“Humans don’t really value knowledge, at least not in the places where we live. Muscles on your arms are considered better than muscles between your ears”, Nigel answered reluctantly.

“And do you agree with that?” Dulin continued.

Nigel’s hand reached for his flute, holding it to feel its warmth.

“No”, he said. “I believe that strength is necessary to survive, but intelligence is also necessary to lead a good life. That’s why I joined the revol-“ he stopped in the middle of his sentence, remembering that he didn’t know whether Dulin knew about the revolution.

“It’s okay”, he said. “I know. Speak freely.”

“Well”, Nigel continued hesitantly. He still wasn’t sure if he should tell him but, now that he had begun, he couldn’t stop. “As I said, that’s the reason why I joined the revolution. I want to rebuild our kingdom, to make it more intellectual. I even want to build a proper school, where the children can be taught by properly-educated teachers instead of just their parents. Is it too much to ask for?” Having opened his heart, Nigel sought approval. His voice was shaking towards the end. He had never told anyone about this, probably because nobody had asked him about his opinion.

“I find it a wonderful dream. Perhaps we could also make a university, and explore the depths of our knowledge about the world… But I’m just a scholar myself. You see, dwarves don’t pay much attention to education either. However, since we are up here, all alone, we have an intimate interest in good stories, which includes history. And how about you, big one? Do you know about the story of the races?”

“I do, in fact”, replied Arthur, surprising the dwarf. “In ancient times, the elves and the dwarves were the only races in existence, and it is said that gods walked the earth alongside them. The Land of the Six Kingdoms was a sole country, where the elves handled the intellectual jobs and the dwarves anything that demanded usage of the body.”

“Yes, the elves were indeed gifted with intelligence and the dwarves with strength”, mumbled Dulin.

“But then, the elves began to conduct experiments in secret”, Arthur continued. “Crossbreeding was possible then and, through science, the elves began to experiment on dwarves. They wanted to create a superspecies, possessing both higher intelligence and bulk strength. We don’t know exactly how they did it, but they tried different combinations of bloodlines, or something even more fundamental.

For a long time, all of the results were abominations, unable to survive for more than a month. But one day, a creature was born that was neither dwarf nor elf, and yet it could use its mind and speak like them and move its body as they did. The difference was that, although it had a form like the others, its body was that of an animal.

Nevertheless, they were ecstatic with their success and continued the experiments. To their surprise, even if they used the same process, the animals made were different from one another. Eagles, bulls, frogs, all kinds of animals were wandering around and speaking to the elves and dwarves, although they were considered inferior to the others. They were dismissingly called Halflings, as they were half animals. At some point, the elves banished them to the northeast regions of their country and, for a long time, nothing was heard of them again. They also stopped the experiments, at least for a while, until they had another idea.”

“Yes, yes, that’s what I’ve heard as well”, Dulin commented happily. “How do you know all these?”

“I was once friends with a dwarf who had come to my kingdom. Well, he was more like a father to me than a friend. He is back to your kingdom now.”

Dulin stopped and stared at Arthur. “You don’t mean Haimer, do you?”

Now it was Arthur’s turn to be surprised. In fact, he was so surprised his jaw dropped. “You know him?” he asked.

“Do I know him? He is my friend!” Dulin shouted. “So you are the Arthur he’s always talking about! I knew it was weird to have the same name! You have grown into such a nice man, and you still remember his stories. Wait until he hears that… Or rather, you should tell him yourself. I’ll take you there as soon as we have time.”

“Really? Thank you, Dulin, you are great”. For the first time since they had begun their journey, Arthur was feeling genuinely happy. All this time, he was looking forward to seeing his adopted father, but at the same time he was worried more than he could describe.

Would Haimer be alright? Would he remember him? Would he accept who he had become? Like the last customers in a bar, looking through the empty glasses of beer hoping to find something more to drink before going back home, Arthur was slowly reliving his memories with the dwarf, hoping to delay the fated reunion.

Now, knowing he was alive and well, a great burden he didn’t know he was carrying was released from his chest. “I will tell you the rest of the story later, when I take you to Haimer”, said Dulin, still smiling. “We have arrived at the main palace.”

Inside a hollow cave below the top of the mountain, reigning over the town below it, was the palace. In this huge cave, an incredibly high ceiling, which was nothing but the mountain peak itself, was somehow supported by numerous humongous pillars. At the flat bottom of the cave were houses, a lot of houses. The walls were filled with ladders that led to openings, which led to what seemed like houses above the surface. On one side of the cave, the palace towered above the city, stretching from the bottom to the top of the cave.

It was a castle-looking building, but had several notable differences from a real castle. It stretched in height, not in width, with the support of the cave’s walls behind it. Its entrance, at the bottom of the cave, was located among some walls, so it was tough to enter unnoticed. It was almost next to the entrance where the passage they were following led. As they found out later, the palace stretched far within the rocks at its back, with most of it being dug rather than built.

“How did you make this?” Arthur asked, looking above in awe. This wasn’t his first time inside a mountain, but Waterslide’s snaking caverns paled in comparison to such a monumental achievement. “It’s humongous!”

“Oh, this wasn’t made by the dwarves, at least not that we know of”, replied Dulin, amused at their awestruck faces. “We just made some minor changes. For the most part, we just found it here.”

“Just like Wate-, I mean, are you not afraid it will collapse on your heads?” At the last moment, Nigel remembered that the dwarf probably didn’t know about Waterslide.

“It’s holding up quite well, isn’t it? There is strong magic of unknown origin supporting it, besides those pillars. It will be fine, don’t fret. Since it hasn’t fallen for hundreds of years, why would it fall now?” he wondered aloud. I wonder… thought Nigel, but kept that thought to himself.

The guards at the entrance nodded at Dulin when he entered, greeting him with phrases like “Still alive, old man?” Nigel was a little worried at first, but Dulin explained that dwarf soldiers tended to express themselves in such a way. The young human nodded, noticing how politely he had explained it.

The palace was humble in its luxury at first, having nothing but its bare walls, yet it turned more interesting as they moved inside it. Approaching the throne room at the deep end of the palace, slightly decorated walls took the place of the bare ones at the entrance. Then, paintings and wallpapers made an appearance, followed by prestigious jewels and cutlery. Eventually, they made it to a big red wooden door.

“You’re not as shabby as you look”, Nigel commented as Dulin opened the door.

Beyond it lay an extraordinarily long stone table, probably designed to accommodate tens and tens of important guests. However, only six seats of this table were currently occupied. In three of them sat General Escers, Miss Nan, and Sahtar. The other three chairs held three dwarves, all middle-aged, all bearded, all upset.

The room was well-lit by torches and had a high ceiling, which made being underground somewhat more bearable. The throne could be seen at the back end of the room, but the King wasn’t using it for now. What did we do already? thought Nigel and sighed as an enraged king stood up.

“You think you can leave a king waiting?” he shouted, and his voice made Arthur and Nigel cower.

“My King, you said we should let them sleep”, one of the other dwarves reminded him.

“Oh, is that so?” shouted the king, turning to his counselor. “Then why can’t I remember it?”

“Perhaps it is the beer, my King”, noted the last dwarf. At second glance, Arthur and Nigel noticed a beer jug on the table, right in front of the King. “Oh yeah? Well, I’m not drunk at all”, he shouted again as he gulped a generous amount of beer, not forgetting to clobber the jug on the table when he let it down.

“Kids, do I look drunk?” he asked them.

“You do, Thumer”, said the General. “Don’t tease the kids. Here, we have saved two seats for you”, he turned to them. Confused and hesitant, they walked to their seats. Arthur sat next to Miss Nan, while Nigel sat next to Sahtar. General Escers was sitting in the middle, right opposite the King. Dulin also took his place next to one of the other dwarves.

“Let me introduce you”, said the general. “These are Nigel and Arthur”, he pointed at them with his hand. “This is His Majesty, the dwarven King Thumer. Beside him are seated the Wise of the right, Odistros, and the Wise of the left, Heins.”

Both at the same time, Arthur and Nigel stood up and bowed deeply, remembering the strict lessons Miss Nan had put them through regarding their behavior in front of the dwarven royals. “It is an honor to meet you”, they said as one.

They sat down quietly and waited for the negotiations to unfold. They only had to watch anyway. “Their king is not usually like this”, Sahtar whispered in Nigel’s ears while the General was arguing about some villages in the north. “He was drinking with friends when we came here, and it’s their habit to never let a guest wait. It’s all because we didn’t inform them of our day of arrival beforehand.” Nigel nodded to show that he understood.

In fact, he understood a little more than what Sahtar had said. Now, they were forced to deal with a drunken king, as they had to respect the dwarves’ tradition. Nigel heard the King complain about the quality of beer and then going on with a monologue about its excellent taste.

He saw the General frown in disbelief, and the dwarf Wises raise their eyebrows to each other. He felt a sudden urge to laugh at the tragicomic situation, but he managed to hold it in. Arthur, on the other hand, seemed oblivious to the situation and he struggled to find some meaning in what was going on. Apparently, Miss Nan hadn’t explained anything.

After a few more minutes, the conversation turned to the topic at hand. “Aid you in a revolution?” asked the King, and his mouth opened wide. The General had decided to be bold about it.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“I see”. Now the King seemed a little more sober. “I have heard some things about your situation. The elves are backing him up, aren’t they?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“So you are asking me to go to war against one of the most powerful and most technologically advanced nations, to back you up in a war where I have nothing to gain. Am I correct, human Escers?”

“Yes, Your Majesty, although we believe there will be no need for anyone besides the humans to fight. And also, please don’t forget that I am a General.” This last one got everyone around the table even tenser. He was almost so aggressive it was insulting.

“General of an organization I have yet to recognize”, spoke the King, and his words were sharp and pointy. Any effect the beer had looked to be gone now. “How far do you think you can get by disrespecting me?”

“I thought the dwarves valued guts and boldness. Was I wrong?” replied the General in a polite, yet steady tone. He was sitting straight, almost looking eye-to-eye with the King who, by the way, was tall for a dwarf.

None of them were armed, of course, and yet everyone’s hand moved to where their swords usually were. Everyone except for the King and the General. The two men stood against each other for a little, the King staring right in the General’s eyes and the General doing the same but in a more polite manner.

“You are a fearless man, General”, the King finally said, and everyone understood the meaning behind the last word. “I appreciate your approach, but I can’t promise you anything.”

He turned around and walked towards the exit of the room, followed by his three companions.

“Make yourselves at home”, he said, waving his hand in the air, never looking back, “we’ll speak again in the morning.”

The King was walking firmly and, unlike most dwarves, he had something that made him stand out despite his height. Arthur pondered about that for a bit. Was it his well-built body, was it his wild beard? No, more like the King’s Aura, as they say.

“That went much better than expected”, said Sahtar with a note of admiration in his voice. “Well done, Escers.” And with that, they all went to find their rooms. It was already dark outside, and a good night’s sleep was all they dared to hope for.