Page 10 of Renaissance Bear

"You and your…brother?"

"And the rest of the family. Thunder Bear Brewery is ours. It grew out of our parents doing this tavern at faires a million years ago."

"That long, huh?" Alis smiled. "I didn't know people even knew how to brew beer a million years ago. I figured back then people got drunk like those bears on apples."

Jon's bear sat straight up.She knows we're a bear!

He laughed, both at the bear and Alis.No, buddy, I don't think so.Aloud, he said, "That video of them all getting wrecked on the fermented fruit? Yeah, I think you're right. Beer's newer than getting drunk. You haven't been to the Renaissance faire before, have you? I'd have remembered seeing you." He grimaced as Alis winced. "There'smy crappy pickup line, sorry."

"No, that wasn't it. I mean, yes, that's a terrible line, but no, I've never been toRenaissance'sfaire. I teach elementary school and can only do a handful of events a year, so I try to spread them out across the country if I can. This is the first time I've gotten this far west, though."

"Yeah? Where do you hail from, fair lady?" Jon kicked his legs out, crossing them at the ankle as he leaned on the table.

"Maryland."

"Oh! They've got an incredible faire out there!"

"Yeah. My sister and I grew up going to it." Alis's smile lit her from the inside until she practically shone in the darkness. "You've been?"

"Only once, a few years ago. The brewery is expanding its customer base and that's one of the ways we find new markets. The whole company started at this faire," Jon said with a smiling glance back toward the music-filled tavern. "Mom and Dad brewed their first beers here back when the faire was just starting, too, and now it's this whole huge family business. My cousin runs the pub, my oldest brother runs the brewery, I've gotanother brother out East who's started his own brewpub where he serves it…"

"Wow. How many brothers are there?"

"Four." Jon smiled back at Alis. "I'm the second youngest. You?"

"Just the one sister. That was enough for our parents."

"Are you the younger or older sister?"

He thought Alis looked amused. "Older."

"Is your sister into the whole faire scene?"

She laughed. "Not the way I am, no. She's a computer programmer, mostly. So, hey, did you make it through the early rounds?"

Jon groaned. "You mean, the on-foot sword fighting rounds I was going to walk away with before I ingloriously lost the first fight in the last seconds? Yeah, I did, no thanks to you. I got through on technical points and second slots. Thank God for qualifying rounds, because if that had been a quarterfinal I'd have been screwed."

"Oh, good. I would have felt bad about costing you the advancement, really. No, really!" Alis protested when Jon shot her a skeptical look. She spread her hands, smiling but clearly meaning it. "I'm not in the habit of eliminating my op—" She caught her breath, looking startled, then shook her head. "Well, I'm certainly not in the habit of trying to eliminate fighters by distracting them at the critical moment. That wouldn't be very ladylike of me."

"Does that mean I get an inside track to earning your favor, my lady?" Jon asked hopefully, then faltered, remembering how she'd already given a favor to the Black Knight.

"Oh, no. You have to earn it," Alis said, her tone scolding but teasing. "I'm glad you weren't knocked out, though. I was hoping you'd get the chance to."

"Really? What about the Black Knight?" Jon wished he hadn't asked as soon as the words came out, but it was too late by then.

Alis's dark eyebrows flew up. "What about the Black Knight?"

"You gave him your favor, earlier! I saw it tied around his arm!" Which, Jon told himself sort of dismally, should begreat, right? It meant she thought they were both hot, and since fate was pulling him both ways, it presumably meant…well, something good, he guessed.

"Oh." Alis laughed and waved a hand. "I mean, come on. Everybody knows the Black Knight doesn't participate in all of the in-show courting and performances. Every lady at the faire could hang their favor off that shining black armor and we'd still have somebody else at our side for the final show."

"Who do you think he is?" Jon asked idly. "I mean, the dude is famous all over the country at this point?—"

Alis snorted. "At Renaissance faires. Ren faire famous."

"It's a kind of famous," Jon said with a smile. "I wouldn't recognize, like, I don't know, watch designer famous, but a watch designer wouldn't recognize ren faire famous, either, so I think we're all allowed our niches."

"Fair. Yeah, okay, that's fair. I guess there's all kinds of famous."

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