Dishes were placed in front of the team based on what they’d ordered, but several other entrees were provided on the side. It was altogether too much food, Niko thought, and clearly he wasn’t the only one who thought so.

“I know my Dad’s always accused me of having a hollow leg,” Ronald jokes, “But I assure you it’s just a rumor.”

Some of the kitchen staff politely smiled, but Niko also didn’t miss the amusement in their shared commiseration with one another.

And that’s when he realized why there was so much food.

“It’s full of essence.” Came Niko’s very quiet squawk. A swift swoop of his gaze around the table told him that it was all essence enriched food. He very much doubted now that this would be the normal fancy food experience that Skye had mentioned to him.

“Ohhh.” A very awkward moan suddenly interrupted the table, as Dachna held up the morsel of meat, partly eaten through. Dachna, in spite of all of the people now watching him, took another bite, and moaned again shamelessly.

The kitchen help continued on with their tasks, evident mirth and a few soft chuckles rolling from them.

“Can you not be so creepy?” Mithel voiced with some frustration, and this time one of the help couldn’t help but excuse himself after a sharp hiss of laughter.

Ronald only smiled at that, before turning back to Dachna. Whatever he was planning on saying, though, changed, as he cleared his throat. “Mmm… Dachna.”

Near silence greeted him as Dachna only glowered in his direction.

“Dachna, did you think about what you were ordering?” Ronald cast him a warning glance, at which point his gaze slipped unobtrusively across the table to Niko.

Dachna frowned, looked down at his meal, and said, “What’s wrong with it, it’s just roasted pheasa– Oh.”

Another pause followed from everyone as they looked directly at Niko.

His eye roll set them at ease, as he happily tilted his head forward and snapped a drumstick off of the other side of the bird.

“H-hey! Get your own!” Dachna protested, before turning to Ronald accusingly, “See? He’s fine! He’s not a pheasant. Birds eat other birds all the time!”

Niko didn’t know if he followed that logic properly, he had been human after all. And he still hadn’t eaten any people.

‘Let’s not think about that any more.’ He pointedly nodded to himself, ‘Monkeys are off limits, too.’

Skye smelled the tomato bisque set in front of her, in short order moans of food pleasure were ringing out from around the table. It was no wonder why the kitchen staff had been amused. They probably got this all the time from guests.

“Oh, Advarica’s mercy, that’s good.” Reese’s voice sounded out, muffled, as she sank her teeth into a kind of oversized sandwich with roasted veggies, tomato, and some things that Niko couldn’t identify at all.

The sounds of the table eating filled the air as more and more of them consumed their meals. Niko chomped through a haunch of what tasted like honey glazed ham and a side of mashed potatoes, with a drizzle of gravy atop it all. There were also green beans and some kind of soft-shelled vegetable that he’d discovered could be eaten whole and were delicious that way. With some soft prodding at Skye, he’d learned what each of the foods he didn’t recognize were called.

At some point Mithel tried to steal some of Niko’s food, which he allowed, but not without reprisal. He snatched a bite of what looked like steak and not-quite-corn. That had started the meal sharing, which only expanded as time went on and still more food was brought out.

“There’s essence in this stuff, so be sure to eat as much as you can.” Reese interrupted somewhere halfway through the meal, “Lots of it, too.”

‘Say less,’ Niko jokingly answered in his head, but no one at the table had to have their wing twisted to do just that. The Greenhorns and the others did eat more reverently for a minute or so, but then devolved back into their break-neck consumption.

A second dish down, and well into the third, they finally started to flag. Niko, on the other wing, was now on his sixth dish, each growing larger than the last.

“Gods damn, Niko,” Dachna cackled incredulously, “Where are you even putting all of it?”

His siblings looked at him wide-eyed too, and it was only then during his feeding frenzy that he’d noticed that they were barely through their second or third dish.

“Huh, are you guys not hungry?” Niko asked them, taking a breath between breaking open a bone and crushing it into smaller bites. It made his beak-muscles sore, but it wasn’t enough to make him stop.

“Uhh… We’re almost full. Brother, did you eat at all in the forest?” Talon asked with concern, “It’s like you’ve never seen food before.”

Niko snorted at that, “Of course I ate, I ate well, too! But this is just so damn good! I can just keep on going!”

“Don’t get a tummy ache,” Gabby gently admonished him, “It’s better to eat less.”

Niko nodded, but he wasn’t planning on stopping. He genuinely didn’t feel full, but he was beginning to grow wary of the fact that literally every other person in the room was filling up, but he was still going strong.

After finishing his sixth dish and looking around expectantly, Ronald had finally mustered the gumption to ask, “Hey, is that normal?”

He hadn’t asked anyone in particular, but was still startled when a voice sounded out from behind him. “Sorta, some aberrants come with a load of weird things.”

Camille had leaned up against the bar from her seat whilst watching the group. The bar behind her was once more manned by Crowe, who was as nonchalant as he was before. She spoke up again, “So, that’s not… the weirdest thing that’s possible, but I definitely don’t see eating near endlessly very often in aberrants.”

She said it with a wry smile on her face, before even more food came out of the kitchen. She walked over and brought a plate directly before Niko, who warily eyed her. When Camille noticed, she only gave him a wink, saying, “Don’t worry about me, I’m just going to see what happens when you eat all this.”

Niko almost didn’t notice when the essence in the meal surged into a higher concentration. It was a subtle motion, in spite of the amount of power, and if he wasn’t using his essence sense as much as his normal sight or smell, he would have missed the change entirely.

He blinked in confusion at the phenomenon; he didn’t see where the essence had come from. If he didn’t know better, he’d say it had spontaneously gone up a tier all on its own.

“Best not think too hard about it,” Camille whispered quietly, “Think of it as a curiosity of mine. Would you mind, Niko?.”

‘That’s comforting,’ Niko thought sarcastically, and for a split second he couldn’t bring himself to eat it. The smell was divine, packed full of essence as it was. The dish was something like a snake, packed with herbs and garlic, suitable for consumption by a larger beast like himself. A rich soup sat within a very light and fibrous bread that he didn’t recognize, with what looked like bits of potatoes in a creamy base with bits of maybe-bacon.

But the essence level and scales only reminded him of a snake in the woods, loaded with drugs to keep him from being able to coordinate his body. The room suddenly felt a lot smaller, and Niko felt his vision file down to needle points on the meal.

With a very slow but direct push, Niko moved the plate as far from him as he could, his skin feeling cold and clammy in spite of the warmth of the room.

“Uh…” Camille started to reach out as though to comfort the Phorus when she saw that his feathers stood on end, and he shook while still watching the plate. Camille calmly gestured to one of her kitchen helpers who moved in smoothly between people and took the dish out of sight and into the kitchen. Only when Niko seemed to calm slightly, did Camille look up to see the uncomfortably guilt filled expressions of the Greenhorns.

“I’m sure there’s a story behind what just happened, but we don’t need to talk about that right now.” She received another entree, before stating, “But I do need to know what triggered that.”

“It was… the fact that it was a snake, with that much essence. It was a bad–” Skye started to speak before she was interrupted by Camille.

“Easy, child, we can talk about this later. For now, everyone have another round, drink some of Crowe’s brews, and then we can start winding down for the night.” Camille put the entree in her hands gently down in front of Niko, this one a bacon wrapped roast of something that seemed like cordon bleu. “Tonight is just a night of feasting. A friend of mine always said that bringing one's troubles to the dinner table was always in bad form.”

Niko breathed deeply still, slowly, measured, as he felt the woman’s essence like a gentle sun beside him. Her essence seemed to pulse from her, and however she was managing it, it was succeeding in turning what should have been a tense moment into something more subdued. His siblings were huddling around him, and he felt their connection to him, letting them know that he was going to be fine. That moment of utter insecurity and disgust had been so abrupt that he just couldn’t rationalize in time to not freak out about it.

‘I’ll be fine, everything is fine.’ He repeated to himself before leaning down and taking a bite of the food. His body craved it after the first nibble, the heightened essence within the meal breaking down rapidly and suffusing his ethereal veins with raw power. Yet, unlike the first time, he maintained control, the sensation so heavily linked with other, more dire circumstances that whatever traitorous instinct had overridden his mind before simply couldn’t rise over the sheer caution and wariness.

‘It’s so pecking good, though,’ Bittersweet feelings washed through him as he ate, and part way through he realized he was crying. His eating slowed as he processed his emotions, unpacking a little bit more of what had happened. Surprisingly, he wasn’t as angry as he’d thought he’d be, much of that anger had shifted into something more sedate, but cloying. Some trauma, he was sure, but he was feeling happiness and calm. An aware and clinical part of him knew that the happiness was from the fact that the meal was so packed with essence.

Even so, he leaned into it, preferring the warmth over the cold, and as he did so he unraveled just a little bit more of the ball of trauma in his heart.

Skye gently patted his side, and he let her. She teared up a little, too.

Crowe walked over then, a tray of absolutely sparkling drinks that was visible through likewise shimmery glass that shone in the light. The drink was positively charged with essence, and Niko had to admit he really wanted to know what they tasted like.

“These are Stardust Sepulchres. I’ve made many of them, and every single time they tend to knock people on their asses. Respectably, of course.” The finely dressed bartender spoke as he set one down in front of everyone, except for the siblings who got small, thin skinned fruits whose insides shimmered much like the drinks. “I strongly recommend them if you’re ever in need of getting absolutely sma–” Reese immediately threw hers back, “–shed… Right. Well, Sirs and Ma’ams, I’ll serve some lesser drinks. Miss Reese, would you like to be escorted to your room before you lose coordination?”

“Before I–excuse me, what now?” Flustered, Reese said, “I’ve drank plenty before. What is… oh.”

“I would recommend for all of our other guests to drink slowly.” Camille’s eyes nearly twinkled like the drinks on the table with mirth as she walked over to Reese, “These do have a pretty potent mix.”

Reese grimaced, “I would like a… water? No… a bath. Can you take me to–” She attempted to stand up straight, only to tilt precariously to one side almost immediately. She blushed fiercely, while an amused Camille moved to her side ready to help carry her if necessary. Reese continued, “To my room, yes. I’d love… like, to retire for the night.”

Camille laughed and held her up under one arm, “Of course. Come on, let’s get you set.”

Niko watched the exchange with mixed emotions. In a way, he still liked seeing that Reese was regretful, but… he wasn’t the kind of person to pointlessly hold something over another’s head. After enough time, he’d probably completely forgive what happened, but he knew that wasn’t tonight. That collar was not something he ever wanted to experience again. Admittedly, much of that encounter was formed from a near overdose of drugs from eating too much, but that had been his fault, not hers.

He briefly considered following in Reese’s footsteps, tempted to slug back his own drink. It looked quite fun! Potent, too, but that wasn’t really a problem, was it?

…Wisely though, he sipped it instead, and in a few seconds felt the trembling of essence infused alcohol in his system. “Woooow, alright. Can I get a few more of these?” The bleak edge of his thoughts numbed, and he felt a bit better.

His siblings didn’t answer him, because they were already diving into their own smaller portions. Niko clucked at them, and then looked directly at Dane who… Niko realized was directly avoiding his gaze. ‘Fine, I’ll get my booze elsewhere!’

With annoyance, he sipped down significantly more of his drink. Skye, laughing next to him, emulated the move.

And then stopped and stared at the now half empty glass with wide eyes and the realization that she’d just made a terrible mistake.

Niko chortled loudly at that, and continued eating to his heart's content.