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.Not yet.I am not afraid of the magelord s anger, not like this one."Norimgic snarled, showing off his big yellow fangs."You are afraid of Archlis," said Osteroric to Norimgic, apparentlyi not too impressed by the display."Or you would have eaten him when he made us leave Lorie behind.Lorie was Norimgic s friend, his particular female friend.But something ate her," he explained to Sanval."Where was Lorie eaten?" asked Sanval, although he thought he knew."When we first came into these tunnels, something that we could not see bit off her head and an arm.It was very sad," said Osteroric, "because she was Norimgic's first love.This is the problem of being with a fighting female—they get killed so often.Of course, all our females fight.Which means that we males are often heartbroken.Our lives are tragic."Sanval had never contemplated the romantic disasters of bugbears and decided after a few moments of reflection that he would rather not learn more.Still, he could understand the problem presented by fighting females and offered his own observations, made over the last few turbulent days of his life."Fighting females," he said, keeping his voice down and hoping Ivy would not overhear him, "can be a very plague upon the heart, making dreams troubled and honorable thoughts difficult.""You are poet, like us." Osteroric thumped Sanval on the shoulder, a friendly thump not much more staggering that the recent pats that he had received from Zuzzara."We three brothers (Norimgic is my younger brother, and poor Hackermic was my elder) are all poets.That is why we left our tribe to roam the world.Because in our pack, they did not like poets.Especially after Hackermic broke the chiePs jaw when he criticized Hackermic's five-lined verses with the clever triple and double rhymes.The chief thought we should only make verses in the old forms, and Hackermic should not recite his type of verses, especially before his elders," explained Osteroric."Also, the chief did not approve of Norimgic's poetry—it is alllove songs, because he wants to attract the females.Myself, I make the war chant, the kind that makes bugbears bang their heads with clubs or other bugbears.You know, the kind of chant that rouses the blood.""It sounds very exciting," Sanval said."A good thump-thump beat is necessary," Osteroric said."But Norimgic's songs move the blood as well.With passion of a different sort."Norimgic, who must have understood the Common tongue even if he did not speak it, coughed to clear his throat and then broke into a long, drawn-out caterwaul that caused Archlis to glance over his shoulder.The magelord fingered one of the charms on his cloak, and Norimgic shut his mouth with a snap."That man has no appreciation for the songs of adoration." Osteroric sighed."That song begins 'love is a nightmare, a thousand sword cuts can never sting so much; a hard heart makes for hard times.' In Fottergrim's camp, they often call for Norimgic to sing another someone-betrayed-someone love song."Sanval was now positive that he wanted to know nothing more about the love lives of bugbears, but, always polite, he replied, "I regret that I do not speak any of the dialects that Norimgic uses for his love songs and thus cannot not fully appreciate his poetry." Like most gentlemen of Procampur, Sanval's tutor had tried to drum a little literature into his head between training in the sword and horseback riding."I remember something from my lessons about a fashionable form of poetry, very popular with courting gentlemen and ladies, that consisted of one eight-line verse and an answering six-line verse."Osteroric said that sounded fascinating although he continued to argue in favor of Hackermic's style of a five-line verseusing rhythms created by two short syllables followed by one long one.Now that friendly conversation had been established, Sanval began to consider how he might be able to sway the bugbears to his side.With great courtesy, he turned down Osteroric's offer of a bent knife for his breastplate, pointing out that his armor had been most excellently made by the best smiths in Procampur.Such armor had not only the natural strengths of the steel plate to keep its owner safe, but also came with certain standard magical protections against arrows laid into it
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