'Entering Marandriel. If you are a bard, you might walk AROUND this town.' a sign said. The young bard Jonathan, who had been walking for several days, nonchalant was reading this. He had been all alone and quite depressed, walking to a place he did not know anything about and being hungry. He had been kicked out of a castle he was staying and was not welcome to stay anywhere near for a while, so to survive he had to find some other town where he might get to earn food or a place to stay. The old man, his mentor, probably would not be able to find where he was, so he was as alone as he could be.
He did not feel like walking around the town now he finally found one, so he just walked on. He could always pretend not to be a bard, as long as he could eat.
He walked along towards something that looked as if you could buy some food there.
A large group was inside this place, making a lot of noise. To Jonathans' big surprise, an unlikely group was in there. A Gnome, a Dwarf, an Elf, two humans and one big Orc.
Jonathan now was really hungry and so he tried to ignore the unlikelihood of all of this and just stand in line. The big adventurers party was standing before him. Jonathan noticed the possibility to grab a plate and get your food at a buffet as you walk along. Jonathan saw some great looking potatoes coming up before him. He waited for the Orc, who emptied the plate completely, leaving Jonathan with nothing. Jonathan disappointed moved his attention to the next plate, some delicious looking slices of meat. Again the Orc finished all. Some plates later, Jonathans' hunger got the better of him. Before he had just enough common sense left not to insult a big Orc, but now the combination of his hunger and the empty plates got wrong.
"Excuse me..." Jonathan said.
The Orc furiously turned around and said: "YES???" with a real dangerous voice.
"Few, what a smell. Say, have you read about some good DIETS, lately?"
The Orc looked at him, not understanding.
"You might... well... NOT eat twice your weight... especially when you are THAT big."
The Orc looked not understanding at the Dwarf before him, who turned around to watch.
"He's insulting you," the Dwarf explained.
"GROWL!" the Orc yelled and threw his plate away.
Jonathan quickly moved for outside, but the Orc was quick to. In panic Jonathan realized that his hunger had driven him to do something very unwise and he looked for a place to hide. He ran towards a bar. The Orc was right behind him. Quickly Jonathan jumped on the stage.
"Hey, is that a bard?" someone in the room yelled. "We don't like bards here anymore, and..."
Jonathan saw the furious Orc looking around and some people around him running away in terror. The Orc ran towards his stage and he had nowhere to go, all was closed in with people. The Orc jumped for his and Jonathan quickly moved aside. After this he was making all sort of funny movements on stage to keep from physical contact with the Orc. The public looked quite surprised.
"This is amusing" they had to admit.
Jonathan saw the aspiration for success, so he started talking with the movements. He immediately realized he was much better hearable since the last time he was in a bar, thanks to the Elven princess who had trained his voice.

"Ladies and gentleman, here is the great Jonathan and his pet Orc again. As you can see we both can dance. Get me some music!" A man, sleeping behind a harp, woke up at the word 'music' and quickly began to play at the rhythm of their movements. The audience started clapping and having fun.
"We really have to change our policy against bards" people said.
Jonathan felt real proud about himself. He was a performer and it felt great! He saw the Orc getting all tangled up in his movements and all of a sudden he quickly jumped of the stage under a table. The Orc stood surprised, but the music was still playing and the audience yelled: "We want more! We want more!", so the Orc danced along for a bit.
Jonathan escaped out of the bar, feeling great. He had changed the opinion about bards in this town and that of Orcs even more so. "I am great," he said.
"So great you get kicked out of castles. So great I might have known to find you in the one place where they like bards the very least." It was the voice of the old man. He had found him!
"You seem to have lost sense of modesty," the old man continued, about Jonathan saying he is great. Jonathan looked at a way to excuse himself, after which he felt great pain and lost consciousness.
Later he woke up on a bed and saw the old man looking at him.
"You should know better than to mess with Orcs. If they didn't mistake me for Gandalf I would never have been able to get a room to aid you in."
Jonathan, with a great headache, said: "I was avoiding him quite successfully, until I got distracted."
The old man looked at him in a curious manner.
Jonathan and the old man where reunited, but something had changed.

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