Elvenshore: 01 - The Dwarves of Elvenshore

© Clark Graham 2012

All Rights Reserved

To my beloved wife

Preface

I went to the
bookstore to find the perfect novel. I wanted to read an epic story about large armies coming together and fighting large battles. I
t
would have an
unlikely hero leading the good guys and a very evil enemy leading the bad guys. I also wanted enemies becoming allies and mysteries surrounding ancient races and cities

I didn’t find one that met what I wanted to read. I then thought to myself, why don’t I write one? With that the idea of my novel was born. I followed familiar lines with elves and dwarves but then threw in some surprises. I built a new world and then filled it with kingdoms and mountains
.
I hope that you enjoy reading through the journey as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Table of
Contents

The Dwarves Elvenshore

Map of ElvenshorePreface

Journey of the Dwarf Prince

Into the Spiders Lair

High Mountain

The Feast in the Great Hall

The Awakening of the Prince

South Fort

Summons of the King

Into the Westwood

First Contact

Old Enemies

The Gathering of Armies

A Parting of the Ways

A Battle Among the Trees

The Rear Guard

The Journey of the Wounded.

Deep into High Mountain

Return to Westwood

An Elf
’
s Tale

Arrows in the Deep Woods

The Two Cities

Tales of Evil

Battle for the Iron Mountains

Retreat off the Mountains

The King Returns

Into the Lonely Mountains

Back to the Kingdom of Ril

Death in the Lonely Mountains

The Last Battle

Home and Family

The fire blazed hot under the stars as four dwarves sat around it calmly sharpening their axes while they hummed old war songs, oblivious to the dangers around them. The fire was large and lit up the night sky for miles.  It was not the normal dwarf bonfire, like those in the large elaborate halls that they cut out of their mountain kingdom.  Those bonfires would have massive feasts around them. Wild game and goat and pig would be eaten while server girls would pour ale to thirsty boasting and belching dwarves. But these dwarves had been walking all day and were too tired to bother with the normal dwarfish bravado. Besides, there were only four of them. Their meal was just a couple of unlucky rabbits they caught on their way out of the mines.

Glowin
, with his scar above his right eyebrow, was the loudest of the hummers. He had seen many battles with the gremlins of High Mountain. Many times had the gremlins tried to infiltrate the mines under the mountain, and many times they had been battled back.  The underground world was home of both the dwarf and the gremlin and neither one shared well. 

Hemlot was their leader.  Hemlot was smallest of the four and by far the meanest in battle.  He had led many a dwarf to battle and to victory.  He had a hard life but was strong, fearless, and cunning. Hemlot was a natural leader and one of the dwarf king’s most able commanders. Although small in stature even for a dwarf, he had the ferocity of three dwarves in battle.  But he was troubled this night.  He kept looking out into the darkness at the forest feeling as if someone or something was watching him. It was a knack that warriors develop over the years to keep from getting ambushed.

The twins, Ferdin and
Fordin
, stood up and starting sparring with each other.
 
Loud
clanks would echo through the forest when
battle-
axe
would hit armor.  They were
Glowin’s
sons and had never stepped outside of High Mountain before today.  The last of the gremlins had been driven out of the mountain before they were born.  It was hard for them to believe all those stories and songs about war when they had seen none of it in their day.  When their father pointed out his battle scar to prove that wars did exist, they would say that he cut himself shaving, although by the looks of him, he had never shaved a
day in
his life.

The dwarves were finishing up with their supper when they heard a whistling sound coming from the woods.

“Four dwarves around a fire waiting to get eaten,” said a voice from the woods. The dwarves sprang to their feet and had the axes at the ready in a matter of seconds.

“Show yourself so I may split your head open with my
axe
!” Hemlot shouted.

“Friend Dwarf, if I wanted to fight you, you would have already been dead,” answered the voice. “Which you might end up so anyway, every hungry predator around knows that fir
e means food.  Most likely dwarves
, since men around these parts know better than to attract attention to themselves, after dark, in the Westwood.”

The dwarves
looked at each other and then looked back at the direction of the voice. Hemlot was growling.  Out of the shadows stepped a green-clad human.  He took his hat off, held it to his chest, and took a deep bow.  The dwarves, although they were angry, could not ignore the traditional dwarf like gesture and they also took their helmets off, held them to their chests, and then bowed.  They had their axes at the ready when they came back up.

“My name is Sarchise. I am a master of the Royal Scout. It is my duty to guard this part of the Westwood.  But come, all of our lives are in danger, the sooner we are away from this fire, the safer we will all be.”

“I am
Hemlot
son of
Zarin
, and these are my men,
Glowin
, Son of Earl, and Ferdin and
Fordin
, sons of
Glowin
.  And we take no orders from humans.”

Sarchise just smiled.  “Dwarf friend, you do not know these woods.  There are many hungry things out here, the giant
blackspot
spider, the razor bear and the saber tooth, just to name a few.  Any of them in the area will see your flame and come to see what they can find to eat.  We need to hurry, so I ask you, and this is not an order but a request, please make haste and leave this flame.”

The dwarves relaxed their weapons and allowed Sarchise to lead them away from the fire, after gathering up their packs.  Sarchise led them to a hill where he had set up camp.  The hill overlooked a large portio
n of the forest.  They could
plainly see the fire from the hill.

“Wait and I’ll prove to you that what I said was true,
” Sarchise
said.

They watched the flames for over an hour, seeing no sign of danger, then in the dimming light fifteen giant spiders filled the grounds around the flames as if they were looking for something, and then left just as fast as they had come.

“Amazing!” commented Ferdin.

Sarchise said nothing as he sat with his back resting against a tree. 

“Human,” Hemlot said, “You have made me your brother today.”

Sarchise smiled and said
, “
I know of your traditions, and that you now feel that you have to serve me since you think I saved your life. We do not live by your traditions so I will not hold you to your traditions with me. You are safe here, you can sleep.”

“How do you know that we are safe?” 
asked
Fordin.

“This hill was an old elf
outpost.  It is well protected
by things that I cannot explain, even if I understood them myself.  No evil treads upon these grounds,” Sarchise explained.

That did not stop Hemlot’s fears.  Dwarf and elf did not always get along. Was there elf magic that would destroy the dwarves as they slept, as well as keep the spiders away? Ferdin and
Fordin
were soon fast asleep along with their father.  The distant fire was almost out but Hemlot could see shapes move past it from time to time.  One of the times he sat up to get a closer look.

“Razor bear,” Sarchise said answering his unasked question. “There have been quite a few of them tonight.”

Hemlot looked over at
him and saw that Sarchise had a bow sitting across his lap with an arrow at the ready.  “I thought we had elf magic protecting us?”

“Never hurts to give them elves a hand,
” Sarchise
said.

“Was this really an elf outpost?” Hemlot asked.

“Yes, it was. Though I imagine that it was more to keep an eye on the dwarves in the High Mountain than to keep the giant spiders and razor bears away. Enough giant spiders died coming close to the hill that the spiders don’t chance it anymore.  The Royal Scouts use it as an outpost now. There’s someone here almost all of the time.  Bears and spiders usually stay away. They like food that they can sneak up on and that doesn’t put up much of a fight.  They have found us scouts hard to eat.”

Hemlot looked over at
the large human.  “Why did you save us?”

Sarchise let out a slight chuckle.  “Human nature I guess, or maybe I didn’t want the spiders getting any more food.  They have been eating well lately. When they eat well they start laying a lot of egg sacks and soon we find thousands of them around.  They get real hungry and start getting bolder and bolder in their search for food.  So we have to send hunt- and- destroy parties out to kill them.  We lose a lot of men in those battles not to mention settlers on outlying farms.  It’s just easier not to feed them in the first place. 

“That’s the reason I have been sent out is to see what they have been feasting on and see if I can put a stop to it before they start laying eggs.”

Hemlot looked d
own at the ground. “I guess we d
warves are safer in our mountain than I thought.”