Darkness Fallen

by Dave Willmarth

  Alexander turned down the shaft, and quickly encountered the troll chief walking toward him. The massive troll halted as Alexander drew near. “What? Danger?” Gorg asked.

  “Do you know Drog?” Alexander asked his troll ally. Gorg’s eyes got wide.

  “Drog? Where Drog!?” Gorg looked behind Alexander as if expecting to see his son.

  “I found him up on the mountain. He is looking for you. I can take you to him if you like. Is he friendly?”

  “Drog… son. Good son. Strong. Chief someday,” Gorg confirmed. “Take me see Drog.”

  Alexander teleported the two of them back to the spot in the forest where the others waited. As soon as they appeared, Gorg bellowed something in troll-speak. He stepped forward, tackling his son as the smaller troll rose to his feet. The two of them pounded at each other with enough force to shatter stone, and Alexander began to worry they were fighting. But the other trolls stood calmly by, even seeming to smile at the reunion. Fibble, excited by the action, shouted “Troll fight!” and made to jump off the prowler’s back and join in. Jules snagged him before he could take a full step, restraining him.

  After a minute or so, Gorg seemed to pin his son to the ground. Then he head-butted the junior troll, the impact creating a thunderous cracking sound that echoed through the forest. Then Gorg lifted his son, setting him on somewhat unsteady feet. Alexander didn’t blame the younger troll for being wobbly. That impact had to rattle whatever brain was inside there. Fibble must have agreed because he shot the troll with some healing magic. “Pew!”

  Seeing the worried look on Alexander’s face, Gorg laughed. “Drog fine. Gorg show he still stronger. Still chief.”

  Alexander nodded his head. “Gorg, we are up on the mountain now. Drog and his friends were scaring the locals.” He pointed to the kitten. “There are prowlers and others living here. I don’t want any fights to break out.”

  Gorg noticed the mostly eaten slab of marble at his feet, and reached down to grab a chunk. As he almost delicately nibbled on the stone, he blinked a few times. “No fight. Gorg friend. Drog friend now, too. Whole clan. I talk.”

  “Your clan lives in the caves?” Alexander pointed to the northwest. Gorg looked confused for a moment, then turned and spoke to Drog. The younger troll still had his wits scrambled, so Gorg tried one of the other trolls.

  After an exchange of several sentences, Gorg said, “Caves. Yes. Door to home. Like mine. We live deep in ground. I go talk. Bring others to mine.”

  Alexander felt a lump in his throat. Feeding the trolls that were already in the mine was no easy task. “How many others?”

  Trolls were apparently bad with numbers. After talking to the other trolls, Gorg sat on the ground facing Alexander. With a finger, he began drawing lines in the dirt. With each line, he said what sounded like a name. Then the others supplied a few names, which got lines of their own. When they ran out of names, Alexander saw nineteen lines on the ground.

  “So there are twenty of you. Does that include the trolls at the mine?” Alexander asked.

  Grog nodded his head, pointing to the lines. “Twenty. Yes.”

  “That is a lot of trolls to feed, Gorg,” Alexander said.

  Gorg looked down at the ground. “Gorg must leave mine? No food?”

  Alexander could swear the giant troll looked sad. He shook his head. They were going to need more hunters. “No. Gorg can stay. Go see your people. Meet me back here tomorrow, and we will take them to the mine. And give you more meat. But no more marble. You get the same amount. You will have to share.”

  Gorg nodded his head. “Good deal. We all help in mine. All strong. Help in fight too. No enemy live if whole clan attack.”

  Alexander didn’t doubt that for a minute. The thought of twenty of these monsters bearing down on an army of undead almost made him feel sorry for the army.

  “Okay, Gorg. I will meet you here tomorrow. Right after the sun comes up.” Alexander waved to the group of trolls, and he and Jules steered their cats back toward the tower.

  Arriving back at the west tower, Jules and the two cats mingled with the other prowlers while Alexander filled Silverbeard in.

  “BWAHAHA!” Silverbeard thumped him on the back. “Ye got yer own damned troll army!” The dwarf grinned at him. “Ye ever see’d trolls charge at an enemy?”

  Alexander shook his head. Though he was picturing it in his head.

  “They be nearly unstoppable! It be a glorious thing! Unless ye be in front of ‘em!” He laughed loudly.

  “Or unless you have to feed them,” Alexander complained.

  “Bah! Don’t ye be worrying, lad. There be plenty o’ game up here and in the forest below. We’ll be needin’ a few more hunters, but we can feed these brutes well enough.”

  Alexander nodded his head. He waited patiently for Jules to pass on what had happened, and to reassure the prowler parents that they were not in danger from the trolls. When all that was done, Jules’ kitten touched noses with each of his parents and siblings before moving away to stand by Jules.

  Alexander approached the prowlers. He bowed his head slightly to the forest royalty. “We’ll take good care of your son,” he said. Both the elder prowlers nodded their heads in return. With a quick wave goodbye, Alexander teleported them all back to the keep.

  They split up, with Tigger taking the kitten on a tour. Fibble, still berry-stained on face and hands, headed toward the kitchen. Jules gave Alexander a quick kiss and headed off to do her own thing.

  A motion in the sky above caught Alexander’s attention. Gazing up, he saw a gryphon circling in to land atop the wall near the wizard’s tower. Alexander didn’t know them well enough to tell one from the other yet, so he climbed the stairs and walked around the wall to where he’d seen the creature land.

  He found Braxis with the other three gryphons gathered together. Each sat on a nest of sorts, hollowed out amidst a wide pile of hay, tree branches, what looked to be some animal pelts, and other sundry items.

  Alexander realized too late that he hadn’t brought Fitz or Kai to translate for him. He’d just have to do his best. “Hello, Braxis. Are you finding what you need to be comfortable here?”

  Braxis squawked quietly and nodded his head in the affirmative.

  Alexander looked around. The nests were situated at the end of the walkway atop the wall, where it met the cliff face. It was protected from the wind on one side by the cliff, and on another by the wizard’s tower. But it was exposed on the other two sides, and to the elements like rain, snow, and sun. Remembering that Braxis’ roost atop the garrison tower had a roof, Alexander asked, “Would you like a roof to protect you from the weather a bit?”

  Again, Braxis nodded, squawking more extensively this time. Alexander took that to be a more emphatic yes.

  Alexander thought for a few minutes on what the design should be. He wanted it covered to keep them protected and warm but didn’t want them to feel trapped. But having it too open would let in rain and cold air. And did they prefer light? Or darkness?

  He finally gave in and opened guild chat. “Kai? Have you got a few minutes? I’m working on a shelter for the gryphons, and I could use a translator.”

  “I’ll be there in just a moment,” Kai answered. And true to his word, he drifted down from above in his dragon form a short while later. Alexander suspected he’d interrupted some private time in the roost with Lia.

  “I’m sorry to interrupt,” Alexander apologized.

  “Not at all, Alexander. It is good to be… out and about.” Kai grinned at him. Still in dragon form, Kai’s grin would be terrifying to anyone who wasn’t a friend. “Now, what is it you would like to ask Braxis?”

  Alexander ran through his idea with Kai, who in turn asked some questions of Braxis. Interestingly enough, though Braxis began to answer, one of the females stepped forward and inserted herself between Braxis and Kai, silencing Braxis with a wing to the face. Then she answered Kai for the remainder of the conversation. Alexander s
tifled a chuckle, not wanting to offend the clearly deposed Braxis.

  Kai eventually said, “Avia here has informed me that this is HER roost, and this is how she wants it constructed.” He grinned again, then proceeded to give Alexander the lady gryphon’s preferences.

  Alexander went to work. He raised a solid ten-foot high wall along the outer edge of the keep wall, extending it from the cliff face about fifty feet out. Then an identical wall along the inner edge of the keep wall. He left a ten-foot wide opening in the inner wall, facing toward the wizard’s tower. He then raised a wall across the walkway, which was about a dozen feet wide. He left an opening of five feet so that the gryphons could walk out of the shelter onto the walkway. Kai had informed him that the dwarves would create a sliding barn door for that opening, much like the gryphons were used to in the old barracks a thousand years ago.

  Once the walls were up, Alexander went to work on the ceiling. With the structure only a dozen feet wide, there was no need for support columns in the center. Alexander extended a thick stone roof across, leaving five holes at regular ten-foot intervals. These he filled with thick glass to create skylights. All of them he made sturdy enough to withstand any stones falling from the cliff above.

  When he was finished with the roof, he opened some small holes under the eaves of the roof on both sides to allow air to flow through. Then in one corner, he added the heat enchantment and controller that Fitz had shown him at the Whitehall quarry. Though, in deference to the gryphons’ lack of hands, he made the control into a lever. Moving the lever up would increase heat, moving it down would decrease it. The gryphons could manage that with a beak or a forepaw.

  Finally, he constructed rain gutters along both sides of the roof, feeding them into a cistern that he hollowed from the stone of the cliff. He added a spigot (again with lever control) that would allow water to empty into a trough. Finally, he created a floor drain that simply dumped out the front of the wall a few feet below.

  Now the gryphons had a shelter that would be warm in winter and reasonably cool in summer. Protected from rain and snow, they could walk out one end onto the walkway, or fly in and out the wider door facing into the keep. And based on the size of their nests, there was room in the shelter for another half-dozen gryphons.

  Avia squawked something at Kai, and then she stepped toward Alexander. She lowered her head and butted him in the chest gently. Then she reached her head up and carefully snipped off a length of his hair with her beak. Walking back to her nest, she wove the hair into a bit of straw and twigs.

  Kai said, “She wishes to thank you for a fine shelter. She has woven your hair into her nest, so that when her younglings are born, they will know your scent, and recognize you as family. It is a great honor.”

  Alexander bowed deeply to the lady gryphon. “Please tell her I am honored to be part of such a distinguished family. And I look forward to meeting her younglings!”

  Kai translated, and Avia nodded her head. “Please ask them if there is anything else they need?”

  Kai spoke to Avia, then Braxis. The exchange was short with both.

  “Braxis wants to begin to build another gryphon force. These other three are too old to train properly, but they will be producing young soon. He wants permission to bind his young to riders, and to train both gryphon and rider in air combat, hunting, and such.”

  Alexander’s eyes grew wide. “Of course! I am sure there will be many who would volunteer for such an honor!”

  Understanding his words, Braxis nodded his head. A short squawk that Alexander took to mean ‘Agreed’ was response enough.

  Alexander thanked Kai for his help, and the dragon took his leave, flying back up to his roost behind the waterfalls.

  Alexander waved to the gryphons and exited the shelter. As he walked along the wall for a while, looking out over the lake and the forest below, he noticed Lars and his new apprentice out on the lake in a tiny fishing boat. It gave him the idea to find out if rock trolls liked fish. That might ease the burden on the hunters a bit.

  Speaking of hunters, he was going to need more. And he needed to update King Thalgrin on the happenings in Antalia, as well as up on the plateau. Deciding he had some time to kill, Alexander said, “Jeeves, loudspeaker again, please.”

  “Of course, Master. Go ahead.”

  “Attention, folks. Yeah, it’s me again. Sorry for the short notice, but I’m going to head over to Broken Mountain in half an hour. It will be a short trip, probably less than an hour. But if any of you would like to join me, maybe stay overnight, I’ll open another portal tomorrow so that you can come back. And again, if you’re busy now, there will be more chances in coming days.”

  Alexander made his way to the kitchen. Spotting Mattie, he waved. “Mattie, have you got a minute?”

  She smiled and walked over to him. “Tigger is SO wonderful. I’d like to have a pet like him someday.”

  Alexander laughed at her enthusiasm. “Well, we do have several of the kitties around here now. Maybe there will be litters soon.” He motioned for her to follow him into the corridor. “I’ve got some good news for you. And some… well to tell you the truth, I’m not sure if it’s bad news or more good news.”

  He found an unused room along the corridor that had a couple of chairs. He held the door for her as she entered, and they each took a seat. “First, the good news. I believe I can safely say that the O’Malleys will soon be visiting to build the Ogre II here in the keep. And Rose is determined to steal you from us.” He smiled at her.

  Mattie clapped her hands together. “I’m so glad! She mentioned it that day when you first hired me. But it sounded like an idea for later. I’m happy that it’s happening so quickly.”

  Alexander’s face became more serious. “Now the other news. When I went to see the O’Malleys, your ex-husband was there. He was with some bounty hunters that he’d convinced to help him ‘rescue’ you from us.” He paused as a horrified look came over Mattie’s face. He held up a hand to hold off her comment. “Don’t worry. We exposed his lies. But he got angry and tried to stab Rose. One of the adventurers killed him to save Rose’s life.” He held his breath, awaiting her reaction.

  Mattie began to shake her head. Slowly at first, then more emphatically. “No. No, no, no, no! This is all my fault! Was Rose hurt?” Tears began to roll down her face. Alexander reached out and put a hand over hers, trying to comfort her. “She’s fine. Not a scratch.”

  Mattie let out a ragged sigh. “If only I hadn’t married that piece of shit! Rose told me not to. She warned me he was worthless. Called him a dungsnuffler.” Her mouth twisted into a wry grin at that. Alexander laughed.

  “If I had listened, then none of this would have happened. I’d still be happy working at the Ogre. Maybe have a good man. Not have spent all this time looking over my shoulder. I hated him, but not enough to wish him dead.”

  Alexander patted her hand gently. “Well, it seems you get a second chance. You’ll be working at the Ogre here and happy again. That is if that’s what you want. And I’ve seen more than a few of the men here admiring you. As far as I know, all of them are good men.”

  Mattie blushed, wiping tears from her face. “Well, there IS one,” she said shyly.

  “Oh really?” Alexander smiled, teasing the young woman. “And who would that be? Wait! Let me guess.” Alexander tapped his chin as if thinking hard. “Fibble! You have a crush on our goblin!”

  Mattie rolled her eyes. “Bah! You know it ain’t Fibble.”

  “Lugs, then? You got a thing for nine-foot-tall strong, silent types?” He grinned at her.

  Her eyes widened “Never! He’d squish me when we-” She decided not to finish that sentence, covering her mouth with her hand and blushing an even deeper red. Alexander snorted.

  “Okay then, let me see.”

  “It’s Taylor!” she blurted out.

  “Corporal Taylor?” Alexander smiled at her “Not bad. A man of authority. Good soldier by all accounts. I suppos
e he’s not bad looking…”

  “He’s the most handsome man in the world!” She slapped at his leg playfully. “And he treats me so politely. He has a kind heart, I think.”

  “Well, don’t you go getting married again until Rose has a chance to have her say!” He winked at her. “I’m glad you’re happy. I want all our people to be happy and healthy. Maybe soon you and Taylor can make some happy and healthy babies!”

  She pulled a hand towel from her apron string and swatted him with it. “Don’t rush me!” She smiled.

  Alexander got to his feet, offered his hand to help her up, and made his way to the door. “I’ve got to go now. Take a minute and collect yourself. Don’t want to start the ladies in the kitchen gossiping, now do we?”

  She snorted. “They already are. Started the moment we walked out”. She gave him a brief hug. “Thank you for bringing the news to me. All of it.” Then she walked away, headed back to the kitchen.

  Alexander turned toward the main door, headed toward the courtyard and the portal, only to find Jules standing there, arms crossed.

  “Hi! Want to come with me to Broken Mountain? Have you met the king?” he asked.

  “I have met the king. He came here, remember? Why was Mattie just hugging on you?”

  “What?” Alexander was confused for a moment by the topic change. “Oh, I just told her that her ex-husband was killed today. He tried to stab Rose O’Malley.”

  Jules face instantly changed to one of sympathy. “Oh, no. Is she alright?”

  Alexander chuckled. “Mostly relieved I think. She seems to regret that he’s dead, but isn’t taking it hard. She’s been afraid he would come after her for some time. Or did you mean is Rose alright? She is, too.”

  He reached down and took Jules’ hand. “So? Broken Mountain?”

  She nodded her head and walked with him out the main doors and into the courtyard. A few dwarves were gathered there. It hadn’t quite been half an hour, so Alexander and Jules chatted with the citizens. Most were just going back to visit family. A few asked if they could bring people back with them.