(Sorry for the long delay!)<br/><br/>Marush was not an happy orc. He was the shaman of his tribe from the frozen north, an important man, and now he was locked up in this dank dungeon in southlands. It was a set-up, of course, since the humans didn't mind his kind living in their cities. He had been walking the streets in peace when suddenly a group of city guards had surrounded him, and arrested him for drinking and causing disorder. As he was being chained up he had noticed a pair of well-dressed elves staring intently at him across the street, then riding away in a carriage that bore the Imperial seal. Not a coincidence, he had decided.<br/><br/>He had no time to waste away in this cell. He was an a quest to find the Orb of Sun which had been stolen from its rightful place atop the God-Mountain. Without it the summer would never come, and his tribe would surely perish in the endless winter. He needed to take action.<br/><br/>His cell was more of a small cave, with iron bars barring the entryway and filthy straw strewn on the floor. The guards were cruel but professional, and no amount of bribing or cajoling would make them release him. He would have to call for entirely different kind of friends for help. Even the city, so far from the nature, had its own spirits after all.<br/><br/>He looked around that no-one was watching him, and then kneeled right next to the iron bars. He started singing the origin of iron, detailing how it had first fallen down to the earth when the God-Father had rode across the sky, then brought up from the swamps and lakes by the Tribe-Mother and her daughters, and given to the Smith-God to be made into tools of peace and war. He chanted with a low, droning voice the words of greeting and the words of awakening in the Old Tongue, whispering them again and again until the spirit of Iron woke up.<br/><br/>A small, grey lizard with a hide mottled with rust-colored specks rose from the iron bars and hopped on his hand. It licked its steel-colored tongue and stared at him with its big, unblinking eyes.<br/><br/>'Brother Iron, do me a favor and bend your tail for me.', Marush pleaded, 'Lift your leg, turn aside your head and let me pass!' The small lizard seemed to listen for a while, then hopped off and run to the bars. As it touched them the bars started sagging, warping their form and created a big hole in the middle. The lizard looked back once, then melded back to the bars.<br/><br/>Marush didn't waste time but struggled between the bars. He noticed a ring of keys hanging from the wall, and started opening the cage doors to create diversion. All the shouting and pleading from the locked prisoner made terrible noise, and turning corner he was confronted by an armed guard. The guard didn't even give him a chance to surrender, but raised his cudgel to cave his head in.<br/><br/>Suddenly, the guard fell down, struck behind by a dangerous looking elf.<br/>'Well, you're the first helpful long-ear in this city I've met!' bellowed Marush.