Crow looked around when the group arrived at the small restaurant. There were few other people since it was a semi-decent location compared to the rest of the village, but the ones could see were all of the lower class. He felt much more at ease here than he had in the previous diner, where every guest had looked upon him with a critical gaze. He could always cope with the aloof nobles, but he enjoyed being able to relax with members of his own peasant class. Here, he didn’t have to put on an act or assert his pride in order to be treated like a human being—at least, he only had to do that for the knights he was travelling with.

Crow sat down between Penelope and Abraxas—the two least hostile of his companions—when they reached their table. Layth sat across from him. Of course, it didn’t take long for the knight to make another snide comment to his sister, [color=fdc68a][b]“If you keep treating pests like him so kindly, they’ll get attached, you know.”[/b][/color]

“True, true,” Crow nodded sagely. He leaned close to Penelope as if he was going to whisper into her ear, but he spoke loudly enough that her brother would have been able to hear him as well, “You shouldn’t get too close to that one. He might start following you around.”

He looked up as a young wench stepped over to take the group’s orders, starting with William and John. The girl moved and spoke with hints of nervousness when addressing the knights. She was likely afraid of them for their authority to punish lowly peasants such as herself when they made trivial mistakes, and for that, he pitied her. After living in the outer villages for so long, he had seen many instances of knights who had abused their power to take advantage of poor commoners, so when the wench came around to his side of the table, he flashed her a friendly smile.

The girl returned his gesture with a faintly upturned lip, “What would you like, sir?”

“Whatever you think is best, love,” Crow winked at her. “Just bring me a lot of it, if you would. I’m quite famished. Oh, and some mead would be wonderful, as well. Thank you.” The girl nodded without writing anything down. He guessed she was illiterate as well. It wasn’t surprising. Most peasants didn’t know how to read or write. There were no schools or scholars willing to teach them.

She turned to Penelope to take her order next, “And for you…” she trailed off, seeming unsure of how she should address a female knight. “Miss?”