Ari pulled the chair out for Amy with a small smile and Tasha plopped down unceremoniously. Her dog laid down at her feet and watched them, sniffing the air - it smelled good.
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
"I'll leave you with the menus for a moment," the server said, as they placed the four menus on the table. "And I'll be back with you in a minute. But before I go, would you like any drinks?"
Amy nodded. "Can we get four beers?"
"Three," James interrupted. Amy stuttered and stared at him. James looked up from his menu at her.
"I don't drink," he said simply.
"Oh, uh, then three?" Amy said, far more unsure. Her gaze drifted to Tasha. "Do you... want one?"
She considered it. Normally, her answer would hands-down be yes, but in a town with a werewolf and two fugitives she thought she'd prefer to be entirely sober. After a moment the hunter shook her head. "No, thank you."
"You don't?" Ari said, confused. "But you were when I found you...?!"
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
James looked across the table at Ari tensely. "I won't be drinking today," he said calmy, before turning to the server. "Just water for me and Tasha, please," he said with a small smile. The server just nodded.
"Alright," the man said before turning away to fetch the drinks.
"Oh," Ari said, nodding in understanding and then quickly switching his attention to the menu and reading it. Very, very, very slowly.
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
James quickly found something on the menu that he wanted and turned his attention to Ari, who he could tell was reading slowly. He reached out a hand and tapped Ari's menu.
Ardeshir cast him a very grateful glance, quite glad to have him offer the assistance. He didn't really want to ask, especially in front of Amy, but despite his literacy he still wasn't very good at it.
Tasha watched the interaction out of her periphery and felt a small smile tug at her lips, though she shoved it down to return to her usual deadpan expression. It was, admittedly, very cute. He was still ugly and smelled bad but she did find James growing on her. He had a sweet side to him.
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
James nodded his head and drew his hand away. He laid his menu down and leaned on the table with one arm.
Meanwhile, Amy leaned in towards Ari beside her. "Do you have any fish dishes you like a lot? Maybe we can share one?" In the pause before his answer, he stomach growled very loudly.
"Or uh... two. We could just get two. I'm hungry," she laughed lightly.
Ari laughed. "Sashimi! Sashimi is always the best! And hamachi is the best but it's more than like, maguro, but then there's also reef shark fillet which is more meat and it's also super tasty!"
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
"Trout," she said. "Just, trout. Plain and simple. Thanks."
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
The server came back over to the table with a tray of drinks. Cheerfully, he plopped the two beers in front of Ari and Amy and the waters in front of Tasha and James. After a few quick words and him jotting their orders on the notepad, he was off again.
Amy took a big sip of her drink with a grin.
"So! Uh! Tasha!" she started. "What's your favorite uh... flower? Do you like flowers?"
Tasha slowly looked up over her water at Amy. "So long as it's not trying to eat me I'm relatively indifferent. If it's trying to eat me, I kill it. That's as far as my relationship with flowers go."
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
"Yes. Quite a few, actually. They're exclusively found in the jungle but they take the form of very large fly-traps, pitcher plants, and so on and so forth. They've adapted to take on a rather different scent than their smaller cousins that feed on insects - instead of smelling like overly-sweet fruit, they smell more like...well, still fruit, but less rotten and more like fresh, aromatic, tropical mangoes or guavas or something. There's also giant sundew plants that have adapted to grow on the ground to entrap larger mammals. Humans included."
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost."
