Alea is surrounded by a ring of…dwarves?

  Dwarves are real??

  He hadn’t seen any in the city they were in, but he guesses if there are elves and beastkin then there should be no reason for there not to be dwarves.

  They were all pretty typical of what he expected. The shortest was stomach high on him and the tallest probably came to around his chest. They were short, stocky, and heavily muscled. Some had the traditional big bushy beard, but a lot of them had their beards in braids, some intricate and some simple.

  He absently wondered if the level of intricacy of the braids signified anything or not.

  Their silver armor gleamed in the sunlight, glinting off here and there as the light caught the angles. The leather of their boots and gloves were worn and solid. Going from Amos’s lessons, these didn’t seem like soldiers in name alone. These men were the real deal.

  None of them had any weapons drawn, but the few standing close to Alea had their hands resting on them.

  They all carried hammers or axes. The hammers were all double sided war hammers while the axes were more varied. Some had blades on each side while others had a spike on the opposite end as a counter weight. The designs were all different though. Which could mean either all the warriors made their own weapons, there were a lot of blacksmiths to choose from where they came from who had different aesthetics, or their few weapon makers just gave a lot of options. Will always thought military weapons were supposed to be all uniform in design. In fantasy stories and even his old world’s military, that had been the same, so he couldn’t help to think the variety was odd.

  The second Will had stepped onto the road, his eyes swept the newcomers and counted out twenty.

  Too many to fight, especially while trying to keep Alea safe and unharmed from collateral damage. Even if she wasn’t here, he didn’t have any big area of effect techniques yet, and he wasn’t even sure how strong they were.

  He focused back on the one who had spoken to him. The dwarf is taller than the others. Coming to right at Will’s chest. His beard is a deep black, where the rest are a mix of brown and red. He has intricate, neat braids criss-crossing the entirety of it. His eyes are sharp, and his stance firm; giving the air of someone ready for motion at any moment. He has a hard look in his eye and as Will looks at him, he realizes that every dwarf here must know Will’s secret. He glances to the rest and only then realizes the uneasy edge that lays over the company of dwarves. They seem unsure, as if the decision on how they’re to handle Will hasn’t been decided yet.

  “What do you want. We have no money.” He said as he puts his hands on the hilt of each knife.

  Some in the group laughed. “We don’t want your money boy. Taleya sent us. We would have told you sooner but we were having to much fun watching you struggle against that juvenile Razor.”

  “What?! When??”

  Will was stunned. He momentarily forgot the danger he was in as his mind reeled.

  When could she have alerted them? When would she have had the time? While Amos was stalling in the beginning maybe? She must of known how much of a threat Belial was from the beginning and known there was a chance she’d have to send them away.

  For her to see Belial as such a threat that she would have to plan an escape before even seeing how a fight would go is concerning. It means that the green fire user is an even bigger threat than Will realized.

  “About half an hour ago. A short coded message to meet two brats around this area. What does she look like?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Can’t be mistaking you for the wrong brats now can I?” He guesses he can’t argue with that. “What does she look like?”

  “Tall, slim, with defined and incredibly strong muscles. Usually keeps her blonde hair in a braid and she uses a sword.” The dwarf nodded along as he spoke. “I’m not telling you her affinities though. We can make our own way if that’s what you want.”

  Will glared at the dwarf and cycled his Qi as he said the last part. They needed the help, badly. But he refused to betray his master to potential enemies.

  “Whoa whoa! Easy there. You pass. Now stop cycling your Qi before this takes a bad turn that none of us want.”

  Will let himself relax. He was too on edge. No matter if these dwarves know his secret or not isn’t important. Alea is his first priority. “She needs help.” Will said and gestures to Alea. “Please. I don’t know how severe her injuries are but I think it’s bad.”

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  “We can treat her back at the city.” He gestures his massive double bladed war axe and nods to the dwarves surrounding Alea.

  Seeing the dwarf nod at them, one of them takes out four small rectangular pieces of metal, and another positions himself above her head.

  The one with the metal manipulates them in a way he can’t see and they elongate. Two elongate to slightly longer than Alea is tall, and two others elongate to slightly wider than she is. It’s only once they are longer that Will notices that each piece of metal has scripts of lines along each piece. The dwarf sets them around Alea and then nods to the dwarf at her head.

  The dwarf uses…force? Gravity? Will’s unsure. But Alea is gently levitated off the ground a few inches. The other dwarf lays his hand along one long piece of metal and a white glowing platform appears beneath her. She’s gently lowered onto it by the second dwarf.

  With that, she’s levitated to around the dwarves chest height.

  “Now keep up.” Says the black haired dwarf.

  The contingent of twenty dwarves start moving at a fast pace. Not a full sprint for him, but definitely a fast run, which surprised him. He thought dwarves weren’t supposed to be fast. As they get under way Will thinks there’s no way they can keep up this pace for long.

  Two hours of that goes by, and not a single dwarf slowed for even a moment. Even if Will hadn’t been tired out from his fight with the big bird, the Razor he thinks they called it, this would have taxed him. But not knowing how badly Alea is truly hurt, if she’ll give into her injuries at any moment, if she’ll make it to wherever they were going or not, was a motivator unlike any other. He pushed himself as hard as he could, and kept pace with the dwarves the entire way. He thought he even saw a couple nods of approval along the way.

  By the time they get to their destination Will is exhausted, sweat pouring down his face, and his breaths coming in deep pulls.

  They had run towards the mountains Will had noticed when they first appeared here. The foothills had quickly turned into mountainous roads. Solid enough to run on, but steep, with a lot of up and down and air that had become thinner and thinner.

  As they finally stopped, Will looked around to see not a single dwarf even appeared to be breathing hard. He also noticed that they were in the middle of no where.

  “Are we taking a break?” Will asks.

  He starts to catch his breath as he looks around. They’ve stopped along a random spot on a random narrow mountain road. The road only being about five feet across. A sheer cliff face was off to their right that they had been running along the base of for the past thirty seconds or so. To their left the forest continued but there was a significant drop of at least a two-hundred feet.

  The group ignores his question as one of the dwarves walks up to the stone of the cliff wall. He lays his hand against the cold gray stone and a soft blue glow suffuses his hand as he starts to chant softly in a language Will doesn’t understand. It’s also the first time he has heard any other language except the one everyone has been speaking since he got here. A mystery he’s been thinking about for the past couple months. He had planned on finally asking Amos about it after the tournament.

  Now he didn’t know if he’d ever get the chance…

  A few moments later a paper thin line appears under the dwarf’s hand. It spreads out from the dwarf’s palm, one part going down to the ground and another up to about the height of six feet or so. The bottom one stops at the ground, but the top of the line splits and begins curving left and right at the same time, quickly forming the shape of a door. One just barely wide enough for a dwarf.

  The two sides of the door swing silently open, revealing a dark passageway.

  Two of the dwarves move quickly into the opening, staying single file because of the narrow width. Third comes Alea on her levitating stretcher. The black haired dwarf nudges Will forward after her and then the rest of the company fall in behind.

  Will doesn’t see how, but as the entire group passes into the passageway, the doors to the outside close just as quietly as they had opened.

  For a brief second there was nothing but darkness, then lights appeared on the ceiling. They were spaced about ten feet apart and from what Will could tell seemed to be glowing crystals.

  The dwarves in the lead kept a brisk pace so he couldn’t be sure, but just then Alea suddenly groans, and any thought of the lights flee from him mind.

  The dwarves pick up the pace.

  A few moments of the fast paced jog later and they enter some type of small antechamber.

  The dwarves come to a stop and Will rushes to Alea’s side. She still seems to be unconscious, and she looks extremely pale. He puts a hand to her forehead and he inhales a sharp breath.

  She’s burning up!

  She’s also covered in sweat and her breathing is labored.

  “I think she’s getting worse! Please, there has to be something you can do!”

  “Easy boy. We’ll do what we can for her I swear it.” The black haired dwarf says as he walks forward.

  He nods to the two dwarfs who led them through the tunnel and they turn and guide the stretcher toward an identical passageway to the one they just came through.

  One of many hallways that Will is just now noticing.

  He takes a step to follow but the dwarf lays a hand on his arm, stopping him.

  “You can’t follow.”

  “What? Why?”

  “It’s complicated.” When the dwarf see’s Will is about to argue, he continues. “Look boy, it’ll take a second to explain. And I will, don’t you worry. But for now, just trust in your master’s judgement. She trust’s us. I’m asking for you to do the same.”

  Will glances back and forth between Alea and the black bearded dwarf. Frustration and indecision warring inside him.

  “If we wanted to kill ya boy we woulda done it already.”

  His voice turns hard. “You could want to capture us.”

  “Aye. A fool could see the worth you two hold. But the people I’d be competing with aren’t ones I’m interested in dealing with. You two are a flame held over a mountain of dry kindling, and I’m staying clear away.”

  He could be lying, but something in his demeanor makes Will think he’s not.

  “Fine.” He decides finally. “But I want answers. Especially if you’re asking me to trust you with Alea’s life.”

  “We’ll talk.” He responds.

  He nods again to the two dwarves who had stopped the stretcher when Will was trying to follow.

  They turn away and swiftly leave. Will watches, a feeling of helplessness running rampant inside of him.