The Elderkin Prophet

Chapter 20

Nita and Ino barged through the dwarf gates with haste and began to make their way through the settlement. Only a fool was dumb enough to come in her path. As they closed in on the mayor’s residence, they passed the silent town. There were a few wooden buildings on the outskirts while most of the inner houses and structures were built with stone and other tougher materials. Many canopies with thick cloth were constructed high above the paths to protect the citizens from the hot sun. They take the hill that was leading upwards. It soon opened into an endless yawing chasm with its teeth wide open. The dwarfs had converted this into their base of mining operations.

The chasm looked deep and endless as it was covered with scaffolding at every inch of it.

“I don’t remember these guys multiplying so much in strength the last time we were here.” Ino remarked with doubt.

“They sure have boosted their strength in the past three years. I’m surprised to see so much progress from such a little village. I mean, look at those mines… They run so deep.”

Eventually the two reach the mayors house. It was located high up near the end of the winding hill. There were a few other houses which seemed to merge together to form a large one. All the eldest and most respected of the dwarfs lived here. As they move closer, they sight two beefy dwarfs barring the door to the mayor. Either sides eyes connect as they come to a blockade.

“Hold yer horses princess… What do you want from the mayor?” One of the guards bloated.

“What did you just call me?” Nita enraged.

“Calm down… They are not our enemies. We need their help remember.” Ino tried to persuade Nita.

“We’re here to talk to the mayor on behalf of Feregar.”

The dwarf makes a sour face and nudges the other one to call for the mayor. The other dwarf makes his way inside and comes out shortly after.

“Come, the mayor will see you now.”

Ino and Nita are escorted inside the dwelling. It was outstanding. Well decorated and over eccesivly filled with silver ornaments.

“He looks like much of a show off.” Ino commented.

“So much for ‘showing off’ if he can’t even come to terms with helping Feregar.”

They were lead into a large room which had a low ceiling. There was an unlit fireplace and small windows built into the walls. Near the centre of the room was an offcentered wooden desk. An old carpet struggled to decorate the floor beneath it. Sitting on a chair was a fat dwarf. He looked old with his greyed out hair and balding head. He groomed a fine and mighty beard which was braided into several knots. He did not seem to acknowledge or even care to honour the presence of Nita and Ino as they walked in. Did he fail to recognize their postion of power?

“Mayor Blindor of Brigna. What can I do for you?” He offers a seat.

“You know why we’re here. Don’t you?”

“I believe not…”

“You threaten my men to close the gates and shut off aid to our people. You even seem to create many other problems.”

The dwarf was a terrible liar.

“I think you have the wrong person. Why would I come in the way of your people?”

“CUT THE CRAP! I don’t have time for this nonsense.” Nita exclaimed.

“Don’t make this more difficult than it already is mayor.” Ino added.

Ino brings out a few parchments of paper and hands it to the mayor.

“These are contracts that were signed by the last mayor. It states that Feregar would protect this place as long as they stayed loyal towards us and served our interest.”

Mayor pretends to read through the document. He looks annoyed.

“Isn’t Feregar like…… Doesn’t Feregar cease to exist anymore? That could explain…”

Hearing this from the mayors mouth really triggered both Nita and Ino. They were furious and only a step away from murdering the lousy mayor.

Nita rises up and strikes her fists onto the table. The sound echoes through the small corridors and sent a chill up the mayors spine.

“How dare you!” Nita yelled. Almost landing a punch on the dwarf.

“The city may be destroyed but its people still live on. The contract is valid and you have no excuse to run away from it.” Ino concluded.

“Alright! Alright! I’ll agree to yer terms. You leave me no choice.. What do you want?” He bickers.

“We require you to provide whatever aid and supplies you can to help us settle. We need your assistance with food as well as reports of anything and everything from the nearby areas.” Ino addressed.

The mayor grumbles and accepts the terms.

“Good. Anything else?”

“Uuh… There is one last thing.” The mayor added.

“Yes?”

The dwarf looks embarrassed but also looked scared to tell them about it.

“There… Is a slight, I mean… Big problem we dwarfs are struggling with.”

“Explain quickly…” Nita grumbled.

“Uhh… A few months back… our miners dug into this chain of caves underground. It was rich with rare resource and substitutes… But something went terribly wrong. As we dug deeper and deeper, we grew richer. Some thought we had struck a gold mine.. But we were wrong….Very wrong. As we dug deeper each day, we struck a segment of the cave which tunnelled deeper into Phaera.”

Nita and Ino looked confused.

“Umm… We disturbed some…well things underground. They were hideous looking according to the miners. The were quick and tall. Dark as night. Their screams and howls wrought nightmares to every soul unfortunate enough to be there. They swarmed the mines and killed almost all our miners. It was impossibly hard to take down even one of those things with the equipment we had earlier. We managed to seal off that segment of the mines but our miners have been scared to venture down ever since.”

“So what are you implying?”

“Can you help deal with those creatures… Or find out more about them? We are really considering blowing them up to smithereens if there were too many but that would lead to us losing our hard mines. Brigna would lose its main occupation and the settlement would lose a lot of its income.”

“Fine…. I’ll look into it, but you have to hold your end of the bargain.”

“Yes I will! Please, help us help you. With the mines running again, we would be able to amass enough material to help your people. Try to find the dwarf named Hensley; he often sits around drunk next to the forge. He can tell you more about the creatures since he was the only one who survived.”

The mayor saw them to the door. He looked grateful.

“Selfish dwarfs…” Nita commented to Ino after they were well away from the house.

“Looks like it’s about to rain again.” Ino changed the topic.

The skies were turning grey as dark clouds began to swirl high above them. It wont be long before the rainy clouds would collide with the tall mountains and bring down a rainstorm once more.

“What do you think of the cave?”

“Strange, but I’ll see what I can do about it.”

“You are going to deal with it today itself?”

Nita sighs. “I guess I’ll have to, otherwise these lazy dwarfs won’t move a muscle.”

“For now, let’s find that fellow he mentioned. Hensley I believe…”

The two make their way to the forge. The mayor’s information was correct. Next the a little stone palsied sat a skinny dwarf. His skin looked frail and sunken in. He reeked of ale and had stains all over what looked like his last piece of clothing. He looked miserable as he sat alone in one corner.

The forgemaster greeted Nita and Ino with a nod. He returned to his duties when he realised that they were not here to meet him.

Ino kneeled next to Hensley while Nita maintained some distance.

“Hensley was it?”

The man looks up. He looked depressed. It seemed like he was suffering from nightmares.

“Yea?” He spoke weakly.

“What can you tell us about those things you saw in the cave?”

Upon asking this question, the man curled up into a ball and began to shiver. He started to utter a repeated loop of nonsense. Ino gets and looks at Nita.

“What should we do?”

“Not my problem.”

Ino sighs. He sits down next to the man.

“Hensley…”

The man reacted as if he hadn’t heard that name in a long long time.

“We were minding out own business before they came…. Tall and frail…. They..”

“Go on…” Ino encouraged.

“They crawled with such speed… We never had seen anything like it before. Their faces were unrecognizable and twisted… and …Oh the screams… Our ears bled that day in the mines…. I should have never gone there…. We should never have dug deeper.”

“Tell me, did anything work against those creatures?”

“Nothing that I can recall… Our steel weapons barely did enough to take any of them down…. Fire seemed effective but not for long. It would hold them off but only anger them further..”

“How many were there?”

The man cowers behind his hands…

“Dozens maybe more… I was too scared to look… They ran out of the darkness… Some climbed the walls like spiders… They dug their long and nasty nails straight through Bollin’s neck…. They pulled out Murins spine with one jerk!”

The man was unwilling to say anything else. He had lost his mind.

Ino picks himself up and turns to Nita. He makes a face.

“What do you want to do now?”

“No matter, we deal with this. I’ll go there myself.”

“Are you sure you want to go yourself?”

“I trust none better to do the job without getting themselves killed.”

The two leave the man a few silver coins for his information. They begin to make way for the camp. Once they crossed the gates, they were met by an informer.

“Milady! I bring word!”

“Go on..”

“A few gull that arrived this afternoon, they managed to rescue Jayyed and a couple of other soldiers from a wreck. The prince looks weak but is conscious.”

Realization hits both Nita and Ino. They begin to dash towards the camp with haste. They run through the camp and locate Jayyed’s tent. They barge through the flimsy curtains.

Jayyed was placed on a long bed. He was wrapped up in thick blankets. Looked like he was fighting a cold. He looks at his siblings enter and stare blankly at him.

“Leave us..” Nita commanded to the caretakers around Jayyed. They left at once.

Nita and Ino sit besides Jayyed. He looked like he was injured and was in a pretty rough shape.

“Hi..” Ino spoke softly.

Jayyed turns his head to Ino and smiles. Ino felt bad for his brother. They had their differences but the war had brought them together. Since the loss of their parents, Nita and Jayyed was all that he had left. There was no point in holding grudges but only moving forth together.

“See, I knew he would make it somehow… I’ve been trying to get rid of him since forever and have always failed.” Nita poked fun at Jayyed’s condition.

Jayyed laughs in pain.

“What happened to your ship?” Nita questioned.

“We crushed all of their ships… We were well off our way through Baylon Isle’s. Somehow the hull of the ship exploded into pieces. So did the other three ships sailing besides us.”

“How could that happen?” Ino asked.

“Guess we didn’t clear out all of those bandits… A few of them must have climbed their way into the gunpowder storages during the fighting. Stayed there… and blew up the powder. Some men tried to jump out into the shallow waters and swim to the islands but there were these fishes that minced anything that disturbed the water. There was no hope in sinking, so I crashed the ship into one of the islands.”

“What next?” Said Nita

“I don’t really remember…. Last thing I recall was being dragged by some gull look alikes.”

“The report mentioned of a gull ship that had docked earlier today..” Ino commented.

“Okay, I guess let him rest. There will be time to talk later.”

“Alright..”

“Rest easy brother..”

Ino and Nita leave the room and wait outside.

“Guess we owe the gulls a thank you?” Asked Ino.

“Most definitely.”

Nita calls out to the nearest captain for word on the whearabouts of the Gulls. The captain points them towards the Inn.

“Their at the inn inside the village.”

“Let’s get going then..”

The two begin to make their way to the inn. A light drizzle of rain had begun to fall.