Every day that she worked had been quite busy but of course there wasn't anyone at this hour, either they were saying: it's too early to drink or they were already drunk enough to not be able to drink anymore and she refused to help those and send the other waiters or waitresses over to fix their drinks. So the short girl was leaning on the bar and sighing loudly, blowing her hair out of her face and sighing again. It was okay weather, it had been rather warm the last couple of days but she managed to stay alive without melting in her high waist grey jeans and her dark red crop top, not exactly her waitress outfit but as Odin wasn't around. Besides, she was here as a sort of volunteer, she could understand wearing okay outfits if she was part of a wedding catereer, but next time she would like to know that before going. Not that she had gone with a happy feeling before that she knew that, so that didn't change much.

If only someone interesting would come around, she had a lot of things that she could come up with to do, she was so bored that she made plans from whomever she bumped into on her short list of people she met. She even made up if she bumped into partners of people. As she had made assumptions at that wedding, eh life was boring in this way.

"Liljaaaaaa!!!"

That familiar friendly cry was at this point propably familiar to his target. With her no longer in the bar dress, it was very easy for Kurdran to notice her from the front of the bar.

Overall, Kurdran had at this point felt like he had experienced pretty much all unique things that he could from the festival. After all the drinking, bar discussions, weird people he had met, songs and little games, and all sorts of fancy food, He felt overall satisfied... and if he wasn`t still bloated with the satisfaction of winning his sector of the fishing competition, He would have propably been outright bored. Because of this, he had been doing a lot of actual work instead... which had proven to be mostly less fun than being at the festival. With the thoughts slowly lingering, he felt like having a drink, and since he knew what the best stall in the festival was, his choice was obvious.

And one of the reasons why it was the best, was just outright standing in front of it right now. He ran over to the girl as fast as his stubby legs carried him, and for a bit leaned against his knees. "Me favourite barsmaid!" He lifted his head, as his mouth curled into a smile. "Ye wouldn`t believe what I`ve done these last few days!" However, his eyes glanced towards her very much weirder wardrobe. It had some more... Spunk, if he could call it that, but it wasn`t like her clothes back from the time she offered him a lot of drinks.

The gears sort of clicked. If she wasn`t in her "serving outfit" then... "Gah, of course. I feel like having a drink again, and the bars closed." He scratched his head. "And I ain`t gonna be drinking the orchidean fruit juices again so..." He sort of sighed. He felt like he was under a dry spell.

However, he did remember another thing he had mumbled back then. "Wait, does that mean yer free finally? That barkeep not keeping ye here no longer today?" He asked. He clearly had something in his mind. Though it might have been obvious for Lilja just from the insinuation. After all, she had been the awake party of the duo.

If she would have been chewing bubble gum, or more like pop bubbles, it would now surely make a popping sound as she had never heard someone yell out her name or well her now name, as she still didn't carry the Nastasya name, which still didn't feel like her own, no matter how hard her friends had tried. It wasn't her yet, she would work on that, hopefully with the need for her magic. She had been leaning on the bar but stood now upstraight to see her friend, her friend that didn't want her to change back to Nastasya as he knew her as Lilja, just as he called out her name and a smile crept up on her face, "I've been waiting for ages, what took you so long." she said with a snicker, she had not been waiting specifically for Kurdran but he surely brought the most fun around.

She made a fake curtesy as Kurdran called her, his favourite barmaid, well this job at least got her something; free drinks. Although she wasn't sure if Odin was okay with that. But as Kurdran wanted to tell her something, she patted the barstool next to hers and instead of leaning against the bar, climbed on one, "What did you do? We haven't seen you or I did not for a few days." Than again she had been here and there herself, catering for a wedding, instead where she had thought she would simply be there for fun but nope. She laughed, "They aren't closed silly, I just didn't feel like wearing that stupid dress anymore and since I basically am best friends with the owner, I thought screw it and came here in my own clothing. So let's drink." But perhaps not that much, she had to think of some action and.. Kurdran seemed to be reading her thoughts.

she thought about it, "Oh I will take my day off today, no problem. I mean I did cater a wedding two weeks ago, I deserve a month holiday after that." She shook her head slightly with the grey hair getting out of her eyes again.

Kurdran looked confused for just a tiny moment, when Lilja said she had been waiting for him. "...Wait, did I tell ya we were gonna meet?" Ugh, his memory was betraying him for once. He scratched his head confuddled. Well, she had made the offer but... "Eugh, sorry you had to wait. Like I said, been a bit busy..." That or he had just drank too much. To remember.

Nevertheless, Kurdran was still very happy about her being so happy to see him still. The way she reacted to things just stuck to him as way more positive than moody and alluring lately. And honestly, that`s how he preferred her to be.

"Oh, well just you know... I went and won the big fishing competition here! Got a lot of good fish from that!" He rubbed his belly. "Though I`ve already eaten the proof. Atleast the fish here ain`t malnourished!" He showed his teeth in his trademark grin of pride and accomplishment. "Oh, ye should have seen the salmon! They were the size of me head, mohawk and beard counting!" He lifted his hand to the top of his "crown", and to the bottom of his "stubble". "The rest of the stuff though, well, for now, lets just say it involves a real fancypants elf getting in trouble." Though she wasn`t really that annoying of a person. For an elf atleast.

Kurdran blushed a bit at his mistake. "Pfeh, it`s not like I work here... I just come and drink and talk with ye is all..." He mumbled in annoyance. The girl did still have her stinger, despite being covered in typical bumblebee fuss. Apparently she was wearing her current clothes just because her boss wasn`t around. So he was atleast right in that regard. "Better for ye to be honest." He chuckled a bit. "It shows yer body shape a lot better if ye know what I mean, hehe." Admittedly, she wasn`t exactly his type, with her kind of thin form, but fancy dresses tended to just hide things. Besides, He was not exactly a fashion guru himself, so who was he to talk.

Kurdrans initial reaction to maybe getting a free drink was almost starry eyed and excited. "Of cour...!" but before finishing his shout, he froze completely, as he realized something. "Uhm, uuuh... N-n-no thank ye..." There was clear struggling in his head. it was visible from his eyebrows clearly going wild, sending signals such as "no, we must not" and "Maybe just one wee drink", until he properly squashed his face in between his hands. "I mean, if ye wanna do the thing ye know... I don`t wanna be like an overtly emotional baby and get us in trouble ye know."

Kurdrans mood clearly got a bit better, as he heard
about Lilja being free for the day... and about her wedding visit. "Joyous occasions those. Though propably not from the servers position, hehehe! Some people familiar to you? Tell me all a" However, once again, before she would go on, he lifted a finger and went "SSSSSH! Actually just tell me whilst we are on our way. dunno how long that trip`ll be after all."

He was trying to be awfully secretive about whatever he was saying, like it was illegal. Well, it was, and for his demeanor, loud speech was pretty normal. However, he leaned in a bit closer to Lilja, as he tried to whisper something to her in a voice, that was definitely not a whisper, but clearly a bit less loud than how he typically spoke. "I mean, we were supposed to go to the... uuh..."

"Black Market?"

He had to make sure they were on the same page.

She laughed when she noticed the confused look on Kurdran's face, "Would you forget me if that was the case? Because at this point, we had no appointment but I was so bored I hoped you would show up for the best beer in town." Which was strange to say as the pub originally was in Oak but it was not a lie in any case, as the two of them had already noticed before, the beer here was more fruity than they were used and even if she didn't hate it that much, it wasn't something she liked that much either. She couldn't help but laugh again because it was so funny to see and that he even apologized. She was in a good mood now he was here and because she felt like she could take a day off or more because of that bloody wedding, she felt like she could do whatever she wanted. There were enough other people to take care of the bar, she had looked at that and hoped to be picked out by one of her four friends to pick her up and the most fun did~!

She stared at Kurdran in surprise though when he said he won the fishing contest. There were multiple, she had known that and she had lost to one guy and crossed her arms and grumbled a bit, surely she was happy for her friend, "You think fishing up a damn crocodile makes you win but no." she muttered as she was now trying to make him her pet, which was a tough job. But she clapped, "But yes you won! I lost against some blonde that I later saw on his own wedding." she shook her head. Salmon, did she catch one? She had been so proud of her crocodile.

She raised her eyebrow, "An elf?" Where she shortly told Kurdran afterwards that the bar wasn't closed and grinned happily as he said he came here also a bit for her. "Those dresses are not my thing." she said and having her hair, already so short, in a ponytail was dumb so she was glad that Odin wasn't here and she could be dressed how she wanted. She offered him a free drink now that they weren't closed, also to see if he had any other plans and at first she turned around to order because he started but he said no and she looked surprised, one couldn't harm? She didn't plan to push because he seemed to not sure about his no and she didn't want to be the one who pushed him to drink. "Ah the thing. Yea that seems fine." Because well it would be a better adventure. She understood where he came from with no drinking and decided against it too. She had still the new use of her magic, if it needed to be she could just try it. Better without alcohol in her short body.

She opened her mouth to say something more about the wedding and stared surprised at Kurdran and laughed shortly after, "Yes let's go." she jumped off the chair again and wondered shortly where the black market for this town was again but she remembered it vaguely and let her feet carry her. She waited for Kurdran to come too before she started to walk, better not really talk about their destination, "There were a lot of people at the wedding, this ginger marrying this blonde and I only really know Esperia and her lover, the bar owner was there and ehm.. a few elves." She thought about it, she barely paid attention to them after all, she had been grumpy because of the job.

Liljas little reveal made Kurdran clearly a bit miffed. Not enough to make him outright explode, but enough for it to be noticeable on his eyebrows twisting downward, and lips curling into a frown. However, he did feel a bit better upon hearing that she wouldn`t be bored with him around. "Don`t ye be rude to me now! Othervise I might not come next time, hehe!" It was clearly a joke. Lacking proper mead like the on in this one was too hard to to leave behind.

Then he heard, that Lilja had outright caught a crocodile, and still lost. "Y-YE CAUGHT A CROCODILE!? Man, that was WAY better than his haul combined! How the hell did she do it with her frail body!? However, the bigger problem was definitely the "Okay, that`s clearly some bloody favouritism by the judges!" He outright stomped angrily in place for a little moment to release some steam. "And I thought that bloody demon ladies win was pulled out her buttocks! Musta used magic to charm the things!" A proper warrior would lift their things up with their bare hands, not need to give the fishes a demon fetish... "Ye could have given the crocodile to him as a wedding present. A bit of a prank to start the happy marriage. I would have payed to see him running with a hole on the butt of his pants, hehe!"

Kurdran had tiny bit of a look of a puppy, who was regretting its life choices, as lilja pushed away the beer offer. It was better this way obviously, but it clearly didn`t hurt his dwarven soul any less.

However, they were on the way very quickly, almost so quickly, that the only thing Kurdran had to answer to her sentence with was "Alrighty then!" With his stubby legs, it was kind of hard to keep up with people sometimes. However, soon they were on their way to a place, that only she knew. And he couldn`t help but wonder about it...

Atleast until she started talking about the wedding. And once again, that familiar name stung into his ear like an annoying bee. "Bloody Esperia... How the hells she allowed everywhere, when she`s got a bloody demon filling her tankers all the time?" Actually, that might be one of the reason, atleast for the dumber crowd. However, the other thing Lilja brought up, was that she was there with her lover. "Och, never seen her before... Poor gal must be possessed. What does she look like? I bet she has bags under her eyes..."

Side-eyeing her, he did notice she wasnt exactly excited about talking about the wedding more than necessary. "So... How did ye find out about the market. Some pal of yers, or just natural thinking? I hope whatever treasury they have ain`t properly scratched..." Just the thought of bringing up damaged property he had lost in the first place had him a bit worried.

She shook her head with a smile on her lips, well at least he understand part of the joke or perhaps all of it. All Nastasya did was work here, not meet people, not get anything from her memory back well her friends were off to do, whatever they needed to do. And that was fine of course but on one hand it made it so limited to herself, she needed to have some of the memories back and it wasn't really working and.. she didn't need to think about that now because that would kill the fun. So she focused on the conversation why Kurdran really was here.

At least the conversation about the fishing contest got her distracted, the reaction of Kurdran when she told him more or less, she muttered that she had caught a crocodile, "Yea, I'm trying to make it my pet but that's not so easy as I hoped." Not what she expected, she expected that it would be difficult and she had no magic to make it afraid of her really. She laughed a little, "No they certainly were impressed but it's a total amount of points and the crocodile wasn't enough together with the rest of the shrimp I got and his, I believe those Salmons. Who knows if it bores me I got some nice boots for the future." That was a joke, she would probably bring it back to the lake as the judges would have wanted, but she was still Nastasya or Lilja and she didn't do well to listen to things she didn't like. She didn't really got what he meant with the demon ladies, they still fished in a way, they couldn't charm the rods now could they? But the idea of giving that blonde the crocodile made her laugh. "I think my boss wouldn't agree. I rather don't get kicked out even if I hate it, it gives me money."

She herself should have taken a drink but if she wanted to focus on her ability that she had, the teleportation, only used twice, once when she was focused and once on her own account. Perhaps she would need it later to scare some high and might guys off, she wondered how they would react to a dwarf especially one that only came to look for answers, not something else. But she didn't say that, in case needed; she would protect him. "Who knows, perhaps they work together greatly and she can be nice." Of course she didn't know the meeting that she and Kurdran had but well Asmodeus helped her get a piece of the puzzle back.

"I don't think her partner is possessed, it might be true love." Not that she believed in that, there was no one out there for her. That much was sure. Perhaps it was time to tell Kurdran the truth, "I know about the black market," she stopped talking and let out a deep sigh, "Because I used to do the dirty work as well. I'm not the easy well happy barmaid that you know. I don't know that person anymore and I am a barmaid, Lilja is but I told you, I learned my original name is Nastasya and she or well I, I used to belong to a dark guild." That's how she knew. She walked on, she didn't want to see his reaction or realize that he stopped following her.

Kurdran was simply amazed still by the fact that the girl in front of him had caught, and even succesfully pulled out of water, a full blown crocodile. "Man, I couldn`t be more jealous. A full blown crocodile of your own..." Admittedly, he had never eaten crocodile. And with how thick their skin was, it had always been a bit more work than it was worth to skin was. Though, when she brought up making the thing into shoes, Kurdran shrugged. "Ladies, hehe... Its mouth would make terrific headgear. Nobody messes with a guy whose head is a crocodiles! Making him into just boots would be such a waste with such thick skin." And with his imagination running wild, He even loudly stated an offer! "If the couple doesn`t want it, I`ll happily take parts of it off yer hands!" Heck, if it wasn`t good as a helmet... it would make a dang cool trophy. Now if only he had a wall to put one on.

Kurdran really didn`t like Asmodeus, even with all the convincing Lilja was trying to do. The demon part of her just felt so unstable... a part that Kurdran was very bad at noticing from himself. The girl under the demon herself would propably be a decent person if she wasn`t so snooty though. "Pfeh, Love is blind... or in this case uh... Love is dumb?" Even to Kurdran his thought process felt stupid. "Eugh, I don`t know about that business enough."

Most experience he had out of love, were the kinds of stories, where people typically praised their ladies, or mocked some of the uglier ones. By dwarven standards, he was young enough to not care too much about such things... though... "The dang demon goes around so much, she would have kissed me too if it wasn`t for me swift tongue." You could see him raise his chest up a bit in pride before he realized, he had already told about that one. It really felt like the the demon had the reigns while"...Though who am I to say, I dont need to worry about it for years. Her lassie might be even bigger monster than she is to keep her in line." Now that he thought about it, that strong of a woman he would really like to see. It would propably be better looking than the succubus, no question.

However, after all the ranting, Lilja seemed to be a bit down in the dumps again. "...Did I go too far?" Insulting somebody elses friends was always iffy... It had lead into punches being traded more often than he could count, though back in dwarven society it was usually played for comedy.

...He wasn`t really expecting the explanation he got. "Och..." He had to process his thoughts a bit, as he walked a bit slower. "Well, it does answer the question that`s fer sure..." He hopped a bit quicker to keep up with her. "I guess ye weren`t buying just clothes there then?" Honestly, he still found it a bit hard to believe, with her looks... she wasn`t brittle enough to be an old child eating hag. However, even with these thoughts, he seemed more curious than scared. "...Wait... Does that mean yer boss at the bar...?" His eyebrow rose up. A scary thought came up.

She was no longer ashamed, she was afraid that Nastasya was more dull than herself but at this point she believed that she was the same being perhaps with less difficulties but that came from a lot more things than simply amnesia. She was actually done with her amnesia but apart from tintling feelings in the back of her mind when her friends told her something, nothing much came back to her. No matter what she tried. She would figure this out at some point. She snickered when Kurdran still mentioned that he was jealous, not many people would say that, but than again perhaps when it came to a crocodile. "Oh well, one day I hope it obeys me." She grinned at him as she looked over her shoulder to her friend. That's what they were friends, that was a good thing. She wasn't so social after all or not that she was used to. Perhaps that happened when you were a compulsive liar.

"Perhaps I donate the headpiece to you, I would have no use of it and if it makes you happy. I bet I still can get some nice sandals without." Now she was more a short heels and boots type but she could sacrifice that. After all she had no guild that she had to join and so on, she could do whatever she wanted. Those these jobs that Lucifer had pointed out were dull.

As she walked on and spoke about Esperia and later heard that love was dumb, she clenched her fist before looking back up again, it was a shame that he was right. She didn't understand why it frustrated her much, perhaps something in her past that she couldn't remember, she felt like she was set up a couple of times and dropped like a brick. "Love is unnecessary." She muttered, not really interested if he heard her, the thing was, she could appreciate friends but that was about it. She needed nothing else. "It's always good to say no to a demon but it's also good to say no to other people, some might not be really a demon but their personalities are not far from it." She felt a wave of anger come over her, perhaps it was indeed something in her past, she didn't need to know. It needed to be out of her system, thank god for the amnesia in that case. She unclenched her fist and walked with her head held high.

She didn't know much about Esperia her lover, so she choose to not give an answer about it and simply shrug. When he asked her about the black market, she decided to be honest, perhaps he expected her to make a joke, she wasn't really afraid, she would obviously find it ashame if he ran away from her now but Kurdran wasn't a person like that. It was a risk she was willing to take, shame it went the wrong way. "Nah there are enough fashion stores for that, besides I simply like practical clothing, I don't care what colour is totally in now." she rolled her eyes when she said totally in, because it sounded like a dumb Blue Pegasus girl, now it came back to the lies, "Ah, no, I have met him in a different way. I accidentally ended up in the catacombs of a church in Oak and." She had to figure it out and frowned with some effort, amnesia now was a bummer, "It was Lucifer that came to help me and I ended up in his pub to get rid of the dirt, the thirst and hunger." Thank god she didn't forget to tell the right name for her friend, instead of Odin, and apart from that the lie wasn't that for the full hundred percent. After all, that was one of the first things she had done together, after a couple of jobs.

For some dumb reason she wondered if they went back in drunk? Because she remembered something like that.

Kurdran outright flinched a bit, when Lilja proceeded to call love outright "unnecessary". "Hey, you alright mate?" She seemed so much more frustrated for whatever reason too. After that, she proceeded to tell how a person doesn`t necessarily need to be possessed by a demon to be demonic in personality. Kurdrans only real reaction was him scratching the side of his head, with a nod of agreement. "Tell me about it." after all, he himself would not be in this mess if he had not been swindled by so many similar people... The air was clearly a tiny bit more negative...

Because of that, it was a bit harder to laugh at her little joke about not knowing what color clothes were "in" currently. Kurdran shrugged briefly. However, now he finally heard her bosses name. And it made him wonder... The name was clearly demonic in nature... it wouldn`t surprise him if he was somehow related to asmodeus. "Yer friends have real untrustworthy names, ye know that right?" He had to get it out of his system. It was like a huge obvious red flag, waving in the air like his mohawk. "Though I dunno. Perhaps he just had real mean parents." Another shrug followed. Who names their kid "satan"? That is like specifically asking to get your kid bullied... Although it would be a dang cool name when an adult...

A bit of an awkward silence lulled in the air for a little while, as they continued walking towards their destination. Kurdran turned his head about, looking at all these new things he had not seen. Orchidea couldn`t have been more different from oak... and it really didn`t mess well with him. "Don`t wanna be that person, but how long till we get to the door, where we are gonna knock a secret password and get in?" That`s how it went in the stories about the places that is for sure. The people just had never been exactly clear about the placement of them, so his info was not exactly useful. "Besides, if yer memorys a bit slippy, we could perhaps just break through, and get to bashing heads! They are criminals after all, it aint bad to bash em right?"

She turned to look at Kurdran as he asked if she was alright, "Why wouldn't I be? Is it because of what I said? I stand by that, people make stupid decisions because of love." And that was their damn weakness that she no longer would accept, after the tight feeling in her own chest, she had the idea that she had fallen in that trap called love one or two times, perhaps even more and she wouldn't give in to that. She wouldn't become weak and she realized that she as Lilja preceided herself as Nastasya in that. Perhaps she lost her memory because of the weakness. She brushed the short grey hair behind her ear and looked at Kurdran, "I might make exceptions for friends though." Else it might be so bad to say this at all. Good she only considered four people her friend.

Also she continued about the idea of a demon, Asmodeus at least tried to help her but again, that feeling that she was trapped, fallen for a trap of love, it made those people demons, as well as her own parents. But they were death, by her own hands, she looked at her right hand, the long skinny fingers, but no one needed to know that. She walked on, it was outside the town so they better hurry up a bit, but she wasn't someone that would start to run, everything at their own pace, she looked again at the dwarf and chorted, "If people tend to judge people like that wait till you see him, he is a lich." But she shook her head, she had to actual protect him, "He still serves the best beer in town, here and Oak. I don't think it's a crime to be a bar owner and friendly to people, take the lost people in." Wew that was the best she could do, she looked away, as she couldn't hide the disgust of her own speech for Kurdran. She actually had no idea about Odin his parents, but neither would he have about her own, surprising how you never really spoke about that, it was a subject that simply didn't matter, "Of course that's an option. Your parents don't define who you are. Else I would be a real doll of a girl." with her father being a doll maker.

When the conversations stopped, Lilja needed to pay her attention to the route, there was not much she remembered, so she had to wait for a familiar sense that she depended on most of the time, she turned to the left, waving Kurdran to come with her, there must be somewhere a fallen tree and a huge rock, that would be moved away with magic as you said the right password, now that would be a challenge, sometimes there were others around to help as well as get some jewels out of that, how else would newbies enter a black market after all. "If you look for a normal door, you would be already lost and it's a sort of password, it triggers a magic spell." She frowned, "Which I try to remember." She left the path as she found the right white tree, the only one in this small patch of woods and she found the fallen tree and the rock that was about twice as long and three times as broad as her, so not something you could simply push aside. "Here it is. The bashing can be done as soon as we get passed this."

Yup. He had clearly touched upon something annoying. Her answer to his confusion was pretty much a mini rant about the subject. He scratched his nose almost teasingly. "Yer gonna make an exception to not call me an idiot if I fall in love?" He smiled wide with a snicker. "Don`t ye worry! It`ll take a looong while before I tie the noose, if ye know what I mean." He had way too much stories to gather before he could lay them on a ton of grandkids to hear. Also, his parents would have a hard time arranging anything without him around.

this chuckling demeanor almost froze, as she proceeded to tell him that her boss was a lich. "EEEH!?" His eyes bulged from their sockets... and quickly pulled back in as he shook his head. "...Ye know, I should really get used to this by now. Ye tend to know really weird folk." Heck, she was friends with a demon possessed girl, and the doom and gloom in her tone had this almost monstrous feel to em. However, like she said, looks don`t exactly make a person... although he had not exactly seen him. "Ye`ve got a point there. Guess that dark necromancy business has allowed him to talk to some dead brewmasters or something..." As much as he wanted this to calm his mind, it was still more spineshakey than reassuring, as his mohawk shuffled a bit. In stories, liches were always the bad guy in the background. Thinking of them as even "Semi-decent" felt like a big no no... But with lilja knowing him, he had to be... right?

"And I would be mining me own grave. The classic dwarven way of kicking the bucket!" A small thought about how his parents were doing passed through his head. He had to still go and tell them to bugger off from judging him, but it was clear the wording of it was gonna be crucial. It`s not like he hated his parents, just the folks who didn`t want him coming back!

However, before he could think more on it, it seemed like they had reached their destination... He looked around, locking his eyes on the white tree she pointed out. "Well hidden thats fer sure." For a dwarf atleast. For an elf, this would propably be something they bragged about noticing. And as all of these doors, it required a password to continue. He smiled. "Pfeh, its not like its hard to remember em. I read this one story, which had a treasure hoard in a similar fashion..." They had to have used that. Besides, it didn`t really matter how many times they tried.

He proceeded to look straight towards the tree and the rock in front of it and shouted: "OPEN SAYS-A-ME!"

And almost instantly he felt a breeze fly over his head, as his hair flopped down like a mat after dropping from its rope... He fell on his buttocks as he shook his head, noticing an arrow sticking from another tree. "...Bloody humans... They don`t make traps dwarf sized..." He grumbled for a bit in annoyance. "Got any better ideas?" He looked at Lilja expectantly.

Her red eyes looked at him with annoyance, probably something he already registered from her way of speaking but she gave him a soft smile, the corners of her lips turning upwards, "I would still call you an idiot but I might forgive you. In my opinion, it is just pathetic to do something that might cost you your life all in the name of love. You would get nothing in return after all." But that was again her opinion, also the reason why she said that in the first place. Perhaps it was just something she was not open for and thus was unable to experience. She did not know, she would not want to know at this point and she let it be. She did continue to talk a bit more, about Odin, though she had said his name was Lucifer as it should. Now that she was no longer a part of Grimoire Heart she wondered if it was safe to use her own name, the name that for a few days before had not felt like her own but now it did. Would she need to introduce herself again as Lilja or would she be now safe enough to use her name; Nastasya.

She had already told Kurdran her own name, her real name, she had told him about the amnesia and even that she had been a part of a dark guild, saving Odin in the process for her stupidity. So it was perhaps best to shut her own mouth about that and go on to live the life of Lilja so no harm would be done to anyone she cared about. Perhaps she also should not have said that Lucifer was a lich, but then again at some point he would be at the bar and Kurdran too and he would have seen it himself, "Everyone that reacts like that is presumptuous and childish, so were people at the wedding, they were all happy about the food and drinks but not about him, pathetic." she muttered under her breath as to not give another rant to Kurdran about it. However at that point, it had annoyed her, she had glanced at Odin from time to time because he was the only one she knew and because he had made her work and she had not liked it. Thank god there had been a few to be happy about him and besides he was the best man so the groom and bride were okay with it. She was not sure how she had reacted herself the first time but the second time it was just something of a familiar thing, senses, tinglings that she recognized and was not against it or surprised or worse: scared.

"Weird at least stands for interesting and I rather have that peculiar ability." She gave a short yet cold laugh as he said about the necromancy, she knew that was his magic but it was again an assumption from the past, "Well that worked wonders, best drinks I had and I might not remember the others however I am very certain about it." AS she softly mentioned that she would be a real doll and Kurdran replying that he would be digging his own grave, she did not react. She did not feel the need to pick up a topic that the both of them did not like to talk about. Now that they were standing in front of the huge rock, she wondered in her mind if she could think of the password, it was something that she would have had to scratch in her memory to not forget, that is what she remembered but the specific idea of what it was, was completely lost to her. She turned her eyes at Kurdran not really seeing until she felt the magic and stared at the arrow before taking the three steps towards her friend and offering her hand to help him up. "I'm trying to remember but that would have been a too easy password for a hidden place don't ya think?" She would wait for him to get up before turning back to the rock. She clicked her tongue and tried to remember, it had been something in an old language. That was something she did remember.

"I got another idea." If she remembered right there would be a leveler on the other side, so all she needed to do was successfully remember how it looked, "Stay exactly here, don't move and do not make any sounds." She said and she closed her eyes, focused on the pulling sensation behind her belly button and disappeared, she had not really just disappeared. She had used her teleportation spell, the only one she knew that she could use, as she had accidentally found out. She found the leveler as she was inside and with that activated the rock to move upwards so Kurdran could come towards her.

One thing was strange or perhaps two: there was no one else. No one to gain jewels from telling them the password and no one here waiting to pull the leveler as before. Perhaps something was going on, she would figure this out later.

"Pfeh, Ye don`t know how many people have said that." Sometimes the best places to hide things were the obvious ones. Besides, it`s not like he got hurt for trying it out. He grabbed her arm, as he pulled himself back up grumpily. After that, as Kurdran had guessed, Lilja already had some sort of an idea of how to handle the situation... Though she told him to stay still and quiet. A thing that the dwarf that had pretty much babbled with her through the whole trip wasn`t exactly excited about. "Now listen here...!"

...He was saying that to nothing. His eyes widened as he looked around for a little while, only for his eyebrows to lower with a grunt: Come to think of it, he had never seen the girls magic before. Just never came up as a topic. He proceeded to sit down, and mull over things in his head, as he waited for Lilja to do whatever it was she had planned, whilst fixing his mohawk in the process.

...Come to think of it, she had had quite mood shift in the brief they had walked together. The more he seemingly asked about her, The more nagging she was turning. To him, this was outright weird. Kurdran was never the sort of person who was able to keep stuff in his head, no matter how much it hurt. So Lilja being colder and colder about things the more he brought them up, whilst previously having helped him, now almost felt like she was trying to make him shut up. Only person who she was happy seemingly talking about was this odin, who was an evil lich...

"Bloody human women..." He muttered. He just didn`t get it.

As the door opened, he turned his head like a stocky meerkat and bounced towards it. "Time to clobber some merchants!" He proudly whispered towards her as he bolted towards what he expected to be a giant market place, full of shady folk, who he should be able to perfectly hide in taking his humongous amount of cool tattoos...

Only to find absolutely nothing. Not even a bum asking for gold! Once again his mohawk swirled about with his head like a giant sail. "...Wait a minute... Where the heck is everybody!?" He ran about a bit, just to see if he had a bad perspective going, but nope! Still empty like a rat cage after cleaning. he scratched his head as he suddenly lifted his finger straight up like he had an idea. "Oooh, I get it! There must be ANOTHER secret door somewhere!"

She offered her hand to him, still shaking her head a little. Not too make too much use on energy even thuogh it was obviously a bit too much to think that shaking her head was a lot of waste of energy. "And that's why you must be blind for the skeletons here." Of course they were not here, they were removed and buried or simply burned but people that used the wrong password were not with the right mindset and thus killed, Kurdran was lucky to be a dwarf. But she did not wait for his answer and said he had to wait for her here and stand still before she used the only special thing she knew about her magic; teleportation.

She appeared behind the rock to use the leveler to open it, the market would be further down into the cave but there was already no one here and no lights on and she could remember from other specific places that the torches were on. She felt a bit sweaty as she had to help the leveler system to push the rock away as if not used for weeks. She brushed the long grey hair out of her face, "You called for me?" Because the system made it so that the insider could hear the outsider, else guarding would be quite difficult. She missed being a vampire, even if she could not remember how it was to be a vampire. It probably came with issues that she did not mind. Her gut feeling told her that.

She watched Kurdran run past her and she looked with a cold look around her before she followed, shutting the leveler, she did not want someone to follow them without her knowing. "The market is a little further but you are right, there is something wrong. The torches are out and there is no one else and no noise. I have an idea that something might be waiting for us." She narrowed her eyes when her friend offered that there must be another secret door, no market had done that before but if they had been infiltrated it made sense, "Of course that is an option too, I hope you are right." It would make it easier, after all, she would turn rather grumpy if this meant to be a trap or anything else and all she wanted was to help her friend.

"Ye could have told me ye had teleportation magic of some kind. But no harm done, hehe. We got inside after all!" Teleportation was just one of those magics that were a bit too useful to ignore. But knowing that yer friend has it, is sort of exciting in it´s own way.

Kurdran glanced over his shoulder in Liljas direction, when she told him the market was a bit farther away. "Oh..." However, it was apparently weird that there was no lights or anybody else trying in. "Ye saying it is gonna be a trap?" He looked on, but still wasn`t sure how far they would need to go to reach the actual market. "Well, better for us if it`s obvious!" He proceeded to immediately rub his beard and mohawk with his hands with minor murmurs, as he started sparking gloriously, and providing light into the dark place. "Oh yeah... Me magic, electrifying hair. Ain`t nothing to worry about when I`m at yer front." A bit of bragging was allowed. Atleast so he hoped.

In case of the secret door, according to what he had heard before, there were couple of simple tricks. "Knock on the walls. If they are hollow, there is a door somewhere in there." He proceeded to knock the wall with his fist. First try was of course solid brick or rock. He would know dwarf that he was.

The deeper and deeper he went down, the more excited he honestly felt. This was pretty much exactly like one of those stories he had heard before. And now he was living it! Perhaps the treasure hunt wasn`t such a bad thing at all! "Oh yeah, and watch yer legs, they alway have tripwires or something to inform them ahead of time that something is coming up!" he felt like a little kid in a candy store. Even if most of the things he himself did didn`t seem to result in any findings of his own.

She did not know what the exact problem was or the sore spot or well give it a name, she wasn't entirely happy and she thought here that it would be good to be Nastasya, even if she called herself still Lilja in her mind. A thing she must remember for the future, Nastasya was no save being, even if there had been a full pardon or anything for Grimoire Heart that did not change anything what she had done and, she looked shortly at Kurdran who seemed to be excited to be at the black market, even if there was nothing here, how would people react. She had told him, but she was different with the amnesia. Perhaps that's why she had not seen Odin for a long time or Caius and she wondered if that did sting a bit. She was not herself anymore, right?

Would she want to do stuff like that before. Not that she had an idea what that stuff was exactly but it couldn't be pleasant. "I might have forgotten as I managed to figure it out as an accident. One second you talk to someone and the next you end up standing outside. Not the best entertainment." Speaking about prejudice people, someone suddenly appearing did not work well for that either but she gave him a toothy grin, "I still need to practice but it is a lot more funny now."

As Kurdran noticed the idea that it was all empty, she could only turn into a stern expression and nod, yes she expected a sort of trap. She nodded slightly but it might be obvious considering the light but she had no idea about the rest of the trap that might be placed here, did they all get some sort of alarm when the wrong password was used and they would be hiding now. "What happens if you would be behind me?" she snickered but she was interested in the magic, she had not heard him about it before, did they even talk about magic.

As they walked on, she did not say much but looked as Kurdran spoke, "I bet I am fine, you walk in front of me." but she stepped on a stone that sunk a little lower, shit.. what would happen now?

"Wait, yer saying ye just kept blinking all over the place?" There was this minor amount of actual surprise, and a huge amount of hilarity. If they weren`t supposed to keep low profile, Kurdran would have propably laughed properly. "I can imagine the faces of those people when a pretty girl like yerself suddenly pops up out of nothing!" Heck, he knew he would propably fall on his butt from surprise at that point. Heck, maybe she could scare the others in the place if she tried.

Next question however had him befuddled. so much so that he actually had to stop and think for a moment. "Well uh... the main risk is that ye trip over any traps face first." he scratched his mohawk. "The other is uh..." He stopped for a moment. He perhaps shouldn`t say anything about not wanting to seem wussy hiding behind a petite lady. "Let`s just say, that I like somebody taking care of me backside... hard to concentrate whats in front of ye, if ye need to worry about tha-..."

*Click!*

Kurdran turned around with his eyes wide, as Lilja was seemingly as surprised as well. Oh yeah... there was always the chance that he would accidentally hop over something... And with the sound of cranking gears, two weird mechanical apparatus jumped from the walls near her! "GET DOWN!" Kurdran dove towards her like a proper action hero with his hands wide, trying to push her out of the way, as the mechanical things seemingly took aim! ...And flashed some sort of light against His round figure! "UGH!"

Depending on the aftermath, Lilja could clearly see, that the mechanical things were cameras of some sort, as they slinked back into the walls. "Oh thank god, I was so close! Ye could have gotten properly hurt!" He patted about himself. "But don`t ye worry bout me! Ye see, Me hairs also work as armor! Ain`t nothing of me getting hurt the hairier I get, ye know!" He chuckled to himself as he patted his belly. he actually felt genuinely proud of himself. "Must have been light magic of some sort... Why would a villainous crew use something so bloody obvious to notice?"

"No, not like that. It was an one time moment. I stood in a bar talking to someone and for some strange reason I suddenly stood outside. I am now trying to control it. To be fair it was a bit scary to poof off behind that huge rock, I wasn't sure if I would land alright, I have no idea yet how this works." Too much talking about something she couldn't gloat about, because she wasn't sure how it worked. She had now teleported four times as she was trying it out. Frankly it was the only things she knew that she could do.

She looked up from her thinking at Kurdran, pretty? She did not consider herself pretty, she had changed and she had vaguely remembered, her wine coloured red hair was gone, left grey and thus colourless. All that was left were her bright red eyes, able to stare to your soul. Perhaps she should dye her hair again. "Strangely saying, no one was happy, they all thought it was some sort of attack." Which was a strange thing to consider that she just showed up, had not been throwing magic or anything. She had been confused as well, there were enough mages, apparently a lot were afraid.

She asked him what happened if he walked behind her and she had an amusing smile on her face, she did not know why he stammered, would it be because he might be not in control of his magic and could hit her? But before he could finish his sentence or she could laugh about the idea, she had stepped onto something and she stared at the little cobblestone that was now slightly lower than before. A trap.

She fell backward, thanks to the push of Kurdran. Normally she must be furious that someone did that to her but her red eyes turned very big and stared at the light magic. If she had still been a vampire.. but she wasn't but that still couldn't be pleasant. She set up straight and moved to stand upwards, already glad to hear that he wasn't hurt. She dusted off herself, "Thanks." a muttering sound but loud enough in the awkward silence for the two of them. There might be more traps. "It might be obvious but light magic does hurt a fair amount of dark people. The races can't handle it and most people tend to use darkness magic." Hers.. most likely looked like light but she was not very aware of the idea yet.

"Eh, don`t mention it." He shrugged off her thanks pretty quickly. However, she brought up, that light magic could possibly hurt "dark" people in some fashion. "What do ye mean dark? Like, darker skinned or... oooh..." Yeah, it was kind of obvious in hindsight. There were all sorts of vampires and what not running about. A good flash of light would propably atleast stun em. "Luckily me dwarven body is just made to handle dem rays! I am way more thickskinned than some milkskinned bloodsucker!" Awfully proud of the fact too. Even though according to his knowledge, that wasn`t exactly anything to be proud of.

He proceeded to scratch his head, as the story of her previous teleporting shenanigans resurged in his mind. "An attack you said? In dwarven society we can take a practical joke." He opened one of his hands, and pressed one into a fist. "There is this one about "how do you get dirt out of a dwarves eye, and then..." He punched into his hand. "They punch the poor fellow." he chuckled to himself. It was one of those jokes for which you fall only once in a lifetime.

Next plan of action was continuing forwards. Kurdrans head was already thinking about the next trap. "If only we could skip this place somehow. Can`t be tackling ye all over the place." He lifted his head up, with his mohawk lowering downwards in answer. He rubbed his beard intently, as he eyed the room. And then his eyes hit the unlit torches. "Oh yeah!"

"In some stories, pulling torches like these down was usually a switch to go forward!" He hopped to reach one, trying to pull it downwards with his weight. "Soooo, iiiif wee doooo thiiiiis....!" And the torch actually gave up under his weight, as it twisted down like an actual switch!

"There we go!" He started eyeing around waiting for something to happen. "There is gotta be a secret door of some sort opening somewhere now!" Admittedly, there might have been some black market merchant who was "genre savvy".

But what was the chance of that?

She couldn't help but stare at Kurdran when he mentioned the bloodsucker insult. She tried to let it go, she couldn't even remember much about being a vampire, but she had found it far more better than being a human and strangely she even missed drinking blood. Her canine were only not strong enough to puncture a skin or suck it in, so it was no use. She didn't say anything but gave him a grimace that had to function as a smile but she wasn't sure if she failed in that or not. She did not mind, she only wanted Kurdran to still like her. She had told him about her real name and if she remembered correctly also let it slip that she was a former member of Grimoir Heart. She did not know if he remembered but she was not sure if she wanted him to know, at this point, he had protected her and not ran away from her so it was going well enough.

She dusted herself off another time and made sure to walk on tiptoeing next, so she wouldn't accidentally push other things. "I am afraid humans can't at this point." but they sure as hell should, "Makes them very dull." She wondered how dwarves were in society, she only met Kurdran and his family was dumb because they pushed him away over an accident. How much they would hate a person like her, she stole from a gem speci.. she stopped thinking and stared at Kurdran, what if that man, would have known where the gems were. She pushed her lips so strong onto each other that they became pale and thin lines. She should say something about it.

She had no idea what he was on about but glad he was lost in his own joke, so she gave him a sympathetic smile, how to tell him about that. She had forgotten at that point. She had stolen gems with Priscilla and only at first because one reminded her of her missing companion Victoire. She let him go on about what they should do now, she did not mind the traps at this point, made it less dull but that would be until the point she would be caught in one.

She opened her mouth to say something that they didn't know if that worked like in the stories. She heard a click and a loud thump sound behind her and looked over her shoulder, "Do you also know the stories about a huge boulder. We're in one." She said loud enough, she had no idea what to do, she wasn't sure if her teleportation would work again and if she could take Kurdran with her, she had a panicking feeling and thus she couldn't focus, "You better run!" That might make it why people would show up earlier, chased by a boulder.

...there was a surprising silence, not even a small chuckle other than his own. He looked at her momentarily, and scratched his nose. "...I guess dwarven humour ain´t for everyone, eh?" Admittedly, she had been a bad wizard once, so perhaps her friends and coworkers involved them. He shrugged it off. It was very hard to not step on toes. Just had to make the next one a bit better.

Although she did seem to agree with some people being a bit dull about it. "Heh, We TOUGH people are ready to handle a bit of blows of our own that`s fer sure!" See? Immediately things got a little bit better. Though this was perhaps a little more surprising, with her being so flimsy othervise...

For a moment, Kurdran thought the rumbling involved a wall opening. However, with Liljas question, he first nodded proudly. "Of course! That`s like the simplest trap there..." And then it hit him as he suddenly frowned with his eyes big as plates. Liljas final clarification only made him feel more awkward. "...Darn me experienced brains..." Why didn`t they think of this before!

Lilja really didn`t need to tell him to run, as he had already grabbed her by the hand, and was now running for his life! "WHYWOULDTHEYPUTAFRICKING
THINGLIKETHISINTHEMIDDLEOFTHEWAY!?THEYWOULDJUSTSQUISHTHEMSELVESINTHE
BLOODYPROCESSIFTHEYSPRUNGTHISONSOMESTUPIDFELLOW!!!!" Kurdrans loud rant about the smartness of this trap echoed through the hall, as in the process of running, he stepped on other traps, snapping some ropes, and overall making a proper problem for them. However, for each trap, the rock either squashed them into pieces or outright flattened them onto it, make it quite silly looking if it wasn`t so darn deadly!

"Not to mean WE are stupid or anything of course... BUT WHYYY!" He was scratching his head in annoyance. Now he would happily jump in front of the rock and save them both, if he didn`t know even his body would be grinded into a red paste under it! That would not exactly be a very cool way to die, now would it!?"DAMNIT!" He punched the wall in anger...

...As with an unnatural amount of luck, he seemingly punched some sort of trap panel. The trap panel whirled about, as the giant boulder was gaining on them... When suddenly from the floor, bounced a giant metallic wall, Which rock slammed onto, bending it out of shape. Kurdran tripped over himself, and proceeded to see the giant wall. "Uuuuh..." He didn`t know whether to be outright amazed or outright befuddled. But whatever he did, he did start laughing!

"Hahaha! Just as planned!" He tapped his belly awkwardly, with tiny drops of sweat on his face from all the running. "Ye see, if there is a trap like this uh, there needs to be a trap that does something that blocks it! So, I just tried to trigger a random one, and here we are!" He kept laughing... He was lying trying to regain some of his pride... Though it hadn`t yet sunk in, that the rock and the wall now blocked their path out... momentarily atleast.