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4 Years later
Ting.....Ding......Ding
Iron against stone, digging deep. Greedily and hungrily.
"Zarant! Honey get down here, it's time to go!" Asralda's voice rung out in the clan hall, reaching the upper floor and the tunnel the sounds came from.
"Coming Mom!" A squeaky voice replied from within
Before long a cacophony of sounds rang out from the tunnel. The sound of shifting stone, leather on stone, the rattling of mail.
Appearing on the 2nd layer balcony overlooking the clan hall a dust covered Zarant appeared.
Now barely considered beyond an infant in age, Zarant was 7 years of age. Underneath the gray dust of stone his brown hair was softened by tiny amounts of blonde. Steel with ice blue throughout, his eyes stood out in the dim lighting of the incomplete clan hall.
Sighing Asralda lamented her decision from three months ago.
After asking for advice from her home Clan mothers, the only solution she got was to use the same methods that dwarven mothers use to keep their teenage sons occupied. Which, while they kept the over active Zarant in sight and out of trouble, left Asralda dealing with completely new problems.
The current one being that she forgot to tell Zarant to clean up before they have to leave. And the one that immediately followed.
Grinning Zarant starts running before jumping off the balcony to grab a thick rope hanging from the ceiling. With all his spoils from the tunnel hanging on his shoulder in a cloth bag. Sliding down Zarant was halfway down before the overburdened rope snapped, leaving Zarant to fall. A small cloud of dust later and some panic from his mother and Zarant was still uninjured despite his fall.
"I keep telling you not to do that! Serves you right." Asralda nagged. Of coursing she wasn't voicing her real concern that he'd just fall and hurt himself badly doing something like this. The only thing keeping her from stopping her son from activities like this was her husband's advice.
"If he hurts himself, he hurts himself. But maybe him getting a few scapes might get him to learn something." She recalls him telling her after voicing concerns over dinner three months ago.
"Now go clean up, we're going to meet my friend at the elven city. I promised you I'd take you next time I went but that means you have to be presentable, not caked in dust." She said while herding Zarant to the bath.
Stopping in his tracks right before the door, Zarant hefted his spoils in from his shoulders to the ground between him and his mother. Opening the bag he proudly presents his loot to his mother. "Look Mom! You said the elves don't have stone over their homes so I got some for them!" Zarant boasted. Inside the bag varying flat shapes of stone about a inch thick.
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Smiling wryly Asralda nodded but continued pushing her son towards the bath. Seeing his mother smiling but not able to understand the complexity of her facial emotions, he thinks he did good and rushes to get clean so he can help the elves.
After a short bath and a new change of clothes, Asralda smiles before telling her son, "Sorry Zarant, you did very good, but the elves have something else to cover their houses. You'll see when we get there. So keep your stones here at home. Besides it's a long walk and you'll get tired carrying those around. Come on, let's go." Smiling hand in hand with his mother, the two leave the clan hold and walk towards town without Zarants bag.
Along the way they meet with some of the towns outlying families. Not part of the clan but still landowners, many of them are mining out their homestead which is why Zarant knows many of them. For the last few weeks, they've met the child carrying sacks of rubble and excavated stone to the down stone masonry, the same as them. Thinking that he's a very well meaning lad helping his family establish their own homestead, many of them greet him and his mother on their way. Seeing her son make a positive impact on others without his parents around gives Asralda a chunk of confidence. One that was missing due to his different personality compared to others.
Entering town the tunnels change from entrances to homesteads and residences into stores, services, warehouses and amenities for people from out of town. All essential trades were on display, the economy not grown enough to support speciality shops or luxury good stores.
As they passed through the pair couldn't look anywhere without seeing some sort of construction. Teams of dwarves polishing the rough stone walls, engraving signs of businesse's, outlining future features with chalk and in one storefront creating a window with lattice of stone.
Asralda missed the look in her child's eyes, yet another unique quirk to him not seen in other dwarves. The child was watching all the activities like he was sorting every technique he saw, like every method was a piece to some great puzzle to him. Distracted by his mother's advice to stick together, Zarant had no choice but to pay attention in the foot traffic.
Ignoring the side streets they headed straight towards the center of town. Arriving after wading through the crowds, they arrive at a large plaza surrounding a extremely large staircase. Arch leading into it, the two begin the hike up the great staircase leading to the surface. Capable of having troop formations march up them, the stairs had no problem holding the crowd of travelers, workers and merchants flow up and down their polished steps. As they went up, Zarant was witness to different scenes on each level. One was best described as a parking lot or some train station mix by Earth standards, another led to a grand fortress off in the distance and many other different facilities.
Arriving at one of the top levels, the two stopped for inspection by the local militia. While waiting, the two stood just before the exit with Zarant desperately trying to keep his eyes dry. The first time to the surface was a very large adjustment for the eyes. Before long the inspection was over and the two stepped outside for the first time.
Sheer cliff face on the right and a winding road carved into the cliff leading down on the left, both of them could see far into the distance. Looking over the low stone safety wall, the two could see green rolling plains transition into a heavens reaching forest the road led to. Pulling her son along after allowing him to experience an open sky for the first time, the two continued down the road.