Trek For Survival

"I don"t like how they stare," whispered Carla, holding tightly to Tom"s arm.

"Don"t worry, dear," he chuckled, patting her arm tenderly. "They"ve probably never seen so many humans before. I know that if I could see a dwarf, I would want to stare."

"Oh, you!" she said, a little calmer at the thought she was representing all humans for these dwarves.

Gia couldn"t help but feel anxious as she walked. Mikey was so excited he was practically bouncing with each step. Her muscles were wound tight, to grab him if he darted off. Vonn wrapped his large hands around her shoulders as they walked, and ma.s.saged the tense knots he found.

"It"s going to be fine, you know," he said softly to her.

"It"s hard to walk with you holding me like that," she said, not meaning to be rude, but feeling incredibly self-conscious with him touching her.

His chuckle as he dropped his hands to his sides relieved her moment of panic, and she suddenly missed the weight and warmth of his hands. Pride kept her from asking him to return them.

Mikey paused suddenly, spying something ahead, and Gia had to stop herself from grabbing his arm. Some dwarven children were watching them from the side of the street, as they went by. Judging from their clothes it was a little boy and a little girl. Both of them already had little beards, and watched in excitement as they walked by.

"Wow," said Mikey once they had turned around a corner and the kids were out of sight. "I never thought the kids would have beards, too!"

"They"re not human, Mikey. Different races have different looks. Dwarves have beards," laughed Vonn, rubbing Mikey"s head. "They probably think we"re ugly without our beards."

Coming up on a series of forges, the heat that radiated out from it blasted them, causing sweat to immediately pop up on their faces. The dwarven guard that was escorting them paused as they saw a dwarf intently pounding a piece of metal with his hammer. He had a young boy dwarf between his arms, helping him hit the metal with his own tiny hammer. The look of intense concentration on the child"s face had them all entranced.

"Is it there yet?" asked the dwarf, pausing with his hammer to the side.

"Nope, a couple more blows!" declared the child with a very serious look.

"A"right," the dwarf said, hitting the metal with his hammer a couple more times. Each time his hammer hit, the boy"s hammer would hit.

"There!" exclaimed the boy with a wide grin. "We"re all done!"

"Good, b"cause it looks like the humans are here," said the dwarf, setting his hammer down and picking up a crown set off to the side and putting it back on his head.

They all stared in shock, that this dwarf working in the forge, wearing unadorned brown clothes, and covered in sweat and soot, was the king!

"You"re the king?!" exclaimed Mikey.

Gia winced and glanced at the king.

"Aye, I am. Ye must be the humans who came from the mushrooms?" said the dwarf, taking off his stained and dirty shirt, and tossing it to a dwarf who was waiting off to the side to take it.

As he turned to grab a clean shirt, they all had a perfect view of a rather scandalous tattoo on the dwarf"s upper arm. Gia quickly averted her eyes, making eye contact with her mom, who had also averted her eyes.

"Who drew all over your arm? Are you mad at them for that?" asked Mikey, pointing to the dwarf"s arm.

"Eh? Oh," he chuckled, pulling on the clean shirt. "That"s a bit o" fun from me single days. Me wife would have it be gone, at least until she"s drunk enough!"
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The dwarven boy had put his little hammer into a cabinet and arrived at the king"s side. "Da, do I have to go? I want to play more!"

"No, I have things t" do. Go find your ma," he said, waving at the boy with the same thick red hair as himself.

The boy stomped his foot, glaring at them as if it were their fault, then stormed off.

"Thank you very much for letting us into your kingdom," said Tom, bowing slightly in the direction of the dwarven king.

"Blind, eh? I"d heard it, but didn"t believe it till now. How did the lot o" you get into the mushroom forest? Ye don"t even look like adventurers."

"Well, we were running from an army," started Mikey, all too willing to tell the king the story.

"Mikey," snapped Gia, grabbing his arm. "We talked about letting the adults talk. Remember?"

He pouted. "Okay."

"Let the lad speak. I want to hear about this army," said the king, eyeing Mikey.

"We had to get up in the middle of the night, to get out of the city, because the army was comin" to kill everyone! We just barely managed to escape. We ran into the woods, and some of the soldiers followed us. We kept going, even when the sun came up, and it was sooooo cold!

"I got to ride on Gia"s back while mom and dad rode in the back of Vonn"s cart, because dad is blind and mom"s legs were hurt. They"re all better now."

Gia glanced at Vonn, worried that Mikey"s prattling was going to annoy the king, but he seemed to be listening intently to everything Mikey said.

"When we finally stopped to get some sleep, this tree woke us and told us to get a move on, cause those soldiers were getting close! Then, we were hiding behind a different tree, when this little mushroom guy told us to go down into this pa.s.sage that opened on the side of another tree, taking us right into the mushroom forest.

"Then, this giant mountain with mushrooms on its back rose up and it was the mushroom king! He told Truffle, his son, to take us through the forest to here. We met a girl who had mushrooms growing on her, "cause she got spored, but we got out before we got spored. I lost my bag and shirt, though. They got spored. Do all dwarves have beards?"

The king had been stroking his beard as he listened, and broke out laughing at Mikey"s question.

"Aye, lad. We"re all but born with "em. Who do ye think was behind the army?" he asked, turning to Vonn.

"I"m not sure, Your Majesty. I was out in the woods, cutting wood, when I came across these guys talking about how quickly the city would fall, and that they would kill everyone in the outer city before sieging the inner city," explained Vonn.

"But they were humans?" asked the king.

"Yes, the soldiers were all human."

"Then nothing I need to worry about. Strange that the mushroom folk would be willin" to help ye, but again, none of my business. I"ve enough troubles on me hands t" have to deal with ye lot, too. Ye can stay in th" inn another night, but I"ll not be payin" for such things as new clothes an all that. Work out a deal with the innkeep and be leavin" quick. We don"t have needs for beggars in my city."

Gia was shocked. This dwarf was so rude! Tom"s face was rigid as he turned away, all but dragging Carla with him. Vonn grabbed Mikey"s arm before the boy could say anything, and dragged him along as they all headed back towards the inn. No one said a word the entire walk back, but it was obvious they were all livid. Gia couldn"t understand why the king would be so rude. She kept running everything that had happened over and over in her head, but it didn"t make any sense! He seemed intent on being done with them as fast as possible, so he could deal with other things.

Once they were back in their rooms, with food on the table waiting for their return, they all sat in silence.

"He seemed worried about something," said Mikey, picking up his spoon to eat the soup.

"What do you mean?" asked Tom.

"He kept pulling on his beard, kind of like our neighbor Mr. Anders used to, when he worried about his daughter late at night.

"I think it was just because he was listening to your story very carefully," said Carla, picking up her spoon as well, and poking at the soup. It smelled lovely, and had thick chunks of potato, or some white vegetable.

"No, Mr. Anders would tug on his beard when he was listening, but the way the king was running his hand along the beard, like he was trying to make it straight, is exactly like Mr. Anders did when he was waiting for Sally to get home. I think the king was worried about something."

"Well, he may have been worried about something. He is the king, after all," said Tom, reaching for his spoon.

"I think I"ll go talk to Bob after lunch, to see if there"s any jobs I can do, to pay him back for the clothes and other things the king won"t pay for," said Vonn, taking a small sip of the hot soup.

"I"ll go with you, in case I can help," said Gia. She might be able to wash dishes or something.