Chapter 9

Upgrades

In the morning Torger and Graul were fully recovered. Everyone ate breakfast and was pleased with seeing the dwarves hustling all over the village to get buildings up. Water carriers were going back and forth to the reservoir that Stone Fist and his crew finished the day before, and that crew began rebuilding Strong Arm’s smithy. Dwarves from Small Hammer were building a smithy for their own blacksmith. Torger knew that competition was good. It would keep quality high and prices low. But he also knew Calico owed a lot of silver to all these dwarves for their work, including silver to the dwarves who had cured him and Graul.

Several dwarves offered to help clear the mines, but Torger wanted the experience to go to the Regulators, so he declined their help. They bought more iron armor from Hastaff and Strong Arm, so that Graul, Torger, Antic and Arden were almost completely covered in iron armor, with Jex, Rome, and Brun covered in leather armor.

They walked to the second mine, Torger missing both his bracers and Graul missing one bracer and one greave. They walked into the cave mouth a few feet and at least a dozen razorlings charged at them!

“Retreat! Run to the village!”

They all turned and ran back to Calico screaming for help, barely staying ahead of the overgrown lizards. Some dwarves heard them when they came close and started shouting to other dwarves they were under attack. A couple minutes later The Regulators entered the village while dwarves armed with axes ran at the beasts. They held up shields and clashed with the lizards.

Two were mages who cast shield spells in front of the warriors, blocking and shocking the razorlings. Other dwarves shot arrows at them. The regulators turned around and Jex and Brun cast Ice 1 twice, slowing down four of the fast moving reptiles.

Jex took up her bow and the four melee men rushed forward with the dwarves. Antic and Arden thrust their spears into sides, and Torger and Graul sliced into razorling faces standing side by side with dwarves. Brun used the last of his mana to cast Ice 1 two more times. All thirteen lizards easily fell, with the citizens of Calico suffering minor scratches and bruises. Everyone was out of breath from the run, but Torger announced “Thank you all who came to our aid. You can keep the razorling feet as your reward.”

The dwarves looked stunned like he was joking, then cheered when they realized he wasn’t. Everyone told battle stories for a while, but then Torger sent them back to work rebuilding Calico. Rome checked to see how much experience they got, and found they each earned 624 exp points from the battle. The six dwarves who joined the fight were very happy with also gaining the same experience. All the regulators were close to getting another ability point, but these razorlings were giving more experience than they had in the past, and they seemed bigger and faster too.

The Regulators rested a while longer, talking it over, then went back to the mine. They walked in a few feet and three more razorlings charged at them. Brun cast Ice 1 three times, slowing them down, and Torger and Graul each took on one, with Antic and Arden pairing up to take on the third. Jex again shot arrows as clearings opened, and Rome stood in the back unable to contribute.

Graul took out his victim first, with his flame sword going through the razorling’s side of the head. Then he went and helped Antic and Arden. Torger kept swatting at the face of his target, waiting for help to arrive. Help came quickly and a minute later they cut off the feet. Everyone gained an ability point, just barely, and Torger insisted everyone buy Ice 1. Brun and Jex already had it so they saved their point and walked further inside.

The dwarves had left torches in the walls, and Torger lit the first one. He carried it in his left hand, sword in the right hand. They walked a ways further, unchallenged, and found another torch. Rome carried that one. Near the end of the tunnel was another torch, but they saw seven razorlings huddled near a suspicious looking mound on the floor. The shadows didn’t let Torger see what they were guarding. Whatever was on the floor became unimportant as they watched in bewilderment as a spirit rose up out of it.

It had a face of sorts, with shredded rags hanging off it, but was all monochromatic shades of white and grey. It had bony hands, but no feet. It lifted a hand and pointed it at Torger. A grey stream shot out of its hand and went right through his chest plate. Torger felt complete panic and terror. He collapsed to the floor and curled up in a ball, pure fear running through his mind.

Graul didn’t know what was going on with his brother, but he bravely ran forward and sliced the spirit with his sword. The blade went clean through, but the blade flashed red and the spirit moaned as fire seemed to hurt it. He yelled “Use magic!”

He didn’t need to, everyone else saw what happened. They all cast Fire 1 at it, except Jex and Rome who cast Ice 1 at the nearest razorling. The spirit moaned louder, and all the razorlings rushed forward. With only a second to prepare, they all cast their spell again. The spirit shrank in size, but they could see no physical damage.

Graul, Antic, and Arden began stabbing the razorlings, creating a bottleneck like they had before so that only three of them could attack at once. Graul saw the spirit disappear, but was too engaged in combat to pay much attention. He heard Brun gasp in shock behind him, but Graul had to keep fighting the razorlings.

The spirit had rematerialized behind the group, and cast an ice spell at Brun. Rome and Jex turned and saw it. Rome had nothing but the wood staff in his hand. He swung it and it connected hard. Unlike Graul’s sword that went through it, the magical wood staff shattered but seemed to damage the spirit a lot. It disappeared again.

Torger began to come out of his daze. He was still very afraid, but regained some muscle movement. Battle was all around him. He saw a razorling trying to claw its way through Graul’s iron shield, and the beast was making progress. Antic and Arden were each keeping a monster lizard away from them with their spears, but not inflicting much damage. Torger got up on his hands and knees and saw an opportunity. Graul side stepped a claw swipe, and Torger was able to stab its foot. It hissed and backed up a step, into another razorling.

The spirit appeared further down the mine. No one could see it so far away, and Rome was surprised when a grey stream hit him in the chest. He collapsed on the floor in fear and panic like Torger had. Jex shot an ice arrow at it. It went all the way through, but the ice seemed to hurt it a little. Brun had seen Rome’s wood staff hurt it, so he ran forward and swung at it. Just before the staff connected, the spirit disappeared again. Brun and Jex looked all over, but didn’t see it. The melee fighters kept battling the razorlings and Jex couldn’t get in a clean shot, but ten seconds later Jex screamed and pointed behind Brun. It had appeared further towards the entrance, and was raising a bony hand to point at him.

Torger finally managed to climb to his feet. The others had been in a purely defense mindset, without his steel sword and Jex’s arrows to assist them. He yelled “Antic and Arden, just hold them back. Keep the tunnel plugged and we’ll kill one at a time.” He and Graul stabbed the razorling in front of them, and another one climbed on top of it. Antic and Arden kept lightly stabbing the other razorlings in the face. Torger and Graul swung their swords at the same time, and both buried into the razorling’s skull, killing it instantly. Another razorling climbed on top of the first dead one, and had the elevation advantage. Torger and Graul backed up from its swipe of claws, and that allowed it to come down to the floor again. Another razorling climbed on top of the two dead ones and attacked Arden from the side. He had no choice but to retreat, and Antic had to fall back too.

Brun couldn’t duck in time. The stream of grey light flowed towards him and out of instinct he held the silver staff in front of him. The grey light flowed into the staff and it burned in his hands. Brun dropped it and a small crack ran up from the bottom to top. He looked up and saw another ice arrow flow through the spirit, again slightly damaging it. The spirit disappeared. Brun and Jex looked around, then she spotted it over the mound of stuff at the end of the tunnel. It was clearly guarding something.

Jex yelled “Come back to me!” Graul looked over his shoulder at her and saw they could regroup. He told the others to walk backwards. They did until they reached Rome, who was slowly standing up. Brun was feeling the silver staff to see if it was still hot. It was warm but he could hold it. He walked to the front and saw Torger drive his sword into the skull of another razorling. Three down four to go.

From behind, Brun said “If that spirit gets close, let me whack it with my staff. That will do the most damage.”

Torger agreed, and they kept fighting the razorlings, but the spirit hovered over the mound. It seemed to be getting bigger. Not as big as it was at first, but somehow recovering. Graul saw that out of the corner of his eye and said “Brun, once these razorlings are dead, hand me your staff immediately.” Graul blocked another bite attempt with his severely bent and gouged iron shield, and countered by shoving his flame sword into its mouth.

Antic and Arden began to get a little more aggressive, and Antic was able to drive his spear deep into a razorling’s mouth. But before it died it snapped its jaws one last time biting Antic’s spear if half and taking his left hand with it. Antic screamed out, but no one could help him.

Graul yelled “Brun now!” He side stepped the razorling attacking Arden, drove his sword into its side, and turned to face Brun, all in one second. Brun handed him the cracked silver staff and Graul ran at the spirit.

Brun wanted to join and ran after him.

Torger drove his sword into the last razorling’s skull. They were all dead except the spirit. Torger and the others watched as Graul took a mighty swing with the silver staff. The staff shattered in his hands, but the spirit moaned loudly. It disappeared in a flash of white light. When his vision cleared, Brun saw the silver staff had shattered like the wood staff.

Rome carried the torch forward, closely followed by the others. They walked to the back of the tunnel and smelled rotting meat. When they made it to the mound at the very back, they saw claw marks scratching the dirt pile. Graul used his sword to cut a shallow trench in the dirt and the smell got worse. He cut it deeper and saw partially decomposed razorling green skin. Torger and Arden removed more dirt and found a badly sliced and broken razorling. They pulled it out and saw another one below it. When they pulled that one out, they saw a dwarf leg under the next one.

Arden and Brun began dragging the dead razorling bodies out of the tunnel, and Torger and Graul pulled out a dead dwarf. Jex and Antic ran out of the mine and vomited, and Rome held the torch while trying not to gag. Torger and Graul pulled out another razorling and under it was Treluge, the trader that claimed the mines for himself. The disgusting work continued for a couple hours. Finally all the bodies and humans were out of the cave.

It seemed the living razorlings had buried the dead razorlings and dwarves. The Regulators had all seven dwarves that were part of the traveling traders, and sixteen dead razorlings, all cut up with dwarf axes. It looked like it had been one hell of a battle, the four warriors presumably doing most of the killing of the sixteen razorlings before being overwhelmed. Just as important were the two duffle bags the trader’s baggage carriers had. Torger reached in to one of the bags and pulled out a dwarf tent.

Graul saw it and reached into the other bag and pulled out a dwarf axe. Next Torger removed a magic satchel and inside that were a few potions. Graul removed a bundle of billik legs. When all was said and done, they had a huge mound of sundries, weapons, and potions. But most impressive was the pouch Torger found on Treluge’s corpse. It had fourteen gold coins, a hundred seventy-two silver coins, and about five hundred copper coins. They finally didn’t have any more financial problems!

Chapter 10

The Desert Oasis

They loaded everything into the duffel bags and carried them to Calico. Graul and Torger were straining under the weight by the time they made it. Those dwarves must have had very high strength and stamina levels. Torger and Graul placed the bags in front of the private residence, and the others went around the village gathering up all the dwarves.

Once most of them were there and quiet, Torger addressed them. “I have good news and bad news to share with you today. The bad news is some of your own kind, Treluge the trader and his company, have died trying to kill the razorlings in one of the mines. I don’t know your customs, but if you wish to bury them you may come back to the mines with us in an hour. I am sorry for your loss, the loss of any dwarf.

“The good news is we have recovered all his belongings. We will be selling most of it by auction. Go to your tents and gather your coins, the auction will start in ten minutes.”

Torger reached into a duffle bag and pulled out a dwarf tent to show them. A lot of talking erupted and questions were asked, but Torger ignored them and pulled out a goblin copper sword. Next he pulled out a dwarf battle axe. That got their attention. First a few left to get their silver ore, then a few more, then there was nearly a tiny stampede as dozens of three foot dwarves ran to their tents.

Several minutes later Torger had all the merchandise spread out on the ground in front of him. He held up the first item, a bundle of roc feathers. “We will start the bids at one copper each item. If you wish to raise the price of the bid, raise a feather in the air and wave it.”

His friends gave each dwarf one feather. When they returned Torger held up a magic satchel. “Who will give me one copper? You. Five. Ten. Fifteen.”

He sold the satchel for one silver and eighty-six copper coins. Next he sold a tent for almost as much. He kept back the other tent for himself and the dwarves groaned. He sold goblin swords and armor, dried meats, breads, and fruits, several yards of a thick canvass and several yards of fine cotton, ink, dyes, paints, a weak bow, copper armor and knives for dwarves, and several water skins.

He kept for himself seeds for planting, everything that was made from iron and steel, a magic satchel, magic back pack, the two duffel bags, one pick axe, a medium quality bow, all arrows, all potions, and two silver staffs. From the sale of everything else, he made almost one hundred and twenty silver coins, and he found his small ruby and maps he traded to Treluge.

The whole town was there and he held the dozens of silver coins and hundreds of copper coins in a pouch. In another pouch was all the money Treluge had. He told them all “Tomorrow my friends and I will clear the last mine, then we can start mining for silver again. Then you all can get paid for work you’re doing to build this village. We need several buildings built as fast as possible. Baybil, Strong Arm, and Stone Fist, I would like to speak to you in private please. The rest of you may go bury the dwarves.”

All the other dwarves went different ways, some to bury the traders, some to go back to work, and some to inspect the items they bought. The three Torger called walked up to him, and he led them into his tent. “First, Baybil, I owe you nineteen gold. Strong Arm, how much do you think this is worth?”

Torger held out the small ruby and was told five and a half gold. Baybil agreed. Next he held out the maps and they agreed they were worth one gold. Torger gave him the maps and seven gold coins, fifty silver coins. “I now owe you five gold coins Baybil.”

“But I don’t want the maps. I want the gold instead.”

“Baybil you gave us food water and bad quality armor and swords for twenty gold. Yes you saved our lives, and Graul did need that expensive potion from the dwarf following Small Foot’s greedy orders, but you charged us a hundred times what your stuff was actually worth. Do you think I’m the one ripping you off?”

Baybil tried to answer but wilted under the glares of the other two dwarves. Next he turned to the other two. “I need a smithy up and running right now! I have a lot of iron and steel, and we need better weapons and armor. Strong Arm, how long will it take you to turn all that iron into steel, and make steel armor for all of us?”

“Once the smithy’s built, it would take about two weeks. But you don’t all need steel chest plates. Your woman archer and two mages would be slowed down by it, but they could use greaves, bracers, and helmets. So eleven days is realistic, if I skip the three chest plates.”

“Ugg. That’s longer than I hoped. Stone Fist, how long until the smithy is done?”

“I’ve got several projects going on right now. The two houses, the kitchen, tavern, and brewery, plus the two smithies.”

“I forgot we were building two because we have two black smiths. Forget the brewery altogether. We already have one at Lake Silverwood. Get those two smithies done tomorrow if you can, put everyone on it.”

“We can’t just forget the brewery. The elves won’t let us near the one on their mountain.”

“Oh yeah. I’ll go talk to them tomorrow. Get those smithies done. It will be good for the whole town.”

Next Torger went to find dwarves who knew about farming. He found three, and showed them the seeds. “I want you to identify these, and tell me if they will grow in the mountain by the lake.”

They told him he had corn, wheat, barley, apple, and watermelon seeds, and they could grow them in the foothills, plus the orange trees and strawberries he told them about near the beach. That was a problem because they would have no protection from rocs and bears. Torger knew he was going to have to kill every roc and, ironically enough, already extinct California Grizzly Bear for miles in every direction.

Everyone ate well that night, eating the foods they bought from Treluge’s supplies. In the morning spirits were high among everyone. Torger told his friends to take a few dwarves and clear the last mine that hadn’t collapsed. He filled a magic back pack and began walking to the elf village in the mountains. He walked all day then he slept in a dwarf tent all by himself, but shivered from the cold wind that blew all night.

In the morning thick clouds covered the mountain, and he could only see about fifteen feet in any direction. He followed the aqueduct to the lake. He was greeted by three heavily armed dwarves whose job it was to open the sluice and let water flow for one hour twice a day. Their armor and axes were for self protection they said, and the elves allowed them to keep three guards on the mountain to protect Calico’s water supply.

Torger walked along the lake expecting the four foot tall elves to come out any minute. He knew he would never see them in the trees until they had him surrounded. Sure enough he heard a high pitched voice tell him to stop. He stood still and raised his hands.

An hour later Torger was in conversation with the Border Elder. The Winds of Truth showed he was there to trade, and he sat on a stone shivering as a light rain fell. She had a deerskin coat under her green poncho.

“We will not allow the dwarves to live here. We let them stay for the summer so they wouldn’t die, we even allow them access to the lake water. You knew this was the deal when you first came here. They’ll have to build another brewery in the foothills. It’s always been a bad idea for dwarves and elves to live near each other.”

“As far as I could see, the dwarves and elves barely saw each other this summer. All I’m asking is that two more dwarves be allowed to brew ale in the building they built. That can’t be such a bad thing. I’m not asking for the while village to move here again, just go from three to five dwarves on the other side of the lake.”

“No. The council said no, and I agree with them. Not unless the council decides to move us near our own tribe in that place you told us about, Yosemite.”

“Your scouts returned? They told you the same thing I told you, right? Tall granite mountains with plenty of streams and wild life.”

“The scouts returned last week. The council is deliberating whether we should move or not. But the dwarves will not be allowed here until we are gone, if we move at all.”

“Lagwil, I want to ask a sensitive question. Why do elves and dwarves not get along? They told me they were made here by a god, but elves believe their ancestors beat the tyters and the tyters let you stay. What is your history with the dwarves?”

“I will not tell you of all the wars we fought over the millennia. Most elves think of the dwarves as base and crass with weak minds. Most dwarves think of elves as self-righteous recluses. Our history says a group of our people were taken from our home planet Sprinnel Feld. A leader of our hunters, his name translates to mean Smart With Bow, found himself and fifteen other elf hunters here on Nuva. It looked much like our home planet, very much like your Yosemite. They were able to separate the tyters and hunt them one by one. Once the last tyter died, their sky ship left and three years later the world was transformed and dangerous monsters were brought in for new tyters to hunt. They have never hunted us elves again in the thousands of years we’ve been here.”

“Do you mean if my friends and I can defeat the tyters that come, they won’t send more to kill us anyway? We have a chance to live?”

“I could not possibly guess what the tyters will or will not do Torger. But I told you a small piece of our history, our origins here.”

Torger had new hope. There was a chance he wasn’t guaranteed to die in less than two years. Maybe he could separate and hunt the tyters one at a time like the elves had. He pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind.

“I have one more thing to ask. The dwarves admit they don’t have much skill with magic. Is there an elf in your village that could infuse magic into my sword?”

Lugwil looked at the sword. “Your reputation with the elves is low. Ask again when we have a higher level of respect for you.”

Before Torger could respond, she turned and walked away. He read the message clearly enough. She had given him a quest he hadn’t fulfilled, and he needed to complete it before she would help.

Torger walked back to the dwarves at the lake and told them the bad news- no brewery. He spent the night there and the next day used all his strength and stamina to walk as fast as he could to get back to Calico. He got there well after dark, and had to kill a pack of three coyotes along the way, which was easy while wearing iron armor and with a steel sword. It sucked he got no experience for it.

Guards outside of the village stopped him, and let him pass once he identified himself. In the village few dwarves were walking around; most were in their tents. Torger went to his, waking up Graul when he entered. Graul told him the dwarves finished the first smithy that day, and the other would be done the next day. He also said there were nine razorlings in the final mine. Jex used all her arrows and Antic killed two of them with his spear. Arden and Rome had both died, but Brun using Ice 1 with the silver staff saved the day, although he had to drink all three mana potions they had found in Treluge’s stuff. It would have gone much easier with Torger there and he knew it, but the mine was clear. On the plus side they sold the razorling feet to a dwarf who had one low mana potion, and Brun used his two ability points to buy Lightning 1. Graul, Jex, and Antic each now had two ability points, almost three, but Rome and Arden lost their one when they died.

In the morning Torger walked around the village in amazement. He saw one completed smithy, with Strong Arm heating metal to make an anvil. Another had four stone walls and a forge inside, with three dwarves finishing the roof. The kitchen had four stone walls and no roof at all, and the two large houses had four stone walls and no roof at all. No dwarves were working on the houses, but a few were working on the tavern. Torger thought that was backwards priorities but didn’t stop them.

He saw in his vision Cities was flashing. He turned on the shield over Calico and the dwarves cheered. He walked around and gave each one access to enter the shield without harm. He considered upgrading the shield to add Fire 1 to it and fifty more points to its strength, but decided he should wait and expand its perimeter. As it was, several of the tents, the latrines, and both smithies were outside of the shield already. He saw cooks cooking, builders building, water carriers carrying water, and guards guarding. Calico had become a village once again.