The Highlands: Ashita Academy

Gilrim laughed heartily. He seemed to take the mild threat in stride, as if he wasn't the least bit concerned with anything the human could do to him.

"Ah'll show ye some gasses lad" With that he let loose some massive flatulance and fanned the air.

He then looked to Vetiis. He seemed to be warming up to the fact that this man was not a threat.

"So ye bae a professor, eh?"

He grinned and waved a lofty hand toward the dwarf. What did seem to be a calm presence to the dwarf but be a little bit, different now. His eyes flashed red, though it may have been only for a second but he looked forward and chuckled slightly.

"Yes, I am a professor but this is not only a school for people to be educated, but to be trained. I can only guess by your stature that you can't move very fast and will be undeniably easy to take down considering the circumstances. You are unfamiliar with the these grounds, and this is my home. So please, I won't even use a weapon and you can have your axe."

He took off his coat and laid on his desk and he then murmured a few words, with no offensive tactics besides to move the desks against the wall so they had plentiful of room to fight. Vetiis moved on his legs forward, and had it slightly bend while the other was mostly bent. His hands were crossed in front of him, hands open and fingers together.

"Whenever you're ready, Sir."

"But the headmaster's Yue Ashita, isn't it?" Luthier blinked. He could imagine his father being ALMOST anything, but having a suit job wasn't included in that almost.

His jaw slacked as he took in the scene unfolding around him. Would there be a fight right now, here?

Gilrim simply lowered his axe and extended his hand in peace.

"Ah dinnae wish te foight ye lad. Truth bae told ah'm a bit confused 'ere. Mah name is Gilrim Ironshatter, Thane o' tha Baewar clan and Lord Warcouncillor under tha Mount'n. Mayhaps ye cin explain tha' portal ah came through?"

"He absolutely is. If I am not mistaken, I think I remember Ashita being part of your father's alias. Luthier, you have no idea what your father has done do you?"

Vetiis thought his actions over. He was wearing a suit, and he was infront of a student. This was completely unprofessional of him and he was regretting his actions now and then closed his eyes and shook his head. He grabbed his coat and shook his head and then noticed the outstretched hand. He nodded and shook the man's hand. From this, the Dwarf may know that the strength of Vetiis was not human and a possible surge or reaction within him might sense that he might be from 'evil' blood or 'good' blood. One could not really tell if first sensing this feeling.

"Pleasure to meet you Gilrim. Most portals look different, and then a lot look the very same so it's always hard to tell where they came from, and why. Do you remember anything from where you came from, anything stick in your mind of how you got sucked into that portal. Seeing how you reacted when you came out, you weren't exactly expecting it. Also you didn't catch your landing so it gives me the impression that you didn't make the portal either."

Luthier sighed as his adrenaline peaked and then fell.

"It never really occurred to me. I only see Dad as the guy that taught me everything. He'd leave sometimes, and I just figured he was testing me. You know. Didn't ever actually think that he was doing stuff with that time."

He shook his head.

"Learn somethin' new every day, I guess."

Gilrim simply nods. He doesn't sense anything strange about Vetiis, as magic was more the work of dark dwarfs. Gilrim was a pureblooded mountain dwarf, and had little use for magic. he had been trained from birth purely to fight.

"Ah come from Thaxanos under tha Mountain. En the Land o' Algoron. Mah kinfolk foight as ah speak te ye, and ah need ta bae there ta lead em! Ah need te git back. The mage Azrengr made the portal and it sucked mae in, when mah axe tasted 'is flesh. 'e thought 'imself immune ta weapons. Et stirred 'im up a good bit!"

Despite his dark explanation, Gilrim laughed loudly at the though of his axe biting into the mage, and the look on his twisted face as he realized the magic of his axe.

Luthier had a thought.

"Maybe, Gilrim, if we get you to the other dwarves in this realm, we can figure out if they know anything about travel back to your realm. If not, at least you're among friends, right?"

Gilrim turned to Luthier. At least this young man knew about dwarves.

"Wot do ye know o' these dwarves? Who bae thar King? Wot clan bae thae? 'ow far away? 'Ow manae strong?"

He shrugged.

"I have no idea, but we should go find out, right?"

He grinned. There was a vacation in the works, and he had been planning towards it.

"Let's leave now, before the Professor can keep us any longer."

Gilrim narrowed his eyes and tugged his beard a bit in thought.

"Ye know 'ow ter foight lad? Ah cinnae be savin' yer arse left n' roight if'n we foind trouble."

He chuckled.
"If ya need a demonstration, I'll show you one."
He concentrated his ki, and his hands started to glow with a blue light. The air started to hum lightly around him, and his sword started to absorb the light slowly.

Running down the hallway Blake pulled out the crumpled piece of paper he had a question on from his pocket.
"YO!!! MR. ZEPHIEL!!! I forgot to ask you about-" Stopping midsentence at the shight before him Blake lowered his hand with the paper and eyed each person in the room. The profesor, one of his friends, showing off his powers again, and a...dwarf? What?!
"Uhhhhhhh, what did I miss?"

Gilrim spun around at the newcomer. Once again raising his axe. But this time he made no threats. He instead turned to Luthier, quite ignoring his 'display' (dwarves never cared much for magic powers).

"This another one o' ye mates? Or should ah kill et?"

"Holy shit, Blake!"

Luthier jumped, looking across at his classmate.

"Dude, don't scare me like that." The glow subsided, his concentration on his momentum shattered, and he looked suddenly across to Gilrim.

"No, he's fine. As a matter of fact..."

He grinned.

"Blake! Save your talk for later! We're off on a field trip!"

Throwing a hand out for the other boy's arm, he started walking. Hopefully, he'd drag him along behind.

"Come on, bramble-beard," he looked at the dwarf, "or else the Professor's gonna have an aneurism trying to keep us all in check."

Gilrim narrowed his eyes a bit. Was the boy insulting him? Or did he really think his name was bramblebeard? He knew a fellow named that once.

In any case, he figured he'd ignore it for the time being and simply shrugged. He hefted his gigantic axe over his shoulder, and followed after the boys. His various armor pieces of plate and chain clinking together as he walked.

Luthier strode down the hall quickly, assuming Blake was still in tow.

"Just this left, and then out the doors, and we're home free..."

He was speaking to himself, but he could hardly hold in the excitement.

Gilrim trotted along behind the boys.

"So, 'ow far a journey we got anyway lad?"

"I wanna say it's about fifty miles, so it's gonna be a couple days, unless we can score a ride with someone passing by. I don't think roads go out here, though, so it's probably gonna be tough."

He grinned.

"What's the worst that could happen, though, really?"

"A ride ye say? Are 'orses common among these lands? We dinnae keep manae in the Mountain. Too manae broken legs."

Deep inside, Gilrim shuddered at the thought of having to follow this boy fifty miles on foot. Dwarves could run for very long distances, but at less of a speed than humans, except of course if they were enraged.

"So, I'm all up for adventure and what not...but can you please tell me why you were showing off, why is there a dwarf here and where are we going?!" Blake yells at Luthier.
"And if we are going to travel that far shouldn't get some....things first?"

"And dude, Dwarf, don't worry about it. I stole the key to the stables yesterday. I was going to use it to get a horse and take Marion out but we can use them for this. But you'll only get it if you'll wait for me to get some things."

Gilrim looked to the new boy he had just met. He then spun around and extended his axe out with the flat side facing Luthier in an attempt to stop him in his rushing tracks.

"We need these provisions, lad"

"You know, I hadn't thought about horses. This could be a strange concept to you, but have you ever heard of steam carts?"

He looked at Gilrim thoughtfully.

"And yeah, food might be helpful, though I can always just hunt outside."

Thanks, Dad. He grinned.

Gilrim looked at Luthier very closesly, as if he might be sick in the head. Steam wasn't a solid object. How would someone hold it in a cart, or why for that matter?

"Yer brain goin' soft on me too lad?" he asked.

Smirking and luaghing at his victory Blake looks at the Dwarf. "I'll be back in 10 minutes with stuff and the horses. Just, stay here."
Taking a few steps away Blake stops in his tracks and turns back to the Dwarf shouting, "Can you ride ur own? Like, do you need...a small horse or anything?" Trying to put it as delicately as he could he looked expectantly at the Dwarf wondering if he'll get upset.
Turning to his friend with a look of horror Blake says "dude..."