The results of the fishing contest. The results were shown on a big board for each sector. However, those results proceeded to point at a little bit of a weird sight of a wet dwarf with his hair down like a cowl, in one hand a rod with big salmon and couple of trouts, and in the other, a bucket with small fish that could outright just be called "snacks". However, Kurdran ignored the minor chuckles, and laughed aloud, lifting his finger up. "And that`s how ye do it, ye flowerpickers, hehe!" He was like a barrel of pride and happiness himself...

...Until he looked at the big board and saw some other familiar names in the list of victors. Those people seemed to have a lot bigger scores than him... And one name especially caught his eye: "Esperia". "Pfeh, bloody succubus cheating again..." Who was he to mock what those freaks were into. Besides, with the huge difference between his and her scores, it was VERY obvious she had cheated. From the other names, "Fiammetta" rang a bell again... and he had this brief moment where it felt like pieces were coming together... Fia, Esperia... Why did they feel so connected... Well, one was a friendly drunk pal, and the other was a cocky princess with a slutty demon inhabiting her plank flat sex appeal... what was the connection there? He was about to come to a simple conclusion with his memories, as his eyes widened...

Only for him to notice "the oracle". The lady who had given him her bucket of bait sized fishes. He had offered her a meal of the fish he had caught, and she had declined. At the time he didn`t know whether he should have felt insulted. He wanted to celebrate his victory! And that was kind of hard to do alone. However, she had seemed kind of mellow about it. So mellow in fact, that she had GIVEN him her fishies. And now she was just walking away, without any interest in the competition whatsoever.

...Maybe he had gone a bit in her face about the fact that he beat her prophecy so throughoutly? Thinking on it some more, he proceeded to groan...

And charged towards the lady with the bucket and fishes in hand. "Hey you! You sure you don`t wanna eat these fishies?! I am a pretty decent cook!" he felt this need of making himself look a bit better in her eyes for whatever reason. For now, it was propably just intuition.

He luckily got her attention pretty easily, compared to his usual efforts. Though annoyingly enough, she didn`t seem exactly hyped to have a meal with him now either. Actually, she seemed more scared about the bucket sloshing about. "Och... Sorry. Fish are propably a bit better as belly fillers than hats, hehe." Gotta remember with these dang fancy ladies. They don`t like handling their fish with bare hands.

"Me name`s Kurdran Briggs. Should be easy enough to remember." He proceeded to shrug as well as he could with two already filled hands. "So yers is Vivianna, huh?" He rubbed his beard a bit as he glared at her in a thoughtful manner. Uptill now, he had pretty much called her "an oracle". Thats what he usually called different kinds of predictors. Also, It was a way shorter name than what she had given... bah. "It`s a fitting name I suppose. A bit long for me taste though." Finally found out what she was actually called and already about to insult an oracle for giggles? That´s just outright rude. He was here to make her feel better, not to taunt her.

Though he had to wonder about it, since she happily just chuckled at his initiative.  "Well ye know. I just thought that ye lost, so I wondered if ye would like to share the victors spoils, "good food, good mood" after all!" The old dwarven saying had proven itself time and time again true in his head. It was a well meaning thought that`s for sure, albeit the way he worded it was almost indirect bragging. He pulled his rod forward, and pushed the big trio of salmon almost in her face. They were all the length of his mohawk down to the last strands of his beard. "I am a big eater, but even I can`t eat this big of a meal in one go. These beauties would propably rot before I was finished with em."

He pulled them back towards himself. "Besides, ye didn`t tell me if ye predicted the result correctly." He looked very intrigued. "It`s bloody brave of ye to take part in a competition like that, if ye knew the result in advance... Or was it some kind of lottery card? Wheel of fort tuna or something?" The dwarf pretty much shone curiousness. His mind had switched topic completely into knowing more about her "predicting magic tricks".

Kurdrans head rose upwards, as he thought for a moment about the suggested nicknames, only to scoff reluctantly. "Pfeh, I prefer using a full name. It`s more respecful that way, ye know!" Besides, a full name was usually way more badass sounding than something like "Vivi". Kurdran himself liked his own name, because whenever he said it there was some power behind it... or atleast there was in his head. He told it to people so often, that they were bound to remember it later too. "So, long or not, I shall call ye Vivianna!"

Overall, the ladies face was starting become quite a point of hilarity in the dwarves eyes. "Come on now, Ye never seen a salmon before?! This stuffs called a delicacy back home! They put such a fight, that getting the bigger buggers from the rivers a battle in and of itself!" He laughed, loudly, as he placed the bucket down on the ground, only so he could slap his knee. As much as he wanted to give Vivianna respect, it was hard, when the poor lady seemed outright mortified from the sight of simple fish! "Though no worries, these fishes are already down for the count! They won`t get ye wet anytime soon!"

The ladies sudden approval of his invite mildly skipped his ears, as she immediately proceeded to tell about her prediction for the competition... only for Kurdran to visibly stumble backwards a bit from  astonishment! "Yer saying ye just came just for shits and giggles!?" Kurdran could agree joining for fun, but he atleast knew how to fish proper! The lady in front of him had pretty much walked right in without almost any prior knowledge of it, and taken it all in stride. Kurdran himself would have propably died from embarrassment if he had gotten the same kind of fish she had! (not that it was possible, no sirree)

"Don`t sell yerself short lassie!" He gave her a quick encouraging pat on her lower back. "There is nothing braver than diving into trouble with nothing to back ye up!" That sort of thing happened quite often in dwarven legends. Although, most of the actually cool ones survived the endeavor... "Nothing bad in having a bit of guts." He slapped his belly. Thats what he had a ton of.

However, what the lady did next had him just very confused. She seemingly stood up only to fix her hair up in a ball behind it, like a dull bump on the back of her scalp... Well, guess everybody had their own preferred hairstyle, he wondered, as he ruffled his own mohawk a bit with his now free hand. The lady proceeded to almost whisper a suggestion towards him, which Kurdran had only a simple answer to.

"DO I!?"

Of course he loved riddles! They were pretty much short stories that you needed to understand yourself! "Oh, it`s on! Though don`t expect me to be an easy target, I`ve heard ton of em when I was a wee lad!" Albeit, he rarely if ever actually answered them correctly...

Vivianna started laughing right after Kurdran had expressed his liking of riddles. "What? What did I say?" It`s not like liking riddles was specifically silly. Though her quick explanation gave some light to the situation. Mysteries, huh? Like murder mysteries and thieveries? Guess that made sense for a riddler. Albeit, when he was beckoned to come to an empty creepy alley with her, Kurdran couldn`t help but feel this wiggle in his spine. "Bloody hell, Have I shoved me nose in one of em bad deals again?" He thought in his head. However, he atleast assumed that a simple oracle like this would be easy enough to overpower if things got too dicey... if he could somehow keep the fish in one piece.

Though admittedly, the more she heard of her after that thought, kind of made him feel stupid for feeling paranoid. She just seemed so outwardly giddy to tell him, what she had in her mind, that it was kind of impossible not to be smiling with her. "Good. Thinking makes me atleast hungry!" And since this girl was so desperately happy to get her story out of her gut, it must be a good one! Although when she called him Kurds, his head tipped to the side, with a minor sigh. "Eh, I`ve been called worse. Now whats the story?" Since Kurdran was usually the guy to throw insults and taunts about, He didn`t seem to mind too much about being called names himself yet. Besides, he hadn`t exactly earned a big name to himself yet compared to her with her predictive magics.

Kurdran stared sort of impatiently, waiting for her to tell the story herself. However, instead, she generated this red flowing ball of some kind of liquid. Of course the first thought that came into the dwarves head was "Is that blood magics?!" Nah, it didn`t exactly smell like blood. Whatever it was, she was cumulating it for a while... until she pitched it in his direction. "Gah!" He flinched a bit, as the red ball seemingly opened into letters and words. "...W-Well... this sure sets up the mood." She knew magic befitting a storyteller, that`s for sure.

He read the thing carefully. They were pretty simple sentences thankfully, mostly spelling out details of this mystery she had cooked up, even outright telling which sentences were true. The obvious thought was how bad conditions the murdered guy lived in. Even his small room in Oak had better living space. Admittedly, that was not the point of the thing.

"Maybe the murderer was a ghost... Or he just ate some nasty beastie accidentally..." He mumbled briefly, as he roused up and shook his hands in front of him. "T-Thats not me answer, just thinking out loud!" Not surprisingly, Kurdran usually had a hard time keeping things in his mind.

The dwarf rubbed his scalp ferociously, trying to gather up things he knew. "Police didn`t find anything, as usual... not a mage... no killing himself... eugh..." He was visibly becoming a bit redder. You could see little sparks of electricity coursing through his hair, as he continued rubbing it. He really was no good at stuff where he needed to piece things together. He was used to the more simple stuff, which just tried to trick you into thinking something else.

However, through frustrated effort, he finally came up with something. He turned towards Vivianna, as he groaned. "It`s a confusing thing alright, but I think I got it." He straightened up his mohawk a bit. "Yer saying the police didn`t see any killer? But ye didn`t say the guy was alone in the room!" He paced about the thin alley. "If the vent was still screwed on the inside, then the murderer must have come from outside... and maybe he screwed the vent back up! But why would the police not find him inside then?"

He pointed triumphantly at Vivianna with his epiphany. "It`s because the murderer was a policeman... or dressed as one!" His eyes were soon filled with his familiar confusion. "...That`s the reason why he got out maybe... guards must have ignored him when he just gave em the basic info..." There was uncertainty in his voice, as he looked at Vivianna through the blood red text. "Was I right? Or did ye fool me?"

Kurdrans planning for an answer to the riddle posed towards him was given another little roadblock, that made it real hard to concentrate. Vivianna started telling a little story in the middle of his befuddlement, which outright made Kurdran stop thinking about the answer for a moment, and just listen to her story in wide-eyed curiousity. He had not heard this one before, and taking that this a problem he often had... "Man, no wonder I keep getting a headache when I try to think things through..." Guess it was that witches fault he was having such troubles now. "Wonder if I could get the dang lady to stop messing with me for a moment..." He mumbled, as he returned to the topic he was supposed to be finding an answer to.

And with his answer being followed by such fierce winds, that it blew the "fair maidens" hair open in presumed shock, He couldn`t help but feel like he had hit the jackpot once again, with the gods outright needing to announce it! "HAH, I knew it! Told ya I am a master at this!" Although when he saw her outright tear up, he remembered again what he was supposed to be doing. "Hey now uhm, its not exactly that bad to lose... I am just kind of on a winning streak now, which I can`t stop..." However, soon she proceeded to just stand up.

And revealed how he was actually wrong. "Wha!?" His mood immediately shifted from apologetic to outright astounded. She proceeded to explain the right answer to him... and Kurdran was all red again. "Buh buh but! That...! ThatS uh...! Thats uh!!!" His hands ruffled his head even more furiously than before, with lightning gathering in it... until with a loud *POP!* and a flash of light His mohawk exploded into a huge round sponge like afro, as he shouted loudly:

"THAT`S SO WUSSY!!!"

He fell over, completely defeated, with the bucket he had pulled with him about spilling its water and little fishes onto the ground. He wouldn`t have possibly considered an assassin so uncouth to be so scared, as to not face the police in some fashion! He was clearly disgruntled, as he lifted himself into a sitting position, with his afro as wide as ever, as Vivianna walked up to him with her arms on her hips, telling how fun it was to do this. "Pfeh, atleast me version would have ended in a cool chase..." He did chuckle a little. Atleast it was an interesting thing to read and hear.

He stood back up... Luckily his own salmons and the trouts were fine, though looking down at the bucket, he kind of just shrugged. "Eh, thats more like bait either way." Vivianna proceeded to tell him, that she would comply to whatever he wanted now, as thanks for hearing her story...

Which Kurdran proceeded to follow up with walking right in front of her, and poking her in the stomach with his fishing rod in hand. "Well then, in that case, Yer gonna spend the rest of this day with me, including the eating and preparation of these fishes!" However, right after this moderately serious sentence he rubbed his hands together, and looked excitedly into her eyes. "AND... we are gonna exchange stories! Ye gotta have more than this one right? Besides, I wanna tell you a riddle too after all! I would feel bad if I didn`t give you anything back!" Man, it was such a long time since he had met a proper storyteller! There was a clear difference with exchanging rumours, and actually

And with that said, He proceeded to grab her hand pretty roughly, as he pulled her along, seemingly out of the festival and more back towards the lake with the trees. It was clear the guy didn`t mean to cook his fish at one of the stalls.

At this point, Kurdran was excited and hungry enough to not notice, how the poor lady he was dragging along was reacting to all the things he had been saying. He kept up decently quick pace, as the rod in his hands waggled against the slight pressure of air smacking against it. As a sight, it was almost like an insanely hairy child pulling his mother around to show her something cool he had seen, which garnered quite a giggle from the other festival visitors.

Soon enough, they reached the place which Kurdran wanted to go to. Unsurprisingly, it was the beach they had been at before. Since the competition was over, most of the people had already left for their own celebrations, besides some stragglers, who seemingly wanted similar calm place as Kurdran was looking for... as much as he was the on to usually ruin it.

"Alrighteh!" he huffed and puffed a bit. He had kept his pace up through the whole trip. He stuck his Rod into the sand, as it tipped forward a bit from the weight of the fishes on it. Then, he weirdly proceeded to stuff his hand into his hair... "Eh?" He only now realized what shape his hairdo was in. "Man, the shock ye gave me must have been worse than I thought!" However, he seemingly proceeded to grab something inside it... as he pulled out a seemingly tiny bit dirty kimono, as he ruffled most of the dust and hairs off of it. "Ye can wait here, I`ll go grab some sticks and what not..."

At this point he realized Vivianna had already taken a seat on the sand and was already ready for a storytime on his behalf...  "Och... Patience. I gotta put the fire up and what not... for atmosphere ye know! ...AND the fish!" Bloody hell. Kurdran typically had to get people excited first, before he would get to tell his stories. "Besides, if I`m gonna lay em all out, we are gonna be here till tomorrow. So gotta get comfortable! This ladies excitement to come up with a story about HIS stories instead made him pick up the pace drastically, as he gently just put the kimono on the ground, sprinted over to the trees, his eyes hounding for sticks and branches, as they piled up into his hugging arms. Soon enough, he returned, and put most of the sticks into a decently sized pile, while keeping a pile of the longer ones next to himself.

"Okay..." He looked at the different things bundled around. "Now, we should be ready!" He rubbed his hands together, from which he transitioned to rubbing his hair. This time, there was no anguish of worry on his face. "What would ye like to hear? Godly mishaps, Adventurous scuffles, Dwarven determination?" He chuckled, as there was once again tiny bits of lightning moving through his hair. It was seemingly getting smaller and smaller, with the rough combing he was giving to it with his hands.

"Oh, but first! a dwarven riddle!" With one final swipe of his hands, his hair had once again become a nice long mohawk, worthy of a dwarf like himself. The lightning crackled inside the hairdo, as he excitedly laughed, only to transition into mischievous smile. "Yer planning to do yer evening businesses. Ye know, boil yer dinner, light the candle so ye can see yer daily earnings, and warm up the water in yer bath." He pointed at her. "Each of these things need you to light up a fire so you can do em." Kurdran seemingly stopped to think for a minute, before he gave another look at her. He didn`t wanna give any hints. "So, the question is... what should ye light up first, to make sure ye always start the right way?" Kurdran was clearly giggling to himself. He was planning something.

Even with brief showings he had received, Kurdran couldn`t help but be outright fascinated by Viviannas magic. She was seemingly drawing all kinds of little critters that fluttered about... When he got closer, she just said something about "letting go". Did she wink at him? "Eh, I am gonna keep me hair up now meself. Don`t want it accidentally burning." He had pretty much just cleaned it at the very same beach, although briefly. Getting it dirty again was kind of a waste of a bath.

Hearing the ladies preferences in stories, there was a bit of a dissapointed nod on Kurdrans face. Those were the best kind of stories, why wouldn`t she wanna hear them!? "Ech, alright. may as well...  But now, answer ME riddle!" he patted his thighs, as his hair continued crackling. He was so excited to see if the girl would fall for it. There was a minor flinch at a certain word... but as she stated that she chose to light the candle, he grabbed his belly and laughed, falling on his back. "Hehehe! Ye fell for it! Ye said it but ye fell for it either way!"

he stood back up, as he brushed his electric hairdo with his palms one more time. "Ye see, if ye wanna even get to lighting up the others...!" Suddenly, the hair on his arms electrified as well, as he pushed them into the pile of sticks. "Ye gotta light up, what yer using to light the things up first!" The brief minimal strikes of lighting in his hands struck against the branches, as they set aflame. He proceeded to throw some more smaller sticks on them, as the fire slowly grew into a comfy campfire.

"One of em riddles the older dwarves tended to tell us younger ones to get us to think outside the box." He seemed to be reminiscing a bit. "We dwarves have such a good memory you see, that things like this tend to spread for a long time. Its easy to start trends with us if we like ye!" He chuckled. Admittedly, compared to a regular dwarf, he was still quite young and impressionable, so this might just relate to him.

He proceeded to grab his fish from the fishing pole, as he placed them on his kimono. "We are also propably the most work based folk. If we choose to do something, ain`t nothing but forces of nature or gods getting us out of doing it." He put his hands in his pants, as he pulled out something resembling a salt and pepper shaker, and started sprinkling them on the fishes. "Of course, for dat reason, we ain`t exactly the most social. Apparently even our king scoffs at the extra work he gets occasionally. I`ve heard he even kicked out some shopkeeps for making him think of something else than politics for a moment.... Though that`s just a rumor, I admit." He had never seen the king in person himself after all.

He proceeded to flip the fish, and spiced them up from the other side as well. "Apparently, me mom and dad met by accident, with their jobs colliding. Ye know, a miner and a blacksmith, stuff like this happens all the time..." Then he picked up one of the longer sticks, as he speared one of the salmon on it. "Me dad accidentally brough some copper ore instead of iron, and me mum was pissed. Told him he sucked at his job. But me dad, he was the sort who wanted to one up people on their insults!" He speared the other Salmon as well. "So, next time he brought a full LOAD of copper ore and dumped it all on her toes!" He laughed smacking his belly. "After that, they just kept meeting each other more and more awkwardly..."

He lifted up the sticks with the salmon and stuck them at a safe distance from the flames, but at a close enough distance for them to actually warm up. "Oh yeah, which one are ye taking?"

Viviannas reaction to falling for his riddle couldn`t have been much better! The mood for the situation was already reaching pretty good heights even without the food accompanying them! Mild pride rose into his chest as she praised his cooking. "It`s called adapting to a situation and hunting basics! Ye gotta know how to survive outside if ye wanna be manly, hehe!" ...Also, as much as he mocked orchidea, it had really good fish compared to his standard fare.

Vivianna listened intently to everything he told her during the cooking process, as she gave a look towards the town, clearly comparing it to the big dwarven cities. In Kurdrans mind, it was clearly superior... even if he himself had not visited them too often either. Even with his parents having lived there, They had joined a caravan before he himself had been born. Most of his knowledge about the place was based around his parents stories, and very brief visits of selling whatever they had and leaving again. Clearly more adventurous life, but he clearly longed to see it proper one day.

He flinched a bit at the sudden question he got. "Oh, well... That`s very simple." He tapped on the side of his head with his index finger. "I told ye we have good memory right? Well, we also hold a lot of grudges." He visibly shrugged. "We don`t exactly like it when people try to steal our stuff, or stick their noses in places they don`t belong." He widened his hands to the sides in a manner of "it was this big". "and ye should see the kings book! They say it`s the size of a dwarf! Full of everything whatever some kingdom has done that he may not like."

He gasped a bit, as he noticed his fish was almost smoked, as he quickly grabbed it just in time and took his first bite. Crunchy and classic snack although very simple! The size of the salmon clearly helped out though. "Sadly, all of em little mistakes pile up. That`s how I *scronch* got meshelf in drouble..." Luckily the meal was decent for both of them. His mood didn`t go down whatsoever.

He visibly perked up though, as it was Viviannas turn to tell a story! "Dwarf legend!? Go on! Let me have it!" So, dwarf stories were told in the human communities? This ghost guy had to be some bigshot! He took a comfy position, with crossed legs, and kept on munching on his crunchy salmon, as before she started, she took a napkin and cleaned her lips... It seemed kind of extra for him. Its not like she was finished with the fish yet. "No need to be all proper with me! Go wild if ye want!"

However, instead of a heroic story, it was more of a ghost story. Kurdran sat there silently, concentrating on the girls tiniest movements, as she told a story of mysterious red mist, that turned a poor dwarf into a zombie... and when he returned home, every time his former pals were more scared of him than welcoming, as he dropped them what he had caught... He couldn`t help but feel his hairs lifting up a tiny bit.

"...Man, that`s a sad thing to be remembered for. Sleeping on the job, and ending up a zombie..." He nodded his head from side to the side. Not exactly legendary, more unfortunate. "Well, atleast he continued doing what he wanted I suppose... Though, I presume he would have preferred not to be dead." He chuckled... luckily the fishing competition was during the day. "Wonder what the red mist was about though..." Must have been a lich or something, those things were proper jerks.

Then it was his turn. He rubbed his head, as he chomped a bit of fish again. "Righto! Now get ready for the story of... The cave of echoes!" He outright stood up, as he walked around the flame.

"We dwarves have always been folks to live a bit in the dark. We don`t fear deep places of the earth. BUT! We never know what kind of beasties are in there." He moved his hands about the campfire. "However, there was this one mine, where dwarves kept vanishing. Nobody knew why, mostly dwarven curiosity possibly. Rumour even started that there was an outright weird song of groans and mumbles that invited you to come forward and take a rest... Some called it the "Song of the lyncheon"."

"Dwarves kept going in week by week. Some came out awfully befuddled yet alright... They told them that it felt like the cave vibrated every step of the way, and the groans were always getting a tiny bit louder. The more dwarves got out, the more they told of a big beast chasing em. And eventually... the groans could be heard outside." He let out a bit of a moan of his own. "Thus, the dwarves were bewildered. They wanted to kill it before it would kill them. So, they gathered a group of brave people, and ran in weapons held high...!" He raised his hand, as he swung it downwards. "...There was a giant roar, and the cave collapsed in on itself, trapping the poor peeps inside."

He sat back down. "Eventually they dug it open, and found out that the cave was just full of the sort of materials that bounce sounds about... which made the place very dangerous when ye got a bit too loud. They made a killing apparently out of those stones." He suddenly grinned. "Yet, they still say the beast lives in the mine to this day! As the moans still keep coming out, inviting them for a lyncheon and to nap just for a moment..."

He took a big bite of his fish. "I remember actually shaking meself when I heard that one the first time!" He scrubbed his arm. it was awkward yeah. "But enough about us dwarves fer now... Ye got any legends based around stars? I know we tend to name em for the silliest of things." He looked intrigued to hear human opinion on them first.

Inspiration for the story provided by...:

This was propably the first time, besides Lilja, where someone actually felt relaxed with Kurdran around. And taking that he had pretty much invited her, He couldn`t help but swell up with pride again. Of course she was relaxed. It was him being the host!

Kurdran was a bit thoughtful, as vivianna gave her own opinion on the story she had given... It was certainly one way to look at it. But in Kurdrans mind, it was still clearly more sad than glorious. The man died and became a feared creature, who was still admired. He was completely clueless about people respecting him. How would that be a good thing? His head nodded a bit to the side, as she shook her head, and proceeded to make them tea. "Pfeh, I`ll try it. If only we had some coffee beans... That`s the stuff for when you wanna stay awake." Kurdran, as to be expected, was not exactly a tea drinking man, with the main image of its drinkers being elves, which he didn`t like. However, with Vivianna offering it, He accepted it with surprising courtesy. Even the power of excitement over these stories had their limit on keeping him up.

Her comments on his own story had him chuckling. "Well, if we dwarves think there is trouble, we are usually BRAVE and STRONG enough to handle it!" He briefly flexed in viviannas direction proudly. "Usually it works, and if it doesn`t, its propably simple enough to fix." and typically, the ones who returned were seen as sort of heroes for simply their bravery. However, her words about "things becoming what they`re thought to be" lingered in his mind. What did she mean by that?

He noticed her fish was slowly running out. He grabbed the two trouts still hanging from the rod, and speared them, as he put them closer to the flame, throwing some more sticks into it. Right after, with realization, that it was Viviannas turn to tell a story, he laid down. "Gonna relax meself a bit, since we aint doing ghost stories no more, hehe!"

Since Kurdran wasn`t exactly booksmart, hearing that her next thing was from a book didn`t weaken his excitement one bit. It started simple enough, with humans pretty much having a similar thing to dwarves, with constellations talking about legendary figures.

But as it went on, more and more did it resonate within Kurdran. According to Vivianna, the stars embodied the memories and stories told, even when the stories themselves died. The stars formed with each new story... and slowly changed the thing they signified. Yet, the person the stars were for always had a heroic image left behind... And the story of an elven martyr of all thing made the previous story sink in. "So yer saying..." he rolled onto his back. His mind was trying to comprehend all these thoughts that were coming into his head. "To be remembered forever... you need to become a star?" For Kurdran, this thought had him outright shaking. It seemed so much bigger than him... Yet, the thought of your memory never dying, your glory only being amplified as time went on, even after you died, ever changing and evolving...

"Cognitive what now?" Admittedly, some of it was way too big for his dwarven brain to handle. However, He smiled, as he tried to see some stars in the reddening sky. "I like this way of thought... I like it a lot." He mumbled.

It was Kurdrans turn again. He sighed. "Well, it is pretty similar to yer line of thought. Ye know, the stars represent specific figures in history." His fingers traced along the sky, as he suddenly lifted his index finger. "But usually, it implies that the star is created during the stories and remains as this sort of beacon for the future generations." He lifted himself up into a sitting position. "Fer example. Ye`ve propably seen this humongous star near Scorpio? That stars name is "Ragnars gaze". He was a dwarven king from many dwarven generations ago apparently." He pointed towards the sky in the stars general direction.

"The dwarves used to be split into different clans, and challenged each other into different kinds of games to determine which had the most power. This one year, it was about kicking the ball as far as you could." He stood up, seemingly forming the ball in his hands. "However, when it came to one-eyed Ragnars turn, the other clans replaced his ball with a giant rock, which broke his toes upon contact." He kicked the sand. "The laughter of everybody and the disrespect made him snap. As he grew in size somehow... Grabbed the ball and threw it into the heavens!" He swung his arm copying the motion.

"And the rock is still there... Ragnars eye still judges, that we always follow, and respect the rules." He sat down, as he gazed in the stars direction, like a naive child who believed every word of it. "I wanna be like those folks... Be remembered and respected fer what I do..." The trouts were starting to smoke a bit next to the flames.

Kurdran flashed a little bit betrayed look in Viviannas direction. This face of lowered eyebrows and tired gaze, combined with a bulging lower lip. He believed most of the things he was telling, aside from little bit flashier language used for some of them. Hearing that she doubted the stories a bit was almost insulting. "Pfeh. Ye don`t really get it do ye?" He turned his back towards her, as he scratched the side of his belly. "Anybody can write a book, and leave a mark. But that mark is pretty much just a pile of firewood!" He emphasized his point, by throwing some sticks in the flames again.

"Whilst a good story keeps branching forward WITHOUT needing a bundle of papers!" ...Admittedly, this small outburst was not because of her being rude. Kurdran was just the kind of dwarf who didn`t read too much things, much preferring to say things outloud if he felt like telling them. "Besides, a book will just gather dust. I can guarantee ye me mouth will never be dusty!"

...However, after listening to a bit more of her explanation, he nodded. "Oh, now I get it..." She was talking about leaving some sort of chronicle of your life behind. Albeit, Kurdran was a bit too young by dwarven standards for writing something like that yet.

However, the question that she posed was simple even for Kurdran to understand... but it made him visibly blink. Come to think of it, he had never actually thought about it like that. "Well... Th-thats simple! I uh...!" He proceeded to scratch his head, pressing his other thumb under his chin like a monkey, looking side to side. What DID he want to be remembered as? A big ol`war hero? A legendary adventurer? The best bar emptier in the whole word? A great leader of dwarven people!? All these ideas seemed so grand and worthy of sharing!

Yet none of them felt like a glove in his hand! The familiar sparks of electricity appeared in his hair again, as he flicked his head towards the skies. "Too many to choose!" He lowered his head down, as the sparks slowly subsided. "W-well, ye could say I ain`t picky... Although if I were to choose where to START from..."

He lifted his hands up wiggling his fingers hauntingly again. "I`d propably like to kill some big old menace. Something that is so clearly evil, Nobody would doubt me to be the good guy!" He chuckled. "I want people to praise me for what I do, whatever it is I do!" He was pretty honest about it. His dream was huge. Yet, it had a simple premise. He reached out to grab his crispy trout, almost shoving it into his mouth in one bite. "After all, that`s how people remember ye! Being good enough to be praised!

He looked towards vivianna. "How about ye? Ye got dreams like this?" His head nodded to the side. "Or have ye checked yer fortune for it already, hehe?

After his momentary ranting, Kurdran reached out to grab his own cup of green tea, as he sniffed it, and
(a little bit reluctantly) sipped it. There was a minor *gulp*, as his face looked befuddled for a moment from the bitter taste. However, with occasional more common sips, he seemingly got used to the taste, taking even proper mouthfuls.

His attention was soon caught by the weird white liquid in-between Viviannas hands. "Another riddle?" No, it wasn`t. His eyes proceeded to stare at the little show that unfolded in front of his eyes: It was him! Proud, standing over something, as people cheered. "Don`t tell me... is it...!" And soon, a dead beasts head rose, as his leg was sitting on it, as she described the situation. "Yes! Exactly like that!" He stood up from excitement...

As the ink swirled again. Revealing another scene... that made his eyes go wide again, as he burst into short fit of laughter. "Hehehe, very funny. I ain`t that much of a hippie!" He still had too much warrior blood moving in him after all. Next scene showed a similar situation... but one that praised him seemingly for being smart. "Now that`s a bit more like it!"

Then came the final one... In which he saw presumably himself getting crushed under foot to save a little child. He was visibly silenced for a moment. He had actually forgotten how many of the dwarven stories ended. Although the kid would certainly tell the tale... it didn`t have him exactly as excited, as the other options did. He rubbed his beard, and took another sip of the tea to clear his head.

and this time, it was Kurdrans time to listen to her, as she proceeded to explain how a great book could start a story for somebody else, and how they could always return to the beginning of it to see how it all started... "I dunno... Like ye said, the stars would remember it. Although..." He couldn`t help but be intrigued by the idea of somebody being inspired to tell their own story by his tales. "Perhaps they ain`t so bad. But, Ye reading em outloud would propably be way more attention grabbing, kind of like yer magics, ye get me?" He certainly loved watching the visuals.

However, when she brought up the fact she was an author, Kurdran was clearly a bit shook. "Och, I-I`m sorry, I didn`t mean to insult ye!" It was certainly very different from his usual demeanor. However, as the lady went on, Kurdran couldn`t help but feel this weird amount of kinship. They both clearly enjoyed their listener giving some sort of reaction to whatever they told. And when she brought up healing the dwarf after his fight, He chuckled. "Heh, I wouldn`t mind, thats fer sure." Even Kurdran could see the connection, as an idea started swirling his head...

However, the question she asked next, knocked the thoughts out of him. He scoffed, as he turned his head away from the flames and onto the sand. "Ye should know... Ye told me They either hate me in secret, or outright lied to me." After his talk with Lilja, his image of his family back home was that of hateful liars. "...I hope they all don`t though..." He sighed loudly.

"Ye see, When I was a kid, ye know, 20 or so, I got to know some info on treasures of me clan..." His shoulders slumped. "Info which I often shared to get attention... I got messed often, proceeded to attack a guard of em cause they promised to tell me something of their own... and now I am here trying to reclaim em..." The mohawk outright fell sideways. It was still not exactly a thing he liked to talk about. But he was always open about whatever he spoke about.

"Been thinking I would go and tell em to go to heck... But me family`s there too. I can`t hate em... I have no clue which of em hate me... besides the boss..." His head was starting to fill up with unpleasant thoughts again. The hard ones. The things that he couldn`t drop.

He drank the last of his tea. "...although, I`ve met quite a few ladies after ye told me one would help me. You included actually." He scratched his head. "I just dunno which one of em actually is supposed to do it." It was a bit lighter thought. "Perhaps I just have that dwarven charm."

Kurdrans eyes seemed to drift in the distance, as vivianna asked a bit more details about what he had just said. He had told this before to others... but this time he was completely sober. It was hard to dig through things without anything to cushion the blow even a little bit. "Well... I WAS 20 years old... I made the mistake multiple times... And they got tired of it after I actually hurt someone..." It had been about 2 years since he was kicked out... For a dwarf it was not a very long time, but the wound from it still felt like a painful scar.

"...The guys were thieves... stole the treasures in the night..." He punched the sand, as his face turned from sad to angry. "I wanna just pound their faces in for lying to me... And maybe they will take me back if I bring the treasures back..." He sighed... "Two years, and I`ve got nothing..." Currently that was his only job. and he was spending it how he wanted to spend it. But this failure loomed behind him like a giant ghost, reminding him of its presence whenever he dared to dwell on it.

There was a momentary respite, as he lifted his gaze. Maybe they would take him back if he was cool? But then it nodded back down. "...They would just mumble behind me back. The failure of a midget comes home to brag about how cool he is without paying anything back." He smiled... although it felt a bit fake. It was a silly sentence, but it was pretty much him insulting himself. "I know I wanna tell em exactly what I`ve seen..." He mumbled.

After that, this awkward silence lulled for a little bit. She just eating, and Kurdran just looking forward trying to gather his thoughts to feel proud again. His own trout had gone charred black, and overall the mood was a bit grumpy.

Until Vivianna started staring at him with a loud "Ah!" Kurdran stared back with wide eyes of befuddlement, as his eyebrows twisted in confusion. He even blinked a couple of times. "What? What!? Whatcha looking at? Me hair weird again?" He actually pressed his hand against his hairdo. Nope, this time it was still standing.

She proceeded to grab her card decks... Was she gonna make another prediction? In Kurdrans mind it felt sort of pointless. After all, he already knew what the future told... But instead, she pulled out a single card, smiling happily. It was a card of a naked lady pouring water in a pond and on the ground, as a giant star surrounded by many more shone behind her.

"The star?" He listened as she described what had happened to him, and told him about it. About it being full of hope, and a failure and end of something, was just the beginning of many new roads. Many new roads he could take. Many new stories he could experience. Many more people he could meet.

He grabbed the card, and stared at it, ignoring her minor worries. Although, the warm smile she gave off towards him really warmed him up from the inside, his mohawk rising up. His eyes were gleaming. He proceeded to stand up himself.

"Well, now I`ve got one start to me name atleast! Can`t be too bad, if that is the case!" This stout man laughed outloud, staring at the card. If he didn`t hit the giant star in the middle, he would just make one of the 6 smaller stars a bigger one! "Maybe I won`t go and tell em to heck off! I`ll just go and tell em what I`ve been doing! Somebodys bound to have a chuckle at em!" And to him, that was what he wanted as a storyteller.

Though, with the evening ending, and the fire of the camp slowly dwindling, he looked at vivianna, and back at the card. "Where will ye go next, if I may ask?" It was sad, but he could assume she was not from the north. They would need to go their separate ways. "Gotta prepare some new stories for the next time we meet!" he tapped his belly. "And also..." He leaned towards her with this weird gleam in his eyes.

"If ye need a main character for yer chronicles, I am yer man! Ye can heal me anytime ye want!" A final boastful laughter emerged from his gut. As he placed the card onto his belt. "That, or I can just give ye some chapters if ye ever need to fill it with some extras!" She did say, that a book would spread their fame further than ever. and with her at the helm of writing their stories...

Becoming a star perhaps wasn`t so far away!