Chapter 15
Alman walked through the door and Gavin and the rest of them were sitting at the table eating. Harry looked well as he shoved a piece of bread into his mouth. He took a seat and put the map on the table. “How many days do you think we have before the new moon? Gavin had been watching the night sky and knew that it was getting close. I would say four days at the most.” Alman untied the leather and rolled out the map. “From what the dwarf King told me, we are here.” He pointed to the mark on the cloth. “We need to go here to get the sapling.” He pointed to the other side of the map. He looked up at the men that he had left with him. “Eat what you can now. We will ride out in an hour.” Alman rolled the cloth back up and tied it. He took it with him as he left the room. Gavin was right behind him. They didn’t say anything until they got to the room Alman had used. Once the door was shut, Gavin turned towards Alman. “What is going on? Do you truly think that we are going to make it in time?” Alman had the same feeling when the dwarf opened the map. “The dwarf King mentioned ‘they’ when I spoke to him. I tried to get it out of him but he said it was not his story to tell.” Alman grabbed his bag and started to make sure all his things were packed within. “I don’t know about magic or even believed in it up until five days ago. Giant cats and things coming out of the water to eat a man whole.” He turned to look back at the man who has saved his father on a number of occasions. “The only thing I am concerned about right now is getting this plant to this guy named Ishma and saving my father’s life.
An hour later, they were on their way out from underneath and surfaced through a doorway in the side of a hill. Luc had walked all the way with them. As they got to the doorway, Luc walked out with them. “Sire, as much as I don’t want to leave my home, I know that if I go with you, I can cut the time in half. There are areas that you will never know about that would speed up your time.” Luc stood there, half wishing that this man before him would just tell him thank you and leave but he would never be able to live with himself if they didn’t make it in time. Alman looked down and wondered for a minute if he would be a help or hindrance. Just by traveling through the underground, they had made over an hour leeway where it would have taken a few hours above ground. “Okay Luc, we could use your help. You will ride with Nelvil.” As they mounted the horses, Alman looked back to see Nelvil throw Luc through the air as he tried to put him in the saddle. “Sorry, little man,” he said, running around the horse to help him up.” Luc stood up, brushing the leaves and dirt off of him. Nelvil lifted him up this time and put him on the horse. Looking at the others as they laughed, Nelvil started to laugh too. “How was I supposed to know he only weighed like a small rock?” Luc was the only one who didn’t think it was funny. The forest that they had to travel through was just ahead of them now. Luc looked around at everything. He hadn’t been to the surface in a very long time and could never really believe that at one time, his ancestors lived up here. He was pointing out things and Nelvil was telling him what they were. Alman couldn’t fathom living underground for so long that a person wouldn’t know what a real tree looked like or how high they could grow. Luc’s eyes had finally adjusted to the light and he couldn’t believe the life around him. He had been to the surface only a few times. Nelvil told him how big the cats were that they fought and Luc could not believe something that big could be real. He had only heard the stories of them. He watched birds fly around them and as they passed a pond, Nelvil picked him up and threw him in, then ended up jumping in after him because he couldn’t swim. Luc looked like a drowned rat as Nelvil carried him out of the water. Jordon told Harry to get off. “I think it would be safe for the dwarf if you ride with Nelvil. Harry laughed, “Yes, before Nelvil kills him and we can’t find this place. Jordon laughed too as he walked his horse over to Luc. “Come up with me if you want to survive this trip. Nelvil likes to have too much fun at our expense.” Luc stood there soaking wet. He took his bag that Nelvil had untied from his horse and took the hand that Jordon extended to him. Harry climbed up behind Nelvil. “I will not have you throwing me into ponds, okay. I prefer to remain dry.” With a chuckle, Nelvil picked Harry up and threw him into the same pond. Nelvil was laughing so hard, he didn’t see Harry as he grabbed his vest and pulled him in too. Gavin and Alman turned to see Nelvil go in. He came up sputtering and wiped his bushy hair out of his eyes. Gavin laughed but had to tell them, “Okay, we don’t have any time to waste. Get on your horse and let’s get some distance in. We are running out of time.” Nelvil picked up Harry and put him on the saddle. Both of them dripping wet but they would dry up fast. It was mid-day and the sun beamed hot down on them.
It was a few hours later that they came upon a clearing and decided it would be a good spot to take a break and eat something. The house lady where they stayed the night before had packed enough food to feed an army. Alman and Gavin took a seat on a log. As Harry and Nelvil took the food out, Luc came over to them and looked at the map that Alman had just unrolled. He went to touch it and Alman grabbed his arm before he could. This map that laid before them had never seen the light of day. Looking down at the map, Luc knew exactly where they had to go and also remembered the stories he heard as a youth about the dangers. “We are here,” he said as he pointed to the map. “There is a short cut here that will bring us out here or here.” He was pointing at two different spots on the map.” Alman looked at where he pointed. “Why is there two different ways to come out?” Luc didn’t know either but on the map it gave them two different exits points. “Okay, so after lunch we will head out this way,” Gavin pointed to the field to the right of them, “and take the short cut. We can’t waste any time now,” he said as he took another bite from the chunk of cheese he had in his hand. They had four days to get it and get this wizard or fairy Ishma to undo whatever spell was put on the king. Alman agreed and rolled up the map and put it back in his bag. Luc took a piece of meat and looked at the men he decided to help. Nelvil, he didn’t like at all. He was still drying from the dip in the pond. Jordon was very quiet, and Harry was the opposite. He never seemed to stop talking. Gavin was a very large man and Luc could see in his eyes that he watched everything. He could also tell that he had been a man of war for a long time. Alman, he knew was the prince from above. They had heard that the king was a good man but his son was reckless. Could they have been talking about the man in front of him? Yes, he was young but he carried himself with authority. He respected his men, which to Luc meant a lot. Dwarfs were all hard workers. There wasn’t anything they couldn’t do.
It was two and half hours later that they came to the tree that was shown on the map. Jordon got off his horse and gave Luc a hand down. The dwarf walked into the trunk of the tree. When Luc turned and noticed that no one followed him, he walked back out. “Are you coming or not?” Jordon took the horses and let them loose. “If we can’t take the horses, I hope that these short cuts will save some time.” Just as he finishing saying that, lightening out of nowhere came out of the sky, which until a few minutes before was clear. Striking down by the horses, they immediately took off. All of them watched as everything that they carried with them left. “Well, let’s go. We don’t have to worry about the horses now,” Nelvil said as he tried to whistle and have his comeback. They were gone. Luc turned back around and started into the tunnel that would bring the underground again. Walking along, Gavin looked at the strange drawings that marked the walls. Each drawing had cats in it. Scripts of writing littered the walls too. Alman stopped at one pic and looked at the giant cat and the fork in the tunnel. He noticed that the others had left him standing there so he ran to catch up to them. As they walked, the tunnel never got darker. “Back when the dwarfs lived above, they had the fairies to help them. When the walls went up, it destroyed Arie. Before that, we lived in prosperity and wealth. We were very peaceful in Arie. Your ancestors and the others killed what we loved.” Alman could hear the distaste he had for Alman’s ancestors in his voice. “They built the walls t
hat broke our kingdom down. The only thing your ancestors could not take was what lived underground. The closer to the mountain you get, the more likely you were going to die trying to. You,” Luc looked at Alman, “are the first to get this far. We have been waiting and when Ishma told Duclar that you were coming, we were all very pleased.” As he walked down another flight of stairs that took them deeper, he ran his hands over the drawings that followed them down. “My ancestors did these drawings. This was just after the walls were built.” Looking down at the ground, he shook his head. “So many of them died. The cats were vicious and we couldn’t stop them. They went down underground to survive but the cats followed them. No one has been in these tunnels since. The dwarf city that we have now was the only way to survive. We have hunters who train to find food and bring it back but usually one doesn’t return. Duclar’s grandfather was the one that started the city and until you killed the cats, we lived underground. Now we can live life like we should.
Alman couldn’t fathom living underground for so long. To not ride out under a blue sky or feel the wind or rain. He felt he should apologize for the past mistakes of his ancestors. “Luc, this never should have happened and if there is anything that we can do to make this right, we will do so but right now my one object is to get that sapling back to Ishma. I have to save my people.” Luc knew that Ishma was right. This was the man that would finally free Arie and they could finally live again. Alman made this dwarf a promise and he planned to follow through. Once he had the sapling and his people were safe, he would right the wrong that had been done.