Author’s Note:

Sorry for the late updates. It was finals week, but I forgot to tell everyone.

Worst birthday ever. I had to spend my birthday in bed instead of with friends in a bar last Friday. I have been feeling ill once again lately.

Though, I did have a makeup birthday dinner with family on Monday, which was nice.

BTW, guys, if you haven’t done yet, please review my story on the chapter page.

And thank you, for all those that gave me reputation.

Chapter 43- Map

***June 7th, 965 A.F.***

***Belhern Village***

***Ajax McGuire***

My mother saw through my lie immediately because I was acting so awkward. However, she wasn’t that angry. Dwarves start drinking alcohol at a very young age. Even she had her first drink when she was two-years-old. She was mad at the fact that I didn’t watch over my sister properly. After scolding me for a bit, she was curious about the spirits that I made.

“So you made these?”

“Yep, want a taste?”

She grabbed the mug off the kitchen table and sniffed the spirit. After a small sip, she gulped down the rest of the mug’s contents. She was eyeing another mug before I stopped her.

“Hey! I said a taste! Not drink everything. That took quite a while to make.”

“Sorry, but it was just too good. This is great for after a long day of work.”

“Not only it is great to drink there are secondary uses too. Here take this, go outside use it to wash your hair. After that, rinse your hair with water.”

“Isn’t that a bit of a waste?”

“Just try it.”

She gave me a look of suspicion before heading outside with another mug full of alcohol. She poured it slowly over her hair and massaged her head with it. Before long, the mug was empty and she started rinsing with refreshing water. After that, she took a sniff of her long red hair.

“I don’t stink as much!”

“That’s right. You can use it to clean as well. With this, you can cook tonight’s dinner. Dad’s cooking is terrible compared to yours.”

“Darling I am home!”

I saw dad walking from a distance towards the house, waving at us as he strides along the pathway. When he got closer, mom tackled my dad with a hug.

“Welcome home. I don’t stink anymore! ”

Father took a sniff before commenting.

“What is that smell in your hair? It is refreshing.”

“Ajax’s alcohol cleaned the smell off of me. And also, Emily is sleeping upstairs.”

Cather sent some signals with her eyes and Duncan scratches his head, looks shiftily around before telling me the news.

“Oh, um, Ajax, the mayor wants to meet you before deciding what to do with your graduation.”

“Is that the case? I will meet him tomorrow.”

“Are you sure you don’t want and go meet him now? I mean, it is still pretty early right now. If you go and meet him right now, you might be able to get back before it gets dark. Even if it gets late, I am pretty sure the mayor is willing to let you stay over at his house.”

“I guess you are right. I want to get this over with as soon as possible.”

I bid my parents farewell and started head towards Caedona. After a few minutes, I stopped in my tracks. I suddenly had an idea. I can use this meeting with the mayor to advertise my alcohol. I turned around and head back to the house. I reached the house and opened the front door.

“Oh, Duncan. Yes!”

I heard moaning coming from inside the house. I quickly realize what that eye signals that my mom sent to my father meant. They were trying to get me out of the house. I plugged my ears, ran in, grab the full wineskin in the kitchen, and ran out.

“LALALALA I CAN’T HEAR ANYTHING.”

***June 7th, 965 A.F.***

***Caedona***

***Ajax McGuire***

The road to Caedona was uneventful. I grabbed a few meat skewers at the stalls that I passed by before I reached the mayor’s house/office. It was located at the centre of the town. Surrounded by a fancy hedge fence, the three storeys tall building had a Classical Victorian look. Yet, the grey granite that the building was made out of and the tower in the middle gave it a tinge of Gothic cathedral feel. It was too large to be called a house but too small to be called a mansion. Quickly finishing the skewers in my hand, I knocked on the massive door. An old man in a butler outfit opened the door and greeted me.

“Can I help you, sir?”

“Hi, my name is Ajax. My father told me that the mayor wants to meet with me.”

“Unfortunately sir, he is busy at the moment. Perhaps you would like to wait for him in his office or come back another time?”

“I will wait for him.”

The old butler leads me through the house, passing by a kitchen where a maid was cooking. The butler opened the door to a room and gestured for me to go in.

“I will notify the master of your arrival. Would you like something while you wait?”

“No thank you.”

He left the room and quickly. Seeing there was nothing to do, I took a look around the office. It was quite similar to the room that my dad has, except that it was at least twice as large. There was a desk filled with parchments in the centre of the room with chairs on each side. A bookshelf filled to the brim was on my right. When I turned to my left, the map on the wall caught my interest. It was a complete map of the whole dwarven kingdom.

The whole kingdom was on a broad plateau, surrounded by impassable mountains. On the south-western end was the Dwarven Capital, which is connected to the only exits into the Welleborn Mountain Range. With the Dwarven Capital as the starting point, it spreads out like a fan, connecting to different cities and towns. After a while, I finally found where Belhern was. It was on the north-eastern part of the map, furthest away from the capital. To the East of Belhern was Hindan where Cecilia lived. What caught my eye was East of Hindan. It was a large patch of land labeled as Dragon’s Wilds. There were no details on that part. Could that be where The Lonely Mountain is located? Was I that close to my previous home? Seeing that this could help me in the future, I used my photographic memory to memorize the whole map.

“Sorry about the wait.”

A slightly plump middle-aged man with a dapper look walked into the room. He confidently stride to the other side of the desk and plopped into his chair. A few creak sounded from the chair under his weight. He wiped his sweat using in sleeves and gestured me to take the seat in front of him.

“Now how can this little old mayor help you?