Part 53

K, I got a dorf requests and some redorf. No more redorf request for a while, ill still take the others when another wave comes. Normal dorfings are ok to request though. I started my turn in midautumn, are we going from autumn to autumn now?

I stood next to Sprite CXLI. The 'TRIBUTE' was complete.

"So what is the use of this thing anyway?"

"You know," the dorf said, ignoring me "It doesn't look like a mug to me.
More like, a gaping anus. One that is bleeding heavily. A hemorrhaging anus."

I nodded my head slightly, just out of force of habit of agreeing with others. Then I realized that I should just walk away. Animal Dissectors were always different. That's putting it politely. 'Fucked up' is more apt.

We had set off from the mountain homes nearly two years ago. 458 of us dorfs. The estimate of riches of Headshoots from the traders stories were mindboggling. Even if only a quarter of the veins that were in stories actually existed, it was enough to make every dorf there independently wealthy.

Of course, what it was actually LIKE around Headshoots was always omitted, unfortunately. I thought I was tough shit in the mountainhomes. A really asshole who didn't take shit. This though, could it really exist? Most of us set off cheerfully, two donkeys each full of supplies. I couldn't remember much after that. Dead animals, that walked, somehow stronger than when they were alive. Fiercer. I remember a lot of blood and limbs. Dorf screams muffled by the rock as their heads were pushed into the ground, by something. I ran through the mists, but it was forever. I never knew plains of black rock could burn. None of the donkeys survived, we only had what we were wearing. Only about 30 of us made it.

Once we got here, a child ordered us to start building this TRIBUTE before we even settled inside. I couldn't remember if he was here already, or had traveled with us? Why had we listened to a child? I remember someone called him Spoonboy.

Those before us, the ones already here. There were two small groups. One was a group of working dorfs. They didn't speak, and they tried not to look at us. They were so dirty. The other group, we had only seen fleeting glimpses. They looked like soldiers. Even the normally pompous nobility would stay silent when we saw one, instead of trying to tell them what to do.

After TRIBUTE was built everyone stood around nervously. Nobody invited us in to the 'home, nor did anyone give us an idea what the layout was like. Spoonboy had disappeared. Maybe we had been hallucinating him. All of us, together?

I tried to take control. First thing, we needed protection. Was the military storng here? I had no idea. Even if they were, why would they help us? Plus, it was really fucking dangerous out here. I called hankor over. He had told me early he had done some elven-gobbo wrestling back in the mountainhomes (freak...)

"Take all the agridorfs and start practicing your warcraft."

"Really, us? Alright... Do you know where the barracks are?"

"No. I'm sure they're around here somewhere, we all need to scout this place out."


The Lean Lancers

As I was talking to hankor, I saw red eyes staring me down in the distance. Leaning around the corner was one of the damned old-soldiers! I saw the plate he was wearing. It looked like it had been inscribed. It was covered in all sorts of blood, guts, vomit, whatever. Something shone through. Was it really adamantine? Were the rumors really true?

Long ago the Queen had left for Headshoots. At the time there were rumors of a great find in the mountain. The royal communications stop soon after she stated she had arrived there. Nobody knew what had happened. The traders asked those of Headshoots but never got a straight answer. Now that I had arrived and been inside I was sure either the Queen was dead or had thrown off nobility and was unrecognizable. Oh, the optimism of the mountainhomes.

One of those assholes was always surrounded by cats. She was a really weird one.

I hated cats absolutely. Right now my fear prevented me from doing anything about it. How long would that last?

If I wasn't going to go mad, I had to be aggressive. I looked at the newcomers around me. They were mixed with fear and despair. They knew, this was the beginning of the end of their lives. Even if they weren't going to die, everything they had ever expected to accomplish in a civil society was at an end.