Thorgrim was standing outside the door to his and Helga's home. Aldrin had dropped him outside the gates to Clan Silver axe in the dwarven mountains. He had nodded to the men and women on duty and they saluted him as he made his way home. No one had asked him about the baby in his arms, but the looks he was getting told him this was one of the weirdest things he had brought home. With a deep sigh he steeled his nerves and knocked on the door before opening.

" Helga, you home?"

He did almost hope no one would answer him.

"Thorgrim? That's you?"

Helga's questioning voice answered him from deeper inside.

"Yeah, I'm back."

He put down his travel gear and armor he had changed out of at the inn earlier. And went inside looking for her, he found her sewing in the living room.

"Why are you doing back so early, did the world run out of monsters?"

She put down her work and looked up at him. Whatever was on her mind lost in surprise when she saw the baby in his arms.

" What… Why are you holding a baby Thorgrim? Did you finally lose your last straw of sanity and stole someone's child?."

This was not going as he had thought it would in his mind.

"Helga, please hold up, I can explain."

She stopped and crossed her arms over her breasts. Lifting one of her eyebrows while she waited for him to give her an explanation, and he knew from her look that it better be good. Fumbling with the words he finally blurted out.

" Well you know the elf wizard Aldrin, his sister died and this is now our child"

He could hear his own voice as he said the words, that it had all come out wrong. And from how red Helga's face was getting, she definitely agreed. About an hour later and a lot of shouting from Helga, had he finally told her the story. When the boy had woken from all her swearing about pigg braind dwarfs, she took the baby from him and sat down. He would probably still be trying to tell the story, if the boy had not come to his rescue. "Good move lad,'' he whispered in his mind.

" So what you mean is that we will adopt the child, how do you think that will work out, you are never home?"

She started to get tears in her eyes and this time he could not just walk out. He needed to have this conversation, she needed him to listen and not run off.

" Well I know that with the child I can't go on adventures. I was thinking about taking up smithing again."

" Adventures you say, you know as much as I do that it has never been about adventure Thorgrim, since…"

She took a pause before uttering the words that had never been spoken in their home.

" Since Ulrik died you have had a death wish, throwing yourself at any danger you meet, no matter how mad it might be. I know you blame yourself Thorgrim, and sometimes I blame myself too. But this has to end, I will not be home waiting for you with this child for words about your death in some god's forgotten place. If you want this to work you most come home and stay home you will. Otherwise forget it."

He froze when she spoke of Ulriks death, he had never been good at talking about his feelings. He would rather hide or run away as he had done many times before. But this time he had to stand his ground, to let his sorrow come and confront it and open up. So he walked over and sat down beside her. He started to talk about Ulriks death, and before he knew it tears were running down his cheeks.

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" I know love, I just can't help it. The shame and sorrow I feel, the nightmares where I see his dead eyes staring up at me, asking me why I did not save him."

After hours of talking about Ulriks death, and sharing memories of their son. Their sorrows seemed a little lighter. Then Helga steered the conversation back to the problem at hand.

" You do know we will have to move don't you? The boy is no dwarf, he can't grow up here in the mountains."

That startled Thorgrim out of his sorrow. He had not thought about that, and he could see the problem.

" And what is his name, sure Aldrin gave him one before he left."

" We never talked about it, and from what I understand Elaine never told anyone. We don't even know who the boy's father is."

" Well I for one think we should move to Astrana. They have good relations with both the dwarven clans and elven dutchy. And they are open to other races."

Thorgrim gave it some thought, Astrana was the kingdom directly to the south of the dwarves, it had been created as a compromise between the dwarven clans and the elven duchy three hundred years ago. The fertile lands between the great forest to the South and the mountains to the north a source of constant conflict between the two races, and with the growing human empire in the east. They decided that both would relinquish their claims on the land, and invited the popular and greatly loved hero of the empire, high priestess Astra follower of the Shaynn. This created a buffer zone between the two races and made it hard for the empire to expand since they could not easley start a war with their own hero.

Thorgrim had a lot of contacts in Astrana with all the trade flowing between the two nations and all the adventuring he had done. He was good friends with the royal family, with Alexander being the prince. Helga was on to something, but were in Astrana should they go. Then it hit him...

" Well if you don't mind maybe we can move to West island, Aldrin was going to have guard duty on the island. So why don't we move there, maybe we can make a new home outside of Kevin's harbour?"

" Okay, that doesn't sound too bad, I heard that the Flintbrewer's have a small mining outpost on the island. And it will be good for the boy to be able to meet his uncle. We just have to stay clear of the tunnel going to the maze below."

" That should not be a problem, the entrance is in the middle of the island and all three nations have guards there. Only the southern part of the island is inhabited, the northern part is only forest."

She nodded her head in agreement, she was aboard.

" So Thorgrim Silveraxe son of Thorvald Silveraxe King of the dwarfs are we doing this? Will you come home to once more be a father, will you finally hang your axe back above the hearth to rest until called upon for defence of your family."

Helga looked at him with hope in her eyes. This was it, a chance to finally start anew.

" Aye, I Thorgrim Silveraxe will come home and let my axe rest, let my hundred years of fighting and griefing be done."

She gave him a big kiss and with a twinkle in her eyes.

" You, me and Elric are going to have to pack."

" Elric… who is that?

" The boy of course, I'm naming him Elric. Oh I must go tell everyone, there is so much to do. You start to pack and do your kingly delegating, we will be right back."

Then she took the boy and almost ran out of their home. He shook his head, this day had been an emotional storm, and he was tired. Packing was something he was going to start with later, he went to bed planning for their new life.

" Elric Silveraxe, yeah that works"

-About six month later-

The sound of a hammer beating metal into shape was heard in the morning, the sound was coming from the smithy at the three-way intersection. The smithy lay to the right side of the road going north, and on the left side you had a medium sized inn. The smithy was newly constructed, and so was the two storey house beside it. On the backside of the house you could see the beginning of a garden, a dwarven woman was working while paying attention to a baby crawling around in the dirt finding the stones to be of utmost interest.

" Good morning Helga!"

The woman looked up from her work. Seeing Ingrid standing at the fence.

" Morning Ingrid! What brings you over?"

She picked up Elric who had started to sample the mud. Taking and tossing the dirt away.

" Well the morning was dragging since the guests left yesterday. And was wondering if you and Elric would like to make me company to Burt's farm. Need to restock some vegetables, we will take the wagon."

Helga thought about it for a moment, Burt's farm was 8 miles following the road going west. It lay on the outskirts of the village, and it was far closer than taking the road east to Kevin's harbor, the biggest settlement on West island and the prices were better.

"Sure, we will join you. Need to make some purchases too, just need to take inventory and tell Thorgrim. Give us half an hour?"

"Of course, I just need to find Tova. I wonder where she ran off to."

Ingrid was the owner of the inn and Tova was her daughter. Hans, the man of the family and the sheriff of the small village Evergreen, sometimes stayed the night in the village. since it was almost 10 miles from the village center to the in. He had been the highest level in the village before Helga and Thorgrim settled.

As ingrid walked away in search of Tova, Helga went over to the smithy. And about half an hour later they were traveling down the road.

"Tova sit down!"

The blond young girl almost fell off the wagon when she heard her mom. She had been standing behind Helga trying to get a look at the small boy. The bench in the front, only had room for 2 people. So Tova had climbed up behind them.

"But mom, I want to see"

" You know what he looks like, you have been over to them almost every day."

"But I want someone to play with. So I'm helping Elric grow."

Helga started to laugh.

" So that's what you tried to do yesterday."

"What did she do now?"

A look of worry came over ingrid. While Tova was puffing out her chest with a proud face.

" I helped Elric grow, he will soon play with me."

"Well I was out back working on my garden, when I looked away for just a moment and when I turned back to check on them, I saw Tova shoveling soil all over the boy. Now I think she was trying to plant him."

Ingrid got a look of horrors on her face. And Elric happily sleeping in Helga's arms didn't know it, but his first friend had tried to bury him.