Chapter 16
Princess Lunansa was sound asleep and she was deep in a wonderful dream, she was running free through a field with her true love, Captain Gharyn Silverstar. Of course her father, the King, did not know this. If he had known he would not approve. But here in her dream she was free, completely free to love, free to roam, just totally, utterly free. She loved it. She was leaning into Captain Silverstar trying to plant a nice, big kiss on him, when…
“Princess, good morning Princess it is time to awaken!” Davkas said as he stood knocking on the Princess’s door in the hallway. “We need to get going Princess. Are you alright?”
As much as she cared for Davkas he was starting to get on her nerves! Well he was right though, for they did need to get started on their journey home. So Princess Lunansa got up from the comfortable bed and made her way to the wash basin where she splashed some water on her face quickly and headed towards the door to her room. She opened the door and gave Davkas a scathing look anyway, but then she smiled and motioned him in.
“Greetings Davkas! So we are off this morn?” Lunansa said casually to Davkas as he entered the room. Davkas looked much better now that he had gotten cleaned up and outfitted with some new clothing. He moved to a chair in the center of the room and sat, while the Princess strolled over to the chest at the foot of the bed she had slept on and opened it. Inside were her meager belongings, plus a new longsword that King Undor had gifted to her, along with some new chainmail, made from a special metal that the King would not divulge, that fir her perfectly. Lunansa was very pleased with her gifts, and she began to pull the chainmail up over her head and into place, then she donned the sword at her side, and placed the rest of her items in a pack and was soon ready to go.
“I’m ready now.” Princess Lunansa said to Davkas as she turned around.
“Good, I believe King Undor is waiting for us. He said he would send someone to escort us soon.” Davkas replied to the Princess. Just then there was another knock on the door, Davkas looked at the Princess and added, “That must be our escort now!”
Davkas got up and went to open the door. On the other side was Argha Flintrock the mind mage who had helped them earlier, standing next to him was Nelas Thunderhammer, the dwarf who had discovered them in the tunnels outside the city.
“Come in please.” Davkas said to them both with a slight bow as he held the door open for them to enter the room.
The mind mage led the way, with Nelas right on his heels. They came in and bowed to Princess Lunansa, Argha spoke first, addressing them both he said, “Greetings to you both. We hope that everything has been satisfactory for your stay here in our fair city?”
“Yes we slept well and the food has been most excellent!” the Princess replied to the mind mage. “We thank you for your hospitality.”
Davkas added, “Also we thank you for the gifts that you gave us. It was very much appreciated!”
The old mind mage and Nelas both smiled and bowed slightly in response to their comments. Then they motioned for them to follow them as they led them to see King Undor. Out the door and down the long corridor they strode, with Davkas and the Princess trailing behind. Soon they came to the double doors leading into the King’s throne room. The guards posted at the doors saluted and then opened the doors so that they could enter.
The throne room was full, with dwarves lining both sides of the room, dwarves all dressed in all manner of attire, from common servants to grandly dressed nobles, and everything in between. But what caught the attention of both Davkas and the Princess the most were the finely arrayed warriors in full battle armor standing at attention and forming a walkway to the throne where King Undor sat.
“Welcome, please join me.” King Undor said to them both as they walked down the walkway towards his throne, with the mind mage and the blacksmith trailing behind them at this point.
When they came to the dais they both stopped and waited for the King to speak again. He looked at them both and smiled, he then he stood up and addressed the Princess first.
“Princess Lunansa Brightwater, we welcome you here to our court and we are sad to see you leave, for you have brought both your charm and your beauty to us here and it will be missed indeed. Yet we understand that you need to be off on your way to your home so that you can be reunited with your father and your people. Rest assured I have sent couriers out with messages to your father to alert them to your whereabouts and well-being. They, with the help of some of my own mages, should have arrived at the gates of your father’s castle by now. So rest assured he is aware of your health and recent escape from the ruthless Dhag’arii.” King Undor declared to the Princess.
The old dwarf’s eyes then shifted to Davkas. “My friend Davkas Moonglade, you too have been welcomed here since your arrival and we are sorry to see you depart so soon. Yet under the circumstances I fully understand. I hope that you too will accept a few gifts before you depart?”
With that he motioned for one of the chamberlains to step forward. He carried a bright and shining set of dwarvish chainmail and a very nice looking sword. The items were presented to Davkas, who stood speechless with his jaw hanging open. He recovered himself and turned towards the King.
“My good King Undor Battledragon”, Davkas began, “I thank you deeply for this gift that you presented to me here this day and I am greatly honored by it and shall wear it proudly.” He finished, for the Princess had cleared her throat loudly and seemed a little perturbed that Davkas had spoken before she did, and yet she smiled over at him and stepped forward.
“Yes King Undor”, she said towards the King of Ironhold, “I am personally grateful for all your help and hospitality these past few days. I am also grateful for the presents that were bestowed upon my own self earlier.” She gestured towards the chainmail shirt and the sword, which now hung on her side. Then she added, “And I thank you that you have sent word ahead to my Father.”
King Undor Battledragon, ruler of Ironhold, bowed slightly towards the Princess and then turned towards Davkas and saluted him. He then addressed Argha Flintrock the old mind mage, “My friend, I understand you wish to accompany the Princess and Davkas on their journey to their homeland? You have my blessings sir, and the aid of two of my best guards, Captain Hammerstone and Sergeant Blackrock.” He motioned for them to step forward, which they both did and the King continued, “Also I understand NelasThunderhammer wishes to travel with you, this too I will allow since he is the very dwarf who brought the Princess and Davkas to us. So I wish you all well on your journey, Princess you are in good hands.”
With that the small party turned to leave the throne room and marched out back through the double doors, out into the hallway and towards the gates of the underground city. There they stopped briefly and both Davkas and the Princess turned to look at the city one last time before they went through the gates.
“Well it will be a long journey home Princess.” Davkas spoke softly to her, knowing that she must be a little apprehensive about this whole ordeal. She turned and smiled at him and nodded, while at the same time gripping the hilt of her new longsword. “Yes” she thought to herself, “it will be a long journey to home.”
With that they went through the gates and began, the two dwarven warriors taking the lead, with Davkas and Nelas in the rear and the mind mage Argha and Princess Lunansa in the middle. They walked many miles that first day with nothing to challenge them along the way. Soon they came to the end of the tunnels and they stepped out of the mountain and into the open world above. The elves immediately felt better than they had for a very long time, while the dwarves shuddered and hunched in on themselves, not being used to the open skies above them. But they pressed on for it was many miles before they came to the great city of Castitrona.
They found a trail and began following it through the woods and fields surrounding the Skag Mountains. Heading almost due east they soon came upon an area where they decided to make camp for the night. Davkas being more skilled in the woods than the dwarves took Nelas with him and headed out looking for firewood for the night, also he had hopes in finding some local game so that they could have a decent meal.
Soon he found what he was looking for, a small animal trail showing signs of rabbits or something similar, so he set some traps and continued onwards in search of fuel for their fire. Davkas and Nelas found plenty and loaded themselves down. They turned to head back to camp when an arrow came zipping by their heads! Both the elf and the dwarf dropped their loads and pulled their weapons in a hurry! They turned towards where the arrow had come from and saw a quartet of goblins heading their way and they didn’t look happy.
Davkas and Nelas stood their ground and met the on rushing goblins with their respective weapons, as far as they were concerned it was an even match, two against one. The goblins came in hard and fast, trying to overpower them both, yet the dwarf and elf proved more agile and danced out of their way, blocking their futile attempts to hit them with their weapons.
One of the goblins, larger than the other three, carried an old ugly looking sword, he squared off against Davkas. One of the other goblins who carried a mace also chose Davkas and the three of them started sparring in earnest. Yet Davkas was an excellent swordsman and he soon had them both scrambling backwards, fighting to stay ahead of his blade. Feinting left and then right, Davkas caused the smaller of the two to stumble, it feel backwards, tumbling to the ground. Davkas moved in quickly and ended its pathetic life by slicing through its jugular vein, its life blood draining there on the forest floor.
Meanwhile, Nelas was engaged with the other two goblins, both of these were armed with swords, one carried the bow that they initially had fired on him and Davkas, yet they too were finding out though that they were over matched.
However, Nelas decided to toy with them for awhile, he would allow them to drive him backwards, feigning that he was under distress, and then reverse the tables and drive both goblins back, he began to take them up a small hillock nearby, the two goblins hacking and slashing, trying to get to the dwarf, then Nelas stumbled over a rock and fell down hard, he began to roll down the small hill and landed with a thump at the bottom. The two goblins rushed down after him. Just as it looked bad for the old dwarf with both goblins looming up before him drawing back to stab at him a shadow closed in on them and a large battle axe came swinging in to block both swords! It was Captain Hammerstone, he and Sergeant Blackrock had heard the battle and Captain Hammerstone had come running, leaving Blackrock back at the camp in case this was a ruse.
The Captain of the dwarven guard pushed both goblins back away from the fallen Nelas. The fear in the goblins eyes was evident, they knew right away that they were in trouble this dwarf was strong and knew how to use his weapon! Soon both were being forced backwards and neither one seemed to want to be there any longer. Soon one of the goblins broke and started running from the fight, leaving the other to its fate. Captain Hammerstone wasted no time in dispatching the lone goblin, it went down in a heap when the battle axe split its skull!
By this time Davkas had dropped both of his opponents, while Nelas took up the chase of the fleeing goblin. Soon it too was down and dying, Nelas using his war hammer with deadly efficiency. All three stopped panting for breath at this point, looking around quickly for any others that they had missed, when none materialized they all quickly made their way back to the camp.
Soon they had arrived back at camp with no other goblins in sight, the members at the camp site though barraged them with questions, which after a moment or two of this, Davkas held up his hand and said, “As far as we can tell this was just an isolated incident and these goblins were merely a roving band looking for an easy victim, they found out the hard way that we are not that easily over come. Thank you Captain Hammerstone for coming to our aide!”
Nelas too added his thanks, and they settled down into the camp site, gathered the firewood again and got their camp fire going, just before nightfall. Soon Davkas had checked the traps he had set out and came back to camp with three fat rabbits, which they wasted no time in skinning and roasting over the fire. So they enjoyed some good food, some laughter at the camp fire, and soon they had set up their watch and were ready to bed down for the night. While high over head, in the light of the three moons, wheeled three shadow serpents, again on the hunt.