A Cretaceous Appetite

[Fellow Rabbit]

Guild introduction story for Kiel/TrenchKnight. Wait for him to post before joining.

The city of Ternadan was bustling with the enthusiasm of food-lovers from all over Korinthia. And for good reason, too - the annual Spring Culinary Festival had finally arrived! For a whole week, the best chefs, judges, culinary artists, and competitive eaters from around the world would gather and show off what they had to offer, be it professional cuisines, speed-eating, choreographed cooking, and more. Restaurants, food stalls, and everything in between joined in the festival, hoping to take advantage of the festival while it lasting and offering some delicious meals themselves. For some, it was the perfect excuse to overeat and feel slightly less guilty about it. For others, it was a once-a-year opportunity to make it big in the food business. The rest were just along for the fun and adventure of trying new things.

It was here, perhaps, where you might find a good place to fill yourself up.

[TrenchKnight]

Were it any other day, and the sight of a what appeared to be some sort of clay red Lizardman or perhaps Dragonborn, scaled skin adorned in turquoise markings, fireman's carrying a well sized deer carcass from a fresh hunt might seem eye catching and bizarre on the streets of the city. Wearing very basic garb akin to that of a barbarian, or perhaps a tribal hunter, the Tyrannosaurian figure marched through the street, eyeing stalls and shopfronts as the citizens and visitors alike ran amok, thoughts of excitement for various contests, displays, and freebies clearly emblazoned across their faces. Though the Rex typically wore less while at home, he accompanied his simple attire with a hide vest with equally simple yet sturdy pockets on the inside and out.

Amber eyes shifted around the street, searching for a worthwhile location to come and deliver his hunt. There were so many vendors and competitions, Kiel assumed that one of them would grant him the opportunity to unload the kill, skin and clean, and ultimately cook up the thing. Eventually, Kiel stood near the corner of a street, seeing a number of butchers and cooks with a more hearty nature gathered in a small, grassy park. It looked as though there was an open invitation for interested parties, located beside a handful of cooking pits that had been set up and left unlit. Kiel raised his head slightly, nose gathering the scents, and a gentle smile cracking the corners of his mouth.

[Fellow Rabbit]

The cooking pits were numerous, but so were those eager to get their food made. With lunch fast approaching, this shouldn't have been a surprise. Normally this area was a city park, evident by the play area for young ones, multiple benches scattered around, and the statue of a muscular man and his bear companion in a heroic pose placed right in the middle. Today, however, it was the designated cooking area for those who didn't have their own kitchen to cook in. The city's provisions for cooking stations were numerous, even each pit having it's own area carved out of the grass to prevent fires from breaking out, but at this time it appeared all the spots had been taken.

Without warning, a pair of children ran right in front of Kiel, one chasing the other and both perhaps not yet aware of the concept of personal space. Anyone watching from the side might say that about summed up the chaos of the section the dinosaurian had entered. There was a lot of yelling - most of it being cooks trying to stay organized with their crew over the noise of all the other cooks trying to do the same. And over the sound of the children playing. All in good company, though. Most of the yells were friendly toward one another. Most.

"It's bloiting raw! You rotten puke-stocking!" Only a few meters away, a particularly angry dwarf smacked his gnome assistant with a slab of meat that had a single bite taken out of it. "I can't serve this! The rats wouldn't touch it! The whole plate is ruined!" He kicked a pan that had found its way to his feet and slammed his hand on the wooden table set up with all their foodstuffs. "And where's the lamb sauce!?" With one final scream of rage, he stormed off, resigned to not getting to taste the great meal he had endeavored for. Apparently he had had enough of his cooking partner.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Isaák Amantes

The commotion wasn't lost on Isaák's ears. He had been sent to get a bottle of said lamb sauce from a nearby vendor, stopped just shy of his return when the dwarf flipped his lid.  To his left, he noticed he had halted just next to a kind he hadn't seen in Ternadan for some time. A rexborn if memory served. And it looked like he had just landed quite a kill.

Isaák quietly cleared his throat. He hadn't see the rexborn's face, but given the situation, he didn't think it would take too many tries to guess what he was thinking about what he just saw. "Don't worry much about that Gandin. His temper is about as short as a... he trailed off as he tried for a moment to think of a good way to finish the metaphor, but under his own pressure he drew a blank and finished the sentence about as underwhelmingly as could be imagined. "...guy. Whose temper is... short."

He stopped only for a second, but continued in the hope of leaving that metaphor in the past. "You must be new here! I'm Isaák," he held out his hand to shake and went on. "The drama queen over there is Gandin and our little gnome friend is Eric." Isaák glanced at their cooking table for a moment to see Eric snickering quietly and pulling out a much better-cooked slice of lamb. "You look like you need a place to cook that."

[TrenchKnight]

Kiel's tolerance of the children was surprisingly high. He could easily find a way to screw them off with a growl or something, but he chose not to. Instead, hearing the words from the man nearby, his brows raised a little in curiosity at the raging dwarf and his apparent culinary struggles. Freeing one hand from the tied legs of the hunt, the Rex extended a hand to meet that of Isaák. While handshakes weren't the most common of greetings or displays among his people, they did in fact do this once in a while, and were certainly aware of it among humans and other similarly civilized and socially centered races. The clay red hand with quite keen, albeit short, talon-like claws at the end gripped Isaák's with keen direction.

Not and overtly powerful grip, but certainly higher than most would give, Kiel simply responded reactively as he would with one of his own kin. In the Rex's mind, he cared little for the judging of others based on appearance, but more importantly, he simply didn't care enough to squeeze competitively, nor be overly lax with care. He simply... gave a grip that would be among the stronger firmness of the more common humanoid races. He did not shake, but simply grip. Responding in kind, his head tilted to the left minutely, and twisted back a degree to casually look in the direction which Isaák had spoken to introduce.

"I see." Kiel replied briefly with a hearty baritone voice. The Rex released his grip and shifted the kill from his shoulders to under his left arm. Watching the 'team' somewhat listlessly, he gave a brief 'Huhn.', before glancing to Isaák and resuming his observation. "His taste in cooking seems a little..." The Rexborn raised his eyes skyward thinking of a way to not sound rude, and then continued. "Volatile? I guess I'm just used to cooking on my own schedule. Slow and confident. I guess I feel like the food reflects the cook, and being... what's a good word... 'frazzled'? It might come out in the process."

Kiel hefted the deer into both arms before him, and nodded to Isaák. "Then again, maybe he makes it work. You two seem to be a lot less... aggressive?" Kiel gave a single gruff of a laugh and nodded again to his new acquaintance. "And yes, I suppose I do. I thought I spotted a couple pits that were still open. I was hoping to just sort of... share this. Nothing too special, just a matter of giving what a can. I heard this place would be busy for the festival, but I have to admit, even this is a bit hectic. Any suggestions?"

[Fellow Rabbit]

Isaák Amantes

The grip in the rexborn's handshake was telling. Confident. Not too firm, but not too weak; just enough to get the greeting through. "Gandin is, ehh... unique, I suppose," Isaák replied, "He has a decent amount of cooking expertise while on his own. He wanted some help this time, but while I think Eric is the best cook among the three of us, he's certainly not a good match for a short temper."

The cleric stepped around the grill and began clearing a space off for the rexborn's kill. "This spot here should be fine. You may have a hard time finding an open spot anywhere else. Besides..." he set the bottle he was carrying with him in front of the res of the bottles, "This spot has lamb sauce!" Isaák let out a bit of a chuckle. Then, after a short, awkward pause, he cleared his throat again. "So what's your story? What brought you here... aside from the festival?"

[TrenchKnight]

"Heh, I understand." The saurian voice answered briefly. "I imagine there's all kinds of personalities and..." Kiel allowed a contemplative, and clearly put on cough to express their shared thoughts on the matter. "Emotions, to be found among the different folk across the land. Even on the grill, it seems." There wasn't too much to carry on about, besides this at the moment, so the somewhat slow introduction did not weigh on him one bit.

Following the cleric, but on opposite sides of the grill, the Rexborn proceeded to place the product of his hunt before them, and examined the pit casually. "I'm used to far less on average, so I'm more than happy with what we have here. And as for being here? Not much to tell. My own people aren't numerous, and sometimes we want to roam. I wish there was much more to the story, but I'm just not an adventurer with a tragic background or villainous rival. Sure, I can fight. And I absolutely have dealt with more than just hunting, but pretty much all in defense, with few exceptions. There were some places I'd seen, or heard of that seemed intriguing."

The hunter felt along what little he carried, and thought about the festival. "And you can deal with the sauce." he laughed mildly, "I'll take care of the dry rub." His hands reached for his knife, and he began to process the deer manually, and without much hesitation.
"Uh... I guess I should have asked if cleaning it here was acceptable or not." he shrugged, "Not being from here and all. Some of the innards might be useful. Liver. Heart. You know how it goes."