The dwarf had decided to keep the dwarven secret for a bit longer, letting Lehtern sleep in some blankets on the ground while the skeletons by now had passed and closed off the entrance to the cave. He had been held prisoner here while his captor had left to go and talk with other dwarves. Lehtern hadn’t even been allowed outside, having only his thoughts to try and perhaps make plans and other things.

  After the moon had arrived and had lit up the mountain, Lehtern decided that it was time to gather information. He went to the door, putting his hand on the handle. Right before he tried to see if it was unlocked, a voice could be heard behind him.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I was you mister.”

  Lethern gasped, turning around to see the boy standing there in the entrance of the boy’s room.

  The boy walked to a cabinet and opened it. Inside seemed to be some leaves from which he took a couple. He first rubbed it between his fingers before then putting it on his mouth, starting to suckle on them.

  Not sure on why the boy would try to stop him besides that his father might be back sooner or later, he opened the door anyway. That’s where he stopped with trying to leave as the house was right next to the edge of a cliff, having around thirty centimeters to the edge. He gasped, taking a step back but leaving the door open.

  The kid seemed smug as he walked to the door and closed it again before walking back to his room. “Dad will be back in the morning. Sleep elf. Father said that you looked like a walking skull.”

  While he left, Lehtern stayed at the door. He once more opened it but this time more carefull. As he looked down over the edge, he started to wonder how the dwarves didn’t fall down when there was so little space to stand. Down at the bottom of the cliff were many lights, as far as he could see were there lights. This must be the army of the skeletons on their way to kill everyone he held dear. He knew that he had to go back to Berk to tell him his findings.

  Then again, he didn’t even know how to get down and the only way back through the passage was now blocked off by a huge pile of bones with pointy sticks. “You’ve got to be kidding me. How in the name of Pan am I going to get back?”

  He closed the door before walking to his blankets, sitting down on them as he tried to think about it. He couldn’t go back since it was blocked off. For now the only thing he was able to do was sit here for the duration of the war. “Fuck… did I really need to be captured?”

  While Lehtern continued to be mad at himself, he would eventually like back down to sleep as there was nothing else for him to do.

  The next morning, he was woken up by a lot of talking. He opened his eyes with the sun shining down on him. Apparently he really needed to catch up on his sleep, not hearing an entire group of dwarf walk in the home and watching him.

  “That’s a spy?” Asked one while another seemed to shake his head. “Elves were never good at being anything but hugging trees.”

  The original dwarf seemed to shut them up as he grabbed a chair and set it down in front of Lehtern, sitting down on it while looking down. “What you see here is the council that’s left. Originally there was a council of ninety dwarves and now… there’s five of them. They have decided for us to finally come out with our secret on why we’re not going to help in the war.”

  “We know that the other gruges haven’t been in contact with the Magic Gruge. We also know that you guys seem to justify it by saying that they don’t like to meddle with the likes of us. In reality, the reason that they have been in less contact than normal is because they’re dead.”

  That information seemed to wake Lehtern up fully. He immediately paid more attention as this was some very interesting and important information. The dwarf continued their story.

  “A while ago, the Magic Gurge was wanting to put up some kind of base on the ground. What spot is better than the highest mountain? Close to home and easily accessible to them from their damn clouds.”

  “Thing is, we weren’t going to just give them a part of our land. Those cloud fuckers can go ahead and drown for all we cared. So when we declined their offer, they decided to go to a more… drastic action. They casted a spell while they were down here and after not too long, dwarves started to get eaten in the mines.”

  “Apparently the spell conjured golems made from stones. Problem with those stone golems is that they’re difficult to spot in these dark caves. Our generals have been on the clock trying to take them out in their unique ways. While we were dying down here, the magical goatfuckers took their claim to the mountaintop, offering to ‘help us get rid of them’ in exchange for them to keep the mountain top.”

  Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

  “During one night when our king was killed by one of those golems, we went up to their outpost, armed to the teeth. Many dwarves died but we killed them all. Imagine our surprise when we found out that they had established a portal to the cloud empire thinking there was now way we would be able to take back the top.”

  “To make sure that they wouldn’t take revenge on us and so that they weren’t warned about them losing the top and increasing their defenses, we attacked them with literally all we had. The pricks never saw us coming and we killed them all. Their land isn’t as big as one would have thought, around ten thousand magics bit the clouds so to say. Not to say that we didn’t lose many ourselves… more than I would like to admit.”

  “We now control the cloud lands but… we can’t protect the mountain anymore if we’re attacked. We tried to take up contact with the other two dwarven clans but due to the coming war, they’ve been… hiding and reinforcing. Not only that, we now have control over the three generals. If we get wiped out then the generals will go to the other two clans so they don’t mind letting their own kind die.”

  Hearing all of his explained to him, he would sigh and shake his head. “In Pan’s name.” He wasn’t sure on what to do with this information. “So what now? You told me this but what can I do with it? I can’t get back to say that we can’t expect any help.”

  “That’s were our deal come into play. You do a task for us, and we help you to get back home.”

  Lehtern hesitated for a bit. He was pretty sure that if he refused, he wasn’t going to be able to get back home. Wanting to give them the benefit of the doubt, he waited to hear them out. “Go ahead?”

  Before the dwarf told him what it was, he looked at the remaining council members. One nodded to encourage him while the others seemed a bit nervous and unsure. He sighed, looking back at Lehtern.

  “We need you to spit for us. A while ago we got word from the zombie Gruge that a previous royalty from us had officially turned from zombie to skeleton. Seeing as he was a good king, we took up contact with him. He let us know that the skeletons were trying to start something. When it got clear that a war was coming, he tried to start an uprising after which we lost contact.”

  “That wasn’t so long ago, only a couple of days. So we’re interested to know what happened to him. We want you to venture into the Skeleton Gurge to find out what happened to him.”

  The fact that even an uprising failed and that he, a full flesh and blood elf had to go into the skeleton land seemed to be a joke to him at first. He groaned, covering his eyes as he tried to think what he should do. There didn’t really seem to be many options as he really needed to get back. Maybe if he could find a bird then he could message Zoala. Problem was he couldn’t explain to a bird what was going on.

  “Alright fine. I’ll go into their land but only to try and find that previous king of you. Tell me the name of the man that you want me to find.”

  “Great!” The sudden loud and happy voice of the dwarf made Lehtern jump a bit. “The one you’re looking for is Bombar Cromwell. Last we heard, he had gathered a small group of rebels somewhere to the north eastern castle. Perhaps that’s a good place to start.”

  “And how do you expect me to infiltrate the skeleton land if they own the passage?”

  “We own the mountain. We live in the mountain. We use the earths veins as if were her blood.”

  Lehtern got up, rubbing his head as it still hurt a bit from the day before. “Alright… Give me my bag and bring me to wherever you want… I’ll make sure to let you know where your old king went to.”

  The dwarves started to cheer for him as the wife started to bring out multiple mugs with some more red liquid. As she gave it to them, she herself seemed to take one as well, drinking together with the council and her husband.

  “Dear Pan… give me strength on this mission.” Said Lehtern to himself as he watched this group of wild people.

  The son came out of his room, carrying his bag as he then put it down next to Lehtern before quickly hiding away.

  Lehtern took the bag, sighing and putting it on before walking to the door. That’s when he remembered the edge being so close.

  “Can we maybe go? The sooner I get back, the sooner I can warn my king.”

  Seeing as Lehtern wanted to leave so quick, it dampened the mood a bit. The wife saw this and sighed, going to the back of the house while the men quickly started to finish their drink. As soon as it was empty, they all got up, walking to the door and opening it, walking out as if the edge wasn’t even there.

  While they just went, Lehtern walked up to the door, sticking his head out to look at the backs of the dwarves who got to the side of the house where the edge opened up into a plateau with grass. “How do I get from here to there?”

  At first they turned to look at him until he realized what the problem was. A couple of them laughed while the others looked at the man of the house, unsure on how he dragged him inside.

  “You’ll have to go through the window, it was the only way to get you in.”

  “Great…” He closed the door and went through the window. “Good job Lehtern… let yourself be captured. Go to the Skeleton Gurge…” He opened the window, climbing onto the counter as he then slowly crawled out of the tiny window. It wasn’t too fa of a way down but he still didn’t have anything to hold onto, dropping down onto his back. “Ach!”

  Once more, the dwarves seemed to be having fun, laughing with his misfortune. That when the wife came from around the back of the house. That was weird seeing as she went to the back of the house without exciting the front door.

  “Wait! Is there a door in the back?”

  He turned to look at the laughing dwarf and his captor. He would grin and shrug, going to his wife and kissing her as he noticed what she had with her. Behind her was a donkey with a big barrel on his back and a couple of bags.

  “Thank you hun… I’ll make sure to come back safe.”

  “You better come back mister. And if you can, drop the elf somewhere so I don’t need him in my house anymore. It now reeks like leaves into our house.”

  “I’ll make sure that the elf won’t come with us to here anymore okay? I mean, if he even survives his expedition.” He once more kissed her, even grabbing her ass before turning to the others. “Let’s go bring the elf a bone. Or to be more accurate, the elf to the bones.”

  While the dwarves laughed once more, Lehtern seemed to sigh and pinch the bridge of his nose out of frustration. “This will be a looong day…”