[Nogrod]

After Naria left the table, Reddie concentrated on emptying his pint. He had almost enjoyed dancing with a female! And in the end, hadn’t even being totally baffled and shaky. But now the shakes were coming: he felt some cold sweat starting to form on his forehead, and his hands started to tremble, slowly at first. He also noticed, that emptying the pint had been relatively easy, and that every drop of the ale was indeed consumed. He would need some solitude, and need it soon.

He excused himself for Bredan, telling him, that he would need some fresh air after all the dancing, and that he would be back later on. Bredan nodded and Reddie took to the door. As he reached the door, he turned his head to see what Farael, Telu or Naria were up to, and crashed to something that was broad and hard as a stonewall. But this wall was moving, and had eyes that were looking straight to him.

It doesn’t necessarily take a beorning to know another, but when you are even half a one, it’s easier got get a hunch of another beorning’s mind. This one didn’t look angry for his tumbling him, Reddie thought to himself. The colossus grinned in a way that could even be interpreted as a smile. He might be wrong though... Trusting his intuition, Reddie smiled back, and said to this tower of a man in front of him: “Sorry my friend, I was just lost in my thoughts. Never quite saw, what hit me." Reddie produced a smile, but immediately gathered, that the pun had been a bad one, as it was. Reddie went on to safer approaches: "My name is Rían, Rían Sundry from Mirkwood. You might have known my father, the “old hermit Sundry” the people called him. I was indeed going out to have a pipeful, but if you’d care to share a pint with a fellow beorning, I would be happy to buy you one.”

Be in good relations with all the beornings that are bigger and stronger than you are. That was rule number one he had learned quite early on his life. Rule number two went: if you have even the faintest suspicion, that you have offended one of those, be quick to compensate. And after all, it had been a long time since he had met another beorning.