Urist watched intently as the curious dwarf traveled around the room tracing the stonewalls with his hand. Muttering under his breath, he did a full circle around the room before he noticed the pale Urist.

With a deadpan expression, the dwarf walked up to him. “You, from my current estimations I’m not in hell. I know for a fact I have died so how do I walk among the living? Where are we on the continent? I don’t remember seeing this type of stonework used in the kingdom tell me are we in the barbarians land? Or in the goblin kingdom? Perhaps the savages of northwind?”

The barrage of questions threw Urist for a loop as he currently wasn’t in the best state of mind. Still, it wouldn’t stop him from answering the questions of the dwarf before him. 

Taking a deep breath Urist looked up and studied the dwarf. He stood at the same size as himself, tidy black hair and clean-shaven. Wearing glasses over his brown eyes that carried a hollow expression, thin lips, and a pale skin colorization. 

His clothes although they stuck out, fit the expressionless man. Unlike those that had come before him, he wore a neat and tidy military uniform that carried the colors of black, green and emblem of a green eagle on his left chest.

Clearing his throat Urist replied, “This isn’t your world and you are correct this place isn’t hell. At least, not yet. The land isn’t named for I haven’t named or explored much of it.”

The military dwarf crossed his arms, “So you are the leader I take it. Then tell me all you know.”

Urist shrugged, “I’m the leader until someone better comes along. So it’s like this…

For about half an hour the two men talked with mostly Urist answering all of Ubel’s questions. He also asked a few as well and found out his name while talking. They started from the beginning and worked their way up before the rat tide.

In this time the other three dwarfs were still in a standing daze which the two mostly ignored. It wasn’t until Fatty and Unicy came into the room did the dwarfs walk from their stupor.

“Hey, boss… We are preparing to bury the fallen outside. Will you say something for them?”

Closing his eyes Urist gathered himself to push himself on his feet unsteadily, “How many died.”

Unicy expression didn’t change, “Three died, three are infected. Archer Uto, Commoner turned warrior Usbain and commoner Unior. Of the infected, they are running a high fever which are Wind mage Gale, Yri, and Tänzer. Uroa and Briana say that we should make a medical room for them to recover, thankfully they gathered enough medical ingredients to treat the three. We also have some major injured who won’t be able to fight with their wounds until Light mage Adster heals them. Those being Roche, Stonechild, Gift, Littou, and Urmom.

“The fallen?”

“Where am I?”

“People died?!”

The expressionless Ubel ignored the awakened arrivals turning to Urist for questions. “Some trouble you didn’t tell me about?”

“You wanted me to start from the beginning. I was just about to get into that part.”

“Fair enough.”

“Fatty come over here and help me out. Unicy, get those three acquainted in how we run things. Ubel, you can follow me if you like, since you are a Strategist I’d like your opinion on how everything is run.”

“I’d like that as well. From what you said I got some ideas on how the defenses can be improved.”

Fatty came over and helped Urist in walking. Since close to a day had passed Urist had regained some strength, although not enough to be combat-ready. When Urist entered the tunnel his teeth were grinding as he sniffled a roar he wanted to let out.

They had lost three and seven weren’t fit for combat. Urist knew after doing some quick math that in just one day they had gone from 47 strong to 36 as he was still unable to fight. If they were to lose anymore, then defending the wall would become troublesome. 

Exiting the tunnel, warriors dug graves for the dead under torchlight. The dead lay on the ground with blood-drenched cloth covering their faces. The rest of the dwarfs surrounded them, Urist could feel the bleak atmosphere. People were crying, listless, or devoid of the cheer that they usually embodied.

Urist forced himself to look everyone in the eye, even though he just wanted to crawl into a hole and die for failing them. Biting his lip he drew blood to keep his mind focused that he couldn’t run away when so many people needed him. 

If he ran away who would keep everyone together and make sure they had the best chance of survival. He had to own up to his own mistakes and press forth for the remaining people counting on him to lead the way.

It was his responsibility and he would see it to the end.

As he was about to speak to his people, Ubel whispered to Urist, “Since you’ve talked about how important this Marketplace is. Perhaps it has a way for revival? I say bring back the archer since they are hard to train, but don’t bother bringing back the commoners since it isn’t worth it.”

Urist was calm up until Ubel talked about how commoners lives didn’t matter making him almost erupt into anger. He turned to Ubel with a cold glare, “I will look into the marketplace as your suggestion is good. But don’t you dare say commoners lives are worthless.”

The expressionless Ubel stared for a moment before turning away, “Commoners are only good for farming and quickly gathered military militia to die in the place of real soldiers. Let’s see how long you can keep that naivety of wanting to save everyone. You’re not god.”

Checking the market place intently Urist eyes shone full of blazing fury, “Then I’ll become a god.”

With his dead glazed eyes, Ubel scorned Urist proclamation, “A fool who reaches for the sky. It’ll be intriguing to watch you burn to dust.”