The Gate

"A lizard-man! Well bless my soul." a very short, very wide dwarf looked down on Han and his companions. The dwarf sat at ridiculously high bench, at least nine feet in the air. Han’s smile probably reached from ear to ear as he thought about how the dwarf probably had it custom-made, just so that he could look down on those coming through his small gate instead of the other way around.

After leaving the guard house Quentin had pushed them as fast as they could go to this gate. All of them where careful not to draw anymore unwanted attention as they went across sky bridges and traversed levels. They were already late as it was, and there was no telling when their caravan was supposed to leave. Now they were stuck at this gate as their papers were read, stamped and recorded. The air was thick with tension as the dwarf read each of their descriptions out loud.

"Now this I will just have to see." He pulled a lever and disappeared form view. Han heard Quentin give an audible groan at this, just as the dwarf reappeared a moment later, waddling towards them from the back of his tower, their papers in one hand and a pair of spectacles in the other. The dwarf was even shorter than he seemed when he was up on his towering bench. He waddled up, barely coming even with Valasar's belt line.

"Now look hear sonny, I can't very well see what you look like if you're hiding behind that mile of cloth you call a cloak, so if you would kindly remove it?" With that the dwarf perched the spectacles on the end of his nose and looked up expectantly at Valasar. Then for the second time that day Valasar’s cloak was removed. The scales that ringed the back of his head were standing straight up, making a copper halo over his head.

"Well now this is a surprise." the dwarf looked at his papers over his spectacles "copper, large and scaley, with a tail. Well I don’t know if anyone else can fit that description."

Tucking his papers under his arm he again looked up at Valasar and asked, "So have you eaten anyone’s heart?"

Han couldn’t help it, he started coughing. He could barely hear his brothers sharp intake of breath on his other side. Valasar looked down at the dwarf in stunned amazement, his frill now standing strait up, before answering.

"I am ashamed to say that there are many of my kind who practice those ways. Even my brood-siblings. But for myself I do not and never will."

"That I can honestly say is a relief. Well son, I’ve seen many a pale and shaking adventurer come back from your jungles. All of them looking for some foolish city or other of yours said to be made of gold. Now I don’t hold to those stories, but you don’t match any of the lizard men they told me about. Monsters the lot of them, with great claws and teeth, covered in scales as dark as night, or green like emeralds. A a frill, never forget the spiny frill, which rattles and shakes before an attack. But you have more of a halo thingy, and your coloring's all wrong for that, so you must be a different kind of monster. So tell me, where do you come from?"

"I come from a tribe that is separate from our cousins, much older. I cannot tell you where my people reside, for I am an outcast and have no claim to them. I was cast out for helping my friends even before I could call them friends. Even before I was rejected I was still an outcast for being different in my views." with each passing word Valasar’s fill came down until it was lying flat against his head once more. The familiar litany calmed his frazzled nerves, as he reached inside for calm and peace.

"Well this was a most... insightful conversation. And for that I thank you. I think I might be telling stories about you for a long time." A twinkle entered his eyes as he continued. "Although I might have to embellish it a little to make it interesting for the youngsters." He then turned his attention to the twins looking from one to the other and then back again. He kept checking his their papers, and every time he did the smile on his face kept getting wider.