"The Dwarf is a beast, cursed by God. The Mountain Dwarf is a race of beast even below any other, they are the lowest animals, kill on sight"

- Extract from The Book of Travels of Gullvert The Wonderer.

Siegfried Stormbound Walked down the great hall of the Highland Clan. in the middle of the room a large table was being set for the upcoming feast.

He whistled and sang with each step catching the attention of the women preparing the celebration, some of the younger ones blushed as he looked at them, only to walk away quickly, Siegfried was a known Womanizer, He stopped singing to released an evil laugh loudly and chased after a few of them playfully who yelped as asking for help while running away from him. He laughed again and kept walking to where his father was seated.

"The maiden Walks, so does The Wolf, they stare, they watch, they both belong, in a mans heart." He continued the song by whistling a tune, emphasizing each word with a different note.

Siegfried was a young man, Broad shoulders covered in thick wavy blonde hair. He was what females considered handsome, he had a good facial structure and a wide and pronounced jawline, dressed in his armor and with a sword on his hip he approached a man that was sitting on a big wooden chair with carved out beast heads decorating it. The man looked like an aged version of Siegfried, lines on his face and gray hairs on his beard showed the tool time had taken on his father's image.

"As always you come in to my halls and make a big fuss about it" the man said in an annoyed tone.

"You know me well father" Siegfried exclaimed with a smile before snatching a pice of fruit from a basket that a woman was carrying to the table next to him

"I'm done with your games. This was the last time i will alow it. After the feast, Tomorrow you will chose a wife from the women that you had bedded so far. Your mother though it appropriate to grant you a log cabin against my council. You will reside in the northern part of the village. as far away from here as i can..." Before the man could finish Siegfried interrupted him

"No" the single word resonated along the hall, everyone stopped working and looked at the man standing in front of the Patriarch of the Clan

"Then you will be choosing Exile" The older man said calmly.

"So be it" Siegfried turned around and started walking away, a small smile appeared in his fathers lips but he could not see it.

Siegfried had expected this encounter to turn out this way. it was not a surprise that his father despised him. He picked up the Rust sack he had left near the entrance of the Great Hall and put it on after he covered himself with a thick fur coat. The giant doors that where at the entrance of the Hall opened with a loud sound and he was hit in the face with wind and snow, the storm had picked up once again and even though they still had many hours of light the sky was of a dark gray color.

He ignored the people on the streets and walked down the main road, heading out from the Highland Clan once and for all.

Siegfried opened his eyes, it was Dawn, and the first lights where starting to creep out in the sky, he got up and feed the fire that had died down in front of him. As he sat and warmed himself up he though about why he was dreaming about the time when he was driven away from his birthplace.

Shortly after he picked up his sleeping sack and rolled it neatly before tying it down under his old but trusty travel backpack. He took a few seconds to appreciate the beauty of the nature of the South before getting back on his trail.

The footprints where still fresh even after his power nap, he's been hired to hunt down a group of deserters that ran away from the front lines, a small company of around a dozen privates leaded by a combat mage that had enough of the war. If it was just a group of privates deserting he doubted that The Kingdom of Veggrfields would have given a shit about it, it happened all the time, they would just put a bounty on the solder's heads and be done with it. but Battle Mages where a rare commodity and they where kept under a short leash to safeguard the secrets of the mage guilds. This he concluded was the reason they reached out to him so quickly and sent him this way, with one objective, kill the mage and the soldiers since the guilds did not knew if he had revealed anything to the others. Better be sure than sorry.

Siegfried did not liked walking around the woods, it was savage territory, and Things like Orcs did not treated their captives in an humane way. Other creatures lurked the undisturbed nature, things that even he did not wanted to encounter.

He never been This deep in to the Wild, he though as he trailed quickly after the tracks left by the soldiers. He's been walking under the cover of trees for almost a week, he gained a lot of distance on the deserters the past few days but he still guessed they where a day ahead of him. maybe if he pushed it he could find them and kill them all by tomorrow. And be back in the capital by next month. The fat sack of gold he would claim with this job will be enough to pay for the brothels and bars for the next 3 months even if he went wild throwing coin left and right since this was a job for a small group of bounty hunters, but none where available at the moment, the ones that where refused the job since not many accept to do Mages especially one from the Arkius Guild. Siegfried did not cared for Mages, and since he was alone the Kingdom has promised him a fat bonus if he completed the job.

His mouth watered anticipating the taste of sweet wine and beautiful women.

His large frame ducked under a small tree branch as he continued to jog lightly still paying attention to his surroundings, Overconfidence was the greatest killer of them all, and he was not planing to die yet.