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Chapter 28 - Reunion

  Waking up in the morning, Lehtern already felt better, although he wasn’t the first one up. The darkness of the cave was driven away by a couple of lit torches. Sounds of metal echoing through the cave as they were getting ready for a possible battle. While they often used pickaxes to fight, they weren’t a good choice against these boneheads. Instead they got heavy hammers, used to smash rocks to little pieces.

  With everyone having weapons and all, Lehtern found himself having no weapon at all. He went to Ulf, seeing that he was looking at a map with multiple tunnels all leading out the mountain. He looked at the map for a couple of seconds before scraping his throat. “Where are my weapons? I had a couple when you took me as your prisoner.”

  Ulf looked up at him, scratching his head as he thought about it. “About that… I think that I might have misplaced that.”

  He didn’t want to believe it, having gotten his dagger for years now. “What are you saying?”

  “I lost your stuff is what I’m saying. I was a bit busy dealing with the aftermath of the war with the Mage Gruge. We lost a lot of dwarves and I wasn’t really busy with a singular elf losing himself in our land.”

  It was difficult for Lehtern to come up with a response. He groaned as he looked at where they had come from. The path back was dark but so was the path forwards. “Anything you want me to tell to my gruge when I get back?”

  “Yes!” Ulf grabbed his own dagger, offering it to Lehtern. “That we will be staying where we are and that we can’t help.”

  Lehtern took the dagger and looked at the small group of fighters. “Are you sure that you want to fight your way through them? It’ll make you an enemy of the skeletons.”

  “We have lived in these caves our entire lives. With our numbers, out there we will be fuel for their army. In here…? If they come in our mountain, we will be sure to lure the golems to them and let them work it out with the curse of the cloud people. If we’re lucky, they kill each other and we’ll kill whose left.”

  He nodded slowly as he got a small smile on his face. “If you’re sure about this… then I’ll wish you the best. If we win, I’ll send a force to the mountains to try and help you if needed.”

  That was met with a side eye as he then focused back on the map before rolling it up. “If we survive, I’ll invite you to a dwarven party. If you die, then there’s more booze for us.”

  Hearing that, he couldn’t help but laugh, walking back to where he slept. “Sounds like a deal.”

  With that having taken care off, the dwarves seem to gather around Ulf, waiting for some orders.

  “Early scouting has revealed that the skeletons have already left the passage and have set up camp. They use the mountain wall for cover against the weather so we will not be able to get this elf past them in silence. May the best dwarf survive.”

  He got up and grabbed three dwarves aside. “You three will stay behind and prepare to collapse the tunnel. We aren’t ready yet to fight a full force so that will slow them down.” He seemed to have it all in order, giving everyone a bit more confidence with the plan.

  They didn’t cheer or yell, knowing that the walls carried their voices easily and could warn the enemy. Ulf walked to Lehtern, having grabbed the leads of a goat and bringing it to him. This goat wasn’t big, basically being a very small horse. “Once we start fighting, you need to ride as fast as possible. The skeletons also have horses but we’re hoping that their focus will lie on us and not on the one guy escaping.”

  Even though the chance that he would be followed wasn’t too big, there still was a chance. “And what if they do follow me?”

  “More booze for us.” He gave Lehtern a toothy grin before slapping him on his arm.

  Lehtern didn’t really like the sound of that but it was war. Risks had to be taken and he would sacrifice himself if it meant that they were more likely to win. “I’m ready.”

  The group made their way through the cave with Lehtern almost fully at the back. Ulf lead the way, making sure to go slowly around the corners just in case the skeletons had managed to find the entrance and went in to explore. After a while, he dropped his torches, dousing it as he motioned for everyone else to do the same.

  Even though the torches got snuffed, it wasn’t all dark as light from outside seemed to seep in from the distance. It wasn’t too easy for them to be stealthy due to their heavy armor but as they made their way to the exit, there wasn’t any sign of them having been spotted.

  They stopped once they got close enough for the sun to heat them up. The three appointed dwarves set themselves up being natural pillars and in little holes, making sure that they were ready. Only once they all gave the signal that did Ulf take a deep breath. “Wait for use to kill a couple of them before going. If you charge out too soon, you might not have a clear path.”

  He didn’t even wait for Lehtern to acknowledge what he had said, turning to the others and lifting his hammer in the air. “For the king.”

  The other dwarves did the same, lifting their weapons and repeating back to him what he said. “For the king!”

  Lehtern watched how they one by one left the cave, going outside in complete silence except the clanking of the metal of their armor.

  He couldn’t see it as the sun was shining in his eyes but he could hear sudden scream and soft thuds as the hammers seemed to come down on solid targets.

  Not sure when he could go, he waited for a bit continuing and counting the amount of thuds he heard. The yelling and screaming seemed to get less for a bit, letting him think that this was a good moment to go.

  He got on the goat, his feet still touching the ground when he said down. He didn’t really know how to operate this east and kicked it in the stomach as if it was a horse. While it wasn’t a horse, it basically had the same effect on the animal. It started to run, bleating as it went through the exit.

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  With the sun still in his eyes, he couldn’t see much at first, but the further that the goat ran, the more that his eyes got used to the sun. A loud horn was sounded as the fighting continued to happen behind him. The group that they had attacked was on the outskirts of the skeleton army, busy with building up tents for the troops and were surprised.

  This was great as there were less people to fight and therefor also less likely to try and follow him. Sadly enough while they were being slaughtered, nearby groups of skeletons came closer to see what the yelling was about. Seeing the attacking dwarves, they grabbed theirs weapon and came to the aid of their own people.

  He didn’t see much after that, looking forwards as he tried to make his way back home, over the barren valley where he could be seen by anyone looking in his direction. It didn’t look like he was being chased as all their attention went to the dwarves.

  At the other side of the valley at the forest edge were a couple of spotters. They looked down at the valley and they had been watching the skeleton progress. Up until now, not many had made it through yet in comparison to what was to come. Only a couple thousand for now.

  On the right side seemed to be something happening as a singular rider seemed to be fleeing from the group. One of them had a spyglass, looking through it in the distance. Even with the spyglass, details were difficult to see but he did see a group of skeletons quickly gathering to the right while the rider seemed to be sitting on a goat.

  The one with the spyglass gave it to his companion, thinking about what he saw. “Do skeletons use goats to ride on?”

  “Not sure?”

  As they looked at the creature coming closer but still being very far away, they wouldn’t know.

  “Should we get Zoala?”

  “Maybe we should. If we don’t and it’s important then we might get in trouble.”

  “I guess that you’re right. Well… I’ll go and get her.”

  Due to the size of the valley, they could be as slow as they wanted to be seeing that Lehtern wouldn’t be able to get there in another ten minutes.

  When Zoala finally arrived, Lehtern was around halfway the valley, now more visible for anyone using the spyglass. So when Zoala used it, she wouldn’t recognize him for who he was but she did notice that he wasn’t a skeleton. Due to the lack of information on Lehtern, he was considered dead so it had to be someone else.

  Zoala would lower the spyglass and waited for a bit. “Get your bows ready. It’s not a skeleton but it’s a stranger. We can’t have spy’s getting in our territory although if it’s a spy then it must be a horrible one.”

  The two elves that had been keeping watch grabbed their bows and waited for further orders, watching the person coming closer with every second.

  While they got ready, a little bird landed on Zoala’s shoulder. Zoala looked at it and then to Lehtern. “Go, look at what he looks like and report.”

  The little bird left, flying straight to him. Due to having the ability of flight, it was much faster and came back to Zoala, telling her what it saw. As he had gotten clothes from the dwarves, Zoala almost didn’t recognize the description. Only the elf part and that he had blond hair was something that she recognized in the missing elf but that was about it.

  For now they just waited for him to come closer and in full view. After checking with the spyglass a couple more times did she see that it was Lehtern. She seemed to be extremely happy finding out he was alive. “Lower your weapons, he’s one of us.”

  They lowered their weapons, looking at each other a bit confused but then shrugged, continuing to watch the person come closer and closer. Due to him not knowing where they were, he was driving a bit to the side.

  Leaving the elves behind, she would start to run to where he was heading, using her smaller posture to her advantage. She arrived first to where Lehtern was heading, now just waiting.

  When he finally got to the forest, he pulled on the lead of the goat. That didn’t do much but motivate him to get Lehtern of his back, starting to jump and shaking his head. Tree branches hit him in the face as he tried to stay on, eventually lying down on the back and hugging the neck of the animal.

  At first Zoala just watched him, having her fun before finally stepping in and trying to calm the animal. “Easy there. Let him get off and we’ll let you go.”

  It seemed to work as the goat turned to face her and stopped moving causing Lehtern to quickly get off, falling onto the ground before quickly getting up and getting away from him. As soon as he was off and gone, the goat would turn around and run back down into the valley, going back to the mountain.

  Zoala watched him leave, having a smile on her face before turning to look at Lehtern. She saw what he was wearing and got rather confused, tilting her head as she looked at the clothes. They were beautiful and nod something worn by anyone here let alone anywhere she knew. Maybe the kings of the Human Gruge but even then.

  “What are you wearing?” She got to him and started to inspect his clothes more closely. They seemed to be having runes on them. After inspecting the runes for a bit, she would look at the hood of the cloak, putting it on him. As soon as she did so, he seemed to be getting a bit more blurry. She had a harder time on focusing where he was causing her to blink a couple of times.

  “Where in Pan’s name did you get this cloak? And those clothes? They aren’t from around here.”

  Sadly enough, Lehtern had promised to tell the dwarves to not tell anyone else of them having destroyed the Cloud Gruge and he also understood why it would be bad for others to know it as well. The more people that new, the faster this information would spread.

  “I got it from the dwarves. They took me as their prisoner after I accidentally went too close to one of their houses. That’s also why I have been gone for so long.”

  Zoala grabbed the hood of his cloak and pulled it off, causing Lehtern to appear back in front of her. “I’ve never seen some of those runes before. This cloak is infused with magic making the wearer difficult to focus on when the hood is up. This is beyond dwarven capabilities. I wonder how they got their hands on this.”

  She continued to look at it for a bit as she started to whistle a bit. “So did they give you this cloak as a way to apologize after capturing you?”

  “Oh, euh… yeah? I think so? Also because my other clothes were… dirty and we had to go because we were already late.”

  As he explained, Zoala had a difficulty following the story, tilting her head and looking at him. “What?”

  “I’ll explain later. I need to talk to Berk, is he here or is he still on his way?”

  “He’ll be here this evening. We have been tasked of preparing a meal as the humans will be joining us. Luckily for us they managed to get here sooner then expected and their armies are already on the way here. The queen and her daughters went ahead to make tactical discussions.”

  “Hmmm… Well, I have a rather rough couple of days so… is there a place that I can rest and regain some strength.” He had woken up not that long ago but he was still feeling rather weak with the recent illness.

  “Yeah sure. If you want I can get you some more traditional wear and if you don’t mind, I would like that cloak of your and inspect it. Maybe I can copy those runes on a stone or something.”

  “Off course, go ahead.” He took off the cloak and gave it to her, yawning as he had failed his mission but instead got some other information that might be useful.

  Zoala ended up taking him to a tent that was a bit more to the side of the now rather big camp. He went in and immediately fell down on the bed. He didn’t even bother taking his clothes on, almost immediately falling asleep.

  She had stayed outside in case that he did undress, looking at the cloak. Hearing that he had made contact with the dwarves and had gotten this special cloak from them might mean that the dwarves are perhaps willing to help to fight the skeletons.

  For now she grabbed a couple of unmodified rocks and started to carve some runes from the cloak into it, testing to see what would stick and how to possible activate it. Being the general of the runestones didn’t mean that you immediately knew every possible rune to carve into the stones. Each new general got a list with already discovered runes and how to use them. Up until now she never added anything to the list but having this cloak, she might be able to add to the list.

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