The Three Tasks: Alms for the Poor

The lower level of the mountain in the dwarf kingdom was a desolates place. A city of stone under the mountain. Dwarves with nothing more than the clothes on their backs were scattered all throughout the streets. I set my bag down and looked over my supplies. Was I to give away everything in my possession? I wasn’t particularly attached to anything, but the items I had were required for journeying.

“How should I do this?” I asked the dwarf attendant that had accompanied me.

“It’s to your discretion how you wish to approach his Majesty’s task,” he replied.

I scratched my head and took a look around again. I thought back to Laurin’s instructions. The word ‘selfless’ had come up a number of times.

“Excuse me?” I said to the nearest dwarf sitting on the roadside.

He looked up with languid eyes. “Aye?”

“Do you, uh... do you need some food?”

My words sounded insincere and condescending. 'What do I say? How do I say it?', these questions weighed on my mind.

“Do I need food? What kind of stupid question is that!? Of course I need food, you damn fool!”

I’m probably losing points from this interaction alone. I need to salvage the situation.

“Well, I have some food that I don’t need and I was wondering if you and anyone you know would like some of it?”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“Nothing’s wrong with the food. Wait one moment,” I said and went back to my backpack to retrieve one of my food bags. “Here, it isn’t much but I have some hardtack, nuts, berries, and dried meat.”

The poor dwarf snatched the food bag and ran away. I looked at the dwarf proctoring my exam but he made no reaction. I’ll have to change my strategy for handing out items. At least I had a few more food bags.

I walked through the streets to observe the state of the dwarves. They eyed me with suspicion but didn’t do more than that. I could hand out my items to the dwarves, but would that be selfless? I was doing this so I could enter the trial for the divine weapon. So how do I reach a genuine feeling of selflessness?

I spotted a couple dwarf children playing in the equivalent of a field, albeit underground. They’re less likely to be wary of a stranger.

“Hello, what are you guys playing?”

“We’re playing tag,” said one of the dwarf children.

“Would you be interested in playing a different game?”

They looked at each other as they contemplated my words. “Who’re you?” asked one of them.

“I’m a...an element being from far away, way up in the north, and I’m here to give away presents, but I need your help. I don’t know the dwarves of this area and what they need.”

I dragged my backpack to my front and opened it, showing off the various items I had. The dwarf children’s faces lit up at the sight of this.

“I have food, medicine, and camping equipment. There’s not enough for everyone, so I need to make sure that I give away these presents only to the dwarf who needs it the most.”

“What’s this?” asked a dwarf child holding up a vial.

“That’s medicine. It tastes awful but it’ll cure any disease.”

“Oh, Sintram is sick. He needs that! Right, guys?”

“Can you show me where he lives?”

“Follow me, I’ll show you.”

“Yeah, we’ll show you. Follow us, follow us.”

The dwarf children led me to a home where a sick dwarf child lay on a bed of stone. I explained to him that I had some medicine for him and that it was going to taste awful, but if he wanted to get well, he had to drink it all. He drank it. Reluctantly.

“Okay, next item is...” I searched my bag for an item that I wouldn’t mind giving away.

My hand found the bandages the witch had given me. There wasn’t a need for them to remain with me, but the sentimental value was quite high in a strange way that I couldn’t describe. They were keepsakes from my time with her. Maybe I should hold onto them, in case I need them later. I pondered my options for a few more moments.

“Okay, this here is a magical bandage. You wrap it around a part of your body that’s hurt and in a few days it’ll be better.”

“Oh, oh, oh! There’s a dwarf who lives under the bridge with a broken foot. I bet he’d like that.”

“Show him to me.”

The dwarf children introduced me to the dwarf they spoke of. Like the sick child, I explained the details of the item I was giving him and what to do. Travelling around the dwarven city, handing out items that had various levels of personal meaning to me, and explaining what the item was and how to use it continued until all the items in backpack were gone. Even the backpack itself I gave away in the end. With everything gone, I sat down and rested. It had been a long day.