The Camp Willow Summer Jubilee

-To kick off the revival of Camp Willow, we decided to celebrate in the true otter fashion of throwing a crazy party down by the river. Of course, most of our characters ended up being wallflowers, but we still got the right spirit by the end of things-

The door to the Swaying Reed comes open, and Raina steps out, bare paws padding softly on the sun warmed river stones as she follows the little path towards the massive willow tree, coming quickly into the shade of its boughs. She's always amazed by the big tree, even though she's been here several weeks now, and her head is instinctively drawn upwards to watch it sway slightly in the light summer breeze. She stretches out a little bit, repositioning the strap of the case slung over her shoulder. Like the instrument it contains, the case is a rather makeshift affair, the strap made of woven hemp tied round the wooden case. The insides appear to be padded with straw, judging by the bits of straw that stick out around the edges.

If Raina takes a good look she might notice an otter up in the willows branches. It looks like Pheone is sitting with his back to the trunk of the huge tree with his legs crossed as he looks out through the small patches of light that shine through the willows cloaking canopy. Balanced on the otters lap the rounded end of an instrument, possibly a fiddle, could be seen. Pheone seems to be paying no mind to the bustle that is going on with the set up of the jubilee, he has not been in this place long himself and is trying to be slightly sociable but is finding it almost impossibly hard to do so. As breezes or otters disturb the hanging willow branches and gaps of brighter light leak in Pheone watches the hubbub going on.

The young ottermaid loves the bustle of the place as preparations are made for the Jubilee, otters scurrying to and fro and laughing amicably all around. She loves it, at least as long as she's not asked to speak to anyone. Still, in the peaceful late afternoon, she's in a blissful state, humming happily to herself as she continues towards the tree, coming near what she presumes to be the epicenter of the event. The otter up in the willow does catch her eye for a moment, but she doesn't mark him as unusual. Depite being land-based creatures, otters are adventurous types, and there's always some young buck up there. What draws her eyes back in a swift double take that makes her stumble a bit on the pathway is what looks like the rounded end of some sort of stringed instrument. She can't exactly get a good guage of size, but it certainly looks liek a violin to her. In her mind, at least, it's a violin. Now she's interested, stepping off the path to make a quicker approach to the tree.

When Raina had come in Pheone noticed the light that she brought but other than that he is oblivious to who is directly under the tree. Random hubbub and noises from the jubilee find their way under the willow, that and the normal backround hum of a large number of creatures trying to all talk over each other at the same time. Pheone is considering getting down and going some place else as he already finds it so hard to be this close to so much hullabaloo. But he doesn't leave yet, he still told himself that he would try to be here for the jubilee and so here he is, even if here isn't really there.

The noise does make it about impossible for Pheone to notice Raina's call, and the smacking on the trunk doesn't elicit a response either. Seeing as the trunk has beasts more or less all around it there is almost always someone hitting or bumping into the tree, so Pheone had taken to ignoring that a long time ago. Internally however Pheone is losing his battle to stay put, before long he won't be able to stop himself from retreating to some place quiet. To those ends Phone starts to uncross his legs, garbing the instrument with one paw to steady it in the process.

"Hey!" Raina raises her voice a little bit, still fairly reserved, and she even gives a quick glance around to make sure nobody's staring at her for barking up the tree, so to speak. With that route seemingly out of the question, it's time to broach the problem of scaling the tree to get to the fellow musician. she finds a well worn lower branch and grabs hold, her arms straining as she tries to pull herself and the weight of her instrument and case up onto the branch. At this point she's no longer directly under Phoene, but a little ways along the trunk to his right.

The shout pointed directly at him does catch Pheone's attention, looking down he can see another otter coming up, oh bother. Of course now his semi conscious plans to escape have been foiled and his escape route has been cut off. There is only a slight nod to Raina before Pheone looks back out at he leaves, the least he can do is not make things easy. Of course the little part of him that said he would go to this.... thing says that hey he can talk to ONE otter right? Then he will of participated right? Then he can leave right? Sounds great to Pheone.

The otter struggles her way up onto the first branch, repositioning the case on her back so it doesn't dangle and smash against her back with each movement. Athletics are really not her thing, but that doesn't keep her from launching herself at the next branch. What should have been a pretty easily jump is a leap of faith for her, it seems, and while she doesn't fall, her paws grasp the top of the branch and she dangles a bit, forced to use her skinny arms to pull herself up again, expending more precious energy. Still, she's closed almost three otter-lengths with Pheone, so that's progress, she figures, glancing up at him.

Only glancing down at Raina's progress occasionally Pheone doesn't bother getting comfortable again as he figures that this will be quick, or atleast he hopes so. Otherwise he looks around the enclosing willow branches again and sets his fiddle back down so that it will stay put for now. A ragged burst of cheering comes from down on the archery range, where some beast appears to be doing well, in all it seems that most beasts are having a rather good time at the jubilee, present company excluded of course.

"Excuse me, but, um.. what're you doing up there? And is that your instrument?" Raina asks softly, pointing up at him, the motion throwing her fractionally off balance so that she has to hurriedly re-steady herself. She doesn't ask anything else, afraid of seeming nosy or presumptuous and what she did say was somewhat soft, so it's possible he didn't quite catch everything over the din of celebration.

Now that the other otter is on about the same level as he is Pheone gets a good look at her while she speaks. Atleast the beast isn't presumptuous Pheone thinks as he he tries to think of a reply, at last he settles on honesty. " Tryin ta work up the gumption to go down an be part of the festivities but I just ain't got the want ta really go down an do it, but I told myself that I ain't leavein till I do somethin sociable. This is mine yes. " Pheone lays a knobly paw on the instrument as he says that and it's plain to see that it hasn't had an easy life, it is covered in small scratches, there are marks up and down the neck that look like some beast was trying to chew on it, and lastly, the strings look likely they are very loose as the otter putting his paw on the instrument just makes the strings that he touches sag gently. Aside from the thing obviously not being tuned and the strings being loose there isn't a bow for the instrument anywhere visible on Pheone. Pheone's eyes stray down to the sorry looking instrument before he looks away again, off into the patches of light.

The sight of the instrument makes Raina wince visibly, but she continues on, "Oh, okay. Well, it seems fun down there, but maybe it's a bit crowded.." she peers down, regretting it a bit as she sees how far up they are, or at least appear to be. "Hmm." she murmurs softly, unsure of how to proceed.

All the response that Pheone gives is a curt nod of his head towards Raina then he goes back to what he was doing before, looking around and trying to avoid being social. Back down at the jubilee more noise is being made at another one of the contestant areas, this time one of the javelin areas. Otherwise the party down there seems to be going on at more or less the same pace that it had been and will likely continue until long after the sun has gone down, even some of the competitions.

She places her paw against the tree as she unsteadily slips the case from her back. "I.. I play too, y'see?" she offers weakly, tapping the case with one paw. It's certainly not a violin-shaped case, and could really contain anything.

Turning his attention back to Raina Pheone looks at the case wondering what it is exactly that she plays, seeing the amorphous case doesn't exactly make things clear. Unsure of how to respond as he sees that the other otter isn't going to leave so easily Pheone blankly stares for a moment before he responds " I see? " not sure where he was going with that his eyes wonder away again. This is what Pheone hates about this right now, he was something of a solitary creature and these awkward situations just end up leaving him confounded as with what to do.

"V-violin, that is." she adds. "I just thought maybe you.. I don't know, might like to talk about... violins..." she flushes. This wasn't going well. She wasn't sure why she had gone out on such a whim to get to this otter. "N-nevermind." she says, starting to sling the case again, her tail pressed downwards demurely, her slim shoulders slumped a bit.

If the jubilee wasn't at full roar and a bit later in the day there would probably be only crickets making noise right now because Pheone is confused about how to go on now. Looking every which way but at his own instrument or Raina Pheone desperately tries to think of something to say but keeps failing because the thing he brought with him is only a memory now and even trying to think about it just makes him clench his jaw. So there is something of a pause here as Phone can't think long enough in a straight line to get anything out.

Raina purses her lips, looking up at the other otter sheepishly, not quite making eye contact either. The good thing about him not looking at her, though, is that she can study his face without fear of him making eye contact, so she does so quickly. "I.. I think I should probably just go.." she says, shifting her weight from foot to foot, one paw sticking a thumb out to indicate the direction from which she'd come, the other idly straightening her dress.

Now that the moment has passed and Pheone has got his thoughts in order he looks back up at Raina and says " Erm, ya don't have ta, I mean if ya don't want ta? " Before he goes back to looking away again and trying to think of something else to say and then mentally kicking himself for basically inviting the otter to stay after he had spent some time wishing that she would go away and all. " I mean, do what you want? Or.... " Pheone trails off again and shrugs, he isn't sure what it is that he should be doing at all.

She shakes her head, "No, no, i'm clearly bothering you, i'll go." she says, starting to work her way down off the limb. "It's not a problem."

The day has been enjoyable, so far. The young otter William had taken to spending more time at Redwall Abbey lately, but he decided the weather today was perfect for trekking back to Camp Willow for a little while. He kept mostly to himself, however, always with his satchel close to paw. It was necessary, after all.

Back to the looking anywhere else game, Pheone shrugs and mumbles " Ok. " as he tries to go back to what he was doing earlier, which would have been avoiding what was going on below while pretending to being participating. It doesn't take long for Pheone to do just that, at least until he is certain that the other otter is gone, then he is going to be getting down from the tree and away from what’s going on here as fast as he can. The last thing that Pheone is going to do is try and stop Raina from going at this point.

Going as fast as she can without injuring herself, Raina works her way back down the tree, improvised violin case in tow. Her feet touch the ground and she glances back up at the other otter, the down, a little dejectedly, working her way off into the milling group of merry-making otters.

William is less than pleased to find revelry around the camp. The peace and quiet he craved would be next to impossible. He tries to keep out of the commotion, skirting the edges as much as possible. Too much noise, really. He starts thinking he should have stayed at the Abbey.

Casting a glance downward every now and then to check Raina's progress Pheone starts to get ready to make his own way down. Grasping his fiddle in one paw Pheone gets to his foot paws on the branch and waits while Raina finishes getting out of the tree before he follows suit and starts swinging down the branches to get gone himself. Pheone's decent is slower and more calculated as he has done this sort of thing a great deal and because he only has use of one paw with the other trying to keep the fiddle from banging into things on the way down. Once on the ground Pheone starts to make a bee line for the river.

From the residential area another otter comes towards the festivities. She's clearly dressed up a tiny bit for this and her shirt is clean. She's grinning, looking forward to some excellent food. Easily recognizable, Zephyr is greeted by other otters as they wander around the festivities and she turns in a circle as she's walking in order to verbally greet someone in particular, "Evenin', Speedwell! How's the missus?" Speedwell confirms that she is indeed doing well and Zephyr nods and continues on her way towards the food table. Once there, she peruses the offering, grabs two scones, steps away from the table and directly into Pheone's path. Yus.

William's attempt to stick to the edges is rewarded by having Raina shoved at him, the otteress displaced by a much larger and slightly intoxicated male behind her. "Ooph." she grunts as she, combined with the weight of her heavy wooden instrument case, bumps into William. "Oh, i'm really sorry about that, I didn't.." she looks up at William, flushed and backing away as much as she can.

Recognizing Zephyr Pheone does a quick side step and turns 90 degrees away from her and tries to make a run for it through the crowd. Right now about all Pheone wants to do is escape to some place that isn't so crowded and is much more quiet. The crowd infront of Pheone however is resisting and with only one paw to use to try and force his way forward he is making very little progress, atleast he hopes that his quick turn keeps him from to much notice.

The scones are dropped, unfortunately, and Zephyr sadly watches them as they get crushed into the dirt. Eh. "Not much for scones, eh mate?" Zephyr grins. "Oh hey! It's you again!" She grabs two more scones as well as a mug of ale and reaches out the scone paw to stop him. "No! Stick around! If you're going to live here you gotta get used to th' parties!"

William gasps suddenly, being caught completely off guard. He drops his satchel, and his eyes go wide with panic, as he scrambles to get it back, before it gets trampled. Looking up at the unfamiliar female otter, he frowns somewhat, as he just manages to grab at his prized possession again. Oddly, the otter offers no verbal apology or greeting.

Raina winces a little at his frown. "I'm really sorry," she offers, both paws clinging to the hempen strap of her instrument case, wringing the rope anxiously.

With half a mind to simply pretend that he can't hear Zephyr over the noise and keep going Pheone tries to put on the who just talked to me face and looks around, ignoring Zephyr's out stretched arm and making to move around it. But seeing as the crowd infront of him isn't giving all that much so it is sadly time for Pheone to face the music and deal with Zephyr, he should have never come down from the tree. Turning back mournfully to face Zephyr Pheone looks over at her amidst all the noise and bustle, the last thing he wants to do is get used to this mess. Disgruntled is a good word to describe how Pheone looks now, he replies with a dispirited " Hi.".

Zephyr grins. "C'mon mate! Doesn't get much better than this!" She swings the mug of ale and wraps her other arm around Pheone's shoulder. Speckles of ale sort of land everywhere. "Didja eat anything? Lotsa stuff 'ere. An' later..." She takes a swig and leans in conspiratorially to whisper in Pheone's ear, "There's dancing!"

William hugs his satchel close, watching Raina. His frown softens, and he nods, accepting the apology. He looks around at the crowd, wincing visibly at all the noise. He doesn't like this many beasts crowding in around him. Spotting the riverbank nearby, he points toward it, then watches Raina questioningly.

"Okay, just a moment, i'm famished." she supplies, slipping away from William for a moment and working her way over to the food table and getting a small bowl of some savory shrimp stew and a hunk of bread. Cupping the former between her paws and gripping the latter in her maw, crumbs tumbling from her lips, she works through the crowd, spotting Pheone again. Well, seems he'll talk to other people easily enough, she thinks, not qute grasping the full situation. Giving a weak little shrug, she crosses behind Pheone, headed for the river bank with William.

Wooden would describe Pheone perfectly now, he isn't in the right state of mind for something like this and Zephyr trying to pull him into the mess only makes things worse. Trying to gently disentangle himself from the other otter Pheone curtly says " No marm, I ain't ina vittlin mood, on my way out o here now. " With that he tries to make a break for the crowd again, hoping to be away to the river before anything else can happen.

William nods his head. Truth be told, the hotroot soup does smell good, but the crowd around the food tables is not something he wants to deal with. He walks with Raina instead, only giving a passing glance toward Zephyr and the other male otter whom he doesn't recognize. He seems to be to be as uncomfortable with the crowd as Will is, though. The young otter shrugs, gripping his satchel and finding a nice shady spot right on the riverbank.

Zephyr releases Pheone and finishes off the ale. "Oh...all you otters. So serious." She dances off and spills more drink on people. Food and talking abounds and somewhere near the tree a seven otter band is tuning a variety of instruments which results in an extra layer of noise added to the tumult. "Yay dancing!!!!" She yells. Otters around her cheer and the band responds by starting up their first song, "Ooohhhhh long time ago when I was younger, HEY-OH, HEY-OH!"

Released from Zephyr's grasp Pheone makes straight for the river, leaving a trail of " Hey quit shoven! " and " Settle down you! " as he forces his way through the crowd. No backwards glances are cast as Pheone looks up and down for some place to stash his fiddle before he can make a get away. It's not that Pheone doesn't think that otters are trustworthy, he is one after all, he is more worried about some inebriated beast playing with it or stepping on it.

Awkwardly quiet, Raina walks along with William, careful not to spill any of the hot stew, the hunk of bread in her teeth keeping her from speaking. She glances sidelong at the utterly silent otter before attempting a minor balancng act, trying to cup the stew bowl in one paw and hold the bread in another. "So, um.. you don't talk?"

William looks up, startled, then shakes his head no. He never talks. Not that he can't talk. On the contrary, he can talk quite fine. He finds no reason to speak. Pointing at a large, flat rock at the river's edge, with a tree overlooking it, casting its shade. The spot looks nice, and quiet enough, despite the revelry going on around it.

"On the SEEEAAAAAA! On the SEEEEAAAA!" The band is in full swing and some sort of dance is taking place in the middle of the main square. Otters are alternately twirling, stamping, switching partners and yelling. Zephyr is in the middle of it somehow and still holding her mug. The dance moves the otters along in a line and Zephyr follows suit until she's at the very end where she accidentally gets swung out of formation and directly into Pheone who has just made his way out of the crowd. The she otter is off balance and falls over into Pheone who, unfortunately, is standing too close to the river. Zephyr is just tipsy enough to find this HILAIROUS and, instead of helping the otter, bursts out laughing while collapsed on the riverbank.

Having spotted a likely spot Pheone was about to set and cover his fiddle when he gets Zephyred. Having almost no time to do anything but get wet Pheone tries to toss the fiddle into the mud where atleast it won't get totally soaked and warped or broken. Then the otter is in the river, this is nothing new to an otter, but they usually have a small amount of time to do important things before hand like breathe. When Pheone's head breaks water he sprays water towards the shore with a half sneeze half cough and gives a look at the otter that gave him the shove and would sigh if he wasn't still sputtering up river water, of course it would be that one.

"Ah.. right." Raina says quietly, bitng her lip a bit at William's response. Her eyes follow the direction he's pointing, but are intercepted midway by the sight of Pheone getting forcibly Zepyred into the river. "Woah." she giggles, laughing. "You see that?" she asks, still sort of expecting a verbal answer despite knowing better. "He looks mad." she grins. Y'know, talking with someone who doesn't speak is almost like talking to yourself, and Raina is actually pretty comfortable with that.

William's eyes widen, watching Pheone get Zephyred. He grins, and then starts to laugh softly, nodding in agreement with Raina. His laughing isn't strained or forced at all, and one would start to think the otter must be the most convivial beast around. His whole manner seems to lighten, and he directs his full attention to Raina now. Being a silent sort, he certainly isn't a judgemental type.

There's enough activity going on that Pheone's river dive isn't a show stopper. "I was a youngun', killed me a stoat..." The band is singing something weird and the dance has changed. The crowd answers back, "HE'S DEAD! HE'S DEAD!" With claps or something. Zephyr looks at her empty mug unhappily and shakes it upside down. "SO SAD! SO SAD!" The crowd yells. She grins at Pheone and then wobblishly stands back up in order to go refill her tankard. "You comin', mate? I think I owe you a drink or sommat fer that."

With a glare at Zephyr Pheone climbs out of the river and retrieves his fiddle then places it aside, it's time that someone else got a taste of what the just sowed. With an evil smile Pheone walks up to Zephyr and says " Sure marm, let me help you... " Putting one arm over Zephyr's shoulders Pheone starts to turn her around before sweeping the other arm under Zephyr's legs and lumbering up to speed towards the river bank. Tit for tat some say, once Pheone gets close to the bank he swings Zephyr back as far as he can then heaves the Zephering otter out towards the water, sucks getting Zephyred doesn't it?

Raina brings a paw to her mouth to stifle a laugh, her bit of bread falling to the ground. "Oooh!" she chuckles, watching the scene. "Don't get any ideas, okay?" she laughs, taking a quick step away from William. Deciding it's best she eats it while it's still warm, she raises the bowl of soup to her lips, taking a little sip and then getting a chunk of tasty shrimp, chewing it up eagerly. She loves shrimp, as most otters. Her attention is still primarily of Zephyr and Pheone, being as they're making the biggest splash. She chuckles softly at her unspoken pun.

William raises his paws, and shakes his head. He would never. While Raina eats, he reaches into his satchel and retrieves a small book and charcoal pencil. Opening to a blank page, he starts writing down his thoughts and observations, as he watches festivities, and Zephyr and Pheone in particular.

"Aaaaaauuuuuuhhhhh!" Zephyr flies in an arc through the air and slides smoothly into the water. She is, after all, an otter. Druk or not. She resurfaces just barely above the water so that only her eyes are showing. Gliding towards the riverbank, she snakes out her paw to grab Pheone's foot in order to drag him back into the river. "Oh don't go down to Farravale Town, the girls there are too frisky!" The band is still on a roll.

Well isn't this turning into a regular old dunk session? Not quite expecting to get dragged back in Pheone is easy prey, however this time he doesn't have his fiddle to worry about so he can get a proper breath. On the way down Pheone thinks about how he was trying to get away and do just this not that long ago, then he hits the water and that stops that thought. Once Pheone is in the water the first thing he does is go after Zephyr's foot paws, intending to drag her back under for another dunk before getting out himself.

Enjoying the little war, Raina is licking her bowl clean, tossing a shrimp up in the air and catching it in her mouth, slurping a little at the saucy morsel. She glances at William, sheepishly making sure he's not glaring at her and her somewhat rude gesture. She doubts he minds. Oh, no, he's just writing in his little book. Placing the bowl down, she watches him for a moment, trying to read a little off the pages upside down and mostly failing. Her head turns back towards the band, and noticing they have a fiddle player, she starts to pay a little more attention to them. Their tune is a little folksy for her tastes, and their fiddle player seems sub-par by her judgement, but at least he has a proper instrument. She stretches, deciding that's where she'll go once their show's over.

William looks up from his writing. Most of what he'd written was about what had just happened: bumping into Raina, watching Zephyr and Pheone play in the river, and the big festival, and the band. Blinking a bit, with a blush, he turns to another blank page, and writes, "Call me Will," which he holds up for the otteress' benefit.

Zephyr is halfway out of the water when Pheone pulls her back down again. Her paws flail around in the air as she is dragged underwater with an ungainly sputter. Her flagon has long since disappeared downriver. She recovers and bursts out of the water, scrambling for the shore where she collapses spread eagle. "Truce!" She declares. Zephyr sits up and drips everywhere. "You win. Can we go get a drink now?" Water drips off her nose. "Please?"

With his head only out of the water Pheone considers squirting water at Zephyr with his paws but, the white.... sodden flag has been raised after all. With a slight nod, atleast to the truce part of things Pheone climbs out of the water saying " Well, I'll pass on the drink marm, I think we both just had plenty o that for now, well atleast that kinda drink. " Then Pheone starts to shake vigorously to get some of the water gone, that and to share with the other two that he sees spectating.

To be frank, Raina isn't really paying attention to William right now, and his silent offer of his name is going to be ignored until he gets her attention more adequately. However, the splatter of water off of Pheone's pelt gets her attention, and she gives him a little grin. See? A little fun hasn't killed the treetop brooder.

William clears his throat loudly, in effort to get the ottermaid's attention, thrusting his book toward her. And then suddenly he is pelted with water, wetting his book as well, which he quickly starts to dry off.

"Awww!" Zephyr sighs and shakes her fur off which causes it to bunch up in spikes all over her body. Her clothes are sopping wet and she wrings the tail of her shirt out. "Well, there's still food, eh?" She grins at Pheone and winks before diving back into the whirling, twirling crowd. Her goal - the food table and cake. Since it is fully dark, paper lanterns have been strung up over the main square in order to light the area. In the forest surrounding the camp fireflies blink on and off. "And me mammy always made me wash my face, wash my face!" The band sings to the whirling, twirling crowd which is clearly not tiring.

Growing a slight frown now that all of that is over Pheone looks at the crowd that Zephyr just jumped back into. Looking around a bit it's not hard for Pheone to find a mug that some beast has set down at the edge of the crowd, for there it's a quick job to rinse the thing out several times and fill it with river water. For reasons that Pheone hasn't explained to any beast at Camp Willow he won't touch a drop of spirits knowingly. Retrieving his fiddle Pheone sits down near the river bank and tries to watch the crowd now, but is fast losing interest.

Raina turns about at William clears his throat, reading the writing through the droplets of water that seek to mar the paper. "Oh, well, that's nice. I'm Raina." she says cordially. "And, actually, I think i'm going to go and see this band over here." she says, pointing. "You don't mind, right?" it's a genuine question, not a mocking rhetorical.

William nods his head, and smiles. He has to confess, in spite of the unpleasant din, the band is not too bad. He debates going over to watch as well, but is unsure. He doesn't want to dance, that's certain.

"Otters of Camp Willow!" The band has stopped playing and now, somehow, Zephyr is the center of attention. This is clearly a position she relishes. A mug of something slightly alcoholic is in her paw and she's addressing the crowd of forty or so otters. "Thank you all for coming out tonight and celebrating yet another fine summer's eve here in Mossflower. Please, enjoy yourselves to the fullest, eat, drink, dance and be happy. May your friends be many and your enemies few. Let your road be sunny and the storms brief. A toast!" Zephyr raises her mug and the crowd follows suit. "To peace in our time!" Since everyone is in generally good spirits and since peace is always a good thing, the crowd roars approval. Mugs are raised all over the main square and then everyone drinks. Zephyr steps off the stage with a flourish and the band resumes its position and a new song begins. A brief speech but Zephyr isn't really the Skipper so she doesn't feel that completely taking over would be acceptable. And besides, there is still food and she hasn't had any hotroot yet.

The proclamation from Zephyr catches Pheone's attention for a short while but now that it's said and done the otter empties the mug and sets it where it can be found, he thinks it might be time for him to go. Standing up Pheone tucks his fiddle under one arm and starts to head up stream along the bank, to some place where the lights aren't so bright and he can see the starts. Pheone give a small nod towards Raina before he does get that far away and casts one last look back to see what kind of trouble Zephyr might be getting into before he is lost to the dark.

For her part, Raina is just starting to get into this whole party thing, a wide smile spreading across her lips as she works her way into the crowd, losing herself in the festivities and the music. She's got no plans to drink, but you might catch her dancing later in the night, laughing heartily as she does.