Finding out that Anna was pregnant was both a source of joy and worry for Peter but, having his hands tied, he still left [Rivacheg] the next day accompanied by Marek and 12 Knights.

By now Peter’s fluency in Kislevite was enough for the two to have a normal conversation and thanks to that, and the well-timed redeeming of an Icelandic Horse, they could ride to Ravens’ Roost Hold easily.

Naturally, Marek Vikramson was not an equestrian, standing 4ft 5inches the Norse Dwarves were slightly shorter than their southern brothers, and so riding horses was simply not something they did.

And due to this truth, when he heard from Peter that they would be riding back to his hold, Marek had become irritable.

That was until he saw the animal, which he at first looked doubtfully at, saying: “Aye’ye given me the runt o’the litter to ride? Thinkin’ I couldn’t handle’a full size mount?”

It was then, much to the dwarves evident surprise, that Peter said that the horse was full size, and then continued explained the Icelandic Horses to him.

Being a riding horse, the Icelandic breed stood between 4ft 3inches and 4ft 7 inches at their back. Bred to withstand cold winters, they could trot up and down snowy slopes and were stronger than their size would seem to indicate.

All of this was very novel to Marek, who looking at the steed more respectfully, asked exactly how much the animal could carry.

“About 250-300 pounds…” Peter answered, then explained that it would obviously depend on the specific animal.

The younger dwarves interest in the animal skyrocketed when he mounted up with the help of a simple step stool.

The dwarves had long arms but short legs, and that was why they were never good at riding anything besides battle boars – which itself mostly consisted of them holding on for dear life.

But the Icelandic horses’ back seemed to be just right, and with the average dwarf weighing between 175-200lbs, both Peter and Marek began thinking along the same lines.

The journey through the wilderness was fraught with unnatural sounds in the distance and predators ambushing them one after another, the calvary patrols could clear the grasslands and hills, but it made Peter think he could Recruit [Marksmen] to clean up the forests.

Marek used a simple hand axe and a shield, and Peter continued to use the two-handed Great Axe he had gotten from the system.

To the Dawi, axes may not be the only weapons, but they were the most favored, and so he was naturally partial to the Knights who all used the Bardiche – even though they couldn’t understand a word he was saying.

Reaching [Ravens’ Roost Hold] in just a couple days, it took several minutes of Marek shouting at the huge stone gate before it was opened.

Walking into the stronghold, with the Knights leading the horses by their reins, Peter saw things he didn’t expect to see.

Of course, he didn’t know what an actual-dwarven stronghold would look like, but seeing dirt roads and lines of wooden longhouses, wooden stalls, cloth-rooved shops, racks of meat hung up over exposed campfires, with sculptures of dwarves wearing horned helmets everywhere was not what he had in mind.

If Peter wanted to be rude, he would have told Marek that the stronghold looked like the most well-constructed yet shoddily designed town he had ever seen.

He was obviously too smart to say that out loud though he did comment that he thought Dwarves only worked with metal and stone.

“We shape plenty with those, but I’d say, we’d be foolish not to work with all what we have in these dangerous lands.”

With Peter’s senses it was almost impossible for anything to sneak up on him, but distracted as he was, he was surprised when he heard a familiar voice from afar.

“Aye’elder brudder! We’re just comin to find’ye!”

Jogging over to the slightly taller dwarf, Marek saluted before the 2 Dawi quickly embraced.

Pulling away, the two spoke some in the dwarven language before the elder started looked towards Peter, and seeing this, Peter greeted the leader: “It’s nice to see you in good health, Mr. Vikramson.”

Seeing his elder brothers confused at the title of ‘Mister’ – Marek quickly interjected saying it was a respectful title that the humans used.

“Is that so?” Haarkon asked, looking at Peter deeply and speaking in a low voice that sounded like rolling thunder.

Then, after an awkward moment, he suddenly burst out laughing with a ‘Harharhar’ and said: “No offense meant, so no grudge taken! But from now on Umgi…” Haarkon pointed a stubby finger “… I’ll have you only call me by my full name or my office, Rik!”

Upon hearing this, Marek was startled and bowed quickly, and his bow led to the entire precession of warriors following Haarkon to do the same.

Now, Peter himself didn’t have too many bottom lines when it came to people he considered ‘goodly’ but given that he was raised in a classless society, he would never kneel or bow to a living person in supplication.

He would salute, he would be respectful, and that would have to be enough.

Naturally, the Knights followed Peters lead.

And thankfully, the ‘Rik’ of Ravens’ Roost Hold didn’t expect the humans to bow or kneel, and after telling his younger brother to raise, he continued to talk with his Human guests.

Throughout the conversation, Haarkon was interchanging Dwarven words with those of Kislevite, and if not for Peters enhanced brain it would have been impossible for him to keep up.

Asking one question after another, one thing that Peter couldn’t fault the dwarves for was being tight lipped.

Of course, he was only asking mundane questions that meant very little, but he quickly gathered that ‘Rik’ meant ‘King’ and ‘Umgi’ meant either ‘Men’ or ‘Human’.

After standing there for quite some time, King Vikramson had a couple of his attendants show the Knights where to stable the horses, and then with a bellow announced a 3-day feast to welcome their new neighbors.

Grateful for the warm welcome, Peter did his best to be diplomatic, because, needless to say, the Dwarves would be invaluable allies.

That statement would probably always hold true, and Peter had already discussed his intentions with Professor Helsing and the other advisors, but it was especially true now, when there existed no industry in either Rivacheg or Mazen besides some crude forges for smithing.

Being a man from the middle of the Industrial Revolution, Professor Helsing had many ideas to jump start their own industrialization, but even the most optimistic projections put that between 5-10 years away.

Building an industrial society from the ground up was no small feat and simply couldn’t be done overnight, whether or not Peter could [Recruit] a prime-aged workforce.

Putting all of that aside, the feast was held in a series of longhouses – each specializing in their own food or drink, and at the head of each table there were seats assigned for King Vikramson, his Queen, and Peter.

Though he had fun, it had to be said that Peter thought these were the strangest dwarves he had ever heard of.

Wait, they were the strangest ‘Dwarfs’ he had ever heard of.

In one of the stranger discussions between he and Haarkon, the Dwarf King was insistent that Peter was saying their name wrong and spent the better part of an hour emphasizing the ‘dwarFS’.

Besides that, the Norse Dwarfs were absolutely mad lads.

Drinking from a seemingly never-ending spicket, Peter had drunk so many different types of ale that even his expertise of working at a modern brewery was challenged.

At least he didn’t have to worry about messing up and getting drunk, because much to his surprise, he didn’t seem to be able to!

With Dwarf Skalds playing a number of instruments, singing in their deep rocky language, with wrestling matches and tug-of-wars happening everywhere you looked, and bar-crawling from one longhouse to another, by the start of the final day of feasting Peter had almost forgot that he was in the presence of non-human intelligent fantasy people!

But naturally, that couldn’t last, and sitting in front of a stuffed fowls, King Vikramson spoke in a serious manner when he asked: “Tell me, Umgi. What gods do your people worship?”

Caught off guard by the question, Peter stumbled on how to answer, and so Haarkon spoke up again: “My youngest brother tells me you don’t worship either Ursun or Sigmar, and nor do you seem to follow the ruinous powers.

There’s no doubt that you hate the foul creatures of the land and sea as much as us Dwarfs! Harharhar!” but after laughing at that, Haarkon then spoke seriously again: “So tell me, who do your people worship?”

Of course, Peter was a Christian, but explaining Christianity to a person not from Earth, while not being on Earth, was naturally tricky.

After all, he couldn’t give the names of people, or locations, and have it mean anything to the inhabitants of this world.

And this was a matter delt with most seriously by Father Anderson.

While the new Catholic Church was still being developed, it was agreed on by the Priest and Professor that they could only use the teachings of Christian Mysticism.

In this way, they could offer the moral teachings of the Bible – while worshiping the same God – without having to justify the existence of locations that did not exist in this world.

Some prophets of the Bible were indeed indispensable for the altered faith, such as Abraham and others who received Divine Revelations, but the specifics of locations were all either removed or changed.

And while there was still work to do, specifically in the organization of the new Church, a new name had already been chosen.

It was chosen by Father Anderson, and readily agreed upon by the others.

So, answering the Dwarf King with a smile, Peter answered easily: “We follow the [Catheric Faith].

By revelation passed down to us from the prophets, we believe there is only 1 true God, the God which created everything, and any other being that claims to be a god or demands worship, is in fact, a Demon.”

Then, speaking dangerously, Peter continued: “And we believe that even communicating with those Demons is a grave Sin, there’s nothing good that can come from it.”

For the rest of the day, almost until the dinner feast, Haarkon asked one question after another but the so-called Catheric religion.

On Peters part, he didn’t take the Dwarfs questions as being sincerely interested in converting, but guessed the truth when he supposed that the Dwarf King wanted to understand his new neighbors so that he would know how to deal with them.

What Peter did not know though, due to his lack of knowledge about Dwarf society, was that he almost stepped on a landmine which could have created a forever-Grudge when the topic of the dwarfs ancestors came up.

“Respecting your ancestors is proper and is expected from any responsible person!” he had said, then continued: “No, we never forget the past, either the glories or defeats, but we believe that veneration is not the same as worship.”

This answer was enough for the Dwarf King to not take offense.

This was because Peter hadn’t denied that their Ancestor should be venerated, only that they shouldn’t be worshiped – but who knew what the Umgi meant by ‘worship’ anyway?

To the Dwarf King, the whole idea of an absolute God giving his creation ‘free will’ was nothing short of bizarre and made him think that maybe these Umgi were a little foolish to worship a greedy deity.

After all, it was natural for mortals to worship the gods in order to gain their favor, only then did they believe they could achieve great things.

And if that was the case, then what was the point in worshipping a god that made it a point to almost never intervene?!

It had to be known that the Norse Dwarfs were a strange lot, even stranger than the Dwarfs who lived with humans.

Had Peter had this same conversation with one of the more traditional Dawi in the south, a Grudge could have very well been created.

But, to the Norse Dwarf King, instead of seeing Peter as denigrating his own faith, he saw the light of finally having an ally in the chaotic north.

The Norse Dwarfs had been isolated for a long time, but that didn’t mean they knew nothing of their history.

Wasn’t it the Dawi who first civilized the barbaric Umgi – and by doing so gained an ally against the Green menace?

So, while Peter looked to the Dwarf King for something, naturally the Dwarf King looked for something as well.

And finally, just before the breaking of glass ceremony – which signified the end of the feast, a deal was struck.

“King Haarkon Vikramson of Ravens’ Roost Hold” Peter started, calling the Dwarf by his official title to get his full attention.

“You’ve treated me and my men very well over these last 3 days, and though I hesitate to ask for more, I did come here with a request in mind.”

Nodding like he knew this was coming, Haarkon put his goblet down and switching instantly into a business-like attitude said gruffly: “Go ahead then, what is it that you want from us?

And don’t be coy or try and hide terms, say clearly what are you offering to pay for it!”

“I’ll first say what I want…” then motioning his hands, a Knight brought over a stack of papers.

The papers were schematics for several finished manufactured goods that Professor Helsing knew they wouldn’t be able to make before winter.

Most important of the various designs was the Wood Stoves, which would be needed if they didn’t want to freeze.

Looking over the designs, the Dward instantly recognized their use and said in a rare non-disapproving voice: “For an Umgi these instruments aren’t half bad, I can even see why you’d want them.

But you haven’t mentioned payment…” then pausing, almost seeming to think, Haarkon’s expression hardened for some reason and said: “Now I won’t repeat myself again, don’t be coy and say what you plan to say.”

By now the entire longhouse was watching the two leaders, no doubt most of them spoke some amount of Kislevite and could understand.

Shrugging his shoulders, Peter wasn’t coy, and said plainly: “You know our situation, we have no gold or industry to produce linen or anything else.

We are hunting daily, but we need all the meat and leathers we can procure for ourselves.”

“Harharhar! You’re not making a very good deal then!” the Dwarf King laughed in a laugh that wasn’t a laugh.

After all, even if Norse Dwarfs were stranger than their southern brothers, no Dawi took making deals lightly and many many friendships had been ruined between the races because of it.

“I’m offering you the only thing that my people can offer.”

“Hm?”

“If you help us now, in our time of need, we will never forget it.

In the future, it could be a long time from now, it could be tomorrow, I don’t know when it will be… but if you help us now in our time of need, we will come to help you in your time of need.

That, King Haarkon Vikramson of Ravens’ Roost Hold, is the best deal I can offer you.”

Little did Peter know, that’s exactly what the Dwarf King wanted to hear, and smashing down his goblet, the breaking glass ceremony erupted everywhere, and he shouted with a voice that sounded like an avalanche.

“Very well, Umgi! This is our Oath and may you never be an Oathbreaker!!”