The Forgotten Race

The celebration lasts throughout the evening and part of the night, as King Ornir rises from his chair at the table after drinking who knows how many tankards of dwarven ale saying, "Well fellow dwarves, this is where I shall say farewell to get some shuteye." He then looks at the mare sleeping on her feet and chuckles lightly, picking her up and carries her in his arms as he makes his way to his chambers.

After walking for ten minutes, the pair arrive at their destination as the king looks for a suitable spot to set her down. Not finding a better spot, he lays her at the foot of the bed and climbs in the large bed.

The mare wakes up to feel herself on her side, resting on something soft and warm. Looking around to find herself in a smaller area next to one of the creatures, getting onto her underside and eventually rising to her hooves. Finding what she stands on is soft, her legs wobble a bit as she makes her way to the edge. With a little skill, she makes a small hop to the floor, making the sound seem louder as it passes into the areas beyond.

King Ornir yawns and rises from bed in his clothes, smiling as he sees the mare looking around and says, "Looking for the way out girl? Let me get this door for you, after that you can wander a bit."

She notices it is the leader of the creatures that she was with through the night, then begins making her way out of the area to find food.

Asulfur is heading from his room in the mine, carrying a pack of supplies over his shoulder when he spots the mare from the other day wandering through the halls and approaches her saying, "Hey girl you trying to find your way around Erebor, or maybe you just want to go outside?"

The mare cocks her head in confusion at the unfamiliar sounds the creature makes and thinks, 'I will have to find some way to understand you. But first, I really need to relieve myself.'

He chuckles and says, "Come on, follow me. I am guessing that you want to be outdoors for a while." He then waves to the dwarf responsible for opening the gate saying, "I am going out to show our guest where we live Dorfr so let us out!"

She watches as something moves and shows her a sight of a field beyond it full of food and starts to make her way towards the outside thinking, "Oh the light is such a wonderful thing to see after being in this dark place."

Asulfur follows her past the gates at a jog as she looks around at the vast field before them, with a few big trees scattered around it. Having a long stone path leading to the city of Dale, he looks to the pony and says, "Maybe someday you will see the city of Dale, but let's first show you where we call home." He then walks past her, tapping her lightly behind the withers, and beckons her to follow.

The mare pulls her head up from the food and chews on it a little before she decides to continue following them, grabbing a few more mouthfuls along the way thinking, 'I wonder why are they getting me to follow them, where are they taking me?'

He stops a fair distance from the mountain and stops, then turns around and glances at her saying, "Well girl, stop and take a look behind you."

She stops and looks at them curiously, noticing the creature is looking at something in the distance behind them. Curious, she stops and turns her head around to look behind her. She doesn't understand at first until she notices the difference near the bottom of the massive land surface, she looks back and forth between the creature and the land in wonder at how they managed to survive under the surface.

Asulfur sits beside a tree stump and pulls out a book and a piece of writing charcoal, then begins to write down his recent experiences in it saying, "Alright girl, go ahead and eat but don't wander far. These lands have their dangers too, so stay alert."

The mare watches their movements and is curious about what they are doing, then moves to stand next to him and looks at the things in its hands thinking, 'What is this creature doing now, why is he harming that thing?'

He chuckles at the curious mare and continues to write in his book as she watches from over his shoulder saying, "With how curious you are, I must venture a guess that you have an intelligence of some sort. When we get back to Erebor, I will find out what I can teach you."

A few weeks later, in one of the mining caverns

The mare huffs as she makes her way up the path with the object connected to her, sensing something is amiss. She stops and wonders what it is and looks over her shoulder for a moment, looking all around for any danger as her ears turn in various directions nervously before considering it is safe and returns to following the path towards the very hot area. She reaches the top of the path when a thought crosses her mind, 'Why do they want me to go over this path so much with this thing behind me, what is the reason?'

Asulfur is sitting in the mining harness when he starts to hear a faint rumbling coming from below as his harness starts to sway and bounce lightly, halting mid-strike to look below him as sweat rolls down his brow thinking, 'I sure hope that this mountain settles down, all this deep rumbling is making me nervous.' He waits in his seat nervously till the rumbling stops and his harness slowly stills, his heart skips a beat when he hears the cracking of stone fill the air as he yells, "EVERYONE GET TO THE TOP, THE STONE IS CRACKING!" He hears bells start to ring out signals to pull them up, ringing his own as he sees them start to head to the top. His eyes widen as he sees a large portion of the opposite wall behind him crack in multiple places, watching in fear as many pieces start to move away from it and shouts across the cavern to them, "FALLING CHUNKS, GET OUT OF THE WAY!" He watches as a few dwarfs manage to get out of the way of the falling chunks, but others are less fortunate as the pieces catch a few of the ropes and tear a few of the lifts off their mounts, sending the dwarfs screaming and falling to their deaths. A few others are smacked aside and manage to hang desperately onto the edge of their seats and calls out to them, "JUST HANG ON AS LONG AS YOU CAN, THE DWARVES UP TOP WILL PULL YOU TO SAFETY!"

A couple of creatures are firmly holding the panicking mare, preventing her from going anywhere and potentially harming others in her flight as she thinks, 'I must run to safety, let me go!'

He reaches the top and hurries to get out of his seat and sees the panicking mare desperately fighting to get to safety, getting the last strap off, and hurries to her side to calm her down.

The mare continues to fight to get free when one of the creatures stops her head from moving and thinks, 'What are you doing, I am in danger. I must run away, let me go!'

Asulfur speaks gently into her ear to get her to focus on him, taking a few attempts before her eyes finally stop darting around and land on him. With her eyes focusing on him, he continues talking gently to her, "I know you are scared girl, so am I. The others need your help because a few of the rigs are jammed and will release the rope if we try to force them to work, you and I both have work that we must do to save the others that are still holding on down there. Please calm down and help us bring them to safety girl, too many have been lost already."

She slowly comes to her senses, stopping her struggle to get free as she focuses on the one talking, realizing it is the one that took her outside a few times. After a few seconds pass by as she attempts to imitate them, "Oooo, aaae."

He stares at the mare, completely dumbfounded at hearing actual sounds come from her mouth. A few moments of silence follow as he cocks his head and says, "Uhm...are you attempting to speak?"

The mare cocks her head in confusion and repeats the sound, "Ooo, aaae?"

Asulfur blinks his eyes and shakes his head and says, "We will worry about that later, for now, let us begin to save the others hanging on for dear life."

Thinking she is making progress, she follows them across the surface and makes the sound again, "Ooo, aae."