The Eastern Dwarfs: Part Two - The Underground Journey

by Leo deSouza

  “How did ye manage to form the army? Where did all this hardware came from?” Asked Thuor.

  The orc did not answer, one of the dwarf warriors took off his helmet and rested his blade on the orc’s throat. “Speak!” He said.

  “What do you want to know, dwarf?” Asked the orc in his creepy voice. “We formed our army down here, under your nose, you are too blind to see.”

  “Answer only what we ask, savage beast!” The warrior said.

  “Where did ye get the weapons?” Thuor continued.

  “Ore, from the mountain… Fire forged it, don’t ye see the furnaces, dwarf? Do you think all the ore is yours?” The orc replied.

  “Ye don’t even know how such things work. Who taught ye?” Thuor insisted.

  “Speak before we kill ye!” The Burning Blade warrior exclaimed.

  Now the orc looked to Thuor with his red eyes, deeply as if into his mind. “Ye don’t know about death, ye know nothing about it. The one who came to us, is above ye all, he can see inside one’s mind, and control it.” He said.

  “The Warlock.” Thuor said. “Ye made a statue for him.”

  The orc kept silent.

  “How did the army move by itself? With no leader.” The captain continued.

  The orc laughed, spitting blood. “No general is necessary… No leader, no captain... Not like your armies…”

  “What is he going to do now?” Thuor asked one more time.

  “Nothing… His work is finished, the seed is planted, the evil grows… It will bring death among you all…” Said the orc.

  “More war? Another attacking army?” The Steel Fist warrior asked.

  “No… Death itself will come to visit you all!” The orc spoke.

  “We heard that the Warlock left to the west. But something is still about to happen.” Thuor said, rising. “I don’t understand, if the Warlock did it all and left, then there must be someone else, or something, to finish what he started.”

  “How does this orc knows about his plans?” The warrior asked.

  “Once the Warlock gets to see into your mind, ye can also see some from his one. Something similar happened to one of my fellows.” Thuor spoke.

  Now the orc laughed loudly. “Ye are all doomed… The final stroke will be soon…”

  “Where?” Thuor asked harshly.

  “On the highest peak, where you never thought…” The orc said.

  “The Coal Lock clan! The mountain peak!” Thuor said.

  “Why are ye telling us about his plans so freely?” he warrior asked.

  “It makes no difference, not anymore, you can not stop what is about to come… Its bigger than you dwarfs.” The creature replied.

  “That is all we need to know.” Said the warrior just a moment before cutting the orc’s throat.

  “Wait!” Thuor shouted. “Why did ye kill him? We could get more information!”

  “Prince Gorduro’s answers were given. Time to leave.” Replied the dwarf as he cleaned his sword.

  Another one came bringing the wounded warrior, and now two of them took him. Still they walked fast, being followed by Thuor, leaving the den, screams were heard, more orcs were around.

  “They are coming to us!” Thuor shouted.

  The group came all the way back, the screams of the orcs became louder, but the dwarfs followed the path without much difficulty, except for when they had to jump over the lava river, the wounded dwarf did it carefully. Already inside the armored wagon, a dwarf took from it an object that Thuor never saw before, but he had his guesses about it. A metal ball with spikes and a wick.

  “Wait, where are ye going to take it?” The captain asked.

  “Payback, RockFoot one, they messed with our cousins house, we will mess with theirs.” The dwarf said, taking the ball outside the wagon. He took it to the den entrance and placed it on a fissure.

  “Ye going to block the den at once?” Thuor asked as he came after the warrior.

  “This will make more than blocking, it will finish these orcs and their den for once and all.” The dwarf said.

  Now they could see coming from inside the cave, blood orcs waving their weapons in the air and screaming.

  “But the Vulcan! It is too risky, we can’t foresee what will happen!” Thuor exclaimed.

  The warrior lit the wick. “Prince Gorduro’s orders, master RockFoot! And now we better leave!” He said as he pushed Thuor back inside the wagon.

  The door was closed, the dwarfs began to pull the lever to move the wagon. Soon they were rolling over the trails one more time, and Thuor peeked through the small window at the wagon’s back to see the burning wick left behind, he saw the moment when the sparks entered the ball while the orcs were there checking it.

  “Booooom!” Sounded an explosion. The entire place trembled, dust took all and lava began to bleed from many cracks, but the wagon had gained enough speed to leave.

  Meanwhile, Torra, Olaf, Rurur and Torag were walking through the tunnel to leave the Stronghold, it was a completely dark place, now lightened by a torch in Torra’s hand, the surface of the tunnel was irregular and dry, rock formed by lava passing there long ago could be seen in all its extension.

  “So, princess Torra.” Rurur said approaching her. “What is this weapon ye carry?”

  “This?” Torra asked raising her blunderbuss. “Steel Fist craft. An iron ball is fired from inside it, just point against the enemy and pull the trigger.”

  “Seems nasty!” Torag spoke as he came close to see the weapon. “Not that different from my crossbow.”

  Olaf was trying to make fairy Vixen get into his clothes again, the sprite was flying around and pulling the dwarf’s hair. “Stop with this…” He whispered.

  “Allow me to ask ye, my princess. How can ye be so different from your brother?” Rurur continued.

  “Same raising, same parents, we used to be similar since our childhood. But when the queen died, Gorduro became reclusive, he relied on his pride and his so-called… Honor, to hide what he really is… An insecure dwarf lad. And things got even worse when my father became sick.” She said.

  “Oh…” Rurur sounded. “I see ye can talk quite frankly about these matters.”

  “This is no family secret.” She continued. “Everyone knows about Gorduro and his ways, at least everyone in this Stronghold. Now what about ye? Ye seem to be a very unlikely party, I mean, some of ye does not seem to have any vocation for quests.”

  “Yes… Herm… One of us is a warrior, Torag here, right, Torag?” Rurur asked turning back.

  “I actually don’t know how I could call myself now, and that would depend on the circumstances, I’ve being called vagabond and wanderer so many times that I began to believe I’m one...” Torag replied.

  Rurur snorted: “Hunf don’t give him attention, he is just tired of all this. As for me, I’m not a warrior, not that I can’t handle an axe, but I have no training at all.”

  “What about your captain? He seems to be someone who understands about weapons and fighting.” Torra continued.

  “Oh yes, he is. Our captain, is our leader, a pity he is not with us right now, but I’m sure we will gather again soon.” Rurur said.

  Torag approached Olaf’s rear and spoke quietly: “Seems the wanton is trying to get the lady…”

  Torra suddenly turned back, surprising them. “What about ye? What is your name that I forgot?” She asked.

  “I’m Olaf, at your service. And no I’m not a warrior if ye ask me, but I’ve been forced to handle an axe since we left home.” Olaf replied.

  “That is good, no group of warriors but every one of ye learnt how to defend yourselves. Still a group of ordinary dwarfs.” Torra said.

  “Ordinary?” Olaf asked quietly to Torag.

  “Ye know how Gorduro would call ye? Soft ham… This is how we call the ones not tough like the Steel Fists.” The princess said.

  Torag replied from behind: “Excuse me milady but…”

  A tremor followe
d by a muffled sound coming from the distance interrupted him. Fairy Vixen finally hid into Olaf’s shirt collar, the group stopped to look back.

  “What was that?” Olaf asked.

  “Seems like the Vulcan is agitating…” Torra replied.

  “What? Ye said it was sleeping!” Torag spoke.

  “And it should be.” She replied. “Anyway let’s not bother, it must be just a tremor, sometimes it happens and the end of the tunnel must be near, the exit to the frozen lake.”

  They walked again, now faster, even if none said anything about being worried. But the tremble began to be felt again, and now it was constant and increasing.

  “I have a bad sensation about this.” Torag said, stopping and looking back again.

  All the others did the same, at the end of the tunnel from where they came, a small light spot was seen.

  “There is someone coming, it’s a torch.” Olaf spoke.

  Torra stepped ahead through the others, Torag looked at her as if realizing what was happening.

  “That can not be!” The princess exclaimed.

  “What?” Olaf asked, tense.

  “Lava is coming! Run!” She exclaimed.

  Now all of them ran fast through the corridor, the entire place began to tremble violently, dust fell on their heads as they hurried.

  “I thought this tunnel was safe!” Olaf shouted.

  “Something must have happened! That can not be just the Vulcan spitting fire! I know this mountain!” Torra replied.

  The lava came fast, the heat could already be felt and looking back the red torrent of melted rock and flames could be seen close.

  “Don’t stop! There is the exit!” Torra said pointing ahead.

  When the group finally left the tunnel, they went to the side just a moment before a brutal ejection of lava from it, the melted rock hit Rurur’s cape. “It’s burning! Burning! Take it off!” Shouted the dwarf as he agitated.

  Torra herself came with a knife and cut Rurur’s cape where the fire was.

  “Crap!” Torag shouted. “Seems like fate is trying all the ways to kill us!”

  The torrent of lava spread ahead, above the frozen surface of a lake, melting it and raising steam on the air.

  “Let’s try to get to the stalls, they are close, there we can take a wagon and hit the road, leaving, to our destination, the mountain peak, home of our cousins.” Torra spoke.

  “Our final destination of all, whatever it means…” Torag added.

  TO BE CONTINUED…

  More about dwarfs.

  The Eastern Dwarfs saga does not end here. The next book will continue the adventure of Thuor’s company.

  The third and final part will continue the story on the Mountain Peak, the domain of the CoalLock clan. The moment when the dwarfs will reach their final destination, but only to realize that the real threat was still about to reveal itself, when an unknown force will emerge to challenge all the peoples of the east.

  Find the other books of this series at the author’s page on Amazon and don’t forget to leave your comment about the book you just finished reading.

  www.amazon.com/author/leodesouza

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  www.theeasterndwarfs.com