. But he looked back and saw the mousecook still waiting for them to leave. Feeling a grumble from his stomach, he gave in and left the kitchen.

((Jen... lol.))

Jude shook his head at Gem and Payton's antics. "Eight it is, then." Again, he started making shooing motions pleasantly but gave up as they produced no effect. Oh well. Finally, the boisterous little party started making its way out and he set about making up a few trays.

"I've actually just started taking care of the Dibbuns - that is, just started doing it officially." He grinned a bit. "How're things at Salamandastron? Anything-" A little white blur whizzed past his head. "-Hi, Gem..."

::UP stairs always seemed to be a bit of a trial for Faith, it was easy enough going DOWN stairs when your cane could probe ahead, it was when you had to physically PULL yourself up, with one leg that didn't want to do what you told it to that it became a little bothersome, and consequentially, she ended up pulling herself last with a quick sigh of relief::

::Although why she bothered going down when she knew that would happen anyway was either a sign of true abbess stubbornness, or pure dibbun stupidity as she quickly took her second wind and back over to them again::

Payton? ::She began, clearing her throat as her breath came back again, at least hopeful this might get his attention...:: Was I right hearing earlier that you're keen about our abbey's warriors?

::She quickly scrambled/shuffled/crawled up onto her usual chair, where Constantine had only seasons before stacked a staircase of papers for her to get into seating level on her Abbess' chair, although intended of course to try and give her a little more stature, the bumper seat didn't look very dignified actually trying to sit in it on second thought...::

::But up she was with a sigh, and her smile returning:: Would I be right guessing you'd want to spar against one at some time, if only to see yourself what it's like...?

((Ya know, if Jen posts next, we would have gone all in a row!))