The group sat around a table downstairs in the tavern, and Lynda went to bring them some flagons of ale, and Nogryl stated,

  "So now you are ready to learn about our culture to integrate into the society." Not much later, Lynda returned with the ale, and the group clashed their drinks and started drinking, exchanging stories and teaching Nuula how to adapt.

  But as the time passed, each one of them grew more and more drunk, and when she noticed that they were well-intoxicated, she started asking questions:

  "So are we allowed to walk outside?" She questioned while holding a flagon of ale with both her hands and slowly drinking.

  "Of course we are! We can show you the town!“ Drunk Nogryl replied, and the party stood up and left the tavern. At the time, it was almost noon, and the streets were crowded with activity:

  the peasants carrying wheat and pushing the wheelbarrows, the woodcutters returning with the first batch of logs on their shoulders, the trader making his stubborn pack donkey move, and the baker carrying a sack of flour to make bread.

  "Henry! Stop walking like that, you'll fall!“ Alwin yelled in an intoxicated voice and placed his arm on Henry's shoulders, and both of them started laughing as they swayed and walked down the street while Nogryl and Nuula followed them.

  "They look like they are having a lot of fun,“ she said, and Nogryl replied,

  "Well, indeed they are; there is nothing better than freedom and some ale!“

  "Freedom...“ she thought as she looked at the people around her. Everyone could do as they pleased. Nuula still hated humanity, but she enjoyed the freedom of being able to go where ever she wanted, unbound to the depths of the underworld.

  "Perhaps you are right,“ she added;

  "Back when I lived with the others of my kin, I always wanted to see the outside world, so I'd often sneak out at night to watch the sky and listen to the wind and animals, but when they found out, they scolded me. It was unacceptable to leave the caves, because our existence was kept a secret for thousands of years, so I ran away and ever since lived with other outcasts, close to the Ur'glun tribe and their caverns, where we fought not long ago.“

  "So now that you have joined us, you have nowhere else to go; the gorugolm exiled you, and the ur'gluns consider you a traitor?“ Nogryl asked curiously.

  "Well, pretty much.“ The conversation was abruptly interrupted by Alwin yelling,

  "Hey look! Another tavern!“ as both he and Henry rushed inside.

  "We should follow them to make sure they do not do something stupid or put themselves in danger,“ Nogry stated before following them inside, and so did Nuula. However, this tavern was near a city gate, and it's exactly what she wanted.

  As they sat and drank, she watched through the window, observing the gate, how it functions, how the guards behave, and other important details.

  "Hey Nuula! Want another beer?“ Her thoughts were interrupted by Alwin as he called the waitress.

  "Sure.“ And so did the group drink another couple of rounds, and with each drink, they grew more and more drunk.

  "Why don't we draw the cards and roll the dice?“ Nogryl asked as he reached into his pocket for the dice.

  "Roll the dice?“ Nuula was clearly confused; the gorugolm did not play any sort of gambling game in the underworld. They all functioned like machines, all fighting for the same cause, training and forging together and sharing everything they owned—that is,

  all of them except the exiles that were simply no longer a part of the collective.

  "It's a phrase we use for a gambling game; we draw four cards and place one on the table with the face up, then we roll two dice, and the one with the sum of numbers on their cards in hand closest to the sum of numbers on the dice wins and keeps the bets." The knight explained.

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  "But what if we get the same number?“ Nuula asked in a slightly drunk voice.

  "Then we both decide which card from the opponent's hand we return to the deck, and if we run out of the cards in the hand, we draw again.

  "Right.“

  "So take this." The knight said as he rummaged through his pocket with his tipsy hands and pulled out five gold coins.

  "It's for your first bet." Alwin shuffled a deck of cards and placed it in the middle of the table, and the party started drawing the cards clockwise, each one taking one card each round, until all of them had four cards in their hand,

  and then they one by one placed the fourth card on the table, a card of their own choice.

  "You usually want to keep the smaller numbers, because you are left with three cards and the dice are two; that's at least how I play,Alwin added as he sipped the beer from the large wooden mug.

  "Three and Two of Flames, Six of Shields, and Ace of Swords,“ Nogryl thought and placed the six shields on the table face up. The rest of the party looked at their own decks and laid their respective cards on the table, after which Alwin rolled the dice.

  "Double Six!“ The rest of the group laid their cards flat on the table.

  "Four of Shields, Two of Swords, and Six of Flames—that's twelve“ Nuula said nonchalantly, and the rest of the party groaned, and Alwin pushed the small pile of coins towards her. And for the rest of the evening, the party drank and gambled, listened to the bard's song, and enjoyed their time in a tavern. A couple of hours later, the night was already dark and the tavern was closing.

  "W-what a day!“ Nogryl stated in a drunken voice as he left the tavern, and the whole group followed.

  "Yeshh!“ Henry replied and bumped into his shoulder.

  "What is this black magick? I can't walk straight!“ the gorugolm yelled and stumbled around while keeping her hand on the stone tavern wall to keep the course.

  "Let's walk together then!“ Alwin replied and placed his hand around Henry's and Nuula's shoulder, and soon the whole party was clinging to each other, stumbling and laughing at themselves as the nearby guards looked from the gatehouse with the judging looks and covered their faces with their palms.

  "The youth these days... Is that Nogryl? He should be on his duty now." But clueless of that, the party continued walking down the road towards the town center and the "Sleeping Boar“ Inn.

  "Are we going to sleep already?“ Henry asked, and Alwin quickly replied,

  "No! Not before the sunset!“ as he quickly turned the whole group the other way, but instead of resisting, they just laughed and stumbled together. After a brief walk, they left the city gates and walked down the road, not far away from the walls,

  to the clearing between the wall and the forest.

  "This place is cleared so that the archers have better visibility from the wall,“ Nogryl explained as he sat on the grassy field, and so did the rest of the party.

  "Well, at least the stars look amazing from here,“ Nuula replied and laid on her back, watching the stars.

  "I am sick of the war and warfare; all we did was practice, duel, fix our flaws, perfect ourselves, and repeat. Our only purpose was to turn ourselves into the killing machines and serve our master's ambition; I wish we could just live." She explained in a calm and slow voice

  As much as Nuula was angry at humanity for banishing her kind to the underworld, she felt the same hatred towards the ones that exiled her. But little did she know that the centuries of almost undisturbed peace are slowly coming to an end and that all the fights that she fought were just the beginning.