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Novgorod was about to settle for the night when he noticed the faint glow of a fire something like a mile northwards from him. Hmm. Someone else picking this path too? Some company might surely do, he thought to himself and started towards the glow. Even though Novgorod might have been best described as a rough and ruthless rogue he surely was a social guy. He needed his solitude every now and then, but not too often. He was at home with others. And as he was quite reliant on his skills with arms, he generally wasn’t afraid of strangers anyhow.
When he finally got to the fire, he met a female dwarf, ready to use her hatchet against anyone approaching her with ill intentions. Uh-Oh! From all the other contestants, the female dwarf! Novgorod was somewhat used to the dwarves though. Living a great part of one’s life in Esgaroth did expose one to both elves and dwarves. And the dwarwes he considered just some underground weirdos as the elves were to him plain creepy.
“Good evening, master dwarf! Narleah, was it?” He greeted the dwarf pulling a smile of a friendly kind to hide his immediate embarrassement. “I suggest you put down your hatchet so that I don’t have to draw my sword”, he then added with a calm voice with no aggression in it, studying the dwarf carefully to notice any hints of action on her part early enough. “I just saw the glow of your fire up here and thought of finding some company for the night”.
Narleah laid her hatchet down with a grin and gestured Novgorod to the fire. As Novgorod sat down he pulled the pouch of tea from his belt and untied the knots in it. He held the leaves in his hand and asked Narleah smilingly: “Some tea perhaps? I could make it for two.” Narleah seemed to approve of the offer and so Novgorod started preparing the tea, chatting easily as he went on with it. He started to feel easy too. Funny, with a female dwarf... well there are wonders in the world mightier than this I suppose.
“My name is Novgorod and I come from Esgaroth. I don’t live there permanently any more due to some troubles way back, but... Well, that’s another story.” He raised his eyebrows and made a kind of conspirational smile to Narleah. Then he sighed and continued: “Many people call me a rogue, but I prefer to call myself just a wanderer who’s trying to make a living in this wretched world of ours.” He poured a small handful of the dried leaves to the kettle and whistled a little melody, looking the dwarf over the fire with some curiosity.
“Did you recognize the tune? I knew a dwarf called Dwannr some years back. We shared some things in the Mirkwood area then. He used to hum that one in the evenings and he never told me what it was. Do you happen to know that song? I kind of like the melody and it would be nice to know what the song is about.”
Novgorod took the kettle off the fire and placed it to his side on the ground to let it settle for a while and looked at the dwarf sitting against him questioningly.
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