Dealings With Deities

Chapter 19 - Talk of twigs

"It is not considered good taste to drink alcohol in public you know."

Shinoko regretted greeting Vordum more than she thought possible. His loud gruff voice hurt her ears. His thick alcoholic scent made her nose shrivel up in disgust. His wrinkled, dirty brick of a body was painful for a pure elven girl to look at. Every aspect of him hurt her but what hurt most was how quickly he befriended Kaiho.

"Relax little one, I'm only having a bit. Besides, it may be considered bad taste but it certainly doesn't taste bad to me." Kaiho remarked with what is quickly becoming his signature childish grin. "They say bread goes good with wine, would you like some of mine Mr dwarf?"

"We're drinking ale, not wine Long legs," Vordum replied in his naturally gravelly voice.

"Would you like some anyway?"

"...aye," Came his short reply as he tore a chunk of bread out of Kaiho's hand.

"Mmmm" Shinoko's annoyed moan grew more and more audible as they walked. "At least slow down on how much you are drinking Kaiho."

"Perhaps the moaning miss is right," Vordum spoke, somehow drinking at the same time. "You're getting the drinking sweats Long legs, can't handle your ale?"

"Drinking sweats?"

"You're practically dripping" Vordum laughed.

Using the hand not held down by Shinoko, Kaiho wiped the sweat amassing upon his brow. It was thicker than he expected as it left a mass of sweat on his jumper sleeve. "It's not the drink, it's the heat in here.

"Are you Okay Kaiho-san?"

"I'm just used to more colder climates."

"Um, Kaiho?"

"What heat? It all gets vented out the back. If anything it's colder here than outside." Vordum said in his naturally grumbly tone.

That's a sign Kaiho thought, though whether it was good or bad he was yet to figure out. "Look it's the fifth floor," Kaiho said trying to change the subject. "Where's your smith?"

"Over there" She pointed to the opposite side of the tree.

Even with Vordum's loud voice, traversing through the crowd as a group of large-bodied people has been quite difficult. So far they had just been circling around the outside, following the flow of people up the floors. Now their that their target was through a large crowd of non-moving people, the group audibly sighed.

"I think it will be better for you to run ahead of us," Vordum suggested. "We know where to go so long legs and I don't need to slow you down any longer."

"Oh, is that Okay with you Kaiho-san?"

"I wanted to ask him what was on the top floor."

"I can do that for you" Shinoko volunteered.

"If that's the case we can wait for you here lass."

"Aww, fine.." With a large amount of reluctance, she let go of Kaiho's arm and began her trek through the crowd.

"Lass?"

"It fits does it not?" Vordum Retorted.

With Shinoko gone, Vordum and Kaiho found a quiet spot with some conveniently placed chairs. There, away from the crowd, they shared their food and ale. Speaking only during the short gaps of time where there was neither ale nor food in their mouths.

"You know, I've never seen a human that wasn't armoured or riding in a trade caravan. First one who could speak Tree elvish too."

"And I've never seen a dwarf."

Vordum gave a gruff exit of air at the briefness of Kaiho's retort, snatching the breaded snack from Kaiho's open palm.

"I am not surprised, the closest dwarven civilization you can get to is the fortress Daral in the Separating hills about two kingdoms north east from here."

"That I can get to?"

"There's our deep-dwelling brothers. They should have a city or two directly below us but I have never heard or seen any other race mine deep enough to meet them."

Silence broke out again as they filled their mouths with drink and bread. After enough time to eat and think Kaiho restarted the conversation.

"I always had the assumption dwarfs would hate elves."

"HA" Vordum's laugh echoed through the tree, almost overpowering the clinking and clanking happening around them. "You're not entirely wrong there long legs. I'm just here to keep their silly world tree alive. If that were to die, the forest would follow and then we will have the buggers hugging every tree from here to the mountain homes."

Vordum's laughter bellowed outwards, before dying down to a sad sigh. "Once they reach there, the twigs will probably cause too much trouble for the nations to ignore."

"I see."

Kaiho gave a basic reply but the information he had heard was far from basic. If the forest were to fall, war would follow. He wished he knew more about the world to understand how severe this could really be.

"It's good to talk with someone who doesn't flee at the sound of my voice. Even if you can't speak the tongue very well."

"How'd you learn it anyway? I doubt many elves would be happy to teach a dwarf."

"Ha, elves are leaders in alchemy so I had to learn to read it to learn my craft. As for speaking, dwarven warriors like to mix in insults and swear words in a language their enemy would understand. Makes the insult all the more damaging."

"I suppose the hard part was learning the less rude words," Kaiho replied almost laughing at the silliness of Vordums words.

"No," He grumble-giggled in reply "The hard part was speaking clearly. None of them could understand my words until I got into a bar fight. Buggers bashed my teeth out and gave me a nasty lisp."

"I think I'll just practice my pronunciation the old fashioned way."

The pair shared a laugh and returned to their quiet consumption of alcohol, much to the disgust of the people who walked past.