Athran let out a sigh. The flame bickered a little under his breath, casting dancing shadows on the walls around, and Athran begun speaking.
"I remember a tale that might not be as bad... A long time ago, when I was young, I knew a woman. She was a treasure hunter, or so she said, but I think she was just a thief... I didn't care, I was a mercenary since I was young, and it didn't matter. But she once saved me from getting arrested, and I crazily agreed to help her on what she was doing right then." For a moment there was silence. "She found out about a tower... An old watchtower where there was supposed to be a treasure, but something guarded it. In the forest. I was a young fool and I agreed without thinking... But as we found ourselves in the forest, once in a night, as she persisted on traveling till we drop, we were suddenly ambushed by trolls. We ran from them, but we got to a dead end, and the trolls knocked us out. We awoke roasting like boar-flanks above a campfire!"
He laughed shortly on the memories, and continued in the story. "But the trolls, they weren't too clever. The fire can't burn me unless I let it, so I made the flames burst so high that they burned the rope I was bound with, and the trolls ran scared when I chased them with a flaming sword... And then the dawn came, and they turned to stone! It was truly convenient - she was already beginning to grill. And we continued in the journey. Off course, with a bundle of bad luck as we had, we got lost in the forest, as she couldn't read her map, and neither could I. We were lost and hungry, till someone found us... He had a cabin in the forest, and helped us for a few days, as we were already fainting with hunger. That was the nice part of the little adventure, because afterwards, we got ambushed, and chased by wolves. It was sheer luck that we got to the tower with all limbs."
He took a long break, changing the color of the flame and letting it dance on his fingers, before he continued. "When we got there, it was already almost winter. The tower was very big and tall, surrounded by other ruins... We got almost lost in those. There were strange things in them... Eventually we found a way into the tower, but you would never have guessed what was inside. I sneaked in first, to check what's there, and all of a sudden, I get grabbed and pulled in by some screeching monster! A vampire, but one of those wild, winged ones. She got scared when I pulled fire at her, and I chased her to the peak of the tower, but I can't keep feeding the fire for all eternity. I had to fight her sword on claws. A vampire, however, isn't easy to kill, and she tossed me all around the tower till I couldn't even move, and then she tried to eat me. That was when my companion entered, shot her in the head from the doorway... And I was, fortunately, not dead. There really was a treasure, some strange, but prized relic, though we couldn't leave the tower, considering the little food we had, and how bad off I was. That was when the hunter that saved us for the first time appeared again. And got us out of trouble."