Fields of Ice

[Amaterasu]

Amaterasu involuntarily gasped as, the moment she crossed the gate from the Nexus into the icy fields, the temperature dropped dramatically. Not that she felt cold, luckily she was used to cold temperatures after having spent multiple days in Kamui and in the frozen-over Ark of Yamato. But she had not expected the fields to be this icy. "Kazegami! Slow your steps!" She spoke, raising her voice so the kami could hear her through the powerful blizzards. As soon as they had put a little distance between them and the portal she dismounted and passed a hand over the ground, examining it. "This is a deceptively thin film of ice on top of a body of water. We're standing atop a giant lake."

"Is it wise to move on together?" asked Kazegami.

"No. It looks like your aid is not needed as much as I thought, Kaze... but traveling through these fields together is going to be more dangerous than if I go alone. The added weight might break the ice if we cross onto areas where it's thin."

"I understand, Mother Amaterasu. What would you have me do in that case? Shall I rejoin the remaining kami in your brush?"

"Please. I have a feeling that another of your siblings is nearby. If you're in the brush with the others I will sense it more easily." She waited for the spirit of Kazegami to slip back into the brush before she placed her hands on the now lifeless body she had made for him, and broke it back down into raw Omnilium. After all, if she was able to turn it into things, surely the other way around was possible too? And yes, it was. After that she fashioned a pair of snowshoes wide enough that she could not break through the ice with her weight, and a thick coat because just a miko dress might come over as weird if she encountered anybody. Donning her new acquisitions some half hour after Kazegami had returned to her brush, Amaterasu felt ready. She began to walk.

[...]

Where was she? How long had she walked? Amaterasu looked to the sky, then forced herself to keep walking forward through the thick snowstorm raging around her. If she stopped she would be buried in this snow. She had lost track of time. The sun hadn't shown itself through the wall of clouds lining the sky - actually not the slightest bit of clear sky had shown itself. She wondered if she had lost her way. It wasn't uncommon for a traveler to believe that they had walked in a straight line only to find that they had made a big circle and were at their starting point again. No... don't think about that. Keep walking. Keep on walking... Was she off the lake by now? Had she reached solid ground?

A silhouette in the distance made her raise her head. Oki... he was here? Did he know she was there? She raised a hand and screamed against the wind. He, too, raised something. But it was not a hand. It was... bigger. And it gleamed for a brief moment, reflecting the light, before it was brought down in a violent motion. The sound of iron clashing with iron tore through the peaceful woosh of chilling winds and Amaterasu flinched, then gritted her teeth and forced herself to accelerate her steps. Oki was there. He was fighting... he was in trouble. She had to come to his aid.

With each step the silhouette changed more. It became two people, a small man with a long beard and clad in armor, and a large beast on two legs, with tusks and leather armor. Both wielded battered shields. The small man wielded a hammer. The beast held a club. They were fighting. Strewn around them were corpses both of other small men and of beasts, and the snow was drenched with blood. The two fighters were paying them no mind. They were fighting to the death. And with how they looked, the tusked beast was having the advantage here: the man was breathing heavily, Amaterasu could see a dagger sticking out from his back and seveal dents in his armor that were making it hard for him to even catch his breath. How he was not dead yet, she didn't know. Even if he defeated his opponent he was unlikely to make it anywhere far before his injuries caught up with him.

Smiling and certain of his victory, the beast raised his club and smashed it down on the small man, shattering the sorry remains of his shield. "You're done for!" he yelled, laughing. Amaterasu stood several meters behind him. She saw him raise his club once more, knocking the small man's weapon out of his hand. He fell to his knees and grabbed onto the beast's waist as if trying to break his ribs. "My ancestors will... welcome me in the halls... of heroes. Can you say... the same for yourself, troll coward?" The beast, apparently a troll, just laughed and slammed his foot into the small man's chest, knocking him on his back and driving the dagger further up his back. Then he drew a short, terrible knife from his belt and brought it to the small man's neck. "Your entrance to the halls of the dead will never be allowed, dwarf. I will cut your beard and leave you to die in the cold. You want a warrior's death? You'll die slowly, and not by the blade of your foe." The man, a dwarf, tried to stop, but the troll just laughed and took a hold of his beard, readying to cut it off at its base.

That was when Amaterasu cleaved him in half.

"KIRU!" That single word pierced the peaceful sounds of winds far louder than the sound of clashing weapons, and the troll's eyes widened. His mouth opened to form a silent expression of surprise, surprise at that his upper half had been cleanly separated from his lower half from the stomach down. Then the two halves fell to the ground, and the line of black ink that Amaterasu had drawn into the air as well as the 斬 sign that had appeared alongside it dispersed into loose particles that were carried away by the wind. The sun goddess let go of her hair-brush and ran up to the short man - the dwarf - hastily. "Are you okay?! Can you breathe?!" she inquired, forcing his body into a sitting position to keep the blade in his back from making the injuries even worse.

"Ghh... leave me alone, lass. Ye can't help me anymore..." the dwarf mumbled and coughed up blood. Amaterasu grunted and pulled out the knife from his back, then put a hand on the bleeding injury. What she was now going to do was not the same as when she had summoned a body for Kazegami, but it was similar. It had to work. "Hold still and don't talk. You're not going to die here today." She spoke with all the determination that she could muster. The dwarf was about to talk back, to bat her hand away, but when he saw Amaterasu's face and eyes, he sighed, smiled and leant back. "Bruenor's beard... I'm 'avin illusions on me deathbed. But I didn' think I'd see meself dyin' in the arms of a goddess. Heh... me dead wife, or maybe a beautiful wench though..."

"I said don't talk. I must concentrate." She sent Omnilium to the points where she had seen his injuries, and imitated the flesh, bones, marrow and other tissue that she could feel directly around the wound. It was a tediously slow process. With her other hand she undid the straps and belts that held the platemail of his armor, and tore it off his chest which immediately resulted in his breathing growing steadier. His chest had been pushed against by the inwards bent steel, and kept him from really filling his lungs with air. Now he was able to catch his breath again. He weakly raised a hand and grabbed Amaterasu's mantle, as if it was what let him cling to life.

The minutes ticked by. Amaterasu's head was spinning from the concentration and the exhaustion, but she kept working until the worst of the dwarf's injury was treated. She heard how the dwarf's pained grunts were diminishing. He had other injuries, but none as threatening as the one on his back, and that wasn't life-threatening anymore. When Amaterasu finished and fell forward into the snow, face-first, his hands caught her and helped her back into a kneeling position.

"Bruenor's beard, lass... I ain't gonna let you die on me after you save me life." he said with a laugh.

"I'm okay, just dizzy... does it hurt?" She asked whilst covering herself back up in her mantle. Now with her exhaustion, she did feel somewhat cold after all... she hadn't imagined that healing tissue like that was so taxing.

"Ya bet it does. But I'll live, thanks to you. Ya even saved me from losing me beard..." He spat next to the troll's mangled corpse. "Yer a Prime, ain't ya lass? I'm Urist McGlodsson... and who are ya? I want to know who I can thank for keeping me life and me honor."

"I'm Amaterasu. Yes, I'm a Prime, I... think I am." She looked around. "Listen, your back needs treatment, I only was able to heal the worst of it. Is there any settlement nearby where you could get aid?"

"Nay, we were a group a' merchants, lookin' to settle up somethin' near the gates. Got ambushed by the trolls, they killed most of us. I bashed a few heads in, but they backstabbed me before we could kill 'em. That one ya cleaved in half was the last one of the bunch. We gots ta get back to the dwarven territory... maybe find some small settlement we can take a break at." He grabbed his hammer off the ground and began searching the bodies. "Lass... Amaterasu, yes? Get to the carriage. Fetch whatever provisions ya can find. It's gonna be a long way home."

Amaterasu reached for the curved blade that the troll had been wielding as well as the reinforced dagger that had been used to backstab the dwarf and put them away. They might come in handy, as horrible as they might be. They were of exceptional craftsmanship. She eyed the carriage, then Urist. "I'm a Prime... I can summon food with Omnilium. It'd save us carrying around a lot of baggage."

Urist slapped his forehead. "Bruenor's beard, yer right lass! Forgive an ol' dwarf for forgettin'. I ain't seen many Primes in my life. Their fancy tricks are beyond my understanding. Let's get goin' then." He looked to the sky, then around left and right and finally began to walk into a direction.

"Are you sure that that's the right way?" Amaterasu asked with a frown, but followed Urist. They both were taking slow steps. Neither was in a condition to run.

"Completely. We dwarves... we ain't like you humans. We're connected to the ground. We see landmarks where others jus' see rocks or trees. That's the way we came from. It's the way to the dwarven lands. But it'll take days... with our Fur-Selkies slaughtered by the damn trolls we ain't got nothin' to ride."

"A Fur-Selkie? Can you show me their carcasses? I had a mount myself, but I was afraid of breaking through the ice."

"Aye, and yer right to be afraid. The ice is treacherous. But a Fur-Selkie senses where the ice is thin and it ain't got small hooves... it's got big, wide feet, so it can spread its weight out a lot." He pointed to a massive carcass next to the carriage. Amaterasu walked over and eyed it, touched it and did her best to grasp its essence.

"I'm going to summon one... it'll take a while but I'll do my best. In the meantime, you could give your fallen friends a short burial?" She proposed. When Urist shrugged, she crossed her legs beneath herself and focused once more, taking the time to recover from the prior physical exertion and to concentrate on summoning a beast as close to the Fur-Selkies as she could, without ever having seen one alive. When she heard a dull thud and a gasp from the dwarf several minutes later, she knew that her attempt had been successful. The towering being, something looking like a four-meter-tall walrus with thick brown fur, shorter tusks and four fins with some sort of pads on their bottomside, was looking down at both of them with intelligent black button-like eyes. Then it dropped on its belly and remained there. Urist mumbled something about his beard which Amaterasu presumed to be a series of curses to express his astonishment, whilst she herself eyed the dead dwarves. Each were covered with a few rocks and snow and had a pebble on their forehead.

"May you return to earth wherefrom you were born, unite with your ancestors to form the life for the young that will come in your wake. You have fallen in battle to protect those whom you love... the doors to the halls of the dead shall open to you, and you will eat and drink together with the noble heroes of old, in preparation of the Times of End. Let the earth be your death shroud, souls, and take the path to the life after the life in peace." It was a loosely thrown-together prayer, using the terms that she remembered from the stories of strangers she had met... those who had their own beliefs of the afterlife, who spoke quite similar to the dwarves and whose beliefs sounded quite similar. Although, those strangers had been taller.

She heard a little sob and turned around, seeing that Urist had shed a tear. He was already seated on the Fur-Selkie. When he pulled her up onto its back he spoke. "That was... beautiful. Yer kinda strange, Amaterasu, ya know... were ye some sort a' Priestess of humans before or somethin'?"

"I'm a kami, Urist... a goddess, I believe they call it here." She looked back to the battlefield as the Fur-Selkie began to slide on its belly, using the four fin-paws to propel itself forward.

Urist pondered for a moment, then spoke. "... ya know, if it had been someone else I'd have told them to quit pullin' me leg. But with you, I kinda believe you. Yer different. There's somethin' about ya. I ain't sure what it is, but ye might just be tellin' the truth."

Amaterasu left it at that with a shrug, and they dove into the snow-storm, away from the field of the dead, who slowly disappeared under a blanket of snow, as if the land itself was burying them.

[Amaterasu]

It had been days now since Amaterasu and Urist were moving. The Fur-Selkie had proven to be a tireless mount, bringing them across the frozen plains under Urist's guidance with only a few minor incidents with ice breaking, which didn't result in any major issues for either of them. When there was a clear landmark like a mountain in the distance Amaterasu took the reins and let Urist have some rest, on other times it was the kami who laid down and slept on the Fur-Selkie's back. They never stopped as there was no need - taking turns at sleeping and Amaterasu summoning food and water for the both of them meant that they never had to dismount to set up camp or scavenge, and the Fur-Selkie never so much as slowed down. A tireless mount... miraculous indeed.

Urist's hands tugging on the reins coupled with him speaking woke Amaterasu from a half sleep-like state. "Hooh... easy, boy. We be gettin' close now."

"What is it? Are we getting close to a settlement?"

"Aye. It ain't big, but we can ask for a doc. Probably just gonna be 'nough to stitch me back up til we can get to Dwarvenholm, but I ain't picky."

"Alright. Need help coming down?" Amaterasu asked as she slid off the Fur-Selkie's back.

The dwarf eyed her grumpily. "I still got me pride as a warrior, Ama." He threw the reins over the Fur-Selkie's head so they could be held from the ground and started to climb his way down.

"Be careful though, your back is still far from healed!" She warned, and moments after Urist's loud howl of pain sounded through the plains

"OWW! Nayra's bol[censored]" the dwarf cursed and nearly fell backwards but Amaterasu placed her hands under his boot, letting him use them as steps to get to ground level. "Gmnph... thanks, Ama."

"You're welcome. Now hurry up before your ribs start poking through your stomach."

The dwarf seemed a little more palid than before - maybe it was just the snow on his face though - when he walked towards the gates on the hillside that opened up into the actual town. As with most dwarven settlements this one was built into the earth with a handful of guardsmen training their crossbows on the lone individual coming to the gates, but they allowed him in when he proved to be a dwarf. Amaterasu snuggled up against the Fur-Selkie with its reins in her hand and ate a pair of summoned apples while waiting and indeed, soon enough a dwarf wearing metal armor approached her and waved to her with a spear. Urist had convinced them that they were not hostile and that he was just looking for medical treatment, so Amaterasu was now allowed in. The Fur-Selkie was brought to a special stable underneath a fissure in the hill that allowed for cold air to come in, so that it would not be heat-stroked to death by its thick fur in the warmth of the underground structure that the dwarves had set up. As for Amaterasu herself, the dwarves trusted her enough to let her roam around the structure without restraint. It wasn't like they had anything to hide or worry about anyway - Amaterasu couldn't steal much from them. And the caverns weren't big enough for one to get lost anyway, Urist would find her just fine.

Hours passed and the medical caring for Urist proved to take longer than anticipated. Eventually one of the staffers of the infirmary approached the wandering kami and informed her that Urist would need to stay for two days as they operated him. They had done well to come to the settlement: the merchant dwarf might not have made it if they'd taken the much longer route to Dwarfholm or if they'd needed two or three more days to arrive. The internal damage was much more significant than either of them had believed, even with Amaterasu's treatment several injuries were life-threatening.

The kami sighed in relief as she heard that and got herself directions for the town's inn. The town may not be big but it certainly had everything required. She found her way quite quickly and, for lack of currency, paid the innkeeper for a room by "repairing" his broken door and the lock - namely by turning some of her Omnilium into a new one, with lock and everything, and creating a matching set of keys for the lock so it could be opened and closed smoothly. A few more "repair" jobs got her sufficient credit for food and drinks for the following days, and after borrowing a silver coin like they were used in the dwarven lands from the innkeeper she created a few of them for herself, to pay for Urist's treatment and later for goods and services in Dwarfholm.

Finally, the evening came around and Amaterasu sat at the counter of the otherwise empty inn, chattering with the innkeeper. Dwarves, as it turned out, weren't very talkative to strangers when sober. But a mug of good ale completely loosened their tongue. Amaterasu barely was able to contribute to the conversation in any meaningful way because the innkeeper only stopped to catch their breath. Not that it bothered her much - she learned a lot of what she wanted to know about dwarven society, the state of the Frozen Fields, Camelot, the Omniverse in general and of course enough gossip to keep a full retirement home talking for months. Neither noticed how fast the time was going by.

"... and then, I shit you not, SHE HIT JUST THE SPOT! The one place on the entire barrel that coulda broken it, and she hits it with the hammer! Tha barrel pretty much exploded... Ya can't imagine the tears we spilled over all that delicious wine when it got lost to the earth!" The innkeeper concluded his story with a mix of laughter and crying and sipped his mug whilst Amaterasu just twirled her nearly untouched mead in hers. "So anyway... that's how we forbid her from ever comin' near a barrel again."

"That must have been horrifying. But say..." She pointed at the white hide lying on the ground of the inn, on the side of the room opposite to the fire pit. "I'm curious about that story you mentioned. About that adventurer who brought you the hide."

"Ah, yes. Tha's a wampa hide, from one of the baddest beasties out there. Wampas have the best hides ya can find in the Fields, they're white an' perfect for hiding in the snow, an' they're warm enough to keep ya safe even in a snowstorm. A mature wampa's hide can be big enough to serve six dwarves. Problem is, they're vicious bastards, those wampas. Real predators... they make bears seem like teddies."

"So you're keeping the hide here as a trophy?"

"Nay. I been keeping it here for a lil' while... some two weeks maybe, waiting for the adventurer to come back an' get it. But he ain't shown his face again. Makes me think that he died out there. Pity, too... he woulda been a good aid against the trolls."

"Do you have to prove your worth by bringing a wampa hide to someone?"

"Aye. King Bruenor's decreed that those who prove their worth get admitted into the Mithral halls an' get to drink mead at his table. Tha's the dream of every last dwarf. Sitting at the King's table... only the Halls of Heroes in the afterlife are better. An' earning yer spot at the king's table means ya got that spot pretty much in the bag." The dwarf raised his hand, showing three fingers. "A chunk o' cobalt, a wampa hide, the tusk of a troll. Prove that ya can hunt the predators of the wild an' kill a troll, an' that ya can wield a pickaxe as good as a weapon. I think there's some other thing too that ya must do, but I ain't sure."

"So... these three items would prove to Dwarfholm that I am a friend and capable fighter?"

"Aye. It don't prove much to slay one troll, but if ya can kill a wampa ya ain't gonna want to give up its hide jus' like that."

Amaterasu hmmed and reached into her dress, pulling out the dagger which she had taken from the troll fighting Urist, that she had slain. "I already have this... took it from the corpse of a troll. Maybe it could be a substitute proof for that I slew him?"

"Lemme take a gander..." The innkeeper reached out and carefully took the dagger by the handle, then examined it with the eye of a professional. Even though he was tipsy his sense for metalworking was unparalleled. For a minute he examined the dagger, stabbed and slashed at the air, then handed it back. "Might be stolen. In any case it ain't troll craftsmanship. The way the metal was tempered and how the hilt's fashioned... it might be Camelot craft, maybe even dwarven. The weapon's made for smaller hands than troll ones - the one ya go it from probably took it from some dead opponent. Ye can get it appraised by a blacksmith in Dwarfholm, if that's where yer going, Urist and you. But it ain't enough to prove that ye slew a troll."

"I see. It was Cobalt, a Wampa hide and the tusk of a troll, right? I'll see if I can get a tusk first. If all trolls are as bad as the one that fought Urist they're no better than the oni that I slew back in Nippon. Attacking merchants from behind... it's despicable. But I want to meet another troll first, and see for myself."

"Aye... I can't tell ya cause I'm a dwarf, so obviously I say the trolls are the bad'uns. Trolls gonna tell you the opposite. But yer gonna see - they'll try to slit yer throat as soon as ya give them an opening."

Amaterasu sighed and nodded. "We'll see. I'm going to turn in for today though." She put down the mug and slid off the chair. "I thank you for all that info. You've helped me out a lot."

"Ye killed a troll an' saved one of us, that makes ya a friend in me eyes. An' I'm happy to help friends. 'sides, I just told ya some stories, nothing big."

"Still. Oh, by the way... what was that adventurer like? The one who brought the wampa hide."

"Oh. Eh... fairly tall, slightly taller than you I'd say. Wearin' strange clothes... blue an' pinkish red. Didn't look like anything I've ever seen before. Long black hair... Oh, and he wore a blue mask all the time... never got to see his face. And he had this... amulet round his neck. And a sword."

Amaterasu blinked. "A blue mask? Are you sure? One representing a wolf?"

"Yeah... could be..."

She chuckled and moved up the stairs. "I knew he was here." Leaving the innkeeper alone to wonder what she'd meant with that she found her room and almost fell onto her bed. The long day was taking its toll, the sun goddess fell asleep very soon... and she did so with a big smile on her face. She had known all along. She just needed to find him.

[Amaterasu]

It was kind of difficult to tell how long she had slept, or what time of the day it even was - as the inn she resided in laid beneath the earth, even if her room had had windows there would not have been any daylight to see. But what was important is that she felt well rested. The kami of the sun got to her feet, stretched her limbs to warm up her muscles in preparation of the day to come, and put on her miko dress. Then she headed downstairs and, finding that no lights were lit and nobody was tending the bar, left the inn. Now where do I have to... over that way? Even though the caverns weren't all that big it took her several wrong turns before she found the Infirmary where Urist was staying over. Due to the nature of the place here there was always at least one person awake in case of emergency, but by the looks of the nurse currently tending the desk Amaterasu figured that it must be early in the morning. Regardless, she approached the desk.

"Good morning."

"Mmm? Oh, it's you. Wha's troubling ya at this horrible time?"

"Horrible? Is it this early?"

The woman eyed Amaterasu as if she silently questioned her mental capabilities, then snickered. "Ah, I forgot... ya can't tell time without the sun over yer head, can ya?"

Amaterasu nodded and laughed along. "Yes. I'm not too good at dwelling underground, unfortunately. Anyway... is Urist up by any chance? I wanted to speak with him."

"He should be up, tha poor lad can't sleep after the operation. Still hurtin' and such. Might not remember everything ya tell him though, so if ya want me to take a message..."

"That's fine. If he doesn't remember, just tell him that I have to leave for a few days but I will be back. Where can I find him, then?" After getting directions she walked through the hospital and knocked on the door before slipping into the room, and approaching the dwarf who was lying in his bed and reading a book. When he saw Amaterasu come in he looked up but she spoke first. "Urist. I wanted to let you know, I'll be leaving town for a few days."

"Aye, are ye now? An' why's that?"

"I'm going to go wampa hunting."

The dwarf's eyes widened. "Wampa huntin'? Bruenor's beard, are ya possessed by an evil spirit or somethin', girl? Why would ya want to hunt one o' those beasts?!"

"None of that. I'm going to bring the hide back to Dwarfholm."

"Why do ya want to... wait. Ohh no. No no no. Ama, yer gonna forget about that idea right now, an' -"

Amaterasu waved her hand, shutting him up. "Urist, I can handle myself just fine. Remember who I am. I'm not going to die out there."

"If the wampas don' get you, the darn trolls will! An' ya don' even know how to find Cobalt!"

"I've killed oni far more dangerous than the trolls, Urist. And I want to prove to your king that I am worthy of the dwarves' trust."

"Ya saved my life, Ama. I could put in a good word for ya, an'..."

"... and nothing. It goes without saying that I aid those who need it. Just having saved you is not enough to prove anything, Urist... I have taken my decision. But if you are so hell-bent on helping me I could ask a favor of you."

"I owe you me life, Ama. An' I take that very seriously. What is it you want?" Urist replied with a determined look in his face.

"I will hunt a wampa and a troll, then return here. When you are fully cured we will go out together and you can help me with foraging for some Cobalt. You're probably better at finding ores than me. And I don't even need much, just a chunk."

Urist gave a huff. "Ama, yer talkin' to a dwarf here! What d'you take us for? We're children of the earth! I tell ya; we're gonna find ya a deposit of Cobalt big 'nough to outfit ten dwarves with rust-resistant armor!"

"Splendid! That's settled then. Until then, focus on recovering your well-being and don't worry about me. If I'm not back after two weeks, you can take the Fur-Selkie and make your way back to Dwarfholm. I'll find my way there by myself."

"Nonsense! Yer gonna come back here and I'm gonna wait for ya, even if it means settling here 'n working a year or two!" He coughed as his little outrage sent a jolt of pain through his back and Amaterasu stepped closer, but he waved her off. "I'm a'right, I'm a'right. But, I'll be waiting for ya. It ain't like I have any home to return to."

"Just don't let me get in your way, Urist. We will meet again, some time or another. May the Sun watch over you." She slipped out of the room, barely hearing Urist's parting words. She wished the nurse a good day, headed out into the main area of the cave, found her way around to the entrance of the town and stopped at a distance. While she was still inside the warmth of the cave, she focused to summon another Fur-Selkie as she had left the other one in the stables for Urist, provided that he recovered before she came back. Then she mounted up and had the guardsmen open the gate enough for her and the Fur-Selkie to slip out into the cold outside. While they opened up she asked for rough directions to the Nexus Gate, which would allow her to orient herself. The wampa would be first. And with a little luck Oki will run into me as I hunt. If she didn't meet him then... no. She would find him one way or another, sooner or later. However long it may take her.

[Amaterasu]

The quest done from here on is "Into the Hall", posted below (personal reminder).

[spoiler]Requirements: Not affiliated with Zul'Gurand
Difficulty: Moderate (5000-10,000 words dependent on writing quality)
Reward: 300 OM, Ceremonial Dwarven Weapon or armament (Flavor Item, may be fashioned as a Move), Permission to enter Mithral Hall inside Dwarveholm

Location: Frozen Fields (various)
The dwarves that reside in the mountain fortress-town of Dwarveholm are constantly harassed by the trolls. Despite King Bruenor’s efforts at a ceasefire, the racial hatred that Zul’jin and his trolls carry for humans, elves, and everything resembling them is far too deep. As such, the mountains of the Frozen Fields are often a site of perpetual guerilla war, with dwarves and trolls always raiding one another. Support from the Kingdom used to give the dwarves and edge, but with that material and manpower support dried up, the trolls have taken the advantage.

As a result, King Bruenor has an open-door policy with Dwarveholm. He accepts all travelers and all merchants, seeking to profit over the trolls’ deep-set hatreds. This is not to say anyone can become respected or buddies with the king and his inner circle. In fact, troll-aligned spies have caused Bruenor to be cautious with whom he accepts inside Mithral Hall. Those who seek an audience with the king and to become a part of his war against the trolls must gather materials precious to the dwarves—cobalt and wampa fur, which are used in many of their blacksmith and armorsmith projects.

The would-be ally of the dwarves must also defeat a troll in combat and return with their tusk. They must then prove their mettle by sparring with and besting a dwarven champion. Only such an individual will be honored with access to the inner sanctum of Dwarveholm and permission to sit at the mead hall with King Bruenor.

Quest Stipulations - Character must retrieve a chunk of cobalt. Character must bring back a wampa hide. Character must bring back the tusk of a slain troll. Character must defeat a dwarven champion in a sparring bout.[/spoiler]

Whumph. Wrshhhhh... Whumph. Wrshhhhh... Whumph.

The sound of the Fur-Selkie's fin-hands smacking into the snow, propelling it forward to slide for a dozen meters, rinse and repeat, was quite monotone. Calming, but also tiring. Amaterasu knew that she had probably dozed off a few times by now. To keep herself from falling asleep completely she summoned filling food like rice cakes and fruit that she could keep chewing for a while, even though she wasn't very hungry. I've to take care not to fall asleep... not when I don't know my surroundings and am traveling alone. As unfortunate as it was, the troll she had slain when meeting Urist was probably buried by snow and even if he wasn't she would be having a harder time finding him than a needle in a haystack, with the sheer size of the plains she was navigating and no landmark or other means of finding her way back. She would have to slay another troll. And hopefully find a wampa cave somewhere while she was at it.

In the snowstorms obscuring the sun she had lost track of time. She had slept when tired, cuddled up against the warming fur of her Fur-Selkie, and had advanced the rest of the time, only stopping for bodily needs or to lead the Fur-Selkie around a particularly dangerous spot like spiky rocks sticking out of the snow. Where she was even going, she had little idea. She trusted the dwarves' advice on getting towards the center of the verse as there were plenty of caverns. They'd told her that it was one of the places where wampas tended to hide out, but there were no specific spots. She would have to get lucky.

A gust of wind freed up the sky long enough that Amaterasu could catch a glimpse of the mountaintop, much closer than she had expected. It wasn't going to be much further then. In anticipation of a battle she loosened the Yasakani no Magatama around her neck, ready to send them off at the first notice of an attack. From the back of her Fur-Selkie she felt relatively safe, but one couldn't be careful enough. However she got up to the side of a rock cliff without any further issues. From there on things were a little harder... the cliff looked very high, she couldn't tell as the fog was blocking the view a few meters up, so she instead began walking along the side. There was a mild chance that there would be a cave somewhere into that cliff after all.

It did not take long for her to notice footprints on the ground. There was both small ones, clearly resulting from someone with shoes that had wandered around, and much larger footprints with claw marks. She was not a very good tracker but even with the snow slowly filling the prints back up she could see that these prints belonged to a predator. Bipedal, clearly... there were no matching prints nearby that would belong to fore-paws. They were older than the shoe-made prints so she presumed that whoever wore these was probably following the beast just like herself. Could it be...? No, she should not get ahead of herself, these prints could belong to anyone, though the hope existed that Oki was indeed here. She brushed her hand over the prints to see if she could dig out any details, but finding none decided to pursue them on foot. By guiding the Fur-Selkie by the reins behind herself she got it to cover up the tracks by sliding over them with its belly and fins, thereby preventing any potential followers from finding out anything more than that someone had passed through here - the number of individuals, for instance - and possibly capitalizing on it to prepare an ambush. After all she might run into trolls thirsty for a fight, other predators out for a morsel, or even dwarves that mistook her for an attacker. And even if she didn't it couldn't hurt to clean up behind herself when the extra effort was negligible. She could not mount the Fur-Selkie again regardless, the risk of losing track of the footprints in the snow from the elevated position of the beast's saddle was too great.
 
For the next two hours Amaterasu chased the two rows of footprints. Always sticking close to the cliff wall, looking behind herself (of course, past the Fur-Selkie, not at it), checking if there was anything unusual ahead or coming from the sides or above. Her Yasakani no Magatama were always held at the ready, prepared for an ambush. When the trail broke off, buried under a small avalanche that had fallen down from the cliffs above, Amaterasu gritted her teeth. She had to find a new lead, and fast, before the trail turned cold... the snow covered a wide area, making it hard to find anything under there. But what was that? Off in the distance she could see a dark spot on the cliff wall... a cavern entrance. She narrowed her eyes. Could it be...? As she stepped closer, leaving her Fur-Selkie behind, she noticed the bones scattered in front of the entrance, and the blood splatters on the walls. Some of the bones reminded her of mortal's... she had to take a big breather to calm her stomach. No time to feel sick. Drawing closer still she could see the claw marks on the stone walls, pointing out that this was indeed a predator's den. Could it be a wampa? She had never seen one, now that she thought of it. Only its laid-out hide.

She steeled herself, finding her inner center, and approached the cave from the side, then leant over to look at the inside. The stench of blood and of a big, unwashed animal almost made her spill her stomach's contents out after all, but she forced herself to not think about it. She could see it... a massive beast, larger even than the one whose hide was now adorning the floor of the inn she had stayed at. Its back was turned towards her, it was seemingly gnawing on something, probably its latest prey. Whew... only now did the Sun kami realize that she had not considered HOW to defeat such a beast. Her Yasakani no Magatama would probably do little more than distract the beast. And she could not afford to use her Power Slash too much, or else the hide would be ruined. The dwarves probably wanted it whole to fashion items with, slashing it to pieces would gore it and make it useless to them. She looked down at her waist, at the golden ink pots. It was then that a familiar voice spoke.

"Mother Amaterasu, don't say you have forgotten about me now", spoke Bakugami in an amused tone.

"Bakugami?" asked Amaterasu. The Celestial Brush God of the Cherry Bomb technique.

"This being does not seem like it's the smartest tool in the shed. Using your Yasakani no Magatama you can push my bomb around to get it close to the beast, and have it blow up in its face. Better yet, try to get it to bite into the bomb or devour it. If it explodes within we could kill it in one quick go."

"You're right... quick and painless. Hopefully it doesn't have a strong stomach." She murmured and grabbed her brush, then began drawing. Out of the circle with a line sticking out of it, like a Q in the western alphabet, a colorful ball appeared in midair and began rolling towards the beast. Amaterasu had ensured to give this one a long fuse. She muttered a few words as the beast spun around as it heard something invade its den, then eyed the weird colorful object curiously, reached its enormous clawed paw out and lifted it to its face, before throwing it between its jaws and devouring it whole. Then it looked around before picking up a bone and returning to gnawing. No explosion to be heard.

"Must've snuffed out the fuse when eating it..." mumbled Amaterasu, but the beast had visibly liked it. From that she sprung a strategy: she drew several more bombs, each with a progressively short fuse, and sent them rolling towards the monster which in turn ate one after another, with its saliva snuffing the fuse out before the bomb could go off. That is, until one of them had a fuse too short for the beast to close its jaws before it burned out, and the bomb exploded right inside its maw.

Amaterasu rapidly pressed her back against the wall of the cliff and covered herself. The force of the explosion blew outside of the cave with the rock tunneling the force, but it flew past her. She could not see what gruesome scene her attack had left behind, but she could imagine it. No sound came and when she briefly checked she saw the carcass. It was headless - and unless wampas somehow could live on despite that and this one was playing possum it was dead for certain. She sunk against the wall of the cliff and muttered a brief prayer to guide the beast's soul to the afterlife, then closed her eyes and covered her nose as she ran into the cave. With a pair of carefully-placed Power Slashes she was able to open the carcass sufficiently that she could skin it with the knife she had gotten from the troll. The whole process took nearly a full hour, but eventually she had removed the hide from the carcass, rolled it up and brought it back to her Fur-Selkie. She also took a few extra minutes to cut the horns and claws off and store them in a pouch on her saddle. They seemed to be durable and might just come in handy at a later date. The carcass would probably attract scavengers so she couldn't stay around for long... only a few minutes to get the horrible smell of the cavern's insides out of her system. Her head was spinning at this point. She sat on the Fur-Selkie's fin and took deep breaths, as bad as that might be to do in an icy region. Had Oki been around, he would have given her an extensive lecture on preserving warmth in such a climate.

Speaking of Oki... she had not remembered to check out the footprints. Did they lead back to the cavern as well? Or maybe some other way? She should have checked... no, she still would. AFTER her head stopped spinning like this.

1.772 words written.

Amaterasu has spent 2 SP (2x Celestial Brush: Power Slash, to skin the wampa). Should she get into any battle within the next few IC hours she will start out with 1-2 SP depending on the time given to regenerate them.

✓ Wampa killed and skinned for its hide.
✘ Troll slain and proof of its death obtained.
✘ Cobalt ore chunk mined.
✘ Dwarven champion defeated in spar.

[Amaterasu]

Oki muttered a curse under his breath as he climbed along the frozen slope, ramming two short rocks into the ground to pull himself upwards. All could have gone so well... the wampa had been right there. He had spent over a day tracking that single specimen, finding its last hunting grounds, uncovering its most recent tracks and setting off in pursuit. The wampa had walked for a while until getting to its home, why it hadn't devoured the carcass while the meat was still warm and fresh he did not know. Perhaps it wanted the safety of its cave as opposed to the openness of the fields. Oki had tracked it down to its lair, coming so close to slaying another of those terrifying predators, when his hunt had gotten interrupted.

He suspected them to be trolls. The snowstorms responsible for the poor sight coupled with the only vague, inaccurate descriptions of the dwarves he had spoken to hadn't provided him with enough evidence to make it out, though it did look like they were bipedal, and while trying to avoid seeing what he WANTED to see, he believed to catch glimpses of tusks pointing out from their heads. But whether they were troll hunters looking for meat or for some opponent to paint the snow red or a group of beasts, herbi- or carnivore, roaming the fields of ice, he could not expose himself to the risk of pursuing his hunt whilst they were nearby. If they were trolls they would rejoice in the opportunity of slaying him in his weakened state after battle and take the wampa hide, and possibly the carcass too, back to their tribe for usage, and the smell of blood drawn if he slew the wampa would doubtlessly attract the group if they were predators. He could not risk it. He had to be patient. So he had left the wampa behind, believing that it would likely eat and rest for a while now, and snuck after the group instead, bent on waiting until they were sufficiently far away that he could resume his original hunt.

Such a time was now. The group had turned away from the center of the Frozen Fields and resumed their journey, hunt or whatever it was they were out here for, and eventually had crossed the limit beyond which Oki deemed them to be far away enough to return to the wampa cavern. Even if it had left in the meantime he could attempt to set a trap or lay an ambush for its return - from what he could tell wampas seemed fairly territorial and spent their time in one place without moving much. On his way back he had chosen a much more direct route than what the group had taken, and that was how he had found himself in front of the icy slope that he was now climbing. He knew, however, that he was close. The cliffside into which the cavern was built was barely distinguishable in the fog already. But when he arrived, he was in for quite a surprise...

Amaterasu hurriedly got on her feet when she saw a silhouette peel itself out of the snow, coming closer. Could it be some pursuer? Maybe another wampa? No, it was smaller and not as bulky as the furred predators... the tracks came to her mind. She readied the Yasakani no Magatama, bracing for an attack, but none came.

Could it be that the person coming closer hadn't seen her? No, they must have. If not her herself, then her Fur-Selkie, which was huge and brown colored. At this distance it was impossible to not take note of it even in the fog. And she was right next to it, so she had little hope of having passed by unnoticed. Plus, the person that the silhouette belonged to was coming right at her.  Soon she could hear the thick fur boots wading through the snow, creating muffled crunch sounds. And she saw the outline of a drawn sword appearing amidst the fog. But despite that she felt strangely calm, and when the fog could not obscure the person's features any longer, she understood why.

The Yasakani no Magatama dropped into the snow as Amaterasu lost control of them. Not that she needed them. For a few brief moments she looked at the man with the blue wolf mask, then asked a question that she already knew the answer to: "Oki? Is that you?"


"Amaterasu?" came the surprised reply. Oki held his sword Kuton by his side but made no movement of attack. Although he had asked, he knew the answer.

Amaterasu rushed through the snow as fast as she could and leapt into his arms, nearly crying with joy. "It's you! It's really you!" Oki dropped his sword as they fell over and rolled through the snow a few meters, both laughing and hugging each other.

"What are you doing here? How did you find me? And why are you human now?!" asked Oki. He was as glad to see his old friend as Amaterasu herself, but could not keep his questions back.

"Ahe... it's a long story", replied Amaterasu as she got to her knees then stood up and helped Oki to his feet as well. "After going into the Ark of Yamato... that's when I regained my human form. Yami had drained me of my powers, but humanity's faith in me restored me to my true self and allowed me to slay him. And I found you... I don't even know how, really. Intuition maybe. I felt that you were around somewhere and asked the dwarves about you, but I didn't think I'd run into you here. Did I poach your prey?"

"What? You mean you slew the wampa? I... no, of course not. I mean, I was hunting it but only to rid the dwarves of it. It's been causing a lot of troubles for them and such... how come you got it? And you still didn't tell me how you got here!"

"Neither did you. But yes, I want to bring them the hide among others. Gotta be one I hunted myself. But me, it all started after the showdown on the Ark of Yamato. After I..." She began to explain whilst returning to the Fur-Selkie with Oki and sitting against its belly for warmth. She went on about everything from their departure on the mythical Ark to return to the Celestial Realm, to her brief meeting with Omni, to the events of the Hero's Graveyard and how she had finally gotten here, to the Frozen Fields. There was a lot to tell and she didn't pause as Oki listened, saving his questions for later.

"... and that's how the tracks led me to the lair. I slew the wampa and skinned it... and now I need to find a troll before I can return to Urist."

"A troll, huh... I happened to run by a group earlier that may have been trolls. I couldn't see them in the icy fog, not well enough to tell if they were trolls anyway, but I suspect that they could be. But a group might be too dangerous to take on. Trolls are smart and dangerous..."

"I'm aware. I only was able to kill the one that attacked Urist because he had his back turned... and was tired from battle. No, we should find them in a small group of one or two."

"That won't be easy, but... perhaps we could use the wampa hide you harvested to separate the group? Or pose as a wampa as we kill one of them. I could pull the hide over myself to disguise as one and you deal the killing blow with your brush."

"A great idea. Lead the way!" She slid onto the Fur-Selkie's back but left space at the front for Oki to take the reins and put them on track of the group of trolls they were after.

1337 words written... hue.

Amaterasu has regenerated 1 SP (2/3 available)

✓ Wampa killed and skinned for its hide.
✘ Troll slain and proof of its death obtained.
✘ Cobalt ore chunk mined.
✘ Dwarven champion defeated in spar.

[Amaterasu]

"There they are..." spoke Oki. A plume of smoke was rising, visible through the fog. And where smoke was, there had to be fire. He stopped the Fur-Selkie and dismounted, then waited for Amaterasu to follow him.

"You sure that that's the same group?" The kami asked as she slid off as well and helped Oki at getting it behind a few rocks, where it could wait for them.

"These plains are enormous. Taking into account how unlikely it is that two groups are so close to each other in a location so far away from any settlement, as well as that they went roughly the same way as I saw them go... I mean, I cannot pinpoint it perfectly, but I'm almost certain."

"Let's sneak up and check anyway. Just to be safe."

"I was gonna propose that anyway. We can't be certain that they really are trolls... I didn't see their faces."

"If we can slay two of them you could bring back one of their heads along with me. We could both gain access to the Inner Sanctum of Dwarvenholm. And the innkeeper still has the hide of that other wampa... plus, we can count on Urist to find us enough Cobalt for two people."

"True. Quiet now..." He grunted and bent over as his shape shifted and he turned into a dark-furred wolf, with Kuton resting on his back rather than attached to his hip. Amaterasu had to remain in human form, lacking the capability to take on wolf shape, but that was alright - her white dress concealed her from view, even with a larger figure than Oki, who rolled around in the snow to get his fur whitened. With the weapons at the ready, they snuck up, hiding behind rocks and gradually advancing towards the source of the smoke. Oki was an experienced hunter and tracker, and Amaterasu had some experience at sneaking, but even so it took them a fair share of time before they arrived. Pressing their backs against a rock, they started hearing voices.

"... don' know bout dis, mon. Dey oughta be back by now..." spoke one. A deep, monotonous voice.

"Ya be seein' stuff... Rusraz be with 'em. 'e's da best shaman o' the squad. Mighta run into a tight spot, but... nah, dey en't dead, mon... oi, Shaejin, what d'you think you be doing dere? Leave da bottle alone, yar on guard duty!" This one spoke with a stronger, more authoritarian voice. Probably a sergeant.

"Take it easy, mon. Jus' wettin' me throat... I ain't lettin' up." This voice came from closer to them. Amaterasu heard footsteps when she adjusted her ears.

"Ah said put da bottle down 'fore I rip ya a new one! If ah catch you again drinkin' when yar supposed t'guard us..."

Oki waved Amaterasu over to get as close as possible, and whispered: "At least three of them in that camp. Maybe more... at least one guard, we must take him first."

"Leave it to me. I'll try and grab his attention, lure him out of the camp. If he calls his friends I'll lure them away too... you stay here and wait for me to be at a safe distance, then if I'm up against just one guy we pincer him, if the leader stays behind you get him instead. Without a boss they'll be headless."

"Kill the alpha. Just be sure that you don't get yourself killed, alright."

"Even if I do I would be reincarnated, like I did once before... don't worry though. I shall not throw myself into a fight I cannot win. But don't do that yourself, either." She held out a hand and Oki, after a brief delay, nodded and put his paw on it, then Amaterasu tugged them together and leant down to bump their shoulders against each other. They were battle-siblings, forged in the fires of war against the akuma that plagued the lands. The oath they had sworn long ago in the snow of Kamui had not lost any of its significance just because they were in a different world - if anything, it had strengthened as a result of them needing one another to survive in these lands.

Oki stood aside as Amaterasu stepped out from behind the cover of the rock and stepped forward, towards the encampment. It did not take long for the guardsman to raise his weapon and pointing it at her menacingly. A large club and a short dagger. "Oi! You there, who're ya? Wha's yar business here?!" he warned. Amaterasu stopped and the troll "I'm warning ya, ah'm armed! Reply or ah'll attack!" When Amaterasu didn't reply he hit the hilt of the dagger against a metal surface that he was wearing by his belt, alerting the camp. Three other trolls were immediately up and on their feet, scampering to get their weapons and aid the guardsman who had raised the alarm. Amaterasu turned around and hushed off into the snow like a ghost, but the red of her dress could be seen for long enough that the trolls knew to run after her into the snow.

"Oi! Stop dead or we gonna shoot!" one of the other trolls yelled. Amaterasu glanced over her shoulder just in time to notice him raising a weapon, a crossbow presumably. It was good that he'd yelled, he had given away his position... when he fired a bolt she sent one of the beads of her Yasakani no Magatama flying behind herself, intercepting the projectile in midair, which destroyed her bead but also made the bolt drop harmlessly. She heard curses and smiled to herself. They had picked up the chase, thinking that they'd missed the bolt somehow, but were after her now. With a little luck their lust for battle would make them forget about the encampment and she could lure them far away. Another bolt whizzed past her ear accompanied by more curses and she tripped into a hole of snow, losing some momentum but also covering up more of the white. She turned a corner and picked up her pace. They were still there, but the one with the crossbow was reloading, and thus slower on his feet.

Back at the encampment the leader had jumped to his feet and yelled off the top of his lungs: "SHAEJIN! Ah told ya t'not drink on duty! Get yar asses back here right now, I swear to Omni..." But his screams were lost to the snowfall that swallowed every sound. Had he not yelled as much he might have heard the death rattle of the one troll that had remained with him, just three meters behind him. But he did hear the corpse fall on the snow and turned around fast enough that Oki could not leap onto his back for a deathbite as well. "Wha' in the... a wolf? Nah, ya'r armed... a damn druid?" He drew his weapon, a frightening thing - a Zweihander bigger than himself, black as the night and yet reflecting the light of the campfire. It reeked of dwarven blood. "Ah en't beheaded a wolf in a while... heh. Les' see how ya fare, mon. Mah men're not gonna get ambushed... it be a setup, right? Dey be smarter 'n that." He then charged forward, swinging his blade in a wide arc, and Oki leapt over the deadly edge while throwing his head back and unsheathing Kuton in flight. He slid past the troll, carried by the momentum of his jump, then turned around to attack, but the troll leader was ready...

Some time later...

"Shaejin, mon... we oughta return to da camp. Dis en't no normal prey... it be eluding us... it en't slow. And we en't hitting it with Jol'zim's bolts either." Shaejin and the two other trolls wielding close-range weapons slowed their step, but they had lost Jol'zim in the snow. He was behind them, certainly, but they did not know how much. And they were by now following the tracks of the strange prey that eluded them, having lost sight of it in the thick of the fog.

"Aye... les' turn around. Ah'm starting ta not like this one bit." spoke Shaejin after a little thought. They turned on their heels, with one of them covering their back just in case, and began to step back along the tracks they had left. Being seasoned Frozen Fields travelers they could find their way even without landmarks or the sky... they had a sixth sense. But only as they began walking did they realize how much they had exerted themselves in the chase, equipped with big heavy weapons and thick fur armor to keep them warm, on top of leather. And wading through the snow. Rookie errors... but they marched, slow but filled with determination.

"Oi... shouldn't we hav' run inta Jol'zim by now?" asked the third troll after a while. "He can' hav' been too far behind us... shoulda caught up. An' now we be runnin' right back at 'im."

Shaejin spat out. "Coward's probably gotten cold feet an' run back ta Golzim, 'fore he gets punished."

"Wait... wha's that?" The troll pointed at tracks that hadn't been there before, which crossed their own. Massive prints, and a uniform strip of flat snow. "Tha' a damn Fur-Selkie? Shaejin, ah don' feel good about this..."

Shaejin froze in place, then pointed forward. "We got tricked... look."

In the bloodied snow laid the corpse of Jol'zim, with several holes the size of a mandarine blown clean through his chest. His head was cut off.

Meanwhile, back at the encampment...

Oki huffed, back in his human form, and with some struggling and the aid of his foot was able to finally dislodge Kuton from the armor of the corpse before him. His left arm was covered in blood from a large cut near his shoulder when he had been too slow to dodge the leader's sword in a critical exchange, and his back had a number of bruises from kicks delivered by the leader after he had disarmed him. He had rarely fought a foe this tenacious. "I know you're there, Amaterasu. You can come out,."

"How did you know?" the kami asked as she emerged, with a worried look on her face. She was carrying two leather bags, one of which was full and had its bottom dripping with blood that had seeped through the seams. The other was empty.

"Heard the Fur-Selkie. They make a really distinct sound when sliding forward." He held his hand out and Amaterasu gave him the empty bag. Using the troll's own sword Oki beheaded the corpse in a swift slash and bagged the head. They would worry about getting the tusks later. Now they had to escape before the hunting party came back.

"Wait, what's that?" asked Amaterasu and reached for an item on the ground. It was some small black device whose surface lit up when she touched it.

"That? He picked it up during our fight. Careful, it might be some weapon."

"No, that's a Communicator... I remember now, the interrogator at Coruscant showed me one. A device used to communicate across distances, and save things. Maybe he was trying to call his men back." She frowned. "This might be useful to keep... could hand it to the dwarves, see if they can make any use of what's on it."

Oki frowned himself. "So many things we have never seen in Nippon. This world is truly odd."

Amaterasu nodded and blinked as a logo flashed across the screen. Apparently the troll had been watching something. Like a small window, she could see... people. A man in a reddish suit, with well-kept hair, a mustache and some sort of black ball on a stick that he held before his mouth as he spoke. "And we're here with yet another volunteer for the rescue expedition. Hi there, my name is Ron Burgundy. Would you mind sparing a moment or two to talk to the people back home?"

"Did that item just speak?! What is that, Ammy?!" asked Oki and unsheathed Kuton again.

"I don't know, Oki. But I know that this thing supposedly is able to transfer speech and pictures across long distances. Maybe the troll was speaking to someone... or listening to it. Uh, hi, I'm..." She began to speak, but the view panned to an anthropomorphic rabbit woman instead, who replied.

"What's that then?" asked Oki. He was dragging Amaterasu over to the Fur-Selkie and having her climb on. The kami was completely lost in the magic of this device.

"I don't know. It says Dee Ay on the top right... and "live." Dante's Ab-something. This phoenician alphabet is hard to read and it got by fast."

"You'll figure it out. We have to go now." Oki took the reins and had the Fur-Selkie slide off, leaving the dead encampment behind for the patrol's return.

2160 words written.

Amaterasu has regenerated 1 SP (3/3 available)
(Amaterasu has also found a Communicator/Mobile Dataverse Device. Dante's Abyss Preshow Interviews are currently being held, in case that wasn't clear.)

✓ Wampa killed and skinned for its hide.
✓ Troll slain and proof of its death obtained.
✘ Cobalt ore chunk mined.
✘ Dwarven champion defeated in spar.

[Amaterasu]

In favor of a personal storyline I am "freezing" the Into the Hall quest (no pun intended) from this post on, until resumed. Amaterasu is not discarding the objects retrieved so far, but if upon judgement it's decided that the entire quest must be done in one continuous story without interruptions I understand.

Quest progression/restart will be marked with another quote at the top of the corresponding post!

The Fur-Selkie was carrying both Oki and Amaterasu now, sliding through the snow at its usual pace without relenting. Truly it wasn't a normal animal... Amaterasu had never seen it eat, drink or sleep, it had never once acted up or shown any other signs of a personality, it had always behaved and done as was asked of it. Someone more modern would have compared it to a machine. They were on the way towards the town that Amaterasu had left Urist at since some two days, with Oki taking the reins of the Fur-Selkie. Amaterasu was exploring the functionalities of the item she had retrieved from the troll leader.

One fateful evening she discovered the functionality to access the Dataverse Dante's Abyss website which held information about this year's event. She had come across the site shortly after seeing the livestream broadcasted from the lobby, with Ron Burgundy interviewing the participants. After having been broadcasted the stream had been left in shorter snippets for everyone to watch again if they wanted, cut in such a way that each snippet showed a single full interview. Amaterasu watched one broadcast after another when she found some spare time in the evenings, because the flickering little screen made her head hurt. She usually left it at two interviews per stop, until she stumbled across a very special one.

Amaterasu found Fiara's recording, her interview with Ron Burgundy, and to add to it she saw Arturia walk by in the background. There was no interview of her, but she would recognize the knight anywhere, even if she wasn't in her usual clothes, which she was. On their lunch break she hopped to her feet and looked at Oki.

"I have found Arturia, and Fiara", she said. Oki knew who she was speaking about when she mentioned the former. He looked at her concerned.

"What are you going to do? You can't come to her aid, right? This... Dante's Abyss thing, it's closed off. We don't even know where it's taking place."

"I'll find out. I'll get to her. I have to."

"Ammy, calm yourself!" he replied and stood up himself. They looked at each other for a few moments, then he spoke on. "Arturia is beyond our reach right now. She can handle herself, I'm certain. And Fiara... if she is here she must have appeared like the Celestial kami, with Moegami probably. She can handle her weight too, I remember her."

"Fiara is a kid, Oki! She's even more hotheaded than her father was even in his youth! She's going to throw herself at something that's too big for her. She- oh no..."

"What? What is it?"

"Fiara and Arturia... I think they are both there because of me. Arturia is looking for me, we know that, but Fiara... probably as well. Oh, this is bad... Fiara is probably not a Prime, she's going to die for good if she dies, and..."

Oki put his hands on Amaterasu's shoulders and looked her in the eyes. "Relax, Amaterasu. Think... Arturia will be fine, and Fiara... she won't die so easily, she is the daughter of Moegami after all. And if she does... she's a phoenix, we'll find a way to bring her back, okay?"

"Yeah... yeah, okay... I'm sorry for bursting out like that." She looked back at Oki, then put her hands on his and pulled them from her shoulders. "But, that doesn't change much. I still must find them. Listen, Oki... you know where the settlement is. Take the Fur-Selkie, the wampa fur and the heads as well as the money I made during the trip. Find Urist and the dwarves and find some shelter with them, wait for my return."

"You want to go alone?!" he asked startled.

"This is my mission, and I don't want Urist to get worried about us. Just... please do as I ask. I'll be back as soon as I can and find you both. I'll bring Fiara back with me, and Arturia if she wishes such as well."

"... alright, I see. Just, promise me that you won't get yourself into any trouble, okay? Keep your head leveled about all this."

"I will, promise. If I can't find a way into the Dante's Abyss I will just leave messages for Arturia with what she needs to contact me, and seek the remaining Celestial Brush kami out by just stepping into each portal for a short period and leaving as soon as I have them."

"Good... be careful out there."

"You too. You won't return if you die, so you have to be extra careful about all this." She stepped away from him and knelt in the snow to summon another Fur-Selkie for herself, as Oki stood by. Only when she had actually summoned it and mounted up did he do the same with his. They leant closer, grabbed each other's hands and bumped into one another's shoulders as goodbye, then headed out in different ways.

Amaterasu was headed straight for the entrance of the Frozen Fields, now sufficiently familiar with the verse to understand the geography. It shouldn't take her long, seeing where she was right now.

---

Indeed, only one day of travel after her departure did she see the portal off in the distance. On her way there she passed by a massive fortress built of snow that she was certain hadn't been there before, but then she supposed that she might have missed it. Or maybe someone had built it using their summoning powers, who knew. She sighed as she dismounted. A Fur-Selkie would be of little use in a land without snow, and the Nexus was one such place. "I think I have to extract the Omnilium from you again, don't I..." She murmured, then closed her eyes and put her hands on the beast's neck, now imagining it painlessly breaking down into its smallest components. She felt herself sinking down until she touched the ground and was made to stand on her own two legs, but continued to focus until at last she just... knew she had succeeded. Opening her eyes revealed an orb of Omnilium in her hands that she simply sunk into her chest again. That was done with... she looked back at the massive frozen landscape once more, then stepped through the portal to the Nexus. But she would be back.

[Amaterasu]

"So there's no update on Arturia and Fiara yet? Nowhere in Coruscant nor the Nexus? ... Yeah, of course, Kushi's going to recognize them, she's a bright one... Right, yes. No, I'm staying out of trouble, that's what I meant... listen, Ammy, I'm a grown man, I can take care of myself. Don't forget that I killed a wampa. Besides I spend most of my tme around the settlement anyway, it's not like predators can get me here... yeah, okay. You know how to reach me. See you soon." Oki hung up the fixed Communicator and left the confined room that it had been mounted in, to keep the rest of the infirmary quiet. Here in this settlement Communicators not reserved for military usage were a rarity but the one at the infirmary was the one with the best access.

While he was there he decided to check on Urist as well. The dwarf was making a speedy recovery which, as had been assured to him by the infirmary staff, was not him faking it in an attempt to get out of bed faster, but indeed normal for all dwarves. In a handful of days he would be back on his feet and in the condition to do whatever he wanted, though after the promise he'd made to Amaterasu he had made a deal with a pair of miners in the area to help them with expanding a part of the cave network downwards as the living space on the upper floors was getting a little tight and they intended on establishing the basis for larger cave networks. In exchange of that his bodily needs - food, drinks, sleep - were accounted for and he got a decent pay out of it, which was perfect for the dwarf. After his unfortunate run-in with the trolls his finances were tight and he welcomed the opportunity to stock them up a little and start anew.

Oki had visited the dwarf on multiple occasions to check on his health and every time he had listened to his stories. Being a merchant in a land like the Frozen Fields meant that Urist had gone through a lot of adventures, not all with happy endings of course, but many worth remembering. Run-ins with the trolls, conflict among the dwarven clans, battles against the natural fauna of the fields and against the very environment... one truly couldn't complain that life in these plains of snow and ice was monotonous. In the process Oki learned a lot about the Frozen Fields, and some about the Omniverse itself. Amaterasu had shared her knowledge with him but even then there were many things that the Sun Goddess did not yet know. Things about the Fields, mostly - hierarchies and names, the relationships of the trolls to the dwarves, the dwarven groups among each other, how Primes influenced the unstable balance of it all... and one subject he loved to come back to was the difficulty of establishing any sort of trade network due to the weather conditions and instability of the fields. Attempts had been made to construct roads and trade posts but the snowstorms had buried many, while trolls, wampas and the like had destroyed a number of others. The few that were left had to be discontinued due to lacking a proper connection to the dwarven settlements which made them as pointless as a wall support without a wall to prevent from collapsing.

"I tell ya, we could make great things if we just got the right resources! We can build safe routes if we jus' fortify 'em a bit, we can make roads and encampments! All we're missing is the manpower."

"So why does King Bruenor not send his men to aid?"

"Ah, it en't that easy, Oki. Ya can't barge in like that an' make big demands. There's procedures, rules. Ya gotta get an audience with the King, an' that en't as easy as you would think. Ya need the recommendation of a noble. Kar'Grul had one, he was gonna request an audience, but ya know what happened to 'im. Damn trolls." He spat on the ground and Oki wrinkled his nose under the mask.

"Amaterasu could help..."

"Wha? How so?"

"Well, if we both bring back the requested materials, the King's attention will be drawn. He's bound to want to hear about any Primes that join his ranks, right? That would be an occasion to request a formal hearing and present your idea."

"Well..." The dwarf didn't look entirely convinced.

"It's your idea, we won't take credit for it."

"That en't the problem, Oki. You both are capable, but you lack the... the knowledge. Ya can't explain the idea properly."

"We can explain its basic form and request that if he's interested he hears you out. We can even offer to aid with the project and Amaterasu can summon aid so that the King doesn't have to cut his resources down as much. You'd get to instruct us as we go about that work."

As Urist considered the option Oki got up from his chair. "I must depart to take care of a few things, but I will be back later today. Take your time considering the idea, Amaterasu and I will be with you for a while longer after all."

"Hrmmh. You two are weird for being humans, you know that."

Oki chuckled as he picked up Kuton from beside the door and put the sheath over his back whilst stepping out the door. "That's because we're not. May the Sun watch over you, Urist."

[Amaterasu]

When Amaterasu arrived at the Frozen Fields once more, she dismounted to let the Fur-Selkie slide off of the wheeled support that was now stuck in the snow. While it was doing that, she formed a little snow into a simple snowman and focused her mind on it. A dwarf with all the necessary knowledge for when Fiara came around... a dwarf to bring her to Dwarfholm... and they needed a Fur-Selkie and supplies, lots of supplies, and some money to use in Dwarfholm... actually, two Fur-Selkies to transport all of what they required... oh, and she needed a new coat to keep warm. She'd have to start with that.

A full hour later everything was set up: the dwarf who Amaterasu had named Liang and who, despite her best efforts had a very asian face though she had gotten his stature right, two Fur-Selkies, a dozen crates of dry supplies for the next few weeks, warm clothing for Fiara and a map. When she was finished she was mildly out of breath... interesting that summoning items took such a strain on her mind. Though it had already done that when she'd healed Urist.

"Liang?" she asked carefully.

"I know what my duty will be, Amaterasu", replied the dwarf as he bowed his head. "I shall see that Fiara is safely escorted to Dwarfholm, we'll be waiting for Oki and you there."

"Good. Take good care of her... after the recent events I couldn't forgive myself if something happened to her again."

"Of course. I swear upon my honor that I will protect her with my life."

Amaterasu bowed. "I hope that it doesn't have to come to this. But I appreciate it... but I must take my leave. You will likely arrive at Dwarfholm before me. If you do, use the coins I added to your supplies to pay for anything you need. I doubt that it will take that long but if your money were to run tight for any reason try to find work for the both of you. I have given you knowledge of eastern craftsmanship, you'll be able to make something of it I'm sure."

"You worry too much, Mother Amaterasu. We will be just fine. After all, you are a Prime, and we are both adults."

The Sun Goddess finally nodded and took off on her Fur-Selkie, to where she had left Urist and Oki behind.

Fast forward ~3 days...

When Amaterasu arrived after the lengthy trip Urist and Oki met her at the stalls. It was a joyful meeting, although when Oki asked where Fiara was Amaterasu had to relay the bad news to them both, tearing up as she told the story of Fiara's death, and summoning her again after the meeting with Okor Paleblood. Then it was their turn to tell of the events.

"Not much, really", admitted Urist while stroking his beard. "Ah spent another day under the knife, but things're lookin' up fer me. Bleedin's stopped, me bones are mendin' and the pain's goin' back as well. We been headin' out these past few days actually, found ya a nice lil' spot with Cobalt to mine out."

"Little? How little are we talking about?"

"'Just enough Cobalt to outfit 14 dwarves with good armor' amounts. More than 'nough for yer task, Ama."

"Urist is also feeling strong enough that we can hit the road", added Oki. "The docs are going to give him some medicine and instructions to go along, but the Fur-Selkie's a good method of movement for an injured fighter because the movements are so smooth. The bones won't get dislocated."

"That is great news! Then we're just going to need a pickaxe to mine out the Cobalt, and..."

"Already taken care of. I did a favor to one of the miners who was happy to trade one of his old tools in for it. He even gave me a backpack to hold it... not the best quality but it'll definitely do to hold the Cobalt that we have to bring back."

"What about weaponry? Do either of you need anything?"

"The spot where we are headed is too close to the town to be frequented by wild animals, so we can go by without anything extra, I think", explained Oki. "If you give me just a moment, I'll go grab our stuff and we can be off right away."

"Aye, same with me. Ah jus' need to get me belongings at the infirmary, an' we can be off."

Twenty minutes later Oki, Urist and Amaterasu climbed on their Fur-Selkies and headed out, with Urist at the front. The big animals packed all the items that the three of them had amassed either during their trip to the town or during their stay here, as well as the wampa hides from both Oki and Amaterasu, the bagged heads from the trolls, the mining equipment and supplies for the trip to Dwarfholm. No problem for their powerful fins and strong backsides. Within the hour they arrived at the mine, a crevice that Urist had stumbled upon a few days ago, and got to work. Here was where the wampa hides proved quite useful: freed of any rotting materials such as meat and skin, they didn't smell and provided good cover and warmth while they dug up the ore deposit and began to hammer the pickaxe into the rock, taking turns. Before long chunks began to come loose and they were able to break them out, stuff them into the battered backpack that Oki had been given, and continued. A "chunk" was probably less than half the backpack's worth of content, but all three silently agreed to fill the backpack completely, especially since the ore vein was fairly rich and Urist insisted on taking the purest chunks that they could find. Amaterasu could just have summoned some, but that defeated the purpose, did it not? Besides, the dwarves would probably inspect the chunks for pickaxe marks that would be hard to fake.

Four hours later, the three were spent but happy, with large chunks of Cobalt ore ready for smelting and purifying filling the backpack to the brim - around 12 kilos worth of it. To Amaterasu it was a heavy bag. To the Fur-Selkies, evenly distributed, it barely made a difference.

"Now we head to Dwarfholm. At this rate we'll probably be there before Fiara after all", remarked Oki. "Urist, can you lead the way?"

"Aye. We oughta be there in two days worth of travelin', I reckon. But we're a fair bit south o' the direct route so if yer friend makes it to the Fields fast enough we're gonna take longer."

"We'll see. I hope that she's okay..."

"Ah'd worry more bout us than her, Ama. We ain't out o' the trouble zone yet... the trolls an' dragons could put a quick end to our journey. An' I feel like I'm fergettin' somethin' bout that quest o' yours... somethin' important..."

"Yeah, you're right. I'll try to stay present." She took the reins of her Fur-Selkie and set it to follow Oki's, beginning their journey to Dwarfholm.

I have reached 10.538 words with my last posts combined, so I will leave out the word count from now on.

✓ Wampa killed and skinned for its hide.
✓ Troll slain and proof of its death obtained.
✓ Cobalt ore chunk mined.
✘ Dwarven champion defeated in spar.

[Amaterasu]

Amaterasu's and Oki's first impression of Dwarfholm was... well, not very impressed. When the Fur-Selkies arrived before the entrance to the city two days after the start of their travels, they had expected a palace-city sitting atop a mountain and overlooking the plains, or maybe an impenetrable fortress of some kind, from what Urist was telling them about. Instead they were met with a large hill and a pair of iron gates. Certainly nothing to sneeze at but it was nowhere near what they had imagined.

Urist on the other hand beamed as he dismounted and led the Fur-Selkie by its reins, while motioning to the two others to do the same. There was a good strip of land left to ride them but seeing as he was the expert on this matter they followed suit. As they came closer, they soon realized why: multiple dwarves hidden in the snow stood up, as if appearing out of nowhere. Amaterasu gasped and Oki involuntarily reached for his sword when he saw the guns in their hands, though Urist's warning gaze made him calm again. Amaterasu quickly realized that they were wearing wampa hides on their backs, and that was what hid them from sight. They could have walked right by them and not seen any, had they stayed in hiding. Beneath the hide they wore insulated armor, keeping them warm out in the snow. What an idea...

As they came close to one of the dwarves, that one narrowed his eyes before laughing. "Urist, ya son ov a bitch! Yer alive! We thought ya dead, along with yer comrades, after them damn trolls sent..."

"They sent something? Don't tell me it was the heads of..."

"Aye, that it was." The dwarf spat into the snow. "With their beards cut off, no less. Whoresons, the lot of 'em. We thought they'd kept yer head fer their voodoo magic."

"Tha's odd though... we killed the lot o'them, I ain't thinkin' that any of 'em got away. How'd they find em?"

"No bloody clue. Maybe reinforcements. Ya never know with the whoresons. And who're yer friends right there?"

"Right. The names ar' Amaterasu and Oki... Ama is a Prime and Oki isn't, but dey both hav' helped me. I'd be one of the heads sent to ya if it wasn't for Ama, ya see. They're both doin' King Bruenor's tasks, ta prove 'emselves. But lemme tell ya, they're friends o' the dwarves if I ever seen some."

"Ar' they now? I guess that yer bringing the stuff then?" asked the unnamed dwarf, addressing Oki and Amaterasu for the first time.

"We do", said Oki. "But if you don't mind we'd rather unpack them inside... unless you are to judge us here and now?"

"Heh. Nah, I ain't. But even if tha King's lettin' you folks in we still gotta do some form o' border control, ya know. Can't let any troll spies into Dwarfholm."

"That makes sense", Amaterasu spoke up as she reached up and poked the rolled-up wampa hide hanging from her Fur-Selkie's saddle, then pointed at the bags that were red on the bottom side, containing the severed heads of two trolls. "Is that enough proof? I can open the bags and show you their contents if you want."

The dwarf wrinkled his nose. "Nah. I believe ya, lass. Go on through. An' I got to thank ya for rescuing Urist, by the way, if what he says is true."

"Anyone in my position would've done the same."

"Nay, lass, they wouldn't. Not in the Omniverse they wouldn't." He sighed and stepped aside, to which the other dwarves followed suit. "Go ahead. An'... good luck on yer fight."

Amaterasu frowned as they passed through the gates which opened as one dwarf stationed right against them spoke a few words through a slit in it. It led into a long tunnel that was illuminated only by an occasional torch, but Urist grabbed a lantern from a box next to the entrance and turned a valve, to which the lantern lit up. "Urist... what did your friend mean by fight?"

"Ah ain't sure, but... Ah'm sure that I know what he means. Jus' not remembering it right now." He muttered a curse. "There's a few skater-planks over there, put em under yer Fur-Selkie's bellies then strap 'em on. Here, lemme show ya." He grabbed something from a pile of items that Amaterasu had first mistaken for a heap of dirt, and showed them that it was a large wooden surface with wheels attached to the bottom. With Urist's guidance they strapped those wheeled surfaces onto the Fur-Selkies's stomachs. The animals could move on surfaces other than snow that way, without cutting up their bellies in the process. With the process taken care of they began their trip through the tunnel, again with Urist at the front of the group. It was shorter than what Amaterasu had anticipated though, only taking slightly over a minute before the tunnel opened into an open cavern...

... and that was when Amaterasu realized what Urist had been going on about all that time. No, not only that but she was awe-struck completely. Dwarfholm wasn't just an underground complex, a cave where the dwarves had made their home, it was an absolutely massive structure, a metropolis, built into the rock so naturally that mother nature and dwarven craftsmanship seamlessly merged. The decorated pillars, the large gates that led into all sorts of side tunnels, the enormous towers built into stalagmites... it was surreal. She was completely stunned by the dwarven architecture, unable to do anything but to stare wide-eyed as the longer she looked the more marvels were revealed to her. Eventually Urist made her snap out of it with a yell. "OI! Ya can admire tha scenery when yer mount's in a stable. It's gonna get hot 'round here!"

"Huh? Oh, yes! Stable! Sorry, I'm coming!" Even so, it was hard to not stop and marvel at the amazing sights all around her. Luckily Urist knew his way around and there was a stable not too far from the entrance which, as with the stables in the village they had departed from, had cold temperatures and was thus suited to hold a bunch of animals that would die of heatstroke in temperatures above freezing. There was a relatively high fee to leave them in there, but Amaterasu paid it happily. If they wound up not needing them she could break them back down for Omnilium after all.

"I first thought you were blowing stuff up when you told us about Dwarfholm, but... I owe you an apology, Urist. This city is more magnificient even than how you described it." She bowed her head at the dwarf. "I had no idea how crafty the dwarves could be. The marvels that you could accomplish underground like this."

"Aw, c'mon Ama. Yer makin' me blush!" the dwarf said but chuckled at the compliment. "Well, anycase. Yer gonna want ta talk ta one of da king's advisors... get yerself formally introduced, an' present yer trophies. Both of ya, I mean," he added with a look towards Oki.

"I got my items right here", the wolf-man replied and lifted up a bundle containing his wampa hide and the severed head - Amaterasu had her own bundle with the same contents. Urist was carrying the cobalt ore backpack. A quick double-check confirmed everything, then they went on their way.

Getting an audience with one of the advisors was the easier part: King Bruenor valued Prime allies and thus simply naming that detail about herself got Amaterasu and her group escorted to the chambers of an aged dwarven woman (not that Oki or her would have known she was a woman had they not been told so, because her beard was manlier than Urist's) where Urist took the lead. He explained about Amaterasu's heroic intervention when he and his group were fighting the trolls, how she had kept him from certain death and brought him to a settlement for medical treatment. Then he explained about Oki's situation, how he had hunted a wampa not to gain the dwarves' attention but because it had been threatening the village by attacking the miners and small-game hunters. He concluded by how he could vouch for both of them being honest and good people.

The advisor eyed them both while Urist went on with his tale, before waving her cane towards Amaterasu and beckoning her to come closer. "Lemme tak' a look at ya", she said. "Show me yer hands." She grabbed Amaterasu's right hand with her boney fingers with surprising strength, turned it palm up, and grunted before letting go. "Fer a woman yer hands are too hard, fer a worker yer eyes are too sharp. I can see the glimmer. Yer not just a trickster tryin' ta wiggle their way onta the King's table... yer a Prime, and not a weak one, nay. Did ya already confirm yer prowess in combat?" When Amaterasu blinked, the woman waved her hand and let go of Amaterasu's. "Ya know! Show me yer trophies."


"Oh! Of course. Both of us are actually applying, not just me."

"Ah don' need ta take any second look at yer friend there. He's a warrior through an' through. So show me yer trophies, the both of ya."

Amaterasu and Oki rolled out the wampa hides and took the troll heads out of the bags. Only one look was needed for the heads, but the hides were inspected much more closely. She asked questions about how they had slain them, how they had behaved and such. But the hides confirmed every detail of Amaterasu's and Oki's stories: there were slash marks where slash marks were supposed to be, the cuts where they had skinned the beast, scrapes and bruises that the wampa had gotten during its lifetime, the characteristic smell of one... it wasn't a fake. These hides told a story, too much to just be summoned with imagination. When the Cobalt came the woman snickered and remarked that they needed to bring a chunk, not a minecart's worth of it, and only needed a few seconds of inspection to confirm that it was good ore, mined from the bowels of the earth and not summoned. She then looked at them both expectantly, and when neither presented more, raised an eyebrow. "So? Where's yer proof o' victory?"

"Uh... what proof? The troll heads? We presented those."

"Nay. The proof that ya won against one o' us. Don' tell me ya didn' do it?"

Urist smacked his hand against his forehead. "OF COURSE! Lady McLoric, I must apologize... that is my fault. I completely forgot about the spar, neither of them were aware of this."

"Pardon me, but... a spar? We have to fight someone else?"

"Aye. Ya gotta fight a champion, an' win ta prove that yer strong enough ta be one of us. It ain't so bad that ya didn' do it yet though. Ah'll send word to the general, ta pick out two guys for ya an' bring ye ta King Bruenor once ye win."

"Okay... I thank you kindly for taking the time out of your day to aid us", said Amaterasu and bowed her head, as did Oki. The woman waved her hand.

"Jus' get goin' already, an' be sure ta put up a good fight, aye? We can always use allies 'round here."

"We will", said Oki with a grin as they exited the room. "You will not regret allowing us to join you."

✓ Wampa killed and skinned for its hide.
✓ Troll slain and proof of its death obtained.
✓ Cobalt ore chunk mined.
✘ Dwarven champion defeated in spar.

[Amaterasu]

Amaterasu and Oki stood before a dwarf that was unusually tall for one - his head was at chest level for them, and even then he was as muscular and bulky as his shorter companions. He was clad in light training armor and had a brutal-looking warhammer slung over his back, looking as if he could jump into battle at any moment.

"So, yer both 'ere for the test, eh", he said as he eyed Oki over, then Amaterasu, all the while stroking his thick beard. It had several braids weaved into it which made it a bit more difficult to make out how long it really was, but Amaterasu realized that even for dwarven standarts this beard had to be glorious. "Good... well then. I'm Garven, the training master of Dwarfholm, so it's me duty ta ensure ye fight fair, and yer opponents too. Bu' first, get over to the rack an' pick yer weapon."

"I have mine", remarked Oki with a nod towards the hilt of Kuton, that was slung over his shoulder. But the instructor shook his head.

"Nay. Normal weapons ar' banned from sparring matches. We ain't slicin' each other up 'round 'ere, stranger, unlike them trolls. Trainin' weapons ain't sharp like the real thing."

Amaterasu was already over at the rack and rifled through the neatly lined up weapons. Despite being only training weapons, as Garven had remarked, they were exceptionally well made and holding any of them felt very natural. She passed by the heavy broadswords, twohanders, clubs and such without so much as looking twice at them and eyed the daggers and shortswords more closely, as well as the handy battleaxes. Finally she settled for a relatively heavy battleaxe that could be wielded with one or two hands. How much use that thing would have though, she had no idea. She'd have picked something similar to the blade of Kusanagi had they had anything of the sort around, but none of the swords were both light and long - either one or the other but never both. When she returned, Oki was already back with a heavy-looking twohander.

"Yer up first, lass. Show us what ya got", the instructor said and pointed towards a pit in the center of the room, with walls to keep spectators from falling in. A miniature arena. Amaterasu's eyes widened a bit when she saw her opponent. The dwarf was wearing heavy iron armor that covered his entire body, and held a battleaxe in his hands that was larger than he was tall. He had pushed up the visor of his helmet right now so that he could see his opponent, and Amaterasu could see the scars of his battle and his friendly yet self-certain smile. He was confident in his ability, and didn't think of her as a big threat. When Amaterasu came into the arena he laughed.

"Aye, yer probably stronger than ya look, stranger! Ah've learned never ta judge a Prime by their looks. But, sorry to say, yer not gonna gain entry to tha King's Halls while Ah'm yer opponent."

Amaterasu sized her opponent up and weighted the axe in her grip. Maybe if she could get to his neck she could proclaim a victory... this armor had to have a few weak points to exploit. "Don't apologize, I would not expect you to give anything but your best in this fight." She put her axe down and bowed before her opponent. "Where I come from the opponents introduce themselves to each other before a duel... and I would like to know who I am going against. I am Amaterasu Omikami, Firstborn of Izanagi."

The dwarf laughed heartily but didn't put his axe down as he bowed as well, and not quite as deep as Amaterasu. But that was to be expected, as he was wearing heavy armor. "Ah, fer a sparring match tha's a good rule. Name's Nolan McHaroldsson, Secondborn of Harold McOrkansson, an' I wish ya luck. Yer gonna need it!"

Amaterasu grabbed her axe once again as the instructor announced the fight's start. Nolan began to walk towards her with slow and heavy steps, and Amaterasu knew that the armor was undoubtedly weighing him down. He probably was slow and needed momentum for his wea- WHAM! Nolan had suddenly bursted forward in a leap and was swinging his axe against her in a brutal slashing motion. Had she not reflexively guarded herself he would have broken a rib or two. Even so, he knocked the flat side of her axe against her side and sent her sliding backwards on her feet, with her arms trembling. Dear lord, he was strong... and fast! She could barely hold the axe, the blow had shaken her up badly. But Nolan neither gloated nor inquired if she was okay, he grasped his battleaxe again and walked towards her, to close the gap and swing again. This time she was ready, she tried to block his blow and get past his defense, but when he struck he nearly sent her axe flying with the force. How? How was he so strong with such a heavy weapon, and yet so fast? He had his visor down but Amaterasu could tell that he hadn't broken a sweat. If he struck her again like this she would lose her weapon...


"Ammy, what's the matter?! That's not the kami I know!" Oki shouted into the arena from behind the guard wall. "Come on! Show him what you can do!"

Amaterasu bit her lower lip, then nodded. The third blow she did not attempt to block, she leapt back and to the side, dodging it, then jumped off a wall to gain some distance from the dwarf and to avoid getting cornered. She tossed the axe up and over the wall, out of the arena. She wouldn't need that excuse for her divine weaponry... she slammed her hands together and brought the Yasakani no Magatama up from around her waist, to float around her neck instead. They would not be strong enough to pierce through Nolan's heavy armor, but... as he came closer she sent several to bang against his helmet, and he was unable to block them. Each caused a loud bang as they hit the metal, ringing his ears and disorienting him. It slowed his advance considerably. She would have to wear hi-

Before she could finish that thought Urist launched a surprise attack. He was out of range for his usual strikes, or so Amaterasu had thought... the dwarf gripped his battleaxe very close to the blade, and thrusted it forward like a spear. As it turned out the end of the long hilt had a pointed tip, similar indeed to a spear, and Amaterasu had not noticed it coming. Had it not been for her disorienting strikes against his helmet, he may have struck her chest there and then, leading to an instant win. But he only struck her shoulder... "only". Even the grazing hit made her scream in pain as the blunted edge rammed into her, her body protected by nothing but her Miko dress, and sent her stumbling backwards several steps, gripping the spot where he had struck. That would leave a mark, no doubt. And now he was close enough to finish the job, he was just pulling his axe back to turn it around and strike with the blade.

That was when the opportunity revealed itself to Amaterasu. Rapidly, almost reflexively, she thrusted her hand forward when Nolan made a motion with his arm that leaved one joint at his left elbow exposed, and the bead she sent flying struck right between the two pieces of platemail. Nolan only briefly flinched, as below that platemail he still had light chainmail and cloth to protect the weak spots, before attempting to finish the job. That was when he found that the joint was blocked: he couldn't move it past a certain limit because the bead was blocking it, like a wrench thrown into a gear machinery. "Wha..." He mumbled before switching his focus into his other hand, to swing the battleaxe with one hand. Amaterasu only barely dodged the whizzing blade, and though the edge was blunted the sheer force and speed at which Nolan brought the battleaxe around a strand of her hair was cut off. Such strength... but with his wide motion and carried by momentum, he was leaving himself wide open. Amaterasu fired two more beads at his elbow and shoulder, getting those joints stuck as well, then leapt over Nolan as he began to recover and blocked his right leg as well. Suddenly the poor dwarf was all but immobilized, like a rusted robot. One final bead struck the battleaxe out of his hand and sent it flying a meter, away from his reach.

"Are you ready to... give up?" asked Amaterasu, grunting from the pain in her shoulder. She should NOT have taken that jump.

"Nay! I'll fight til my last breath! Judge, don't call it yet! I'm not finished!"

Amaterasu grasped her Celestial Brush and drew a circle into the air. A small one, summoning a small Cherry Bomb. Nolan grunted and struggled but couldn't do a thing until the bomb exploded and blasted him back. His armor protected him from the worst, but he was still down. "The next one will be larger. Give up, Nolan, or I'll have to hurt you."

"I said I'll-"

"I'll count to five. If you... give up, I'll snuff out the fuse. If not..." She drew another circle, a full Cherry Bomb this time. "One."

Nolan remained quiet, but Amaterasu could just about see how he was gritting his teeth beneath the helmet as he observed the fuse running out.

"Four. Three. Two..."

"Damn you! I give up! Stop the fuse!"

Amaterasu's bead hit the fuse just as it was about to reach the base of the bomb, which went up in a confetti explosion. Up on the spectator ranks, Oki and Urist broke out in applause, as did a few dwarves. But most were surprised, some even turned and went away from the wall. "Don't blame yourself, Nolan McHaroldsson. You gave me a real tough fight!" She recalled her beads and returned them to her waist, then reached out to help the dwarf up. After a few moments Urist took the offer and let himself be dragged to his feet before he grabbed the axe from the edge of the arena. "Yer a damn good fighter, Ah'll give ye that. But are ye not worried tha' the fight'll not be counted? Ah mean, ye used a weapon other'n yer axe."

"The beads are blunt weapons and couldn't have killed you. I don't see a problem with using them."

"Heh. The instructor's gonna have to decide on that. But ye fought well... real well. Ah'd pronounce ya an honorary dwarf right here if I could, bu' tha's not my decision to take. Ah can only hope tha' ye get admitted... an' tha' the beer in Mithral Hall tastes as good as they say it does."

✓ Wampa killed and skinned for its hide.
✓ Troll slain and proof of its death obtained.
✓ Cobalt ore chunk mined.
✓ Dwarven champion defeated in spar.

[Amaterasu]

This post takes place a good bit into the future from the previous post in this thread!

Kushi could really not complain: the dwarves had proved hospitable from the start, knowing that she was a friend of one of their honorary dwarves - Amaterasu -, but once they found that she was a talented sake brewer, their hospitality turned into borderline mass euphoria. She was given a workshop and room in the brewer's district of the city as well as a generous credit to get her help with the necessary expenses: supplies for her trade, payments to get the paperwork going for a brewery permission, food and water for herself, furniture and so on. Now, over a month after Amaterasu and the others had departed, she had established herself among the dwarves as the first sake-selling merchant of Dwarfholm.

Of course, the market was limited: most dwarves preferred mead or beer to the exotic eastern beverage, but some of the traders imported sake from the Tangled Green which had made it known. Kushi's nipponese rice-brewed sake had a different taste, thus limiting the competition while getting dwarves with exotic tastes interested. Within the month she had been able to build up a small group of semi-regulars, and was now discussing a trade arrangement with two traveling merchants who bought and sold in Camelot, the Tangled Green, the Vasty Deep and Coruscant, to provide her with the supplies that she needed at the time. A rice farm was unlikely to be successful in this climate, unfortunately.

"Y'know", a dwarf that Kushi believed was named Nolan said as he counted the coins he owed her, "fer a beanstalk yer a surprisingly good brewer, Kushi."

"What do you mean, McHaroldsson-san?" She kept to using the japanese formulae of address, even though the dwarves didn't. Most of them either understood or dismissed it as a "weird accent thing".

"Well, brewin' ain't no easy task, ye know. A dwarf tha' decides ta take up brewin' is in fer a lifetime o' learnin', an' not all o' them make it ta certification."

"I've started brewing sake when I was five years old, McHaroldsson-san", replied Kushi with a laugh. "I will never stop learning, of course. But I've beeno brewing ever since my mother put a ladle in my hand and told me to help out back then. In my country they called this the school of life."

Nolan waved his hand at her and slid over a pile of coins. "Ah didn' mean to drag down yer accomplishments. Yer sake's delicious, an' whoever says otherwise gets a fillip from me! Here's yer payment. Should be correct, but please check."

"I counted along with you, it's the right amount." She handed the melon-sized barrel to him over the counter. "Remember to dilute it in water first. This one's too strong for consumption - it's to be transported easier. If you drink it like that, it won't taste well", she added when she noticed Nolan's grin.

"Got it. Dilute with water first. Thanks, Kushi, ah'll be back in a week or so!" And with that the dwarf was out the door. Kushi somehow doubted that he would follow her advice, at least until drinking one sip of the undiluted sake. Strong as it may be, a concentrated version like this had terrible taste, with the alcohol drowning the sweetness of the rice. She made a mental note to ask him how it had tasted when he came back. This more efficient method of transport she was trying... Nolan was her "guinea pig" for it after she had experimented a bit with personal designs. If it went well she would save a lot of money on barrels and be able to sell her sake more competitively.

As a woman and a human in a male and dwarf-dominated market, the decks of capitalism were stacked against her, but she was going to succeed. That she had no doubt of.

[Amaterasu]

"Y'know what you should do, Kushi? A sake bar!"

These words, uttered by one of the dwarves that had established themselves as Kushi's regulars - an amazingly old one who made small talk with Kushi whenever he came to pick up his order -, had left the young woman thinking. Her brewing hadn't been outstandingly profitable despite the amount of clients. Though she had been able to pay off her credit so far and was progressing towards a debt-free life every day the novelty of her sake had passed and few dwarven establishments were buying it, simply because there wasn't enough clients. The ones that still bought from her were mainly private customers buying for their own consumption or for parties that they hosted, which was enough to keep her afloat and pay off the debt, but it would be difficult getting anywhere far without a more profitable business.

That night she had not gotten much sleep, instead she had dreamt with open eyes, of being the host of a sake bar closer to the center of Dwarfholm, not in the cheap outskirts where few clients ever found their way to. The closer she came to the central areas or one of the major roads which were always getting huge loads of traffic, the more (and better) clients she would get. Unfortunately, setting up a bar was far from as easy as putting a counter up, sticking a sign outside and waiting for the customers to roll in. She needed a license to serve liquors, an area located somewhere better than this backstreet, a pair of employees and a more reliable source of materials. The dwarf-troll war had a notable impact on businesses that relied on imported goods, she had noticed. With a business as small as hers, a shipment that didn't get through was a huge loss. Twice had it happened already and she was lucky to have enough sake stored to pass the period between the follow-up trip, but it had put her late with a few payments. Not something she wanted to happen again.

The issue at hand was, once again, money. Her meager profits would need months, perhaps years before she reached the point where buying a vacant cave somewhere half-decent was within her realm of possibility, and then there was the matter of employees. How could she afford to pay them if she had no money?

It would seem that Lady Luck, Omni, fate or some other greater force had decided to provide... in a way that was both miraculous and tragic. Two days after the old dwarf who had told her about opening a sake bar had last come for his order, a well-dressed dwarf knocked at the door to her little abode.

"Miss Kushi? I am Urist McHarvansson. I am the lawyer in charge of Mr. McKovsson's Last Will."

Surprised, Kushi blinked but stepped aside. "... okay? Please come in, McHarvansson-san. I'm afraid that I only have chairs suited for human sizes, but..."

"That is okay, Miss. You may however want to sit down. I have news." He eyed her as she led him into her humble living room and pulled up a chair. "The name's McHarvansson, by the way. Not McHarvanssonsan."

"Oh? Oh, no no. That is a form of adressing you from my native country. I believe that here in Dwarfholm you use "Mister" or "Missis"."

"Mmmh... well, if you say so." The dwarf then produced a letter from the folds of his jacket. "I regret to inform you, first of all, that Mr. McKovsson has passed away yesterday, after heart failure." He handed the letter to Kushi. "Here is an invitation to the burial, should you wish to attend. But the main reason why I am here is regarding his last will." He pulled another letter out, this one larger. "Regrettably, Mr. McKovsson had very few ties to his family for reasons I shall not go into detail with. As a result of such he excluded all his family besides his wife from his will. Furthermore a number of friends are named. His wife has however passed away - we believe that the shock of discovering her husband's death is the cause -, and only three friends remain, among which what Mr. McKovsson has left behind is to be divided evenly."

Kushi frowned. "I am very sorry to hear that... I didn't know McKovsson-san all that well, he was a friendly man but we didn't speak much outside of when he came to pick up his order."

"Well, Mr. McKovsson seems to have thought differently. You are one of the three people listed in his Last Will. As such, his request is..." He cleared his throat and read: "'My earthly belongings are to be split between the three above named people, in even shares. However, only those who attend the burial ceremony are considered eligible. If one of the above named people is absent, my belongings are to be split between the two others. If only one is present, let them have everything. If none are present, auction the goods and donate the gains to the charity I name below.' I am entrusted by my client to supervise you and the other two individuals to note your presence or absence during the burial ceremony."

Kushi's head was spinning. "McKovsson-san really named me?" she asked.

"Only a single person named Kushi who is a human is registered in Dwarfholm. Your address also matches that which Mr. McKovsson named in his will. He also noted, just a moment... ah. He left this note: 'I hope that Miss Kushi puts her share of the inheritance towards spreading her beverages across the population of Dwarfholm', though we were not able to make sense of this. Perhaps you understand it?"

"I... believe so. The ceremony is noted in the letter you gave me, right?"

"Indeed."

"Thank you then, McHarvansson-san. I... if you would not mind, I need a little time to digest this, and to grieve for McKovsson-san's loss. I shall be present at the ceremony though, I assure."

"Certainly." He handed her another card. "If ever a question or issue pops up, please come to my office or contact me with this number." With that, the lawyer put the letter away and left. Kushi needed to sit down and opened a bottle of Thunder Brew to calm her spinning head.

How could she ever thank the old dwarf for this? She would have hugged him, thanked him endlessly, gifted him the best sake that she had... but he was gone. The only thing she could do to show her appreciation would be at the funeral.

She could only hope to find a seamstress that could make her a black dress until then.

[Dr. McNinja]

Mack was currently twiddling his thumbs in the remnants of his old bar, waiting for the new owner of the bar to arrive. There was an old dwarven phrase that friendship was best forged with beer - but Mack and Erik's friendship was poorly forged. It was McKovsson's bar, originally, and he let Mack turn it into his own bar, threatening every other day to snatch it away from him. It was not a very popular bar, with few customers and much, much fewer regulars. That all changed when McKovsson died - now it was some other milk-drinker's tub.

As Mack contemplated the unfairness of the ordeal, the door swung open, provoking a chime. A young woman walked in, the human woman from McKovsson's funeral.

"We're closed, lass," Mack sighed.

"Pardon?" the woman asked.

"I said, we're closed," Mack muttered bitterly, "Fer good."

"But I-I just received the lot from McKovsson-san's will."

"Yeah, well, tell whoever yer working fer-" Mack blinked. "Wait a wee momen, lass. Did you jus' say ol' Erik gave the bar..."

Mack pointed one grubby finger at the woman.

"To you?"

The woman smiled. "My name is Kushi. You must be the last owner."

Mack's jaw dropped, his beard dangling as he attempted to process the new information.

"Yer the brewer?" Mack stammered.

"Yes."

"A wee human lass like you?" the dwarf mourned, "I cannae believe this."

Kushi frowned. "I've been reliably told that my brew is very good."

"Wha'ever," Mack sighed. He had hoped to join the owner in the bar. It was his life, and he had nothing outside of this place. But he swore on his ancestors, he would not be working for this lass.

Kushi felt the rare spur of pride kick her chest. She promptly lifted a bottle of sake from the wagon behind her and poured it into a small clay cup. Uncharacteristically angry, she stuck the glass out.

"Try it," she said.

"Wha' am I supposed to do widdis wee shaw'glass, lassie? Gimme a real mug. Bruenor's beard, d'you e'en know how to run a tub like this-"

To Mack's shock and anger, the woman placed the cup under his mouth. To Mack's shock, it tasted pretty good. After a moment of uncharacteristic contemplation, Mack scratched his chin.

"C'n I have another one, lass?" he grumbled.

Kushi smiled and poured him another glass. When Mack drank from it, it felt like warmth was hugging him from the inside. It wasn't the stimulating jolts and sparks of regular dwarven ale, but the soothing milk of a mother from days long past, mixed with the reassuring embrace of a wife, mixed with an awareness of the world that Mack had never felt before.

"C'n..." Mack said, tears forming in his eyes, "C'n I have another one?"

Kushi had by now calmed down, her righteous (albeit petty) anger quenched with the look of pleasure on Mack's face. She calmly poured him another glass, one last drink to prove her point. Mack downed it again, his eyes distant, as if he felt every pleasant memory washing over him at once.

"How-" Mack's voice cracked, "How did ye make this?"

"I learned the technique from my mother," Kushi replied, putting the bottle aside, "and practiced all my life."

"Teach me," Mack said. Despite his rough tone and body language, it was clear to Kushi he was begging.

"It'll take years," Kushi warned.

"I'll spend decades," Mack promised.

Kushi pursed her lips. "I don't even know your name."

"My name is Mack McMicksson," the dwarf introduced himself, standing and bowing, "and I am at your service."

Kushi paused to think. "Well, I do need some helpers..."

And thus it began. There was an old dwarven phrase that friendship was best forged with beer - but sometimes, it appeared, it could be forged with sake.

[Amaterasu]

After the initial rough start - though frankly not one that Kushi could have blamed Mack for, considering the situation that surrounded this all - the sake brewer grew fonder of the dwarf. He helped her with the large sake barrels that she had brought from her home, to store them away in the far back next to the handful of barrels of dwarven beer and ale that belonged to him. And as it was a bar, no restructuring was required, everything was set up to start work immediately.

The bigger questions were customers, bookkeeping and of course brewing. Mack had run the bar all by himself up until then which had been sufficient because of the small number of customers, and even though he had brewed most drinks himself he hadn't had much work to do.

"Does that mean that the bar is in a bad spot? Getting so little work that you could do everything by yourself?"

"Nae", the dwarf replied. "Bu' the competition ain't sleepin'. Got some real good brewers 'ere in Dwarfholm, we do. And I ain't a bad brewer, bu' I ain't the best either. An' if yer not the best, ye don' get the best customers."

"So we just need to be the best, huh."

"Yer sayin' it as if it was easy. Yer sake is good, bu'..."

"... I'm the only one in Dwarfholm that currently knows how to make it. If we get popular other people might imitate us, but if we can establish ourselves before then we'll be good."

"Yer fergettin' the peddlers. Booze is profitable. They're gonna start importin' it as soon as people ask fer it. An' can ye measure up to the pros out there?"

Kushi shrugged. "Maybe? If we can't beat them with taste we have to offer better prices. And if they're cheaper we have to improve the quality of our drinks."

It was quickly decided that while the focus would be on sake, plum wine and shochu spirits they would expand their menu with both dwarven liquors that Mack was familiar with as a "fallback" option and non-alcoholic beverages from fresh water to green tea for patrons not wanting to drink liquor at all. The negotiations regarding furniture were tougher: Mack refused to get rid of the "big" rustic tables, chairs and benches based on the claim that they were dwarven culture and that no customers would come to the tiny tea-tables and tatami mats for kneeling on that Kushi wanted. In exchange he agreed on Kushi's proposal to decorate the room in a nipponese style.

The next thing coming to discussion was remuneration... how and what exactly was Mack going to work for? And how long?

Leaving the salary/compensation discussion to you, Sun!

[Dr. McNinja]

Mack was pleased. This Kushi lass was much more reasonable than he made her out to be. After all, she did need a man of sorts to help her with the heavy work. Perhaps, Mack thought, this would even be a better experience than before. Mack was admittedly not a good enough brewer to compete with the other big boys in Dwarfholm. This was a new experience. And while dwarves were usually not the best with new experiences (they were fairly terrible with, frankly), it could be best to set off in a completely new direction since the current one was clearly not functional.

His unusually positive outlook changed on the third day of the set-up. Kushi was grimly hanging some Oriental nonsense on the walls. Mack had learned that Kushi was very happy to explain various parts of her culture. Mack could understand that. If he was in a foreign land, surrounded by human men, he’d want to talk about Dwarfholm as much as possible – preserve the memory by talking about it, he supposed.

Mack cleared his throat. “Wha’ is tha’, lassie?”

“Writing,” Kushi replied somberly, “from my homeworld.”

Mack snorted. “Das’ rite mince, tha’ is. How d’ye read any o’ this ‘ere mess? S’all sloshy and-”

Kushi shot him a glare. Mack lowered his eyes and made a mental note. Kushi very happy to talk about her culture, as long as you didn’t offend her. This also made sense.

“Sorry, lass. Didn’ mean it like tha’.”

Kushi sighed. “Just because something is different doesn’t mean it’s bad, McMicksson-san.”

Mack nodded. He was proud of himself for finally conciliating himself with the double “son”.

“Ahm tryin’, lassie,” the dwarf insisted, “So what’s it say?”

“It reads, ‘Rise as the sun does in the summer’.”

Mack scratched his chin. “I dinna ken wha’ tha’ means.”

“These scrolls usually have many meanings, McMicksson-san,” Kushi absentmindedly said, observing the ancient painting, “That’s the beauty in them. There are many meanings behind each character, and its interpretation is up to the reader. The density of each letter is…”

Kushi trailed off sadly. Mack cleared his throat.

“Lookie, lass,” he said, “This is probably a bad time, bu’… I was thinking bou’ pay.”

Kushi looked up, nodding. She was expecting this conversation. “How much would you like?”

“Twenty silver bobs a month.”

Kushi frowned. “Twenty?”

“Wha’, too little?”

“You’d bankrupt me in a matter of days,” Kushi grumbled, “I can give you twelve.”

“Twelve silver bobs a month,” Mack replied, “And half the tips.”

“We aren’t doing tips.”

Mack’s jaw dropped. “No tips?”

Kushi winced. “Why?”

“Tips are the life and soul of the barkeep!” Mack howled, “We’d be skint withou’ tips!”

“Very well,” Kushi relented, “Why don’t we each just take home the tips we each receive?”

“Ye sure bou’ tha’, lassie?” Mack chuckled, “Ye don’ haf tha’ dwarven charm.”

Kushi raised an eyebrow. “I think I’ll manage.”

“Soo’ yerself,” Mack shrugged, “So twelve silver a month and individjal tips?”

“Very well,” Kushi nodded, content, “That was far easier than I expected.”

“Ahm a dwarf, lassie,” Mack chuckled, “We’re as straigh’forward as it gets.”

Fun fact: The Chinese wall painting is one I actually have. Someone painted it for me when I was teaching there.

[Amaterasu]

Kushi shook her head in disbelief and smiled. "You know, McMicksson-san, I keep thinking that dwarves and humans are alike in many aspects when I spend time with you. And as soon as the thought crosses my mind, you do something that contradicts that thought, and usually in a good way too."

The dwarf placed a nail on the chair he was adjusting, and examined it at an angle to make sure it was straight. "Wha' d'you mean, lass?" He hit the head twice so that the nail was fixed in place, and went on to place the next.

"Regarding strong-mindedness, for instance." She thought for a moment. "I was expecting a far longer discussion."

"Dwarves are made o' stone, lass. At least tha's wha' our myths say. No surprise there."

"Some humans are far worse, you know. They have their ideas and can be stubborn as a mule when it comes to arguing. Most samurai of our land prefer to commit seppuku over losing their honor."

"Yer talkin' nibenese again. Wha's that word mean? Sepookoo?" Over the course of the last few days Mack and Kushi had learned the hard way that their language, while mostly the same, had the occasional discrepancy. Luckily, being well-versed with words, they were able to explain themselves. Mack for instance knew by now what a samurai was, and Kushi could understand things through the dwarf's accent.

"It's a ritual suicide. Using a tan- I mean, a knife or short sword, you slice your abdomen open and are then decapitated by-"

Mack interrupted her with a grunt. "Ya kill yerself, over yer honor?!"

"Like I said... stubbornness. But what I was getting at is that I had expected a far longer, far more difficult discussion regarding this. Instead we solved the matter in a minute."

"Hmmh." Mack hammered the nail entirely into the chair. "Ah know when t'be stubborn, that's all." Behind his beard Kushi could not see that he was smiling. As if any inn paid out twenty silver bobs a month! He'd been prepared to negotiate lower, but twelve silver bobs he was very happy with.

Kushi stepped back from the wall to admire her work, check that it was correctly placed and that the lighting worked. "When you are finished with that chair, we should go to the back room. The rice shipment has arrived this morning."

The dwarf raised his head. "We gonna start brewin' today then?"

"If the rice is up to quality, yes. I'll go ahead and unpack the crates while you wrap things up here. Take your time."


An hour later the two of them stood before the mobile mill that Kushi had brought along with her other equipment, and as the brewer explained to the dwarf how the grains had to be milled and polished to prepare them they worked the mill together. The polished grains were then washed and soaked, steamed and finally a part of that steamed rice was placed into the fermentation trays along with koji mold. While Mack worked on arranging a tray of his own Kushi checked on the ongoing ferment and picked out a tray that was ready to go. The koji had to be used immediately to maintain its freshness.

Mack then showed Kushi his first attempt. Not bad for a start, but a few points were missing, which Kushi pointed out as constructively as she could. She had never had a pupil but she remembered her mother's words, and if needed translated the words and names. Finally she brought the tray over to a large barrel in which the koji rice from the tray, steamed rice from what they had steamed earlier, water and concentrated yeast were mixed - again, Kushi explained the distribution and quantities and how they affected the final product. What they were going for would in this case be a "staple" sake that would hopefully let them establish themselves in the market. She would also make a few bottles of Thunder Brew though, of the sort that would even knock a grown dwarf over with a few sips.

"That's as far as we can go for now", she went on to explain as they pushed the barrel into a corner where it could ferment away for the next two weeks. "We'll go back to check on the koji trays every so often, which is the most difficult part of this process. They must be watered and mixed constantly so that the sake has a consistent flavor."

"Ah, tha's not too different from beer brewin'. Anythin' else?"

"Well... are you a sturdy drinker?"

Mack eyed Kushi angrily. "D'ya take me fer some milk-drinkin..."

"Good! Because I have a batch of sake and I bought a few typical Dwarfholm products - glowshroom, dûnost-meat, that candy you call Troll-tusk and a few others. I want to try how they taste together. Maybe we can offer some snacks on the side." She pointed at the leather bag behind the counter that she had brought in that morning. "Besides, it's always good to sample a batch before you sell it to the patrons." Besides, now that the bar was almost ready to reopen for business after its renovations and redecorations, it was the perfect time for a celebratory drink.

[Dr. McNinja]

Kushi and Mack were standing shoulder-to-hip just outside their bar. They were in the middle of painting a sign, when they fell into an argument about the name of the bar. Mack thought "Barrels of Thunder" was a great name, while Kushi thought it was crude and inaccurate as the sake was not stored in barrels. Kushi wanted some more nip-knees nonsense like "Leaves of May". Mack was admittedly unsure of what Kushi actually wanted to name the bar, he was just too upset that he was stuck with an employer that didn't think "Barrels of Thunder" was a good name. In the middle of Mack once more howling, "Dwarves dinnae like me'aphors!", they heard three sharp knocks on their door.

Outside was, unsurprisingly, a dwarf. He was wearing heavy-set and rusty goggles, as if to block out the snow. Traveler, then. Behind him was a rickety old motorized sled. It was in poor condition. He clearly didn't make it, and it definitely was not dwarven technology. A traveler from far away, then, with non-dwarven friends. He didn't seem to want to go inside, so he was probably a merchant selling something. The dwarf scratched his chin.

"Welcome tah the Barrels of Thunder," Mack proudly announced.

The dwarf chuckled approvingly. "Grea' name."

"That's not the name-" Kushi stopped herself. "Anyways, we're not open for business yet. Can we help you?"

"Yer rice shipmen'," the dwarf grunted.

Mack grunted and made his way around to the back of the sled, where maybe 4 or 5 boxes were stacked and roped together. Some of the ropes had snapped and were trailing behind the sled.

"There's no way this is all of it," Kushi noted.

"I go' attacked," the dwarf grunted, "by some trolls outside Dwarfholm."

"You don't seem like you got attacked," Kushi replied, pointing how relatively unharmed he was.

"Ye should see me brother. He's in a ditch being et."

Kushi gasped. "Go shuushou sama desu. I did not know."

Mack was looking at the shipment, or what was left of it. The boxes that were still with the trader were more or less usable, save for one. Even Mack, who had never seen rice before working with Kushi, knew that a giant green web of mildew and the smell of outhouses could not be a good thing.

"Ahm sorry bou' yer brother, pal," Mack groaned.

The trader nodded glumly.

"But we can't pay fer more than three crates. This last one is right disgusting."

The trader looked back. He started fuming. "I los' a brother getting this t'you!"

"An' again, ahm sorry for yer loss. Bu' this is righ' ridiculous."

Mack would normally not be so harsh, but when he ordered food he generally expected it not to be pulsing green.

"We cannae work with this, sar."

The trader sighed, letting his head hang back. Kushi couldn't stand the sight of it.

"But we'll pay for two nights of food and sleep at the tavern," she interrupted, "Help you get back on your feet."

Mack's jaw dropped in disbelief while the trader nodded and bowed to her.

"Thank ye, ma'am. Yer very kind."

Kushi paid the trader for the three crates as Mack moved them inside. The trader boarded the sled once more. With a raspy shudder, the sled began to slide slowly down the street, ropes trailing behind. Mack snapped his head to Kushi.

"What are ye doin' that fer?"

"Doing what?"

"Payin' his bills!"

Kushi's eyes flared. "His brother died. In my culture, when someone loses a close relative, you send them consolation in the form of gifts. It was the least I could do."

"Tha' dwarf is a Dwarfholm trader," Mack snapped, "Anno it's tragic but he knows the risks of runnin' a caravan, and if he didin, then that's on him. Waste o' money, tha' is."

Mack stormed inside the bar. Kushi could barely temper her own rage.

"Where are you going, McMickson-ssan?"

"Ahm gettin' my stuff," the dwarf shouted from the storeroom.

"You're going to quit because of my generosity?" Kushi almost shouted.

"Qui'?"

Mack poked his head out from the storeroom. "Who said ahm quittin'?"

Kushi blinked a few times. She quickly realized Mack was now wearing a leather helmet with small teeth lining the middle. In his right hand was a worn battleaxe about half of his size. Despite the outrageous size, Mack seemed to have no trouble holding the weapon, giving it a few practice swings.

"Ye said that in yer culture, ye send wee gifts to the grievin'," Mack grunted triumphantly, "In mah culture, we send them the heads of the bastards who dun it."

Mack stormed out the door. Kushi tried to stop him, but it was quite clear that Mack could not hear well in his helmet. She crossed her arms and huffed as she watched her employee storm out of town. The next day, Mack returned to town, dragging behind him two large crates of rice and a troll head. Kushi grinned as she watched Mack struggle with the incredibly heavy shipment.

"Ye gonna help me or nah'?"

Kushi shrugged, repressing her smile. "After you apologize for storming out during business hours."

"Now ye sound like me missus," Mack huffed, groaning as he pulled the crate behind him.

"I didn't know you have a wife," Kushi remarked.

"Not anymore," Mack replied.

Kushi's mocking expression faded. She dusted off her hands and picked up a crate.

"Which inn is the trader stayin' a'?" Mack asked.

"Oh, he just left," Kushi replied.

Mack stared at her in disbelief. "Yer jokin'."

Kushi chuckled. "Yes, I am. He's just down the road."

Mack sighed in relief. "I cannae believe you'd try and trick me like tha'," he muttered as he made his way towards the inn, the troll's head slung around his shoulder. Kushi smiled widely.

"You're a good man, McMickson-ssan," Kushi called out mockingly.

"I know yer tryin' to mock me that 'man' haver," Mack called back in reply.

[Amaterasu]

"You know", Kushi said as she came into the bar the following day and found Mack already working with the chairs, "I've given this some thought."

"Abou' wha?" Mack asked. He was harder to understand than usually because he had a few nails between his lips that he was hammering into the chair to fixate a loose board.

"The name. Let's go with 'Barrels of Thunder'. It's Dwarfholm after all, not Nippon, the name will attract more patrons. Plus, we'll be selling beer from barrels, not just sake."

"Hmm. An' the name has "Thunder" in it... like from yer brew."

"True... well, I found a carpenter who'll make us a sign, so that is another matter that's taken care of." She rolled up her sleeves. "I'll check on the Koji." She went to the back room without noticing Mack's smile and came back startled. "You took care of it", she said.

"Ah did. Now we hav' more time fer the stuff I don' know yet."

"What an eager pupil", Kushi said in a mocking tone, but she had to smile. "You did good work by the way. But try to balance the water a little more. The fermentation process is essential to the taste." She picked up a broom to sweep the dust and dirt to the exit, as well as the occasional sawdust from when Mack had made adjustments to the wood.

"Ah. Show me in a handful o' hours." He took a nail from between his lips, placed it, then reconsidered, turned the chair around so it was facing up and sat on it. A little creaking was heard then everything slid into place, then nothing more. It was solid. "Somethin' else..."

"Hmm?"

"The merchan' we helped out. 'e came by this mornin'. Said 'e wanted ta talk to you."

"What about?"

"Probably sayin' thanks fer the help? 'e treated me to a pint yesterday ta mourn over 'is brother."

"During working hours?" Kushi asked with a little grin.

"Ye sure yer not possessed by me missus, Kushi?" Mack asked, returning the grin.

"Pretty sure. I think I'd know if I had a youkai in me." She swept the dust onto the street, then came back in. "The first vat is almost fully fermented by the way, so I'm hoping that we can open for business in two days - just need the sign to get cut and painted and we'll be good."

"Wha' about the beer?"

"I placed an order at a brewery... "McMoe's", I believe. They're bringing in four barrels this afternoon. Two beer, two mead."

"Mmm... McMoe ain't too bad. Ya got him off me list?"

"Of course. I trust you on that matter."

Mack grinned. "As ya should. Ah got some good experience under me belt... been runnin' the bar fer a while now. Gone through a number o' breweries while at it."

"Are there that many in Dwarfholm? I don't mean to sound depreciative but the city doesn't seem very large to me."

"Tha's cause ya ain't seen one bit. Dwarfholm's enormous. Bigger'n Minas Tirith, ah bet!" He pushed the chair he had worked on into its place beneath the table. "Renovations are complete, anycase. Ya need anythin' else done?"

"The storage area could use a little tidying. We won't have enough room for the order."

Mack grunted approvingly and went past Kushi into the back area. Moments later, the trader from yesterday came in and immediately headed towards Kushi, who recieved him with a smile.

"Ohayo gozaimasu, Sir..."

"Did ah never introduce meself? Urist McUlfarsson. Ah'm here t' thank ye fer yer kindness."

"It was nothing, McUlfarsson-san... if anyone is to thank it's McMicksson-san. He risked his life out there to bring you the head of that troll."

"Already thanked him, bu' ah didn' catch ye this mornin'... ah wanted t'say that ah'm lookin' fer a replacement fer me brother - on the caravan, ah mean. An' ah'm gettin' meself some proper armor. Bu' once ah get back out there, ah'll be supplyin' yer bar at a discount."

"That's not necessary. Put the extra funds towards the burial of your brother."

Urist gave her a weird look. "Yer not familiar with Dwarfholm's customs, are ye, Miss Kushi? We don' bury 'em. We bring 'em to the morgue an' our King takes their Omnilium every so often, so tha' he can summon more fer us... tha' way we contribute to Dwarfholm, even in death. We keep a trinket from tha deceased, somethin' small that gets passed down through the family." He held up a hand, showing Kushi a stone ring.

"I see..." Kushi replied. Which is not to say that she was okay with that thought. Not at all, actually. For a body to be desecrated like this... how would they be reincarnated if their soul had no time to leave its body as part of the regular rituals? What if it was torn apart as the Omnilium was extracted? She shuddered at the idea.

"Everythin' okay, Miss Kushi? Ya turned pale like a ghost."

"Did I? Sorry, I was lost in thought." She reached under the counter and pulled out a sake bottle, as well as two little cups that she filled. "Here... to your brother's memory."

"Wha's that cup? There's barely any..."

"Just take it." She raised her glass and downed it at the same time as the dwarf, who visibly enjoyed the taste. She refilled them both and emptied her glass, which helped a bit. As part of her job she was a sturdy drinker, but a pair of glasses of strong sake helped at clearing her mind, without her getting drunk. "I should continue working, but thank you for stopping by. I wish you all the best out there, and good luck on your search", she finally said.

"Aye, ah should get goin' meself too. Bu' I'll be back. Thanks again fer yesterday."

When Mack came back upstairs he found Kushi sitting behind the counter, lost in thought. "Is everythin' okay?" he asked, as that behavior was very unusual for the otherwise active woman.

"McMicksson-san? Is the storage ready?"

"Yes. Is everythin' okay with ya? You don' look too good."

"You've come to work really early today, why don't you leave a little sooner too?"

"Not til ye answer me question."

"McUlfarsson-san came to visit. He told me something that... shook me up. I need some time to myself... to speak with the kami in prayer."

"Wha' was that?" Mack asked without moving an inch towards the door. "Wha' did Urist tell ya?"

"Regarding what happens to your deceased. It's... can we talk about this another day? Please?"

The dwarf looked unconvinced. The sake bottle before Kushi, the two empty cups and her very uncharacteristic behavior all were grounds for worrying. On the other hand she was an adult, a grown woman who could take care of herself. Should he leave her be as she asked of him? Or should he stay and help?

[Dr. McNinja]

Mack twitched nervously. He was reluctant to keep pushing. But dwarves are not known for their tact.

"Lis'n here, lass," the dwarf grumbled, "Ah dinnae ken wha' McUlfarsson gabbed abou', bu-"

"I just need a moment," Kushi shivered.

"Bu' the aurora comes ou' tonight and ah though' ye'd want tah come," Mack continued, "In the main square. Trust me. It'd be worth yer while."

Mack pointed a thumb at the storage.

"Ah triple-checked it so ye dinnae need tah worry."

The dwarf grabbed his pack and stepped outside. "An' bring yer mat!"

Mack walked down towards the square. There was a general hustle by the square, several campfires being formed for the event. Kushi was still disturbed by the revelation about dwarven burial rites. In fact, she was so disturbed it never occurred to her that auroras were quite common in a place as snowy as the Fields.

It would only be a few short hours before the sun set, and the dwarves of Outer Dwarfholm had started drinking. The campfires in the frozen cobblestone resembled a thousand tiny stars warming the square. This was on purpose, as Kushi would later find out.

When the Nipponese human arrived, it was painfully obvious to her she did not belong here. Such a monstrous thing to do, to destroy a body in such a violent way...

"Gahaha!" Mack howled, "yer here!"

As the dwarf waddled over, Kushi felt her spirit jade over at the sight of someone she once considered a friend.

"You're drunk," Kushi muttered.

"These are good times, lass," Mack explained, "The gods are happy with us tonigh'. The walls are openin', they are."

"Walls?" Kushi asked.

Before Mack could answer, the other dwarves in the square started howling manically. Mack hooted excitedly with them.

"Git yer buttocks over here! It's startin'!"

Mack yanked Kushi's arm towards one of the campfires. There were about thirty dwarves huddle around this one, all gulping thirstily at their ale. Mack tripped on the ice, spilling beer all over his beard. All of the dwarves howled in laughter, and even Mack, whose pride usually did not handle insult well, grinned sheepishly. Kushi unrolled her mat pensively and kneeled on it formally.

"Who's this?" a nearby celebrator shouted.

"Friend o'mine!" Mack howled in response. Kushi blinked.

"McMicksson-san is exaggerating," the woman coldly interrupted, "we are acquaintances."

Mack glanced at her, his smile hiding his hurt. The dwarf on the other side of Kushi clapped her shoulder.

"Ahhh, dinnae be li'ah', lass, this is a happy day!"

"Someone died two days ago," Kushi snapped.

The atmosphere became a little dampened. Mack cleared his throat.

"She's new in town," the dwarf said, "She dinnae ken our ways."

The other dwarves stared at her expectantly. One dwarf dropped their beer, and everyone laughed at him. The jovial atmosphere returned and Mack glanced at Kushi.

"S'not like ye tah be a rude dolt," the dwarf hissed angrily.

Kushi blinked away her shame. "My apologies, McMicksson-san. I'm just upset about something."

"Ah know why yer upse'," Mack grumbled.

Kushi looked at him. "You do?"

"Yer nervous bou' openin' the bar," Mack said, as if he was making a clever deduction, "Cold feet or somethin' li'."

Kushi turned, relieved but also disappointed. "I suppose."

"So ah wanted tah show ye why ye shouldn't be nervous."

The aurora flashed, and thunder rang throughout the city, purple and green lights swirling in a display of colors. Kushi felt abnormally calm all of a sudden. And it wasn't just her - all of the dwarves in the square had suddenly gone quiet.

A bolt of light, almost like a shooting star, streaked from the aurora. It descended straight towards the campfires. Upon making contact, the fire blazed upwards and the color changed to purple. Kushi stared, alarmed, not only by the turn of events but how calm the dwarves seemed about it.

Suddenly, a spectral figure stepped out from the fire. He had the appearance of a dwarf, down to the apparel, but his face lacked the misery and stubbornness of the other dwarves Kushi had seen. It was almost what one would expect if a dwarf somehow decided to no longer live in freezing places.

One of the dwarves - a normal, constantly angry one - beckoned her to him. "Da..!"

The father turned around. The look of peace on his face turned to exasperation.

"Oy, ye no-good git! Can't even extract me properly, is tha' it?"

The living dwarf frowned. "Oh, fer- why did ah think ye'd be nicer yer one ni' here?"

"Took ye in since ye were a wean and this is how ye treat me?"

"Da, shut yer gob..."

A dozen more spectral dwarves stepped out of the fire, searching for living members. They sought each other out,

Kushi turned to Mack in terror. "McMicksson-san, what is that? Are those youkai?"

"A wha'?"

"A..." Kushi grimaced as she paused to think of a translation. "A spirit."

"Hold on, has no one explained wha' happens 'ere? This must be very confusin' for ye."

Kushi shook her head. Mack shook his head.

"Er, alri'... sooo when we dwarves kick the bucke', our family destroys the body in some way. Used tah burn it, bu' we've taken tah leavin' it fer extractin'."

"I've heard," Kushi replied, mourning the trapped dwarven spirits in front of her.

"We do tha' so their spirits can be free from their bodies. It's well heavy, a body is."

"But how can they reincarnate if their bodies are destroyed along with their soul?"

"Reincarnate?" Mack chuckled. "Why'd ye want tah do tha'?"

Kushi frowned. "Excuse me?"

"It's always freezin' doon here," Mack snorted, "an' the food is expensive."

"An' the ale is shite!" one of the dwarves howled with glee.

"But up there..." Mack's voice quivered. "If ye die with honor and identity... ye go tah the Hall of Warriors."

Kushi paused pensively. "Is that where your wife is?"

The other dwarves shuffled uncomfortably. It was incredibly insulting to imply any loved one was anywhere besides Valhalla. Mack waved it off.

"She di'in't have a beard, but she passed with honor," Mack grumbled, "Ah hafta believe she's there, waitin' fer me."

The nosy dwarf who didn't like the ale of the living world leaned in. "Of course, ye hafta destroy the body somehow."

"Shut yer gob, Urist. Naebody asked ye."

Kushi watched as another dozen spirits rose from the fire. "But McUlfarsson's brother... you never recovered his body."

"The gods also accept the head of whoever killed the dwarf," Mack shrugged, "Damn near encourages it when the killer's nae dwarfish."

The fire pulsed, and another spirit exited the crack. Urist McUlfarsson stood up.

"Oy, ye daftie," the trader shouted, tears clenching his throat, "Yer late. Ahm over here."

The spirit formed completely and turned towards Urist. He crossed his arms in frustration.

"Ahm dead?"

"Aye."

"Well, shite. Ye got the troll head?"

"The buyer did," Urist replied, pointing at Mack.

Mack bowed. "Ye must be Mack McUlfarsson. My name is Mack McMicksson."

"Thank ye, Mr. McMicksson, for purifyin' me spirit," McUlfarsson bowed in reply.

Kushi made a silent comment about how almost every dwarf she met was named either Urist or Mack as the two trader brothers clapped hands and grabbed shoulders.

"Ah'll miss ye, brother."

"And me you."

Mack McUlfarsson looked back at the fire. "Git up there righ' fast, Urist. Ah can only keep the ale warm fer so long."

Urist laughed sadly. "Shut up, ye goblin-lover."

Lightning flashed across the chasm in the sky and the purple tint flickered. The dwarven spirits all groaned as if their parents were telling them to come down for dinner.

"Ah gotta go, pal," Mack McUlfarsson said. He patted Urist on the shoulder before being drained into the fire like liquid does in a funnel. The spirits were all sucked into the column of light. As the last dwarf reentered the ethereal stream, the fire became warm yellow again.

Kushi wiped her eyes. There were no tears yet, but they were near.

"Thing o'beauty, innit?" Mack grinned, "S'called the Thunder Night, cos o'tha way they come and go. Only happens once every ten years."

The dwarf pointed at their companions. They all had faces of serenity, and the square held a kind of warmth the town never felt before. After all, legend said every Night of Thunder feels warmer than the one before. The gates to Valhalla grew wider every decade, perhaps. Mack smiled gently.

"Ye'll never see the calmness ye see on any dwarves unless Valhalla's openin'," Mack proudly reported, "that's wha' ah useta think."

Kushi licked her lips. She felt it too. "Used to?"

"Then ah tried yer sacky," Mack continued, "and if ye don't mind me sayin', when ah think abou' makin' tha' brew and how calm it makes me, ah feel like I'm drinking wee teaspoons of Thunder Nigh'."

Kushi thought about the dwarven afterlife. She thought about how reincarnation was actually bad here. She thought about her home and her own spiritual experiences, and compared it to Thunder Night. She thought about the name of their bar and how Mack insisted on it.

"I thought dwarves didn't like metaphors."

"Eh?" Mack reacted.

"Nothing," Kushi said.

Mack shrugged and nodded. "So. Me poin' is, be more confident in yer brew. It's good stuff. Makes us dwarves feel all spiritual-li'."

Mack searched Kushi's face for a reaction.
He quickly realized what Kushi had said earlier about how McUlfarsson told her about the dead, and how taking her to Thunder Night was possibly a terrible idea.