The Forgotten Race

King Ornir sits on his throne and sees two dwarves making their way towards him and waits for them to bow to him, after they bow he says, "What brings you before me, fellow dwarves?"

Banil keeps his head low as he says, "We came directly here after finding a pool in the cavern that leads to a new land we have never seen before Yer Majesty, we have proof of its existence and have discovered that strangely colored ponies inhabit it along with goblins that ride wolves made from pieces of wood."

He raises an eyebrow in curiosity and responds, "Are you trying to amuse me, or trying to make a fool of me?"

The portly dwarf looks up to the king briefly and says, "No we are not Yer Majesty, ah fought them alongside Asulfur just a few minutes before coming here. We collected these glowing stones from the odd wolves after their bodies turned into piles of bark and twigs, see the proof for yerself, Yer Majesty. We will even prove it to ya and take ya there ourselves, we are not trying to make a fool outta ya. We are only hoping to bring fame and fortune to Erebor, please give us this chance to prove our find to ya, Yer Majesty."

King Ornir is intrigued by their claim and says, "Very well then overseer, tell me more about this discovery." He then leans forward in the throne and puts his fingertips together to form a peak, waiting for them to give more details.

Banil looks to Asulfur briefly and says, "Asulfur was the one who initially made the discovery, it would be his tale to tell Yer Majesty." He then looks to the dwarf in question and says, "Tell our king what you discovered an hour ago Asulfur."

Asulfur keeps his head low and says, "Well Your Majesty, it all started that day when a deep rumbling caught every single dwarf's attention..." He then goes on in detail, informing the king about the massive chunk of rock that crashed to the floor after a crack formed from him striking the chisel. He finishes his tale by saying, "And then I made my way back through the pool to report what I have found Your Majesty."

The king fondles his beard for a moment before looking at Asulfur saying, "Thank you for your tale and taking the time to investigate the opening, your diligence is much appreciated and may lead to the most important discovery since the Arkenstone." He then turns his eyes to Banil then says, "Overseer Banil, you are to gather a few dwarves and begin building a path down to that entrance and make it safe to walk across. Let me know the moment that construction is complete, and the way to this pool is ready."

The portly dwarf bows once more to the king and says, "Ah will begin at once Yer Majesty, we will work as fast as we can to finish the path fer ya." He looks to his friend and says, "Come on Asulfur, we have a cliff to carve into a path and a couple of bridges to build across those gaps."

Two years later, in the throne room of Erebor

King Ornir watches a group of dwarves approaches the throne and bows down to him and says, "What brings the three of you before me this day?"

The first dwarf speaks up with a female voice and bows her head saying, "Your Majesty, I have spoken with several other female dwarves and have discovered an issue with our population as it slowly dwindles. After a long discussion with them, we would like to differentiate ourselves from the men Your Majesty, will you permit us the freedom to do so?"

He narrows his eyes, pretending to be annoyed saying, "What makes you think that you can ask such a thing of me?" He watches as they prepare to leave then says, "Who said you could go? There is something that I need to say to you all."

They become nervous and kneel before him with their heads low and respond, "We apologize for bothering you with this Your Majesty, we only wish to fulfill our duty as women and raise families."

King Ornir leans forward in his chair and then says, "I understand your concern, but there is just one problem with your request..." He then leans a little bit further and finishes the response, "There is no law that forbids such a thing, so go ahead and do what you want to do."

She looks up briefly at the king in shock saying, "There is no law that says we can't look different from the men Your Majesty?"

He chuckles lightly and shakes his head saying, "No there wasn't. To be honest, most are unable to tell male from female. So go ahead, do your part for every male dwarf in Erebor." He then watches them rise and take their leave after thanking him, embarrassed at how a simple misunderstanding throughout the years caused such problems for all dwarves. Coming up with a solution to clear up any further misunderstandings, he calls for a dwarf to find him a scribe to write something down. A dwarf then hurries off to find one as he watches Overseer Banil make his way into the throne room with a faint smile on his face and looks to him and says, "I was wondering when you were going to return to me with news regarding the path."

Overseer Banil nods and bows to the king saying, "Many apologies fer taking so long to complete the path to the entrance My King, but the gap between the two crevices turned into one long gap. We had to start from scratch to build a much longer bridge than previously anticipated, but it is finished now. There is one more bit of information that we have recently discovered Yer Majesty. Asulfur informs me that when he was working on the cliff, it was always very cold down there. Recently, however, it has started to get warmer over the time we spent carving stairs into the cliffside."

King Ornir sighs and shakes his head saying, "I was starting to wonder why the mountain has started to make noises recently, that deep rumble caused a few problems of its own in Erebor. Times are changing over the years, it appears that it is our turn to be affected by it. Keep a close watch on the caverns, and notify me immediately if anything should happen." He looks to one of the guards and orders them to have the scribe wait for him to return from a short expedition, then looks to a pair of guards near the stairs and says, "I want a small contingent of ten guards fully armed to be at the bottom of the new path before I get my armor and weapons and get to the bottom." he turns back to the Overseer and says, "Let's go get my armor and weapons, then see what this thing is that your friend has found."

An hour later, at the bottom of the stairs near the entrance

The portly dwarf stands behind the king as his guards enter the widened tunnel first, in a column two bodies wide and five bodies long. He follows after the king and says, "There is a pool at the end of this tunnel Yer Majesty, that ya must walk into and fully immerse your body in the water. When ya first enter the pool, ya will feel a tingling sensation all over that is followed by a pinch after you immerse yerself. Ah assure ya that the tingling and the pinch are totally harmless My King, or I would not have gone through there myself."

The king eventually arrives at the pool as his guards stand on either side of it waiting for further instruction saying, "Well then, go on ahead and enter the pool ahead of me and show me how it works Overseer, and my men will follow after you and then finally I will go through after them."

Banil nods his head and walks towards the pool saying, "Ah'm not sure if it will be able to handle more than one dwarf at a time Yer Highness, but ah will continue on through now and wait for you in the cavern on the ramp." He then steps into the pool, feeling the familiar tingling sensation. He continues walking further in and feels the pinch, then makes his way out of the water to stand on the ramp to wait for the king's arrival.

King Ornir looks to his guards and blinks the spots out of his vision then says, "Guards, proceed into the pool as demonstrated one by one, I will follow shortly after the last guard has gone through." He watches as they make their way into the pool and vanish in a flash of light, shielding his eyes with his palm and waits for the last guard to go through. As it quiets down in the room, he looks to see no more guards in the room and proceeds towards the pool himself. He begins to feel the tingling the overseer mentioned and continues to go deeper into the pool, taking a short breath and immersing himself completely into the water. Feeling a pinch shortly after immersing himself, he makes his way out of the pool and is amazed at seeing a different cavern than before, saying, "This is very peculiar indeed, let us continue on this expedition to see what else is in this location."

The Overseer nods and says, "Very well My King, please follow me up this path and climb the vine to get out of the hole. Once we are out of this tunnel, we can begin our expedition by showing ya the field that was mentioned in Asulfur's story."

He orders his guards to follow him up the path, having to crouch down due to his crown scraping the top of the tunnel, and says to the Overseer, "This darn tunnel is not high enough for me to stand up in due to the crown on my head!" He grumbles in annoyance as it catches on a root and removes his helmet holding his crown, placing it under one arm, then stands up fully and huffs in annoyance as he continues up the path. As he gets to the end of the tunnel, he puts his helmet back on and climbs up the vine.

Banil and another dwarf guard offer him a hand, then pull him to the top as the overseer says, "There are blue skies above us, and a clear path in front of us to travel down Yer Majesty. Are ya ready to explore this new location?"

King Ornir's eyes widen in wonder at the bright blue sky above him and the tall dark trees that surround him attempting to block out the sky saying, "Yes, let's continue on this wondrous expedition so we can send dwarves out to explore this place and find out where we are in the world." He looks around at their surroundings as Banil continues their journey when they reach the edge of a field that has a pile of ash and a few bones in it then says, "Is this what remains of those goblins you mentioned?"

The Overseer looks at the pile then nods his head saying, "Yes it is Yer Highness, I hope there are more of those little buggers here so we can exterminate every last one of those disgusting creatures."

The king grins and says, "Perhaps there are even orcs as well. If we want to claim this land for ourselves, we may just have to destroy every last one of them as well."

Banil hears several hoofsteps in the distance and turns to see the herd of ponies running away from something, identifying it almost immediately, and says, "Two Manticores are chasing after the herd of ponies Asulfur saved when he first came here, we should help them Yer Majesty."

King Ornir considers it for a moment saying, "Alright, let's save these ponies from those beasts, get their attention off the herd first, then charge them and cut them down to size!"