I'm Sorry?

The shadow looming over Arlen extended a large hand, which he accepted and was essentially thrown onto his feet. Now with a clear view a ginormous man stood over him.

The man had to be 7 feet tall. Broad shoulders and pure muscle peaked out from the tan tattered shirt that somehow draped his massive frame, on the front it read the name of the bar with a visage of a man holding up the words. A medium length beard was braided on the sides and connected with his equally long mane of brown hair, as the giant man peered at Arlen with distant eyes his gaze quickly turned warm as he spotted the dwarf next to him, and a smile creeped through his facial hair.

"Pop Pop! Is that really you!? You never come to visit, how are you?"

The dwarf cringed slightly, and retorted, "I'm not your father, and I've got this kid I want you to meet."

Arlen's mouth didn't even recognize that he needed to introduce himself, he was still trying to formulate how a dwarf and human hybrid was so large, the man certainly had dwarven features, but all of them were significantly larger than an average dwarf, and now that warm smile that was aimed at the real dwarf was directed towards Arlen. Before he could get out of his thoughts he was lifted off the ground and into a tremendous bear hug.

"Of course! Any friend of pops is a friend of mine!" The giant loudly proclaimed directly into Arlen's ear, temporarily deafening him.

The dwarf kicked the giant in the shins and exclaimed, "I told you I'm not your father! Call me Mr. W. And listen, we need to talk, privately." The giant set Arlen down and peered quizzically at Mr. W, and gestured for them to follow.

The bar was a typical dive from the inward appearance, some circular tables were scattered aimlessly on a dirty wooden floor, the walls were lined with various pictures of dwarven art and what appeared to be newspaper clippings, the actual bar sat a couple patrons, some conscious others not so much.

"How many times have I told you to hire a maid to keep this shack clean?" Mr. W scolded.

"I've tried, I just haven't found one yet, is'all." The giant replied sheepishly. He led them into a room blocked off from the rest of the bar by a curtain, revealing a storeroom that, behind crates of booze had a little sitting area.

"Come, sit, my name is Gunk by the way, it's nice to meet you."

"Likewise; and my name's Arlen, Arlen Dove."

Gunk began gesturing to a chair he had pulled out, "We are both mix, and that makes us brothers, now pop what is the concern that we need to speak privately?"

"Kid tell him how you got here." Mr. W said gesturing to Arlen.

Arlen took several moments to begin speaking, he had always prepared himself that at some point he would be kicked out of the human world, looking as he does, so he has been mentally prepared for a long while and didn't feel too attached to it. But being sent to the dwarven realm instead of the elven realm, meating a supposed mix like himself, the dream with his supposed father, and whatever was going on between Gunk and Mr. W was becoming too much to comprehend.

Arlen stammered out, "I was handcuffed by a cop who threw a red ball on the ground, it created a portal which he pushed me into, and I ended up in a cave over on a cliff in that direction."

Mr. W gave a grave look to Gunk and began, "the only person I know of who can create portals like that is Tar."

Gunk gave a somber nod, and before he could say anything Arlen interjected, "There's something you're leaving me in the dark on, and I want to know what it is."

Gunk glanced at Mr. W for confirmation, and he nodded in return as Gunk began, "After the War of the 13 Races all the mixed children were originally just going to be killed, but Pop Pop, who was a decorated general, campaigned for us to be spared. The only condition being that the dwarves had to be the only ones to take care of them, and then the dwarves said that Pop Pop had to take care of us alone."

"Selfish bastards." Mr. W scoffed to himself

Gunk chuckled at his remark and began again, "There were only about 40 kids in total, but the real concern was that mixes tend to be abnormally powerful, typically combining the best of the two parent races. Apparently I got dwarven might and grit as well as my father being an abnormally tall human solider at the time of the war. I'm sure you've noticed strange things about yourself too. But not all races share similar traits, elves, humans, and dwarves survived the war for a reason, humans are the most intelligent and creative but lack in destructive strength and have no forms of magic, elves are wise and have access to natural and spiritual magic, and dwarves are realists with earth magic and might surpassing the other two. All the other races though, had strengths that allowed them to survive but didn't stack up to the other three, except for the dragons. The dragons had a variety of powers that varied depending on the dragon species, but they all shared thick scaly hides and destructive force. As I'm sure you're aware, one of the dragons tricked some of the other races to join forces to fight the other three and the war broke out but what you probably didn't know, is that one of the dragons fell in love with a human women, and had a child during the war."

"A dragon and a human? How is that possible?" Arlen questioned.

"Well as I said, dragons powers vary greatly, this dragon was what was once called a 'Dream-eater Dragon,' it could shapeshift and enter dreams. It fell in love with a human woman, and a child was born by the name of Tar Cinder. He wasn't happy with how the war turned out, and convinced all the other children to revolt together."

"Except for you." Mr. W interjected with a hint of pride.

"Yeah, I didn't like Tar very much, he's spiteful and manipulative, but also vastly intelligent, he created a way to make portals portable and used one to escape, but when he did he said he was gonna gather more mixed soldiers, and come back for revenge."

Mr. W turned in his chair to face Arlen, and questioned, "Tar must've been the cop who created the portal you came through, did he say anything to you?"

Arlen thought for a moment whether he should share the information about his supposed father's dream, and decided he might as well trust these people, "I had a dream where my father told me to find some dwarf named 'Tooth Wrangler,' and when the cop- or I guess Tar, picked me up he said I needed to find him, and then pushed me into the portal."

Mr. W looked surprised, and solemnly said, "I am Tooth Wrangler."