Chapter 25

Rebuilding

Everyone was standing in the pitch black darkness of the cave. They called out to each other and found that Rome was there with them. He had managed to cut his ropes when he heard the commotion of battle, but in the tunnel he had been working in both guards had stayed. While the dwarves he was with were fighting the guards, he used a jagged rock to free himself. But just as he cut himself free more goblin guards rushed in and killed him and the other three dwarves he was with.

Once he was done with his story, Arden told everyone to get out of his cave and bring back some clothes for him and Jex. As they were walking out, a couple of guys “accidentally” brushed against her naked body, and when she yelled about it, no one would admit to it. Jex suspected it was her own husband who was the culprit. It was just like Arden to cop a cheap feel in the dark and blame someone else.

They walked out of the cave and into the night sky. Rome had been watching the foreign star alignments since they arrived, and he guessed the sun had just set. The moon was either much smaller or much further away than Earth’s moon, because it looked much smaller and gave less light for them as they were walking.

The ground hurt their bare feet and they were reminded of first arriving there, naked and lost in difficult terrain. Antic spotted two coyotes approach, and the group pretended to be weak and injured. The coyotes attacked and Brun nearly killed one with Fire 2, while the others nearly killed the other with three casts of Fire 1. Another round of Fire 1 had them so severely injured that rocks smashing against their skulls finished them off. They used jagged rocks to remove the pelts and cut them into crudely shaped moccasins, tying them together with thin flexible shrubs. They walked a couple hours to the north and drank from the spring, then slept for the night.

It took them three days of painful steps to reach Small Hammer. Baybil wasn’t there, and they weren’t surprised since he was walking back from the Salton Sea. It would take him at least another three days to make it back. No one in the village had the authority to allow them to pass through the shield, so Baybil’s wife brought out to them food, water and hastily sewn clothes. They thanked her over and over again, knowing they truly had nothing yet again, after having passed through what charred ashes remained of Home. Arden had warned them there was nothing left of it, but the sight completely demoralized all of them and they wanted to get away as soon as they saw it.

With better leather shoes and full bellies and water skins, they made good time getting to Calico, in less than three full days, also being aided by their extra strength and stamina they had earned in the caves. When the dwarves saw them approach, many ran out to greet Torger and welcome him in. The humans looked around and saw repairs to the two stone houses nearly complete, with many dwarves walking around carrying things and starting their own projects. It looked like things were going well, until Torger began overhearing individual conversations.

“No we don’t need to plant a garden, we have no water.” “I don’t care what you say, building a brewery is more important than building another house.” “That pick is mine and you know it. My father gave it to me, now you give it back or I’m gonna bust your nose.”

As dwarves noticed Torger, they began to surround him with their ideas and demands of what were the priorities in the village. They paid little attention to the rest of the group. Torger needed to get away from the crowd of pestering questions.

“Listen up, all of you! My friends and I have just been released from slavery, and have had a long journey. We are tired and hungry. We’re going to the house to sleep, and I’ll answer questions in the morning.”

A worried looking dwarf said “You’re going into Small Foot’s house? Just you humans? Are you going to stay away from us and collect riches for yourself like he did? Arden said you would be a different kind of ruler.”

Some dwarves chimed in with their newly founded skepticism. Finally Torger was able to ease their minds, saying it would be just for one night, and in the morning he would begin organizing work parties. That calmed the dwarves down just enough for Torger to be able to slip inside the house. They found a large table, that was low to the ground, with small chairs, all dwarf sized. Since they weren’t able to sit down, they laid down on the flagstone floor.

Looking at the ceiling, Torger said “We need to make a plan. What do we have? What do we not have? What are our priorities?”

Graul said “We need to leave Calico soon, and rebuild Home. There is little water here, and in a month it’s going to be a hundred degrees.”

Brun said “We need to take clothes to Arden and Jex. He won’t let her walk here naked, and they’re stuck there near that cave until then.”

Rome said “You need to change our respawn point to here. Add us as villagers. If Calico gets destroyed, we’ll respawn at the cave, and if the cave gets destroyed, we can respawn here.”

Antic said “I’m hungry. Let’s ask the dwarves to bring us some food.”

Torger thought it weird he could ask for food and it might be brought to him. That would not have happened with his friends at Home, but the dwarves respected him. He took the easiest idea first, and added them as residents to Calico. As he was checking out the city in his drop down menu, he found a new option.

You are the mayor of a village that has reached level 3. You may change the village name if you wish. You may also give your villagers a collective name.

He asked the others about it. Calico was fine, but once they rebuilt Home they would definitely change the name. As for a name to give to the dwarves of Calico, he had no idea. Now that he thought about it his group of friends needed their own name too.

He asked the others about it and a few names got passed around but they settled on Regulators, since they planned on bringing peace and prosperity to their altered homeland. They felt they really were in a wild west of sorts.

With that settled, they rested for the night and in the morning they walked outside to address the dwarves. Torger asked his friends to gather all the dwarves in Calico, while he climbed to the hill with the stakes. When all the city was nearby and finally hushed down, he began his first public address ever.

“Dwarves of Calico! I was told by Baybil that you have elected me to be mayor here for one year. I do not wish to force my leadership upon you, so I ask you plainly, so I can know for myself. If you wish me to be a temporary mayor, state your approval now.”

Most of the dwarves gave a hearty cheer, but a few looked unsure about the idea. He was glad to see none showed contempt for him.

“Very well. I plan to bring prosperity to you, and also safety. Prosperity doesn’t mean having a pound of silver for every dwarf, with nothing to spend that silver on. I want to see more ale around here!”

A great roar of approval greeted him.

“I want every dwarf to have iron armor and a steel battle axe!”

More cheers raised his hopes that they might actually follow his ideas. He became bolder.

“I want us to eat omelets every breakfast and cherry pies for desert every night!”

The dwarves looked at him in total confusion and his friends nearly choked holding back their laughter. Sure every politician makes promises that no one on Earth can keep, but he had to promise them something they wanted, and it was obvious they never heard of an omelet or a cherry, but he knew they knew what a pie is. He let the matter go and pressed on, but made a mental note to bring these dishes to the village.

“The point is, we want a variety of foods, and plenty of it. We want nice clothes and jewelry. And we can have these things. But we must work hard, we must work smart, but most of all we must work together. There are many things to do in the next month, but the most important will be to move to the mountains to the southeast.”

As soon as he said this the dwarves booed and shouted him down. He said something wrong and he had to fix it fast. “You know there is very little water here, and in a month it will be hot enough to cook a rabbit on the sand. This is a great place to live in the winter, but it is uninhabitable during the summer.”

A tough looking dwarf stepped forward. “We know we will have to move out for the summer, but by the looks of those mountains we think elves probably live there. We dwarves refuse to share the same mountains with elves.”

Others spoke out and added their agreement that it’s best for dwarves and elves to live separately. This was news to Torger. They would have to go live near water for the summer and fall, and Silverwood was the nearest lake to them. He didn’t want to live near Palm Springs in the summer, or the Colorado River at Blythe. It could top a hundred and twenty degrees in both those places. The only other water around was the Kern River, and that was a couple hundred miles to the north. No, Silverwood was their best option, and he had to make it work.

“My friends and I, we are called The Regulators, will go to those mountains and see what’s there, if there is a place we can stay for the summer. I would like to take two dwarves with me. Which two of you are able to be polite to elves for one day?”

After several seconds of no one responding, a mother pushed her teenage looking son forward. It’s hard to guess a dwarves’ age, Torger thought. The boy sheepishly took a few steps forward on his own. Torger smiled at him and looked at the rest of the villagers. No one else approached, but he would wait them out. A full minute of awkward silence passed before one of the house building dwarves approached. Torger recognized him as one of the two dwarves employed by Small Foot to work on his personal home. Torger wondered if this dwarf wanted to elevate his position in the community by sucking up to the new mayor. But at the moment it didn’t matter, he had his two volunteers and more importantly saw they were willing to follow his leadership. He continued vocalizing his to-do list.

“Very good. We will leave at dawn tomorrow. There are a few more things we need workers for. First, we are hungry. Is someone willing to cook us breakfast?” An old dwarf woman wearing a cooking apron nodded. “Good, thank you. Next, Arden and his wife Jex need clothes brought to them. Brun, would you be willing to go to Indio with a dwarf you don’t know?” Brun easily agreed. “Good. Who is willing to make clothes for Arden and Jex, and who is willing to travel with Brun?” A few hands went up and Torger was inspired by the volunteers cooperating with his leadership. “I appreciate it, thank you for helping and volunteering for the good of the village. Next, and this is the most difficult, we need to make a dirt road between here and Small Hammer. That might take the whole month until we move somewhere. I need three of you for that. Who will it be? No one volunteers? Then I will pick three. You, you, and you, make a clear and easy to walk dirt path to Small Hammer, and don’t give me those dirty looks, everyone will work here. Next we need two full time cooks for the village.” Two dwarf women raised their hands. “Thank you for volunteering so quickly. We also need a water carrier, someone to carry water every day to the dwarves making the road.” A father pushed his teenage son forward. “Lastly, all the rest of you, once we return from Lake Silverwood, you will be joining me to go slaughter all those goblins and free your dwarven brethren!”

Looks of shocked horror spread across all the faces. The old dwarf stepped forward and said “With all due respect, Mayor Torger, you may lead us in the ways of our own village, but you may not interfere with the sovereignty of other villages. They sent those dwarves there for a reason, and you must respect their right to do that. More importantly, however, is the fact that you are not a war chief. Only a war chief can declare a war, and while you are Mayor Torger the Liberator, liberating those dwarves would be an act of war against the goblins. Baybil will have to answer for his actions at the next council meeting for enticing young dwarves to follow him to aid you. I hope for his sake they killed no goblins and he did not directly free you.”

Torger thought about what Baybil had actually done. He found him, handed him armor, a sword and a shield, then ran out of the tunnel. Did he kill any goblins? Did the dwarves with him kill any goblins? Torger couldn’t remember that happening, but Graul knew some of the dwarves had killed goblins. Graul kept that to himself.

Torger continued. “OK, the goblins will wait. But do not despair, I will see to it that the rest of you get an opportunity to find glory in victorious battle. Who is in charge of the city finances? What do we have to trade with the elves, if there are any near the lake?”

A stout dwarf walked up. “After we killed Small Foot and his guards, we divided all his treasure amongst ourselves. The city doesn’t have money yet, we took what we earned over the last twenty-five years.”

Torger sighed. He was mayor of a silver mine and still broke. “We have to fix that. The rest of you will mine silver, and as I promised, you will keep ninety percent of it. For those of you with other assignments, you will be paid ninety percent of what comes into the city treasury. I will leave Rome here to monitor the amount coming out of the mine. Rome, will you be the city treasurer?”

“I will be if you insist, but I suggest you leave Antic instead. I want to see the lake for myself. I have an idea for it.”

Antic eagerly accepted. He would rather remain in a village and relative safety than risk dying yet again. No one had said anything to him directly, but he was usually slow to rush into the thick of battle and he used his spear more for his own defense than to attack monsters. He was sure others had noticed his semi-cowardice, but they were polite enough to not mention it.

Everyone got to work right away, and the whole village ate well that night, with seasoned venison, fresh bread, fresh fruit and cheese, and steamed vegetables. The Regulators slept deeply and peacefully in the nice house, and were full of energy when they woke up in the morning.

Chapter 26

Silverwood

Torger was again pleased to see all the dwarves following his orders. On Earth he had not been a manager at any job, he actually didn’t like being in charge, but his ideas appealed to the common people, or in this case dwarves. Torger, Graul and Rome began walking towards the mountains in the distance, along with the two dwarves who volunteered. Torger asked the young one to tell him about himself.

“My name is Blickel, son of Strong Arm. My father was a blacksmith in the Cucamonga clan, but higher and higher taxes forced him to shut down the family business and work the mines. The smithy had been in our family for nearly a thousand years, and it broke his heart he wasn’t able to make me an apprentice. He was the one who convinced the others to remove Small Foot from power, and he was the first to volunteer when Baybil asked for volunteers to aid you in the goblin tunnels. I don’t know if he likes you, he doesn’t know you, but he would do anything to open a blacksmith shop again to teach me how to carry on the family legacy. He has always cared for my mother and me, but has kept me from talking to Small Foot or his guards. Actually, he didn’t want me talking to many of the villagers at all so I wouldn’t tell them how disgruntled he was. He tried to sneak us out of the village once, but we were caught and tied to the stakes for two days. That hurt so bad! He felt like he failed our family, and was willing to die in shame or rescue you, whichever happened would be better for him. My mom wanted me to come with you and help you restore freedom to our village.”

The story saddened Torger, and he didn’t want to show his raw emotions, so he quickly asked the builder dwarf to tell his story.

“The name’s Stone Fist. Many dwarves consider me to be the best stone mason in the entire Cucamonga clan. I really don’t know much about politics, or care. I want to build the best stone buildings I can and drink ale. That’s about it for me. I came ‘cuz I’ve an idea ‘bout the water in Calico. I’ll look at Silverwood and if I think my idea will work, I’ll tell you. If not, might be a wasted trip for me.”

That didn’t tell Torger a whole lot, but a master builder would be very useful in the next few months. But this was earthquake area, and stone buildings didn’t last long. He would have to think it over.

Two days later they were in the mountains and climbing a steep hill when they heard a high pitched voice yell “Stop! You are trespassing. Turn around or face the consequences.”

The humans looked around for the voice, but the dwarves pointed out where the elf was. Sitting on a branch of a pine tree was a slender pale man with pointy ears and dressed all in green. He hopped to the ground and landed without making a sound. He stood about four feet tall, had no facial hair, and had an intricately carved crossbow. Torger recognized the bolt as a billik leg. Now he knew why Baybil traded for them. He imagined the damage a fast moving foot long cockroach leg sharpened to an even finer point would do to his stomach; it would probably go all the way through him even with his iron chest plate on.

On Torger’s lead, they all raised their hands. “We’re looking for a very large lake. We will need water for the summer. It should be a couple miles that way,” he said while pointing.

“How do you know where the lake is at? You have spied out our land! Any friend of dwarves is not welcome here.” As he was speaking, two more elves walked up, also slender, pale and without facial hair. “We will take you to the border elder. She will decide your punishment.”

Torger asked Stone Fist what a border elder was. “Elves always patrol their borders, well beyond the distance of their village shield. The border elder assesses if someone is merely lost, a legitimate trader, or a spy. If he or she determines we’re spies, no one will ever hear from us again.”

That didn’t give Torger a whole lot of hope about the upcoming meeting, but he had no choice, so they followed the elf, with the other two elves picking up the rear. After a short hike they came to a clearing, and were made to sit on a rock engraved with odd letters or scratches. An old elf woman walked toward them, carrying a gold staff just like the one the hobgoblin had. She waved it in the air and chanted a few words that didn’t translate, and a wind swirled around the group. It blew for what seemed like a very long time in their minds thinking they could die any second, but after about twenty seconds the wind faded away.

She looked at the elves and said “They’re lost. Take them to the border and send them away.”

She turned to walk away but Torger yelled “Wait! We want to trade.”

Stone Fist called him an idiot and hung his head in despair. The old elf said “The winds of truth do not lie. They tell me you were not seeking elves. You are not welcome here.” She walked away making it clear the conversation was over.

The border guards led them back to the edge, but closer to the lake. One said “Our border extends half way across the lake on this side. Walk to the far side for your water.” They took a few steps back and blended into the trees so that the humans could no longer see them, but the dwarves could.

As instructed, they walked to the far side of the lake. Rome and Stone Fist began taking evaluations. Stone Fist said “Yes, we could dig tunnels and make a summer home here, but no dwarf would live this near to elves. We will have to find a different summer home unless my plan works.” He walked away looking at the landscape.

Rome too was looking at the lake and a steady decline down one side of the mountain. With some dwarf expert digging, his plan might work. Torger asked him what he was thinking, but he said he wanted them all to discuss it, and he would need Stone Fist’s input.

A half hour later, Stone Fist returned. He said “Yes, I can make it work. It won’t do for this summer, but I can have it done for next summer.”

“What idea do you have?”

“I can make an aqueduct from the lake to Calico. We could have water come in all year long, but we would need someone to pour water into it from the lake using a bucket. A truly suck job for someone as a punishment, but it would work year round.”

Rome jumped on the idea. “An aqueduct! That’s exactly what I need. Torger, with you and Graul’s woodworking expertise, and my electrical knowledge, I think I can make a watermill that generates electricity. There seems to be plenty of copper around. I’m sure we could do it!”

“Rome, what do we need electricity for? We don’t have a TV or fridge.”

“I haven’t figured that out yet Graul, but it could be available if we needed it.”

Stone Fist interrupted “That’s all well and good, whatever teevee is, but with the elves here we have to find somewhere else to go this summer.”

Torger said “I can convince the dwarves of Calico to spend just one summer near the elves.”

“You underestimate our distaste for each other. But, you’re the mayor. If you want to try to convince them go ahead. But the elves won’t like it either.”

Torger was determined. They filled up extra water skins and headed back to Calico.

Torger presented his idea of sharing the mountain with elves for a few months. The villagers responded with “No way.” “I’d rather drink coyote piss for the summer.” “The elves would harass us.”

Torger said “Enough! Where does this racial hatred come from? Can’t we all just get along?”

“We’ve got thousands of years of uneasy tensions. Putting us into their neighborhood as next door pals isn’t going to work. We’ll stay in our caves, they can stay in their trees. It’s better that way. So hell no, we won’t go.”

Torger responded “Am I mayor or not? I will not tolerate mutiny. As the famous poet said, ‘Homey don’t play dat.’ We need a place to live until the rains come back. It’s just six months, then you can go back to your voluntary segregation. I don’t get it and never will, but our only other choice is to walk two hundred miles north. We must go to Lake Silverwood or Crystal Lake.” He regretted it as soon as he mentioned Crystal Lake. The inevitable votes for anywhere else began immediately.

The back and forth bantering lasted for hours, but at sunset, most dwarves agreed to finding out if the elves would be tolerant of them for six months.

The Regulators went into the private house and sat on the floor. Torger and Graul knew they desperately need to make wooden chairs and a table. Torger stood up just as quickly as he sat down. In a corner of the room was a pile of stuff. His shotgun had been partially melted in a fire and was bent, and the same fate happened to Arden’s rifle. But that wasn’t what caught his eye. There was a small pile of several small nuggets of silver ore. He picked them up and guessed they weighed about half a pound. He asked Antic where this stuff came from.

“While we were gone, that is walking here after we died, some dwarves went to Home to see if there was anything worth bringing back, and not knowing any better, they brought back the guns. The silver is the villages one percent. You said the miners keep ninety percent of their own finds, and ninety percent of the leftovers go to the public workers. That incentive caused the miners to work harder, although they worked shorter days, and removed more silver ore than usual. The pay turned out to be decent wages for everyone else, and food has been served on time every day and the road to Small Hammer is well under way. It’s only been five days, but all the dwarves are enthusiastically working their assignments you gave them.”

“Antic this is amazing. Have you been monitoring all the silver ore coming out?”

“Yes, I told them to only enter the mines after breakfast and only come out just before dinner. Anyone going in or out at any other time will be kicked out of the village. Don’t get overly excited about the ore. They say once it’s smelted down it will make about fifteen coins.”

It took a hundred silver coins to equal a gold coin, and they owed Baybil twenty gold coins. He could easily pay off the debt in his one year as mayor.

The next day Baybil arrived, along with other Calico dwarves including Strong Arm. Torger got along with his new blacksmith right away, a patriotic and proud hard working dwarf. After they talked a while, Torger told Stone Fist to start building a smithy. He also told Graul to oversee the construction of a tavern and another house, and make a table and chairs human sized while he was at it.