The Dwarf and the Fairie PART II

Vlarn was the only one of his kind in the city but he knew that if any bigots tried him, he would knock them off their feet within seconds, for the fist of the dwarf was a fist of a steel hammer. He gathered the miners and soldiers for the expedition and mounted a horse to give a short speech. "Humans, I am a dwarf. We are miners and warriors of first rate. The mine that we are going to is a two day ride from here and borders the domain from which I had come from. If we reopen this mine, all men get 10% of the spoils and 100 Geulders per man. What do you say?" asked Vlarn. The men cheered, seeing that this venture was not just a fools errand from the King. The soldiers began to chant his name, and Vlarn blushed, having no idea that he was such a solid speaker. "We ride!" he cried out and turned his horse and the army followed him.

Every time the small army set up a night camp, they were beset by wild Orcs and trolls, giant spiders and goblins. Both the miners and soldiers acquitted themselves bravely in wild battle after battle, losing very few men in the process. The humans were from the Fennivir tribe, an ancient race of proud warriors who never quit the battlefield. Vlarn was already familiar with the language of the Fennivir and tried to act as much as one of them as possible. The King, who had commissioned him, was from an ancient bloodline of Fennivir Battle-Kings and very few Kingdoms picked a fight with them as a result, because the Fennivir almost always won. After each battle, the soldiers sang the ancient battle-songs and recited the ancient sagas of their ancestors around the campfires. Vlarn began to admire these hardy people and wondered why their Kingdom seemed so advanced and at first appearance the society seemed almost unwarlike. Definitely not barbarians, they marched in ranks and conducted war in a professional manner, and yet their spirit was one of lifetime warriors and not peasants and shopkeepers. He asked Loars, the Commander of the Guard about this. He turned to the men and spoke; "Men, what are we?" "WE ARE WARRIORS! ORAH!" cried the group. "You see dwarf, everything else is secondary. We train for war daily and the fools that dared to attack us lost their Kingdoms as a result." smiled the Captain grimly.

The army came to the mine on the third day of the trek and saw it was being camped by trolls, a huge army of them. Vlarn turned to Loars. "We'll draw their warriors out a bit, fight them. Then we'll burn the camp and kill the rest of them." said Vlarn. "I have a better plan. MEN! TURTLE!" and the soldiers went into the turtle formation and awaited the order. "WADE INTO THEM! KILL AND DO NOT SPARE!" cried the Captain. The trolls had noticed their arrival and began their wild, disorganized attacks. The Fennivir sliced through the trolls like a hot knife through butter. The troll warriors died all within five minutes and then the soldiers hacked to pieces the rest of the trolls. The men began to clean up the fight scene and tossed the troll bodies into a burn pit while the "loot detail" went into action, looking for gold and silver and stolen items, which they found tons of. "Captains! We found three chests of gold and silver! These trolls were the raiders that had been giving Gwennus problems for so long!" said a soldier. "The warriors of Gwennus have grown soft and fat. We'll keep the loot." said Vlarn. The soldiers laughed out loud and cried, "May you live forever in song and glory!" "Not so fast men, we still have to deal with the black dragon in this mine. I am going in alone. I know of an enchantment that will cause this black dragon to flee this place forever." said Vlarn to Loars. "We'll wait here. We are coming in after a day has passed." said Loars.

Vlarn entered the cave and saw that is was empty short of the piles of skeletons he saw coming in. He felt the heat of the dragon's breath as he drew closer to the dragon. "MaWaug!" he cried in his own language, unpleasantly surprised. The dragon was undead. Undead dragons were almost impossible to kill or enchant.
He quickly exited the mine and explained the situation to Loars. "We need to cave in this mine and seal that thing in here!" said Vlarn. "Undead you say? I suppose we'll need a wizard that specializes in killing undead dragons or a Death Priest but they don't exactly do errands." said Loars. "I know a Wizard, perhaps he will help us." said Vlarn. Vlarn quickly wrote a message and gave it to the keeper of the messenger pigeons. The keeper sent it flying to the Red Tower. The response was swift. A Red and Black clad wizard manifested himself in the camp and marched into the mine. A terrible scream was heard and the Wizard marched out of the mine. "Did you kill it?" asked the dwarf. "I opened a portal and sent it into the twisting nether. It will join legions of other undeads that we have exiled." said the Wizard. "What should we pay you?" asked the dwarf. "Nothing, we don't use coin. We consider it a great privilege to send evil out of the world." said the Wizard. "I did notice that his lair was filled with gold and silver, so your men might want to scoop that up." said the Wizard. The Wizard winked and vanished into the night. "Men, there is gold and silver in the now-empty lair, go and loot to your heart's content!" said Loars to the men. The soldiers rushed into the mine and after they didn't return, the miners became concerned and began to whisper. "Dammnation! The gold and silver was accursed! I should have thought of that!" said the dwarf, kicking himself. Vlarn and Loars ventured down to the treasure chamber and saw that all the warriors had died and were just now rising as undeads. "Get out of here!" said Vlarn to the Commander. Vlarn cast "detect enchantment" and saw an ancient and unholy relic buried in the mountain of gold. He cursed under his breath and left the cave. "We are sealing the mine and heading back." said Vlarn to the miners. The miners nodded and did what they were told. They used some blasting powder to seal the mine. The march back was sorrowful and the dwarf knew that he lost his commission. The party returned and Vlarn explained what happened and explained his decision to seal the mine. "An unholy artifact? You did the right thing although I lost a good portion of my men to undeath. I will give you 1,000 geulders but we shall never speak of this again." said the King. The dwarf took the gold and left the Kingdom and traveled to the mountain-peak city-state of Arranius. The city was ruled by an Elven King and was inhabited by humans, dwarves, elves, lizard-people, Kajhat, and Orcs. There he hoped to make a better impression.

End of Part II

The Dwarf and the Fairy

What takes a Dwarf out of the mountain fasts? Usually he is kicked out by his own Thane. This is what happened to Vlarn Ironbeard when someone accused him falsely of treason. He packed his bag and left his giant home under the mountain and embarked on a journey into the human Kingdoms.

Ishia'Dimist had the same problem, he was thrown out of his "hive" for being the only one to point out that the whole community was being run as an estate for their Queen.

They met by a towering waterfall that reached far up a tall mountain. "Veskeggor" as it was called by the dwarves. They exchanged their tales of woe and decided to travel with each other.

The Forests of the Elder Shire where a nightmare of moving trees, strangling roots and waving branches plus quicksand and fire swamps. A few brave wizards had managed to grow (from a red crystal) a large tower in a clearing and it represented the only civilization in 1,000 miles in any direction. A school of 3,000 Red (Neutral) Wizards lived in the Tower, with the Arch-Wizards living at the top of the tower and maintaining the inner crystal. The fortune pair had spotted the Tower and went there to ask for food and rest.

"Sirs, can we rest here? We will gladly pay off our debt." said the dwarf to one of the Wizards. "We are not in the custom of keeping strangers but this whole forest is dangerous. We'll talk to the Arch-Mages." said Fahare the Wise. The pair waited outside for what seemed like an hour until the wooden door opened. "Come in, the Head Archmage wishes to see you." said Fahare. The three walked to a circle on the ground and the wizard tapped it with his staff and they all were instantly teleported to the top of the tower. "I am Farhare the Wise, Maximum Arch Wizard for our entire Order. I sense you both are heading south. I need something delivered." said the Wizard. The Wizard eyed the fairy and shoved a small letter into his hands. "Give this to King Magnus of Bristane and you dwarf, give this package to him." said the Wizard as he shoved a package into the arms of the dwarf. "I would be honored" said the pair. The Wizard smiled and waved his staff and uttered an incantation and both landed in the city of Bristane in the Courtyard of Bristane Castle. The King and Queen were enjoying the summer day on their outdoor thrones when they saw the two appear out of thin air. "Are you messengers of the Arch-Wizard?" asked the old King. "Yes, and here is your letter and package." said the dwarf. The king broke the seal and opened the letter and smiled. "Yes, we happen to have a need for you dwarf. Our mines are in a state of utter disrepair. Can you go down and fix the problem? I am giving you 400 armored men and 800 miners. The others had fled due to a chamber collapse and the appearance of a black dragon." said the King. "Kill that dragon, clean the mine of the trolls and bandits and get it profitable. The lord of the area is losing sheep to the dragon and he is losing his serfs." said the King. "As for you, little one. I need you to deliver a message to the God-Emperor of the Elves. He does not reside on this world but we can open a portal to his domain." said the king. "Or at least my White Mages can." he added. "I am no mage, I am a Paladin by training and I have used my office to heal millions of the ill and crippled. The Light has kept me on the throne thus far and I suspect that the gods will continue to be good to me." said the King.

Part Two Soon.

The Future of the Uniformity

"And what can the future be? And what can it mean?" asked Dr. Stevens to his students by remote cam. "Sure, we all expected flying cars and other gadgets but the future has proven to hold far more promise. Believe me when I tell you that the future will not be like Star Trek, it will be an internalized world where mankind's perceptions will be based on an image generated by a machine, a machine so powerful that it will become infamous to a select few.....the Christians."

Dr. Towanga Stevens, 2018 AD

"Never speak of it. Never think it or the machine will execute your mind and obliterate your very being."

Freeman Chang, 2223 AD

Mindless cattle. So many humans sit in their pods now, connected to the Beast. They grow old, they grow fat and are reprocessed for resources once the Beast decides that they are ready to be recycled. They are born in the labs and they die on the processing line, often without the benefit of pain-killers. The State is now 100% satanic. All of the leaders are open Satanists now. Many suspected that they were closet Satanists, and the flow of time proved that to be correct. The satanic leadership uses atheism to wash out any thoughts of a higher power but they themselves build huge temples to their overlord where churches once stood. It is pure midnight. The hour Jesus spoke of has come to pass. The podlings entertain themselves with horror and depraved sexual acts.

Something went wrong in 2223 AD. A podling awoke. he broke out and set himself free and went to live in the North American Nature Preserve. Several others followed him and they began a violent revolution against the satanic system. It failed and the "escaped cattle" were executed and reprocessed. The other podlings, those who had not had their minds fully suppressed, began to alter the pod-centers and to disable the processing robots, all with clever worms and viruses. The Second Revolution was unleashed and the satanic government suppressed that revolution by the use of nuclear weapons. It was too late, many podlings all over the country began to escape from their pods and fled into the wilderness. Some fled beneath the cities and formed Cyber-gangs whose only purpose was to overthrow the satanic Government. Then the unexpected happened: The first disciple of Christ arose after centuries of extinction. A new band formed around him, all committed to the peaceful overthrow of the satanic system with their radical approach of giving the gospel to the satanic government. This effort was abandoned as futile and the Apostles turned their attention to the bulk of the freed and unfreed podlings. The Disciples stressed that all computer use was a return to bondage and many believed it and abandoned the cyber-gangs. The satanic government tried every lie they could think of and finally gave up trying to kill them off, so they co-opted them. They produced their own false Messiah from an advanced laboratory and set him loose to deceive millions of the freed. Millions took his mark and the number of his name and where recaged in the pod centers. The Disciples saw this coming and they preached the Book of Revelation and exposed the false Messiah. A cyber-gang found the location of the false Messiah and were about to kill him when they discovered that his brain was 100% dependent on the Beast itself and his own intelligence was akin to a small child. They took pity on him and unhooked him, they fled and hid him in the wilderness and the Disciples cared for him. The Disciples heard of the new union between the human mind and the Beast and they made the fateful decision to shut down the Beast. The Cyber-Gangs and the Disciples staged a cyber-sneak attack on Lucifarian (which had been New York) and brought down the power long enough to pump the Beast up with multiple power-surge programs. Their scheme worked and the Beast shut off and never came back on again. The satanic government was rounded up by angry podlings  and executed without mercy. The Disciples did not object to it. Finally with the restoration of freedom, the country was rebuilt, minus computers and any electronics. People abandoned the cities and became farmers and herdsmen on the former "wilderness preserve" while the Pastors and Bishops of the Disciples became the new Government, a Government of Judges based on the system put into place by Moses. Since the original Bible had been destroyed in North America, the European Democratic Collective had loaned the Disciples thousands of Bibles in an attempt to bring down the  North American Lucifarian Union during the Revolution. A few Satanists remained, but the new Government now hunted the few remaining Satanists until they were utterly gone. As what happens, things work in cycles and eventually the Disciples lost their grip on North America when the Libertarian Free Thinkers Union was organized. A new Generation had been born, unaware of the horrors that their parents had endured. The Libertarian Union began to rebuild the cities and the electronic infrastructure, not heeding the warnings of the old Disciples. Then the Apostles demanded that the Libertarian Union pay a heavy price for bringing back the Internet: Censorship. The Libertarians chaffed at the agreement but agreed in the long run to allow the Apostles to screen and filter the Internet to prevent the rise of Satanism. The new Executive Council of the Libertarian Union approved a massive space program. The Disciples challenged the idea and pointed out that only an insecure person would leave the comforts of Earth for a desert planet or a space station. The Libertarians pointed out that mankind needed "room to grow" for it's own sake. So a great debate began and many youth, disillusioned by their elders "digging their heels in the ground" left the Christian Union and formed the "Free Thinkers Union" which held to most Christian tenants but were aggressively pro-technology. Slowly some even began to question the past existence of the Beast and even suggested it was a "boogy-man" to keep everyone in line. Then the wicked one pounced. A charismatic man emerged preaching the idea that everyone is his/her own God and even used (selectively) scripture to prove it. Millions quickly flocked to the deceiver and the Apostles were aghast at the development. The Apostles used the full force of their arguments and prayers to bring down the deceiver. An explosion took the life of the deceiver and many suspected that the Apostles had turned to violence although an inquiry later cleared them. The Apostles quickly went on the offensive and restated that a pure and Christian life is better than being "cast adrift on the winds" and reminded the youth of the horrors of the past. Many youths sorrowed and repented. The Muslim Caliphate, which had been unlawful for years, was granted permission to enter North America for the purposes of trade but the Apostles wisely stated their objections. The vast Muslim Caliphate under the leadership of the charismatic Benami had (years ago) renounced all violence and had embraced pacifism but had kept the Quran and the Surah unchanged. His successor was not so friendly however. Ahab Bin-Benami began to preach an aggressive "educational Jihad" against the Christian West. The Apostles simply responded with an aggressive outreach into the Caliphate. Nevertheless, the religious hold that the Apostles had was now broken and the last Apostle Council was held in the winter of that year before everyone went their separate ways to found their own "church councils" the Apostles began to think that perhaps a decentralized approach would be better than a central one.

End of Part One