Rook, who had been dozing himself and having pleasant dreams of Tianea, stood up slowly and yawned. "What? Oh, uh... yeah. Of course... your highness." He shuffled out of the cavern, apparently not in any hurry, kicking himself mentally for not coming up with a brilliant plan that both satisfied Algar's request to keep the kid alive and earned him Tianea's undying love for making sure both the kid and the caravan guard died.
The caves were pretty quiet as he made his way into the common dining area to acquire the kid something to eat. It smelled strangely delicious and his own stomach rumbled. Two of the men were sitting enjoying the mead, while another was passed out at the table. The others were presumably either sleeping or taking their turn on night watch duty. "Hey Rook!" Merek, one of the two still up drinking, saluted him with his mug. "Enjoy the feast!"
"Where'd this come from?" he asked, noting the meat that had been cooked and the source of the wonderous smell.
"Col caught one of those caravan horses that got cut loose from the wagon," Merek explained. "Got it's leg broke, probably during the skirmish, so no sense letting it go to waste!"
Rook sat down for a meal before putting some extra on a wooden plate, along with a mug full of mead, to take back to Linden.
"Here," he said as he re-entered the cavern and set the plate and mug down on the floor, this time well within Linden's range. "Didn't have enough hands for bandages. I'll go find some..."
--
"They look like fine birds," Terrick said, trying to keep the peace with their new ally. "I'm going to try to get a few hours of sleep and we'll make our trek shortly after midnight. If the gods favor us tonight, we'll catch them when most of the bandits are asleep." He wasn't sure if only a few hours of rest would be enough to fully regain his strength after a day like today, but it was bound to be better than nothing...