Tim's POV
Hejinmal's room smelled like old books and pees, which was a nasty combination.
He was pressed against the furthest stack in the library with his wings partially raised in the threating display. His eyes tracked me with the wide-pupiled attention.
I looked at the puddle on the floor.
"I'm not here to hurt you," I said. I kept my voice at the tone I used for the younger children at the orphanage, "I want to offer you a job."
The wings dropped approximately three inches. Progress I guess.
Hejinmal's POV
The human called himself Tim, explained what it wanted me in the position as librarian at it's orphanage. That sounded kinda nice.
I had expected many things from the creature that had just killed my entire family. But *This* was not among them.
"Why did you fight my family than?" I asked. The question came out with more steadiness than I had expected from myself.
Tim looked at me. It looked up at me and said "To give the dwarf kingdom back to the dwarves," , Then said"Do you want to stop me?"
I shook my head as fast as I possiblely can.
"Good," Tim said. "Help me pack up these books."
The packing took some time and produced a collection of very nice sacks of books, but I was carrying most of them and the human had recently lost an arm. We moved through the library, as we collected every book.
The gold and magical items from the hoard were next, as I collected the Gold and Tim the items.
Those items went into a separate bag that Tim secured personally.
Tim ripped off Olasird'arc's head with great effort. The sound was one I would never forget. A rope went around the head, as I was assigned the dragging, which I accepted, *like i had an option*
We left the fortress, that I have lived, my entire life, as we went through the front entrance with the head of the frost dragon lord bouncing along the tunnel floor and the smell of blood covering everything.
Tim's POV
I made Hejinmal stop well outside visible range of the dwarf city and found a flat spot with reasonable views for the picnic.
Lunch that I had packed for the journey, bread, dried meat, an apple, a hard cheese, and a container of water.
I split everthing evenly and gave Hejinmal half.
He looked at it. Looked at me. Then ate it in a single motion.
I went to the dwarf city alone, without the head.
The wooden bridge connecting the approach to the dwarf city's last remaining settlement sat over a chasm that had the depth of something carved by serious geological forces over serious geological time. The city on the other side was smaller than my kingdom's capital, the compression of the population that had been driven from most of its territory into its last defensible position. The walls were good. Not like they will need it anymore.
I knocked on the gate with my remaining fist, which produced a sound.
The window opened. A dwarf face appeared.
The dwarf looked at me, one armed, significant scarring, and performed the rapid assessment of a gate guard. Then the window closed and the door opened.
I walked in and asked the dwarf for directions to the Regency Council with an anwser, I thanked the dwarf who answered with genuine courtesy, and followed his pointing finger through streets that had an organised overcrowding city.
The Regency Council building was identifiable by its architecture, larger than most structures. As I entered in, I went the dwarf at the desk, and soon received my request to see the council, as I was told to wait.
I waited.
The waiting room had chairs built for dwarf proportions that I sat on, as my knees touched my face.
The Regency Council was eight dwarves at a long table, as I entered the room.
I told them I planned to kill Olasird'arc Haylilyal, before they can say anything.
I told them about my damands.
The Forgemaster's POV
One hundred and fourteen years.
One hundred and fourteen years the Council had been trying to reclaim their kingdom, and the accumulated weight of that failure was in every line of every face at this table, including his own. He had been Forgemaster for sixty of those years. He had buried many fathers and sons alike and watched the kingdom compress into this last city.
And now a some boy, a human boy, with one arm, covered in blood that had entirely dried, sitting in the chair across from the full Regency Council with the comfortable posture of someone who had come to discuss ordinary business, was telling them he planned to kill Olasird'arc Haylilyal.
He slammed his hands on the table.
The sound eco, which was to express the full accumulated weight of what it felt like to be sitting at this table for sixty years and have a child wander in claiming he would accomplish in a single silly trip what they had failed to accomplish in over a century.
He went through the list of reasons that this was not, could not be done, and th-
The human cut him off.
It said it had two small daggers and that would be good enough.
The blood in his veins began to boil, as he clamly try to reaso-
The human cut him off again.
It said it wanted the Adamantite armour and sword *after* it killed the dragon. Said if it died trying, than the Council owed it nothing.
He stared at the human.
As his eyes turn red.
He yelled if it actually killed Olasird'arc Haylilyal, he would personally make the best Adamantite armour and sword in the kingdom and enchant them himself, and then told the human to get out of the room because the Council had real work to do.
The human gave him a thumbs up.
He stared at the thumbs up for a moment.
The human left.
He sat back down on his chair, as he rubbed his forehead to help him, cool off.
Tim's POV
I ran out of the city, went to Hejinmal, as I picked up the head.
I carried the head over my head back to the gate.
The gate dwarf saw me coming, and opened the full gates when he saw what I had, which the head required the larger opening, as I ran in.
The dwarves on the streets simply stopped, faces turning, work pausing, the spreading ripple of awareness moving outward from my position as I walked.
I carried Olasird'arc's head through those streets with the one arm I still had, It was heavy. But the distance was not short.
I kept walking.
The Council building's desk dwarf looked at me.
Looked at the head.
I walked past him.
The slam open the Council room doors with my foot.
The Forgemaster's POV
The meeting had resumed after that human left. They were discussing supply ratios and population management, and he had been in the middle of a sentence about grain storage when the doors came open.
And a head hit the table.
The sound of a frost dragon's severed head meeting a Council table, and the table expressed this through the structural complaint as it started bending.
Eight jaws hit the floor.
He was looking at the head of Olasird'arc Haylilyal, the frost dragon lord who had occupied their kingdom for more than a century.
He had a word forming. Several words, in sequence, constituting a question about how and when and what had happened, wher-
The human cut him off AGAIN, as it asked "Where is my Super Suit... of armor"
He had enough, and left the room in pure Rage.
He went directly to his Damn Forge.
Commander-in-Chief's POV
The Forgemaster had left the room in rage
The human named Tim, it had given its name as Tim, stood in the doorway and asked about its armour again, after the Forgemaster left.
"don't worry, the Forgemaster will keep his word," I told it. "He's not happy. But he will still make your armor and sword."
I looked at the head on our table. At the human. At the head again.
I had been Commander-in-Chief of the dwarf kingdom's remaining military forces for twenty-two years. but this was shocking to me.
"The other dragons," I said. "What happened to them?"
"All Dead," Tim said. "I didn't drag the bodies here because that would have been annoying."
I breathed carefully. "The Quagoas still hold most of the kingdom."
"I know."
"While your equipment is being made, could you deal with the Quagoa" I asked.
It rubbed its chin with its one remaining hand.
" I want something in return," it said, " a paper. Signed and stamped. Stating that I killed Olasird'arc Haylilyal and returned the dwarf kingdom to the dwarfs."
I looked at it. "...Why?"
"I want the Adamantite rank," it said. " I did all of this to rank up."
The silence that followed after that...
"I see, your Orichalcum rank," I said,
"Yes."
"And you killed the frost dragon lord who has held our kingdom hostage for a century."
"Yes."
"JUST to rank up, Are you Kidding me?."
"The children at my orphanage said that Adamantite adventurers are cool, sooooo here I am."
I looked at this person, and took a deep breath.
"We would like to offer you a position," I said. "The Regency Council's ninth member. The compensation would exceed that, of the adve-"
"No thanks, I'm good ," Tim said.
"But we could-"
"Nope."
I put my hands together on the table. "We would like to help the orphanage," I said.
Something shifted in Tim's expression. Not much. But something.
"We would like to sponsor it," I said. "Cover all costs. Send our best craftsmen to teach there." I paused. "In exchange for including the history of the dwarf kingdom in the curriculum. So it is not forgotten."
Tim was quiet for a long moment.
"Deal," it said.
I looked at Tim for a long moment. Then I called for the scribe.
The paper was prepared, signed by all seven remaining Council members, stamped with the official seal of the dwarf kingdom, the wax pressed and set.
I handed it across the table.
Tim looked at the paper, as it pocked it away.
"I'll start with the Quagoas near the western tunnels,".
Then it left.
I looked at the head of Olasird'arc Haylilyal on my Council table.
Tim
LeveL [50]