Chapter 21

A Bad Idea

Roc meat tasted terrible, as carnivores usually do, at least the humans thought so. But the dwarves loved it. But to make it truly a feast, the dwarves served fresh baked bread and mixed vegetables to go with it. The mead flowed freely and everyone was in good spirits. Graul had brought along a baseball bat he had carved, and a couple softballs Jex made from furs and dried skins, and a few mitts made from dried leather, Graul and the group went to a flat area to teach the dwarves how to play baseball. It was early March and the weather was perfect for it. Torger excused himself and didn’t participate. Instead he went to talk with the weaver about making the tents.

When it was too dark to play, they came back to the village caves and drank more mead. Happiness and camaraderie was spread deep and wide between Home and Small Hammer.

Late the next morning they walked back to Home with hangovers, except Torger who walked with determination. When they got there, he pulled out a huge but thin bed sheet from his magic back pack. They all looked at him like he lost his mind, and when he explained his plan, they really thought he lost his mind.

But after stating some carefully chosen words he concluded with “We’re not thinking like what we would do if we were at home. The idea of baseball reminded me of life in SoCal and what we as a nation have accomplished. All generals have known for the past hundred years that air superiority is a must. This is the best chance we’ve got.”

They thought it was a long shot, but if it worked, the payoff would be huge. A few days later they all began the long trek to Calico. The trip was excruciatingly slow, walking should have been faster, but there were nonstop hand sized rocks all the way to Calico. They felt the wind blowing from the southwest and after three days of walking set up camp a few miles from the dwarven village. Torger left the group and walked to the village alone.

When he got there he sent a guard that was at the shield edge to go find Small Foot. Once inside the village, Torger laid out his demands loud enough for several dwarves to hear. “Small Foot, you said all dwarves work here voluntarily and they can leave if they wish. Is that so?”

A few nearby dwarves stopped working and looked at him. “Yes all dwarves here are free.”

“Good. Then I have an offer for them. You are all invited to come live at my village. We are new and need good workers to build it up. We have crops that are being grown and a well. Look around. There is little water here. You will have little to drink when it’s summer. You will each be free to build your own family house and I hope you build a brewery and raise bees because dwarven mead is good. When was the last time any of you had mead?”

All the dwarves looked at the ground and mumbled.

“I also charge only ten percent tax on all sales in and near the village. If you want to come to my village, come with me.”

Small Foot crossed his eyes and the shield activated. Then he addressed all of his dwarves and Torger. “Not so fast.” Small Foot gave all the dwarves a stern look. To Torger he said “You have no source of income, no way to pay their wages. They will work for food in your village.”

“At Home, each dwarf will stand or fall on his own merit. If you can figure out a way to make money, you keep ninety percent of it. If you can’t you’ll be a beggar. At Home, you don’t go to work all day to give half of it to lazy leadership. Work hard for your own family, support yourself and thrive.”

“Lazy leadership? Are saying I’m lazy? It takes a lot of work to run a village this size. Slander against me is a jail-able offense. Guards, take him to the stakes.” All the spectator dwarves scurried away.

Torger withdrew a bow and shot an ice arrow straight up into the air. It went out the dome shield, then fluttered and came back down. The shield wouldn’t allow reentry, and lightning and fire burned it up. Two strong dwarves grabbed Torger and dragged him to the top of a hill. Several tall wood stakes had been driven into the ground and they used rope to tie his hands to it. He tried to cast fire one to burn the rope, but couldn’t access any spells. Small Foot said “That’s a rope of negation. It sucks all the mana out of you. Sit here today, and we’ll see how you feel about my leadership tomorrow. Lucky for you the weather’s good, but a night tied to the stake usually elicits an apology from ingrates.”

From two miles away Torger’s group saw the dome shield erupt with fire and lightning at the top of it. They didn’t see any ice or green poisonous gas, but the fire and lighting both looked like level two spells. Everyone began casting fire one into the sewn together tents, careful not to touch the webbing itself. The tents had been formed to be a balloon and Torger and Graul used their woodcraft to make a lightweight basket. When they finished, everyone but Brun had spent all their mana but the balloon was full. Jex and Brun climbed into the basket as it lifted into the air. The wind had not changed direction, and they headed toward Calico more than a hundred feet in the air.

The other four began running toward Calico, barely outpacing the balloon. When they were close, Arden used the shotgun to fire at the shield. Before the shield retaliated with spells, he pumped it and fired again. Lightning 2 and Fire 2 raced at him from the first blast and struck him before he could pump and fire a third time. He convulsed and collapsed to the ground, then got struck again from the two defensive spells, but the dome was almost totally destroyed. Graul swung his new flame sword and the shield fell into thousands of pieces, disappearing before they hit the ground. Antic and Rome ran towards Small Foot’s stone house. Dwarves ran at them and some had swords, others had bows. As expected, Small Foot ran to his private house with two personal guards and the coward locked himself inside.

Antic took an arrow to the neck and he went down, his two cans of animal fat spilling on the ground. Behind him pails of lard mixed with shotgun shells exploded when Graul cast Fire 1 at them. Graul and Arden weren’t able to get far enough away fast enough and the force of shrapnel pierced them and pushed them off their feet. Rome made it to Small Foot’s house and poured lard in a line in front of the door. A dwarf came up behind him and he was struck with a hammer in the back of the head and knocked unconscious.

All the human foot soldiers were down, and that had not been Torger’s plan. The dwarves dragged the severely injured humans and tied them up next to Torger. As they were focused on their tasks they saw a huge fire coming from Small Foot’s house. Brun used fire two to ignite the lard, some right at the door, and some where Antic had fallen. Black smoke quickly encircled the private stone house.

Small Foot’s house filled with smoke, and Jex readied her bow. The balloon had carried them to a perfect angle, two hundred feet off the ground and facing an open window. Smoke continued to fill the house and she waited for Small Foot to emerge.

An arrow flew up at them and struck the balloon. It began to lose altitude. Brun saw a dwarf villager was trying to bring them down. Brun was troubled because they were trying to oust the crooked leader, not kill the villagers. He decided not to return fire. Jex saw Small Foot come to the window and she released her arrow. It struck him in the neck and ice formed around the wound.

Another arrow struck the balloon and their descent accelerated.

A golden glow surrounded Small Foot. She released another arrow. It struck a magic shield which cracked but didn’t shatter.

Brun drank the last mana potion and cast fire two at the shield. It shattered and Small Foot got scorched, but another golden glow surrounded him and the burn marks slightly healed. Brun yelled down to the dwarves. “Finish him! Kill the tyrant and free yourselves!”

The dwarves looked at each other scared, but then one of the three personal guards to Small Foot ran up and shouted “They’re the enemy! They attacked us!”

In fear, the dwarves shot more arrows. Jex got in another shot to Small Foot. She was sure it struck, but if it hit flesh or armor she couldn’t tell because he had withdrawn two steps into the house and back into the thick smoke.

Three more arrows pierced the balloon. The last thing she yelled was “We’re not attacking you. We’re freeing you from bondage!”

Jex and Brun were tied at the stakes along with the others.

Chapter 22

Bad times

Small Foot’s main personal guard led them through the desert.

“Where are we going?”

“I told you. South.”

“It’s been a week already. All you’ve given us is moldy bread and stale water. Where are you taking us?”

“Anyone who attacks a dwarf village comes here. Look there it is on the horizon.”

They looked and saw the Salton Sea. A huge lake with a high salt content, and nothing but sand for miles around, except it wasn’t sand like in California, it was marsh.

The next day their dread increased when a three foot tall goblin came up to meet them. He looked at them and grumbled. “Level three, all of them. Won’t do us a whole lot of good as slaves. Still, they won’t be dangerous.”

The dwarf guard replied “You’d be surprised. Pay up, one silver per level per slave, so twenty-one silver. Really not even worth the trip.”

The goblin paid and through Translate told the humans “You’ll be here until just before the tyters come, then we’ll release you. Don’t want them coming near us to look for you. Follow me and behave, and you’re life will be easier.”

They were led through the marsh, the goblin lightly stepping along submerged stones while the others splashed stinking water all the way up to their thighs. They coughed and gagged but the goblin kept poking them with a spear.

“As I’m sure the disgusting dwarf told you, you’re bound with rope of negation, so no mana, no magic. If you die while bound with that rope, you won’t respawn. So hurry up.”

They moved a little faster but not much. A little while later the goblin thrust his spear into the marsh water. He pulled it out with a small fish on it, then ate it raw, with head and tail. Everyone looked on in disgust.

Eventually they came to a large round mud hut. “This is the entrance, go inside.”

Torger went in first, ducking his head to clear the round hole. Inside were tunnels with flickering torch lights in the distance down each one. They were led down the largest one in the middle, then passed a few small offshoots, then went into one of them. There were so many tunnels they were easily lost.

“You’ll be digging. There are picks and shovels down there, along with other slaves and guards. Dig where the guards tell you to dig, and you’ll get food and water. It really is that simple.”

“What’s your name? So we can tell the guards who sent us.”

“My name doesn’t matter. You’ll never see me again.” The goblin walked out.

In a hushed voice Graul said “Someone untie my rope, then I’ll untie yours. We can kill each other and respawn at Home.”

A spear sailed through the air and struck Torger in the thigh. He grunted and a goblin came down the tunnel towards them. “You need to know we goblins have excellent hearing and night vision. If you ever plan to escape again, I will kill you, with the ropes on.” He waved his hand and a golden light surrounded Torger. The goblin pulled the spear out and the bleeding stopped, but he was still in pain.

“I’m not going to cure you to full health, just a cure one to stop the bleeding. See if you’ve learned your lesson. Now get in there and dig.”

They wanted to ask what they were digging for, but didn’t want to ask questions and get in trouble, so they walked until they saw two dwarves and two goblins digging. Two guards stood watch. The dwarves had their hands and feet tied, but the goblins didn’t.

They each picked up a tool and hit the wall. They found it was soft, not rocky at all. Big pieces fell to the floor and they wondered what to do with it but right then two more goblins came in with buckets. The digging dwarves and goblins filled the buckets, then the two goblin carriers walked out with them full. A minute later two different goblins came in with buckets.

The process repeated for what seemed like a couple of hours. The two dwarves never spoke a word the whole time, but the digging goblins were jabbering excitedly. “Me new home big. New home muddy! Me love new home. Queen very happy, make me happy. Many good fish in water. Good food in new home. Me love new home.”

Apparently they had the communication skills of a dog and loved serving their queen. Maybe the goblin that bought them outside was a genius as far as goblins went. Eventually another guard came in and the other two guards left. It said “Rest.”

The two digging goblins left the cave, and the dwarves laid down on the soft dirt. The group looked at the guard and he pointed at the dirt floor. “Rest.”

They all laid down thinking about how to cut their ropes with the picks, but the digging goblins had carried the tools away. Laying there for several minutes, Brun couldn’t take the silence anymore. He said “How’s your leg Torger?”

Before Torger could answer the guard walked up and kicked Brun in the head, and without a word walked back to block the exit. Brun wasn’t hurting too much, but the message was clear.

This went on for days. On the night of the fifth day there, Arden was so bored he leaned over in the dark and kissed Jex. Like the men, she hadn’t bathed since arriving and was covered in dirt. They all used the bathroom right there in the tunnel and buried it. She definitely did not feel sexy, but enjoyed the attention and human touch.

The guard walked over and pulled up on Arden’s foot. It pointed and said “Move.”

Arden climbed over the others and lay on the ground, for the first time away from his wife. He lay on his stomach and scratched the dirt. He found that it scratched easily. Hoping the guard couldn’t see him or was too stupid to realize what he was doing, he wrote a message on the floor.

In the morning when torches and cooked fish were brought in, he subtly indicated his writing.

We rush the guard tonight.

They quickly read it and he dragged his foot across it. The dwarves shook their heads no. It seemed Translate worked for writing as well. But everyone else wanted no more to do with digging tunnels. They had all gained one strength and one stamina point from digging all day for five days. The dwarves’ must have been quite high from constant digging for who knew how long.

That night they all laid down on the dirt floor. A half hour after the two guards left, Arden jumped to his feet quickly followed by the others. While they had been laying there, they all had laid on their stomachs and cut their ropes binding their hands with jagged rocks they gathered during the day. Once they were on their feet the guard threw his spear and struck Arden, but then the guard had no other weapon. He cried out “Help!”

Arden was pierced through the shoulder and bleeding heavily. Jex and Brun hurried to cut the rope around his feet before he died. They finished cutting the rope then went to work on their own ropes at the feet.

Meanwhile Torger tackled the guard and pinned him down while everyone else cut their remaining ropes. They rushed into the tunnel no longer afraid of death. Torger cut his rope with one hand while holding the three foot goblin down with his other, and then smashed his rock into its face over and over until it died.

While Torger was finishing off the guard, Jex tried to soothe and comfort Arden. He couldn’t breathe enough to tell her to run away and he would respawn. It’s not natural to run away from a bleeding spouse.

The others rushed through the tunnels knocking guards down along the way. Antic got shot with an arrow and he went down, then in quick succession Brun, Rome, and Graul dropped from the arrows of paralysis that struck them. Before the three second paralysis wore off, about twenty goblins piled on top of them binding hands and feet.

No one escaped that night, but Arden did die and respawn.