Chapter 29

Progress

Torger was famished when he stumbled into the village two days later. He headed straight for the Regulator’s house and laid down on the stone floor. It was just past mid day, and no one was in the house, but one of the two cooks must have seen him because twenty minutes later she brought in a hot plate of food. He sat up, thanked her, and devoured the grilled cheese sandwiches. He was glad he taught the dwarves how to make that simple meal, but it was taxing on the five adult female sheep the village had. Each one had produced a healthy lamb, and most of the milk went to them.

Feeling better, he walked outside to look at the progress that had been made while he was gone. He was not looking forward to tell them the elves accepted the idea that they could move there temporarily, if they paid what was basically a tribute.

Torger walked over to a partially constructed building. An area of dirt had been cleared away and leveled, and one layer of stones had been placed around the perimeter. Strong Arm and Stone Fist were talking about the dimensions and being cordial with each other, but clearly Strong Arm wanted it to be bigger. This must be the start of the smithy. While they were talking, two dwarves were standing there bored, waiting for their next instructions.

Torger was about to ask them what the debate was about when he heard footsteps running up behind him. Before he could turn around Jex wrapped her arms around him. “It’s so good to see you. Graul said you went to the lake alone. He was really worried we’d have to come rescue you, because he figured you would be back last night. Thank you for sending us clothes. That cave was awful.”

Torger turned around and saw she was wearing a beautiful white and brown wool dress. It was modest yet fit her figure perfectly. The village weaver/seamstress had really done a wonderful job, given that wool was all she had to work with.

“It’s good to see you too Jex. I hope your trip here was safe. Did you and Arden do OK for yourselves getting food and water?”

“We were fine. We killed a couple coyotes and made rags of clothes for ourselves, and spent the days near the spring, but slept in the cave at night. We were SOO bored. But with no weapons we didn’t want to try to travel here alone. I’m sorry about your house. That totally sucks. But it looks like Arden convinced the dwarves to follow your lead. Brun filled us in on all that happened.”

“Yes, they seem to like me, but they like their freedom even more. How did you kill the coyotes?”

“We cast fire one at them then bashed in their heads with clubs. Arden and I think we should stock up on our cave, and Antics cave, in case we ever have to respawn there again. Sleeping on hard rock was painful.”

“Good idea, I’ll see to it. No, on second thought, I’ve got my hands too full already. Would you be willing to take a couple of dwarves with you to put clothes and water into the two caves? No food or else wild animals will try to break through the shield to get to it. As you’ve figured out, like we all have, the shield around Home did us no good because no one was there to defend it. We can’t defend the caves, but no animals should try to get through the shield without a good reason, so let’s not give them a reason.”

“OK, I’ll take Druma the seamstress and a spare male dwarf she trusts. Arden won’t like me going without him, and he might try to insist on coming along. What do I tell him?”

“Yeah, he will demand to go with you. Take him too. We’ve got to prepare to move, and I’ve got a lot to do. It’s good to see you Jex, but I really need to talk to Strong Arm.”

“OK, I’ll make the plans to go and we’ll leave in the morning. Oh, and that road the dwarves are building made travelling faster. That’s a good idea you had.”

“That is the point of a road. How far have the dwarves cleared the path?”

“You don’t know? They’re almost to the pass already.”

“Wow! They are moving fast. I’ll send two more dwarves to them, in case they get attacked by a roc. I’m told some rocs live near the pass. ”

Jex walked away and Torger headed for Strong Arm. “Hi Stone Fist, I need to talk to Strong Arm for a minute then you can go back to discussing plans for the smithy.” Stone Fist nodded his head slightly in approval. Torger turned to the village blacksmith. “Strong Arm, I spoke with the elves. They want two silver staffs and fifty silver arrowheads. They said dwarves know what they need them for. How soon could you make them?”

“What? They’ll let us move to their mountain? You better tell the village soon, many dwarves are hoping the elves would just flat out refuse. As for the staffs and arrowheads, yes I could make them, if I had a smithy. But it looks like it will be a month at least before it’s up and running. We have to build the building, bellows, forge, and anvil, and we don’t have the metal for an anvil. That’s a major obstacle to overcome once we get a roof up, but the completed building has to come first.”

“Do you really need a building to make the staffs and arrowheads? I hoped you could make a temporary forge and crude anvil to just get them done as quickly as possible. Silver has a low melting point right? The fire doesn’t need to be all that hot.”

“I have my reputation to uphold! Every dwarf blacksmith does the best work he can on every job. The elves could form their own crude staffs, but they come to us when they want quality. You’re not going to get them for at least a month. Not from me you’re not.”

Torger slapped his own forehead. “How could I have forgotten? You’re not the only dwarf blacksmith I know. You can go to Baybil and ask his blacksmith to make them. Let’s go find Antic and see how much silver ore the village has.”

“Go to another village to make silver staffs and arrowheads! That’s just as much an insult to me as asking me to make poor quality weapons. They would laugh at me, and rightly so, one blacksmith asking another to make simple weapons. I won’t do it.”

“You have a choice Strong Arm. Make them yourself or go to Baybil for help. Either way, I need them in my hands in two weeks. Who knows, maybe if we have enough silver ore, we could buy a cask of ale.”

“Ale? That does sound good. Going to another smith will insult my dignity, but a couple glasses of ale could take the sting out. And Hastaff isn’t a bad dwarf, really. I won’t ask him to make the staffs and arrowheads for me, but I could ask him to use his smithy for two days and do the work myself.”

“Great it’s settled. Jex and Arden are leaving in the morning, so go with them until you have to split ways. Thank you for your patience Stone Fist, you can go back to making plans with Strong Arm. And put those two dwarves to work. I hate seeing people sit around not working when there is so much to be done.”

Torger walked to a mine entrance and found Antic dutifully watching that no dwarves were coming in or going out. “Hi Antic. I’m sending Strong Arm to Baybil, and I want to send all the silver ore we have with him. How much do we have?”

“The silver is flowing out of here every day. I think before I started watching them like a hawk we were getting ripped off. Even the dwarves are impressed with how easy it is to mine. I guess when Small Foot was here they didn’t really try very hard. All the villagers who aren’t miners get paid every week, but we still have over ten pounds of ore for the village. That could go a long way toward paying off our debt with Baybil.”

“I wish it would, but I doubt very little of it will go toward the debt. Where is it at?”

“Since the house is unguarded often, I hid it. I’ll bring it to you tonight.”

“Good, thanks Antic.”

That night Torger told the dwarves they would be moving to the lake in a month. There were boos and jeers, but he was able to convince most of them it was for the best.

In the morning Torger gave Strong Arm nearly fifteen pounds of silver ore, and his beat up armor. The silver was supposed to be used first to make the elves’ staffs and arrowheads, second to repair his armor, third for a cask of ale, fourth for a couple sheep and goats, and the rest to pay off the debt. Jex, Arden, and five dwarves left to go run their various errands.

For the next week Torger and Graul oversaw the construction of four new buildings. The primary building was the smithy, then another common house, then a tavern, then a brewery. They were very uncomfortable with building stone buildings in earthquake land, but they didn’t have much choice. They had no mortar, but that would have to be added later. Stone Fist was in charge of the smithy, while the brothers were overseeing workers building the other three buildings.

By the time Strong Arm, Jex, Arden, and the other four dwarves returned ten days later, the four buildings were each about five feet high of stacked stones. All the dwarves cheered when Strong Arm entered the village pushing a wheelbarrow with a cask of ale in it. Other dwarves had ropes tied to two sheep and two goats and led them to join with the small flock, and Arden carried Torger’s armor to him, fully restored.

All the dwarves stopped working and rushed the cask of ale. Torger and the Regulators couldn’t contain them and it was clear that no more work would be done that day, but Torger was filled with joy to see the villagers enjoying a much deserved day off.

Jex handed him the two silver staffs and fifty silver arrowheads and said the leftover silver paid off one gold coin of debt. Torger wished it would have paid off more, but learned that most of the silver ore he sent had lost a lot of its weight in the smelting process and the pure silver left over was now in his hands. He didn’t think Baybil or Strong Arm had ripped him off. Jex also told him they paid for all the dwarf summer tents they used for the hot air balloon. Torger hadn’t thought about that cost, and was reminded of his military failure. He knew it would have succeeded if the village dwarves had fought with them instead of against them, but the failed attempt and resulting slavery still stung his pride.

Chapter 30

Moving Day

The whole village was packed and ready to move. They had a total of five mid level magic back packs, which for the whole village didn’t amount to a lot of weight reduction. The walk was slower than everyone wanted, but the sheep, goats, elderly dwarves, and children had to walk slowly and rest often. An hour before sunset Torger called for them to stop and set up camp. There was no defendable hill nearby so they set up on flat level ground. The dwarves got to work clearing away stones so the tents would be placed on soft dirt. The way everyone took initiative and worked together showed him and Arden, the experienced hikers and campers, the dwarves had lived as nomads before. Camping on Earth was fun for a weekend, but to live that way for months or years would have been miserable, especially in this hot arid desert.

In the morning the night watchmen reported seeing distant coyotes and a roc, but none came near once they saw the size of the camp. The animals knew there was strength in numbers, and the dwarves and humans combined to be fifty-two.

The next day they made it into the foothills, but were still a long way from the lake. Torger remembered the bear attack and rattle snake bite, and ordered a double watch- six dwarves each shift instead of three.

It was a good thing he did. Around midnight another California grizzly came looking for an easy meal. The dwarves shouted, waking everyone up in the camp. The six watch dwarves ran at the bear trying to attack it and lead it away from the camp, more specifically away from their own wives and children. They surrounded it on all sides, cautiously swinging their axes near it, but not striking.

Growing frustrated with their taunts it charged forward and knocked one dwarf backwards with a powerful swipe of its paw. The dwarf was bleeding heavily from the chest and was knocked unconscious. The other dwarves became more aggressive and their axes sunk deeply into the thick hide, but the bear managed to injure three more. The remaining two dwarves retreated back to camp but Torger and Arden were by then racing forward. Torger ordered the dwarves to help them.

Arden knew he was no good in a fight, but since he was the first one to get his armor on and grab Jex’s bow, he knew it had to be him in the battle. Torger also had his armor on and held his two handed steel sword. Assessing the situation, he traded his sword for Jex’s bow and arrows. He told Arden to stab it if there was a clear opening, otherwise stay back a few steps.

Since entering the tyter stasis bed or whatever that bed in Yuma was, Torger was naturally good at all weapons, but not great at any one weapon type. He released arrow after arrow easily hitting the large target while the two dwarves with axes kept its attention on themselves. They were not making much progress and Torger was trying to think of a different strategy to use. Then behind him he heard a loud TWANG and a half second later the bear roared and stepped back in pain. A billik leg was embedded a foot into its chest. Torger looked behind him and saw a dwarf had shot a crossbow with the billik leg as a bolt. A second dwarf was readying another crossbow.

Torger released another arrow and the bear charged him. Since it was no longer focused on the two dwarves in front, they each got in a good clean strike with their axes. Arden saw his chance and stabbed it in the back right leg, then he scrambled out of the way. Another billik leg hit the bear in the chest, but it kept charging.

Torger remembered the last time he had been mauled by a bear just more than a month earlier. He remembered lying on the ground nearly helpless, and then the elves chased it away. He did not want to experience that again, so he dropped the bow and ran. He ran past the two dwarves with crossbows and then the bear passed them too. They were each able to get off another shot, both hitting the bear in the ass after it passed them.

He continued running and saw Graul coming at him, fully armored with his flame sword. It’s funny what weird things people think when panicking. Torger imagined the flame sword striking the bear and all its fur burning off, and he wouldn’t have a nice pelt to keep afterward. He yelled to Graul “No! don’t ruin the fur!”

Graul looked at him like he was nuts and swung his sword anyway. It sliced through the air and hit the bear in the mouth, cutting off some teeth. The sword kept going and sliced both cheeks deeply, splattering blood all over its face. It finally stopped running but the momentum it took before coming to a stop was enough to wrench the sword out of Graul’s hand. It turned and gave a weak swipe at Graul, and he used his shield to block it, but the claws still ripped through the shield and gouged his bracer.

Graul tried to back up but the shield was stuck. He let go of the shield and took a few steps back. The bear tried to fling the shield off, but couldn’t. It finally stomped its paw down and the shield splintered into pieces. By then the two dwarves had reached it, as well as more dwarves from the village. They swung their axes and dodged out of the way of counter attacks. Torger thought they were quite nimble for being so hefty, and they worked great as a team too, though clearly a bit rusty at it. He had not been able to see them take out the razorlings when they first came to Calico, and no one dwarf was amazingly impressive, but they knew what they were doing in a fight. Two dwarves grabbed a net and threw it over the bear. The net stuck to its fur and he couldn’t shake it off. It didn’t tie up all four legs, but the net did entangle one, and once the sticky stuff from razorling feet touched the one bear paw, it could never get the net off that paw again. Torger thought of when Baybil told him razorling feet were made to build fishing nets, but now he saw the truth.

Finally the bear succumbed to the myriad of axe blows and billik legs. Everyone sat down breathing hard. Even Arden and Antic got some strikes in at the end with their borrowed swords. As for Torger wanting to save the pelt, that looked like it wasn’t going to happen. Lots of deep axe and sword strikes left it in shreds with blood all over.

Everyone ate bear meat that night and told war stories of their participation in the battle. Torger didn’t listen but instead went to the four badly wounded dwarves who had been on guard duty. They were lying on thin mats in a tent that was too small and too crowded for him to enter. He pulled the tent flap back and told them thank you, the damage to the village would have been horrendous if not for their vigilance and bravery. When he asked them how he could repay them, they responded they want a full tavern with plenty of ale built as soon as possible. That hadn’t been high on his priority list, but it got moved up a few notches.

Torger left them and he had two new objectives, to get a lot more potions for his village, and to get Rome to learn Cure 1. There were only two dwarves who knew Cure 1 among them, and they had used up all their mana saving the lives of those four dwarves. The two healers were standing outside the tent waiting for their mana to replenish, and Torger knew if two bears had attacked, some dwarves would have died.

The next day they made it to Lake Silverwood. When they saw the lake all the dwarves ran close to it trying to pick out their best location for their summer tent. Everyone wanted to be by the water of course, but Stone Fist, Torger, and Graul were going crazy trying to properly survey the land and keeping the dwarves from setting up their tents, blocking the surveyors view.

Finally Stone Fist saw his ideal spot and Torger cleared all nearby dwarves out of the way. As he finally began giving approvals for where tents could be set up, and where the latrines would be dug and the cooking area would be, Lagwil the Border Elder walked up behind him. When Torger saw the dwarves giving dirty looks and spitting on the ground, he turned around to see what had offended them.

Seeing her, he said “My apologies Lagwil. I knew dwarves and elves did not get along. But I didn’t know there was such a level of disgust among some of the dwarves. I do not know your history together, but I will try to teach them to be respectful to visitors.”

“Be at peace Torger. Our rivalry is thousands of years old, and you will do little to change that. We elves and dwarves need each other, otherwise we would never speak. I am here to collect your agreed payment. I will collect them and be on my way.”

Torger reached into his magic backpack and removed the two silver staffs and fifty silver arrowheads. She examined the quality and said “You have done well, human. I don’t think your village is quite up to the task, but the rocs and California grizzly bears have been a constant nuisance on this mountain. We would greatly appreciate it if you could remove them. I hope we can trade more this summer.”

After she left Torger checked his Notoriety/Quests. He was now at 11/100 respected points with the Pomo Elves. He received his 400 exp for completing the quest bringing them silver weapons. But he was shocked at the new quest available.

Quest from Pomo Elves:

Kill 30 Grizzly bears within 10 Miles of Lake Silverwood

Kill 30 Rocs within 10 Miles of Lake Silverwood

Reward: Significant Increase in Respect with Pomo Elves

900 Exp.

Bow of the Owl

Torger didn’t know what a Bow of the Owl was, but he was sure Jex could use it. But Lagwil was right, they were in no position to complete that quest.