“Who’s down there? What do you want with Stone Wing Spire?” Malik shouted down, perhaps a little aggressively in his first attempt at diplomacy.
The rhythmic plinking stopped, “Oh! Uhm. Give me a moment. I’ll go get someone more qualified to talk to ya!” a voice shouted from below.
Malik frowned and impatiently flexed his wings. He felt a little self-conscious, never having spoken to anyone besides Zahid. However, Zahid taught him an important lesson early on, and that was to not place his trust blindly. He would trust the actions of these new visitors before their words.
While he waited, he picked up a smaller rock and sharpened his claws with it. He was tempted to just kick all the rocks he had set up over the edge and save himself from this anxiety.
Finally, another voice echoed up to Malik, “Hello there, my name’s Naveck. We come in peace. With whom am I speaking?”
Malik tossed the rock over his shoulder and crouched over the ledge. He still couldn’t make out the details of what a dwarf looked like, but now he could see the faint outline of one.
“My name is Malik — of Stone Wing Spire,” he quickly added. “What is your purpose here?”
“We were on a mining expedition. There are monsters down here and we had an unfortunate accident. We’re trapped,” Naveck said.
Monsters? Malik thought, “Are the monsters called ‘beetles’?”
There was a pause, “Yes. But they’re enormous. And lots of em.”
Malik didn’t like the news, but pressed the dwarf named Naveck, “You say you come in peace. What assurances do I have?”
“None of us are warriors, sir. Just a bunch of miners and Rune Crafters,” Naveck explained. “We just want to dig up our comrades and go home to our families.”
Family. Malik longed to know the meaning. “If I let you dig, will you help me? There are many beetles up here as well. I also need help building some necessary structures.”
There was another pause, “Well, as I said, we aren’t warriors. But we will help the best we can,” Naveck suddenly let out a chuckle, “As far as building, we can certainly help with that.”
Malik grinned, “What else can you help me with?”
Below, Naveck stifled a groan, “I’m just a simple miner, but some of the Rune Crafters may be able to provide you with glow runes or other simple structural upgrades.”
Malik’s grin grew into a smile, exposing his fangs, “Ok, we have a deal. Is there anything you need right now?”
“A rope, and maybe some food,” Naveck replied hopefully.
“I don’t have a rope, but I have beetles.”
“Uhm,” Naveck coughed, “I think we’ll be alright, thank you,” he shuddered. “Doesn’t have a rope or proper food? What kind of town is this?” Naveck mumbled under his breath.
Malik stepped away from the edge and started to roll the stones back. He didn’t want to accidentally knock one in. Looking around, he wondered what else he could do to spruce up the place. He wanted to make a good impression. Sadly, there was nothing to spruce up. He had a pile of dead beetles and a sad circle of stones with some beast cores.
Speaking of the beast cores, he thought that he should hide them in case any of the dwarves had squirrely fingers. Picking up the shell with the cores, Malik began to pump his wings. He had been looking for an excuse to practice flying again.
The rush of air felt good on his face as he pointed it into the sky, closing his eyes to savor the feeling. He didn’t savor it for long as he felt himself begin to tire, and looked for a spot among the peaks. Much of it was dusted in snow, but he found a nice spot to nestle the shell without risking it blowing away.
He took in the area, mentally mapping it so that he wouldn’t forget where he put it. Hopefully, his map in the Founder’s Log would also mark it. Now that the cores were as safe as they’d get, for now, he wanted to glide while he waited for the dwarves to crawl out of their hole.
The fissure in the ground below looked small from the tops of the peaks. It seemed impossible that someone of Malik’s size could fall through it. With that last thought, he sprung off the mountain with his clawed feet, keeping his wings closed on his back. The free fall was exhilarating. Before getting too close to the ground, Malik spread his wings and arched upward, diverting his trajectory into a flawless glide.
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Landing gracefully after his prolonged descent, he went back to the fissure and activated Camouflage. The dwarf was much closer than before, so he tried his Scout ability dozens of times, failing them all. Finally, just as he was about to give up, it worked for him.
Naveck Runeheart
Race: Dwarf
Level 22 Miner
Clan: Runesmith
Vitality: 34
Strength: 37
Dexterity: 6
Energy: 4
Skills:
Prospecting VI: 35% increased mining speed
Gatherer's Boon II: 10% more resources gathered
Hidden
Hidden
Hidden
Malik was taken aback. The dwarf’s stats were staggering. These were non-combatants? The dwarf could easily kill him. Although, as he added up the numbers, he noticed that the dwarf got less than four points per level, but more than three. It must be that the dwarves only received 3 points per level and obtained the others by different means as Malik did while he performed various tasks.
Malik didn’t know if the dwarves could spot his level or not, but he decided to not divulge his knowledge of theirs. He would need to tread carefully, but confidently. And what were those hidden skills? Is his Scout skill just not refined enough? He would need to ask Zahid.
Once he regained his composure, he interrupted the dwarf’s work, “How much longer?”
“Ehh, couple more hours,” a throaty voice called up.
After a brief wave of impatience, Malik realized that he hadn’t slept in quite some time. Without a care, he lay down in his ruined cave, too close to the fissure, and melted to sleep, dreaming of flying for thousands of miles and hunting anything that looked tasty.
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“Stone Wing Spire? Where are the bloody spires?” a voice startled Malik awake into a sitting position.
The dwarf that had spoken was startled by Malik’s presence in turn and shuffled backward, stepping over the ledge. He swung his arms back, pickaxe flailing. It struck the other side of the top of the fissure, but the clumsy movement wasn’t good enough for the pickaxe to stick into the stone ground.
Malik lunged forward and shot out a clawed hand. Leaning over the ledge, wings flared, he grabbed the dwarf’s collar before he plummeted to his death, wrenching him back to the surface. Once the dwarf’s feet were safely back on the ground, Malik let go, revealing holes from his claws in the short man’s shirt, “So, you’re a dwarf,” he stated.
The dwarf looked back, wide-eyed, “Good gods, thank you for that. Nearly got myself killed for nothin.” he said, trembling slightly. “Malik, I presume?”
“That’s right, and you are Naveck?” It was more of a statement, but Malik was attempting to hide his surprise at how short the dwarf was. It was half as tall as he and nearly twice as wide. Looking down the fissure, he had nothing to scale the dwarf with. Knowing the stats Naveck had, Malik wouldn’t be underestimating the small man.
“Yep,” the dwarf said, holding his pudgy hand forward, gulping a nervous breath of air.
Malik looked at it, unfamiliar with the gesture, but held his out in kind. Naveck gently grabbed Malik’s hand, careful of the sharp claws, and gave it a quick shake before letting go. Malik was surprised at how rough the skin on the pudgy hand felt. At first glance, he would have assumed that it felt soft and meaty, but it was more like a stone gauntlet.
“To answer your question, there are no spires yet. But there will be,” Malik said confidently.
“I believe ya,” Naveck said, eyes still wide as he stared up at Malik’s smooth, curved horns. “So, uh, what are ya exactly?” Naveck said with a cough.
“A Gargoyle, first of my kind,” Malik said, straightening his back and slightly showing off his wings.
Naveck bowed, “My apologies, sir. I didn’t know that I was speaking with a First Child. May your race prosper.”
Malik was confused by his change in demeanor, “No offense taken.”
Naveck smiled, still appearing to be slightly nervous, and fished out a piece of paper with a stick of charcoal from his shirt pocket. One of the Rune Crafters had given it to him to drop a message back down once he made it up top. He started scribbling on the piece of paper, glancing up at Malik from time to time. Malik folded his arms as he waited.
Finally, Naveck had finished his scribblings and blew on the paper, removing some particles of charcoal. Folding it up, he tossed it over the edge, “Let’s hope it doesn’t get stuck. Just letting my friends know it’s safe to come up.”
Malik watched through narrowed eyes, “So, while we wait for your friends, tell me about dwarves,” he said as he sat down cross-legged.
“What part?” Naveck asked with a chuckle.
“From the beginning,” Malik said with a toothy smile.
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