Problematic

Gunk fell to his knees with a grunt as the bolt penetrated his skin. Reacting quickly he stabbed his hand into the ground and upheaved a chunk of earth to serve as cover as several more bolts ricocheted off the make shift shelter. Examining his knee carefully Gunk found that he still had relatively full mobility, so instead of removing the arrow and perpetuating the bleed he snapped the two sides off and left it in. As he did a rumble was heard from behind the earthen wall he had made as a loud clang bared down upon it, cracking it in half. In front of the duo was a stocky dwarf holding a massive sledgehammer, winding up for a second swing this time aimed at Gunk's head. He brought the hammer down only for Gunk to effortlessly catch it with his barehands, standing up to his fall height towering over the dwarf man he menacingly bellowed, "Why do you attack us?"

The dwarf was in awe, attempting to pry his hammer from Gunk's grip he relinquished it and pulled out a knife attempting to jab it into his tree trunk of a leg. He connected, but the knife scarily went an inch in Gunk's massive thigh as he flexed his leg muscles, snapping the cheap blade in two. This time in response he swung the man's relinquished sledgehammer at his feet, sweeping him off them and landing him square on his back.

"I ask again, why do you attack us?" Gunk repeated now properly standing over the dwarf who lay flat on the ground.

"Don't need a reason to attack Half'uns like you," the dwarf said with a scowl spitting onto Gunk's shoe, in response he grabbed his own diamond headed hammer and raised it high before bringing it down squarely on the man's head, caving it beneath his mighty swing.

Arlen recoiled in shock, he hadn't expected an execution so early into his adventure, the man's head lay a bloody mess of scarlet and skull fragments intermixed with grey matter. What surprised Arlen the most however was his own indifference. He expected some sort of astonishing effect upon himself seeing gore to this extreme but he was overwhelmed with his concern for Gunk's injuries, and the awe he held for his strength.

As Arlen prepared to speak another bolt flew past, narrowly missing Gunk's head as the two could hear someone scampering away further down the tunnel. Arlen prepared to dash after them but Gunk put out his hand, signaling to stay put.

"He's scared, he won't be back," Gunk said confidently.

"A-are you okay?"

Gunk grinned slightly as he tossed the now dead dwarfs sledgehammer to the side and sat down with his injured leg extended, "Brother this is nothing, I've had splinters worse than this!" Arlen could tell he was trying to lighten the mood but what was more pressing to him was Gunk's attempts to heal himself. Gunk's hands were massive and although powerful, not very delicate, his attempts to pull the bolts remaining shaft out ended up making the wound infinitely worse.

"Let me take it out," Arlen offered kneeling down by Gunk's knee.

"What about your hand?"

Arlen blinked for a moment and then remembered his injury, he didn't know if it was adrenaline from starting his new adventure but he had completely forgotten about it. He tried to move it and found no pain and full mobility, unwrapping the bandage revealed nothing, no swelling or a scar, his hand felt as good as new.

"Didn't Pop Pop say it would take a couple days? It's only been about six hours or so since we started walking," Gunk questioned

"Uh yeah I don't know, it feels fine."

"Probably cause you're half elf, those bandages are coated in Life Tree sap, seeing as it's part of your home world I guess it's more potent on you."

"Yeah I guess," Arlen replied slightly unsure. He didn't know what this Life Tree was exactly but he was thankful he had his hand back. He had always had long thin fingers and a steady hand, he used it on the streets to pickpocket often but now he was using them to gently guide a piece of wood out of his new found comrade's leg. Gunk hardly reacted to the bolts shaft being pulled from his leg, and when it was done he got the bandages ready and rapped himself up along with the knife wound higher up on his thigh. As the duo got back to there feet they continued trudging on, down the path at which the crossbowman retreated down, which had Arlen wondering about something, so he inquired, "Hey Gunk?"

"Yes brother?"

"Does the dwarven world not have guns?"

"What is a 'gun'?"

Arlen blinked a few times at Gunk as he tried to find the words to describe a firearm without any real knowledge of how a firearm functioned, only for a chuckle to crack through Gunk's demeanor, "I'm just kidding brother I know what a gun is, but your face was very funny just now!"

"Oh okay, so do you have those here?"

"Hmm I don't think so, see dwarves don't fight against each other very often, I think because we live in such a dangerous environment we've never really had time to develop weapons to fight against one another. All our weapons are blunt like hammers and some war picks that we use to fight the tough creatures who live here. Although I'm sure there are some in the city brought from the human world."

"So then why did that guy have a crossbow?"

"I don't know, crossbows were made by humans after witnessing elven archery, maybe he's just a fan of them?"

"Is elven archery not just regular archery?"

"Some elves aren't particularly good at nature magic so they use bows, their aim is incredible and some even use the wind to guide or accelerate their arrows, it's very impressive to watch."

"Oh you've seen it?"

Gunk's face turned downward slightly as sadness rolled over his features, "I had a brother who was half elf half yeti, he was taught some elf archery and used snow magic to make it even better."

Arlen sensed the broaching of a sensitive memory and decided to shift the subject, "So most of the elves use nature magic?"

"Oh yes, not just wind like you do but all elf families have a spirit animal they can summon upon. Although some can't control them all to well," Gunk froze in place for a moment and looked at Arlen, "What was your last name again?"

"Dove?"

"So you should be able to summon a dove since you belong to the Dove family. I don't know how though that Ivan Croc guy will probably be able to tell you."

"Hmm interesting." Arlen began to wonder if Tar knew more about this, if he could help with summoning this dove he apparently had control over. It seemed to him that the wind magic and earth magic him and Gunk both used were similar in principal, but didn't have a clue how to summon a dove, Arlen realized thinking about this that he's never even seen a dove before. Arlen caught himself in his own thinking, why did he keep wanting to go to Tar for answers? He'd be meeting Ivan and getting his tutelage and his father was presumably in the elven realm and could also teach him. He vowed that if Tar showed up again he'd tell him to screw off.

"Let's rest here for the night brother, it's getting dark," Gunk said putting his backpack up against the cliff face wall as a makeshift pillow. Arlen did the same, and as he lay staring at the shimmering crystals overhead, he drifted into a dream.