42 Interrogation
1538 Words
"I'll give you more food if you give me more answers. Again I am not interested in punishment, but you must understand I have to keep you tied up and hold you accountable for your theft. My men worked round-the-clock go get that food, and they aren't too keen on having robbers go unchecked." Janus said.
"Well, ye better get your guards sorted then. No offense but a few slackers on yer large territory and you'll get what ye got."
The guards looked at him sternly. Raghar let out a large guffaw.
Elgar responded. "Were stretched too thin as it is, any cunning creature can just sneak around and take what they want to give a small opening. But you're one to talk, getting caught in a simple trap after just one night. You must be desperate."
This time all the guards laughed. This made the dwarf sulk and curse under his breath. Janus couldn't help but smile as well.
"Anyway, enough of that. Let's cut to the chase, were you alone or was there anyone helping you in steal... err taking our food?"
"Aye, I am alone. I am but a mere hunter on the surface looking for food ye see."
"How far is your settlement, and how many of you are there?"
"I told you, I am but alone ye fancy-pissing highness. I was exiled from my people. I am now making my own way as a lonesome vagabond."
"That's a lie." Said one of the guards.
"I agree." Janus said. "You took food that's unrealistically large enough for you to carry. You must have some accomplices, or a village waiting for you at the very least. Where is it? Under the mountains? Perhaps by the south?"
"Yer food is dried and preserved. It will last me the whole winter if I rationed it properly. I tell ye, I am all alone."
"But still... three sacks worth? For something that's as short-- I mean, someone in your stature, three sacks would last more than a season. Having that much is unnecessary unless you have no other means of finding food, not to mention how you'll get tired of eating the same thing for that long. If you were indeed a lone vagabond as you say you were, you wouldn't come back again with all the risk involved."
The dwarf looked appalled, Janus kept speaking.
"There are two possibilities here. It's either you have some other mouths to feed or you are stole for something trade. The latter is highly unlikely as no trade routes are present in the area. So speak up, or else I'll have to keep you detained."
"I'm tellin ye the truth and ye can do with it whatever ye want. Shove it up yer arse fer all I care. I don't trust yer kind. Us dwarves have suffered enough from your lot through the ages. So go ahead and do what ye must. Ye ain't even given me a second bowl yet fer all yer fancy schmancy investigating and such." The dwarf spat.
Janus sighed. A second bowl wouldn't do much if the dwarf would just kept lying. He ordered for the dwarf to be tied up outside as he mulled over his options. The guards tied him up with a huge pillar on the back of the building.
He could hear some of the children yelling in a jingle: "Shove it up yer arese he halfwit!" in an uncanny imitation of their new friend and prisoner. Janus sighed ordered the dwarf to be gagged again.
#
Just when Janus moved away from the kitchens and back to the fields he saw a small band of goblins and guards led by Captain Caleb and Hakkar. They were moving towards him.
The men behind the captain were lugging around what looked like sacks of food. Hakkar was raising his hands and was waving at him. The goblin looked like he was in a good mood.
"Princey! We found it princey! We followed the trail left behind by the tiny little dwarfsman and it led us to find sacks of food all bundled up and dumped in a ditch. They're covered in a bush like we wouldn't see it yeah? But Makkie's Earthsense is as keen as ever, come tell him how you found it Makkie."
Makkie stepped forward. A colorful figure with her face painted white, wearing gemstones in chains all over her body.
"Makkie thought the dwarfy will have the smell of ore in him, guessing as he might be a miner just like goblinfolk. So I followed the smell and it led us to a ditch with a freshly-dug earth scent. There we found the pile of food that the dwarfy stole."
"Huzzah! Mammoth slayers are the best." Yelled Hakkar.
"Huzzah!" echoed his men along with Makkie, followed by some of the snickering guards.
"But there's more sire. Tell them what else you discovered Makkie." Said the Captain.
"Why yes Captain. There is a faint smell that leads towards the south Princey, the same smell of ore that lingers in the dwarfy den. If we follow that path it may lead us to their home."
Janus thought of the implications.
"Just as I expected. So the dwarf that we caught was lying. If you can trace it by its scent then there really is a dwarven settlement over there. It's possible that they have stocks of iron ore we can use."
"So we attack this dwarven home now, yes?" Hakkar chimed in. "Hakkar will rally his men. The thieving dwarves will not know what hit them. The goblins will plunder and kill all for the glory of Princey and the Mammoth Slayers. Huzzah!"
Hakkar's men echoed the cheer again, but this time without the guards, who looked just as baffled as Janus was.
"What? No! We can't do anything rash. A war is not something we can afford right now, we can't even feed ourselves without a lot of work. I need to wait for the council to decide on this. I'm not quite sure what to do, at the very least we need Yvaine. Captain, have you sent a wagon to call for her?"
"Yes sire. But I think they would still be at least an hour away."
Janus heard a low growl.
He mustn't have noticed due to the commotion but Otis was now at his side. The dog spotted something in the woods, back in the direction where Caleb's group came from.
He started barking loudly, startling everyone in the vicinity to look into that direction.
A horn sounded, echoing across the mountain. And the cries of dwarves reverberated from the thick vegetation of trees.
#
"Brace yourself." Captain Caleb called out. The guards steadied themselves and held their spears tightly.
"Keep alert Mammoth Slayers!" yelled Hakkar as they moved into formation.
Small figures emerged from the trees, thick and hairy and armed with halberds and spears. They had donned headdresses made of grasses and twigs for camouflage and their faces were covered in paint. They were all yelling, as if in a heightened state of anger. They charged towards them.
"The mountain is ours. Yaaarrrgghhh"
"For Oggie!"
"Let our friend go ye bastards."
They charged towards them.
"Hold your ground! Defend yourselves but try not to hurt them. We cannot afford a fight!" Janus yelled.
There were other guards and workers coming to their line after hearing the commotion. Some were armed while others were holding farming tools and kitchen equipment.
Janus gripped Otis' collar, trying hard to keep the dog calm and to stop him from running.
Suddenly there was a loud yelp, and part of the dwarven group collapsed underground.
"The pit traps!" someone yelled from behind Janus.
The other dwarves stopped running as soon as they noticed their friends fall. They put their weapons down and started cursing and gesturing wildly at each other. Then they started throwing punches. Janus expected a battalion of dwarves, but there couldn't have been more than a ten. He couldn't help but be amused. They looked like they were in a drunken brawl.
"I told yer we should check for traps first! Whose idea was it to charge anyway!" said a dwarf with a dark beared.
"Get off me yer dingus. I told ye we should scout them out and charge only if necessary!" said another with a shaved head.
"Wait, but we painted and garbed ourselves. Ya know there's no more holding back once we do that?!" said the last one with her funny hair dyed in blue.
The trio kept wrestling among themselves. They tumbled and fell and punched at each other with curses thrown in between shoves and hasps. Meanwhile, their friends started yelling from the bottom of the pit.
"Hey! Get us out of there ya idiots! What are ye doing there? Fighting amongst yerselves in enemy territory? Ya useless lot!"
When Janus and his men came closer, the three dwarves that were duking it out suddenly stopped and huddled amongst themselves. They knelt down and bowed their heads. Their faces were now covered with mud and grass with small cuts and bruises in between.
"Please spare us! We only came for our friend. We didn't mean to charge at you." Said the bald one.
"Yeah, it was Oggie who stole yer food." Said another
"We warned that i***t not to do anything. We promise! we told him." Echoed the third one.
"We do not wish to fight, we only want our friend back."
"That's enough." Janus said as he signaled for the guards to round them up.
- Writer
