The room surrounded Nomli. He sat in a chair made from Humans. Everything in One Stone was made for humans. He was sitting with a small group of dwarves from the area. He was swallowing what this place called mead. It contained bitter tones that suggested the barrel had not been cleaned. He knew his own inner strength, but this swill would make most of these humans sick. He thought in his head,”Fraid Beard.” His lips mouthed the words as he looked out among them.
He was listening to some human talking at the table next to his. He wanted to find a place for his people to drink. He was also thinking of the dwarven insult, “Fraid Beard.” His father’s, father father had a beard, but she had stolen them a long time ago. It felt so Dwarven to still use them as a way to stay a dwarf and not just a short human. “Fraid”, he always wondered where that came from. His father’s father once told him that it was combining the words “afraid” and “frayed”. It was both a reference to how cowardice and fragmented that all humans were. He looked at this human over his mug as he said, “A new palace of hope had started with the dual dawns.”
Nomli swallowed the mead down as he could. It made his mouth feel like his father’s bee cave. Humans from the Flying Guard came and burned out every bee. The smell of charred hives filled his nose. Humans had destroyed everything for him and his father. He looked over the human, seeing the charred hive in his eyes. He was talking about hope. He had heard this all the time. A place of hope, a place where humans and dwarves can live together in peace. He stared at him. He had learned humans. He knew when they lied and when they told the truth. Honey dripped form this human’s lips.
He had to look more. Soft words came from his lips. They were barely heard over the bar noise. He focused in to hear more about this place a hope. The honey was clear and clean. He spoke the truth. Some place with a pyramid. As he said, “fresh water”, the honey dripped from his lips. Nomli shook his head. He was still seeing the honey that would tell him when humans lie. Whatever the truth, this human believed what he said.
“I need to get some more, … ugh .. mead”. His dwarven friends all laughed at him. Nomli shifted a smile across his teeth. He stood and with these human table and chairs he was still the same height among his friends. This was yet another injustice these humans cast upon him. He was going to get some drinks out of those Fraid Beards. He nodded in one quick movement, “maybe I can get drinks for all of us.” The table’s mugs went up into the air with the delight of cheer.
He started to head over to a small group of humans. Nomli picked a group that would be close to this storyteller of hope. He should have not cared but something felt different here. He cared about it. “My good friends, maybe you can buy a young dwarf a drink, and I can tell you a story”. They looked up at him with a little suspicion, but he could bring them into his view. He through on the charm, “I know a lot of stories.”
Footsteps he never heard came up behind him. “Here folks, here are some drinks on the house.” Draghan stood behind Nomli. He knew this old tavern owner. His voice had a subtle richness that disguised who he might have been, “Now, Nomli you should join these folks. I have a tray of drinks headed over to your last table.” Looking over, Nomli saw another dwarf taking a tray of mead over to them. The tray had a large ceramic carafe in its center. Draghan was staring darkly at Nomli, “they will be set for a little while. This is where you belong.” Nomli saw wasps buzzing around Draghan. He was telling him to sit here. In the background he still heard the hope bringer talking quietly at his table. A chair slid out, “this is where you belong now. My friends, this is Nomli. Nomli this is Davin, Senshi, and Barick. … humm, where is your other friend. No worries. Nomli tell them the story of when you climbed the big rock.”
Their frayed nature of being human felt braided to Nomli. He sat and started to tell them about the great rock and some fantasy of how he climbed it.