Avad, having consumed two or three mugs of beer, was just drunk enough that his emotions were beginning to run unchecked. He would chide himself the day after with a [i]this happens every time and you know it![/i], but for the moment, he was fighting back tears at the merchant's song. While he certainly wasn't warforged like Sergei, and certainly hadn't been through as many battles or as much pain, he'd still his share of the atrocities of war. At the siege of Nightvell Castle, his entire squadron had been slaughtered by a brutal curse, leaving him alone among the corpses of his comrades and friends. He found himself humming (badly, but mercifully quietly) along to the last few verses.

Then Tahra and Logan MacNeil came out of the abandoned mansion. Stumbling as he attempted a standing salute, Avad seemed to have forgotten entirely that he was no longer wearing his military robes, and, in all likelihood, the knight would have no idea who he was. Instead, he decided that the best possible of all solutions would be to address him as a military officer. "Surr Logn Mcneel..." He squinted suddenly, "why're you here 'gain?"

He stumbled sideways again, barely managing to catch himself before reseating himself. As the merchant (who had rapidly become his favorite person in the world for providing [i]this much beer[/i] at a time [i]this[/i] appropriate and the young boy stated the fact, he realized again that it was his charge's birthday. He lurched to her, gripping around her shoulders with a madcap grin that one would more likely see on the face of one half his age, and slurred a few words of power before motioning loopily in the air. His grin widened as the mug in his hand shook slightly, and he gave only a second or so of warning before he poured the rest of his fourth mug over her head. The beer had become a cloudy gray-gold and gave off a gentle mist. Taken by his own incautiously-conjured magic, he wrapped his arm tighter and cheered, lifting the empty mug to the sky.

As one might be able to tell...Avad did not often drink. It seldom ended well.