The Forgotten Race

Asulfur stands beside Commander Banil at the head of a column of fifty, fully armed dwarves when he hears Banil give the orders to move out. He marches beside him as the column moves together in unison towards the stairs leading down into the tunnel, starting their journey to the new undiscovered world and lands unknown.

Shelly watches as the column moves together in rhythm as they make their way past the stairs and into the tunnel, following them as they stop at the pool and enter it one by one. The flashes of light end as the last dwarf enters the pool and vanishes from sight after one last flash, takes one more breath, then follows them through thinking, 'I'm finally coming home father, you will be so glad to see me.'

He watches as the end of the tunnel gets closer, noticing a set of stone stairs leading up towards the top. Turning his head to his friend saying, "Sir, may I escort the mare Shelly back to her herd?"

Banil looks at Asulfur and scoffs saying, "Stop calling me sir, will ya? We are not part of an army, therefore, ya don't have to be so disciplined. I thank ya fer showing respect, but go ahead and lead her home once we reach the top. The rest of us will secure the area for the craftsmen about to follow us through, we will join you on the field once they arrive.

Asulfur nods his head and says, "The stairs are a far better sight than climbing that vine, nice touch." He then continues on down the rest of the tunnel and up the stairs, hearing some howls come from a distance in the woods, and says to the others, "Get ready for some action everyone, it appears we will be getting a welcome party after all."

Shelly follows them down the tunnel when she starts to hear a strange squealing sound, followed by sounds of a fight occurring outside, and thinks, 'I sure hope that these dwarves will be okay, the fighting sounds coming from above are getting louder.'

Gesi pries her ax out of a tree after spending a few minutes killing a few dozen goblins and chuckles saying, "Here I thought this was going to be a boring arrival, I like this place already Banil!"

Banil hangs his hammer over his shoulder and laughs replying, "I wasn't expecting there to be any fighting on the first day, but at least today wasn't boring Gesi."

Shelly arrives at the top of the stairs and sees piles of wood everywhere with several small green bodies scattered around, looking to the dwarves and asks, "Food?"

Asulfur looks to the green bodies and laughs while a few dwarves look around in confusion and answer, "Blast my beard of course not, I would never want to eat a goblin." He watches in amusement as a few dwarves actually gag at the thought of tasting goblin meat.

The female dwarf looks to shelly and chuckles saying, "Of course goblins will never be food for us, they are a nuisance to us like flies, mosquitoes, and fleas are to you that crawl into your coat of fur."

The mare shivers at hearing that and says, "Pests bad."

The Master of Arms approaches Shelly with a smile and says, "Indeed pests are bad, and we intend to make sure they don't ever annoy us again one day. Are you ready to go see your herd, Shelly?"

Shelly nods her head and says, "Want herd, me miss much."

Asulfur nods and then begins to head away saying, "Okay, well come along with me then, let's get you back to your herd."

After walking a long way, they both come to a field before them. The mare moves next to the dwarf with her and sees her herd grazing in the field before them, feeling happy they survived, and begins to gallop towards them.

A male stallion watches for any threat to the herd, spotting a lone mare heading towards them. He trots off to meet the new arrival, curious as to who she is and where she comes from.

The dwarf stands and looks around at the scenery, watching for any dangers to the herd when he notices a strangely colored spot of grass and heads over there to look at it.

Shelly notices her father is not leading the herd anymore and slows to a walk, wondering where he is, and begins to introduce herself in their wordless language.

Asulfur spots a small carcass and investigates it, spotting a head lying beside the corpse. Recognizing it as the pony that sent the mare to check him out that one day, he notices that his coat color is similar to Shelly's and sighs saying, "I sure hope that you aren't her father because she is going to be hurting if you are." He then hears someone shout no, followed by a pony braying, and turns to check it out to see that Shelly is fighting the other pony for some reason. He is about to make his way towards the two when the other pony goes down, returning to its feet, then scampers away from Shelly back to the herd. He chuckles saying, "Guess she wears the heavy pants of leadership now."

She is upset to find out that her father tried to protect the herd and became food for a predator, huffing in irritation at how the stallion tried to mount her. She notices the herd looking at her curiously, then makes her way towards them to inform them about what she has learned in her time with the creatures.

He hears the sound of marching feet and looks up to see the dwarves marching into the field with the craftsmen behind them, then rises to his feet and makes his way towards them.

Banil looks at the herd as the mare named Shelly is with her herd, which every single pony is looking at her. He looks to Asulfur and says, "Well, the craftsmen are here with us now, so let's look for a place to set up camp."

Asulfur nods his head and says, "I think there may be a stream or a river around here, or else the herd would not return here. Let's all start looking around for one around this vast field, what do you say commander?"

He looks to him and nods his head saying, "Sounds like a good plan to me, 40 of ya head in a direction and begin searching for a water source. Go in groups of five, you craftsmen stay close to me with the other ten to ensure you are not attacked by more goblins."

Asulfur looks to Gesi and asks, "Do ya feel like going scouting with me Gesi?"

She looks to him and nods her head, then selects two others and says, "I wouldn't dream of missing a chance to explore this land and find out where we will be setting up base camp."

Shelly manages to convince her herd to give the dwarfs a chance, then starts to lead them towards the ones staying behind. After they get to the group of dwarves, she cocks her head and says, "Where go,? Need food?"

Banil chuckles and says, "Not yet little one, they went to find water first. We will build our campsite near it, then the others shall come over with our belongings when it is done."

It takes an hour of walking and looking for a decent spot when Gesi finally spots it saying, "Hey Asulfur, there is a small river right over here that would work just fine."

Asulfur returns to where she is after looking at an apple tree, carrying five apples in his arms saying, "Take a look at what I found Gesi, think fast!" just before tossing one of them towards her.

She looks and reacts quickly, catching the apple in mid-air just before it strikes her helm, and scoffs at him saying, "That almost hit me, where did you find it?"

He chuckles and says, "I found it growing on a tree a little ways from here, and there are a bunch of trees over there with even more apples growing on them." he then hands out the rest of the apples to the other dwarves and keeps one to split between him and Banil, looking back at her and says, "Let's go report our find to the commander, so we can get started on building our camp."