AN: This chapter made me realize that writing long dialogue in a dwarven accent makes the story almost unreadable. From now on I will use normal English and just inform readers that someone is speaking with an accent.

Chapter 12

It was a rare day when the sun could be seen over Stormwind's dwarven district. The countless forges and mechanical shops always made the air so thick with dust that it felt like a permanent fog had claimed the industrious streets.

For Jithu and Eldum, these were the smells and sounds of home. Only Osbeorn was protesting against the assault to his sharp senses with quiet, dissatisfied grumbles.

"I know, I know. You don't like it. We won't be here for too long." Eldum patted the massive bear on his back.

"Do you have a specific shop in mind?" Jithu asked as they walked through gunsmith street.

"No, I just want to find a good and reliable weapon that will serve me well until I can get an upgrade. We can start with this one." Eldum pointed at the nearest one, quickly adding. "And keep your hands to yourself."

"Relax, I'm not robbing anyone today. With a fat stack of coins, I don't need to." Jithu cheerfully replied.

They entered a small shop with rows of various guns. A rather fat dwarven shopkeeper was sitting behind a counter and tinkering with a gun, constantly fixing his glasses. Hearing the door open, he looked up. "How can I help you today?"

"I'm looking for a fast reload gun in the fifty to seventy silver price range." Eldum said, eyeing the guns that likely fit his requirements.

The shopkeeper stood up with a wheeze.

Slowly walking around the counter, he grabbed one of the guns from the wall. "This one is sixty-five silver. Very fast recovery time and comes with a medium precision scope. Additionally, the handle is enchanted to increase the agility of the wielder." He explained while handing the gun to Eldum.

Eldum picked up the gun, instantly paying attention to weight distribution. He lifted it over his head with one arm, then aimed with it, looking through the scope.

"This is a nice gun, I'll take it." Eldum said, putting the gun down on the counter, "And give me three thousand bullets."

"That'll be ninety-five silver, lad."

After paying for Eldum's new weapon they went to a small plaza where gnome merchants were selling various blueprints and engineering parts.

Jithu pretty much went through the blueprints with the same levels of energy as a sugared-up kid in a candy shop.

"I need this and this and... uuh, this one is perfect." More and more scrolls were tossed up in Eldum's arms as the overly enthusiastic gnome grabbed whatever new crazy invention catched her attention.

"Lass, isn't this enough?" Eldum asked after about fifteen minutes. So many blueprints were in his hands that some fell to the ground.

"I have money for a few more. Just sit down and I'll be back in a jiffy." Jithu dismissed the dwarf's concerns.

After another lap through the engineering stalls, she mercifully stopped her rampage and put all the blueprints into her book.

With shopping in the dwarven district done, Eldum led Osbeorn and Jithu towards the miners union headquarters, where his old acquaintance Wilder Thistlenettle worked.

The older dwarf with already graying hair and beard turned out not to be in a festive mood. Although he greeted Eldum with a firm slap on the shoulder and a wide smile, his demeanor changed to a somber one right away.

"What's with you?" Eldum couldn't help but ask.

"Ah, where to even begin? My brother's crew and I were working in the Moonbrook mine for the last couple of months. Then those defias thugs showed up. Picked a fight with us and caused a large cave-in. I and a few others got away with small injuries. My brother and most of his crew weren't so lucky." The dwarf told his tale, shaking in anger.

"Sorry for your loss." Eldum said with Osbeorn voicing his condolences as well.

"Those damn thugs…! I hope they all get a cave-in on their heads. If only those caves were not full with them, I could go dig up at least their miner cards." The older dwarf said, waving his hand. "But enough about me, how have you been?"

"Me? I'm doing fine. My adventurer career is picking up. Even got me a good crew."

"That's good to hear. Say, maybe you can help me get those cards so I have at least something to bring to their families?" Wilder asked. "I'll pay of course."

"I'll speak to my team first but I think we could do it." Eldum replied.

"Crawling around a mine is not a job I would like, but I'm all for killing some defias scum." Jithu chipped in. As serious as the talk between the two dwarves was, their thick accents were harder and harder to understand.

With a potential quest in their hands, the trio walked toward the old town to reunite with Corben and Lonaraa in the Inn.

There was one last stop they took on the way there. Jithu needed to resupply ingredients for her poisons and smoke bombs.

The Inn itself was a rather cozy one despite being in a bad part of the city. There were a few loud drunks even in the early afternoon but as long as no one was going around picking fights there was nothing to worry about.

With large mugs of ale for Jithu and Eldum and a bowl of moonberry juice for Osbeorn, they could finally kick back and wait for the rest of their team to show up.

‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›‹x›

It took only one glance around the selections in the Stormwind Auction House for Lonaraa's enthusiasm to dampen. Despite the huge selection of armor and weapons either put on manikins or just piled on racks in the massive basement, almost nothing was fitted for her kind.

She droopily watched as many patrons quickly found what they were looking for while others just browsed around without much of a hurry.

"Maybe you can pick something bigger and we can get it re-fitted. There, that one should be good enough." Corben pointed at a bronze chainmail set that looked to be one of the bigger sides.

"It still looks small. Why did I think I could find armor my size? The rest of the Alliance races are a lot smaller than draenei."

"But some of the Horde races aren't." Corben said and waved to get the auction house's employee's attention.

The man in black pants and vest with a white shirt underneath hurried over and asked with a professional smile. "Anything I can help with, sir?"

"Do you have an armor selection that is taken from Horde or just regular monsters like ogres?" Corben asked.

"Such items are mostly sold for materials, so the only demand comes from crafters. That is, if they are not enchanted with size adjustment. I would recommend checking the market on Lothar street for regular items or we do have an enchanted armor selection." The man said pointing at a row of what were clearly very expensive sets.

"Thank you." Corben said to the man, then addressed Lonaraa. "Let's go see if we can find something interesting in the market."

Lonaraa stared at the enchanted armors longingly for a few seconds and then said with a sigh. "I guess we can go."

"Don't be so droopy. One day you would be able to afford an enchanted mithril or thorium set. We are getting better every day and we'll be taking more lucrative jobs in no time." Corben tried to cheer her up.

"I know… but I wanted to get something nice and shiny with the reward money."

"We could look around the blacksmith shops then. It will likely be more expensive, but I'm sure we can find one that can make something fast."

"Let's go do that." Lonaraa expressed loudly with renewed enthusiasm, practically dragging Corben out of the auction house.

The first few places offered only very long waiting times as many people wanted custom-made armor. But after some walking around, they found a newly opened blacksmith's shop that seemed empty at a first glance.

"Come in, come in, the shop's open" A deep voice, with a similar accent to Lonaraa's, called from deeper within.

Unlike other more established shops, this one was still half empty. Only about half the manikins had armor on them, and most of the weapon racks were not displaying anything.

"Look, that one is about my size!" Lonaraa pointed at a copper chainmail.

Before they could inspect the armor more closely, an absolutely massive draenei man emerged from the back end of the shop. He was at least half a head taller than Lonaraa and about four times as wide. Dressed in the usual thick blacksmith's clothes with a half-plated apron, he greeted them with a wide smile. "Welcome. Please browse around."

'Huh, his tendrils, unlike Lonaraa's, grow from his chin." Corben noticed the physiological difference between his friend and the smith.

Lonaraa had two tendrils behind each ear and were about as thick as a finger. The man had three and each was about as thick as Corben's wrists, poking out of his long, already graying, black beard.

"Good day, sir. Do you have a bronze chainmail set of that size?" Lonaraa asked, pointing at the manikin with copper armor.

"I think I have one that will fit you perfectly at the back of the shop, friend." The draenei shopkeeper said and hurried to bring it over.

He returned with a rather simple but well-made bronze chainmail, long pants, and a shirt. Although a bit loose, they were just the things Lonaraa was looking for.

"How lucky that we found this place, I couldn't find anything suitable anywhere else," Lonaraa remarked as she counted the asking price of eighty silver.

"That's always the case at first when interacting with new races. Barely anyone, save for our own kind, steps into my shop." The shopkeep said, accepting the coins.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Lonaraa said and then added with a smile. "But I'm sure people will come around soon enough. Not everyone holds prejudice against our kind."

With kind wishes to be protected by the armor he made, Lonaraa and Corben walked toward the mage quarters that were near the trade district.

One final stop before leaving the busiest part of the city was the wine shop that had carried Corben through the school years. He bought a few bottles of the shop's specialty wine and even left a generous tip for his standards.

When Lonaraa inquired about his sudden generosity, Corben replied, reminiscing on the past. "I had used about a hundred different tricks to scam that place out of complimentary wine bottles, it was time to pay back a little."

"Oh, so you were a scoundrel before we met."

"Something like that. But one has to do what he has to do to get by. It's not like the crown sees anyone left behind." Corben said sombrely.

"How was it, growing up in this city?" Lonaraa asked as she inched her hand closer to his, quickly realizing that she would have to lean down to grab Corben's hand.

"I managed. The orphanage did provide food and shelter, at least for the most part. Come, I'll show you the places I hang around regularly." Corben said, glancing at her. Noticing what she intended to do and the subsequent dilemma she faced, he added. "You can hold onto my upper arm."

Lonaraa mumbled, "I wasn't going…" but quickly accepted Corben's suggestion, wrapping her hand around his arm.

"Relax. You can show initiative. It's not like we are pretending that we aren't interested in each other." 'It would help a lot to know draenei courting customs. She is so shy and reserved that I must be really careful.'

The grass-covered walkways of the mage quarters brought back many memories. "There is where a few friends and I were running from an elderly mage when a prank went wrong. And in that corner, I sold potions until guards caught me. Ooh, and there we buried one teacher's family heirloom after he gave us bad grades for no reason." Corben had a tale for every corner and side passage.

"Is there any part of the city where you didn't cause some sort of trouble?" Lonaraa giggled.

"I probably have few places left where I have yet to do some mischief. There is one." He pointed at a small passageway. "Only thing I did there was, have some fun under the moonlight with the girl I was seeing at the time."

"O-outside? B-but what if someone caught you?" She asked with a stammer.

"That only adds to the thrill. And that place is well hidden from the prying eyes." Corben smirked.

"Why am I even surprised? With your crude jokes, it's no surprise you would put a woman through something like that." She said with a scoff.

"It was the girl's idea."

"What?"

"Yup. I just went along with it. But don't worry, darlin, I'm in no rush so we can move things along at your pace."

Lonaraa smiled once again with her squeezing his arm a lot tighter.

Together they finally reached the Mage Academy, and to Corben's surprise, found a newly opened magical shop.

He did recognize the shopkeeper as one of the students that had graduated at the same time as him but didn't know the man that well so there wasn't any need to catch up.

He quickly picked up a few books about the magic he could afford and both set out to reach the inn before Eldum and Jithu.

But as it turns out, the rest of their team was already on the third mug with Jithu explaining some overly complicated and impractical gnome invention to Eldum, who listened to the gnome's rambling with eyes half open.

Osbeorn, meanwhile, was enjoying the tavern maid's attention being scratched behind his ears.

"You started without us!" Corben exclaimed, sitting down beside Jithu while Lonara sat down next to Eldum.

"There is a whole barrel with the stuff left," Jithu said with a hiccup and took another massive gulp. "We also got ourselves a job in Moonbrook."

"What sort of job?" Corben asked.

Eldum quickly retold his old acquaintance's tale and what sort of task they needed to perform to help the older dwarf.

"I guess we can go for it, but it's better to first get to the Westfall and see what is going on before we rush into a mine full of defias. Did your friend set any deadline?"

"No, but we should do it in a reasonable time frame." Eldum said with slightly slurred speech on top of an already thick accent.

"As long as he pays us for the trouble, we can take his quest. Anyone against?" Corben asked.

With no one protesting, he announced. "Then today we are drinking and tomorrow we set out for Westfall."

Proofreading by Sad_Smiles.

AN: Thank you for reading the story, and if you have caught up to the latest chapter, you can check out my other work or join my discord server (Link is in my profile) where additional chapters are available.