As Firki made his way to the southern part of the land, he found he had plenty of time to think over the words that the voice had spoken. He had draconic magic, it was a scary realization. He was too normal to have magic that powerful. Was he going to live long enough for the transformation to occur? These thoughts and more traveled his thoughts as he traveled south. One morning, a couple days into his travels, he was so absorbed in his thoughts that he tripped over an object lying in the path, sprawling out flat on his face.
“Ancestors, are you alright?” a voice asked him. Looking up Firki saw a dwarf kneeling down picking up other items that were scattered about. He was bewildered because most dwarves did not leave the cavernous mountains they lived in. He nodded in answer to the question and slowly stood back up. “My name is Thorrig, I … uh… I was traveling, and well… my bag had some issues as you can see.” Firki nodded again, he had no idea what to say to the young dwarf, and the dwarf was young as he didn’t even have the start of a beard. “Are you… uh… are you heading south too?” Thorrig asked. Firki nodded once more. The dwarf smiled a sheepish smile. “Do you think we could team up for the travel? some of these parts aren’t too safe to travel alone.”
Firki opened his mouth to answer, then closed it again. The voice had told him he had to go on the quest alone, but was traveling together for safety really being a team and going against the orders? Unable to come to a decision, Firki just shrugged, helping dwarf pick up all his stuff. Working as a team they managed to fix the bag and get all Thorrig’s stuff back inside it before setting off together down the path.
Thorrig enjoyed talking, so Firki let him talk. He learned a lot about the dwarven culture, and that Thorrig, like Firki was in some ways a misfit, which was why he was out traveling. He had heard about some surface dwarves that lived in the southern lands, and was seeking them out. When asked why he was traveling south, Firki gave the story of looking for a rare special herb to help with his magic. The dwarf was impressed. “Hey, maybe once we get to where we are going we can work as a team. You can help me find the dwarves and I can help you find the herb.”
Firki hesitated in his answer. He agreed that he could work with Thorrig to find the dwarves. He didn’t want to leave the young dwarf in an unfamiliar place on his own. But finding the herb was something he had to do on his own, it wouldn’t work for him properly otherwise. While it saddened Thorrig that he could not be of help to Firki, he was glad that Firki was willing to help him.
As night fell they took up refuge under some large low limb trees. Drifting off to sleep Firki hoped that his current stint of teamwork would not hinder his quest. Oddly enough he had no dreams that night.
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