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[hr][right][color=0A638A][b] The Shady Tavern[/b]
[sub]The Night Before[/sub][/color][/right][hr]
[indent]Oben returned from his latest venture in the dungeons exhausted and battered. Monster blood hung on his armor and a nasty gash to the side of his head slicked his right side with the warm liquid. The shoddy cabin that was his home and Tyche's poorly maintained residence was quiet. The moon overhead sweetened the silence as Oben stepped over sleeping forms, making the isolation he was currently enduring numb. With mute steps he headed up the stairs and paused at his door. He sighed, wishing that he had made it back sooner so that Tyche could have wished him sweet dreams. Whenever she didn't he always dreamed of those bloody figures on the ground. Tyche's Tavern, though larger, reminded him too much of his first waking. 

It was unfortunate that her door was tightly shut.

He twisted the brass knob to his door and pushing it open. Sitting on his poorly made bed, bathe in a pillar of silver, was Tyche. She was nodded between sleep, holding a cream envelope in her loose grasp. Oben smiled faintly even while curiosity had begun to knock on the back of his mind. He strode over and gently shook her shoulder. She roused awake, her sunburnt eyes aglow in the dimly lit room. [color=orange][b]"Oben,"[/b][/color] she muttered through sleep. 

[color=0A638A][b]"Sorry, Goddess. I didn't mean to make you lose sleep."[/b][/color] He smiled, his mask barely hiding it. 

Tyche rubbed her eyes and begun to move in place. The letter in her hand flagged about as she did. [color=orange][b]"Of course not. How could you have known I would wait."[/b][/color] 

Lightly, Oben touched the letter. [color=0A638A][b]"What's this?"[/b][/color] 

[color=orange][b]"Oh, this..."[/b][/color] A hesitance tinted her words as she explained about the invitation and downplayed the rarity of an invite to Little Valhalla. Then she squinted at him and a realization seemed to hit her hard. [color=orange][b]"Wh-What happened to you!?"[/b][/color] she uttered. [color=orange][b]"You're bloodied from head to toe."[/b][/color]

Oben titled his head a little and chuckled. [color=0A638A][b]"Nothing really. I got a little reckless is all."[/b][/color]

Something about his tone must've bothered her greatly. She sat back stonily and begun to pull gently at her hair. [color=orange][b]"Mask off,"[/b][/color] she demanded. 

Oben frowned and the atmosphere grew heavy. Slowly he removed the skull shaped mask and the facade of his voice fell away to the heaviness of his solemn eyes. [color=orange][b]"Come here. You've really done it this time."[/b][/color] Oben sat down beside her and one of their rare moments suffused into the air. His pain had begun to fall to the wayside as he laid his head on her shoulder. Her slender hand reaching up carelessly to rub the side of his skull. 

[color=0A638A][b]"I took on more than I could handle alone. Escaping was all I could do."[/b][/color] 

Tyche shushed him. [color=orange][b]"You have a big day ahead of you tomorrow. Find comfort in your Goddess and rest. Tomorrow I'll give you a super-duper-rare concoction, a very precious item that I won't have anymore so you better be thankful."[/b][/color] Her voice was gentle, like a god-born wind rocking a infant's cradle, a miracle just for him. 

Oben felt sleep taking him, like magic, so with his final words till sunrise he said, [color=0A638A][b]"Thank you, Goddess."[/b][/color]
[hr][right][color=0A638A][b]Little Valhalla[/b]
[sub]Present[/sub][/color][/right][hr]

Before he had left the tavern for Little Valhalla, Tyche had given him the healing liquid and reminded him to smile through the pain. It was hard to hide his 'truth' when his eyes were visible so he fixed his obsidian mask on and nodded. Now that he stood in the great structure that was Little Valhalla, he wondered with renewed interest just what Odin could want with him. He marveled at the grand area, mentally stretched thin by the gravity of Odin's wealth. Dahlia soon begun to speak. His hand laid comfortably on the hilt of his nodachi as he took it all in. 

[color=0A638A][b]"Well that's really great and I'm honored to have been chosen. But I have one more question,"[/b][/color] he announced, finger slowly pointing towards Kori suddenly. [color=0A638A][b]"It's really cool that you have animal ears, is it magic?"[/b][/color] he asked, reaching up slowly to touch them.[/indent]