It was a beautiful and bright spring morning; a gentle breeze caressed the forest as the nearby trees swayed quietly against the wind. Their leaves rustled gently together, giving off a soothing sound as nearby birds chirped from deep within the forest while off in the distant skyline, plumes of volcanic ash rose high above the clouds as the encampment began to liven up after the morning feast was over and done with. The men, assigned to whichever tasks it was that they must do for the day, went about their duties while the few women that had found themselves attached to the expedition did what they could. Some went to the nearby lake to gather water or to wash the clothing while others were led by a few armored soldiers, helping the professional arms men with whatever task they had been assigned.

Lady Iskra, on the other hand, barged out of her tent with a disgruntled huff of air. Beads of sweat dripped off of her short, cropped raven black hair and down onto her simple and slightly dirtied green linen shirt. The fabric was loose against her growing frame; pools of sweat collected themselves around her neckline and trailed down her already impressive but still growing bosom.

Sylvia, her much older and meekly willed handmaiden, followed closely behind as she made sure not to have the tent fabric slap loudly against the wooden pole of her madams’ tent. A growing look of concern slowly crept up on her face as she watched the banished girl began to stew in her own misery.

Following the expedition’s initial penetration into the mysterious duchy of Voldigrov three weeks had since passed once they had settled into their new home. There was no official name for the encampment as of yet, but a popular nickname for the site had been dubbed merely as “Ruined Home.” This wasn’t because the expedition had found the remains of an older camp deep within the forest, nor was it the site of an abandoned fortress next to the cascading waterfall that fed the nearby lake with its crystal clear waters.

It was because upon nearing the site, the awestruck peasantry stood stupefied at the sight of a ruined mountain. One half had looked to have been completely sheared off as if someone had taken an executioners ax and cleaved the terrain in two. While the other side had collapsed and shattered itself giving off the impression that massive towers had once stood upon the mountainside but now had fallen into disrepair and only now stood in defiance to the very land that brought ruin upon their rocky hides. Scouts had been sent out and reported that while a fair portion of the mountain had slid off the remainder had collapsed in on itself, creating a gaping chasm into the blackened abyss.

There was talk amongst many of the new residents that the howls of hungry demons could be heard coming from the so-called Abysmal Chasm on nights where the wind seemed to be at its strongest.

This would be all well and good in Iskra’s eyes save for the fact that the area was drenched in a dreadful and exhausting humidity. She wasn’t sure if it had to do with the nearby waterfall that cascaded down the jutted rocks that still stood where the mountain once was or if it was because of the various far off volcanoes that could be seen spewing their black smoke high into the air.

“Everywhere I go…” Iskra mumbled to herself as she stepped into a shallow puddle. “It’s either a choking heat where I’m boiled alive or a bug-infested disaster!”

The young girl kicked away the mud that congealed over her oversized boots as she swatted at the countless bugs that hovered around her head. The boots were from Captain Boris, it was one of her many regrets since arriving in the past month as she now wished to have brought her own pair of well-fitted footwear. The fact that she had to ask the expeditions military leader for his spare pair of boots irked Iskra to no end.

“It’s not all that bad.” Her servant said quietly as she sidestepped the mud that plopped off to the side of her feet as her charge continued to kick off the ball of dirt that congealed on her stained boots.

Sylvia knew that the young girl didn’t mean to fling the balls of mud her way. Yet she never got the impression that the former queen-in-waiting actually cared for the fact if her actions could have hurt her, even if it was a simple but entirely rude gesture whenever the grey-haired woman suggested something or another.

It was the little things in life that the older woman cared for, but she wondered just how much of that could be said for the young maiden that now unceremoniously stomped her heels into the ground.

“Easy for you to say,” Iskra said with a scowl as she looked back at the grey-haired woman. The sun had barely risen past the horizon, and the young girl already had the look of a raging berserker plastered over her usually striking face. “Your husband is out here clanging away on his anvil, and your children are down south, doing whatever it is they do.”

“W-well…” Sylvia tried to think of something that would get the young lady to at least calm herself, but nothing had come to mind at that exact moment.

“Shall we set out and inspect the walls?” The older woman clapped her hands together after a brief pause where she had been stared down by the sweat-drenched girl. “If I remember correctly, you wanted to walk the perimeter with Captain Boris. How about we see how the men are doing?”

Iskra sighed as she turned and walked away from the nervous woman.

“Just make sure that you aren’t asking questions. I don’t want to listen to some unwashed peasant rabble on about the secrets of the very dirt he was born from.”

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“Progress is good.” Sergeant Velek said in a blunt, matter of fact tone as he tilted his head towards a small group of shirtless men that worked to clear out and expand the portion of the trench system.

Rocks, branches and other clumps of debris of various sizes were thrown out or carried off and away from the trench as the filth and mud covered squad of men grunted and called out their displeasure of having to work in the rain-soaked earthworks.

This particular group had just arrived from their morning meal when the two women first came upon them at the encampments’ edge. While Iskra had caught the attention of the sergeant, the peasants had gone straight to work without a single command uttered from the soldier. They had taken off their shirts, rolled up their pant legs and tightened their trousers as they began to dig into the thick mud of the growing trench. Sylvia had blushed and hid her eyes as the men uncovered themselves while the younger girl rolled her eyes at her servants’ reaction.

What was there to be embarrassed about? Most of the men within the expedition either appeared to be underweight or had seen one too many village festivals. In the past, all she had to do was just walk down a random hallway of her former home to catch a glimpse of more than her fair share of well fed and far more attractive men. Her mother had always gone on about how handsome her sons had grown and would often spend an unhealthy amount of time teasing their future wives about how herculean their newly established husbands were.

It was in poor taste to even entertain the notion that these malnourished and unkempt lumps of flesh would be considered as the least bit attractive. Heretical even, if one was to have lived their entire lives around both sexes that had a level of beauty that could only be described as godlike.

In the eyes of Iskra, the peasantry would be described as hideous while the nobility would be hailed as having a divine form of beauty.

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The young girl just shook her head as she pushed the thoughts of her family and friends into the back of her mind while she attempted to pry more words out of the sergeant.

“Have you had any trouble from these people? Any need for discipline or corporal punishment?”

She mimicked the soldiers’ earlier motion as she gestured towards the group as they toiled beneath the humid weather.

“Can’t say any of that’s needed.”

The sergeant shook his head as he crossed his arms with a small cough. His reply was short and to the point, much like the captain that led him and much like the Duke that oversaw his training.

She stuck her hands deep in her leggings pockets as she wondered if all of the soldiers that belonged to House Vesely were similar to Sergeant Velek.

“I haven’t caught wind of any whispers concerning any curious beasts or nearby locals. Have you seen or heard anything that the camp should be aware of?”

Once again the soldier shook his head as he gestured towards the thick copse of trees that shaded the men under his command.

“Can’t say I have. The days tend to go by quickly and without incident and the nights are usually calm. Most of the time you’ll hear nothing but the wind blowing against the leaves, but on occasion, you’ll get to hear a wolfs howl off in the distance.”

She stared at the man with an annoyed look as she listened to another of his brief reply. A strong gust of wind blew through the trees, ruffling the branches and causing several of their leaves to tumble to the ground below.

“I see then. You’ve been very informative today sergeant.” She said with a brief sigh before turning to look at her servant. “If your usual reports are as thrilling as what I’ve just heard then I feel safer in having men like you keeping us all safe.”

She motioned for the older woman to follow her as she stepped aside and walked past the talkative man.

“Make sure your men are well taken care of. Have a good day.”

The sergeant gave out a reply, but the young girl couldn’t quite hear what was said. Whatever it had been, it had left a sour taste in Iskra’s mouth.

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The rest of their morning was similar enough to what they had previously experienced with the first group. Iskra would ask a few questions, and she would get a brief, sometimes rude, reply.

Each time that the two women stopped and spoke with the next group on their list, Iskra’s mood worsened. She would have snapped at the man who oversaw their last stop for the morning if it hadn’t been for Sylvia’s timely intervention and dragged the boiling mad girl away.

“He just wanted to make sure that he kept his eyes on his men. That’s all.” The nervous servant said as she tried her best to soften the younger girls worsening mood.

She had to keep her hand over one of the girl’s shoulders to stop her from kicking at any nearby pedestrians.

“Ha!” She let out in a short retort as she kicked at nothing in particular. “If that was what he was trying to do, then why the fuck did he turn away from me when I stood between him and those people?”

The older woman let out a groan as she tried to think of an answer that would satisfy both of them. Or at the very least, make the slightest amount of sense.

“Maybe the sun was glaring in his eyes?”

Iskra stopped dead in her tracks and caused the servant to stumble as she bumped into her.

“Whatever it is that you’re doing,” The girl said in a venomous tone as she turned around. “You need to stop before you continue to piss me off.”

Sylvia nodded as she watched her charge continue to walk back to her tent.

Maybe today just wasn’t the sort of day to try and see the brighter side of things.

The two of them continued on in silence as they passed by several patrols of soldiers who made an obvious effort to avoid the women, this further exuberated Iskra’s mood as she clenched her fists and kicked at nothing in particular as she mumbled under her breath.

“…Hate…”

She could barely hear it, but Sylvia caught pieces of the girls’ words as she continued to mumble quietly to herself.

“…Useless…”

The older woman made sure to listen carefully as she tried her best in picking out what was being said. She had at first wondered if the words were meant for anyone in particular, but she soon found herself listening to the musings of a disgruntled little girl who felt trapped and surrounded by people that she felt hated and despised her.

She had heard the disgruntled whispers of many people over the fact that they believed Lady Iskra to be responsible for their undeclared exile, but she knew better than to believe that was the case.

It was Captain Boris who had claimed that while it was, in fact, the young lady’s actions that ultimately allowed the decision to be made, it was both the King and their Duke that wished to have the uninhabited duchy be properly explored and mapped without error. This had been a desire of the current King for quite some time, and Duke Radoslav had been planning an expedition very similar to this very one.

Things had been changed of course, especially with the advent of Lady Iskra being banished and the sequence of events that would have led to his expeditions founding had not gone as he had initially planned. The patriarch of their household had worked in secret with the King to ensure that they succeeded in their tasks, even if it meant that only a small portion of their goals was to be met.

She had asked the captain about why the Duke and King had talked in secret about the expedition, but all she had received from the veteran soldier was a shrug.

Sylvia never liked to talk with the military officer about the lands they now occupied, as he always painted a bleak picture over the matter of their fates.

She shook her head and cleared away the thoughts of violence and death.

Maybe she should suggest to the young lady that writing a letter to her mother would do wonders in brightening her mood.

Perhaps it would even help the caretaker with her own set of worries.

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It was shortly after midday when Captain Boris had arrived at Iskra’s personal tent and announced that a group of heavily armored dwarves had arrived and wished to speak with the encampments leader. The young girl had stared at the man with a baffled look as he claimed that their numbers were around ten heavily armored and wielding massive weapons. When she had asked if there was anyone that claimed to be the leader he answered in the affirmative and described a bearded dwarf with expensive looking robes that appeared to belong to a wealthy nobleman or a highly successful merchant.

What was even more startling to Iskra was that the man claimed the dwarf spoke in an accent that would have placed him as living within the city of Porosk, the capital city of the Kingdom of Ranislava.

Iskra thought back to all of the prior moments she had visited the capital. While she had gone there plenty of times as both a daughter to the kingdoms third most powerful family as well as the former betrothed to the crown prince, she never had the opportunity to truly go out and see the city itself. Yet with the way that the captain described the dwarf it sounded as if the dwarf would have been very well known throughout the city.

She would have known if there had been a dwarf or in this case a group of dwarves, living within the capital. She remembered her father excitedly recounting the tale of the time he had met a group of elves when they had visited her former family’s estate. That was nearly two decades ago, and neither the Duchy of Orul nor the kingdom itself had been visited by elves ever since. Save for that moment, she was more than confident that the kingdom hadn’t received a non-human outsider in the past two hundred years.

If the King and his advisors had been caught unaware of the fact that the dwarves had indeed settled within the duchy of Voldigrov that would be one thing, yet she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to it than that.

Curiosity had gotten the better of her, and she ordered the man to allow their entry and have the group meet them within the command tent.

“I don’t know what they want. They won’t speak to anyone else except for the leader.” Captain Boris said in a low whisper as he turned his back against the massive expeditionary tent.

He looked around the area, making sure that the guards he had placed before returning to the young woman’s tent had kept their posts. He nodded to each man as his eyes lingered over their stiff forms.

“Before you enter…”

He paused, unsure of what to say next as he wondered if the dwarves could hear him.

“They aren’t-“

“Enough, Captain.” Iskra interrupted the man as she walked past him.

She failed to push him aside and instead opted to go around the concerned veteran.

To the girl, this was beyond ridiculous as she had heard of only good things about the relationships between human and dwarf. With the way that the Captain sounded so uneasy about the situation, it seemed as if he had opposed their entry from the very beginning.

Whatever it was that gave pause to the usually stubborn man would have to be put on hold.

These were dwarves after all, what harm could come their way if they were to be courteous towards their guests?

“You…” She said as she stopped and turned towards Sylvia. “Stay outside; I’ll call for you if it’s needed.”

The servant bowed her head as Iskra turned and stepped inside.