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<br/>​</div>Marek knew better than to press for more information about Shadow, even though he was worried. She seemed... aggressive, and he would rather not be on the receiving end of any more of her barbed tongue. So he took what Elri said at face value and started to think about what he needed to do to get ready to depart.<br/><br/>The elf, Sybille, filled him in, as had Elri, about the guard positions they could sign up for. It seemed like an easy job, and they were going that way anyway. Marek readily agreed. His purse was low, with only a couple coppers, not enough for anything really, and Sybille was right - he needed the money.<br/><br/><div style="text-align: center"><b>----------</b>​</div><br/>The morning arrived, and Marek was meditating before doing some shadow-boxing, things he'd let slip the last few days, and he met Sybille and Shadow and Elri at the gates, as they had agreed. He was bright smiles, and his eyes lit up at seeing Shadow again, even if she growled at him.<br/><br/><b><span class="fixed-color" style="color:rgb(251, 160, 38)">"Good morning! I trust you all slept well. Let's get going!"</span></b>he intentionally left things where there was little to retort to, and once he'd met the one they'd volunteered to help; a dwarf by the name of<a class="link link--external" href="https://i.pinimg.com/564x/60/a4/1c/60a41c4631b45a6bf1ec51af7c15730e.jpg" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" target="_blank">Thurm Orcsmiter</a>(trader extraordinaire), they were ready to go.<br/><br/>They quickly discovered that they were transporting some ore from some of the dwarven mines, and it was really quite valuable. They kept the knowledge about it low-key, but it would be used at the Fort to forge weapons. The plan was to follow along the road going southward along the Shining River until they came to the Bloodsworn Vale, wherein they could stay on some of the trade routes. Thurm informed them that the going should be pretty routine.