The two managed to stay there to watch the sun fall behind the horizon, just beating the calls from Sarith that the two needed to prepare for landfall. Kyra was awestruck by the tiny settlement that awaited her, more so in its adventurous nature than anything. The evacuation of Auberdine was still its main purpose, but most all of the refugees had been accounted for, and it mainly served as a staging area for sentinel squadrons attempting to reclaim their, for most of them, previous home.

As their ship came into the dock, Kyra quickly strode into the small village, trying to find the main military contingent, leaving Colin alone to thank their hosts. Sarith was too busy to be bothered, but Ney'ira happily accepted his thanks.

"If you ever need another unsanctioned trip to or from Teldrassil, just give us a shout," she proclaimed, a bit more happily than Colin would have thought.

"Oh, uh, of course!" Colin agreed with a laugh, "Give Sarith our best, and…"

He pulled out a time he had in his backpack and handed it to the confused elf, "Give this to him for me. I'm not sure how much oversight there is in regards to magic, but if he keeps this thing hidden, it'll help him out with the beginner stuff, and a bit more."

Ney'ira happily accepted the gift with a smile, "Thank you very much; I'm sure he'll shrug it off before I find him reading it by the light of a candle."

"I'd expect nothing less," Colin smirked as he stepped off onto the dock, "We'll see you two soon!"

She bowed and quickly made her way over to help her husband prepare for departure, as they weren't at all expected to leave the Tree. Colin watched them disappear into the ship and turned to get another sight of Lor'danel. This had been the last place he'd stayed before he'd passed the strait and met his new companion, but by then, he was knee-deep in whatever it was Tyriel wanted, so he hadn't much time to explore, not that there was much of that to do here anyway.

Unaware of wherever Kyra had gone to, he simply walked among the few buildings and stalls of vendors, taking query of what all was being sold. He stumbled upon a tiny hovel of a wooden setup meant for selling wares, but didn't see anybody there to man it. He quietly walked around the partition that served as a wall and peeked around behind it, eyeing a dwarf there, battering a silverine sword between a hammer and anvil.

"Howdy, Ovuun," Colin spoke up, a bit loudly to compete with the clanging of metal.

The dwarf lifted his head rapidly, staring at Colin for only a second before throwing his hammer and the sword up into the air, "Colin! Where the hell have ya been! Don't tell me ya made it ova' there!"

Colin grinned, which was all the confirmation the heavily bearded man needed, "Whoa! How'd you-"

With a quick swipe of his hand, Colin hushed the man as he peered back over his shoulder, "It wasn't exactly official; like I told you."

He walked over to the dwarf's anvil, grinning, "It was gorgeous; as soon as you get the chance, you need to see it Ovuun. Every day feels like a dream!"

The dwarf laughed after collecting the tools he'd thrown, "Ships aren't my kind of thing, lad. And them hippagryphs are a whole 'nother evil. I'll leave the explorin' to ya."

He returned to whacking his hammer against the sword, peeking up toward Colin, who was still looking dreamy, "Turns out my hunch was right; soon as I got 'ere, they took me in and put me to work. After we split up, I figured I'd find you here once I'd gotten 'ere, but you'd disappeared! I figured either death by mauling or Teldrass'l."

"Not only that," Colin nearly whispered, "A companion."

"Oh shush," the older man spattered, stopping his work, "They don't ever leave that 'un tree."

Colin grinned, grabbing Ovuun's arm and pulling him out of the stall, much to the dwarf's chagrin. He peered around, but realized, again, that he wasn't sure where Kyra had gone.

"Where's the general here?"

Ovuun shrugged, "They just sent me ov'r 'ere and said "Git to it!" so I did."

Colin took another look, but felt a sudden tug from his hand and a loud yelp from Ovuun behind him. He quickly turned and found Ovuun on the ground, holding his head as Kyra stood above him, she clutching her chestplate.

"You gave me a fright!" she spoke up, winded.

Ovuun rudely shot back, "You thought to sneak up on a son of Anvilmar?! What'd you expect?! I coulda offed ya head!"

"You couldn't shoot a mountain goat, Ovuun," Colin muttered, making sure Kyra was okay, "My apologies."

Kyra shook her head, "No, I should have surmised. I know that dwarves tend to lend toward overreaction."

"Hey lass, you watch yer words; I gotta mallet and I'm nawt 'fraid to use it!"

Colin groaned, holding Kyra's forearm as though to prevent her from going on, "Now hold on you two. Ovuun, this is Kyra; Kyra, Ovuun."

The dwarf eyed her suspiciously, "If I'm assumin' this is who you picked up, I oughtta question yer social skills. Seein' as how ya befriended me, however…"

Kyra looked down at him pithily, but remained silent outside of a quick, "How do you do."

Colin began as he followed Ovuun back into his hut, "Ovuun and I met down south as I made my way up here. He was on his way too; I believe he said he was "huntin' for tha almi'hty coin" and decided to offer his services to the relief movement here."

The old dwarf grinned at the recounting, "Well, I cant help but help after a tragedy."

Kyra turned to Colin with a vague look on her face that he couldn't quite decipher, though she whispered to him, "They said he was a volunteer…"

Colin returned her stare, but his face had a noticeable layer of dread, "Look, Ovuun, you're doing a good job here; perhaps you could do it all for the love of living things."

"Don't stick yer feet in a pint, lad!" Ovuun shouted out, gleefully, "I have a family to feed back in Menethil! My boy, Gormin, is expecting some draenei stones to stick in 'is beard; the boy's only five!"

Colin groaned, rubbing his head, "Look, Ovuun, good friend… You need to know something…"

Ovuun crashed through the door of his stall, his hands chock full of everything he managed to carry along with him, with Colin quickly in tow. He stomped off, leaving a trail of confused faces behind him, and Colin courteously left apologies in the angry man's wake. Much too far gone, Ovuun hardly bothered with the various equipment that fell from his arms, but one thing that Colin was careful to gather was a small pocket watch, adorned with a rusted chain.

"Ovuun, calm down," he pleaded as he caught up with the short man's strides, "Look, maybe we can explain the misunderstanding and see if they're willing to work out something with you. Did you see that weapon rack? They need you here!"

The dwarf scoffed, "I didn't come all this way for negotiations! I'll find another place where my services 're more valued! I didn't spend years pluckin' cinders from my skin for nothin'!"

The two were now a healthy distance out of town, leaving Colin desperate for any reason to stop the man's advance. He felt the watch in his hand, quickly hunting for something to quell the man's anger.

"How about just doing it for me?" he asked, nearly pleading, "A friend to a friend."

Slowly enough, the dwarf came to a stop, sighing heavily as he stared at the ground. Colin slowly approached him, stopping at his side, happy he'd gotten this far. Ovuun looked up at him with a sarcastic tone.

"You're seriously resortin' to that?"

"Yes," Colin spoke flatly, holding out Ovuun's watch to him, "This makes it twice I've found this for you. I'm still counting it as one favor since I didn't have to out-duel a tallstrider to get it this time."

Ovuun chuckled, "And ya know that if I do this, there's no way of ya gettin' ta Old Ironforge, ey?"

"I'll just figure out another way; some other favors," Colin sighed, "I know there's stories of some spirit world that you can pass onto in order to get in; maybe there's some merit to that. In any case, I know it'd mean a lot to Kyra if you stayed and helped."

The dwarf eyed Colin deftly, twirling a bit of his beard between two fingers, "Eh, ya get somethin' of a look for this lass?"

Colin scoffed, "Of course not; we're just friends. Just give them a hand, alright? She mentioned something of a group attempting to reclaim Auberdine; just until that's over."

Shrugging mightly, Ovuun pulled his armfulls of equipment closer to his body, "Welp, I hate owin' debts. Let's get this over with."

"Thanks," Colin grinned, "Besides, it'd be good for you and everyb-"

As soon as the two began walking back, they both felt a sudden force approach them and clasp hands over each of their mouths, pulling them into the shadows of a nearby tree. Colin was quick enough to realize that this force was Kyra, but Ovuun furiously threw his appendages around in a flurry, losing everything he was carrying.

"Hush, fool!" Kyra shot out in a grave voice that quelled even Ovuun's anger.

He quickly froze, the three staying put for a few moments before footsteps began to approach; heavy steps like thunder. Colin watched carefully, making sure that Ovuun didn't shout out, as his eyes were wide as shields once they met the threat.

A moonkin stomped around nearby, searching for something that Colin guessed was the two of them, due to their speaking. He knew little about these creatures, though he was aware that they were not friendly. Given Kyra's reaction, he surmised that they were certainly not to be trifled with.

The moonkin made some very audible sniffles, spun around, and began trudging along back where it'd come from, much to the relief of Colin. Kyra removed her hands from their mouths and Ovuun quickly jumped up to his feet, angrily swinging around a branch he'd grasped in the act.

"What'd I tell ya about Anvilmar boys?!" he shouted, moving slowly to recover his equipment as though afraid of the moon in returning, despite his shouts.

Kyra took to her feet as well and stared at the man with the plain face that had become sort of a trademark of her people, though Ovuun spoke up first, "…but, thank ye, lass."

"He hates anything with hair growing out of every pore," Colin chuckled as he grabbed at some dwarven wrench.

"I most certainly do NOT!" Ovuun shouted, aiming his stick at Colin, "They're just not at all my favorite things. My uncle looked more like a tree than anythin' with that beard o' his; made for quite a fright for me when I was just a wee lad."

While he and Colin continued collecting the various metal and steel objects, Kyra carefully surveyed their surroundings before joining in herself, "So, you're leaving?"

Colin stared over toward Ovuun, who lowered his head, noticeably heaving his shoulders with a sigh, "Nah. We were just headin' back. Your pal, there, made sure of that."

"Thank you," Kyra spoke, surely, with a smile, "Sylviis had nothing but good things to say about "her helpful little dwarf"."

Ovuun glumly stared at the ground, torn between compliment and offense.