"Well, that escalated quickly…" Twilight grumbled as she watched Chocolate retreat into the distance, and some small part of her wondered how the hell he was even able to gallop after what had just happened. But she pushed the thought aside and turned to Rainbow with a small frown on her face. "Anything fishy going on in town?" she asked.

Rainbow grimaced. "The local bar… well, things went to Tartarus in a hoofbasket really fast over there. I had to defend myself against a whole mob of drunk stallions," she answered with a wince that caused her wings to shudder. "Other than that, I got nothing."

Twilight turned to Zecora, eyes glinting in askance. Her frown deepened when Zecora slowly nodded. Pinkie decided to interject, raising her hoof to catch Twilight's attention in doing so, "There was only one stallion at the bar who wasn't drunk off his plot, and he was actually very friendly towards us."

Twilight's brow rose. "You made a new friend?" she asked.

Pinkie nodded. "Yepperoni. He won't hesitate to defend himself though. He was dressed head to hoof in black garbs, and he told us he was hanging at the bar because ponies got too loud at the church one night and broke a bed," she added, her utterance causing Bartholomew to blush and wince a little.

Twilight decided to push the whole 'breaking the bed' bit aside and pressed a little more, "Did you get a name out of this pony?"

Pinkie nodded again. "Mhm. His name's Laz." That made Katie's ears perk up.

"Wait wait wait," Katie interjected, tilting her head and narrowing her eyes as Pinkie's gaze fell onto her. "You're saying that Mr. Cloakicorn's still in the area?"

"Yes, but he gave us a warning before we parted. One of a mare who can't be stopped once her anger's started," Zecora intoned, her gaze very slowly turning to fall on Anna as she spoke.

Anna's ears fell back and she grumbled something unintelligible. She turned to Lance, and groaned when he just shrugged his shoulders. She turned back to Zecora and stated, "Where'd he hear it from anyway?"

"Some unicorn from a village or something," Rainbow replied, spreading a wing and slapping her face with it, whilst spreading the other to wave it dismissively. "That's all we could get from him, though."

Anna rolled her eyes, though her ears remained pinned in place. "I think we should get back to the church," she mumbled near-inaudibly.

"Why?" Katie asked, turning to Anna with a brow raised.

"So we don't freeze our asses off," Anna replied with a shrug. Katie grimaced at a tiny waver in her tone, but decided to hold her tongue.

Maria fluttered her wings, turning to Anna as she did so. "Mommy, are you okay?" she asked, frowning when Anna nodded in reply.

"Just… tense is all," Anna mumbled, avoiding eye contact with Maria.

"You don't sound okay," Maria noted, her frown deepening when Anna merely huffed in response. She folded her wings and turned to Lance. "Do you know how to make mommy okay again?"

Lance sighed and nodded, one eye and an ear twitching in sync. "I'll talk to her later," he grumbled. "She's probably in… a mood."

Maria's frown remained fixed on her face. She turned to Pinkie and tilted her head before lifting a talon and motioning for her to come over. Pinkie cantered to Maria, likewise frowning. "Is it me, or is daddy angry?" she asked.

Pinkie grimaced, her mane deflating a little as she turned to study Lance and Anna's expressions, noting the eye and ear twitching and a set of green irises that briefly flashed red. She turned back to Maria and shook her head. "I don't think he's mad. Just… irritated. Same seems to be the case with your foster mom," she replied. "Just don't ask them too many questions and you should be in the clear."

Maria nodded after a few seconds. Silently, everyone turned south as a distant bell started to toll, permeating the air with a soothing series of gongs. Katie piped up once the tolling ceased a second later, "I was wondering… who operates the church bell? Sure, it sounds gorgeous, but… why?"

Bartholomew started flexing his legs, eyes fixed to where the gongs had come from. "That's the guard summons. Usually, it lets everypony on patrol know when it's time for lunch; Eve rings it every now and then," he answered with a slight shrug that jostled Maria and Katie a little.

Then he began trotting to the sounds of the bell as it clanged again. With his trotting the others fell into step behind him, though Zecora had instead moved to trot at his side. "So where do you guys eat your lunch… in the church, or with the jewel?" Katie asked sincerely, a brow raising.

Bartholomew briefly craned his neck to look at her, donning a small smile. "The unit usually eats with the jewel. They have ways of keeping their food warm. Me? I just stuff my face silly," he chirped in reply.

Katie rolled her orbs as her mind started to picture Bartholomew with cheeks stuffed so full they were the size of grapefruits. Then a thought hit her and she ventured, "So, wait… is it rude to not eat at your tables, then?"

Bartholomew nodded his head almost instantly. "I reckon that if Natz didn't stuff your face, then Eve would've," he replied. "She'd have probably made you eat everything, instead of just biscuits."

Katie's ears drooped at the thought of being force fed again, let alone an entire table's worth. Then she winced as her stomach began gurgling and cramping, followed immediately by a burning sensation going downwards. Not even the clanging of the bell could hope to put her at ease. "C-could you… n-not let her d-do that?" she stammered out, in a weak mewl at that.

"Well... " For but a moment, Bartholomew sounded just a little condescending and a little amused. Katie shivered at his 'I could, but I don't want to' tone of voice. What he'd said next had her jaw dropping open, "It takes a lot to get on her bad side, so I guess she could spare you the torment. So long as you ate one thing at the table, of course."

Zecora turned to Katie, whose face started turning the barest tinge of green at the mere notion. "Oh, dear, it seems our wraith is looking a little sick." When Katie's orbs averted to her with a huff, Zecora frowned when that was immediately followed up with a slump of the shoulders. "Tell me, does ingesting food make you tick?"

"First time… eating in years," Katie confessed in a pouting groan, her legs shifting to dangle at Bartholomew's sides. Her wings fanned out, only to droop like her ears as her face started to turn greener. "Couldn't trot for long p-periods, or e-else my stomach would flip…"

Zecora's frown deepened still, but only a little. She could see the logic of Katie's second utterance, but the first made the gears of her brain start turning. She opened her mouth to speak, only to close it when Maria turned to Katie and asked something else, "Do you hate green stuff?"

Katie's orbs averted to Maria for a few seconds, dimming momentarily. "It's not that I don't hate food, per se. I… haven't been able to find any until I met with you guys," she replied with a sigh.

Zecora's eyes widened the very instant she'd heard what Katie had just uttered. "Y-you haven't been able t-to find food? T-tell me, is th-that what made you take on a d-dour mood?!" she exclaimed, loudly enough that everypony else who trudged after Bartholomew could hear it.

Anna hollered from the back of the line at the top of her lungs, "Bullshit!"

Lance decided to chime in, also at the top of his lungs, "You mean to tell me you aren't self-sufficient?! Great Godcat on a hamster wheel, I'm almost wondering if you even know how to operate a spoon!"

Blueblood threw in his two bits, though not before audibly facehoofing first, "If you are capable of fighting, then you are most certainly capable of eating! Isn't that how things operate in your particular case?!"

Katie's tail quivered as her stomach continued to throw its hissy fit. She could swear Lance was trying to glare at her now, but dared not turn her head to check and confirm or deny her suspicion. Some part of her was pretty certain Blueblood had been doing likewise. She gave no more than a weak groan, followed by a sluggish shaking of her head.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Flash Sentry was still flying, though now he was circling above the patrolling guards who still surrounded the jewel looking for a place to land. Fortunately for him, Matt and Natalie spotted him and motioned for the guards to make room, though at first they just stood there—probably looking at the pair funny, if Flash had to hazard a guess—before they gave a set of audible groans. Those groans were followed with a pair of hooves pointing straight up, and only then did the guards break formation upon seeing who it was they'd gestured to.

"Hey Flash," Spike greeted once Flash banked for a landing and safely got to the ground on his hooves. With a quick flap of his wings to steady himself upon landing, snow cascaded around him before fluttering back to the ground.

"Hey Spike," Flash replied, smiling very briefly at Spike before turning to the rest of the guard unit. "One of your pals found me and my group and hollered on and on about 'horsey hives.'" His gaze wandered about, taking in each guard's stance. It soon settled on Matt. "Tell me, who was rattling off about it?"

Matt sighed and his horn glowed for but a second, and during that small period of time Flash's head was embraced by gold. Immediately, voices filled his head, though Noah's had taken the most precedence. After several seconds, and as suddenly as it had come, the noises faded into dull echoes that lingered for a bit in the back of his mind.

Then Flash turned to Noah and frowned. "Any other symptoms, aside from the standard blisters and coughing?" he asked flatly.

Noah shuddered. "And apart from appetite loss… he was ranting and raving," he answered glumly. "I couldn't understand half of what he was saying. He was like a pony possessed."

Natalie rolled her eyes and piped up at that, "Considering he had you board up his house… if that's true, by the way—and I don't mean to sound condescending—I'm thinking he might be going stir-crazy."

"You call wanting his brother to board up his house 'stir-crazy?' He doesn't need to go to that extreme length just to keep his possible horsey hives from spreading," Matt remarked, also rolling his eyes.

Spike opened his mouth and made to interject when the sound of a ringing bell sang through the air. His mouth then closed and he turned to the direction of the church. It took him a few seconds to open his mouth again before he'd managed an utterance, "Guys, can we save the arguing… I dunno, for later?"

Noah's head dropped again. "I'm gonna get an earful from Eve about this…" he grumbled, ears flattening against his head.

Another guard lit up his horn and magically jabbed Noah in the side, being mindful to do so in a gentle manner. "She might lay off on that, though. Her kids came here the other day; she might try to coddle them again," he chirped in a reassuring tone of voice.

"Coddle?" Spike piped up, a brow instantly raising high at the implications. "Aren't they… a little old for coddling?"

Matt craned his neck to shoot Spike a look. "Try telling that to mom and see what happens," he replied with a teensy smile beginning to bud on his face. "It'd be the same as, I dunno, telling Katie she's too crippled to fight."

Spike rolled his eyes, which went half-lidded in that moment, and sighed. "Yeah, whatever you say," he snarked in reply. "Just don't come trotting to me when she drags you again."

The guard who'd poked Noah snorted and turned to the sound of the bell as it rang yet again. "Whelp, I think it's lunch time," he chirped, grinning.

Noah shook his head, also turning to the direction of the distant clangs. "I dunno… it's only been a few hours since breakfast." He frowned contemplatively. "Maybe the wind's jostling it again."

"Maybe it's something else?" Natalie suggested, immediately grimacing when everypony present turned to her on the spot.

"Well, why don't you two see why the bell's ringing? And take your pegasus friend with you," Noah stated, turning to Natalie with a frown. "The more you three stand around me, the more I'm starting to think I may have given you guys horsey hives. And I don't want to see Eve getting mad."

Matt's shoulders sagged, but he started trotting to the source of the clanging nonetheless. Natalie fell in step behind him, and so did Flash after they'd passed him. The guards began chattering behind them as they parted from their group, but after a minute or two of walking, their voices faded to very soft echoes that were almost entirely drowned out by snow crunching beneath hooves.

Natalie shuddered, and her ears fell back as they pressed forward. "If we end up with horsey hives…" Her face began turning a shade of blue at the notion.

Matt scoffed and snorted at the thought. "Minor diseases like horsey hives don't spread well in this cold. That, and Noah didn't even lay a hoof on us. We don't even know how his brother has his place set up, aside from likely being boarded up," he stated with a shake of his head. "Much less where."

Natalie opened her mouth to retort again, only for Flash to cut her off before she could get in another word edgewise, "But what if it still spreads? Because it very well could."

"If it does…" Matt trailed off, frowning as he gave Flash's remark some thought. His pace slowed just enough that Natalie began stepping on the fur clinging to his rear pasterns. "Well, shit…"

Spike interjected, crossing his arms as he tried his best to imitate some accent he was sure Matt and Natalie didn't recognize, "Yeah, either way, we's gots a problem."

"Hrm… should we have Noah eat elsewhere if it's lunchtime, then?" Natalie queried, her tail shifting to drag between her rear legs. "If so, then I vote for the treeline."

Spike lifted a hand and rubbed his chin, humming lowly as he gave Natalie's vote for the treeline a bit of thought. "I dunno… would his food get cold out here? And what about him? I'm pretty sure he'd be more likely to eat in a dining room corner than… out here," he noted, dropping his hand once a flake of snow landed onto his knuckle.

"Maybe the roof, then. Or next to the bell," Natalie suggested, smiling just a teensy bit as she spoke. Spike twisted to stare at her incredulously, and opened his mouth before Natalie lifted a hoof and cut him off by waving it dismissively. "He could stop it from clanging with his magic. I mean, how much does that thing weigh?"

Spike's eyes narrowed a bit. "Aren't bells heavy? Especially bells attached to buildings?" he retorted, frowning.

"Well, what if the church bell's light enough to be shaken by, I dunno, a passing breeze?" Natalie replied, her smile fading. At her half-assed retort, Spike's eyes started to gleam.

"... I'd think the bell would sooner crumple under itself than be rung by a breeze if it were that light. It may as well be a scrap of thin metal if that were the case," Spike snarked back, his lips twitching upward just a little. "I'll bet it wouldn't even hold up a birthday candle to a wind chime."

Natalie groaned as she saw Spike's point, and her head sank to hover before her front knees, though not before she turned to look at one of the passing buildings. "I give up," she grumbled.

Flash's wings fluffed a little, and he tilted his head. He decided to change the subject, "So… what's your military base like?"

At that, Matt's speed picked up and Natalie raised her head. "Well… it's kind of… the best way I could describe it would be 'clusterfuck,'" Natalie replied, turning to Flash to give him a small smile. "Last time I was there, half of it was still a complete mess. But it was just the storage compartments that were messy, so it was all good."

Flash blinked and donned a small frown. "You… didn't answer my question," he muttered.

"We'd be here all day if we started to describe our base of operations," Matt chirped from up front, punctuating his response with a chuckle. "But… we could give you a basic idea of what you would expect." His horn lit up again, and Flash's head was once more embraced in a brief flare of gold.

Images of the Valkyrie tank's interior flooded his mind, from the chests to the unsorted bag of goodies. Flash shuddered once the onslaught of telepathy had ended, some of his feathers going askew with the motions. "Is… the base entirely like that?" he asked.

"Depends on what part of the base you end up in. It's… divided into several sections. Gotta have housing for the privates and all that," Matt replied. This time he was actively shrugging his shoulders and sending Spike jostling a little in the process.

Flash nodded with a little smile budding on his muzzle, having a very basic idea of the military base. His pace quickened a little, and he spotted the church up ahead, just a few trots away at this rate. Then, a thought hit him and left his mouth before he could fully process it, "Say, do you think your parents or this 'Laz' fellow would know anything about how the barrier broke?"

Matt slowed again, and his head tilted. He hummed for a bit before replying, "Well… it's worth a shot. Maybe they'd know something." He shuddered before trotting hurriedly to the church. "I doubt Laz would know anything about it, though."

"Why say that?" Spike asked, a brow raising as he twisted to the back of Matt's head again.

"Laz is just one pony, Spike. He just… he's not one to privy for intel," Matt replied cryptically, reaching the door in under a minute. He blinked when he saw that it was already wide open, before he found a little scrap of paper that was tacked to its frame. His horn lit up, and his magic tenderly pried the paper from the frame before bringing it to his eyes.

He found something scrawled onto its thin surface in impeccable hoofwriting.

Barkeep of Whitefall came here bitching, so I went to see what the fuss is about while four of our guests took him to his home. Barkeep also flipped and passed out, so I had to give the four guests directions to his place. Honey, if you find this, please meet me at the Tipsy Tankard as soon as possible, or here if the Tankard's issue has already been dealt with.

Yours Dearly,

Eve

P.S. NoLegs decided to come with me. Lunch is on hold. The bear is ringing the bell.

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The drunk and thoroughly-thrashed patrons of the Tipsy Tankard had woken up with horrific headaches, aching legs, blurry vision and groans leaving their lips. All of them then found that they were held in place by a field of blue, but not before the door opened and their eyes locked onto their newest arrivals as they cantered over to sit in front of Laz. One of the arrivals sat with front hooves raising over the table to cross upon its surface and a blue aura that flicked strands of blond mane to the side thanks to a light purple horn. The other stood upright with his tail glowing.

Laz flashed them a smile and gave a nod. "Where's the barkeep?" he asked.

Eve lifted a hoof and waved it dismissively, still using magic to fiddle about with her blond mane. "Being escorted, currently," she answered. "He about had a heart attack when he saw our guests."

Laz blinked. "Guests?" he parroted.

Eve nodded. "My church is now packed. Most of my guests are sharing guest rooms. But that's not what I came here for." She took in a deep breath. "The guards are out patrolling, so I'm filling in for them. Now tell me…" She used the hoof she'd already raised to gesture to the sorry, magic-bound sadsacks behind her. "What the hell happened?"

Laz's smile widened. "Well, three mares claiming to have come from Mythos by airship dropped by and started asking me some questions. To cut a long story short, the drunkards over there jumped all four of us." He lifted his hooves, put his pasterns together, and offered them to Eve on the spot. "If you would please do the honors of lugging me to jail…"

Eve shook her head. "So what you're telling me is… you defended yourself?" she asked, looking at the pasterns warily.

Laz nodded. "And so did one of the mares who dropped by," he added, followed by shaking his pasterns at her rather invitingly. "Are you gonna jail me, or not?"

Eve rolled her eyes at the notion and shook her head again. "You must mistake me for a guard from Goldenbrick, or a hired hoof from the ranges of Blackwillow," she scoffed in reply, her aura seizing Laz's offered pasterns before parting them and gently pushing them back. "At most, I'm pretty sure the guards around here would let you off with a warning at the worst."

Laz chuckled and turned his attention to NoLegs. "Is she exaggerating?" he asked with a mild note of exasperation in his tone.

NoLegs meowed and shook his head. A field of blue encompassed Laz's head before a voice echoed into his mind, "By the way, would you know a thing about why the barrier broke or something? My friends have been running themselves silly tryin' to find something. I even went to Mythos with them to scrounge for one morsel of intel, and we came back almost completely empty-hoofed."

Laz blinked, and his smile fell. His head tilted a little, and his eyes narrowed just slightly. "Well… it's not much, but I do have something in regards to the barrier…" His lips then pulled into a frown. "But I'd like to think your friends would very much rather hear it straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak." He leaned forward, until his muzzle was roughly two inches from NoLegs. "Where're your friends at?"

"Some are with the guards, some are with the barkeep… and some went to the prison to see someone," Eve answered, snagging Laz's attention with her utterance. "And half of them are claiming to be Mythonians." At that, Laz's eyes widened.

Laz sighed and stood up, his legs still a little shaky and numb. "You're joking," he scoffed.

Eve donned a small smile. "Well… I would be, if one of them wasn't a varicolored pegasus mare," she snarked back. This made Laz's pupils shrink and his jaw dropped open to let out a shallow gasp that bordered on a wheeze. Then, Eve stood up and leaned a little, and as a result they were almost muzzle to muzzle. "But since you want me to take you somewhere…" Her magic seized Laz by the horn.

Laz reeled in his jaw and swallowed heavily. "I-if you're dragging me b-back to the ch-church, can I a-at least know wh-where you keep any e-earmuffs?" he asked.

"No, largely because of the guests." Eve moved from the table and dropped to all fours, using her magic to wrench Laz from his seat and drag him to her side.

NoLegs embraced Laz's cranium with magic again, followed by another echo into his mind, "Sounds to me like you're screwed."

Laz shuddered, before he planted his hooves firmly on the floor. "I can trot just fine, thank you," he hissed. That made Eve release him him as she began trotting to the entrance of the Tipsy Tankard, and with a slight limp in his gait he followed her. NoLegs hopped onto Laz's back, waving his tail at the other patrons with a meow.

One of the drunks who still had his horn piped up in a slurred voice, glaring at Laz and Eve's passing forms with very dull brown eyes as he spoke, "Ey, pale bitch, why aren't ya makin' that pansy-ass colt take some jailtime?!"

Eve halted, just a few feet from the door. She turned to the patron and tilted her head. Her nose wrinkled a little, and her eyes narrowed. "I am not an enforcer of the law in this little hamlet. I'm merely the housewife of one," she retorted coldly. A blue light started to build on the tip of her horn as she saw the patron's own horn starting to glow in a musty brown aura.

The patron whose horn was glowing donned a grin, his aura likewise building with light. "If yer jus' a housemare, then why're ya takin' the pansy with ya?" he hissed.

"Because I'd like him to meet my guests. Surely there's no harm in that," Eve replied coolly, her light starting to flare brightly. NoLegs chimed in with a meow and a nod of his head.

"Ya ain't takin' the pansy anywhere," the patron hissed, his aura seizing Laz by the legs. "Not until I get through poundin' him to kingdom come."

Laz could not keep himself from smiling. He could not keep himself from lighting his horn and using his magic to shake off the patron's aura. Nor could he keep himself from snarking at said patron, "Listen… you jumped me, I kicked your ass with the help of a pegasus, and you still have the temerity to call me a pansy? What's that say about you, tough guy? Look at you; high and mighty and drunk off your ass, beaten by a stallion who is shorter than the wife of a local guard. Where'd you learn to fight, from a small herd of foals?"

The patron's horn was now ablaze with a murky brown light that would have blinded anypony had they directly looked at it. He donned a sneer and narrowed eyes, and under the intense glare the expression seemed demonic. Eve simply shook her head at the display, her eyes shimmering with something akin to pity. "Son…" she began in a stern, no-nonsense tone that made the patron's smile widen, "why are you asking for trouble?"

"I ain't the one askin' fo' trouble, ya trumped-up guard-fondlin' tramp," the patron hissed, his smile widening until it threatened to go Cheshire. Eve sighed, almost in disappointment as the spell he was charging was let loose into an orb of light. She merely conjured a translucent, pale blue wall before the attack could connect, and for a tense moment the orb of light stuck to the barrier without doing much else.

"I attempted to be patient, but somepony forced my hoof…" Eve muttered before her barrier contorted and wrapped around the orb of light, almost as if adding another layer onto a clay construct. "Oh well, it just makes my husband's job easier. Not that I'm complaining." She channeled some more mana into the wrapped orb, causing it change color from its murky brown hue into that of a pleasing shade of blue, before it was sent back at the patron in a rush of speed.

The patron had no time to react; the orb instantly connected with his barrel and sent him toppling to the floor upon his back. Then the orb retracted to hover in front of Eve before it distorted strangely, in a manner reminiscent of slime being pulled and pushed in every conceivable direction. The patron tried to sit up, but found himself held in place by another field of blue with a slight red tinge that came from Laz's horn.

As it contorted, it started to burn brighter and brighter, almost like a miniature star being given shape, and stranger still it turned as white as a fluffy cloud. When it was nothing more than some sort of blob, it exploded in a bright flare of light that blinded every single patron, and Eve and Laz shielded their eyes by raising their hooves. Laz released his magical hold on the drunkard who foolishly attacked Eve, just as the burning light before him intensified considerably.

"NoLegs, now!" Eve barked, and without hesitation NoLegs gripped himself, Eve, and Laz in his aura before they vanished in a smaller, dimmer flare of blue light. As they vanished, the blinding ball of light spontaneously dimmed prior to collapsing on itself and poofing out of existence. The trio reappeared outside of the establishment and bolted down the nearest street, but not before Eve used her magic to close the door.

Once they'd settled in a nearby alley, Laz glowered and NoLegs jumped onto Eve's withers. "By Godcat's spatial-rending claws, the fuck was that spell?" Laz asked, using his magic to wrench off his garments and make them vanish in individual flashes of light. An unkempt brown tail soon sprung free of the garments, as did a messy brown mane with short bangs.

"I converted my barrier into light," Eve replied, turning to Laz to reveal her horn turning a tinge of red. "It takes a little bit extra to do that, but I think it was worth it." She watched as Laz worked to undress himself, revealing a body with a runner's build and rather lithe legs to accompany it. She caught sight of some bird-like cutie mark before Laz made his cape reappear and he draped it over his back.

"Phwah! That feels so much better," Laz stated with a puff of air from flared nostrils, stretching his now-free beige legs and popping some bones here and there. "I'd rather be freezing my tail off than to suffocate in layers of clothes." With that, he and Eve began trotting down the alley in the direction of the church.

"So… how did you come to know Matt and Natalie?" Eve asked, causing Laz to turn to her with an incredulous brow raised.

Laz donned a small smile, and for but a second his eyes gave the faintest gleam of crimson. "Well… we're sorta-kinda frenemies, you could say," he replied cryptically.

"Really, now?" Eve replied, donning a small smile herself. "I asked because… I told them you were at the church, and they looked like they were getting antsy. They even asked me and Bartholomew what you looked like."

Laz's eyes widened. "Wait. They're here?" he queried. When Eve slowly nodded, his smile widened considerably. "Oh, then I can't wait to see the looks on their faces as soon as they realize I'm still in town."