After Gioberto made his comment, silence filled the room. There was the occasionally chewing of the food, but it was indeed awkward. This lasted for what seemed like days before muffled voices could be heard outside the monastery. The voices grew closer, and soon enough the people inside could make out the voices talking.
"Claudius! How are we doing on time?" The voice had spoken in between breaths, as if he was running out of them.
"Tyrannus, we are quite late. I think it was the bear encounter we had earlier."
"Yes. You just had to chase after it, didn't you father?"
The first voice scoffed and responded, "It stole the rest of our rations! I had to chase after the beast and slay it!"
"Tyrannus, it was only our emergency rations that it stole."
"Shut it old man. You just wanted a fight, and that was the closest thing you could get other than training with Claudius." He snorted, then added, "And we both know that isn't much."
"I can show you how much Claudius has trained me when we get back home, if it's a sparring match you want." The voiced said sternly. "And also, try act as your etiquette classes taught you when we arrive? I don't want them thinking my son is a brute."
And with that, the door to the monastery burst open. Before the lords of the land stood the Tyrannus Carver. His royal armor faintly glistened in the torch fire, as well as his brow, which was heavy in sweat. However, his posture seemed to remain strong, and his fairly medium build commanded attention. A few gray hairs were in his long mane of hair, but it was hard to tell the man had aged past his mid twenties.
Beside Carver stood two men. One appeared to be in his thirties, holding a spear in hand and was very out of breath. The armor he wore was much heavier as well, and was not just meant for show like Carver's. His face was obscured by his helmet, which seemed slightly more adorned than a standard infantary helm. He was bent over, clearly very tired from trying to keep up with Carver.
The other was a monster of a man. Although he was giant in size, was clearly the youngest of the three. He wore long dreads and had a full, unkempt beard. He towered over the other two, standing well over six feet tall. The armor he wore seemed to be of the same weight as the helmed man, but he was not tired at all. His massive arms both had weaponry in them; the left a buckler and the right a long sword, to which he seemed to hold with ease.
After taking a deep breath, Carver smiled and bowed his head slightly.
"I apologize for the delay. We ran into some unexpected troubles. I hope I haven't missed too much." His eyes went to the table, bountiful with food. "Ah, well I must extend my thanks to the monks here. I did not know there would be a feast."
Carver motioned the two men beside him towards the table, who both had their gaze fixated upon it when they saw the food. "Go on you two, take a plate and follow the monks out of here. I'm sure they have a place for you to stay while we talk about our business here."
The two other men quickly walked towards the table and began grabbing food, stacking their plates to the brim. Carver headed towards an empty chair and sat down, exhaling deeply then drinking from the glass that was set out for him.
"Carver Pentaghast, Lord Tyrannus of Praelium." He said so with charm. "Once again, I am extremely sorry about the delay."
