Return of the Dwarf King

by Charley Case

  They were in a lush mountain valley; there didn't seem to be any buildings or roads in sight. The trees were green and thick, despite the chill in the air, and a small river or large stream ran the length of the valley, making bubbling and splashing noises in the background. Turning to the east, he could see the lights of a large city blotting out the stars.

  “Looks like we go that way. I’m guessing it’s at least ten miles.” He pointed at the glowing sky beyond where the water was flowing.

  Penny swooped down and landed on his shoulder.

  They looked at one another for a second before Finn grinned like a child. “I can’t believe we actually found it. This is going to be amazing. Think of the treasures we’ll find. We could finish your horde if we’re lucky.”

  Penny grinned and blew a ring of smoke from one nostril in excited agreement.

  An hour later, Finn crested the downhill ridge of the valley and saw the city sprawled before them. Lights spread out as far as the eye could see, glowing a dim orange in the night.

  He blinked a few times, taking it all in. “This is insane. It just goes on forever. Where are the towers?”

  Every city Finn had ever been to throughout the galaxy had used magic to erect huge towers that could hold millions of people. It was the most efficient way for so many people to live in one place, but this was madness.

  “Why would they spread out like this? It must take forever to get anywhere.”

  Penny huffed in agreement.

  They had seen some shit during their travels, but this was in the top three of weirdest places, easy.

  Finn started down the hill, using the odd tree to keep himself from sliding. “Maybe there’s a magical dead spot here, or the towers were trying to pull too much energy or something.”

  “Cherp, shir.” Penny rolled her eyes, fluttering between branches beside him.

  “I don't know why they would build on a dead spot. It was just a guess,” he grunted as he slid a few feet before catching himself on a sapling that bent over alarmingly against his weight.

  Being a dwarf, Finn was able to see just fine, even without a moon in the sky, so when he almost fell off a cliff, where the slope he was descending suddenly ended, his surprise made his heart jump up into his throat.

  He grabbed the trunk of a tree on the cliff’s edge and was able to stop himself from stepping off into nothing. Penny came shooting around him and slammed into his chest, trying with all her might to push him back from the edge.

  The tiny dragon had no effect on Finn’s balance, but he appreciated the gesture.

  Getting both feet back on solid ground, he looked left, then right along the cliff’s edge.

  “This is going to take forever.” Finn blew out a long breath.

  The city’s edge was not far—at least, not for Penny, but Penny could fly. Finn, however, saw about a thousand obstacles he would need to traverse before he even got close.

  “Tell you what. I’m going to head this way,” Finn pointed to the left, “and you fly ahead to see if you can find a trail or something. There has to be a way down this mountain.”

  Penny gave him a nod and took off, rising above the tree cover before moving in the direction indicated. Finn watched her go, hoping she would be able to find an alternative route before too long. He liked the outdoors, but heights were not a dwarf’s favorite thing.

  Finn kept an eye on the cliff and moved carefully after the faerie dragon. He would have moved further into the forest, but he wanted to stay in plain sight so Penny would have no trouble spotting him, so instead, he made slow progress, his heart beating just a little faster than usual.

  Finn had to stop and marvel at how well the great ship Earth had held up over the eons. Usually, ecosystems fell apart over a long enough timeline, but here, it seemed like the selected plants and animals had flourished. He wondered if it had to do with the particular star the ship now orbited, or if it was a product of careful curation by the Huldu.

  Continuing on, Finn saw a light moving through the trees about a half-mile in front of him, and he instinctively ducked down beside a thick pine, using the dense needles for cover. Though, if whatever he was hiding from could pick him out this far away, then it was too late to hide. But years of training in infiltration kept him crouched. The second he underestimated a guard or priestess would be the second he got caught.

  The light bobbed and flickered, turning corners and disappearing, then turning back as whatever it was followed the curve of the mountain in an upward direction. It was making slow progress, but it was consistent, and Finn quickly understood it was a vehicle of some kind. Probably one of the fancy, Magic-propelled carriages that were popular back when Earth had first taken off. Then he remembered the films he had recorded and watched from Earth, and he smiled. No, the light was coming from a car. He remembered the round, bulbous vehicles from the John Wayne films he so loved.

  Finn stood and picked up the pace. He wanted to see one of these Fords for himself.

  He was no more than a hundred yards further along when Penny swooped down through the trees and landed on his shoulder.

  “Cher shriip. Chee chi.” She was excited, and her little jet of flame could have blinded Finn, but luckily, he knew what happened when she got excited and had closed his eyes to preserve his dark vision.

  “I know. I saw it just a few minutes ago.” Finn started jogging. “I wonder if we can catch a ride down into the city.”

  Penny made another series of chirps and squeaks, careful to keep her enthusiasm down and not jet flame in his face.

  Finn was disappointed to hear that the vehicle was moving too fast to catch on foot, but he brightened when she said there was a second one coming from the other direction, and if he hurried, he should be able to catch it.

  Finn ducked a little further into the woods to keep away from the cliff’s edge and started running. His long legs ate up the distance. Dwarves weren’t fast runners, being quicker off the line with explosive movements like an alligator, but they were hardy, and once they set a pace, they could keep it up over very long distances.

  Crashing through the underbrush and low-hanging branches, Finn made very good time. After about five minutes of hard running, he glimpsed lights shining through the trees. They weaved and bounced as the vehicle drove along the dirt road Penny had told him was there.

  Finn was afraid he was going to miss the oncoming vehicle and picked up speed, his breath becoming labored. The lights were getting closer, and he judged he would make it to the road just as the lights did. It was going to be close.

  Penny had taken wing as soon as he started crashing through tree branches instead of ducking around them. Finn wished he had her ability to cover ground so fast, but wishing never got anyone anywhere, so instead, he focused on his legs pumping up and down, his eyes down so he wouldn’t trip on an unseen root or stone.

  He was still paying attention to the ground when the trees suddenly gave way, and he found himself sliding to a stop on a hard-packed gravel road, two headlights coming directly at him. The sound of tires locking up and plowing furrows in the dirt and tossing rocks his way made Finn throw a hand up, but it was too little too late.

  Finn felt the air forced out of his lungs as a large, metal grille hit him in the chest. It sent him flying to land on his back and he slid down the road about twenty feet, kicking up dust the whole way.

  He blinked a few times, staring into the night sky, his ears ringing and his chest throbbing from the impact. A cloud of dust from the vehicle wafted over him, backlit by the headlights.

  “What in the actual fuck!” a man’s voice shouted, followed by a door slamming. He had a bit of an accent that made him enunciate the “u” in “fuck” extra hard.

  Finn sat up, rubbing his chest and checking to make sure there wasn’t any permanent damage.

  “Sorry about that, friend,” he called to the silhouette of the man jogging toward him.

  With a little effort, Finn got to his feet as t
he man slid to a stop beside him. Finn stood a good foot taller than him, and was easily twice as wide. He gave the man a toothy smile.

  For the driver’s part, he immediately took a step back from the giant he had just hit with his truck and didn’t seem to have hurt at all.

  “Whoa. You are a man, right? Not, like, a grizzly in clothes?”

  “Actually, I’m a dwarf, Peabrain. Finnegan Dragonbender.” Finn held out a meaty hand for the man to shake.

  “I’m pretty sure you aren’t allowed to say that. I think they prefer ‘little people,’” he said with a shaky voice, but after a second, he shook Finn’s offered hand. “You all right, buddy? You came out of nowhere!”

  Finn had no idea what he meant by ‘little people,’ but he let it go. The man was obviously traumatized by the accident and not in his right mind.

  “I was trying to catch you,” Finn said, and the man paled slightly. Finn clarified, “I need a ride into town. My…transportation broke down, and I need to find some parts. Perhaps you know where I might find a Huldu?”

  “Man, I don’t know where you’re from, but I believe they are called Hindus. I think there’s a Hindu church in Lakewood, but I can’t remember for sure.” He took a second to look Finn over. “If you want, I can drop you off at the Kum & Go right off 70. I’m sure you can get a tow truck or something. You’ll have to ride in my truck bed since I have my dogs in the front.”

  Finn smiled. “A ride would be wonderful. Thank you, Peabrain.”

  “Look, I know I hit you with my truck, but you don’t need to keep calling me names, man. You can just call me Joe.”

  “Joe. Thanks for the ride,” Finn said, walking back to the truck.

  “Just don’t sue me, bro,” Joe mumbled, opening the driver door to his jacked-up truck.

  Finn’s eyes widened when he was past the headlights and able to see the truck for the first time. It was nothing like the rounded, small things from the John Wayne movies he was used to.

  It must be from a different manufacturer, Finn reasoned.

  Putting a hand on the edge of the bed right around chest level, he pulled and jumped, launching himself into the steel bed of the silver truck in one leap.

  “Goddamn!” Joe exclaimed, his eyes wide. “You’re a strong motherfucker.”

  “It’s all part of being a dwarf,” Finn said jovially, settling down in the bed and smiling.

  “You can't say that, dude,” Joe mumbled, climbing into the driver’s seat and closing the door.

  The tires spun a little before gaining traction, and then they slowly started down the mountain road.

  Penny swooped down, having watched the whole interaction from the air. She settled on Finn’s knee and narrowed her eyes.

  “What?” Finn asked, his smile not fading in the least.

  Penny began chirping her theory.

  After a few turns in the road, Finn held up a hand to stop her long-winded explanation. “I know it’s going to be a little different than the other places we’ve been. I mean, this ship’s been out here for a long time without any supply runs, so they would have had to adapt, but they’re still Peabrains. Once we get into the city, you’ll see. It’ll be no time until we find a Huldu.”

  Penny kept her mouth shut, but she gave him an “I hope you’re right” look.

  Chapter Four

  Dr. Mila Winters tiredly climbed out of her black Hellcat Challenger and slid her credit card into the gas pump’s reader. She selected the premium option, and after inserting the nozzle into the tank, she locked the handle in the on position and leaned against the car’s back fender, pulling out her phone.

  As she opened her email, two large moths landed on the shoulder of her black leather jacket. They flexed their wings and settled down as if her shoulder were the most comfortable place in the world.

  This was not an uncommon occurrence for Mila. Since she was a little girl, bugs of all kinds seemed to flock to her. When she was young, it had really freaked her out, but over the years, she’d become used to it, even enjoying the little interactions. She had never come across a bug that wasn't respectful, and she tried to show them respect in return.

  “Hello, there. How’s your night going, ladies?” Mila smiled at the two on her shoulder. She never understood how she knew if a bug was male or female, she just did. “Hopefully, it’s going better than mine. I feel like it’s nothing but work, work, work lately. Not to mention my coworker Jeff just up and disappeared. Yeah! Disappeared. He left me all his Viking bullshit to translate while he’s supposedly on sabbatical. Can you believe that?”

  The moths cocked their heads at her.

  “Yeah, I’m not sure I believe it either.”

  The two moths bobbed a few times and took off again, circling the overhead light before heading into the night to find themselves a couple of strapping young men.

  Mila laughed. That wasn’t the first time she had talked to a bug that had stopped to check her out, but it was the first time she’d ever complained to one about work. She was getting a little delirious from exhaustion.

  She had just spent the last twelve hours at Dinosaur Ridge, inspecting and cataloging a suspected ancient Native American campsite. The work would be ongoing since she’d been able to find several indications that the site was legitimate. It was good for science, but not so good for her weekend. The amount of paperwork she was going to have to file was daunting, and she was already backlogged, with the last shipment of Jeff’s Viking relics sitting in her workshop at the museum. She was trying to decide if she would work on it over the weekend, or if she would wait until Monday and just embrace the fact that she was going to be behind for a few weeks.

  She was halfway through another email from her boss at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, where she was the lead anthropologist, when a jacked-up Chevy truck pulled into the gas station and stopped at the convenience store’s front door.

  Normally, the sight of a truck with a twelve-inch lift wouldn’t make her bat an eye, not in Denver, but this truck had one of the largest men she had ever seen in her life riding in the back. He was quite handsome, and his exquisitely trimmed black beard and hair were not uncommon sights in the hip, urban areas of the city. However, the symbols tattooed along the sides of his head, where the hair was clipped short under the neck-length hair on top, caught her eyes.

  She wouldn’t have thought anything of the symbols, except that she had been working with several artifacts that had some of the same markings on them. They were runes, and from the quick glance she got of them, they were perfectly formed.

  The pet lizard riding on his shoulder was a bit odd as well, but then again, this was Denver. If she didn’t know any better, though, she would say it was a tiny dragon with its wings folded back.

  The bearded man stood and hopped out of the truck bed, barely flexing his legs when he landed from the five-foot drop. He gave the bed a few slaps and the truck took off, barking the tires in its haste to get out of there. The large man looked around as if he had never seen a gas station before, and when he turned her way, a huge smile split his neat black beard and he waved.

  Mila blushed and quickly looked behind her to see if there was someone else, but she was the only one at the pumps. Considering it was eleven-thirty at night on a Wednesday, that wasn't unusual. When she looked back, he had opened the door to the convenience store. She could swear that before the door closed behind him, his pet lizard had given her a wave as well.

  She blinked a few times, then rubbed her eyes. She must be more tired than she thought.

  “Why is it that all the handsome guys have weird shit like pet lizards? Can’t you just get a dog like a normal person?”

  The pump clicked, making her jump, and she replaced the nozzle. Ripping the receipt free, she fell into the driver’s seat and raised her phone to finish reading the email from her boss. She got to the end and realized she hadn’t comprehended a single word. Instead, she was thinking about the big guy’s rune tattoos. T
he more she thought about it, the more she would have sworn that the tattoos had been glowing faintly.

  “What are the odds that I’m trying to translate a bunch of runes, and a guy with rune tattoos is literally dropped off in front of me?”

  Mila frowned, put her phone in the cupholder, and pressed the button to start the Hellcat. The engine roared to life, then settled down to a rumbling purr. She didn’t put the car in drive, however. Instead, she waited for the guy to come back out, just to be sure she wasn’t seeing things.

  Thinking of all the artifacts back in her workshop, her head began to swim. There was just so much work to do, and she was absolute crap when it came to rune translation. The whole push for her to take on the Viking finds was from her boss, who thought Viking lore was “sexy” and would get more people into the museum.

  He was probably right. Everybody liked a good Viking story, but Mila specialized in Native American and South American cultures, so switching to rune translation was a learning curve for her.

  None of this would have been a problem if Jeff hadn’t suddenly up and left. They had worked across the hall from one another for the last three years, and she thought they were at least friendly, but he hadn’t said a thing to her before dumping his whole workload in her lap and taking off. He did leave a note, but it was in that damned runic script he loved. She had tried for two days to translate it but had gotten nowhere. When she asked their boss where Jeff had gone, all he would tell her was that he was on sabbatical, and would be gone for the foreseeable future.

  None of it sat right with Mila, but she didn’t really have a reason to believe anything different. Except for the note he had left her, which she couldn’t even read.

  The guy’s tattoos gave her an idea. She wasn't sure if it was a good idea, or if she was just too tired to understand how bad an idea it was, but she was going to give it a try.