Chapter 4

'Dwarves!' Abel's eyes lit up as he spotted the dwarven convoy trundling through the grassy plains. He counted 102 male dwarves. A sizeable convoy. The wheels of their wagons left deep treads in the land where they passed and Abel felt confident that they were carrying a significant cache of weapons or minerals. 

The dwarves laughed and argued as they walked, even from a great distance away Abel could hear their crude humor and constant taunting. Dwarves on the continent were well-known for their shrewd business acumen and masterful forging skills. They dwelled in hollowed out mountains, building huge citadels and dealing in ore and weapons. As a non-human race dwarves had experienced more than their fair share of persecution. Despite having dwelled on the continent for thousands of years before humans arrived, they were still treated as foreigners. 

"Perhaps we could trade." Abel mumbled to himself.

He had seen plenty of human merchants travelling through the Temerian wildness. Upon sighting humans he would immediately change his flight path and detour widely around them. Abel didn't believe that every human on the continent held malicious intent towards non-humans, but he certainly wasn't willing to risk his life to investigate. It was far more sensible to approach other non-humans and see their willingness to trade. 

Abel got to his feet. The dwarves noisy march had woken him from a nap. He immediately evaluated his concealment. The eagle's nest he had been snoozing in was located in an utterly unreachable mountain peak nearly a mile from the edges of the grassy plain. Abel casually picked up one of the many skulls left behind by the former owner of the nest. It belonged to a rabbit, the flesh had been neatly picked from the bone. Abel felt a fondness for the skull and decided to keep it on a whim. 

'What a collection.' He mused. 

His current possessions were extremely unusual. In preparation for trading he had spent the last nearly two months gathering anything he thought might be valuable. He had found that abandoned nests were a particularly lucrative source of treasures. In the nest of a particularly nightmarish monster he had even spotted a strange bone accompanied by the mysterious golden text. Greed had nearly overcame him, but after watching the kikimore plunge it's claw into a bear's chest and rip out the still beating heart, he had swiftly decided to gracefully vacate the area.

It was unfortunate that the cursed beast was a master of camouflage in the swamp. Without descending from the skies and flying only a hundred or so meters from the ground he was unable to spot the beast to drop his homemade stone missiles on its ugly head. If he could see the beast then Abel felt quite sure that the kikimore would be able to spot him too. 

Abel's possessions currently amounted to several pieces of unknown colorful ore, a hundred or so Oren he had recovered from the wreckage of a caravan and a considerably worn-out axe. Plus a newly added rabbit skull. He carried these things in a homemade satchel. His workmanship was crude but the deer skin bag was durable and performed its purpose well enough. 

After nearly two months of living in the wilderness, Abel's clothes were in a terrible state. His trousers were so ragged that they barely covered his privates, most of the fabric hung down like tattered ribbons, trailing on the ground. His shirt had suffered a considerably worse fate and had been abandoned weeks ago. 

Abel looked himself up and down. His skin had been bronzed by the sun and his bare-chest showed off his strong pectoral muscles and broad torso. Nourished by the abundant food in the forest, his limbs had swelled to become thick and muscular. The muscles in his back in particular were almost herculean, precisely sculpted by the beating of his powerful wings. His eyebrows were dark and heavyset, accompanied by a strong nose and sharp jawline. His broad face was as masculine as could be. Combined with a thick beard and golden-yellow eyes he resembled some kind of savage avian warrior. 

"When did I become so frightening?" Abel said helplessly. 

The griffon's feather had given him powerful wings and the structure of his bones and muscles had changed considerably in order to bear the immense strain. Abel estimated that his strength had roughly doubled compared to his previous self. Alongside the physical mutations, the griffin's feather had also bestowed a noble and fierce temperament upon him. The griffin was an apex predator, its arrogance was limitless and it viewed itself as the king of the skies and land. This temperament was like a sharp blade that could not be hidden. 

Abel sighed and scratched his head, muttering to himself, "Smiling's meant to be contagious isn't it." 

Abel forced a smile. If a child had been present to witness it they likely would've screamed and ran away crying. When Abel smiled his lips opened to reveal dozens of razor sharp dagger like teeth, a long and forked tongue slipped out accidentally and he hurriedly rolled it back into his mouth. 

Lurking patiently in the abandoned eagle nest Abel watched the dwarven convoy progress. He wasn't foolish enough to appear without a plan, certainly not until he'd confirmed that they were of decent character. 

For the next few days he diligently followed the convoy. When the sky was dark and the clouds were thick he flew above the convoy and listened in on their conversations. It was fortunate that the dwarves were a mixture of old and young and many of them spoke in the common language. 

The leader of the convoy was an old and strocky dwarf named Kilard, he had a particularly impressive beard which he spent most of his time stroking lovingly. Kilard had lead his clansmen for hundreds of miles, transporting their freshly forged weapons to the Temerian capital to sell at high prices. He had done this multiple times before without incident. Of course this didn't mean to say that Kilard's convoy hadn't encountered robbers or beasts, the cracked skulls of dozens of wolves hung as trophies from every wagon. 

Abel delighted in listening to the conversations between the dwarves. They lived up to their race's reputation as a generous and honest folk, beneath the endless tirades of curses was a strong and warm brotherhood between every member of the convoy. No one was excluded and every dwarf had a duty that they proudly upheld. 

'Hello? Hi? Hiya?' Abel thought to himself. He was considerably nervous about making a good first impression on the dwarves. The opportunity for potential trade also weighed on his mind. He knew that the convoy had at least one magical artifact, an ornate green pendant that hung around Kilard's neck and gave him a faint sense of threat. He had seen the dwarf raise the pendant high during a sudden ambush by a group of drowners. A blinding green light burst forth from the pendant and coated everything around. Under the effect of the green light the dwarves were able to move freely, but the nekkerrs could only stand motionless as the dwarves clubbed them to death with their hammers. 

Abel was slightly disappointed to discover that manmade magical items were unable to activate the golden words, but he knew that not just anyone could hold onto a magical item. The green pendant was a clear sign of the dwarven convoy's powerful background. Even if they didn't have any monster remains to trade with him, it was likely that the powerful dwarf Kilard knew someone who did.

"Tomorrow." Abel said with a determined expression. 

There was no need to wait any longer. He had confirmed the good character of the dwarves and witnessed their fierce fighting strength. The presence of the magical green pendant further solidified his desire to acquaint himself with the dwarven convoy.