The Half Dwarf Prince (10 page)

Grundel had them up
ahead of the sun hooking up the horses. It took the unfamiliar dwarves a little longer to get all of the horses hooked up. After about two hours of struggling with straps and buckles the horses were ready. The sun was already above the horizon. They weren’t really in a hurry, so they kept a slow pace. There was no need to overwork the horses with the lead they had.

After about an hour on the
road they came to a river. They followed the river south until they came to the bridge. The river was about sixty paces wide here. The bridge was about twelve feet above the water, and it was a heavy, sturdy bridge. Jerrie and Rundo rode out ahead. When they were about halfway across the bridge Grundel rode drove his wagon out onto it. He had barely made it onto the bridge when there was a flash of light followed by a loud bang. The light was gone in time for him to watch Jerrie, Rundo, and their horses fall into the water as the bridge broke apart under them.

A second ball of fire was flying at him
, taking his attention away from his friends. He spotted the wizard across the river who was throwing the fire. He grabbed his axe off the bench next to him and threw it as hard as he could. He had barely released his axe when the huge ball of fire came at him, but at the last second it was sucked into his belt buckle in a rope of flame. He didn’t take the time to process it. He saw his axe had almost reached the wizard, who was diving to the side. The dive would have saved him, but Grundel had been anticipating it; he had reached back over his shoulder, touching the head of the axe slung there. That contact was enough to control the other blade, and he led it after the wizard. When he saw the axe find its target he leapt over the side of the bridge after Rundo.

It wasn’t until he was flailing around in the water just trying to get his head above the surface that he realized he didn’t know how to swim. In his panic he put his hand on his axe and pictured it flying toward the other axe. He hadn’t ever done anything like that before
, he realized, as found himself standing alone on the opposite shore, next to the dead wizard. He had always used the axe he was touching to control the other. He had never even thought of the possibility of trying to use the other one to control the one he was touching. His near-death reaction had just created so many new possibilities with his weapons.

He couldn’t think about that now
, though. He saw Jerrie coming out of the water back on the other side of the river. He was about a hundred paces downriver, and still on the back of his stallion. Then he saw Bumbo making his way out a little farther down, but Rundo wasn’t on her back. He threw his axe in that direction. Holding the other axe in his hand, he guided the axe into a tree between Jerrie and Bumbo. Then he held on tight to his axe and for the second time he used it to travel. He swung under his axe as he pictured it carrying him over the river to the other magically enchanted weapon. When his feet dragged in the water he made the axe in his hand fly higher, and it did. Then he was on the ground next to the tree. He pulled the axe out of the tree and slid it onto his back. Then he ran downriver toward Bumbo, searching the bank for his friend.

Rundo saw a flash of light; he heard the explosion underneath him. The explosion had forced the air out of his lungs, and now he was underwater. He had fallen off Bumbo’s back. He could sense the pony. He swam hard for the surface, but smacked his head on a rock. He had gone down. He couldn’t gather his thoughts. The last one he had before darkness took him completely was that he didn’t know if he was passing out because he banged his head or because he had banged his head so hard. simply forgotten to breathe.

When he opened his eyes he was coughing up water. A huge fish was on the bank pressing on his chest. He blinked a couple times and realized that is wasn’t a fish but a person with a fish head. Even as that realization came
, the fish head transformed into a human one. It wasn’t a fish at all. It was a woman. A beautiful woman was staring down at him. She had dark brown hair and brown eyes. As he stared at her he realized she was naked. He was staring at her breasts when he made the realization and he instantly looked away.

“You can turn around now,” he heard her say.

When he turned his head there was a little red fox with a big puffy tail next to her. It had apparently brought her clothes. Messah landed on his shoulder then, and everything snapped into focus. She had saved him. She had been a fish when he opened his eyes, or at least part of her had been. She was a druid. He knew some druids were able to shift into animal forms. “You’re a druid!” he shouted.

The woman smiled. “You are
, too,” she shouted back.

Then it
dawned on him how foolish he must have sounded shouting. “Sorry. I’m still trying to figure out what happened. I’m not actually a druid; I haven’t been trained. I am figuring everything out on my own.”

She looked up the river. She must have heard something. He still had water in his ears so he hadn’t heard whatever it was. “Your friends are coming. If you want help
, come into the woods and I will try to help you. Don’t bring them with you.”

Rundo turned back to the river to see
who she was talking about. Far up the bank he saw Grundel running after Bumbo. When he turned back she was gone.

Grundel saw Rundo standing on the bank and began shouting his name. When he got close he threw the axe and used it to travel again. A couple of seconds later he was on the other side of the river, a dozen paces away from his friend.

“Rundo
, are you okay?” He didn’t even think about what he was doing as he grabbed his friend’s head and started checking how serious the cut was. It wasn’t deep—just a gash on his forehead. It looked worse than it was.

Rundo pulled away. “I’m fine, I’m fine.”

Grundel looked at him for a minute and then shrugged his shoulders. He threw his axe across the river near where Jerrie and Bumbo were waiting. He reached out his hand to Rundo. “Come on. I can get us across, don’t worry.”

Rundo stepped back. “Grundel
, I have to stay here.”

Grundel dropped his hand. “What? You said you were ok
ay. What’s wrong?”

Rundo shook his head. “Nothing is wrong. There is a druid here. She is the one who saved me. She said she would help me figure out how to be a druid. I need to stay
for at least a couple of days. I will catch up with you before you make it to Shinestone. It will take you twice as long to get there with all of the others with you. I just need a couple of days.”

Grundel thought about it. He didn’t want to leave his friend here alone, but Rundo
was twice his age and he had been given a chance to figure out how to use his abilities. “What about Bumbo?”

Rundo looked across the river. “He will go with you. It’s too thick in these trees for him, plus I will be able to sense him. It will make it easier for me to find you.”

Grundel wrapped Rundo in a hug. “Be safe, Rundo. I’ll see you at Shinestone.”

Rundo just nodded. It was an uncomfortable situation for both of them. Neither knew what to say
, so they didn’t say anything. Grundel looked back one more time before calling on the link between his axes to carry one to the other.

“What is he doing” Jerrie asked
, nodding across the river to Rundo, who was already walking into the tree line.

Grundel looked back across the river. “He found someone who can answer some questions for him. He will catch up with us later.”

“Shouldn’t we wait for him?” Jerrie asked.

Grundel looked across the river.
“Rundo is safer out here than the rest of us. He is a druid, remember. Bumbo is coming with us. Don’t worry, Rundo will catch up.” Without waiting for a response he took Bumbo’s reins and walked the pony back to the bridge.

A couple hours later they made it down the road and out of the woods, to the field where they were supposed to meet up with the rest of the dwarves in two days’ time. Grundel took first watch. He was standing just at the edge of the firelight, staring back into the forest, when Jerrie walked up next to him.

“You worried about him?”

Grundel looked at Jerrie and then over to Bumbo. “He’s not, so I’m not. When that pony starts acting different, that is when I will worry.”

“You mean that is when you go charging blindly into the woods?” Jerrie said
, only half joking.

Then they heard it. It was that distinct half roar
, half squeal that only an orc could make.

“Wake up!
” Grundel shouted. “Orcs are coming!”

The other dwarves were on their feet with weapons in hand. A couple grabbed the non-burning ends of logs sticking out of the fire, and spread out. They had expected to run into orcs on the way to Ambar from Evermount
, since after the battle orcs had scattered into the countryside. After talking to Jerrie and finding out that the orcs were establishing their own kingdom in the dwarven mountain, they had no doubt that they would run into orcs as they got closer to Shinestone. All they could do was hope that this wasn’t a whole clan. The twelve of them wouldn’t stand a chance against an entire clan.

When the orcs came rushing out of the woods
, the dwarves got in line. They were outnumbered two to one, but it wasn’t a whole clan. Jerrie was standing behind Grundel, who stood at the center of the line. The orcs rushed in.

Grundel threw one of his axes. It flew over a hundred feet farther th
an any normal axe could. It smashed into the face of the closest orc. The one behind him was able to get out of the way as the axe flew by, but he hadn’t expected it to come flying back and dig into the back of his skull on the return path. Grundel released the axe again when it made it back to his hand. He killed two more of the orcs before they even got to them. When the axe made it back this time, the orcs were almost to them, so he readied himself for a melee.

At the last second
, the dwarves surprised Jerrie and the orcs by abandoning their defensive line. They leapt forward to their knees and hacked at the legs of the charging orcs. That put nine or ten of them on the ground—not dead, but most of them were too wounded to get back to their feet. Then the dwarves broke off into individual fights with orcs. Jerrie burst into action. The dwarves already had the upper hand. With the four Grundel had killed, and then with half of the remaining orcs on the ground and out of the fight, it was now twelve against seven. Actually eight. One of the orcs had made it to his feet and was limping up behind one of the dwarves who was fighting one-on-one with an orc. Jerrie buried his knife in the back of his skull. He had another knife in his hand and was running toward the end of the line where another dwarf was fighting an orc. His arm shot out as he passed, his blade cutting into the orc’s side. The orc dropped his arm on that side and the dwarf’s hammer smashed him in the face.

Jerrie hadn’t stopped
, though. He ran past two dwarves who were striking the killing blows on an orc who couldn’t keep up a defense against the attacks of both dwarves. The next dwarf was one-on-one against the orc he was fighting but already had the orc backpedaling. Jerrie’s knife ran across the back of the orc’s right knee. Jerrie was already moving on as the orc fell to the ground behind him. He passed Grundel, who had already killed the orc he had paired up with, and apparently helped the dwarf next to him with his. They were all charging down the line now, but the dwarves at that end were already finishing off the last of the orcs. From start to finish it couldn’t have taken more than a minute or two. They returned to the wounded orcs closer to the camp and finished them off. One of them had a longsword and was swinging it wildly at anyone who got close. Jerrie threw one of his daggers, and it buried to the hilt in the orc’s chest. In a few seconds, the orc was still. They dragged all of the bodies over to the edge of the tree line. Whatever the animals didn’t get they would burn the next day. They didn’t want to start a huge fire in the middle of the night and attract more attention.

Jerrie realized that the dwarves who had more or less ignored him since he had met Grundel were now all including him. They
gave him friendly, celebratory punches like they did each other. They even teased the dwarves he had helped in the fight about only being able to take down their orcs because of the “long-leg with the short blades.” They obviously hadn’t appreciated his lack of what they considered a “real” weapon until they had seen how capable he was with his knives.

Rundo looked across the river and settled Bumbo
, telepathically urging him to stay with Grundel. He could not verbalize anything for Bumbo, but he felt Bumbo understood through their link. With Bumbo at ease, Rundo turned back toward the woods and began walking into the trees.

He could sense the animals around him. His connection with the world was strong enough that even if he closed his eyes he could feel where living things were around him. He knew that he was
nearing her and her fox before he actually saw them. He could only describe the way he sensed life and the different way he sensed others as
auras
. The aura that each species put off was unique, and the more familiar with an aura he was, the easier it was for him to recognize it. Horses, for instance, he could sense from very far away. Dwarves and humans he could also identify readily without even thinking about it. The woman’s aura ahead of him he sensed easily, especially out here, where she was the only druid. The fox’s aura he wasn’t very familiar with, but he sensed the connection between the two and so he surmised that was the aura of the animal close to her. He walked another thirty paces and then stopped. She was standing next to a tree about ten paces away. He couldn’t actually see her, the tree was too big, but he sensed her there.

“I came,” he said in the direction of the tree.

She walked out from behind the tree and smiled at him. She had been testing his connection and they both knew it. “Your friend really cares about you. I am surprised you let the pony go, though.”

“You were listening
?” he asked, even though he knew that she had stayed close until Grundel had begun flying over the water dangling from one of his axes.

She just shrugged her shoulders. “Are you really only staying a couple of days?”

“I am. My friends will need me soon. I will have to return to them. I can only give you four days at most.”

“How much training have you had with your connection
?” she asked him.

“None. When I came out of the
fairy forest I felt the connection. Kalise appeared to us and I committed myself to her. I knew another druid but she wasn’t able to leave the fairy forest. Her connection had been too complete there.” He could see that she was trying to determine if he was telling the truth. He knew it sounded completely ridiculous, but it was the truth. Apparently she decided to believe him though, since she didn’t argue the validity of the story.

“How long ago did you establish your connection
, then?”

“It has only been a couple of months,” he answered her honestly.

“You are a lot older then most druids when they establish their connection. What have you figured out so far?”

“You already know I have linked with my pony. I have also linked with the hawk that you saw earlier. I can look through their eyes. I can give them an idea of what I am thinking. I can’t actually speak with them, but they understand what I’m thinking. The hawk was originally linked to the druid I told you about. She also gave me a staff and with that staff I have been able to summon an earth golem to help me fight an orc army. Other th
an that, I can sense life around me and I can tell what that life is by its aura. I can also sense if the living thing is hostile. I killed a snake that attacked my friend right after I initially established my connection with the earth. I hadn’t even seen it; I just sensed the danger and threw my knife. It wasn’t until afterward that I realized I might have been able to dissuade it, but I hadn’t understood the link well enough. I still don’t, really.”

She
considered his words for a second. “First, I should tell you my name. I am Evelyn. It sounds like you have two gifts. That is very rare. What you have figured out on your own in such a short time is amazing. It takes most druids years to accomplish some of the things you have described. If you are only going to be with me for a couple of days I think it is best if I first explain to you some of what it means to be a druid, then I think we should focus on the skills you already know. I can introduce you to some new things you can practice later, but in the short time we have I won’t be able to teach you anything new. The best I can do is teach you more about what you have already figured out.”

“You’re the teacher. You have me for four days. I
’ll do whatever you say for that amount of time. I just want to learn as much as I can. Hopefully I can come back someday soon. That is, if you still want to teach me after I leave.”

She smiled. “A completely dedicated student. What more can a teacher ask for? We can talk about further training after this is all over. We don’t have much time left tonight
, so for now we will concentrate on familiarizing you with some things. Follow me and we will go somewhere more comfortable.”

A few minutes later Rundo was sitting on a log in front of a tree that was twice as wide as he was tall.
The bottom of the tree had rotted out on the inside, and it was apparently where Evelyn had been sleeping. She bent down and started a fire inside the ring of rocks by placing her hand next to the wood. She hadn’t used anything to start the fire. She sat down on a log across from him. She smiled. “You want to know how I did that, don’t you?”

“I do. That was magic. I know a wizard who could do that,” he told her.

“No. You know a wizard who could make a flame out of magic. What I just did was create fire. I used the element of wind to force the small pieces of wood back and forth against each other very quickly. That heated them up until they caught fire,” she told him as she watched his reaction.

For some reason the way she had explained
it made perfect sense to him.

“I can tell
that you understand,” she said. “I said earlier you have two gifts. The first is obviously your connection with animals. All druids have a connection with nature, so we can all sense life. Some can sense it much more strongly than others. Some can sense plants and even sense what a plant can do. They could feel, just through the aura, as you call it, that a plant is poisonous or that it will soothe a stomachache or heal a cut. My gift is shifting. I can connect with animals like you can, but I can also shift into any animal that I have become familiar enough with. As you saw today, I wasn’t that familiar with the fish and so I wasn’t able to complete a full shift. I was able to accomplish it enough that I could breathe through gills, though. There are many other abilities we can borrow from animals, but we won’t go into them all. With practice all druids can learn all the skills to an extent. You have a strong connection with animals, so learning to shift would be easier for you than others. If you grow up in a druid community you are forced to practice as many skills as possible. I have very little connection with plants. I can sense the life in them, and even feel the connection, but that is about it. Your other skill is elements. You said that you used a druid staff to make an earth golem. The druid staff is only a conduit. It is an item with a strong connection with the earth; through that connection a druid is able to enhance their own connection, therefore enhancing their own abilities. You seemed to be fairly capable of figuring out your connection with animals, so I think that we should focus on your ability with elements. We can start on that in the morning. Tonight I want to talk to you about the guidelines of a druid, and your responsibilities as a child of Kalise.”

“I am here to learn,” was his only response. He was content just to listen. It was a lot of information all at once, but he was excited to learn it.

Over the next few hours he listened as Evelyn explained to him that a druid had a responsibility to protect any living thing within their power. That included humans. They weren’t to destroy anything or take the life of anything unless it was a necessity. She explained that often druids chose to be vegetarian, but just as many weren’t. When you were connected to the earth, eating a plant wasn’t that different from eating an animal. Since they were eating a rabbit stew while she talked he surmised that she wasn’t a vegetarian. She went on for hours explaining what it was to be a druid. Most of it really just came down to being a good person and not being wasteful, really. Kalise didn’t require any crazy rituals. Most druids prayed to her. They asked her for guidance or help or called on her for strength in a crisis. That was a common practice in any religion really, though. He appreciated that after all of his years of not choosing a religion, he had chosen a goddess that didn’t require complete subterfuge. He was free to be his own person as long as he was a good person. There were no requirements that a druid had to live in nature or isolate themselves from society. Most just found the lifestyle of society upsetting, and the connection to nature was diminished in populated areas where there wasn’t much nature to connect with.

After hours of her explaining and answer
ing his questions she finally went into the tree and lay down. She had offered him a place in the shelter but he chose to sleep on the ground out in the open. Messah was perched on a branch that hung over the small opening. He could sense Bumbo not far away. He was content, knowing that Bumbo was content, which meant that his friends were okay.

Rundo woke up in the morning being bombarded with wind and dirt. He rolled over onto his stomach and crawled toward the log. All of a sudden it was over. He rolled over and looked around. Evelyn was standing there. She had been the one doing it. “Air, the most underrated of the elements. With air you can control water. With air you can start a fire, feed a fire, or blow out a fire. Even stone gives way to wind over time. With a strong enough wind you can use the other elements against each other.”

Rundo got to his feet. “So what do you want me to do?”

“For now, just feel. Feel the air. It has an aura, too. It is all around us. It is something that is there from the minute you feel your connection. It is easy to overlook. Feel the air. It is the greatest life force. You can go weeks without the life force of food. You can go days without the life force of water. Without air you will be dead in minutes.”

Rundo tried to feel the wind. He wasn’t feeling it when he remembered how he had learned to focus his senses. He had pushed everything else to the back of his consciousness. He opened himself up to all of that. It took him a few minutes to push all the plants to the back of his consciousness. Finally he found it. It had always been there, but it was so subtle he had always overlooked it. He focused on it familiarizing himself with what it felt like. It was something that had always been there, so it didn’t take long to become familiar with it. “I have it,” he told her.

“Okay, now you have to manipulate the wind. Just like you did when you made the earth golem. Just try to establish a connection with the air. Don’t try to make a golem right now. Just try to move those leaves with air,” she told him, pointing to a smile pile of leaves a few feet away.

He wasn’t sure how to manipulate the air, so he just focused on what he wanted to happen. He opened himself up to that aura like he opened himself to Bumbo and Messah when he wanted to link with them so he could use their eyes. The second he opened himself to the aura of air
, the pile of leaves blew away.

Evelyn had him moving things for hours after that. By the middle of the day he could open himself to air without even thinking about it.

“Okay, I think you understand air well enough. Now we go to fire. Before you can make fire you have to understand what you need for fire. Remember, we’re not wizards or mages. We can’t just summon fire. If there is fire around you then you will be able to sense it and link with it just like the air, but if there isn’t you can still make fire. In order to make fire you need air, fuel, and heat.” She handed him two sticks and a handful of dead grass. “Move the sticks back and forth until they are smoking. That means they have heat. Then put the glowing part of the stick against the dead grass, or the fuel. Finally, you have to add air.”

It took two hours of him practicing and her coaching before he got his first ember on the end of one of the sticks. He put it to the bundle of dead grass and blew on it, but he blew the ember out. It only took him a few minutes to get the ember this time. He was doing everything by hand and his forearms were burning from rubbing the sticks together. This time he was able to get the pile of dead grass to start smoking. He saw the red as the grass was burning but not catching flame. He thought about what she had said. He had heat and fuel so he needed more air. He gradually began to blow a little harder and a little harder. The bundle of dead grass was smoking a lot now
, so he blew harder. Then the whole thing went up in flames in his hand. He tossed the ball of fire onto the ground.

“I did it
!” he shouted in excitement.

Evelyn just stood there smiling at him. “Good
! It feels good, doesn’t it? That was actually the hard part. I made you do it by hand so you would understand it. Now that you do, you can tap into the air and move one stick really fast and have the fire started in seconds.”

Rundo spent the rest of the day starting fires. It was nearly night by the time she taught him how to open up to the fire, how to feed the fire with air. The more air you fed it the more fuel it needed
, though. By the time they stopped for the night Rundo was exhausted. His body was sore from rubbing the sticks together for hours as hard and fast as he could. His mind was exhausted from the hours of concentration. He could control air and fire now, though. He had learned so much in only a day. It was amazing. He couldn’t imagine what he could learn with more time. He decided then that when he was done helping Grundel he had to come back and learn as much as he could.