"Awwwww, he totally did. Do you think that means no trade at all? Even stuff like 'I got an apple with my lunch but I don't like apples, and you got a banana with your lunch but you don't like bananas'? That would be sad. I wonder if they understand presents. Because then maybe we could say that it would be really nice if they helped us out, and also here's some boxes because we're thankful?"

"I thinks we should try it! It would be nicer than lying to them, anyways."

Twilly yawns a tiny yawn. "But maybe we should do that tomorrow." (The sky above is starting to darken, turning pink and orange over in what's probably the west.)

It is getting pretty late…

"Good idea. I hope the Black Dragon Box will stay safe while we sleep…"

Speaking of which, he's not sure where that's going to happen. Well, Sir Pluss said that Captain Rolith will be back soon, and Elan was waiting for him anyway because of the payment thing. He can ask him about both those things!

Before too long, there's a chorus of barking from outside the gates. A noisy pack of creatures, that look like if a crocodile was a dog, come bounding into the courtyard, barking at everything and jumping up at everyone with muddy paws. 

(Twilly hides behind Elan. Nobody else seems alarmed, only mildly irritated.) 

Elan's startled too, but he notices everyone else's reactions and decides that these guys probably aren't too dangerous. To him personally, anyway.

He still lets Twilly hide behind him, obviously.

They are not menaced with anything worse than muddy paws and slobbery tongues: nothing dangerous to Elan, but without the shelter of his legs to hide behind it's easy to imagine that Twilly would be bowled over by their enthusiasm. 

Rolith arrives after a moment, calling the pack back to him with a sharp whistle, which they...mostly obey. Some of them more promptly than others. With the help of a few servants, he shepherds the barking horde into a kennel building and makes his escape, shutting the door behind him on the second try. 

"Elan, Twilly, welcome back! Are you staying here for the night? You're both more than welcome." 

Yeah, no kidding. Elan refrains from trying to pet them, in case they'd react poorly, and makes sure that they don't knock Twilly over.

He gives Rolith a wave.

"Hi! Yeah, we'll both be doing that. Where will that be? Oh, also I was talking to Sir Rated earlier and he reminded me that helping out in the infirmary earlier might be something that you wanna pay me for."

"—yes, absolutely. I'll talk to Junn and Maya this evening, and we'll work out an amount that fairly compensates you for your help. But first, come with me to the mess hall for dinner, and then I'll ask Sir Cull to find you somewhere to sleep for the night." 

If not discouraged, Rolith will sling a friendly (albeit armoured) arm around Elan's shoulders and steer him in the direction of the mess hall. 

Wow, Rolith is super nice! Elan doesn't discourage this at all and is happy to be steered.

"Thanks, Rolith! I wonder what's for dinner tonight. I was talking about ice cream with Twilly earlier but that's more of a dessert food. Oh no, now I made myself want ice cream again! I haven't had any in a while. There was a place in Cliffport that I wanted to go to but we didn't have time, and then I got framed for like four hundred murders. That sucked. What kind of food do you have around here? I have a feeling that the food will be a lot like what I ate back home, because most of the people look Northern like me, and the trees in the forest look a lot like the trees at home. But maybe you have different farm animals, like instead of cows you have… something that's a lot like cows but isn't one. Ooh, do you have a chef named Sir Loin or something?"

Rolith stops walking for a second in surprise.

"—well, yes!" He shakes himself and keeps walking. "How did you guess? People who aren't from one of the old knightly families themselves aren't usually quite so fluent with the nomenclature." 

It's so nice to have his bardic talents appreciated.

"You mentioned the pun thing earlier today! I took a prestige class a few months ago that lets me use my Charisma bonus instead of my Strength bonus when attacking as long as I make a pun or relevant quip. I guess pun-thinking has a bunch of benefits!"

"Seems like it does!"

Before opening the door to the mess hall, Rolith pauses and leans in to whisper in Elan's ear.

"Here's a tip your pun mastery might not have picked up on. Maybe...don't...mention eating cows around Sir Loin. You'll see why in a second." 

"Okay! Is he a vegetarian or something?"

Rolith just chuckles and opens the door. 

They're far from the first to arrive—there are plenty of knights already sat at the tables around the room, eating and talking. (Although, if he looks around, Elan can't quite seem to catch any of them in the act of lifting their visors to eat. How are they doing that?) 

Sir Loin is probably that guy over there slicing a ham. Notably, he's not wearing a helmet. Possibly because it wouldn't fit over the horns. 

...well, minotaurs might be vegetarians in this world?

Ohhhh, this is just like when Belkar pissed off those winged buffalo on Azurite New Year's Eve while Elan wasn't there because he was on a date with Haley! Except for the part where Elan is going to be nice instead. And keep all his questions about minotaurs inside, even though he's curious now. Maybe he can ask Rolith how Sir Loin feels about people asking questions. After they get the food, though, since Elan wants to be extra polite.

Rolith can demonstrate the food-getting procedure, which exists and is straightforward.

Tonight there's a choice of ham or fish, with fried potatoes and pickled beetroot. Sir Loin apologises to Rolith for the shortage of fresh vegetables, but unfortunately his vegetable garden is still overrun with tuskmongers and he still needs someone to chase them out before the servants can pick more. Cough cough hint hint. 

Rolith just sighs. "It's on the list. Given how much Elan's helped us today, someone might even get to it tomorrow." 

Elan appreciates how straightforward the food-getting procedure is! He opts for ham, on account of having spent most of the last five months on a boat, and both vegetables, because eating your veggies makes you grow up big and strong.

"What's a tuskmonger?" he asks, since the mention reminds him that he heard about them earlier and wanted to ask. "Is it like a small gorillaphant? Those have tusks. Oh, but so do boars. And walruses! And orcs and goblins and other humanoids…"

Rolith has as usual been dragged into conversation by a group of knights who all want a piece of his time, but there are plenty of knights not joining the scrum and several of them will happily converse with Elan while they eat. 

"They're kinda like boars, I guess," says one of them. 

     "What's an orc?" says another. 

… Elan is starting to notice that nobody except Rolith seems to be taking off their helmets, or even moving the pieces covering their faces, to eat. It's very weird. Should he be covering his face too? If it was important, Rolith would probably have told him already…

"An orc is a humanoid! They… actually, I can just show you!"

He Disguises Himself as an orc: his coloration shifts to cool green skin, dark eyes, and darker blue-green hair and his facial structure shifts subtly to accommodate a pair of tusks. His orcsona is also taller.

"they look like this! orcs can also have kids with humans."

And then he drops the disguise.

"—oh, an ogre. You should have said!"

       "Hey, that's a pretty cool spell! Are you a mage, then?

"No, can't be, he uses a sword. I heard he swordfought Drakath in single combat and won!" 

"Huh, where I come from ogres are even bigger than orcs, and mostly brownish although there are also greener ones, and they have humanier teeth."

But that's less important than: explaining bards!

"I'm a bard! And also a dashing swordsman, but I only have one level in that and like thirteen bard levels. Basically what I do is perform and entertain and support my allies! I can sing and play magic music on my lute that inspires people to do better at skill checks, and I'm also good at making guesses about stuff using story logic. And I can also cast support and healing spells. I did beat that Drakath guy, though. That's where the dashing swordsman class comes in. It makes me good at the kind of swordfighting that's about looking cool."

"Huh. Never heard of either of those classes, but they seem to be working out for you."

      "Being a dashing swordsman sounds cool! Do you know if there's a trainer near here?" 

"Thanks!"

Elan frowns when one of the knights asks about trainers.

"I think I might actually be in a different world than where I came from… although, who knows! This is a noncanon adventure, so maybe I'll run into someone who just so happens to look the same and have a similar name and fulfill the same narrative role. Like in VeggieTales! If that happens I can point him your way, or at least see if he has the splatbook he got the class from around."