Iskra stopped dead in her tracks as an eerily sensation overwhelmed her senses. She couldn’t quite describe what it was, but it felt as if her body was trying to tell her to run away as quickly as she can. There was also the unmistakable feeling of having her gut punched and her stomach slowly being rolled up along the inside of her body. The young girl blinked rapidly as she tried to shake away the strange feeling.

The short haired girl wondered if she had been struck by some kind of sickness as her vision became better attuned to the darkness inside of the tent.

“Are you Lady Iskra?” A low, husky voice called out to her. The disembodied voice oozed confidence and complete certainty as it spoke those words.

The voice had sounded as if it had come from afar as it echoed around the tent. As if the speaker was deep within a mine or inside a very long hallway, yet she knew better as the only plausible explanation was that it came from somewhere close by.

What’s more, she had found it odd that the usually brightly lit tent was nearly pitch black. The only source of light came from the flickering candles that danced to the whims of imaginary wind. Where once she would have been able to easily see the opposite end, she now struggled to find the closest edge of the table.

“Yes. Yes, I am.” She said as she brought a hand to her mouth and cleared her throat with a cough. “I’m sorry if my delay in answering may have offended you in any manner. It seems that a wave of queasiness overcame my senses just now. Though I would like to apologize in advance, I was never taught the proper etiquette when it comes to the culture of your people.”

She bowed slightly before she made her way towards one of the many nearby chairs and did her best to gracefully sit down.

“That’s quite alright. We’re used to…most people being uneasy around us.” The voice said as laughter followed. This time the echo was multiplied as an untold number of voices chuckled in pleasure at the man’s words, if it was indeed a man that spoke to her.

She presumed that the laughter had come from several other dwarves, yet she struggled to see anything in the near pitch black darkness.

“Am I correct in presuming that you are in fact the leader of these humans? That what we’ve been told is the truth and not some vapid joke? ” The deep sounding voice asked again as it echoed across the tent once more.

The voice had sounded unsure of itself. Not at its own words but at the fact that it was addressing the actual leader of the expedition and not some random child that had been brought in from some impoverished countryside village.

Who, in their right mind, would believe the words of a man that told them that a mere child led a ragtag group of peasants?

She shuffled her chair closer towards the table as she struggled in vain to get a clear view of the dwarf, of any dwarf for that matter.

Why was it so dark in here?

“You are.”

An arm came out of the shadows; the buff and well-toned muscular limb planted itself atop of the table as ink-black smoke snaked off of its surface. Next, a beard with snow-white hair loomed into sight. The long and well-groomed facial hair clanked against the table top as candlelight flickered against the gold and silver encrusted jewelry that was clasped around the numerous braids.

“Do you really mean that?”

His voice reverberated through her body, sending chills down her spine as the darkness began to lift and slowly revealed the dwarf in his entirety as well as the entourage that followed him into their encampment.

His heavily armored and extremely large weapon wielding entourage.

There were a total of six dwarves. No, make that around eight dwarves as another two came out of the strange darkness. Ink black smoke rolled off of their metallic forms as they inched closer towards their side of the table.

Their impressive looking weapons looked to be just as tall as Iskra as they gleamed in the dancing candlelight. The shimmering edges glistened as if they had been recently polished.

As her sight returned to a level that she had hoped to be somewhat capable of seeing in this blasted darkness, she quickly made out the number of guards that surrounded the robed dwarf. There was no doubt that they were in fact guards, as they all wore bulky, metallic armor that covered them from head to toe. Not a single scrap of skin, cloth or hair was shown. Each of them looked nearly identical in their red and black colored armor, except for their helmets. Each headpiece looked different from the last.

One appeared to have holes punched out where the eyes should be, another had half of their helm utterly devoid of features while the other side looked to be crumpled and in a near-ruined state, the figure to its right had a helmet similar to the first but had slits instead of holes and a fourth gave the appearance that something once pierced its metallic hide and punched right through. She hoped that it had been done at the discretion of the helms bearer and not in combat as she dared not imagine what the individual's face would look like. There were, of course, others, yet they all appeared to be remarkably plain compared to these particular four.

She wondered if any of them had beards as well, but this wasn’t the time or place to ask questions that could cause offense in some manner.

Each of the dwarves stared at her, their strange helms followed her curious gaze as she looked upon each of their figures before moving to look at another that miraculously morphed out of the darkness. Their hands, tightly wrapped around the shafts of their weapons, never flinched as they appeared ready for any sign of trouble.

Giant axes, swords, and halberdiers stood completely still as their wielders stood erect and with purpose. She would have mistaken them for statues if it wasn’t for the fact that she could just barely hear the sound of ragged breathing coming from the large group.

Something shuffled behind her as she heard metal scrape against leather.

The guards reacted instantaneously as they brought their weapons down, their metallic boots stomping in unison and they moved to rush the tent's entrance.

“There’s no need for violence. If we wished to cause harm to your people, then it would already be in a ruined husk.” Their leader called out in a matter of fact tone as he held out his left arm. The guards stopped immediately and returned to their posts once the newcomer returned their weapon to its sheath.

She turned to see who had the gall to interrupt the meeting, only to find that it was Captain Boris. He stared at Iskra with a grave look as he moved to take up a position near the entrance, the pommel of his sword poked out of the entrance as the man leaned against one of the tents poles. Maybe he thought he could be clever and use its movement as some sort of signal.

She would have to speak with the captain about his actions later tonight, but for right now she let the issue slide.

“I’m sorry for my Captains lack of trust in your intentions.” Iskra said as she turned back towards the dwarves, as she made sure to smooth out any wrinkles in her dirtied linen shirt. “Excuse me for sounding so rude, but I don’t believe I was told your name.”

The bearded dwarf planted an open palm over his chest with a loud thump before bowing slightly towards the young girl.

“My humble apologies young mistress, it is I who should be the one apologizing instead. We are guests in your home after all.”

Iskra nodded at his response as she made a mental note to return his politeness.

“My name is Zharatan, and I lead an expedition sent to these lands for a purpose most important to our empire.”

“It is an honor to meet you, kind sir.” She wasn’t sure if using a title she knew only humans used was appropriate. Her schooling only covered the appropriate honors used within the Ranislava kingdom. She made a mental note to make sure that she learned what to use.

“‘Sir’ is a bit much for me my dear.” Zharatan said as he held up a finger as if he wanted to put a pause to the girls’ thoughts. “Titles mean nothing to me. So please feel free to call me by my name.”

“Then I shall offer the same privilege to you as well Zharatan. I’m not sure if you have been told of this or not, but I have been stripped of any meaningful title. So feel free to call me by my name instead.”

The man raised an eyebrow at her words as he moved his right hand towards his beard, clasping at the pure white hairs as he started to comb his fingers through the braids.

“And yet here you are, leading this apparent group of exiles. Tell me, are you some sort of penal colony or is there a greater purpose in your being here?”

“Of sorts. You could call us exiles, but the exact nature of this expedition is a little more complicated than you would expect. Even I am suspicious that there’s more to our purpose than what I’ve already been told.” Iskra said with a smile as she turned towards Captain Boris.

He raised an eyebrow at her choice of words but made no sign that he wished to correct his apparent leader.

She wouldn’t be surprised to wake up one day and have what little power she now possessed to be suddenly taken from her, and the real punishment for her crimes revealed for all to see.

A growl came from the dwarf as he mulled over the young girls' words.

She hoped that being so upfront with her suspicions didn’t bring pause to the dwarves and their purpose in coming here, but she felt that being so open was in the best interest of everyone.

“May I ask how it came to pass that you were chosen to come here? If I heard correctly, you are the daughter of a powerful family. Why would anyone with the slightest amount of sanity send their daughter to this land?” His eyes gazed upon her as he adjusted his seat.

Iskra nodded with a faint smile.

‘Who told him that I wonder?’ She thought quietly to herself.

“You are correct but…” She struggled to find the right words. “It’s complicated, to say the least.”

Zharatan seemed happy enough with her cryptic answer as he shrugged away any concerns he may have had. If her response had in any way bothered him, then all he would have to do is find some cowardly peasant and force them to spill the pot.

“Forgive me for saying this, but our kingdom was unaware of any of your people living within these lands. We thought only savages and wild beasts could survive out here.”

The group of dwarves let out a deep chuckle as Iskra sat there with a dumbfounded look on her face. Their laughter reverberated throughout the tent, sending her heart into a frenzy as the sickening feeling inside of her belly returned.

“So what does that make you?”

The group leader asked, but before she could open her mouth to speak, he extended out his arm. More than likely it had been a rhetorical question.

“To give you a straight forward answer, we haven’t been here for longer than a decade. In the beginning, it was a handful of us but our numbers quickly grew to a few hundred once we learned the true value that lay beneath the mountains.”

She looked on in confusion as the dwarf stopped combing his beard and leaned over to his left, disappearing beneath the table as something rustled in the background.

“We aren’t here to just come by and say hello, in case you were wondering.” He called out from the table as something clunked heavily against the ground.

“We’ve actually come to ask for a favor. A very pathetic favor if you don’t mind me being so rude with my words.”

He cleared his throat as he pulled himself back up and straightened out his back, his hands were still hidden beneath the table as he continued to speak.

"First, I wish to explain why we’ve decided to come to you.” He looked at Iskra as if he wanted her permission to continue.

She didn’t know what to say so she stayed quiet and nodded for him to continue on.

“For the past two years, we’ve been having issues with the locals. Raids by all sorts of bastards have become routine in our day to day lives. Most likely they’re looking for a good scrap, and we’ve been able to give them a beating once they come knocking at our doors. At first, these raids were small and something we’ve been able to handle fairly easily but they’ve been steadily growing in intensity. We’ve already lost over two dozen of our numbers since the start of this spring and we’re starting to buckle under the weight of these assaults. It’s been decided that if we were to be attacked by a more competent enemy than we won’t survive.”

Iskra had heard that dwarves were a legendary people when it came to warfare and their resilience to last for an untold amount of time during several ancient sieges had even brought their feats to the mouths of the slowest of peasants. She wondered if the tales that had been told to her when she was younger was just that, tales told to unruly children to get them to behave. Or perhaps these dwarves weren’t equipped to face a full-on army, and the guards that now stood in front of her were wielding the best weaponry in their armory.

It was also possible that the creatures that inhabited this land had a strong martial culture. It would certainly explain the history of repeated failures in the kingdoms attempts to bring civilization into the duchy.

“Two months ago,” He continued on. “Our hold was besieged by a force of around five thousand goblins.”

The dwarf spat at the mention of goblins. He most certainly thought very little of the short-statured race of devilish sneaks.

Goblins were considered to be some of the foulest and hideous looking creatures that stalked the dark corners of the world. Their tiny forms, ash-colored skin, oversized jaws, and sunken red eyes were the stuff of nightmares that parents told their children.

She had even heard that it was common for a parent to claim that a goblin had stolen their newborn child, only to return them several nights later. Odd yet frightening things would happen around the village, and it was claimed that the child would have to be killed for the evil spirits to be banished. Needless to say, mayhem and destruction were some of the many things that followed in the strange rumors surrounding the little devils.

“It had been going on for nearly two months but somehow, in some way, their entire siege fell apart. Chaos and mayhem erupted in their ranks as the entire formation fell apart before our very eyes and before we knew it, we had ridden out and slaughtered any of the surviving stragglers while the smarter ones had scattered themselves in various directions. The next thing we knew, our scouts were reporting an army of humans making their way north towards a location that was three days west of where we were.”

“Now,” He said as he planted his fists firmly on the table. His thick, scarred fingers were interlocked together as they obviously hid something behind their flesh. “We don’t particularly care why you or your people are here nor do we see a reason for us to be at each other’s throats. So we decided to strike first and offer a hand of friendship. This is where the favor we wish to ask for will come into question.”

She stared at his hands as he spoke. Whatever it was that hid behind his hands had easily caught Iskra’s interest. Thoughts began to swirl in her mind as she wondered what the mysterious object could be.

“But first,” The dwarf said as he opened his hands and pushed the object towards the young girl. The item clattered and bounced across the table as it made its journey. It nearly rolled off of the edge just before reaching Iskra, but she managed to reach out and grab hold of the item before it could slam into the ground. “Consider this a small gift.”

As she held the item in both hands, she could understand almost immediately that it being described as small was not what she would have picked.

The item in question was hidden underneath a green silk cloth, interlaced with gold lining as her fingers failed to properly grasp its hefty and almost unwieldy form as they struggled to wrap themselves around the mysterious item.

Greed overcame the young girl as she carefully placed the object in front of her and slowly peeled away the smooth cloth. She gasped in awe as she saw what lay beneath.

It was a diamond. A very massive diamond with a deep, blood red hue.

The world around her went silent as she stared down at the magnificent looking diamond.

In the past, the raven-haired girl had seen only a handful of similar minerals and those paled in comparison to the one that she now gripped in the palms of her hands.

She remembered how her mother would always wear her favorite pair of earrings, the ones with a pair of diamonds hanging off the extravagantly crafted gold jewelry. The older woman would often brag to her circle of friends about how her husband must’ve spent a fortune in trying to find the right pair for the love of his life.

At first, she didn’t want to believe that what she was holding in her hands was an actual diamond. It was far too big and way too heavy to be considered nothing more than a scam. What’s more, she thought that they could only come in that clear, crystalline white color and not this deep and colorful red that managed to drown her vision.

Her fingers danced around its surface, feeling every single inch that they could. The object was impossibly smooth when she compared it to her limited knowledge. The artisans that worked on this particular piece must’ve taken quite some time in order to get rid of any impurities that it once had. What’s more, the young girl could barely get her fingers to wrap around the entire thing.

It couldn’t have been smaller than four fists put together. Four meaty fists to be exact.

The dark mineral gleamed in the candlelight as Iskra’s mind continued to falter while she tried to process what this ‘gift’ must have meant to the dwarves.

If what they were saying was true and this was, in fact, a gift to be given to the humans than its finders must have found an entire vein of diamonds that were similar in size. Why else would they give away such a valuable item to complete strangers?

Thoughts of similar diamonds, both in shape and size, began to swirl in her head. Some were larger than the one she held in her hands, others were smaller, and a few were similar in size. Their colors changed as well. Red was a common color while blue, purple, green and many more flashed before her imaginary hands.

There were so many questions the short haired girl wished to ask, yet she knew that she wouldn’t be able to contain herself if the raven-haired girl was given the opportunity to do as she pleased.

For now, she decided to play it cool.

“A gift?” Her voice cracked as she cleared her throat. “Surely you jest. If this is a gift, then you’re either telling me that you consider us a fool or you think the lure of greed will overwhelm my desires and force me to agree with whatever it is you want. I seriously doubt that you have any more of these things in your possession.”

She tried to hide the heavy mineral from Captain Boris as she saw him lean over to look at what it was his charge held within her hands. She scowled as the man let out an impressed whistle. She decided to hide the diamond on her lap, away from his prying eyes as she eagerly waited for Zharatan to speak.

The dwarf in question leaned back into his chair as he tugged at his beard while he watched the young girl clinging to his gift.

“For now, let’s say that we are aware of several others of a similar size.”

He let out a soft chuckle as Iskra mouthed a silent reply in shock.

“Consider the one you hold now as a gesture of good faith. No strings attached if you will. Besides, if we ever wished to have it back, then there’s no real way for your people to stop us.”

The raven-haired girl nodded in silence as her eyes shifted towards Captain Boris, his face appeared deep in thought as he mulled over the dwarfs' words.

“And this favor of yours, does it have anything to do with your concerns towards the well-being of your people? It would be hasty of me to walk away from this meeting without hearing out what it is you wish of us.”

The grizzled veteran nodded in approval as his charge began to ask what it was that the dwarves came here for.

“You’re correct.” Zharatan said as he cupped his hands together and placed his arms back on top of the table.

“We wish to establish an alliance between our two peoples. History has proven that dwarves and men can accomplish untold greatness when they join together. Once that alliance has been made then we were hoping that you would be so kind as to lend us aid. In the form of a sizable garrison to help repel any future attacks on our home. Of course, in exchange for some of your men we would be willing to give you a list of known deposits of various metals and minerals.”

The dwarven leader snapped his fingers and gestured for one of his guards to bring him something.

One of the guards, the one with the hole punched through his helmet, came up to the robed leader and held out an intricately designed metal tube.

Zharatan gave the man a mystified look as he gestured towards the two humans. The guard nodded his head and walked towards Iskra, his boots stomped loudly against the soft dirt as he made his way but was stopped by the girls’ guard who made to intercept the heavily armored figure.

The two men made the exchange in silence and went back to their original posts.

“You only have to trust me when I say that you won’t be disappointed in what you’ll find on that document.”

Iskra looked back towards the expedition’s military leader as he crossed his arms over his chest with the document kept hidden underneath his arms as he nodded towards the young girl.

The man seemed satisfied and was most likely ready to end the gathering.

“As I said before, it would be hasty of me to agree to any of your requests for an alliance or a small detail of our people.” Her eyes stared back at the dwarf as he nodded his head. “If you would be so kind as to allow a discussion between my people and I then I’m sure we can all come to some sort of an agreement that would benefit our two peoples. I’m not sure how long it will last but a few days should be enough for someone to come to a convincing argument.”

The dwarf's face remained relaxed at the mention of some sort of delay in a decision being made. Most likely they had already suspected that something similar would happen when they first made the choice in having this meeting.

“We would be able to provide you with a few tents, and we would gladly welcome in sharing our meals together with you. Would that be alright for you?”

Iskra held her breath as she waited for a reply.

The dwarven guards looked to their leader as he continued to stroke the braids of his beard without saying a word for what felt like an eternity. Several of the beards bracelets clinked together as his fingers poked at their elaborate surfaces.

After what felt like an eternity, the dwarf gave a warm smile and clasped his hands together.

“Very well, we never really expected you to say yes right away.”

The dwarf pushed himself away from the table, the chair somehow managed to scrape loudly against the soft ground as he made his way towards the girl.

“We’ll take you up on your hospitality as well.” He extended out his hand as Iskra made to meet him in the middle. “A few days rest from the mines would do wonders for these scrap heaps anyhow.”

Zharatan bellowed out a chuckle as he referred to his heavily armored guards.

Iskra on the other hand, offered a polite smile as the two leaders grasped their counterparts and shook in agreement.

“If you don’t mind me for asking,” Iskra said as her hand was entirely engulfed inside of the dwarfs. “I would love to hear about your people. I’ve never met a dwarf and have only heard vague rumors and tall tales that sounded more like drunken boasts.”

“It’s always a pleasure of mine to talk about the wondrous glories of our people.” Zharatan said with a laugh as he gently patted the young girls’ hand. “If you don’t mind me asking a few questions of my own, I’ve never seen a human woman as tall as you before. How tall are you exactly?”

This time it was Iskra who laughed at the dwarfs' words as the question over her height finally came up. It was always a solid way for many people to break the ice when at various social gatherings that her family had been invited to. Not only did people wonder about her family’s height but they would also ask something similar regarding her siblings and parents.

It was common enough question considering how tall she actually was compared to most people, especially since she was born into the family that held the title “The Giants of Ranislava.”

“Six foot two.” She answered as the dwarf let out an impressed whistle. “Save for my mother, my family are on average at a height of around six foot five. “

“And how old are you? I’ve seen my fair share of humans during my travels, but unless they’re wrinkly and grey-haired or just born, I can never guess their age.”

“I turned fourteen several months ago.”

"Well sell my soul and rip my heart out. What has that kingdom of yours been feeding you?”

The two laughed in unison as the meeting came to a close.

Later that night, after the encampment had its evening meal and most of the inhabitants were soundly asleep. The young woman named Iskra and the man who had introduced himself as Captain Boris argued intensely over the matter concerning the strange group of dwarves.

It was quite clear to Zharatan that the young girl wanted to take up the offer and provide a set number of men, but the grey-haired veteran argued against it. Whether that was out of distrust towards the dwarves or only because he wished to cause trouble for the young mistress, he couldn’t say as he could only see what his imp familiar was seeing and not much else.

A drawback to the shared vision spell that his master had taught him all those years ago.

“You think that tall bitch will take you up?” Came the voice of one of his guards as it echoed across the surprisingly large tent that the humans had provided them.

Zharatan sighed in frustration as the voice drew him away from the two humans, bringing his vision back inside of their temporary quarters.

“If it weren’t for the fact that I placed down silencing incantations I would be suggesting that you quiet yourself before those blasted humans outside of this tent heard your obnoxious voice.”

The dwarven leader growled out as he turned to face Agathor.

Why was it such a common thing for these walking, talking suits of armor to blare out their words as if they damn well owned the place? If it wasn’t for the fact that they suffered immense, torturous pain for every waking moment of their lives than the sorcerer would have blasted the fool with demonic fire. Even if it meant that his magic would only just singe whatever remained of his mortal shell beneath the hell-forged armor.

The guard bowed slightly as he pounded his fist over where his heart should have been. Zharatan wondered if the man still had organs to begin with.

“As for your question.” He said as he recited a short incantation and brought back the familiars vision into his mind, it looked like that nothing had changed between the two figures as they continued their arguments. “If you had paid any sort of attention to that girl then you would have seen the greed in her eyes flare up as she looked at our little ‘gift.’ In what reality would a woman turn down such a magnificent thing? You’ve all heard the saying, right?”

“Never stick your dick in crazy?” Said the voice of another guard, Gar’lok it sounded like.

The others laughed at his joke, but their leader remained stone-faced as he concentrated on his spell.

Why couldn’t the Demon Forges have stolen their mouths as well? He thought bitterly as he sighed in frustration.

“Speaking from experience Gar’lok?” He replied, causing the tent to erupt even further in the echoed laughter that was so common among their people.

Gar’lok said nothing at his masters' words, memories of his past had always managed to make him stay quiet. It was a common way for the sorcerer to force the blathering idiot to shut up.

“As I was saying.” He continued from before he was interrupted. “A diamond is a girl’s best friend.”

The argument on the other side of the encampment seemed to be drawing to a close as the young girl began to write something down. Captain Boris drew closer and gestured as he looked to be advising his apparent charge on whatever it was that she was putting down.

‘It seems they’ve decided in our favor. Good.’ Zharatan smiled to himself as he disconnected from the imps mind.

It appeared that his small inkling about that ridiculously tall girl had been proven correct for now, but he would need to find out more if he was to confirm his suspicions.

“Expect to leave within the next few days. We’ve got what we came for.”

This would be the start of a glorious alliance, he thought to himself as he recalled the ancient tales of his former brethren joining with the humans to do battle against countless foes throughout history.

While the humans would think of this as a classic alliance between the two races, he would be working in the shadows plotting to squeeze out all that he could before the well had dried up.

If the girl was to succeed in the goals placed upon her by her kingdom, then fantastic. If not, however?

He was more than confident that he could find plenty of buyers who would be willing to pay a hefty price.