It was only a few hours after that uneventful morning. Once on the trail I had no clue where it went, but if there’s a trail then there must be some sort of civilization smarter than a goblins out here.

Henry was exhausted over the last few days, and he found out that spamming a bunch of magic spells in a short amount of time really makes you sleepy. Thinking he is probably in the clear from the goblins, he found a nice tree near the road to doze off for a bit.

The sound of horse hooves hitting the ground woke Henry out of his sleep, the horses carrying a wagon stopped, the small man sitting upfront observed the out of place human for a short while.

“Hey! Ye dead over there!?” The dwarf stood up and squinted to get a better look, the dwarf himself had a large red beard, pale skin, and a baldhead. He was only in his mid-twenties but he looked about 40.

Happy that he found someone that does not want to kill him. Henry stood and waved at the curious dwarf. “Yeah I’m alright, wouldn’t mind some help though.”

“Well it wouldn’t be in me nature to leave someone in need. My name’s Strom Wildsteel, I’m a merchant and delivering an order of apples to a dwarf city nearby.”

“Sure if you don’t mind that I hitch a ride there, I can help out with the wildlife if we get attacked I guess. Once we get to this dwarf town maybe I can work something out to get back to my town.”

“Oh that isn’t happening.”

“Why not?”

“This dwarf city I’m talking about is Drak Vard, they have a strict dwarf only rule, they won’t even allow gnomes in. You’ll have to wait outside, if you want I can take you to a town a few days north, it’s mostly elves there but they got humans and other stuff there that’s allowed to enter.”

“Is there another way southeast toward Brine?”

“Not unless you want to be soup for the goblins there, too many of them to clear, darn shame the humans or dwarves don’t take care of it.”

It wasn’t really the answer Henry wanted to hear but he knew it wasn’t going to be that easy to get back, the alternative according to the maps would be several months long journey, and it wouldn’t necessarily be safe, since most of it is unexplored territory, well for Alvin people like myself. The best course of action would probably follow this dwarf around until we get to the elf village, then I can ask around to see if someone knows any hidden trails one can use to bypass the goblin horde.

The wagon occupied by the now two men went down the trail relatively undisturbed. Every once in awhile he saw bushes move nearby, and sounds of twigs breaking, but whatever it was obviously was not confident in confronting us. Strom looked quite uncomfortable during the trip, he kept staring blankly off in the distance and would just make horrible stomach noises.

“You hungry or something man?”

“Aye…but nothing seems to fill me. I eat this jerky I got, apples, but it seems to do nothing. It just tastes like mush in my mouth. This flu or whatever I got is just awful, my skin is getting pale too!”

“Oh…”

“I know what you’re thinking; I’m going to get you sick too! Well I hope not, I was around people the last few days before I met you and nothing happened. I think I know who did this though, a damn man in a cloak covering his face, he gave me this damn shiny gold coin that puffed like magic when I took it, all I had to do was agree to join his house whatever the hell that meant. I got mad shouting at him but he just ignored me while he took off into the forest, real son of a bitch that one. I was a little hesitant to pick you up but I can’t let one bad thing mess me up when I meet anyone new out in the forest.”

“Strange you say that. I was given a gold coin from someone in the forest, it doesn’t seem like the same guy. Same stuff with the house thing, he called himself a God though, but I got some nifty wind spells from it, and I’m definitely much stronger.”

“What the hell!? I just got this stupid sickness from it, and you out here controlling the weather. Just my luck hahaha! Well there’s the city entrance up ahead, you should stay put around here, I got some camping supplies in the back, go ahead and borrow it until I come back tomorrow, you should be alright out here, it’s relatively safe within the mile of the gate.”

“Alright, thanks a lot Strom, really are a life saver, I’ll have to repay you when I can.”

“It’s fine, I try and do good things to build up some good karma, the Gods have something cooking for me, so I’m trying to be on their good side.” The dwarf winked at the man and set off to Drak Vard.

Things were safe the five days I stayed there, the problem was it was four days too long. Strom definitely wasn’t going to come back.

Taking matters into his own hands Henry decided to go to the city, what’s the worst they would do just say no? He doubted that the dwarf would just go off his word and leave him out there, also leaving a bunch of equipment with him seemed like something someone wouldn’t do if they were trying to ditch him.

The trail started to gain an incline heading up the mountain, within view a large gate attached to the mountain was open, it was wide enough to have several wagons enter at a time and 50 feet high. As Henry got close, he noticed something was off.

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

No one was here.

For a dwarf society that closed off relations with other races, they sure seemed open. The gate was wide open and not a soul was in sight, except a dark entrance. Henry stood outside for a few hours contemplating the outcome of leaving and surviving on his own in the untamed wilderness, or going into the shady dwarf city. He choose the latter.

With a torch that was part of the supplies Strom gave him, I went down the deep tunnel; it was dark at first, as the torches on the walls weren’t lit in quite sometime. Leaving the tunnel a view of a town was off in the distance down a slope, everything was lit up by fire blazes on top of some buildings that never go out, it was a wide flat area filled with stone houses. It was surprising how numerous it was because from the outside it seemed like a ghost town, which with further investigation most recently became.

Henry walked the streets of what seemed to be a market place, there was papers on the ground, food carts destroyed, and most of all…lots of blood.

There was obviously some sort of massacre here but there is no bodies in sight, it seemed like there was a monster attack. One that eats everything, and leaves nothing behind…

The champion became a bit nauseous seeing all the blood and imagined the bloodbath that these monsters caused. He continued to walk down the streets looking for any signs of life.

“Hello! Anyone out there! I’m friendly I won’t hurt you! I just want to talk!” phrases he would say over the next ten minutes.

As much as Henry appears to be a lone wolf mercenary, he’s always been far from it. He constantly goes out of his way to help out those in need, but usually isn’t credit with anything if he does do something. Some would say he was even too passive, even in a horrible situation he would have a nonchalant attitude, which is probably why people don’t take him very serious or find him dependable in dire situations.

He was going to do a few last calls before looting some homes for supplies for his next journey when he heard something quite disturbing.

*footsteps getting louder and louder*

Henry’s instincts causing his feet to move on his own, he went inside a building and closed the door, moving a dresser behind the door, then moving up stairs on the flat roof peering over the ledge but staying hidden.

In the distance, he saw a herd of dwarfs running after what appears to be just a few dwarves. After a closer look, it was three males and a female running for their lives. Behind them was possibly a thousand zombie dwarves chasing them.

*RAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHH*

“Oh fuck” after that deafening shout they gave this was something the human thought maybe he shouldn’t give a helping hand, I mean I’ll totally give out help to someone that doesn’t have a full Army of the dead chasing them. He felt bad for those guys running but what could he do? So he just laid on his back and waited out until they passed, then he would sneak out.

Well that was the plan anyways. These assholes decided to enter the building right across from me.

The dwarves were on the roof of the building across from him, the building mirrored the one he was in. They apparently blocked off the entrance to the top floor quite well, it doesn’t seem they will be able to break through it.

*Sigh* not that Henry wanted them to die, but if they were taken care of by these zombies then they would have probably moved on by now. He didn’t want to be roped in with these guys so he crawled through the stairs so the dwarves across didn’t see him. Last thing he needed was one of them to shout out at him and cause these zombies to focus on him. He’ll just have to wait until they actually break through their barrier, there’s no winning here.

18 days later.

A few droplets of water from Strom’s canteen that he gave him touched his lips, it was half way empty now, dehydrated and weak he glared outside the window at the zombie apocalypse. He ran out of food completely now, he would be good for maybe a week. The dwarves across from him weren’t so lucky, it appeared they had nothing from the start. After five days they killed one of the males, and ate him, not long after that they killed the female and ate her. Now there’s just two male dwarves staring at each other over the last week.

A large bang happened which woke me up, it seems the zombies finally broke through the barrier to their house, and they were flooding the rooftop of the last two living dwarves of Drak Vard. Henry went back up to the roof where he was laying low staying out of sight, but he was close enough to hear speaking, it wasn’t zombie talk either.

“That the last of them Strom?” a screechy voice from a man that had a bad hunch, he had some strange clothes, like he was some sort of forest person. He had face paint, leafs as clothes, and a crazy unnatural smile.

“Yes master.” A monotone voice replied. It was a voice that Henry recognized, it was Strom. He looked the same but he was a bit paler and he had dry blood all over his chin. It was at this moment that Strom started sniffing the air.

“Master. I smell a human nearby.”

“Oh really. Hahaha! Might as well grab one up, we’re making great progress over this last month, I’m ranked number 5 right now, I’d love to pass up that pompous Athen…ahhhhhh…”

Henry threw his spear from his rooftop gliding straight through that man’s chest, his body went lifeless as he dropped to the floor, soon after his body puffed away and turned into a purple crystal which shot up, it phased through the rock without even making a hole.

It was a risky move on Henry’s part, there was a tale from a long time ago saying if you killed the necromancer controlling the dead it would kill all of them. Unfortunately that myth ended up not being true or that guy wasn’t a necromancer. As all it caused was the zombies to wander off in all directions. They no longer had anyone in control so they were feral now. Strom on the other hand no longer had pale skin but a healthy tan, his clouded eyes gained color and he seemed to regain control.

“The hell happened?”

After saying that he was jumped by a dozen feral zombies chewing him limb to limb, it was quite disgusting to witness as his intestines were being thrown in the air as he screamed.

“What a fucking nightmare…” Henry muttered to himself. He would have to wait awhile longer to try and make an escape. The streets were still just full of these zombies. Once you attract one they will all swarm, and with his current condition, he won’t be able to outrun them.

4 days later.

At this point he just decided he’ll just die here, his legs were too weak to move as he laid on his back on the roof, staring at the rock ceiling illuminated by the light from the magically produced flames of the bonfires. He was in and out of consciousness as he had a hard time having the energy to keep his eyes open, his mouth was dry and he knew he didn’t have much longer left. At that moment, on day 22 of stuck on this roof he heard the noises of arrows flying through the air and men yelling.

“Fire! Spearmen get ready for the 10 coming up the rear, archers’ fire at will in the back ranks!” A man shouted on a horse as a 100 human unit slaughtered zombies in efficient manner. They cleared the streets and when they reached near his building, Henry built up enough energy to shout out.

“I’m up here damnit!”

Not long after the door to his building was kicked in. Some men in mail armor and a blue tabard picked him up. They brought him outside and was placed on a back of a horse carriage, with the God himself, Aeolus.