A few days after he talked with the village leader he received a summons to go to a meeting with other Barons in the capital so he might be introduced to the other nobles. looked at the invitation from his place in front of the hearth. He shrugged, it could be fun, nice ball, dances, beautiful women in even more beautiful dresses, and more importantly than it all, alcohol, he had been sober for nearly a month and apparently the town did not have a tavern. He looked at the dates of the letter, it was sent a week ago and the ball was in a week, so he'd have to start travel right away to get there in time. He walked over to Pado who was laying on his back belly up and snored in contentment. He patted it's belly and the large bear snorted awake, and looked up at him, he twisted and got up and sat down on the floor, Harkon rubbed the sides of Pado's face and he smooshed his big furry face and gave his big wet black nose a kiss. "Time to go pado, we have long journey to capital."

Pado stuck out it's tongue and licked Harkon on the nose, before the big bear got to it's feet, the two walked out of the large house. after Harkon leashed the bear to the sled and they were off, it took an entire week to get to the capital of the Hadrian empire, nothing of consequence happened during the journey, they ran over a pair of bandits, hunted a deer, ate said deer, and made camp at night. He occasionally stopped by villages that were on the way.

Harkon approached a village surrounded by wheat fields, large grain harvesters that were pulled by cattle, they were introduced by Joseph about a year ago. the local Baron must have invested heavily into the mechanisms. He rode through the village drawing many looks that screamed 'what the fuck?' by the villagers who were gawking at the huge mountain man in a heavy fur jacket and fur hat riding on a sled that was being pulled by a polar bear, in retrospect that was a pretty odd sight.

Harkon headed toward the very distant outlines of a massive city wall, though he managed to get there by night fall, a little earlier than he estimated he'd get there.

Harkon's sled which was NOT meant for stone paved roads, scraped to a stop in front of the truly massive city gates a shower of sparks emanating from the sled tracks, the pair of guards in blue uniforms with suns emblazoned on their tabards looked at him, then the sled, then the bear, then back to him. "You're not coming into this city, not with that." The guard gestured to the bear who chuffed.

Harkon looked at the guards blankly. The guards looked nervously at the axe tied to the side of the sleigh, Harkon reached into his coat and produced a scroll, he flicked it toward the guard, the guard tentatively approached and grabbed the proffered scroll. "I am Baron Battlestar of the northernmost village of Khorthan."

The guard took the letter of introduction, and read it, he handed the letter back to Harkon and walked back over to the other guard and they started muttering under their breath, only a few minutes later the guards took the letter again and ran into the city, the other guard informed him he'd just need to wait a minute. A minute turned to two which turned to three then ten and ten turned to twenty, He sat there for at least half an hour before the other guard came back and said to let him in. Harkon sat on the carriage, fire burning behind his blank stare, he whistled and the sled scraped forward again, the guards tried to get in the way. "Not the bear, not the bear!" He paid them no mind continuing forward and one of the guards tried to cling on to the carriage and was dragged across the cobblestone street while sparks from the sled tracks showered his face causing him to let go and roll across the road, little did the guard know that a bard had seen the entire scenario and a new song was made at his expense.

Harkon's sled scraped to a stop right in front of a large manor in the center of the city. he hopped off of the bear drawn sled, and undid Pado from the sleigh, he patted the bear on the side, and the pair walked into the manor's doors. They walked through the doors and into the main lobby where several people were sitting and staring a, he walked over to the clerk's desk. The clerk didn't even look up from the book when they talked. "Take a ticket."

Harkon took a small strip of paper and walked over to a bench where many nobles were staring at him and they scooted to the side to avoid the massive man with the the somehow less terrifying polar bear. He waited for nearly an hour by the time the second name was called, by the fourth name the murderous aura coming from the barbarian turned genocidal, so he started to draw a picture, two hours went by and only four people had gone through the doors to their appointments and by this point he would miss the meeting, Pado was asleep on the floor next to a potted plant.

Three hours later the clerk put a sign onto the desk. 'Out for lunch.'

As soon as the clerk left Harkon stood, and walked through the door to the back of the building, the tailor who he'd been waiting for stopped what he was doing and looked at him in shock. "What in Solauce's name is the meaning of this?!" he shouted. "I am very busy if you haven't noticed, I don't care who you are or what your title is go wait like the rest!"

Harkon loomed over the tailor he walked over to the man's desk and set a drawing down with a bag of gold, "Make, please." then left through the doorway.

The Tailor was more curious now than angry, he moved the gold aside and looked at the picture and barked a laugh. "He can't be serious!"

The tailor looked down at the drawing which was an exact measurements, materials, and cuts, for a nobles suit, for a polar bear... "Well, either this guy is one wealthy prankster or he actually made, but either way he paid so he'd better make it, just to be safe."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Harkon walked through the front door, Pado padding alongside him, he was walked down the stairs and saw what looked like a rogue trying to steel his axe, but his hand was encrusted with ice as soon as he grabbed the ice causing him to drop to his knees screaming clutching the icy forearm that was adhered to the axe. Harkon casually walked around the sled and started hooking Pado back up to the sled, and the thief finally managed to lift the axe from it's scabbard and started running away with it, though Harkon casually lifted a hand and the bonded axe came propelling back to him dragging the rogue the entire way, he casually removed the weird screamy thing from the handle of his axe and put it back in it's scabbard and whistled to for Pado to go, leaving the rogue clutching at his missing arm in the street. a few guards came running over and assisted the rogue, the rogue fainted from blood loss.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

A minute later Harkon saw a guard on a horse his blue and gold sun tabard of the city guard shout from his horse. "Sir! pull over the... bear now!"

Harkon looked at the guard and smacked aside a crossbow bolt that one of the younger guards accidentally fired. He looked at them and then let out a shrill whistle and Pado slowed and walked to the side of the road. The guard pulled the reigns of his horse, Harkon didn't like the mouth reigns they used, it hurt the animals when they pulled on them that way, three others rode up beside and behind Harkon's cart. "Sir, I'm gonna need to ask you to get off of that sled, and when you're done with that you can tell me who let you bring a damn bear into the city."

Harkon hopped off of the sled and looked at the rather greasy looking officer. "Gate guard."

The guard shook his head. "no, no, no. You see that's not how that works, the guard tells a man, who tells another more important man, then they tell an even more important man, and then they tell another person, and that person reviews and approves whatever comes through the gate. I talked to the guards and they approved you, not your bear, or your axe... Or your gold." The guard looked at his coin purse with predatory hunger in his eyes. "I'm going to need all of those things for evidence."

Harkon blankly looked at him, he walked back over to his sled and grabbed the axe which caused the guards to aim flintlocks which were a rather new addition to the army made by some Baron he can't remember the name of, other guards unsheathed swords. Harkon offered the axe to the head officer, and the officer's hand inched close to the mithril axe but one of the guards spoke up. "Careful, it has a protection spell on it, took a fucking thieves guild member's arm off, poor sod bled out in the street."

The guard recoiled from the axe as if burned and gritted his teeth in anger. "Put it back on the cart and we'll take it to our fence." he spat.

Pado growled and the officer growled back. "I know a good circus that'll take you." the mention of the word circus made the bear whimper.

Harkon's anger flared and he grabbed the officer by the head, and flung him into the brick wall, he turned and a saw a flintlock in his face, he grabbed it and squeezed the barrel closing it entirely just as the man shot and the flintlock exploded in his hand mangling it beyond repair.

He turned and blocked a sword whose sword impacted his axe's shaft, the sword's blade was slowly encrusted with frost crystals, and wood on the man's sword froze and split in half and the brittleness of the metal became apparent when the man dropped the weapon and clutched a frostbitten hand, it shattered on the cobblestone road.

Harkon grabbed the man by the waist and threw him into another guard, toppling both of them to the ground.

Harkon turned to the last standing guard who turned and ran and proceeded to run straight into a wooden pillar holding up one of the balconies of the large saloon that he had pulled in front of.

Harkon huffed and unleashed the polar bear and the two walked inside, the saloon known as the bumbling bugbear had a very strict no pets policy, many a noble had walked in with a parrot or even an occasional ranger with a wolf, but there was no words of protest when the massive barbarian walked into the tavern, mostly because how does one say no when a polar bear just... walks in.

The saloon was completely silent, and many carefully inched toward the gates. "Mead, Six barrels."

Harkon took the barrels to his sled after paying for it.

They proceeded to buy drinks for the entire bar and drank like fish for nearly an hour before an entire team of guards burst into the bar muskets at the ready, they through the bar warily looking around at the all too drunk patrons and saw the large man sitting on the floor laying back against the large body of Pado who was laying behind him, he decided to just use the floor after having broken no less than three barstools and had given up on the notion of using a chair. "That's him sir." a familiar looking guard said with a smug grin on his face.

An older silver haired guard with a pointed helm looked at the massive man, about ten men fanned out behind him. "You assaulted no less than five of my guards, do you have anything to say about that?"

Harkon looked at him. "Four."

"Excuse me?" the officer asked.

"I did not assault him, I only assaulted four men who tried to shake me down." Harkon said, his face impassive.

The officer didn't look amused. "You also dragged a man across the street from your sled." He said in a flat face that matched Harkon's. "And how dare you insinuate that my officers tried to steal from you."

Harkon took a drink of mead. "They tried to take my gold, threatened to sell my bear, and wanted my axe."

The guard captain looked at him, then to Pado, he went slightly pale. "I- I'm sorry, I believe I forgot to ask your name."

Harkon looked at him. "Baron Harkon Battlestar."

The guard's slight paleness turned snow white. "Battlestar..." He turned to the guard who didn't look impressed. "Are you a fucking moron? This man's a war hero and nobility at that, he worked directly for the emperor you utterly addlepated monkey!" The younger guard's expression suddenly went from smug to utter dread. "I'm so sorry for the trouble my men caused you lord, you can be sure that their punishment shall be carried out forthwith."

Harkon just took another drink and turned back to the bar and waved a hand for another round of mead for the bar. "Drink?" Harkon asked.

The guards looked tempted, but the lead guard said "No, we're on duty, but I appreciate the offer sir." The guard captain turned and deftly grabbed the corrupt guard by the collar of his shirt and dragged him outside of the bar.

Harkon raised a mug to the rest of the bar and took a drink.