The sun was slowly rising, the new day was awakening. The doors opened with a screechy noise, before slamming into the wall. The figure standing on the doorstep was a small and sturdy in brown hunter's robes, dirty iron boots and rusty helmet, which was hiding all of his brown messy hair. From his size and build, everyone could guess that this figure belonged to the dwarven race. Scent of warm bread tickled his nose, and pictures of warm, clean bed, cold beer, delicious meal and a pleasant conversation with his old friend came to his mind. A small creature standing near the dwarf released a grunt, followed by a silent snort. His master just lowered his head and set his blue eyes on the animal. Small piglet looked to the ground, happily snorted, continuing his job of floor-sniffer.

In the Kaima inn was silent, only few customers were sitting in lonely corners, quietly drinking from their half-full glasses or just dazing into land of dreams now and then. The dwarf slowly stepped in, walking towards a desolated table in the right corner of the inn. It was near the fireplace, so there will be warm and cosy, something this dwarf hasn't experienced in the last few nights. In the center of Kaima inn, there was mud on the floor, since his boots were all filthy and muddy. He sat on the chair closest to the fireplace and the piglet laid on the floor, next to his master. Soon, the dark-brown doors behind the bar opened and a young lady walked in. She scanned the inn, probably in search for new customers, since she heard the doors opening. The lady set her brown eyes on the dwarf, sitting in the corner. Standing near the dwarf now, the lady asked a simple question. "What would you want to drink, kind sir?"

The dwarf raised his head and noticed the girl standing next to him. He was occupied petting Buta, his piglet. "Ae would liek a mug of ale, yung lady." when the girl nodded in respond, the dwarf smiled, but something he remembered something else. He was here with a purpose and a goal. He wanted to meet his old friend, Orik, who once worked in this inn. So when the girl wanted to get his beer, he said. "Oooh, yung lady! Ae nead to ask ye a favur. Hear wurk'd an ol' fella naugrim call'd Orik. Can ye do my a favur an' find hem fur my? If he still wurks hear." the dwarf smiled. "Say that Hrothgar's lookin' fur hem." Hrothgar still stared into the girl, when he noticed that suddenly she has a sad expression on her face. She muttered silently "Can you feel the storm getting closer now?" rapidly turned around and stepped fast through the door where she came from.

The dwarf dazed through the window, which was on the opposite side of the inn. The girl sounded mysterious and...dark when she said that sentence. It worried Hrothgar. Not because of her tone, because the sky was clear and the sun was shining brightly. Maybe it meant something to her? Or was it a message? Hrothgar didn't know. But he may soon find out.

A lot had been happening to Winter lately, and not because of her ambition of claiming her own blade of balance. She recounted the recent events, to start with her fight with Morkus, a cheeky vampire who now followed her and aided her in her goals, after that she'd discovered the guild B.A.D.I, and since her ultimate purpose was to at least attempt to restore peace, the guild had seemed the best option for her, however she didn't see them as friends or allies, merely people who were after the same thing as her.

At the moment, Winter was on her own, Morkus out on another one of his searches. Winter trusted he wasn't feeding since he only needed to bite once a month and it had only been three weeks since his last meal. So Winter was alone, sitting in the pub at the far end of the room away from the fire and leaning on the table with her arms folded, staring at a small burn in the wood.

What happens when people die? A small girl spoke within Winter's memories, however she didn't remember ever asking anything like that.
Why do you ask,
In my dreams, I see people die no matter how I try to stop them, the girl said I wonder what happens to them.

Winter shut the echoes out, she had no idea what they meant, a small girl version of Winter asking small girl style questions about what the present Winter was doing. If she recalled right, it was because of these false memories that Winter couldn't kill. She leaned back on her chair and heaved a sigh. She was practically emotionless so it was difficult for her to care very much, and on top of that she couldn't recognize a feeling even if she felt one.

She looked up at the sounds of creaking and saw the doors opening. The creature entering was unmistakable, he was short but with adult proportions, a thick pigtailed beard, obviously a dwarf. Of course Winter had never really seen any dwarves in her lifetime, so took him to be just a short hairy human with a pig snorting in his wake. She took her attention off the dwarf and went back to staring at a solitary spot while the creature sat down and ordered a drink.

It was only a while later when he had received his order when he asked the barmaid something, Winter was too far away to hear but whatever it was seemed to put a look of shock and fear into the maid's eyes, she quickly muttered something and disappeared. Winter was no expert on reading faces and emotions, however she could tell that whatever the dwarf had said seemed to have had an effect on her somehow and she found herself staring at the spot where she'd been moments before, wondering what the dwarf had said.

Hrothgar sighed. He couldn't figure out why did the young one reacted like that. He didn't said anything disturbing or rude, he was just thinking she could help him. 'What did she mean by that? Did I say something wrong? Does she maybe know Orik? Or did something happen to him?' Hrothgar had a lot of thoughts buzzing through his head. But none of them were the answer to this reaction. He dazed through the window again, but now he noticed the person sitting on the other side of the inn.

Hrothgar noticed a small human girl. Or was she an angel? He heard about that kind but never seen one. Her short blue hair and eyes looked cold and...inhuman. The girl seemed to be quite young, but even though she had a cold and calm expression on her face. No feeling he could read from her expression. Hrothgar noticed that she's staring at the spot were the young waitress stood before. Hroth gritted his teeth and slowly put his hand on Zavan. 'What if she's a spy or an assassin. ' he scanned the girl, from her feet to her head. Even though he knew the spell of detecting evil creatures, he never trusted spells and magic. She seemed to him like an ordinary girl, she was quite skinny and small, and her looks wasn't one that suited the demon-kind. But looks can be deceiving. Short skirt and top without sleeves. Wasn't she cold? Hrothgar didn't know. How could he know when he is seeing this girl for the first time in his life.

"Buta, follow." Hrothgar said to the piglet in Khuzdûl, frowning and staring at the girl. Buta jumped to his feet, snorted a little and glued his nose to Hroth's robes. Hrothgar looked at him and smiled, but quickly he raised his head and continued staring at the girl. With his hand on his axe and Buta following him, with quick pace he approached the girl.

Hrothgar sat opposite of Winter, without even asking her. Now, he can defend with his dagger, or just hit this frail girl if she tries something. Hrothgar was always acting suspicious to strangers, especially if they seemed to eavesdrop or stare at him.Then he looked at the girl again and asked her, in a deep and a little angry tone "Excuz my lady. But ye seem to 'now this yung burmaid. Can ye tell my why do she left?" he asked in his bad english. Buta approached the girl with caution and started sniffing her leg. Buta returned and laid near Hrothgar again, apparently not threated nor scared. But Hrothgar hasn't notice that, he was still looking in the girls deep blue eyes, waiting for an answer.

The wind outside blew viciously. Maybe the storm was coming closer.

Winter kept her gaze in the same place, her eyes becoming unfocused as her mind drifted into other subjects. However her immediate thoughts were that the stranger had said something to the barmaid that had caused her to walk away hurriedly. Normally Winter wouldn’t give a damn about other people and their feelings, they were all just the same to her, however it wasn’t the barmaid she was worried about, it was what the stranger had said to her to make her so reluctant to speak.

A clunk and scraping noise brought her attention back into reality, she turned her head and noticed the very same dwarf slipping into the chair opposite her, a serious expression on his face, of course it was hard to tell with the beard and Winter’s lack of emotional judgement, however his eyes held an angered and serious tone that even Winter couldn’t ignore. She fixed him with the usual cold glare she gave anyone in close proximity, her pupils thinned slightly as they focused on the hairy creature.

Up close she could see that his focus was upon her too, and he was acting completely different from before. Winter ignored this fact, however, she wasn’t about to start a fight with a complete stranger, even if he was acting like she’d just yelled a very rude word in his direction. When the dwarf spoke, it was in a stern but calm tone, and seemed to be composed of a very bad vocabulary of the common language. Whatever he said however, Winter registered enough to tell he was asking her about the barmaid just now, as if she’d know anything about it.

"Her?" Winter gave the door behind the bar a quick glance before turning her attention back to the dwarf "I know her about as much as you know me. So in other words, no." She paused for a bit, staring into the dwarf's eyes with her own "I shouldn't waste my time asking strangers about events they should know more about themselves if I were you," she went on "because whatever you said has more to do with it than me."
She looked down under the table, taking note of the small piglet investigating her foot before scampering back to its master, an interesting pet to own.

She looked back up at him again, her expression becoming less cold and more content.
"By the way, what did you say to her?" She asked.

((OOC: you guys dont mind if i join do ya?))

Wind sucked. Plain and simple. Why? Well, for one reason, it kicked up sand that flew into your eyes, causing you to go temporarily blind, leading to said temporarily blinded person walking into a rather large orc. The result of which was an elf flying through a window. Specifically, the window to the Kaima Inn. The glass shattered and showered around the Elf. He hit the ground and skidded across the Inn, his head stopping inches from the bar.

"Thanks for the lift! See ya back at the house!" Thal shouted out at the orc sarcastically. In turn, the orc took a few menacing steps towards the Inn. The Elf's eyes widened and he rolled to his left, just getting behind a table before a large rock slammed into the ground where he had just been.

As soon as the orc had left, Thal stood up and brushed himself off. He looked around to realize that pretty much the entire place was staring at him. He took one look around, and said, "What? Ain't you ever seen a flying Elf before?" He then took a look at the broken window. "Somebody should really board that up, ya know," he said casually to the bartender. "The wind and rain would just come right through that empty window frame."

The bartender grumbled something obscene, and Thal gave him a small salute. He turned on his heel and walked over to a table. (One without glass all over it) He began to pick broken shards of glass out of himself. There were only a few on his leg and two on his arm, but glass was glass, and it hurt.

He looked down at the floor near the window, which was covered in glass shards. Somebody should really sweep that up, Thal thought. What if somebody walked in here with no shoes on?

Dismissing the thought from his mind, he leaned back in his chair, causing the two front legs to raise of the ground. The back of the chair rested against the wall behind the Elf. Thal sat there in that reclined position, looking about the room. It didn't seem like anything of real interest was happening, so he decided to wait until something did, which it inveriably did in places like this. I mean, it was an inn, and inns were always the first stop for travellers on some great quest or other. It was sort of an unspoken agreement between heroes and innkeepers.

"I'll save the town if you provide me with food, a bed, and a woman tonight."

Unfortunately, Thal had never gone on a heroic quest before, and so, had no clue what it felt like to be a hero in an inn. But speculation and observation told him that his theory had to be true.

[ Sorry guys for not replying earlier :'( School got me and since I missed school I needed to catch up and study hard. Now I'm back, ready for postingz0rz. ]

Hrothgar stared into the girl's big eyes, while she was glaring at him and responding to his question. Maybe to her, his behaviour was rude and inappropriate, but Hrothgar was worried about the girl and Orik, since he couldn't understand what the barmaid meant. Storm, like the enemy who is getting nearer? Storm, like a bad thing that was coiling up, getting ready to strike? Or was she just trying to guess if the storm will hit the village?

As the girl's expression became less cold Hrothgar lips formed a smile. Even though she clearly showed that she disapproves his act, to come and ask a strange if they knows anything about her, the girl still showed interest, the curious side of her broke to the surface. Hrothgar thought about her words and found out she was right. He should be more careful, but his rash and hasty temperament was against sitting in the corner, doing nothing. No, he needed to react, he needed to know if his friend is well, he needed to know if the girl knows how to interpret the barmaid's words.

"Whut deed Ae told her? Ae asked her fur a favur to seek fur may ol' buddy Orik. But she got sad and just said sumthin' "Cin ye feel da storm gettin' closer nao?" Ae dunno whut that meanz." Hrothgar sighed and looked away. Now he noticed the bartender, standing behind the counter. Hrothgar thought about it, how could he not notice him earlier if he was standing there all along?

Hrothgar stood up, meaning to ask where is his beer and wanting to know if the bartender could send the girl again. A silent fizzle could be heard, coming from the window behind him. Stopping near the girl, facing the counter when something flew right through the window, making the shattered glass fly across the inn.

Almost instinctively, Hrothgar threw himself in front of the girl. "Wutch out! Ack! Gritting his teeth and bending over the girl, he felt that one of the fragments ripped his robes, and since he had no armor under it, sinked into his skin. Straightening up and leaving Winter unprotected he grabbed the fragment and pulled it out. The tip of the fragment was covered in blood and seeing that the glass was thick, blood almost immediatly rose up to the surface. His robes were already red, when Hrothgar put his right hand above it and healed it. "Lothlomendil, I beseech thee. Greater Heal!" His hand started to shine, variating from white to yellow colour. He could feel the energy flowing through his body and leaving it through his hand. Even though it lasted no more than 10 seconds, Hrothgar felt his energy being decreased.

Opening his eyes he turned around to see what flew in the inn. He instinctively grabbed Zavan and saw that an elf is standing in front of him, brushing himself out. He had no visible bruises or wounds and seemed to be unharmed, except some glass on his leg and arm, but he didn't seemed he mind it. The elf asked all the customers, even though there weren't many of them. Some of them got out when they noticed something flew in, some of them continued to drink or eat.

The elf sat on a chair and with it leaned against the wall, not noticing the dwarf, even when he addressed the whole inn. Hrothgar frowned, strapped the axe back in it's place and sat back down. He glared to the elf, but turned to the girl again...when he remembered. "Buta!" The piglet snorted under the table, it seems that in fear, it squeezed between the girl's leg and the wall, hoping to be safe there. When his master called him, the piglet came to him and laid down on the floor in front of him. Hrothgar smiled to it and turned back to the girl. "Arr ye fine, girl? Ae havun't even introduct'd mayself. May name is Hrothgar." Hrothgar smiled, before giving a quick glance at the elf. A second after, his bright blue eyes were focused on the young girl once more, waiting for her to respond.

[Post continued to avoid double posting, 'cause this one is relevant for Hroth's story.]

He looked deep into her deep blue eyes, who reminded him of the ocean, a quick flashback in his memory, while the village near it was burning. Hroth shook his head and as he did that, the dark-brown doors opened once again, and the same young girl stepped into the inn. Her eyes were malicious looking, but still not evil, just...disturbed and sad.

She came to Hrothgar, who raised his head and now he was looking the girl into her eyes, without any fear. The girl just sighed, it was more a sigh of relief than sadness. "Kind sir, you seem fair and good and I hear no evil in your voice. I think you need to know what happened to Orik."

Hrothgars eyes widened and his eyebrows rose up. "Ae thenk ye, kind maeden, fur bein' so good. Now, pleas' tell my!" The girl shivered as he said the last sentence with much stronger and dictating tone. "Orik married a dwarf who lived in the woods nearby. He worked in this same inn, for about 20 years, when he found me. I was only 5 years old and they took me in. You see I don't have dwarvish accent, since they always taught me I am a human, not naugrim. They were like parents to me.." As her eyes filled with tears, she started sobbing and her voice trembled. "But then, one night, we heard the village alarm. There was a great fire in the woods and it seems that Orik either moved or died in that terrible event." She paused. Hrothgar looked with eagerness and curiosity, but with every word he heard his hope to see his friend slowly faded away. "I pray for them every night, but I hear no news. I cannot go search for him, I am young, don't know how to fight or take care of myself. You must forgive me sire, but I just...cannot."

With the last word, the lady broke, tears started sliding down her cheek and she cried loudly. In embarrassment, she ran off, without saying goodbye or giving Hrothgar a chance to say thanks.

Hrothgar stood there, looking at the doors which just shut, leaving the inn in silence. Hrothgar sighed, stood up and went to the doors. The dwarf looked crushed, like he was on the edge. He has just realized his best childhood friend has been lost. He just nodded to the elf and the girl with beautiful blue eyes who sat on the opposite side of the table. Gently pushing Buta with his boot, the piglet woke up and started following him. The door opened with a screech, but after they shut, they left the inn in silence.

And so Hrothgar went on search for Orik, emotionally shaken with the story about his fate he just heard from the girl. He couldn't accept the fact he was dead, no, he couldn't be dead. Tears were forming in his big blue eyes, and the dwarf just wiped his nose with his sleeve and frowned. The dwarf decided to go and find Orik, if he survived. He has maybe just lost his dear friend, but his little companion, Buta, will always be there to follow him. It was his guardian angel.