Deepforge (5 page)

“How is it a good thing?”

“Well,” Grognor sighed as he threw a particularly large burned metallic object into the pile of rubble, “maybe all of this technology just wasn’t meant to be.”

All of the nearby gnomes dropped what they were doing and looked at Grognor in shock.

“No, really. I mean, think about it.” Grognor tried to explain. “We’ve been really dependent on technology for a long time. Well, not the dwarves so much, but…certainly the gnomes, and for sure the humans and halflings.”

“Nor the elves, so I’ve heard. I don’t think they use any of this technology,” Teelena said as she dragged off a random, unrecognizable burnt object.

Grognor saw the looks on the gnomes’ faces and dropped the subject. “Well, let’s get this cleaned up and continue on. We have the games to attend, and we’re going to miss the opening ceremonies…I think…right? They have those, I mean opening ceremonies?”

Teelena nodded.

Grognor smiled.

It took another two full days to organize the rubble and clean up as best they could. All but one bridge had been destroyed by the technological collapse as buildings crashed and burned. The remaining bridge was the original one, the one that had existed before the industrial park had been built. Nobody was actually sure who had built it, but it was of a very distinct design and ingenious construction. Nobody had heard from Hawkson, so a group of gnomes decided to go look for him just in case he needed help. As they began to head north, the dwarven army mounted up to leave.

Two figures appeared in front of the group. One was a silver clad female elf, and one was a golden clad human male. The female elf had long brown hair and deep black eyes. She was slender, but curvy. She dressed in all silver garb, much as Deccon wore gold. She was a silver dragon in elven shape. It was customary for silver dragons to appear as female elves, as the gold dragons customarily appeared as human males. Everyone stopped in their tracks, recognizing what they were.             

“Dragons,” Grognor said, stating the obvious.

Deccon the Fierce and another, unidentified dragon stood before them.

“Greetings,” Deccon started, “This is Vella the Wise, dragon companion of the Glade elves.”             

Grognor jumped off his steed and bowed with respect. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Lady Vella. The ‘Glade’ elves?”

She nodded.

“She is also my mate,” Deccon stated. “The Glade is where the elves to the north reside.”

Grognor bowed again. The gnomes and everyone else stood perfectly quiet, hanging on every word of the humanoid shifted dragons. They never appeared for casual reasons. Something important was about to happen.

Deccon grasped Vella’s hand and stepped forward. “Do not worry about Chieftain Hawkson. He resides with the elves, now. He is in good hands.”

“Thank you,” one of the Hawkflight gnomes said.

“We come to you for another matter,” Deccon said.

At that moment, several dozen elves suddenly appeared from the forest, dressed in spectacular clothing and delicate weaponry and armor. The horses snorted, startled by the sudden appearance.

One elf moved forward, towering over Grognor. “We will accompany you to the games. I am Bōddy, Chieftain of the Glade elves.”

The dragons were gone as quickly as they had appeared, leaving behind a small army of one hundred elves. The three humanoid races looked at each other, a bit uneasy.

“We will be participating in the games as well,” Bōddy said, matter-of-factly.

Grognor held no animosity toward the elves, nor did any other race. Rather, they respected them almost as much as the dragons. They were the elder race, and were rarely seen. Something bigger than Grognor expected was happening, something the dragons were keeping to themselves, as usual.

These were known as ‘elder elves’. Other than the obvious similarities to the high elves, such as thin bodies, slanted eyes and pointed ears, they were actually quite different. High elves were typically not over five feet tall with pointed ears and slanted eyes, subdued features and slight builds. Elder elves stood over six feet tall, were very muscular, and had exaggerated features. Their pointed ears were very tall, extending in long points above their heads. Their slanted eyes were much bigger than high elves, and their eye brow hair generally extended several inches beyond their faces. Hair color and type varied as did any other race; red to black, blonde to blue, and was generally waist length regardless of gender. Skin color also varied from a deep brown to a fair that looked almost transparent. Eye color was usually deep purple, with blue or yellow occurring on rare occasions, and vertical pupils like cats. Their cheekbones were very pronounced, and their chins always came to a rounded point. These elves only had three fingers and a thumb on each hand, as opposed to four and a thumb like all other humanoids on the world. They had prominent canine teeth, extending normally twice as long as their other teeth. The males’ features were much more masculine of course. It was easy to tell the difference, the genders being shaped appropriately. Both genders were generally of the same height within the normal individual variables, and personal strength was more or less equal. Within all the elven communities, not just in the elders’, males and females were considered equal on most things, excluding childbirth.

“Chieftain,” Grognor started, “it’s a distinct pleasure to travel with you, but there’s something you need to know. We had a run-in with some rouge humans before we left and expect to encounter them again at some point. I don’t know how you feel about fighting humans?”

“We travel with
you
, therefore, any enemy of yours is an enemy of ours. Rest assured, Emperor.”

That shocked Grognor, the fact that an elven chieftain referred to him as ‘Emperor’. The elves had never officially declared their allegiance to the Empire. He nodded and looked around for their horses. “Chieftain, we’re on horseback and are a bit behind. We’ll be travelling quickly. You have no steeds.”

Bōddy smiled. “It’s quite alright, Emperor. We’ll go slowly so you can keep up with us.” He nodded to the other elves who ran off east at incredible speeds.

All the others were surprised and hesitated as the elves disappeared down the road.

“You heard ‘em! Move out!” Grognor said as he jumped on his horse. “Heeeeeyaaaah!”  His horse reared and ran off at near full speed. The army quickly fell in line behind. Teelena laughed and charged off to catch up to her husband.

Chapter 6

I
t was quite a sight. One thousand dwarves riding on large, mean looking warhorses all armored for major battle. Intermingled with them were gnomes with their own ponies, trying their best to keep up. Grognor rode next to his new bride at the very front of this group. Out ahead of them were one hundred elves running on foot easily as fast as the horses galloped.

“Wow, actual elves,” Teelena said. “We don’t see them for decades, then suddenly they just join us. Something’s up.”

“Yea, I was thinking the same thing,” Grognor said.

“Now, I know you were just planning on using the humans for fodder and manual labor for the expedition, we all figured that part out. But, now what? What about the elves? What if they insist on coming with us after we’ve recruited the human shield regiment?” Teelena looked over at Grognor.

Grognor knew everyone had ‘figured it out’, but he knew she had a point. Certainly they wouldn’t, would they? “I don’t think they’ll come. Exploring isn’t an elven thing. They probably just want to come along in the interest of peace. Once we head off on the expedition, they’ll go home.”

“I think you’re wrong, my love.”

He looked over at her, knowing she was probably right. Something bigger was at work here. “Nah, they’ll go home.”

Teelena shook her head ‘no’. “I’m telling you, the dragons appeared just to announce the elves were coming with us? You know as well as I do they don’t come around for mundane reasons. The elves could have come out without the dragons announcing it first. They did that for a very specific reason- to make a point as to how important it was that the elves join us.”

“But, why?” Grognor looked at her with concern in his eyes, knowing she was right.

“I don’t know darling, but something big is about to happen. I just know it.”

Grognor nodded, grimly.

They traveled along keeping pace with the elves, who never seemed to tire. The engineers inspected the damage caused by the EM pulse and took good notes. There was no change. No matter how far they travelled, the power and phone lines were fried.

“Look, the Little Table electrical substation. It’s…gone!” Delvin pointed to the obvious mound of melted metal.

“We’ll camp here tonight. We need to rest,” Grognor said.

That evening as the dwarves ate and drank, Grognor sat with the elves who seemed disgusted with the dwarves’ ways. Several of the elves seemed to have a problem with their noses, as they continually held their hands up in front of them.

“Chieftain, are you and your people ok?” Grognor asked.

“Yes, Emperor. It’s just that, you and your people… you have a very strong odor. We’re not accustomed to it. We’ll adapt, with time.”

Grognor chuckled, but did not hesitate to ask the question burning in his mind. “Chieftain, why are you coming with us to the games?”

Bōddy looked into Grognor’s eyes, his crystalline bright purple, unearthly elf eyes making Grognor feel a bit uncomfortable. Then he took out his long-stemmed pipe, his ornate leather pouch, and very slowly, meticulously loaded the pipe. Grognor tried his best to remain patient, but it seemed to take the longest time for the condescending elf to pack his pipe. Without any visible means of ignition, the strange tobacco spontaneously started emitting smoke. The air was filled with a sweet, woody aroma. The smoke slowly drifted up above everyone’s head, seemingly immune to the effects of the light wind blowing.  Everyone in the immediate vicinity was mesmerized and gave the elf their undivided attention.

“Emperor,” Bōddy began, “do you know how old I am?”

“I wouldn’t…couldn’t know. You’re young, but I know nothing of the elf ages.”

Bōddy chuckled and took a long puff of his pipe. “At the time of the cataclysm I was seventeen thousand, one hundred fifty six years old. So, add a billion or so to that number.”

Grognor was flabbergasted. “That’s impossible!”

“No, Emperor. I assure you, it’s not. Elves are…used to be… immortal, in the sense that we don’t age. Most of us, anyway. Only in the past couple thousands of years have the newer generations begun to grow old and die. But, we the elders have never aged until now. We were the first to walk upon the Great Savanna when we were deposited by
The Two
.” He motioned to his associates. “We’re the elders, the oldest of our species. The last of the immortal elves. Deamon is nearly sixteen thousand years old. Alva the Dragonslayer is only a few years younger than I. He was known as the greatest chromatic dragon slayer of Fayleen Kingdom.” He pointed them out one by one and told the dwarf their names, ages, and professions. “We remember, Emperor. We remember back to the
before times
.”

More people came and listened to the elder elf as he spun the tale.

“We were born in the before times, all of us. You see, back more than a billion years ago, this was a world filled with great technologies and hundreds of different humanoid races. We all lived in harmony, all standing against the darkness, combined forces united against a common foe. We called this foe the Arians. They were horrible warring creatures, awful to look at and deadly to battle. Our ancestors came from another world, with a long forgotten name. We simply referred to it as ‘Earth’.  Other humanoid races came from other worlds with exotic names. Our ancestors had all been kidnapped, stolen from these other worlds by the Arians, deposited here like animals in a game preserve. The Arians would return periodically simply to hunt us. After untold thousands of years, we finally developed the technology to battle the Arians and chased them off our world. Unfortunately, in our battles to free ourselves from these horrible creatures, we lost the majority of the humanoid races forever. Only a handful of us remained, the ones you know of now. We settled on another continent beyond the great sea. We used our technology for wonders you can’t even imagine, for eons. We had electricity, self-propelled vehicles, short range space travel, advanced communications, gadgets and technologies that would boggle your mind. Then,
they
came. The humans from ‘Earth’.”

“Humans…” Grognor shook his head in disgust.

“They had technologies even higher than our own and used them to kidnap us once again,” Bōddy said.

“Damned humans,” Teelena said, spitting out the words.

Bōddy took another puff of his pipe. “The humans saved us, all of us.
The Two
personally saw to our survival past the cataclysm.”

Everyone was shocked at this revelation.

“
The Two
?” Teelena said, not recognizing the term.

“Yes,
The Two
.” Bōddy continued, “they were the last survivors of the humans from Earth. They’re still here, watching from the Forbidden Island. They’ll never interfere in any way, but you can bet they’re still here. You see, you have to understand that we had a population of humans, too. These humans from ‘Earth’ took groups of us and put us in some sort of suspended animation deep beneath the surface. If they hadn’t have done so, we would have
all
been lost in the solar cataclysm.”

“The cataclysm? So, it was real?” Opticon asked.

“Oh, yes. Quite real,” Bōddy said. “There was…
is
… another world where the Arians deposited people onto, but also creatures of ancient legend, including dragons, orcs, giants, and all. Our world was their ‘control’ experiment, or so we figured. Just for humanoids. The dragons were brought here as a last resort by the Arians to wipe us out. Alva led the assault against them, and had it not been for his leadership in the great chromatic dragon war, we would have all perished.” He looked at Alva and nodded.

Alva nodded back. “All I did was get fed up with their attacks. The war was won because of the efforts of all peoples.”

“You are too modest, Alva.” Bōddy smiled.

“I can’t believe what I’m hearing,” Grognor said.

“Armadia?” Opticon asked.

Bōddy nodded and pointed to the ringed world in the night sky. “That’s right. I had a brother there, I lost him eons ago.” He looked up and nodded in reverence. “He was with an expedition to explore Armadia. They crash landed, but survived and settled on one of the larger island continents. We lost contact with them soon after. We had planned to send follow-up expeditions, but…it never happened. Wars here redirected our energies, and we never got back to space exploration. That was a very long time ago. I bet he doesn’t even remember this world anymore, if he wasn’t killed by some horrible beast up there. Certainly the cataclysm took him out. At least the
Bloodstone
line has continued through me and my many offspring. Damn, I still miss him. Here’s to you, Jacinth Bloodstone, my only brother. I hope you found paradise.” He gazed up at the ringed world, quiet for a few moments as he once again mourned his brother. He sent a perfect smoke ring drifting up in the direction of Armadia. It floated up, retaining its shape but slowly expanding until it made a bright grey ring around the world in the sky before finally fading away. Bōddy sighed.

“Tell us more about the cataclysm,” Teelena said.

“We don’t know the details of what happened, only that some force, a great, terrible wizard caused it. Armadia was nearly destroyed, and the surface of this world was stripped of life. After a billion years of being in suspended animation, the two remaining ‘Earth’ humans, who we now refer to as
The Two,
revived us and deposited us on the Great Savanna. Like I said before, they come to see us sometimes. They never interfere, only observe.”

“This…this is incredible,” Grognor said, shaking his head in disbelief.

“The rouge sun is approaching, it’s been ten thousand years since we saw it last,” Bōddy said, looking up. He seemed lost in nostalgic thought for a few moments. He finally turned his gaze back to Grognor. “Emperor, the time of the elders is coming to a close. For you see, we have begun to age. The dragons know this, and more.” He pulled out a single grey hair from his black locks. “Our time is ending. We asked the family of metallic dragons to help us because we have a legacy we need fulfilled. Something very important to us. We need there to be true, lasting peace between all the races of River Valley. We knew the dragons would not directly intervene, but what they don’t know is, they will be right in the middle of this.”

“Wait, how? What do you mean?” Teelena asked. “Is this the prophecy of the Dragon King?”

“No, this isn’t the Dragon King prophecy. That may or may not happen, we just can’t know. That’s a very long time from now. What’s important is what happens
now
.  Listen closely. This is what it’s all about. There are
others
on this world, others of
evil intent
. Other humanoids and chromatic dragons. It’s just a matter of time before they spread to this continent and wipe us all out. The only way for us to prevent apocalypse is for
all
races to work together. You want to explore, Emperor. You want riches and glory. I offer you something better. A chance to save the world.”

All thousand dwarves, and all the gnomes and elves heard the story the elder elf told, and remained quiet. Bōddy let that last statement hang in the air as his pipe smoke slowly drifted up.

“What has this to do with the EM pulse? Was that an attack from them, or was it from another world like we’ve ascertained?” Delvin Cranksprocket asked.

“We would concur with your assessment, Mister Cranksprocket. The pulse is a totally separate event, not at all associated with what we’re talking about,” Bōddy said.

“Was it the gods, punishing us?” a warrior asked from the crowd.

“I doubt it. If there are in fact, gods, they’ve abandoned us, or have no knowledge of our existence,” Bōddy said.

A communal sigh of frustration spread like a wave throughout the crowd.

Grognor looked at his new bride as she put her hand in his. He knew it was right, it was the thing he had been expecting. This was it. He turned back to the elder elf. “What do you need us to do, Chieftain?”

Bōddy quickly looked around, suddenly alarmed by something. All the elves seemed suddenly on edge. He snuffed out his pipe and turned to Grognor, placing his hand on his shoulder. “Fight, Emperor. Fight with us to save our world.”

Suddenly the horses began snorting and getting excited, their battle fury building. The sky brightened as a series of loud booms were heard.

“Cannons!” Grognor yelled, “we’re under attack! To arms!”

The flash of cannon fire erupted from the forest, sending large balls into the army. They exploded upon impact, sending dwarves and others flying. Chaos ensued. The army scrambled to take up arms as the forest erupted in short, loud bursts.

“They have guns!” Teelena exclaimed as she grabbed a shield.

“Damned cowards! Attack!” Grognor screamed as he ran into the forest with his axe and hammer in hand.             

Suddenly, the night was bathed in artificial daylight. Up above the scene, an orb glowed brightly, mesmerizing everyone.

Gunfire continued to come from the forest, but the bullets stopped short and fell to the ground.