Hunt of the Dwarf King

by Charley Case

  Hunt Of The Dwarf King

  The Adventures of Finnegan Dragonbender™ Book Two

  Charley Case

  Martha Carr

  Michael Anderle

  This book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

  Copyright © 2020 Charlie Case, Martha Carr and Michael Anderle

  Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing

  A Michael Anderle Production

  LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact support@lmbpn.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  LMBPN Publishing

  PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy

  Las Vegas, NV 89109

  First US edition, January 2020

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-64202-634-4

  Print ISBN: 978-1-64202-635-1

  The Terranavis Universe (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds) are Copyright (c) 2019-2020 by Martha Carr and LMBPN Publishing.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Free Books

  Author Notes - Charley Case

  Author Notes - Martha Carr

  Other Books in The Terranavis Universe

  Other LMBPN Publishing Books

  Connect with The Authors

  Dedications

  From Charley

  This book is dedicated to my wife and best friend, Kelly. Without her belief in my abilities, and patience to see the process through, this book wouldn't exist.

  From Martha

  To all those who love to read, and like a good puzzle inside a good story

  To Michael Anderle for his generosity

  to all his fellow authors

  To Louie and Jackie

  And in memory of my big sister,

  Dr. Diana Deane Carr

  who first taught me about magic, Star Trek,

  DC Comics and flaming cherries jubilee

  From Michael

  To Family, Friends and

  Those Who Love

  To Read.

  May We All Enjoy Grace

  To Live The Life We Are

  Called.

  Chapter One

  “This is ridiculous, Finn,” Mila groaned, as she picked her way through the dense high-altitude forest an hour outside of Denver in the middle-of-nowhere Rocky Mountains. “Are you sure we’re in the right place?”

  Finn shrugged, smiled at the small Latino woman, and hiked a thumb up at Penny riding on his shoulder and holding a GPS device. “Ask her. She’s navigating.”

  The small blue faerie dragon glanced her way, holding the small screen in Mila’s direction so she could see the too-small map. “Chi,” she said simply, followed by a ring of smoke shooting from a nostril, indicating an affirmative.

  Hermin and Garret had come to them, asking if they could help out with a little problem they were having. Since the two Huldu had helped Finn and Mila out a couple of weeks before with finding the Anthem, Finn had readily agreed.

  The Huldu had been using a dwarven amulet of growth in their underground farming and gardening efforts. The amulet had gone missing after a particularly clumsy coworker of theirs had dropped it while aboveground. He insisted that the amulet was stolen, but all the Huldu wrote it off as lost due to his negligence; only Hermin and Garret believed him and did a little digging on their own.

  The two Huldu found some weird readings from a particular grove of trees outside of the city and became convinced that someone was using the amulet out there. But since the artifact was of dwarven design and make, they were worried that whoever was attempting to use it could accidentally wipe out a large portion of the forest. Dwarven artifacts were extremely powerful and needed a light, magical touch.

  Now Finn, Mila, and Penny found themselves miles from anywhere, traipsing through virgin forest, on a seemingly never-ending hike.

  Mila sighed and called a halt, fishing her hydroflask from the mesh pocket of her small backpack and taking a long pull before handing it to Finn, who had to backtrack a few yards to stand next to her.

  Finn liked the cold of late fall in the mountains and sucked in a deep breath through his nose before taking a drink of the cool water. The fresh smell of pine reminded him of the fragrance of his own magic, but more ...“spicy” was the only word he could think of to describe the difference between his magic and the aroma of the crisp autumn air.

  “Aren’t you freezing? It’s got to be thirty degrees or less out here.” Mila rubbed her hands up and down her arms in an attempt to warm up.

  Finn was dressed in his usual jeans and black t-shirt, with the addition of a brown leather bomber jacket with a sheep’s wool collar, an item he had seen in one of the department stores Mila had taken him to. He shook his head.

  “We dwarves feel comfortable in a very wide range of temperatures, unlike you Peabrains. Comes from us spending so much time underground, where the temperature swings from freezing to boiling in just a few yards.” He raised an eyebrow and looked her up and down. “Is the gear we picked up for you not sufficient?”

  Mila was decked out in the finest hiking clothing they could find—a layer of Gortex tights and a compression shirt as a base layer, followed by a pair of thick green wool tights and a heavy wool sweater under a camo performance jacket. Her red hiking boots were thick and waterproof, worn over calf-high wool socks. Her long, black hair was bundled up in a large knit hat that covered her forehead and hung down the back of her head like a gray sack.

  Finn would be sweating his ass off if he were to wear all that in this weather.

  “I think my Mexican half is rebelling.” She laughed, taking the flask and putting it back in the backpack. “My mother came from a small town in the Rockies north of Boise, so she was used to the cold, but I take after my dad, who was from Cancun, and never met a winter he didn’t hate.”

  “That, and the fact that you might not be big enough to produce enough heat might have something to do with it.” Finn smiled at the sour look she flashed him.

  “I’m not underweight, mister. Just compact.” She struck a power pose and haughtily turned her nose up at him.

  The shiver that ran through her made her quickly wrap her arms around herself after the pose exposed her to the cold just a little too much.

  “A very compact hundred pounds,” Finn agreed.

  “I do not weigh a hundred pounds,” she said defensively before realizing she was playing right into his hands. More quietly and with a small grin, she continued, “Ninety-eight pounds is exactly on target for my four-ten fra
me. Not all of us are six-five dwarves with furnaces in our bellies. How much do you weigh, anyway?”

  Finn shrugged. “Depends on the planet, but here, I weigh around three hundred and fifty, maybe four hundred.”

  Mila’s jaw dropped. “Are you serious? You don’t look like you have an ounce of fat on you.”

  “Dwarves are dense. It’s why we don’t like water.” He made a whistling sound as he mimicked a stone sinking with his hand. “We don’t float.”

  “No wonder you’re warm. You probably burn a thousand calories an hour just walking around.” She shivered once more, her shoulders rolling up close to her ears.

  Penny huffed and rolled her eyes. She made a grab for Finn’s pocket. “Shiri, chi chi.”

  Finn pulled his ever-present box of Charleston Chew Minis from the pocket and dumped a few into his hand, holding it up so that Penny could get at them. She quickly tossed several into her mouth before hopping off his shoulder and gliding over to Mila’s.

  Finn ate the remaining two chews and put the box away. “Open your jacket about halfway,” he told Mila, who had leaned her head to the side to affectionately bump Penny’s flank as the dragon landed on her shoulder.

  “I’m not going to expose myself to the cold even more. I’m already struggling here.”

  Penny quickly crawled onto the front of Mila’s jacket and unzipped it herself. Before Mila could stop her, Penny climbed into the opening, holding the GPS device out in front of her, arms and neck sticking out of the zipper between Mila’s breasts like she was a baby in a harness. Penny clamped her mouth shut and began to puff out her cheeks as she created a magical fire in her belly.

  Mila opened her mouth to protest but cocked her head and smiled as Penny’s body began to radiate heat.

  “Oh, my God. Why didn’t you do this from the start? You’re like a hot water bottle!” Mila awkwardly held her fist so it was facing the tiny dragon riding in her jacket.

  Penny made a fist of her own and bumped it into Mila’s, smiling up at her. “Squee shi shir.”

  Mila looked to Finn for the translation.

  Finn laughed. “She says she didn’t start there because she thought you were a big girl and could handle a little cold.”

  Mila’s jaw dropped and she looked down at Penny, who was staring daggers at Finn.

  “Shiri shi shir!” She shot a white-hot flame in his direction to punctuate her statement.

  Finn laughed even harder, holding his hands up in surrender. “I’m kidding. She said she never had a friend who needed her help to warm up before. It was actually a pretty sweet thing for her to say, considering dragons don’t count people as friends very often.”

  Now there was a purplish blush to Penny’s blue cheeks as she smiled up at Mila.

  Mila blinked a few times, looking down at Penny, obviously at a loss for words. In a sudden movement, she craned her head forward and gave Penny a kiss on the top of her scaled head.

  “Thanks. You’re a good friend to have, Penny.”

  Finn watched the interaction with a warm feeling bubbling in his stomach. Penny had never liked anyone they had teamed up with, always keeping her distance from newcomers, and only talking to him. The shift in her attitude spoke volumes that no one but he could understand.

  Faerie dragons were a very selective bunch, trusting only a few people, and even then, only until they got what they needed from them. His and Penny’s partnership—no, that wasn’t the right word anymore. Their friendship was beyond rare in the cosmos, and now she had a second friend.

  What is the world coming to?

  The sound of voices interrupted his train of thought, and he turned to hear them better. Mila and Penny picked up on them too, Mila taking a step forward to be next to Finn.

  The sound was distant. Finn knew that sound acted weird in a forest, bouncing off of everything and coming at you from false directions. A glance at Penny, who had far superior hearing compared to him or Mila, and she confirmed the direction with a pointed talon.

  “Thanks,” he whispered, and Penny gave him a lazy salute and winked.

  He moved them forward several more yards until the voices were loud enough for even he and Mila to locate.

  Directly in front of them, several voices, speaking loudly, filtered through the trees. Panic was starting to pitch their tone higher and louder as the seconds passed.

  That was when the entire forest started trembling and shaking.

  A rain of dried pine needles fell on and around Finn, leaving everything with a crunchy, tan coating. Finn saw the first elf burst through the trees, running for all he was worth right at them, a look of terror etched on his face.

  “Run! They’re out of control! We didn’t know that would happen!” the brown-haired man shouted as he ran past, not looking back.

  Finn pulled out the handle of Fragar and grinned. “Looks like we’re in the right spot after all.”

  Chapter Two

  Finn burst from the underbrush into a clearing in the woods. The chaotic sight of a dozen elves in hiking attire trying to fight off five gigantic trees that were whipping twisted and malformed branches at them caused him to stumble to a halt. The sight was so bizarre, Finn didn’t quite know how to process it.

  Mila stumbled out of the brush beside him, Gram, the golden sword, fully extended in her hand. “What the actual fuck?”

  “My sentiments exactly. Penny, any ideas?” Finn scanned the crowd and spotted the likely leader of this doomed experiment. The amulet dangled against the outside of his puffy red vest.

  Penny quickly climbed from Mila’s jacket and flapped up beside Finn. “Ker chir?” she suggested with a shrug.

  “Worth a shot, just don’t catch them on fire. I can fix this when I get my hands on the amulet. No need to burn the forest down in the attempt. You give me some space, and I’ll pull the elves out.” Finn turned to Mila. “You stay here and help the elves. Most of them are going to be in shock and will need looking after.”

  She nodded and moved out into the clearing as he and Penny charged.

  Penny used a large jet of flame right above the heads of three of the elves who were tangled in a spiny branch that was squeezing them together. The tree recoiled from the flame, releasing its captives, and shook menacingly at the little dragon. Penny didn’t flinch, and instead shot another flame at the mutant tree, making it whip back from her.

  Finn was right on her heels, passing her by and scooping the two most injured elves over his shoulders and yelling at the third to get back. The dazed elf, cradling an obviously broken arm, scrambled to her feet and ran toward Mila, who was waving her direction with both arms. Finn sprinted past the elf and, as gently as he could, dropped the other two at Mila’s feet before turning and running at the second tree, already swaying angrily away from Penny’s flaming attentions.

  There were more elves under this tree, but most of them were in good enough shape that they could run on their own, without his prompting. The four left were helped by their fellows, freeing Finn up to go after the last tree and the four elves stuck in its branches.

  Finn spotted the leader slashing at the monstrous tree with a small knife, but it was ineffective, and he was batted to the ground by one branch and whipped across the face by a second. Finn already had Fragar out, and he swung as he slid into place next to a woman who was completely wrapped up in a branch, being squeezed tight. She had her mouth open in a scream, but no sound came out, her lungs empty of air.

  Finn chopped the branch off a foot from the woman and was slashed by the end as it sprang back to its natural, ridged shape, unwinding from around her. Taking the whipping, Finn caught the woman with one arm and severed a second branch entangling a young man. Springing away from the tree, Finn saw that Penny had arrived and was using her flames to scare the tree back. She had to do a little fancy flying to avoid some tentacle-like branches that came at her from the sides, but she was more than capable of staying out of reach.

  The leader crawled back i
n a hasty crabwalk, and the fourth person, a young woman, was able to run once Penny scared the tree back from her.

  The sound of several bubbles popping made Finn glance up to see four Huldu arriving, their faces masks of horror at what the elves had done to the trees.

  Finn laid the woman in his arms down on the ground and looked for a pulse. He didn’t find one. He quickly started CPR on her, careful not to crush her delicate collarbone or ribs. He was so focused on the woman that when the elven leader slid up on her other side and began blowing air into her mouth, he barely noticed, only counting the beats.

  It took nearly a full minute of pumping, but eventually, the elf’s eyes snapped open, and she gasped for air. Finn quickly pulled a healing potion from his jacket pocket and unstopped the cork with his teeth as he sat her up, bracing her with his other hand under her back.

  “Drink this. I don’t know if there’s any other damage inside of you, so it’s better to be safe.” He gently pressed the vial to her lips, and she greedily sucked the red fluid down. “That’s it. Good job,” he reassured her, laying her to the ground while the potion did its work.

  He glanced over his shoulder and saw that Mila was distributing the other healing potions they had brought in her backpack. This was turning out to be expensive, but what did he care? He had more gold than he could spend, thanks to the cursed armband Draupnir.