“Honestly, even the scarier looking therians from the isles are nice enough once you get to know them. They’re very aggressive, though, in more ways than one, so that definitely will catch most people off guard and take a while to get used to.” - Alvin Orenmead, merchant mostly active between Galavine and Largefang Isle.

That evening the Goldfur chieftain threw up another banquet, one even larger than the previous nights, and had invited many of the neighboring tribes to celebrate as well. Despite the very short notice, delegates from nearby orcish, goblin, therian, and merfolk tribes made their way to the banquet, and joined the mayhem - Cal could not describe it any other way - that ensued.

While the elders and chieftains - Cal included - gathered up at a higher platform and enjoyed food and drink freely as they chatted with one another, the youngsters below had their own party. Food and drink was naturally plentiful, but even more plentiful than that were wide brawls and tussles, which happened all over the place as hotheaded youngsters met one another.

Since none of the chieftains or elders broke up the brawls, Cal figured that it was probably expected, maybe even intentional on their part. Most of her party remained on the sidelines and just watched amusedly as they ate and drank their fill, while a few - her students, of course - jumped right in and joined the mess with a laugh.

Giselle shook her head as she watched her three fellow disciples jump into the fray with a whoop and booming laughter while she walked leisurely behind them, one hand still holding a stick of skewered grilled meats she was munching on.

The brawling youths evidently took her approach as a sign that she was intent on participating as well, and one of them - a large orcish youth nearly twice as broad as her - leapt at her, only to look utterly dumbfounded when she caught him mid-air with one hand, her other hand still holding onto her skewer of meat. He still had the baffled look on his face when she whirled him around and threw him bodily at a large, burly merfolk youth who likely had some mixed ancestry in him, causing both to crash unceremoniously into a twitching heap.

Fheeri mostly stayed by the sidelines, taking on other youth one at a time. While unlike the rest of Cal’s disciples she wasn’t a blood mage, she had years of experience sparring against a bunch of overpowered blood mages on a daily basis by now, and had picked up many tricks on how to handle opponents stronger and faster than herself, some of which were taught to her by Aideen on a whim.

Those that came at her usually kissed the ground moments later, as the young therian girl threw them around with deft maneuvers and practiced skills. Many of her victims looked baffled, as if they didn’t understand how she had even thrown them to the ground to begin with.

Ognar and Willa on the other hand, showed no such finesse. They reveled at the chance of not having to use finesse, and simply went with brute force instead as they barreled over the visiting youths - the local ones had smartly stayed out of their way when they noticed their approach - end over end as they laughed.

Cal noticed how some of the visiting chieftains and elders winced when they saw their youths get trounced over, then smiled when she heard the Goldfur chieftain brag how he would have his youngsters trained until they could do that as well. He even mentioned Cal and how she was the one who taught the youngsters currently running roughshod all over the brawling youths down there.

She realized that it was the chieftain’s own way of advertising her school, as the other chieftains also expressed interest in sending a few of their youths there. While the school was intended for blood mages first and foremost, Cal would not have rejected others either, as it would be valuable experience and training for them either way, to learn how to fight against someone who was their superior in every physical sense.

The festivities continued until very late into the night - many of the people in Cal’s party had retired to bed early, with Krystal and Vark the earliest since they were accompanying little Ilena to bed - and the brawling quickly shifted in mood, where many of the youngsters, all sweaty and bruised and pumped up, started to sneak away in pairs or more, for other fun activities.

Giselle shook her head and walked away back to the sidelines as she watched Ognar, Willa, and Fheeri all sneak away arm in arm with a bunch of the local and visiting youths of both genders, off to do whatever carnal mayhem they were up to. She herself just sighed at the sight and grabbed another tankard of ale and drained it in one long gulp.

“She seems a bit down,” Kino mentioned as she walked alongside Cal after the rest of the remaining few disbanded and the festivities ended. Apparently, Giselle’s conflicted thoughts were obvious enough to the unliving bard’s experienced eyes. “Like someone not sure what to make of their life.”

“You got it in one, pretty much,” admitted Cal. Kino had been around Giselle for a long while by then, so there was little to hide from her. “Giselle’s uncertain if the adventuring life is the right thing for her. To be fair, she was sort of pushed into it by circumstances back then, and probably had not thought that much about it when she was still learning at the institute.”

“A common dilemma, that. Especially common if someone had another path they could easily switch to,” replied Kino with an understanding nod. “A life of violence and adventure is not for everyone indeed. I’ve seen quite a few who forced themselves to keep up with it in my time, and it rarely ended well. Nevertheless, her doubts might also be a momentary impulse as well, it’s hard to tell.”

“I’ve just expressed support for whatever call she ended up making for herself so far,” said Cal. “It didn’t feel right to try to sway her one way or the other.”

“Probably the best thing you can do for her, yes.”