Elvenshore: 01 - The Dwarves of Elvenshore (7 page)

“Thank you,” Sarchise said.

“There is one condition,” the governor said.  “I will expect you to lead this expedition since you are a friend to the dwarves.”

“Yes Sir, thank you Sir.”

They ended the meal with fresh fruits and wine. 

“I want you to head back tonight.  I know they are friendly, but an army of dwarves that close to my city makes me nervous.” The governor said, “Before the second message arrived from Ives I was gathering my army. Caused quite a stir in the
streets, the war gong hasn’t been sounded in years. Men were running to man the gates.” He laughed. “Anyway, wait for the fifty men and then you are free to head back to the High Mountain. Next time you bring an army with you; please send a messenger ahead, won’t you?”

“Yes Sir,” Sarchise said as he headed out.

“Well, Sam and Ermort,” Sarchise said after the door closed behind them. “I guess this is goodbye.  You will get a deserved rest and then some other assignment I suppose. You have been great scouts, and have done all that a master scout could expect.”

“Thank you.” They watched Sarchise leave to go back to the camp.

Ermort turned to Sam “Do you think that this prince thing will go to his head?”

Sam didn’t hesitate, “without a doubt.” They both laughed.

It was early morning when Sarchise stumbled back into the dwarf camp.  The sentries had spotted him, but recognizing him, they let him pass. “Welcome
back
my prince.” Was all that they would
say.
This was encouraging to Sarchise it meant that the watch was doing its job. He slept for a few hours and then crawled out of his blanket and went to find Hemlot.

“My Prince,” he said in way of greeting when Sarchise finally tracked him down.  “The watch said that you had returned safe.”

“They did a good job,” Sarchise said.

“We are finding game scarce this close to the city.  We should head out soon so that our hunters can find us more food,” Hemlot said.

“We will head out this afternoon, prepare the men for a night march, we won’t stop until we reach High Mountain,” Sarchise said.

“High Mountain?”
Hemlot was surprised.  “I thought that we had come out to fight the spiders.”

It had not dawned on Sarchise until now that he could not take this army back to High Mountain until it had a battle under its belt. He sat in deep though for a moment and then had an idea.

“Of course, you are right.”
He  quickly
scrawled  a message and sealed it.  “Please send for Ferdin.”

He used Ferdin as a runner.  He sent him up to the watchtower and no further. He then sent Fordin back towards High Mountain with another message, but not before he drew him a map of where the army would be when he returned. He then
waited. Late in the evening his fifty men and Ferdin, with a pack train of food and supplies showed up.  He then set out towards what is known as the horn of Westwood. Westwood’s eastern side has an area that protrudes towards South Fort.  The locals call it the horn.  It is the closest that the forest comes to the city-state. There is a camp that is maintained by the Royal Scouts. Sarchise rested his army just south of that camp.

He planned his strategy with Hemlot. “We will enter Westwood at the horn and proceed down through the outskirts of the forest until we reach the lower gate.” It is about a ten day journey but we will have gathered a lot of information and killed a lot of spiders before we get to High Mountain.”

“We cannot take these wagons through the forest.” Hemlot pointed out.

“No we can’t,” Sarchise explained. “We will send them on to High Mountain across the plain.  Each dwarf must take enough food on his back for 15 days, just in case.  We cannot light cooking fires in Westwood and the water is rank for the most part.  The wagons contain dried meat and bread.  It will sustain us until we reach the lower gate. I just need the Kings permission to send the pack train with the men to High Mountain. We will wait for Fordin to return.”

In the days that were spent waiting for the King’s response, man and dwarf grew closer together.  With the fifty scouts in Sarchise’s group along with the twenty-five that were stationed in the camp at the horn, starting to exchange food and tales around the campfires.  The men even learned some of the warrior songs.  Barriers of animosity that were between them almost disappeared and ancient allies were starting to be friends again.

A very tired Fordin stumbled into camp on the afternoon of the eighth day.

“My Prince, there is to be a war council as soon as you arrive back at the High Mountain.  You are to make all haste.  The King wishes you to take the road and not proceed through the forest.  The King will also grant your request that a human outpost be allowed to be established just outside the lower gate.” Fordin reported.

Sarchise wasted no time breaking camp.  The dwarves formed ranks and the army proceeded back to High Mountain. The scouts and the baggage train followed them.  Sarchise decided not to go to high gate and proceed through the mountain but since he was so far west he marched directly for low gate. The dwarves would have preferred the mountain route but Sarchise was not at home yet inside the mountain. Besides that both ways had their merits.

There was no old trail through the brush and prairie grass like the route between the high gate and South Fort but the brush was not a large problem to get through.  Small trees cropped up
every
so often as the forest tried to expand its borders.  

The hunters and cooks were delighted that they did not have to eat the dried meat. They had looked at the stuff with suspicion.  It was not cooked, like a true dwarf eats his meat, just dried and spiced.  The thought of eating raw meat was repugnant to them. They had avoided this and were far enough from the forest that Sarchise had allowed cooking fires. 

The guards at the lower gate were surprised to see the army back.  They had been expected at the high gate.  The captain of the guard ran to the King to ask instructions and then ushered the army into the great hall. There they broke ranks, ate a quick meal around the bonfire and went back to their homes.  Hemlot told Sarchise goodbye and went back to the cave he called home. The army had disappeared in a matter of an hour.

The humans and the pack train started setting up camp near the lower gate outside of the wall.  Caspin came up and told showed them a place inside the gate that he would like them to set up.  He was pleased indeed; since Sarchise had left he and the King had planned out a war.  Even his brother Cazz had been well enough to help in the planning.

The King walked into the Great Hall. “Tell me
of your
adventure?”

“It went well.” Sarchise said as he put his hat over his heart and bowed low.

“You should get some sleep, on the morrow we meet to plan. I would have let you get revenge over the spiders but I had two other sons that wanted to help.
It has b
een a long time since their warrior blood has been stirred up to this level. Besides, someone has been waiting for your return.” The King motioned to his left.  There was Ammlee standing there in the doorway.

Outside the tents were pitched and a small watchtower was erected.  It was just high enough to see over the wall. They thought that it looked kind of silly this close to a stone tower.  B
esides the dwarves were giving
the wood tower unfriendly looks, so they took it back down. The dwarves didn’t seem to like the tents either, because soon stone masons came out and started talking about how many buildings, and of what size, they would require.

In the morning the fire in the Great Hall was burning bright.  A lone table stood in the midst of the hall.  The King and his sons sat down in a war council.  Maps were spread all over the table and lines were drawn all over the maps.  It was the first time that Sarchise had seen a map of the inside of High Mountain. He was momentarily distracted by all of the tunnels and caves that crisscrossed t
he mountain. He was surprised that numerous dwarf cities
were inside and outside of the mountain. He had no idea that the population was so large.  Larger than what was left of the population of the Four Kingdoms.

“Sarchise, are you still paying attention?” asked the King.

Sarchise looked up from his map; everyone was looking at him. The thing he remembered the King saying was something about the lower gate so he said, “Yes, the lower gate you said.”

“Hmm,” said the King. Looking back down at his map said. We can gather all our troops to the gatehouse at the lower gate.  From here we shall march forth.”

“What about food?” Sarchise asked.

“My warriors are excellent foragers,” The King said.

“Yes, but you cannot have fires in the Westwood.” They were all looking at him again. “That is how the spiders found Cazz here, he had a bonfire going.  It attracts spiders from miles around.  Razor Bears and an occasional Saber tooth also.  The scouts take in dried meat. I could show you how to make it.”

The King looked at him a moment. “We do not know the type of evil that now possesses the woods.  We would have fallen pray to it had it not been for you.  What else should we expect out there?”

Sarchise explained in vast detail what they would face out there.  He had been a scout for ten years and hoped he had seen it all.  There were still rumors of things that he had not seen yet, but had been told about and knew how to combat.  The spider was the greatest foe.  He was more numerous and has eaten all of the other evil
out there. He was first priority. Sarchise told them all he knew of the spider, where he lives, how he eats and hunts and how the young
were
born. Cazz rubbed his stomach at this point. He then told them how to combat them.  Their lairs were the weakest points. Even a shy spider would fight for his lair.  If you could capture a lair the spiders would come to you to fight.  The strength was capturing the unwary.  They attacked in force and from all directions. Surprise was their biggest weapon. That was when they were hardest to beat.

Armed with new knowledge, the King laid out his strategy. He would attack Westwood in phases. A prince would be in charge of one of those phases.  He would send out five armies. Cazz, Caspin and Sarchise would take out their armies, along with two other armies of the high dwarves. They each had a week to prepare their battle plans. Each Prince sent for their respective commanders.  Sarchise sent for Hemlot.

As they were talking a dwarf came up to Sarchise.  “A messenger from South Fort came to the high gate three days ago.  He was sent on to the low gate through the mountain. He should have been here by now.  When we did not get a return messenger they sent me to see if the message had come through.  It has not, and no one knows where this messenger is, or what message he brought.”

The King had overheard and came over to the messenger.  “Return and report, we will send a message when he is found.” The dwarf left.  To Sarchise the King said, “I will send out a search party, we will find this man.”

A few hours later Ermort walked into the Great Hall.  He was following two guides. He bowed to the King and then delivered Sarchise a sealed message. “Sorry it took so long, I thought it was a straight shot from the high gate to the low gate.  I didn’t see all those passages to the sides.  I did have a grand tour of the caves and caverns of High Mountain.  What a beautiful place this is. I stumbled across a city of low dwarves.  They are called that because they live in the low part of the mountain. They agreed to bring me to the Great Hall.  I think that I was the only human that many of them had ever seen.”

Sarchise smiled at him.  “I am so glad to see you.”

“I know. You should let me take you on a grand tour.  There is some spectacular scenery down here.”

“We have more pressing business.  Are you here to stay or will I
have
to reply to this message and send you back?” Sarchise asked.

“No reply, it’s just telling you that I have been assigned to your unit.”

“Good, then I will put you to work,” Sarchise smiled.

When Ermort made his way out of the lower gate he noticed that the dwarves were laying a foundation for buildings around the tents the scouts had pitched. He
wandered into one of the sleeping tents and sacked out. 

Hemlot and Sarchise finished their plans.  They would be part of the first phase.  The dwarves would rely heavily on the human’s experience in the forest. The dwarves had been long kept out of th
e forests because that was
elve’s
domain.  Elf and dwarf were never fast friends, but they never went t
o war against each other.  Dwarves had
told of elves driving t
he dwarves underground and elves
had their mythology about evil dwarves hunting them in the forest.  Neither side would admit that the old legends were part of the animosity between them. They were sometimes allies in battle, but always with the humans included.  Never did dwarves and elves ally without man.

Hemlot left the all day planning session to go to bed.  Sarchise went out of the lower gate to talk to the scouts. “Plans are laid to take back the southern spur of Westwood. We leave the day after tomorrow. I will divide the scouts into groups of ten.  Each group will be assigned to a dwarf army as advisors. The King has come up with a brilliant idea.  Each army will take over a section of the forest and patrol it.  A week later the next army will leapfrog the first one and take over the area just beyond the first.  Each army will leapfrog in turn until it’s the first army’s turn again. The area they will leave has been occupied five weeks and should have the worst of the evils driven out. Thus, section by section the Westwood will be reclaimed.”