The Dwarf kingdom part two

Part two. 

“Isn’t this yard way too big?” Martin wonders.

“Yeah makes you wonder why someone who lives here would want to leave.” Alice answers from behind him.

“Does it really matter why she wants to leave? She is our friend no matter what.”

“Well she did seem a little distant every time she came to play and train with us, but I guess it doesn’t really matter.” Marie says next to Martin.

“Of course, it matters we are going outside and it will probably be dangerous and if we can’t trust each other we are not going to survive there.” Martin continues.

“Why couldn’t we trust her now? There would be no point in leaving if she did it just to betray us, no matter what reason she has for leaving it doesn’t make her any less trust worthy.”

“But if she can’t even tell us that then it tells us that she doesn’t trust us.”

“It’s probably just something personal that she can’t tell us yet, no reason to make a big deal about it, there are some things I haven’t told you and there are things you haven’t told us it’s just natural to keep things from each other.”

“I still don’t trust her.”

“You don’t really need to yet, I’m sure you will be able to when u get to know her better, there is a lot of time for that when we leave.”

We arrive at the big mansion, it is pure white, and it has support pillars in the front. We walk past the pillars and go to the huge double doors that look more like a gate than a front door.

“This place is certainly big” Alice says from my left side.

“Yeah I wouldn’t mind living in a place this big”

We knock on the door and almost instantly the door is opened by a butler.

“Greetings travelers welcome to the Kubara household” Says an old dwarf in a suit.

“Umm thank you?”

“That’s a weird way to receive guests.” Martin says rudely.

“Yes, I apologize for any confusion, but Luna asked me to say that when you arrived. She is still preparing to leave so please excuse her, you must be tired after walking all the way here you can take a rest in the living room come this way please.”

“All right thank you.”

We are lead through the corridor past many doors.

“This side of the house is where Luna and her siblings are living. On the left we have a bathroom on the right a dining room and in the next door we have a kitchen and opposite to that we have a gym room.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to just to have no doors, so it would be faster to move around?” Marie asks a weird question.

“Well I guess so, but wouldn’t it look kind of weird? And there are a lot of nobles coming to visit so we can’t have that, actually I shouldn’t be saying this but even the king came here to visit a few weeks ago.”

“Really the king himself? What an honor it must have been.” Alice asks with admiration.

“Hah the king, what good has he ever done for this village? He just sits in his castle luxuriously while doing nothing for the lower class.” Martin says in an annoyed voice.

“Oi you can’t say that here, what if you get confined before we leave? You would have to stay here with your families and you couldn’t be with Marie.”

“Don’t worry I know there has been problems with previous kings that exploited their status and made living conditions worse for the people, but the king now is a different one, he is trying to make this a better village for everybody. It’s just that there was no one to teach him how to manage these things so it has been hard, and he hasn’t been able to produce results yet, but I am sure that in time this place will be better place to live.”

As he finishes talking he opens a door that leads us to a living room, we step into the room and I can see the beautiful hand carved furniture and decorations all over the room.

“This is so luxurious” Marie says in awe.

“Please make your way to the table, the snacks have been prepared beforehand so just enjoy them.”

In a large table there are various desserts, fruits and sweets lined up.

“I will go help miss Luna now please eat all you want in the meantime.”

The old dwarf leaves and we start eating.

“This is so good, I can’t believe it.” Marie says while eating a small red fruit.

“I wonder when we are going to eat something this good again” Martin says while looking at the food.

“We can eat something this good now, so we should just enjoy it. I mean you never think that when are you going to get to eat something better than you have ever eaten so why would you think something this irrelevant? Besides there should be a lot of different things out there so I’m sure we will find something that tastes better than anything we have ever tasted.”

“As long as there is something to eat out there I’m happy.” Alice says with a smile.

“Ha-ha that’s true.”

Door opens and a slim brunette girl with round glasses and a big packsack

on her back comes in.

“Let’s get going guys, there are things to do and a whole new world to be discovered.” Luna says with enthusiasm.

“What are you crazy? We just got here and some of us have been walking for hours let us rest for a while.” Martin says irritated.

“There is no need for that we can rest outside for as long as we want so let’s go!”

“Calm down Luna, we have all the time in the world and its dangerous to go to an unknown place when you are tired.”

“But I really want to go now, well fine guess I can’t rush you guys, but rest fast.”

“I could leave already to be honest, I’m not really that tired and the faster we get there the more time we have to prepare for the night” Alice says as she finishes eating her creamy pastry.

“I could keep going too, do you have your things ready Luna?

“Yes, and I have already said goodbye to my family, so I can leave right away.”

“Wait are we really leaving already? I wanted to eat more cakes.” Martin says with a half-eaten cake piece on his hand.

“You can take a few with you and eat on the way, all right let’s start our adventure!” Luna says while raising her hand in a fist.

We pick up our things and leave the room the same way we came from.

“This long walk feels so pointless now that we didn’t even get to rest there.” Martin complains.

“Hey Luna, I heard from Melissa that you have some knowledge of the outside world, would you mind telling us something.” Alice asks the excited Luna.

“Ah yes this is an appropriate time to tell you all what I know. So, as you know spreading information about the outside is forbidden, so I couldn’t tell you guys beforehand but now it’s all right, so our family has had these old books in save keeping for years now. Some of them has deteriorated and rewritten and some are made from peculiar materials and haven’t aged at all. In the rewritten books, there is a lot of common knowledge about the nature and living things that can be found outside and in the old books there are some information about mystical beings and places.” Luna explains.

 “What kind of mystical beings? How are they different from normal ones?” Marie asks from behind.

“Well most common ones are beings that are fused with magic and a new race was born, it was said on first of the three old books and it’s about history of mystical beings. It was also said that it’s speculated that every race originates from humans, so we could also be called mystical beings.

Then there are those that are fused with an object or material, they are not that common and there are many kinds of them.”

“It truly is interesting, and I hate to interrupt but shouldn’t you rather tell us about the normal nature and things we are going to face in a few hours?” Martin interrupts.

“He does have a point and we can continue this during the travels anyway, so it might be best if we use the time we have to prepare what we will face in a moment.”

“All right if you insist I will tell you about the boring stuff.

So, remember that these were written hundreds of years ago so things could have changed outside and probably have changed, the knowledge from this area comes from a diary of a dwarf right before we closed ourselves in. What he mentions about the nature is that it’s a forest with trees that has needles instead of leaves and there aren’t many plants and such there so it’s easy to move around, the temperature is cool at sometimes and chilly at some, also there are only a few living creatures there but the ones that are there are fierce or good at hiding.”

“Umm I have a question” Marie interrupts with a quiet voice.

“Do you want to know why there are needles instead of leaves or do you want to know how to fend off the creatures that habit the forest?”

“I want to know what the trees you mentioned are.”

“Ye I was wondering that as well.”

Luna made a shocked expression and then sighed deeply.

“All right I guess telling about things to this extend is useless, I will keep it short and simple. First off trees they are brown things that are sticking out of the ground and on the top, there are green things everywhere, the material you get from them is lightweight and flexible compared to rocks, but it is still somewhat durable even if it is not as durable as rocks.

You can also burn the wood to create heat and light.”

At that point, we reach the final spiral staircase that is much grander looking than the rest, it is black, and gold and it has black spikes going upwards from the rails and on the top of the pikes’ golden vines created an arch on top of the stairs.

“Halt.” A dwarf guarding the staircase says and points his spear at us.

“We are the coterie that is embarking on a journey at this date.” Luna says something weird to the guard.

“So, you are the group that is leaving today? Four women dwarfs and one male are cleared to pass, we will be escorting you to the kings’ place”. The other guard dwarf explains.

The two guards start escorting us up the black and gold staircase.

“Aren’t you going to continue?” Martin asks Luna.

“Of course, she won’t there are people around us, she can’t say those things near the people who stay here, even if they are guards.”

“Well I just thought that if they are guards it wouldn’t matter.”

“They might be guards but it is still forbidden to spread information about the outside world.”

“And because they are guards they would know that it is wrong and could punish us immediately, so this would be the worst situation to tell you anything about the outside world.” Luna explains to martin.

“Alright fine let’s just discuss something else then. How about battle formations, strategies and policies?” Martin asks Luna.

“That’s a great idea Martin, we can never know when we are going to have to fight and what, and the smallest things could decide the outcome of the battle so if we prepare we will increase the chance of our victory and survival.”

“We have discussed this before, but it doesn’t hurt that we go through everything from the beginning in case someone has forgotten something or hasn’t gotten some new ideas.”

“There is also the additional information that Luna told us about, so we can improve our old things and think of new ones based on that knowledge.” Martin adds.

“So be more vigilant in nights, sleep in shifts and do your basic maintenance every day.” Alice repeats the basics.

“If we don’t have to fight we shouldn’t and be wary of all kinds of things, you can never know what will be dangerous and what won’t be.” I add to what Alice was saying.

“Let’s move on to the battle formations, where we are a little lacking.

I will be in the front and Marie will be behind me spearing everyone I can’t handle with my shield and sword. Alice you will handle things from the sides with Melissa and if need, be you will protect Luna who will be attacking from afar with magic.” Martin cuts in to the conversation and starts explaining.

“That was the basic formation what about when we are defending?”

“I’ll be in front of Luna and you will be behind her and Alice and Marie in the sides.”

“Which side will I be on, or does it matter?” Alice asks.

“Good question, it doesn’t matter but pick a side now and stick with it, so you will know where to go in hectic situations. Actually, you will be on the right side.” Martin answers Alice.

“Is there anything else except the attack formation left to discuss?”

“I would like to add at least the unknown situation formation.” Luna says while raising her hand.

“What do we do in that one?” Martin asks her.

“Two situations and both have a different formation, other one is used in a place where we can’t draw weapons before the fight and other one where we can but don’t know what kind of fight it will be.”

“So, what is the formation?” I ask her.

“Martin behind all of us Marie after him, I after Marie and depending if he can’t stay hidden then Ryan after me, followed by Alice and finally Melissa. If we are attacked form pairs and fight them off or run away depending on the situation and regroup after you are safe.”

“That was the formation where we can’t draw weapons?”

“Yes, and the other one is similar, but we are already in pairs and in a triangle but with distance from each other and Melissa and Ryan switch places.”

“Attack formation went like me and Melissa in front, Marie behind me and Luna behind Melissa and Alice in the side depending on the situation” Martin says after Luna is finished.

“That’s enough of that for now, when I am able to discuss the books we can think of more pin pointed strategies for different situations.”

“Should we discuss what we are going to do after we leave?”

“That would be appropriate at this point in time.” Luna responds.

“It is good to review things before going out and now we have the time to do that.”

“Yeah, I’ve only heard these a million times before and I was rarely there with you guys, if anyone has forgotten the first steps after going out I would be so shocked that I couldn’t be able to travel with you guys.”

“But it is not about forgetting or remembering but about doing this the last time as a group now that we are leaving.”

“But couldn’t we do this after were in a place where we can talk about the book knowledge and actually improve the plan and get a clearer picture of what we are going to do or at least wait that we are all here before reminiscing the old times.”

“We can improve when we are able to and he was rarely there and when he was he didn’t talk much so does it really matter if he is not with us? He probably didn’t like talking about it just like you.”

“don’t be ridiculous if he didn’t like being there he wouldn’t have broken the rules and sneaked out of his duties to listen to the same things over and over again.”

“What? All this time and he didn’t say anything about that. What happened to him after he went back every time?”

“Sigh, I wasn’t supposed to tell you that and for what happened you should ask him yourself. Well sneaking out of the kings’ guard duty, it doesn’t take a genius to know it is not something you get away without a punishment.”

“That’s horrible, why didn’t he tell me?”

“How could he say anything, it is not something you casually just mention in a conversation and if he had told you, you would have acted differently, trying to be considerate of him all the time and I am guessing he didn’t want that.”

“I see.”

“So.. so what should we discuss then?” Alice asks with a worried look.

“I don’t really want to talk about anything right now.”

We walk the rest of the stairs in silence and when we get to the top we see a single castle far away.

“What are these distances honestly? We have been walking the entire day and now this. Guess it can’t be helped, we need to get used to this amount of walking, but it is still a bit unsettling to think that you are about to reach your destination and seeing it still so far away.” Alice complains next to me.

“It must have been hard on him to do this trip both ways and then get a punishment afterwards, even so he still came over and over again.”

“Ok, that’s enough, it’s time for you to grow up being depressed over this isn’t going help anyone, especially not him. If you want to do something, then just act in a better way toward him in the future.” Luna scolds me.

“Yeah you are right, I was just feeling bad and couldn’t deal with it in a constructive way. Sorry guys for making the atmosphere awkward, all right lets go! Lets get Ryan and start this thing, haven’t we been here long enough?”

“Hey, don’t run, are you out of your mind? Fine let’s run like idiots when we are already tired and about to go into an unknown world.” Alice says from behind.

We run to the castle and when we get there the new guards yells at us for running off when they were changing guards, the big castle made from rock is in front of us, we walk on the stone bridge that leads to the stone gate. When we get near the gate one of the guards waved to the top of the wall and soon afterwards the stone gate starts to rise. We walk into the courtyard where we see the dwarf king and a group of people around him.

“Welcome to the kings’ castle, after this stop you all will start your journey outside the dwarf kingdom. Now come inside to rest, I will lead you to a place where you can sit and eat while we discuss a few things.” The dwarf king tells us.

We follow the king and the group inside the castle where the interior is grand, and the hallways are long, there are no guards in the beginning but when we advance more inside there starts to be more of them.

“Why are there more guards here than there were in the entrance? What are you trying to pull king? Are you leading us to a trap? Martin asks angrily.

“No, you idiot, they are there to handle any outside threat that could come inside.” Luna explains to Martin.

“I am so sorry for his rudeness can you just ignore it this time?” I ask the king apologetically.

“I am not such a petty king to punish people for doubting me and it is sadly understandable why he would be due to the actions of the most earlier kings.”

One of the people from the group opens a door to the right. Inside there is a luxurious table filled with various dishes and the stone chairs are cushioned.

“Here you can rest before embarking on your adventure and we can also talk for a while.”

We sit down around the table and start eating. Some from the group sat down with us and the rest stood still.

“I will first tell you about the history of the dwarf kingdom, well as much as I know at least there isn’t much from the time before we shut ourselves from the outside world.”

“Is this going to take a while?” Martin asks rudely.

“Yes, but it’s important and it should be somewhat helpful for you, to know how the outside world sees the dwarfs and what it was like before.”

“Shouldn’t we wait for Ryan?” I ask the king.

 “He is already here listening so don’t worry, let us begin. There were wars in the old days between different races and in the end when all were weakened and near extinction there came a hero with a group of mixed races and he brought peace to the land. After that other races were able to live amongst each other, but old wounds don’t heal overnight and there was tension and distrust all around and most races just lived amongst themselves. Dwarves were hated the most for their superior equipment and defensive tactics that were deemed cowardly, so they made fun of dwarfs’ height and called us overgrown chickens, it also didn’t help that in the hero group there were no dwarfs. Due to discrimination and high pride of the dwarves we went to this mountain and closed us off from the outside world.”

“Are you saying all this to scare us off from leaving?” Martin interrupts the king.

“It is decreed that I have to tell you all this and it is probably put for that reason, but it is still the real history. At first there was no reason to keep anyone leaving because they all came voluntarily here and remembered the treatment we got outside but after a few generations people started forgetting and wanting to leave so the king ordered that anyone who leaves couldn’t come back and put an age limit that stopped children leaving from petty reasons. After another few generations the royal line started to get corrupted and they started using their power for their own benefit and due to the law of leaving they would have to leave permanently into an unknown world and leave their families behind, so no one could oppose the tyranny. From the corrupted kings came corrupted princes and it continued like that to this day, thanks to you and Ryan I was able to get free from the cycle of corruption. Now I want to make the living conditions better for all dwarfs that live here and make this a prosperous kingdom that I hope will get bigger and someday will be able open the doors to the outside.”

“Would that mean we could come back here someday?”

“The way this place is messed up, the corruption in the nobles and the hatred of the common people it would take decades to get this place to a point it would be united as one.” Martin says with an angry look on his face.

“Indeed, the road is long and hard, but I will keep at it until everyone is happy in my kingdom. I still want to ask you to stay here, I know there are problems and you might not be able to trust me, but I promise you will live a better live here from now on if you stay.”

“I can’t trust you and even if I could there is nothing left for me here.”

“I am going with Martin.” Marie says while clutching his sleeve.

“It is an honor king, but I’ve dreamt of this for too long to not go.” I respond.

“Me too.” Alice says happily.

“The outside world is much bigger and there are countless unexplored things to research.”

“Then I too am going”

A dwarf wrapped in black dropped down from the ceiling.

“I hope our paths will cross again someday, take care of yourselves out there and Ryan thank you for everything I am going to miss you.”

“Goodbye everyone.” Ryan says to everyone.

We pick up our things and head out, a few from the group who are still standing lead us through a corridor that goes upwards and starts widening. After a few minutes, we see a big steel door.

“Are you ready? I am going to open the door.” Says one of the dwarfs who lead us here.

We all say yes, and the door starts opening slowly while a small light starts coming out from the open space. The light engulfed us and when we open our eyes we see the view that spreads longer than I ever seen.

“That bright thing is the sun, white things in the sky are clouds and the green things in the below that go on for as far as we can see are trees.” Luna explains to us.

“It is beautiful.”

We step forward and see even more of the view and for a while we just stare at it in awe, when we look back we notice that the door has already closed behind us. I feel a small sadness in my heart but when I turn back to see the view again the feeling disappeared.

“This is the starting point of our adventure.”

Chapter one part one. Chapter two.