My Castle, My Castellan - Chapter 22 - Dwarves, Ten Questions! (II)
"The guest far away is a wanderer, he"s been insisting to live far away from the bustling city, he"s granted the rights to operate machines; he"s got kins with a big beard, a servant with a big head, and his companions always offer him a.s.sistance. Who can tell the running wind, whether the underground lava has a beating heart?"
"City lord, everyone, I start to understand this question. Kins with a big beard mean the dwarves here, and servants with a big head mean the gnomes, right?" Bruce managed to answer it first, it seemed that he started to show his knowledge starting from the 5th one.
"Yes, I suppose so." Percy nodded, and he looked very calm. In fact, everyone knew what the sentences meant except McQueen.
Bruce said with confidence, "dwarves and gnomes are close relatives, they both like to live underground. The gnomes have been living with the dwarves all along, then they started to get tired of the underground life, and they started to be closer with the elves. These two races are an indispensable part in the history of dwarves. Also, they"ve learnt a lot of mechanical knowledge from the midgets. As far as I know, the gnomes learnt how to make artillery, and the dwarves learnt how to make airships from the midgets."
"And so?" McQueen asked with interest, as he was curious about the all the races of the world. Humans like to explore about the species of the outer world, and so did McQueen. For him, everything on the Pifa Continent, aside human beings, were all species from the outer s.p.a.ce.
"The running wind…obviously, it means the dwarves here. It"s because they like to call themselves birds on the ground, as if they"re running wind. As for underground lava, it has to be the dwarves. They like to make all kinds of things with ore, and they like to live near fire. This question originated from the dwarves, as they want to know why the midgets had abandoned them." Bruce said with full confidence, he knew a lot about the Pifa continent, and he knew a bit of everything of all the races.
"The midgets abandoned the dwarves, what? What about gnomes? Why didn"t they ask the gnomes? They turned to the elves and that"s betrayal too, no?"
Bruce looked at everyone with a big question mark on their face. He felt good and sighed with relief, "this is a long history. I have to begin with the disaster that happened many, many years ago. It"s just that its details have been forgotten in history. When I was young, I traveled through a monument and happened to see a broken record of history. It turned out that when the gnome was attacked by the Burning Legion, it was the dwarves who opened the underground gate personally, which almost led to the extinction of the dwarves. Such kind of resentment is impossible to be resolved! Not even after a thousand years or 10,000 years! And that"s why there are such questions on the stone gate. As for the gnomes, they"re just a race of servants, and they have much less resentment than the dwarves. Of course, the gnomes aren"t questioned."
Disaster, Burning Legion…McQueen now had two more doubts. He thought that when he"d have more time, he had to invite Bruce to explain to him more thoroughly. It"s true when people say that an old person is like a gem in the house, so Bruce was acting like a gem to McQueen now. How nice.
"Then, how do we answer? Should we describe the midgets as nice or evil? And did they do such things intentionally or not?" Will was very excited. There was finally a clearer question for everyone.
"I"d say that the midgets didn"t do so intentionally. After all, it"s a very complex issues involving lots of resentment…I"d suggest to keep guessing according to the temperament of the dwarves." Bank had a honest-looking face, but he"s a rogue, a first-grade a.s.sa.s.sin. Only with such a face, people would not be defensive, and he could kill the enemies easily.
Percy stood firm and argued, "it"s not correct. It"s easier to make enemies than friends. We seem to be flattering the dwarves by gossiping about the midgets, but as far as I know, this question shouldn"t be this simple to solve. Apparently, the person who thought of this question is not so simple-minded."
"How come you"re saying that this question is simple? How could you think of it if Bruce didn"t give us any hints? Obviously, we can do no wrong if we say something bad about the midgets." Bank looked at Percy with despise, and thought to himself, "you weren"t able to solve this after so many days. And you dared to comment that it"s easy?"
Percy looked at him with his eyes widened, his skinny body looked as if he"s going to fall at any moment, "I"m not saying that the question is simple, I"m saying that your answer is simple. See, you aren"t even cleverer than I am. I"m sure your answer is wrong."
"What do you mean by I"m not cleverer than you? Percy, how can you be so shameless? I became a senior warrior a few years earlier, how dared you say that I"m more inferior?" Bank pulled his sleeves and became furious.
"How dared I? Just because I am the battalion commander of the Southern camp, and you are just the deputy battalion commander. So, what do you want? Do you want to fight? The City Lord is here, if you do, you"d be offending him as well. Also, I"m starving and I have no strength, otherwise I"d just hit you to death with my axe." Percy approached to McQueen without a sound, he sounded very arrogant and furious.
Looking at the two people quarrel, McQueen found it funny. He"s not afraid of arguments, as whenever there"re any, he"d have methods to settle them. In his past life, he"d watched so many soap operas with plots like this, and he couldn"t wait to put it into real practice.
Bruce couldn"t take it anymore. He stared at them and said with a low voice, "okay, don"t quarrel anymore. I can see that both of you have no brains. What is there to argue about? The dwarves don"t have any rules mentioning that we could only answer once. If we make a wrong answer, we just have to try again."
"Yes, Percy, Bank, you two are close companions. Why can"t you both discuss calmly? I can perfectly understand that you want to accomplish the mission soon. And you"re both the pillars of the Toss City, you both are willing to sacrifice everything for Toss City. However, please don"t act so impulsively. Even if the sky falls, I"m there. I only need you to think calmly. For this question, I know more or less how to answer. Percy, let us know the next one." McQueen said calmly, he was clearly criticizing both of them, but his tone was still filled with warmth, and they had quickly stopped arguing.
Right, they were both fighting for Toss City, how come they"d start arguing? Fortunately the City Lord was wise enough to point out their mistakes. The two became enthusiastic again and were ready to fight and die for Toss City.
Percy tried to refresh his mind and continued reading the 6th question, "flexible fingers, a mind full of wisdom, digging into the rocky land, blossoming flowers on the ground, smiling and looking beautiful with their roots. The autumn and winter of the migratory birds, the hope of Gnomeregan…what has broken open the heavy darkness and chosen the dim light?"
"Gnomeregan is the main city of the gnomes. The flower of the ground is a symbol of the gnomes. Could this be the story of the gnome?" It seems that under the influence of Bruce, Will became smarter as well, and he"d learnt how to think logically, "Gnomeregan is built on the ground, it can illuminate the underground world, could this be their gas-burning lights? I have seen the wrenches of the tribes with gas lamps on them, illuminating the caves like the daytime."
They"re not gas lamps, but their technology. There was a smile on McQueen"s face. It seems that there is something hidden. These questions seem to have an invisible line connecting them in series. And this sixth question is simply self-bloating - flexible fingers, a mind with wisdom, the dwarves are just too shameless.
"Percy, the next question."
The City Lord seemed to already know the answer…