"Hey Rasor," Danidar whispered, while waving a hand in front of the half-orc's face. "Are you in there?"
"Huh?" Rasor grunted, as he blinked his eyes and evidently came back to reality.
"I said we had better go and follow Ophyllia, before she gets in trouble"
"Oh, OK," Rasor said, and the unlikely duo set out after the distant, yet shapely, figure of the Bard.

As they followed Ophyllia through the darkened streets of Bottomburn, Rasor's mind drifted back to the meeting. More specifically, his mind wandered back to Suzy's cookies. They were the best cookies that he had ever tasted in his entire life. She should really go into business and sell those, he thought. She could probably make a bundle. There was something else about the meeting that he couldn't remember though. Something to do with signing up for something or other, but the memory of those delicious cookies just seemed to overpower it. Oh well, he thought, I guess it's just not that important. Rasor was brought abruptly back to the present as he rounded a corner, and bowled over Danidar who had stopped suddenly.

There was a loud 'Ooof,' as the priest went sprawling, and Rasor grabbed at him, catching him by the cloak. Saved from bruising himself on the cobblestones of the road, the priest had a split second to be grateful for Rasor's grab, before he was choked by his cloak. 'Unghk,' he managed to gasp out, as his air supply was suddenly cut off.

Hearing the choking priest, Rasor decided that maybe grabbing him by the cloak wasn't such a good idea, and promptly let go. Back in the control of gravity, Danidar hit the street with a dull thumping sound. And as the priest gasped to regain his breath, Rasor saw the reason for Danidar's sudden halt. Standing in the dimly lit intersection ahead was a huge figure. Dressed in crude furs, the fifteen foot tall creature grasped huge clubs in each of its powerful hands. The weirdest thing about it was that it had two heads.

Having caught his breath to some extent, Danidar picked himself up from the ground, and wondered how much longer it would be before Rasor unintentionally managed to kill him. In fact, he probably would have been safer if he had stayed at the temple and been kidnapped. This train of thought was suddenly interrupted as Danidar remembered the giant creature not too far away. What in the name of V.E. is an ettin doing in the middle of Bottomburn, he wondered.

Shortly before Danidar and Rasor's untimely arrival, the ettin had been conversing with itself about the orders it had received earlier from some hip-looking Mod Boy.

"Hey Moose," said the first head.
"What Rocko," the other responded.
"Tell me what we sposed to do again."
"Well," Moose started,
"We is s'posed to . . .um . . .er. . . I thought yous was listenin'."
"Uh uh," Rocko shook his head. "you da smart one. I da pretty one."

Not sure if he was being mocked, Moose got right to the point.

"You mockin me, yous ugly mug?"
"Who you callin ugly, ya half-wit?"

Just as Moose was about to bash Rocko in the head, Rasor and the priest arrived on the scene. Smiling, Moose remembered that they were supposed to smash anyone that came this way after dark.

"I remember now Rocko, we is sposed ta squash us any little people dat come dis way, like dem," he said excitedly.

And nodded toward the pair. Smiling also, Rocko shouted

"Let's get em," and the ettin lumbered toward the new arrivals.

Yep, I'm definitely going to stay in the temple next time and be kidnapped, Danidar concluded as the ettin began its charge. The soft clanging of steel drew the priest's attention to his companion. His cloak opened, exposing an incredible array of weaponry, Rasor reached in and withdrew a stout looking double bladed axe.

Displaying a proud smile of ownership, Rasor looked over to the priest and explained

"This axe named Grizelda, after my mother."

Not really surprised that the half-orc would name weapons after his family members, Danidar glanced fearfully at the closing ettin and said,

"That's really nice that your mom is an old battle axe. Er, I mean that you named a battle axe after your mother. But what are we going to do about him?"

Looking back to the charging ettin, Rasor grinned evilly, sending shivers up Danidar's spine.

"I'll be back," he said with a strange accent.

Then launched himself toward the creature. The battle was short, but ferocious. The nearby residents of the street, hearing the gruesome sounds of complete and utter carnage, wisely decided that it was in their best interests to roll over and put their pillows over their heads, instead of seeing what was happening outside their homes.

"You can look now," Rasor grunted.

The priest uncovered his eyes. Once he took in the blood splattered half-orc, and the rather unsettling scene behind him, Danidar was tempted to cover his eyes again. But then he realized that Ophyllia was nowhere to be seen.

"Looks like we lost Ophyllia," Danidar said glumly.

Frowning as he remembered the Bard running off, Rasor asked

"What we do now?"

After mulling it over for a bit, the priest told Rasor that they should probably go back to Suzy's house, and inform the others of what had happened. Hopefully, Ophyllia would be able to make it back on her own. The half-orc quickly agreed, and they began to retrace their steps. As they walked, Danidar wondered why Rasor was smiling so much.

The half-orc cleaned and gently replaced Grizelda in her holder. Then all his thoughts were overpowered by visions of Suzy's wonderful cookies. Umm, cookies, he thought.