by Allan Joyal
Steve nodded and then winked at me. He turned back to the center of the camp where Shaylin, Gertrilla, Heather and Jennifer were still standing. "Marines, we are leaving," he shouted out.
Laughing, I shook my head. "You realize that it's possible none of them get that reference?"
"I liked that movie," Steve protested as the first beetle was coaxed to its feet. The dwarves on each side checked the harness and then prodded it forward. As it started to move, everyone jumped into the gap between the second and third sleds.
The caravan started forward. Heather made sure she was far away from me as we began to march. I moved up to the back of the second sled and leaned out to speak to Mertiln. "How extensive is this network?" I asked.
"We have tunnels that reach just about any point on the plains," Mertiln responded. "However, while there are agreements that the paths are neutral, some races and clans do not honor the peace. That's why we will take you to Purahomp. It's on the Southern part of the plains. The snows will not be as deep and some roads are open, although they will likely be muddy. You should have no problem reaching Saraloncto in time to be able to cross through the wild lands and reach the far coast before winter comes again."
"You can't get us to Saraloncto?" Lydia asked. She was standing at my right shoulder. I looked around for Hencktor and found him walking with Esme and Natalie. The two girls were apparently telling him some involved tale to distract him. "They are describing how to play baseball," Lydia informed me.
Mertiln pulled on his beard. "We have many tunnels that go to Saraloncto. Some would require that we bring an army, if we plan to get you through to Saraloncto alive. Not all of the races here will allow entry into their territory. The only two routes that are open right now would mean many thirties of days of travel. We would either have to go south all the way to the ocean before turning East, or we could travel west almost to the coast there and take a route north that avoids the troglodytes that have claimed the lands under the Wizard's City."
"And either one would mean we arrive in Saraloncto too late to strike out across the plains on the other side of the Elfwall river," I said. "I must thank you for taking the time to examine such options for us."
"One of the suits of armor you helped us recover was forged by my mother's, father's, mother's grandfather. The runes on it were set by Berylwyn the Precise, one of the finest runesmiths the Drugn clan ever produced. You helped keep my clan's honor," Mertiln said.
"Do you trade at Saraloncto?" I asked.
"I do not travel that far, but we do send caravans there through the southern route. The elves and the kings of that city pay well for dwarven goods," Mertiln replied.
"Is there anything you might need that we can trade for while we travel from Purahomp to Saraloncto? It would be an honor to help a clan that has been so willing to assist us," I asked.
Mertiln laughed. "There is always something we can use. I'll make sure I ask the mine foremen at the outpost. I expect most will be simple things like more grain. We trade for what grain we can get, but more is always welcome."
I nodded. Mertiln was then called away by one of the other dwarves. They drifted to the far side of the path. The two dwarves stopped to examine something etched into the wall of the cave while we continued on our way. They vanished into the darkness behind us while we continued through the tunnels.
It was impossible to say if it had been ten minutes or six hours when Mertiln reappeared beside us. He was walking ahead of the sled at a slow pace and allowed it to pass. When I caught up to him he said nothing, but matched his pace to mine as we followed the lights.
Lydia had resumed walking by Hencktor and Heather was still avoiding me so Jennifer was walking by my side when Mertiln returned. Jennifer seemed a bit intimidated by the dwarf, but carefully reached out to touch him on the shoulder.
Mertiln turned quickly. I saw his right hand drop to his waist, but he relaxed when he saw who had touched him. "You are one of the lassies in this group," he observed. "I don't recommend sneaking up on someone like that, they might strike at you."
Jennifer shook her head. "I didn't mean to offend, good sir. But I wondered, have you heard what happened to the others who arrived with us?"
Mertiln stroked his beard. "I've heard some tales. Bad business it was. You being summoned from so far away and the wizards not willing to send you home. Sadly, I have not heard much about the others summoned with you. The group that had our armor is wintering in Rivergate. They are far to the west. I've heard rumors of other strange humans, but nothing has been confirmed. I do know that slavers staged several raids on towns and roads to the west. It's possible some of your companions were captured. If they were, they could be anywhere by spring. The slavers know these tunnels and use them to avoid human patrols."
"Will they be a danger to us?" I asked.
Mertiln snorted. "They avoid caravans. A single dwarf wandering away from a mine might be in danger, but the slavers rely on being able to overwhelm their targets. There are too many dwarves in this party for them to risk a confrontation."
"They could grab someone at night," Jennifer said fearfully.
"We do have guards," Mertiln observed, "and the slavers know to break the peace of the camps is to have all groups at war with them."
"So you keep the agreement, even though they trade on the misery of others?" I asked.
Mertiln frowned. "We hate to do it, but we must. If we openly attempt to thwart the slavers, other races living in these tunnels would rally to their side. It's a war that we cannot win. We try to keep slavers out of our own territories, and even purchase the freedom of slaves when we can, but we cannot just stamp out the foul practice."
Jennifer hissed, but I placed a hand on her arm. "No, Jennifer. It sounds like he likes it no more than we do. But it also sounds like right now it's too deeply established in the economies of several races. We can work to ensure it never appears in our lands, and maybe in the future, a force will rise up that can eliminate it."
"Many races would rally to you if you could gather such a force," Mertiln observed. "Lassie, I never said the dwarves like it. It offends us that it exists, but we don't have the hammers to stamp out the practice."
Jennifer sulked. She continued to walk alongside me, but I could feel the mild resentment oozing out of her. It was clear she understood that the dwarves would be willing to stop the slavery, if they had the power, but she still hated the fact that it existed. I kept silent as we continued to march through the darkness.
Shaylin and Gertrilla allowed the two puppies to roam around our feet. At first I worried that the dogs might run off or start to chase the dwarves, but they stayed within the circle of light thrown by our Everlight stone. Corwar and Gertrilla watched the dogs and made sure they did not bother the beetle that continued to tirelessly pull the third sled in our small caravan.
One dog did come up and walk by my side. Mertiln looked at the dog, but other than fingering his beard said nothing. Eventually the tired puppy ran over to Corwar, who picked up the puppy and carried him in his arms as we continued to walk down the seemingly endless tunnel.
We did not stop for lunch. Jennifer and Victoria distributed some wedges of hard cheese along with crackers for each of us to nibble on. I handed some to Mertiln, who accepted the food with a look of pleased surprise.
By my estimate it was late afternoon. We were entering another large open cave. The path here split, with side paths heading both left and right off the one we followed. Mertiln and the other dwarves directed the beetles to take the left path. The lead beetle sped up for a moment, but then stopped abruptly. I heard a voice shouting something from in front of the beetle.
Mertiln immediately pulled an axe from his belt. He remained relaxed, but watchful as he waved his left arm. There was a moment of silence and then a dwarf emerged from the darkness behind the final sled in our caravan. He walked up to Mertiln and the two exchanged whispers. The new dwarf looked at me as the conversation ended and t
hen continued forward, walking near the left side of the trade path.
The lead beetle started moving again, but compared to the earlier pace, it was now barely crawling forward. A number of sulfurous profanities were being voiced by the dwarves ahead of us. At least I thought they were profane. Mertiln seemed a bit embarrassed by the shouts of his fellow dwarves. He said nothing to us as we kept moving forward.
We had almost reached the spot where the beetle had first stopped when I saw motion just off the left side of the path. I peered into the darkness and saw what looked like a five foot tall mushroom. The cap of this giant fungus was at least seven feet across. In the filtered light of the lantern, it was impossible to clearly see what color the crown of the fungus was, but I could clearly see several round spots.
"What kind of mushroom is that?" Natalie whispered. I jumped slightly as I realized she was standing at my right shoulder.
Mertiln said nothing, but I saw the dwarf who had whispered to him earlier approaching the mushroom. He was about twelve feet or so away from the edge of the path when the mushroom seemed to pop up into the air. Two arms sprouted from near the crown. One picked up a round shield that appeared to have been made from the crown of another mushroom while the other grasped a cone of stone and pointed it at the dwarf.
Cries of near panic came from my companions, but no one ran away. I held up a hand for silence as the fungus stood on the side of the road. The dwarf near it had pulled out a glass jar filled with a liquid that shimmered in the light. He opened it and used a stick to fling some of the liquid toward the fungus.
"What's happening?" I asked Mertiln.
"I don't know," Mertiln responded. "The Mushroom people don't come down to the paths very often."
"They honor the peace?" I asked.
"Usually they do," Mertiln said. "They don't speak like we do though. We use a combination of smells and hand waving."
"So they can see you?" Natalie asked. "I don't see any eyes."
"We don't know how they sense things," Mertiln replied with a shrug of his massive shoulders. "They don't speak, and I've seen one stand right next to a cave in and be completely unaffected by the echoes of the crashing rocks. At the same time, they are very accurate with the clubs and rocks they use in fights."
"What do they ask for?" I inquired. "I mean, is this one here for a reason?"
"They never take anything," Mertiln responded. "Sometimes they just charge out and fight, but often it's just a single one. We keep jars that release smells they seem to find pleasant, and they allow us to pass."
"Where do they live?" Natalie asked.
"Natalie, you aren't thinking of visiting," I said.
"No," Natalie replied. "But I was thinking. I'm sure they need food, just like we all do. Could their visits to the paths be an effort to find more food for their people?"
Mertiln shrugged. "The nearest colony is a long hike through raw caves. It's a large cave just off from one of the many underground rivers flowing through our world."
Natalie perked up a bit. "This river, does it see great floods during the spring. Floods that bring trees and dead animals along?"
"Probably," Mertiln replied. "We don't use the water from that river, but I've heard it becomes brown with debris during the spring when the snow melts on the surface. Why do you ask?"
Natalie turned to me. "Ron, it's probably looking for food. In my classes one of the teachers talked a bit about fungus and its role in a forest. Mushrooms and other fungus grow mostly on decaying wood and animal fibers. That's what they use as food. If these mushroom people are living near a flooding river, they probably grab as much as they can from the river each spring and then try to make it last until the next flood. But if it runs out, they'd have to search for new sources of food."
I looked at Mertiln. "What she says makes sense. Do you have any wooden trash we can provide to this mushroom man?"
"Nat!" Esme called out. "Didn't we grab some parts of that one fallen tree we found when we broke camp? The one that had clearly suffered some worm damage?"
"That pack is up in the first sled!" Natalie replied. "I can try that!"
"Natalie!" I hissed.
"No," she said as she stepped around Mertiln. "It's my idea, I should take the risk."
"Stay on the path," I said. "The mushroom man seems to be respecting the peace."
Natalie nodded and limped forward. I tracked her in the dim light as she walked forward to the first sled. She passed between the two sleds to approach the right side of the sled and began feeling through the various packs. Meanwhile, the dwarf trying to communication with the mushroom person seemed to be struggling to get a reply. The mushroom stood impassively as we continued to pass by as a snail's pace.
"The thing must have used its sleepy spores on the lead beetle," Mertiln muttered. "That's often a prelude to an attack."
"If he was hungry and needed a dead body to feed on, that would almost make sense. Put an animal to sleep and you can easily kill it. I guess your beetle is somewhat immune."
Mertiln looked at me. "Your friend is taking a huge risk."
I narrowed my eyes and brought the spear around. I held it at my waist with the point hovering at eye level several feet in front of me. I sidestepped nearer to the left side of the path, remaining behind the dwarf who continued to try to get the impassive mushroom man to respond to one of the many scents he had brought out.
Natalie approached the fungus being. I could see she had an armful of small logs. Each one appeared to be about three inches in diameter. She held one out in her right hand as she slowly stepped forward.
Natalie was only about five feet from the edge of the path when the mushroom man reacted to her approach. It spun around, bringing the stone club up and waving it directly at the coed. Natalie was already starting to stoop down and merely dropped to her knees, allowing the club to slash through the empty space where her head had been.
She did not risk remaining close after that one swing. She tossed the various logs to the ground, right near the base of the mushroom man and then scrambled out of the way. The large fungus did not make another attack, but kept its shield focused on Natalie as she scrambled back towards the sleds.
The dwarf who had been trying to communicate using the scented liquids was cursing as he watched Natalie retreat. I thought he was going to march up to her, but he remained standing just outside the reach of the giant fungus. I was standing behind him and watching as the fungus seemed to calm down.
The giant mushroom moved forward until its base was against one of the logs Natalie had tossed to the floor. As I watched, the base of the mushroom seemed to rise up while a tentacle formed to push the log underneath the stalk of the strange being. It stood there motionless for a moment and then made an awkward looking bow.
The fungus dropped its stone club. The remaining logs Natalie had tossed to the ground were picked up by tentacles that grew out of the stalk. Each log was passed up the stalk until it could be laid on the strange shield the being now carried in both of its arms. The being ignored us until the last log was placed on the shield, then it turned away from the path and flowed away, gliding across the rough stone and vanishing into the darkness.
Natalie strolled back to the group; she had a huge smile on her face. "See, it was just looking for food," she said.
"I never would have believed it," Mertiln said quietly. "You mean that all our encounters with them were just about food?"
"Probably not all," Natalie said. "I'm sure they have times when the food they bring in will never meet their needs and they send out parties looking for a new home. They also might react to your people getting too close to their nurseries. But I guess some of it was just about food."
"You should see if the outpost produces garbage that could be given to the mushroom men," I said. "If you can't communicate, it might not solve every conflict, but I expect they would become much better neighbors if they saw you as friends who help them in times of need."
Mertiln stroked his beard for a moment as the caravan kept moving. The lead sled had sped up once the mushroom man had vanished, but we were still slower than we had been before the encounter. Mertiln was still thinking when the translator dwarf began to walk next to him. They held a long conversation in a gruff, harsh language. I turned away from them to look at Natalie.
"You took a huge risk," I said sternly.
Natalie blushed. "I know and I'm sure Esme is going to find some way to remind me that I shouldn't be taking risks like that. Not if we want a lifetime together."
I put an arm around the young woman and pulled her to me in a one armed embrace. "Convince her that you need her and desire her as a friend, companion and lover," I whispered into her ear once I was holding her close.
"Ron!" Natalie said as she blushed and giggled. She pushed me away and then ran off. She quickly moved behind Esme and hugged her partner from behind. "Protect me Esme," she giggled.
Esme lifted her right hand to her lips and blew on her fingernails. She burnished her nails on her blouse. "There does happen to be a slight fee for protection services," she said calmly.
"Esme!" Natalie protested. "I thought I meant everything to you."
The rest of the girls started to giggle. I glanced back at them. Everything seemed to be calming down when a loud bellow of pain sounded from the front of our caravan.
The dwarves immediately went on alert. Weapons were pulled from belts and slings. Mertiln's axe was raised up as he shouted out something in the harsh language of his people.
Aine and Lydia ran up to the back of the sled. They used the ground to string their crossbows. Aine then used the crossbar of the sled to balance her loaded crossbow as Lydia walked beside her. They scanned the darkness, looking for movement.
"Make sure of your target," I reminded them. "We do not want to shoot one of the dwarves."
The beetle pulling the second sled suddenly changed direction. We had been staying on the right side of the path, but the sled crossed over to the left. Mertiln immediately moved so he could gaze down the right side of the sled.