Edited by: Solyom
The Oni angrily bared its teeth at me.
- “I am simply speechless and furious.” He said “You think that we decided being born as a greenskins? You think that we wouldn’t want to be born as bloody dwarfs?! You said how many of us are being born, you said how quickly we grow up. But do you know about what you have forgotten? How many of us survive. Less than half of the breed lives long enough to become mature – or as you said, one hundred days old. And if some of us would be lucky enough to grow old… do you know how long it takes? 15 years. Sometimes 20. We live for a blink of an eye, and that spawn, which is as long as the life of a candle, is spent in the dirt. My first memory from my so-called childhood is digging bugs off the ground. Why did I do that? So I could eat. Yes, I was eating maggots while you were rejoicing in your taverns drinking beer. And you dare to…”
- “The difference between your personal opinion about this world injustice AND about what are your workers are now doing is… that I asked for the second.”
I stopped him rudely.
- “I thought I mentioned that – we won’t let you play for tim…”
- “It’s not our fault…” Vakkira said, stopping my impolite remark. “… it’s no one’s fault. You can’t blame anyone for such silly things like the place of birth. All we want and will do is protecting our families and houses from your rampage. Mountains are huge, you could have easily left these parts habituated by dwarfs and find…”
- “What? Places habituated by Gairarans? Hunting grounds of Goliaths? No. There are chances of surviving your hunting parties, and after one of these beasts would learn your smell, they would never stop hunting you.”
- “Also, if they would find a place that they could use, they would once again start reproducing like rabbits and in no time they would once again start attacking cities, looking for a new ground on which they could settle.”
I added at the end. This earned me another hateful gaze from the redskinned beast.
- “Are you holding grudge against our race?”
- “Quite the opposite…” I said pulling my sleeve showing him tattoos. “… I am a friend with a small goblin village in the forest. Well, they did try to kill me first, but after I murdered the chieftain’s daughter in a duel, we became best friends… Or was she his granddaughter?” I started wondering. “… the point is, that they are keeping their population in check. Do you know why? Because they are small, weak goblins in a big, bad forest. They can hunt only some Horned Rabbits and smaller animals. If they would make their population bigger – they would have problems with feeding their children and would attract predators to their home. They learned a lesson you refuse to understand. That if you would abuse nature around you, then nature would abuse you.”
- “It’s not the nature that is abusing us. It is you!”
- “I am the nature.” My eyes shined with bits of irritation. “By the grace of fire and flames, of tempest and wind, of flood and rain. I came bearing the word of my goddess. That word is
- “Zariel!” the queen hissed angrily. “… trust me, chieftain, the last thing we want is bloodshed. We would love to turn around and walk away. But, we have to be sure that my people will know no more harm!...”
- “…And then there are those who want to avenge their families, who were slain in their raids…” I simply couldn’t stop myself from adding those.
- “… this is why we came to talk instead of raining your positions with our crossbows. If there is a way out of this mess, a way that does not require blood – we would be more than eager to…”
She continued her polite tone ignoring my remarks. Still, this conversation made us lose precious seconds.
- “… but, in that matter, I have to agree with Zariel. We need to know if you can live in such way that wouldn’t threaten us. Tell me, warchief - can you guarantee me that?”
- “It is almost impossible.” He admitted after a moment of silence. “ The culture of war is buried within our hearts too deep.”
- “If I am correct, you have just admitted that you will keep attacking dwarf’s settlements, yet you are furious when they look for vengeance!” I could barely hold my laugh. “Only I find it unreasonable?!”
- “THAT’S NOT THE CASE!” the beast roared.
I knew it. I was just trying to make him lose his temper. To anger him. Then, he would break the negotiation and we could finish what we started. Sorry, Vakkira, I know you want the best solution, but dealing with them is pointless. There is no way they would obey rules, that could be eventually set here. Try explaining an ogre warrior, that from now onward, he is not only supposed not-to-rape, but he would have to reduce the time he normally spends with their tribe-wives. Good luck with that. Unless…
- “…There could be a solution.” The Oni finally said, when the shaman told him something in the speech that hurt my ears. After a quick confirmation from my companions, I realized that his time they were talking in their own language. “You suggested habituating lands of stronger predators. It is an impossible task for us. These beast are living deep in the caves and woods, we would have lost a hundred men trying to find it, then another hundred to clear but one liar… but, with your help… Tell me, are you willing to lend us your strength and technology to get rid of those beasts? To establish small community far away from your lands?”
Something was off. If that was the case why didn’t they ask about it at the very beginning?
- “Before we continue…” Vakkira stopped the tempo of conversation. “… we demand one thing. We trusted you and honored the negotiations by this we proved our good intentions. It’s your turn.”
- “What do you want?”
- “The thing that Zariel asked three times already. What are your workers doing?”
- “Fortification. We wanted to build a small town.”
- “Underground?” I was skeptic.
- “Just like the dwarfs.” The Oni nodded. “It’s hard to seize the city you can’t completely see.”
Aha. Sure. You read book or two and bah- you are a master architect, that can build a city in stone? Every bigger construction would collapse right on your head. It would require calculation beyon the ability of goblin.
- “With all due respect, I think it may be bit too much for you.” Vakkira must have reached the same conclusion.
- “Not if we are mimicking the same layout as in the cities we plundered. There is no need to make calculation if these were already made.”
- “And there were no casualties?” I raised my brow. “In the end, each city and mine is unique, mostly because each terrain has a bit different kinds of rocks, and earth, because of that, the density and weight will be a bit different and then it can lead to… Oh, you did have casualties.” I noticed as expression of Chieftain changing a bit.
Yet I knew everything I needed. I am here only as advisor, so I allowed myself to remain silent for the rest of the conversation.
There was one big flaw with this plan – the place that was considered as the new home of the greenskin was separated from Red Mountains by only one, narrow passage. That meant that after they would cross it, dwarfs could build there a garrison cutting them off and thus providing security. Why is that a flaw then? Because I did not believe that Oni. There was something off. I really would prefer just getting rid of them.
But, unfortunately – politics. Vakkira was young (as for dwarf), was elected to be a clan chief few months ago (thus she had almost no experience), and was a queen for… three days? Four?
She wanted to be a good queen, so she tried picking reasonable choices.
And reasonable choices are predictable choices. One could easily use those to fool the young dwarf girl.
And that Oni was smart. He proved that by delaying our actions and getting rid of his inside enemies without dirtying his own hands. Is that what he really wanted? Help from dwarfs at creating his own home?
Or was he thinking one step ahead? Or two? Damn it! DAMN IT! I can’t see through him!
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The negotiations, much to my dismay, ended reaching agreement. The greenskins retreated, leaving their current camp. It was supposed to convince us, that what they were working for was really nothing more than fortification – no war – no need for them and they could easily leave them behind.
Me, Gisele, and few other dwarfs moved there to investigate if they didn’t lie to us.
Indeed, the in mountain, a few deep corridors were dig, yet they layout was so weird to me! Built in an almost random pattern. At first I thought that it was supposed to be an ambush and soon, the corridors will collapse on my head, but I quickly abandoned this idea. There were too few of us. What’s the point of wasting a few days, and the energy of so many men to kill less than 10 enemies? I could only swallow my insults.
Stupid Vakkira. You want to be a good queen. The problem is, that being good and being efficient are not necessary identical words.
Later, I will have to take care of it.
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Two days later, the two armies marched out in the direction of the dangerous Mountain parts. The greenskin marched first, mostly because the dwarfs were afraid of being backstabbed (and trapped on the other side of mountain by some trap). Well, at least they were not completely deprived of common sense.
There was much more of both flora and fauna here, the formation of high mountains trapped most of the rain clouds on this side, leaving much more nutrition on the ground below. I asked Ironblood (the old one) why didn’t they build their cities here. After calling me uneducated brat, he finally revealed that these parts had barely any ores. No ores – no metal. No metal – no job for dwarfs.
Damn it. Later on, they could even set a merchant route to them in order to lay their hands on fur and plants that there was plenty here.
But, our admiration for the landscape didn’t last long. Merely after a few hours after crossing the passage, both armies were attacked multiple times. Stable-sized, green and brown dinosaur-like lizards in packs of few started charging from narrow dens and deep of forests.
The beasts were actually quite frightening, bolts and arrows did barely any harm to them, maybe annoyed them a little and reduced the comfort of their movements, but to kill the bastards you needed to surround them, and using axes to chop them bits by bits. The task was that much harder, because, as I already mentioned, they never were alone. In the moment you would surrender one, its friends would come to the rescue.
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Extremely violent, brutal and persistent. Just like Gisele, after seeing the last piece of meat during supper, and someone trying to snatch it. Jokes aside. The bastards were really tough. We needed to set up camps for the night. Twice. And if you think that we were allowed to rest then, boy, you are sorely mistaken.
Big army means big camp. Big camp means big fire, and fire means light. And the light attracts monsters. The voice of the soldiers raising alarm, and the sounds of the battle woke me up quite a few times. After a few hours, I got an idea of creating wisps of fire and sending them in all directions. Since then, the number of attacks was reduced greatly, yet sounds of monsters, roaring in irritation after they were discovered, and were lead into random places, tripled.
Our destination was yet half of a day away – on a flat piece of ground, directly under the slope of the mountain. A little stream, traveling down from the rock provided a stable source of water and the forests around were rich in many huntable animals. It was also rich in natural hunters, that would love enriching their diet with goblins and ogres, but, hey – it was no longer my concern!
Still, the oni pointed out a place good for creating a new village a bit too accurately. I asked him how he knew about this place. In a few (impolite) words, he told me that trolls are great scouts and they scouted every piece of mountain and the lands around it, looking for new sources of food for the horde.
Apparently, from these parts of the mountain, the fewest of them returned home.
The dwarfs quickly begun to raise plain, yet sturdy buildings and walls, mostly from wood. Looking at them working resembled Amish people, they just swarmed the construction site and raised house after house, wall after wall. The greenskins were used only to chop down wood and carry materials to the specified places.
Oh, a few ogres and goblins were eager to either help more or learn from them, but at very first, communication was a problem, and even if a fewer understood what they were told, they were simply unable to comprehend the new data.
Separation of duties? Specializations?! Working in shifts? These words were like magic to them, they were used to doing everything by themselves, for themselves. Thus, they could more or less survive on their own in forests – hunt, cook a little, build a basic shelter, but when it came to coordinating their actions in larger groups, everyone was doing everything… and you know how it ended.
We spent there three more days. In that period, Vakkira was telling the Chieftain about the concepts of modern politics, and other dwarfs were teaching to goblins the basics of building, and to ogres, new forms of hunting. Then the concept of breeding a few herbivores were shown to them.
The Idea of catching a few dozen of bunnies or deers, locking them in some kind of wooden area and then taking care of them in order to consume them later left them with eyes open wide.
A funny reaction, indeed.
- “Zari, you are far too tense.” My dragoness said to me when I was watching the new city raise from a nearby hill. “Still not trusting them?”
- “No.”
- “After spending some time with them, I can tell that they are actually a funny bunch.” She said sitting next to me. “They just want to live. Like you and me.”
- “The problem is that in lots of situation it is either We or Them.”
- “… I think that one ogre even proposed to me…”
I turned my gaze and look to her.
- “Which one?”
- “Jealous?” She teased me with a wide smile.
- “Furious. You just gave me another reason to annihilate them.”
- “I think it will be my sweet little secret then! But fear not. He wouldn’t take no as an answer, so I broke his jaw.”
- “Good girl.” I exhaled the air I held in.
- “Zari, I know that you are smart and all… But seriously! Overthinking things like that won’t help you! Can’t you just accept that not everyone has some secret motives and someone takes simplest path?”
- “Then I would already be: killed by some inquisitors in forest, killed by the villagers as I saved them, hired by the alchemist guild and spend my whole near a pot, cooking potions for a huge company, killed by…”
I started counting on my fingers.
- “Ok. Ok! I get it. Stop it!” she pouted. Of course that I knew what her point was, but damn, I enjoy mocking her.
- “And finally, if I wouldn’t be that caution, one thing would have never happened. A thing, one without I can no longer imagine my life.”
I said while laying on the ground and looking in the stars.
- “What is it?” she asked curiously. I smiled and ignored her. “Come on! Tell me” I just chuckled. “I won’t leave you until you tell me!”
- “I think it will be my sweet little secret then.” I smiled back.
- “YOU LITTLE!” she tackled me back as I was raising from the ground.
Little naïve fool. I was talking about meeting you. Well, there is no way I will tell you that. You would just puff your chest and walk around, teasing me about it.
The trolls already scouted most of the nearest forests, finding lots of hunting grounds. Well, quite few did not return, so everyone just presumed that the places into which they were sent were not exactly safe.
The village (that actually was finished) was actually a small wooden fort with quite tall walls and watchtowers. It had everything that was needed in order to survive (as long as you wouldn’t fuck up things by your own).
The terrain around actually ensured that their population was more or less in check. If they would reproduce too much, they would simply run out of food, and the formation of high mountains was shutting the whole area from all direction, except the small passage. Maybe a single scout could somehow leave this little hell-hole. Maybe two. But an army? Never.
After few agreements we left the area, traveling back to the passage. The oni, with a few dozen of trolls as escort, walked us back to the passage, which was established as the new border.
And once again we were attacked multiple times. During the whole campaign, from more than a thousand soldiers, we lost around 150, where half of them died during fighting with the greenskins, and other half during crossing the dangerous land.
Damn, living there was pretty much a death sentence. This is why I kept feeling uneasy about it. I simply didn’t want to believe they agreed to being cast away.
When we reached the passage, the first thing I noticed was a huge stone gate with ballista towers, pointed in our direction. Dwarfish job. I looked confused at Vakkira.
- “Did You really think we were helping them building this whole town out of our own good will?” she whispered to me quiet enough for the chieftain not to hear our conversation. “We sent messengers to few nearest cities with the order to rise it. Still, transporting the stone and the workers, then setting the garrison took some time. So we established somewhat friendly bonds with the greenskin and taught them a lot so they could survive. In the meantime this little beauty was being built here.”
… Damn. DAMN IT WOMAN! Couldn’t you tell me that earlier!? I was panicking like I was mad! DAMN IT! I focused my attention on the warchief so much, that I forgot that the game of thinking two steps ahead could be played by more than one party! Clever little girl!
The oni wasn’t pleased seeing it. Of course that they did agree on setting a garrison in the passage, but he clearly didn’t expect that!
Some more polite words were said, and an agreement was signed, that once every month, the two parties would meet here, in order to negotiate the future of bonds between the dwarfish clans and… the horde.
We said our farewells and headed behind the gate, which shut itself as soon as we crossed the border.
- “… So? This is it? The end? To be honest this is not how I imagined the war.” Gisele admitted.
- “Neither did I.” the queen nodded her head. “I was prepared for far more bloodshed. It was but luck that this oni wanted to outsmart us. He wanted us to play his set of game, yet he forgot that chess he found were made by dwarfs. Still, Zariel.” She turned back to me. “I want to thank you. Your actions made it possible. You were the one who found the camp, helped us on the battlefield and lead negotiation is such a manner that this outcome was possible.”
- “So, I will be rewarded?” I not asked nor clarified rising my brow.
- “On the other hand you balanced on the edge of our hostility and goodwill by taking our troops without permission and set dozen of inside fight in my own camp, especially with the Ironblood, which gave me headache.”
- “… So, I will be punished?” I asked again.
- “But it’s a joyful day, when the conflict ended with very few casualties. So, for now, let’s head back and rejoice. Then, we will gladly call the two of you to be the friend of every dwarf living in these Mountains.”
- “I think I can agree on that…” yet after I made few steps, that little needle in my heart answered again. “… I will catch up with you.”
I said, turning my face back to old greenskin camp.
- “Something wrong?” Gisele asked.
- “I just want to be sure. I told you, go first. I should catch up with you before the dusk.”
I started running, when I was far enough I morphed my body, growing wings and flew to the old negotiation point and beyond.
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Reaching tunnels took me about two hours. I landed quickly with full speed which made me roll over my shoulder to reduce impact of collision with the ground.
The tunnels. These bloody tunnels they were working on didn’t let me rest. I checked them once again. And again I found nothing suspicious. But the lack of suspiciousness was the most suspicious!
Just in case, I kneeled near the deepest part of it, and chanting quietly I set up fire rune-trap. Then, I took step back and set another one chaining it with precious one. Within a few hours I turned the whole place in one huge minefield. Stepping on one would trigger all, changing the whole place into a raging inferno.
When my job was done, I turned around and left same way I came.
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- “Stupid dwarfs.” the oni grinned as he reached back his new home. They lied a few times, they knew this place perfectly. The system of the tunnels they have been building for the past few months lead from this place to their last camp.
They barely made it, if not for the negotiations that took those few sweet hours, they couldn’t cover the entrances. Now, with barely any effort they could use it to regroup their forces back in the Red Mountains.
They would wait a few days, maybe a few weeks – till their forces would shatter and return to the other cities. From their previous raids, they learned the whereabouts of the other cities. When time would come, they could attack all these places in the same time, crushing the clueless dwarfs.
They returned to the village before dawn, mostly because they travelled in a smaller group and previously, they lead dwarfs through a longer path to eventually slow the future advances of their army.
- “Tah’vu, I presume the preparations are finished?” He asked the troll of the day watch.
- “Yes, my lord. I sent few people to uncover the tunnels. Starting from tomorrow, we should be able to relocate our forces.”
- “Good, as soon as they would be back, I want the report.”
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I landed between the rocks about kilometer away from the main forces. I didn’t want too many people to know about my abilities. Well, I am sure that as soon as the goat riders would get drunk, they would talk about it to everyone near them. I only hoped that these would be treated only as the exaggeration of drunk veterans.
It took me about twenty more minutes to meet again with the traveling commanders.
- “And? You found something suspicious?” Gis teased me.
- “Oh, I wasn’t looking. Vakkira, would ya be so kind and tell your people not to come close to the old ogre’s camp?”
- “Why?”
- “Becau…”
In that moment. And explosion could be heard. Then two more, then four, and eight. Come on! They didn’t even wait a day!
- “Good news. The place is safe again. Ignore my previous remark.”
- “The hell!? Zariel!? What did you do!?”
- “I have two more news! Good one: you will be safe. For now.”
- “And bad one?”
- “Oh, there is no bad one.”
- “But you said…”
- “I said I have two news, not that one is good and second bad, I merely used that fact that…”
- “ZARIEL! FOR FUCK SAKE!”
- “Ok, ok! So, I was right and you were wrong. I will dance my dance of victory in a minute. Apparently tunnels weren’t dead ends at all. The whole negotiations were nothing but a game to fool us, and what they were really working on was a chain of tunnels that would allow them to attack us as we would be sure that they are locked in the valley. But I set a trap there. Or two. Ok, ok maybe a few dozen. This is why we can see our second sunset today.”
I said pointing with my head at the red afterglow on the west.
- “If that didn’t collapse the tunnels, then nothing will.”
I just smiled widely ignoring the notification of killing a few dozen trolls.
For the last time, I turned my gaze to Gisele.
- “Don’t you dare to say a word!” she threatened me with a finger.
- “Why don’t you trust them Zari? They seem to be nice people, Zari!” I mocked her.
- “SILENCE, I SAID!”
- “Why do you always thing that everyone always have hidden intention, Zari?”
- “GOD DAMN IT! ONE MORE WORD AND I WILL KILL YOU” she was blushing.
- “Are you sure? How about your ogre-boy? They are so trustworthy that maybe you will reconsider marrying him?”
- “THAT’S IT!” she really started chasing. Well, I was exhausted from my little journey back and forth, so she eventually caught me. Then she hit me a few times, painfully.
Still, it was all worth it.