Norheim

Chapter 2

Once Ernestine collected herself, she thanked the bar keeper and left, she saw the armoured man washing his armour in the well, he still had his helmet on a padded tunic. 'Right, I'm ready to go, where is your caravan?' the armoured man asked Ernestine. She pointed to the stables, still a bit too nervous to talk to her new guard. He walked over to the stables, opening the door, other than her caravan the stables were empty, the armoured man then went to sit at the front of the wagon. 'Right, erm, well the first stop on our way is Caerbryn.' Ernestine said to try and break the silence. 'Not been to the dwarven city in years, plenty of beasts between here and Caerbryn,' the armoured man remarked. Caerbryn was one of the four great cities of Norheim, it was a city ran, and mostly inhabited by dwarves, who were known as master masons and smiths, and also handy in a fight, shorter than a man but they made up for it in width and brawn.

They then set off north-west towards Caerbryn, the road was icy but well-worn by other traders and adventurers. Many adventurers went to Caerbryn for dwarven weapons and armour, practical but still ornate. A few days passed travelling and Ernestine and the armoured man didn't speak much outside of what was necessary, but Ernestine was slowly starting to feel less nervous around him. The whole three days they had been together at this point, the armoured man never took off his armour, not fully anyway, he would sleep in it, eat in it, and did everything else in it. There was one night, the second night she thought she saw him bathe but she wasn't sure. It was the dead ofnight and they camped by a stream, she woke up in the middle of the night and went to get some water, but she saw someone bathing in the water, in the dim light she could hardly see so gods know how the bathing figure could see to bathe themselves, all she could see is what looked like white hair and a beard, and before she could take a better look she went back to camp, not wanting to pry regardless of who it was.

The third night at camp, Ernestine had plucked up the courage to ask the armoured man, 'so, why do you never take off your armour? It looks heavy, isn't it hard to sleep?' the armoured man took a second to reply then said, 'bandits and monsters could attack at any time, no use in being comfortable if ya dead.' Ernestine thought this was a fair, if not slightly paranoid point. She wanted to know more but didn't want to seem naive, she did not even know this man's name, or face, all she really knew was he may have white hair and his voice, and even then, he is only speaking if he had to, or is directly asked a question. She had another swig of wine and declared 'Right, well we're going to be on this quest a while longer, we're going all the way to Atersby, I think we should get to know each other a bit better.' The armoured man's head raised, his ears peeked by word of Atersby 'I see why you made a big fuss about wanting to tell me the destination then, I'm assuming we're going by the Crimson Tundra I'd assume, which will be why you've not found anyone else. 'She was shocked by the amount the man said, but not a word of it was a lie. 'Yes, you hit the nail on the head with that one, I'm assuming you don't mind, since you said yourself, it wasn't important?' she said, trying to make a joke but she wasn't sure if he would understand. 'I said it didn't matter then and it doesn't now.' Ernestine felt relieved, 'So, can you tell me your name?' she asked, feeling as though progress has been made. 'Stromm' he replied.

Just after he said his name he stood up suddenly. 'What's the matter?' Ernestine said with panic in her voice. 'There's something close, grab your weapon.' Stromm said in his blunt monotone. Ernestine's curried to grab her mace and shield. Stromm drew both his swords and then he saw it, a pack of wolves, led by a dire wolf. A normal pack of wolves led by a normal wolf would be an easy enough challenge, but led by a dire wolf complicated matters, not only was a dire wolf stronger and faster, but also more intelligent. The wolves started to circle the two, with the dire wolf lurking in the shadows, Stromm lunged out and decapitated one of the wolves, it was then the other wolves striked. Stromm kept slashing with his two swords, the wolves 'bit at him but couldn't get past his armour. Ernestine kept form behind her shield, bashing any wolf that came to close with her mace, and keeping her back to the caravan for protection from attacks to the back. One of Stromm's swords snapped while fighting, so he drew one of his daggers to substitute. With every slash a wolf was cutdown, but the wolves kept coming, there must have been about twenty to thirty, which was exceptionally large for a normal pack but not uncommon if banded together by a dire wolf.