[Progression] Eye to Eye

[Medvekoma 2073]

 

 

 

Two dwarves descended the cliffside to the mushroom forest from Kal’tarak, both wearing Vanguard armour. They were young, one with a golden blonde beard reaching to his chest, the other a ginger with his facial hair braided down just beneath his belly.

 

“The golem makes me nervous.” The blonde stated.

 

They turned down to the riverside in their patrol. In the mud, Wonks tilled various kinds of fungi, their ribeting echoing around them.

 

“Makes me nervous too.” The other dwarf replied. “And it’s all against the Prince. Can’t believe these poor folk lived above him forever.”

 

The Wonks did not seem to hear the discussion as they continued their daily chores. The patrol turned up the riverbank and both dwed now approached the bridge leading over the Wonk village.

 

“Ever seen the elf living up there?” The ginger dwarf asked, pointing a fat finger at the quartz-lined tower carved into the cave pillar. His blonde partner shook his head.

 

“An elven wizard lives up there. Hasn’t been around for at least a year. I do hope he’s gone to bring some … relics against the prince.”

 

His blonde partner was no longer paying attention by the end of the sentence. Instead, his eyes fixated across the bridge, squinted at the darkness. He lifted a left hand while using the other to unsheathe his axe. His words rung of both surprise and a fair degree of fear.

 

“I heard something across. By Dungrimm, I swear I heard.”

 

“Let us hope the elf arrived home, then.” The blonde one replied quiet as the two made their way across the bridge, weapons unsheathed. In front of them stood the statue of an old dwarven wizard, untended and mouldy from the nearby river’s moist air.

 

“Last month.” The blonde one continued in a hushed tone. “The Wonks were chanting something. It echoed from their cave and sounded eerie … croaky singing makes the hair stand on your back.”

 

As the dwarf said those words, both of them heard footsteps again. Ears perked as they moved on to the back wall of the cave. The stone laid flat from the pickaxe cuts the Dwarves made across of it, slabs missing from the side and leaving the cave wall blocky. In front, a stonemason’s tools still laid on a table, though behind it the two dwarves peeked a passage no wider than a child’s shoulders.

 

Behind it, the noise of feet tapping intensified. Metal clung against stone as a chunk of the cave wall fell between the opening and the mason’s seat, leaving the two Dwarves facing eye-to-eye with a tiny, black eye framed by muddy grey fur.

 

After five seconds of silence, both parties turned around and made a run for it. The passage remained there, open though not widened further, whereas the two Dwed ran straight to the Vanguard depot. After a mug of ale each, they shared their story with the others there, and word soon spread about the discovery behind the wizard tower.

 

 

 

 

(( This Progression is part of Project Urir. Click here for more information! ))