by D. W.
After a few tense moments Avalanche decided it was her time to make an entrance. Thad never heard her enter the small room and from the look on the dwarfs face when she latched her razor sharp teeth onto the arm holding his sword neither had the dwarf. As soon as Avalanche clamped down the dwarf dropped the sword and reached for his axe. Thad not wasting any time dove for the sword while blasting the dwarf with a small ball of fire at the same time.
Scooping up the sword with his right hand Thad turned on the dwarf just in time to see the dwarf bounce Avalanche off one of the metal walls. Thad could see blood pooling on the dwarfs arms though he was surprised Avalanche had not done more damage.
Thad could see Avalanche lean back preparing to launch itself at the stout dwarf again. Not wanting the fight to escalate out of control Thad moved in-between Avalanche and the dwarf hunching down slightly patting his friend on the head. The moment was not lost on the dwarf who visibly relaxed his grip on his axe.
Setting the massive weapon down in front of him the dwarf made a waggling motion with his fingers. When Thad didn’t get his meaning he repeated the movement than pointed at the small spot on his chest where the cloth had been slightly singed from his fireball.
Hoping he was right Thad formed a small fireball in his hand and then let it quickly fade away. The dwarf sat down heavily on the ground with a loud humph. Over the next few hours the two talked by waving their arms and making weird gestures. Thad was sure that if anyone had seen the exchange they would have been doubled over laughing.
The dwarf was currently trying to ask something about him though Thad was having a hard time making out what he was meaning. He was using his fingers and making them walk like a person then he would point at the wall. The dwarf was quickly getting frustrated with Thad’s lack of understanding and kept running his hands over his bald scalp that was now covered in short light-colored stubble. Finally he pointed at Thad, then at the ground the spread his hands indicating the area surrounding them.
Laughing to himself Thad finally understood what the dwarf was trying to get at. The only problem was Thad had no idea how to answer the question only using his hands. Then he began laughing again. Why was he using his hands in the first place? He had other means available to him. With a little focus Thad made a miniature person appear on the ground surrounded by forest. Soon other little men began to chase the first until he ran into a cave. The little men began to fight until the first one started casting small balls of fire at the cave walls and the cave began to collapse around him.
The dwarf threw his head back and a harsh crackling noise issued forth. Thad soon joined in the dwarf’s merriment. Looking back it was more than a little funny. There had to be hundreds of ways to deal with the situation back then other than sealing himself away from the enemy. He had just been so worked up and frantic he hadn’t been thinking ahead.
After a few moments the dwarf took an interest in the metal ingots that lined the wall. Using an illusion Thad explained how he had broken down the metal monster they had fought into small bars so that he could move them easier.
The dwarf picked up one of the ingots and studied it intently for a long period of time. Thad could see the dwarf’s eyes brighten as he looked over the stack of metal that towered before him. As if something shot through his mind the dwarf jumped from his seat and headed for the wall. When he noticed that there was no door he turned back to Thad and placed his hands on his hips in an exaggerated movement.
Laughing Thad walked over to the wall and placed his hand on it. Within seconds the metal shrunk back into a small ball that he placed carefully back in his pack. The dwarf slapped him hard on the back giving him a broad grin then darted toward one of the side tunnels. Not sure what was going on Thad followed the dwarf surprised how fast he could move despite his short legs.
The dwarf led him a short way down one of the tunnels until he stopped abruptly. The dwarf moved a small boulder away from the wall and pulled a large pack about twice the size of his own from a small cubby hole in the wall. With his pack in hand the dwarf turned around almost bumping into Thad and rushed back toward their little sanctuary.
Thad followed quick behind the bustling dwarf. As soon as the dwarf reached the small room he started loading his pack down with the metal ingots. While the pack was a good size it would still have taken thirty or more of them to come close to being able to carry what Thad had stacked against the wall. It took the dwarf a few moments of trying to find ways to move around his payload before he figured it wasn’t going to be possible to take all of it at one time.
The dwarf stood and looked down at the pack as if it had betrayed him then to Thad who lay on the ground a few feet away laughing. The dwarf didn’t look very pleased with his amusement. Thad stopped laughing and wiped the moisture from under his eye. The dwarf gave him a hard look then pointed from the bag then to the metal ingots then to him. It was obvious the dwarf wanted him to figure a way to get all the metal ingots into one pack.
It wasn’t really a hard problem to address. He had done the same thing with Eloen’s pack. All he had to do was to make a sub-dimensional area and link it to the pack. So that when opened it would allow a large portion of things to be stored and when closed would only weigh a small fraction of the weight. He had thought about doing the same thing with his pack but then it would have been hard to sort through the things held within. If he could make the interior of the pack just big enough for the ingots it wouldn’t be so bad. All the dwarf would have to do when he reached where he wanted to deposit the metal was to turn the pack upside down and empty out its contents.
Thad first made a rough measurement of the large stack of ingots trying to form a mental picture of the size needed to house them all within the pack. The whole time he worked the dwarf continued to pace behind him looking over his shoulder whenever he stopped moving for too long. Thad could sort of understand why the metal was so important to the dwarf. It was strong and light and if the stories were true the dwarfs were celebrated blacksmiths.
Once he had the basic measurements down Thad went straight to work. Using a small portion of the ultra-light metal Thad laced the inside of the bag. Once Thad was finished he placed three grape-sized gems in the pack. They were to help hold the temporal space to the inside of the pack. Thad wasn’t sure what would happen if the link was lost. It was a fifty-fifty chance. Everything could be dumped all at once into the current space, or the temporal space could simply close and everything would be lost to them forever.
Before finishing the dwarf’s pack Thad stuffed three of the ingots into his own. Thad had worried that the dwarf wouldn’t take the loss of any of the metal but he seemed to pay it little mind as they disappeared into Thad’s pack.
As soon as Thad was finished with the pack the dwarf wasted no time in loading his haul. It didn’t take long for the metal to disappear into the bag. Thad had been worried he had made the space within the bag too small but as the last ingot went in Thad still couldn’t see the top of the stack.
After he was done the dwarf turned to him and gave him one of his trademark broad grins. Thad made sure to keep his back away as it was still stinging from the one he had received earlier.
“You know I’m going have to call you something other than dwarf.” Thad said more to himself than the dwarf sitting across from him. Looking the dwarf over many names came to mind but most of them were dismissed out of hand. “Crusher,” Thad shouted after a few minutes of chewing on his nails much to the dwarf’s amusement.
Thad pointed to himself, “Thad.” The dwarf seeming to understand pointed at him and smiled. Then Thad pointed toward the dwarf and said, “Crusher.” The dwarf looked at him for a few moments then simply shrugged his shoulders. “Ok, Crusher it is.”
As they ate Avalanche reappeared giving the dwarf plenty of room as she moved over sitting next to Thad. Absentmindedly Thad rubbed his hands over the top of Avalanches head. Crusher looked at Avalanche with a wry grin and pointed at her.
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Picking up the thought Thad made an illusion playing out their first meeting. Crusher laughed at how Avalanche had been trapped then laughed harder when Thad showed how Avalanche had followed him relentlessly until he had given up trying to get rid of her.
At first Thad had feared that Crusher and Avalanche wouldn’t get along well especially after how they had first met. To his surprise Crusher seemed to take a great interest in Avalanche going so far as offering her a fair sized garnet that he dug from one of the pockets in his pack. Avalanche wasn’t as happy to make friends but after a nudge from Thad made her way over and sniffed at the gem before swallowing it whole. As was her normal routine she hopped around for a bit barreling into the dwarf knocking him over.
Unlike Thad, who had to rely on his shield whenever Avalanche was in a playful mood Crusher seemed to enjoy the rough play. Thad watched laughing as the two rolled around on the ground wrestling. When they finished Crusher was breathing hard and from what Thad could tell he was laughing.
That night when Thad lay down to sleep Crusher refused Thad’s offered lizard skin, instead opting to use a nearby rock for a pillow. It didn’t look very comfortable to Thad but he figured if the dwarf wanted to punish himself who was he to argue. Avalanche seemed torn between who to sleep next to but finally solved her dilemma by picking a spot near both of them.
CHAPTER IX
The next day when Thad woke he already found Crusher and Avalanche gone. He was slightly worried that Crusher had left while he slept, with Avalanche following quickly behind. Thinking about it wouldn’t get him anywhere, so Thad decided he should take care of his daily chores.
Thad snagged one of the larger pieces of cooked fish from his pack then grabbing his staff and headed in the direction of the river. The walk had almost become second nature to him. There were only four places in which he had to turn and he could almost tell you how many steps it took to get to each one. Feeling confident Thad turned off his light ring and switched his eye into nightsight.
It took him some time after switching over to get his bearings. He had only used nightsight during his first test run for the eyes and had been eager to use it again. It was weird to see the world he had believed to be nothing but darkness spread out into a myriad of colors. It was mostly different shades of red though there were also blues, purples, and oranges.
During his test run he ran into the walls a few times but he didn’t let it frustrate him. He expected to encounter a little trouble during his first time using the new sight. After the third turn he learned to watch for discreet changes in the heat pattern to show where the tunnel changed direction.
When Thad finally reached the river he was astounded at the change. The water was much warmer than the surrounding area. He couldn’t see any fish in the direct area so he headed upstream. Luckily he didn’t have to walk far before he saw the bright red glow of a fish darting around in the light orange water. The only real problem Thad was having with his vision was the trouble with depth. He wasn’t sure if it was due to only having one eye like it did in the normal spectrum or because of the intricacies of nightsight.
When Thad returned to his refuge he was welcomed back by both Crusher and Avalanche. When he saw the large creature that Crusher was cooking over a small fire Thad felt self-conscious about the small amount of fish he had brought back.
When Thad sat down Crusher turned away from the task of cooking the meat and pointed at him then made a writing motion with his finger. It wasn’t hard for Thad to understand what the dwarf was getting at. After digging in his pack Thad pulled out the last two sheets of parchment in his pack along with a piece of coal he had been using to write with.
Crusher took the parchment and quickly began to scribble on it. Thad tried to see what the dwarf was doing but whenever he got close Crusher would move away and shooed him off with a wave of his hand. Getting the point Thad went to the fire and tended the cooking meat.
Whatever Crusher had brought to eat was new to Thad. It was smaller than one of the lizards but it was much bulkier in diameter. It didn’t look very appetizing but with the scarcity of food in the subterranean networks Thad couldn’t find it in himself to complain.
As soon as the meat was done Crusher stuffed away the pages he was working on and sat down to eat with Thad. Not wanting to leave Avalanche out Thad reached down and pulled a fist sized gem from his pack and tossed it to her. The meat wasn’t too bad though it had a bitter aftertaste that lingered on his tongue. He tried to wash it down with water but gave up after his third glass.
Thad was ready to continue on and find his way out though it looked like his new friend wanted to stay for a bit longer. It was more than a little annoying that after days of waiting for the dwarf to wake, he was still stuck without any clear idea of a way out. The whole situation was bordering on maddening.
As soon as he was finished eating Crusher headed off with Avalanche fast on his heels leaving Thad alone. With nothing planned, Thad spent the first few moments in utter boredom throwing pebbles at the far wall. When he ran out of pebbles to throw he began searching through his pack for anything to keep himself occupied. When he came across his magical tome he almost laughed. He had nearly forgotten about the book. It was filled with numerous books that could be switched by touching the name of the book that one wanted to read.
Before leaving the capital Thad had filled it with books of all kinds and many of them had to deal with heat. It had been a pet project of his to figure out a way to heat a large area in winter. There were also a large number of history books. That was his particular passion. Ever since he had found the magic book in the ruins he had been searching for any information that might help him learn of the mages from the past. Now he also wanted to search for any hint that the Fae Races had once lived alongside his own.
It had been so long since he had last opened the book Thad couldn’t remember which ones he had already read. With little motivation to do much else Thad opened it to the first book and began reading. Like the others he had found it glossed over the time before and during the Fae War, only mentioning it vaguely.
In the fifth book he finally found something with a bit more to it than a simple paragraph saying the war had been fought. It went into great detail about the order of knights that the Emperor had created. Thad had read about the knights before but this was the first time he had seen them given a name. The Brotherhood of the Fox had been formed with the express purpose to hunt down anything of magical origin.
Like most of the other books he had found it didn’t go into great detail about the time before the war only stating that the mages had grown too strong and arrogant forcing the emperor to declare them enemies. The knights had been raised and trained from birth to despise all things magical. They were the perfect force with weapons and armor impervious to magical attack.
Thad had more than a small hunch his own sword had once belonged to one of the Brotherhood. The one that that really seemed to bother him was that the history of the Brotherhood didn’t end with the war. The book in front of him detailed their activities for more than three hundred years afterward. They had stayed hidden branching out and increasing their numbers and kept watch throughout history preaching that magic was born from the use of powers granted from the abyss.
There were even letters from members of the Brotherhood in the later chapters detailing some of their activities. Thad was sure the book itself couldn’t have been written from one of its members as it painted them as more monster than human by their activities. He wasn’t sure how the person had gained such knowledge of the supposed secretive group but he had to admit it was interesting. As he neared the end of the book one passage caught his attention, and refused to let it go. He read the passage then caught himself reading it again and again.
It has been over two hundred years after the fall of the empire and still we find new mages being born every year. We have tried to trace back the origin of their power to find if it was passed down in families
but due to our own success in wiping out all written knowledge of the mages we have found no success on this end.
It is a bloody job we do, and every year we lose more support from the people. In some regions we have to hide the fox emblem on our shields and swords. The new rulers that have risen in these lands have taken different stances. Some have welcomed us with open arms while others have branded us as nothing more than murderers. There is still plenty of land that is free for the taking and it is the higher command’s orders that we create our own country in which to work from.
It has also been decided that we shall keep our true identity a secret and try to bury the truth of our existence with that of the mages, so we can work unseen. I do not agree with their choices but I am bound by my oath to follow them.
I only hope that one day we will once again remove our cloaks and reveal to the world that we are the saviors. We are the ones to cut away the rot of this world. The souls who are tainted with the magic granted from the unholy abyss and all creatures it has spawned.
After the fifth time reading though the passage Thad set down the book. The Brotherhood of the Fox had survived for at least three hundred years after the fall of the empire. Could it be possible that they still lived and worked killing any who showed signs of magic? If that was the case it made sense why no one had taken up the reins of the mages of the past. From everything he knew magical talent didn’t manifest until after the onset of adulthood.
Thinking back to Crusher’s reaction to his sword, made him wonder if the dwarf knew anything of the Brotherhood. It would be impossible to have a detailed discussion with the dwarf but it stood to reason where there was one there would be more. Shaking the thoughts from his mind Thad went back to reading. No reason to get his hopes up right now all he should really concern himself with was making it back to the surface.