"Many years ago, there was peace among the land," the dwarvish bard tuned his lute as he spoke and then began to strum. "The king was jovial, his people prosperous and happy, until darkness came to the land..."

Gasps broke out from the dozen or so children gathered around the tavern's fire pit. Their parents comforted them as the bard continued.

"As the enemy approaches his kingdom, the King did everything in his power to keep his people safe," the dwarf continued in sing song melodies. "But the king and his knights were no match for what was coming-"

"

Hey, Guntar!" A voice from the back loudly interrupted the bard's tale. "I hope your not telling tall tales again!"

"I don't see you entertaining these fine guests!" Guntar the dwarf snapped back. "This is my story, I'll tell it how I like.

" The children all giggled at his overly animated argument.

"Now where were we..." He strummed a couple notes thinking. "Right! The king and his men were on the brink of defeat. Things looked bad. REAL bad..."

"The only one left standing was the royal court bard, and the king himself. The great evil laughed maniacly." He used his magic to create a sinister laughter come from behind the crowd."

The bard and king joined forces in a last ditch effort to save the people of zindalli. They poured all there might into a spell of repel evil, the very ground the kingdom stood on became to pure for the evil being to remain.

"I'll be back for zindali and it's people this isn't over!" the evil

One said and black smoke surrounded him and whisked him away.

As the dust settles the bard looks for his friend the king. "From guitars flute, blue specks start to fill the room floating around captivating the crowd."

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"My king my king the bard cried"

for with the magic used there is always a price to pay.

His only friend, his king lying in his arms dying but still smiling.

He said "My friend pass the story along, keep the people steeled and strong. watch over my boy old friend."

as the bright blue eyes of the king turned to an ashy grey. His wings started to falter and his body began to burn and within minutes he was ashes in the wind."

As the crowd disperses Zack arrives with belle , happy to see his friend.

"Guntar won't you come with us friend we head for the mine to become adventures"!!!

Guntar who is usually smiling with rosy cheeks suddenly becomes Solemn in his facial expression. "Ey boy are ye sure ya ready for that!??"

"Of course, we are." said a bras-in belle. "we're old enough now we need to make money and Zack wants to be in the brigade someday so not much else to do is there."

Guntar nods understanding they won't give up easily and tells them to go to the funky dink tavern. He will meet them there he just needs to grab something.

So Zack and Belle do just that and head to this tent attached to the building. It has several holes in the roof and, is barely standing up straight but they have an ale.

Zack and Belle sit at a barrel with a piece of circle-cut wood crudely nailed on top of a stud.

They are greeted by a keku waiter. In a shrieking voice, it squawks " Ale or water to start"

They look at this humanoid with a bird head annoyingly and say water will be fine.

Guntar walks in and be-lines for the table sitting down with them. He orders an ale and stares at Zack and Belle.

He finally speaks. "Are you both sure this is what you want to do?"

Zack and Belle look at each other and nod and reply "yes it is."

Guntar digs in his pocket and pulls out two gold coins sneakily handing one to each of them.

"You will need this to get into the mine itself to purchase your pendent of the adventure.

As you know we live in the slums outside the kingdom our main source of currency is mining in the mine."

The two looking at the gold coins similar to a starving wolf to a fresh kill, not really hearing the politics guntar is going on about.

He continues once he has there attention back. " now what I was saying there's something else in there which stabilizes the economy. There's a portal that randomly sends you to different worlds and plains. This is where you can slay beasts, get treasure and so on. which are brought back and sold.I don't want you two to go alone so I will accompany you."

Zack and Belle give the old grumpy dwarf a big hug and they celebrate for in the morning their new life begins.

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