5. EVACUATION
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Colb awoke with a crash, in a pile of mud and water, surrounded by broken bits of wood. He squinted into the distance, at the sun just starting to rise over some mountains. Hmmm? Sunrise? He thought to himself. The last thing I remember was the tidal wave at sunset. I must have been passed out all night, yes?
As Colb collected his bearings, he heard shouting in a language he didn’t understand… and yet, as he listened harder, he realized he did understand it. “Everyone! This is a state of emergency! There is a meeting with the leaders in the town hall. The town hall! Everybody go to the town hall! Help any dwarves in need on your way there! Leave your belongings behind, and head to the town hall!” yelled a stout dwarf with a long orange beard. As the dwarf shouted these things, he banged two metal pans together loudly.
Colb looked around, feeling dizzy. He was on land, albeit sitting in a few inches of water. There were dwarves all over the place: running around, clearing rubble, and pulling each other out of flooded holes. These creatures were much taller than Colb, each standing at an intimidating 4 to 5 feet in height. Their heads were covered in hair, from their faces to their foreheads and necks. Some had trimmed their manes a bit to make visible the many metal rings attached to their hammer-shaped ears, while others didn’t even bother to cut holes for their eyes to help them see.
Amongst this ocean of hair, Colb saw his three hairless companions, similarly waking up in piles of mud and broken wood. Noticing each other, the goblins huddled up. “Rrghegh… where are we?” Drek muttered, rubbing his head. “I’m still hungry.”
“AaAaaaaahhhh, I recognize this place, although it’s usually not so destroyed,” 27 replied. “We are in the dwarven town of Dalrek, yes we are.”
“Whereami?” Stibs mumbled, pulling out his Yiklar Map of Finding Location. “Hurmph, he’s right,” the old goblin confirmed as his map magically revealed their new position. “I guess that’s what we were aiming for, but how did we get here?”
27 looked around at the dwarves responding to the disaster. “We must’ve ridden that tidal wave from the coralwhale, yes we must have,” he surmised.
“Hmmm, that would explain why the sun is just starting to rise, yes?” Colb added. “We must have been riding the tsunami all night, yes?”
“Rrghegh, that got us to the dwarf town much faster than old goblin rowing boat would have,” Drek jeered.
Stibs rolled his eyes. “Hurmph, well, that’s not a fair comparison, Drek. Although I’ve not seen one before today – er, yesterday – I’ve heard tsunami waves can move upwards of 500 miles per hour. Fortunately, we were in a well-made boat,” Stibs paused to make eye contact with 27, “…built with planks of mapleoak that I specifically chose for their buoyancy. Hurmph – given the force of a wave like that, we must’ve been dragged west for miles. That type of force certainly would’ve knocked us out for the journey, but on the flip side, it also must’ve kept our boat at the top of the wave. Even with the couple of minor cracks, that upwards force must’ve ensured our boat could surf instead of sink.”
“Rrghegh, if boat surfed us all the way to dwarf town… then where did boat go?” Drek mumbled, looking around.
“Amongst the rubble,” Stibs replied. “It probably shattered on impact when the tsunami hit landfall. We’re fortunate that nobody seems too scraped up.”
“Hmmm… so, we did this?” Colb asked with dismay as he surveyed the decimated town. “We destroyed this whole village?”
“Rrghegh, coralwhale did this,” Drek corrected.
“Hurmph! The coralwhale that we summoned,” Stibs retorted.
“Rrghegh… the coralwhale that you summoned with the gunpowder horn that Colb bought from 27,” Drek reminded. “I didn’t hear my name in that sentence. Did you?”
“MMmMmmmm, it is not time to do blaming and complaining, no it is not,” 27 threw in.
“Rrghegh, speaking of complaining – I’m still hungry,” Drek whined. “When are we going to eat something?”
“Hmmm! Don’t you feel bad?” Colb asked. “We decimated this town!”
“Rrghegh… we, coralwhale, Stibs, who cares what destroyed the town. Town is destroyed, that is that. I want to find food and supplies.”
“MMmMmmmm, I agree with Colb. It is not good to have annihilated Dalrek, no it is not,” 27 said. “We should make it up to the dwarves somehow, yes we should.”
“Hurmph, it might damage our mission prospects if we’re very open about what we did here,” Stibs pointed out. “If we tell them we caused the tidal wave, they may seek vengeance. If we don’t, maybe they’ll assume this was a natural occurrence.”
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“MMmMmmmm, that is thing to think about, yes it is,” 27 agreed. “Come to think of it, you’ve reminded me of something I learned in Yiklar University, yes you have. We were warned to be most thoughtful when selling to dwarves, as they follow sort of mob mentality at times, yes they do,” the noble reminisced. “If enough dwarves latch onto the same idea, it can snowball into everybody agreeing with it. That could get very dangerous for us, yes it could. If just a few dwarves realize what we’ve done, and start telling others that they hate us, then the whole society may turn against us in mere moments. Perhaps it would hinder our mission to be truthful.”
The noble goblin sighed. “MMmMmmmm, maybe we can help the dwarves more subtly, then. An act of kindness that won’t incriminate us, but will still give some good to outweigh all the bad? Then, once we’ve redeemed ourselves, we can continue our quest towards Bellra.”
“Hmmm, what do you think these dwarves would like, that we could give them?” Colb inquired. He scanned the carnage around him. “Hmmm, besides rebuilding their town? I’m not sure if the four of us could pull that off.”
“MMmMmmmm, it’s hard to say what we could do for them,” 27 replied. “The eastern dwarven towns are a little bit of a puzzle to me, yes they are. Yiklar sales are low here, as opposed to in the western dwarven towns, even though both sides of Dwarven Republic are of roughly equal wealth. It makes no sense! I mean, had these dwarves simply purchased some Yiklar Beach Sand of Protection and sprinkled it on their shores, the tsunami would not have destroyed Dalrek, no it would not have.”
“Hmmm… had we not summoned the coralwhale in the first place, this town would be fine as well, yes?” Colb reminded.
27 sighed. “MMmMmmmm – I did say not to use too much gunpowder at once while we were back there, yes I did – but it was high-stress situation for all of us. It was mistake. I don’t know.”
“Town hall! Everybody to the town hall! The leaders have declared a state of emergency!” an orange-haired dwarven guard continued to yell.
“Rrghegh… what is that racket?” Drek asked. The roguish goblin stuck a finger in his ear, clearing it out.
“MMmMmmmm, the popular spoken language is Dwarvish in this place, yes it is. Your guess is good as mine as to what that dwarf is saying,” 27 replied. “Colb’s guess, however, will be better than all of ours.”
The wealthy goblin pointed to Colb’s white crystal necklace, which had begun glowing. “You should be able to understand Dwarvish, yes you should, with that Yiklar Amulet of Open Ears around your neck,” he said.
Colb nodded in confirmation. “Hmmm, the dwarf says there’s a meeting in the town call, and that someone declared a state of emergency. Probably due to the tsunami we started, yes?”
“Rrghegh, perfect! So, they’re in panic. This is an excellent opportunity to loot the village,” Drek pitched with glee.
27 gave Drek a look of confusion and horror. “…What? We cannot steal! Stealing is not the Yiklar way!”
“Ah, but it is the Ratter way,” Drek retorted.
“We were just talking about ways to help them, to do something good to make up for the bad deed that we’ve done, yes we were,” 27 cried out. “How can you talk of stealing from them?”
“Rrghegh, I’m hungry, and there’s free stuff everywhere. Either give me some seagullfish, or be quiet while I liberate supplies from this town,” Drek replied.
The goblins all looked at 27 for an answer. “MMmMmmmm… Colb had just handed me the seagullfish rations when the coralwhale appeared. They weren’t properly stowed when we all passed out, so… they’ve been lost to the sea. We still have those toadroaches that Stibs put in the Yiklar Folding Cabin, though-”
Before 27 could complete his sentence, Drek proceeded to duck out of the group huddle, and sprint off towards the nearest destroyed building.
“Wha-Drek! Come back!” 27 shouted, which Drek ignored.
“Free stuff, free stuff!” the young goblin chanted as he disappeared beyond some ruined buildings.
“MMmMmmmm, okay, new plan,” 27 announced, placing a hand over his forehead in exasperation.
“Stibs, go find Drek and stop him from stealing. We don’t need to harm these dwarves more than we already have. Colb, let’s you and I go to the town hall together. You can translate whatever they’re saying for me, and maybe we can figure out a subtle way to redeem ourselves before we continue our journey. Sound good?” Stibs and Colb nodded in agreement.
While the eyepatched goblin ran off to catch Drek, Colb and 27 followed the dwarven crowd to a pool of water in the center of town.
“Alright everyone, it seems the town hall was flooded. I guess we shouldn’t have built it in a hole so close to the sea,” a dwarf announced to the audience. This announcer stood with a group of five other dwarves. All six of them were wearing particularly shiny, goldatinum-colored armor.
The announcer’s words were observed by a crowd of hundreds. “Nevertheless, I’m glad to have gathered so many of you here,” the dwarf continued. “Our scouts determined that a coralwhale thrashed about somewhere in the sea last night. This has resulted in a series of tsunami waves, which will continue for the next few days.”
This started a murmur amongst the crowd, which included a few exasperated sighs and cries of how cruel and unfair life could be.
“Hmmm, I feel quite guilty, yes?” Colb whispered to 27.
“MMmMmmmm, me as well,” 27 replied. “What’s the announcer saying?”
“Hmmm, it sounds like Stibs was right, yes?” Colb replied. “They know about the coralwhale, but as far as I can tell, they seem to think it just naturally thrashed about last night.”
“As per emergency guidelines, we will be evacuating to Bellra for a week,” the announcer continued. “After that, if our scouts report the waves have ceased, then we will return to rebuild our village.”
“Bellra? That’s where the Yiklar Spear of Irreversible Death is,” 27 muttered as Colb whispered the translations to him.
“Yes, Lightbuckle?” the announcer said, pointing out a raised hand in the audience.
“What of my family in Powall? Have they been hit as well?” Lightbuckle called out.
“Yes,” the announcer replied, “our scouts believe that Powall has also been flooded, but not as badly as us. As per the emergency guidelines, all dwarves in Powall will be evacuating to Forgar, similar to how we will all be going to Bellra. You can reconnect with your family next week, once we’ve all returned to rebuild.” Another murmur started, and some more dwarves raised their hands.
“MMmMmmmm, this is bad,” 27 whined as Colb translated the announcer’s words to Goblish. “We hurt the town of Powall, too? I know this is our fault, but if only these dwarves had magically protected their shores, it wouldn’t have mattered!”
“Hmmm, maybe that’s how we can subtly redeem ourselves?” Colb pitched. “Offer them some of that sand you spoke about.”
“AaAaaaaahhhh, that is good idea, Colb! I mean, I can’t just give it to them, no I cannot, as my bag requires that I make a sale to summon an item… but, perhaps we could pull off that loophole again? I could offer to pay you for the service of protecting this good town, then you could turn around and purchase the Yiklar Beach Sand of Protection from me with my own money?”