Edited with extreme self prejudice :p

Too short for my tastes, so now it's a half chapter

Enjoy

-----------------------

"Hu, hu, hu, gasp."

The strangled sounds of fleeing filled his mind.  He had to escape, he had to flee.

They were coming, he couldn't stop them, couldn't lose them!

He held to fear of death on this plane of existence, if he was hurt, he'd just be sent back home.  Yet the fear permeated his entire existence.  Nothing could prepare him for this new experience.

"No, NO, NOOOOOO."

Fast forwarding past the shenanigans of annoyance --->

"Nice to meet you Master Dwarf, my name is Valgrim, may I ask you of yours?"  Valgrim said while standing on a twitching serpent body.

The dwarf, sitting on the Hydra corpse next to the bear, looked up from his meal- a femur with a large chunk of meat on it.

"Me names Dirrg, son of the forest.  This is me bear and kin Girr." Dirrg said, patting the bear affectionately.

The bear in question looked up from its meal of well done hydra meat, sniffed once, and resumed eating.

Large sounds of (nom nom nom) could be heard coming from it's head.

Returning his sights to Dirrg, Valgrim continued, "So Dirrg, what are you doing in this accursed Hydra infested forest?

Taking a bite of hydra, the dwarf thought a moment, and said, " Meh kuin en I were esplorin, (gulp), de forest here.  I be a ranger of de land and we set out from our homeland to explore all de forests of de land.  Thought this wee forest would be no problem, but erey where is filled with these bloody hydras."

Valgrim didn't really believe the dwarf.  All dwarfs loved the stone and ground, very much like the gnomes, and rarely had anything to do with trees.  Then again, he looked at the bear, it would explain why the bear was so.......good-natured...... in comparison to others he had come across.  

While holding a brown color, the bear was much larger than other brown bears Valgrim had seen before.  In fact, a previous job had called for the deliverance of some bear pelts to a wealthy dark elf.  Of course, He and Brutus had had to fight a bunch of them at once.  Quite unfortunate that it had breeding season, but at least they didn't kill the mothers or the children.  That would have made eating the delicious bear meat later taste a little...guilty.

Shaking his head of the memories, Valgrim considered the duo beside him.

"Well Master Dwarf, care to join up with my group to hunt some Hydra? he asked.

The dwarf's eye's lit up, excitement dominating his features.  Apparently even tree loving dwarfs enjoyed a good fight.  He began rubbing his hand over his ax handle.

"Oh, smashing more a dem Hydras sounds fun, Smashin and bashin heads all day long!"  Dirrg gave off a high pitched squell, startling Valgrim.  He gave the dwarf a quick glance over.

'Maybe this dwarf really is unstable..."

Dirrg got up, brushed himself off, and held out his hand to help Valgrim up. "So, where're da rest of your group new bashin buddy?"  

Valgrim looked at the serpent they had been sitting on.  He reached down and slapped it's head a few times to wake it up.  "Hey, get up now.  Which direction is your master?"

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

The snake woke up, looked around groggily, and poked it's tongue in the air, tasting it.

"Sss, ara ara, I feel like sssomething terrible just happened.  Why can't I remember what jussst happened?" it mused.  It noticed Valgrim and the dwarf and gave an involuntary shudder. It looked around, eyeing the sky as it did.  

Sensing something, he looked back to Valgrim,  "My massster iss that way though the treess."  It indicated it's head, "They ssseem to be resssting near water."

Valgrim nodded, and turned to Dirrg.  "Shall we walk to the group?"

The dwarf gave an evil grin, "Now why'd you want to walk when me have an easier solution."

He gave a slow indication toward the bear.

Valgrim eyed the bear nervously, backing away slowly, followed by the Nevian.

"We wouldn't want to impose on such a noble creature."

Dirrg continued smiling, "It be no trouble at all."

"But..."

He never finished his sentence before a snap from the dwarf kicked the bear into action.  The bear charged Valgrim, grabbing him with it's teeth, and then threw him into the air to land on it's back.  The snake soon followed.  Laughing wildly with the occasional high-pitched squeal, the dwarf jumped onto the bear and shouted, "Charge Girr, right through da woods, Ha ha ha ha!"

The bear obliged, ignoring the screams of "Noooo, why meee." and "Tooo, fastttt", and charged right into the woods, running at top speed.  The dwarf, being used to this, dodged every limb that came into sight with astounding grace and acrobatics.  The other two passengers...were not used to it.

"(Spitting sounds)Ow!  Thessse branches keep hitting me, ow.  Animal cruelty!"

"Ah! Not the hat, not the hat!"

After a good ten minutes, they burst out of the forest, coming across a small lake.  The dwarf was smiling on the back of the bear, while the snake was hanging loosely over the bear with Valgrim in the same position.

The snake kept muttering silently, "Bears are scary, woods are scary, speed is scary." in a slow mantra.

Valgrim slowly lifted his head and muttered, "Need to remember to not do that again."  He looked around, noticing his companions staring wide eye'd and jaws open at the bear.  Brutus merely raised an eyebrow.

"Hmgh, Valgrim has all the fun, snort."

----------------

I've decided from now add to add appropriate magic information tables at the end of chapters when magic is used.  This is the table for the enchantment magic used last chapter. Just for informative purposes.

Spell CatagoryMetal BlessingA type of divine enchantment the temporarily changes the properties of the metal.  There are numerous types, but are limited depending on the nature of the god providing the power for the spell.  Being lower enchantments, their usage of metal often warps the metal, so it's a double edged blade.