Chapter 15: Chapter 15

Elijah had been traveling for awhile already. After he explored the cave fully, he left the cave and climbed the rest of the way down. He did find three weapons in the cave but he only took two- he was not going to carry a mace he wouldn't use. Instead he found two daggers that he had no idea what they did, but showed in his Equipment section as 'dagger??'

When he left the cave, he saw it was night once more, so he slept in the ravine. Rising in the morning with the sun shining on him, he stretched and mumbled to himself with a lazy smile "this is the best day ever," before stretching and releasing a huge yawn.

Then he ate and started walking down the ravine while looking for anything that might resemble a residence belonging to a dwarf.

He spent several hours looking, not bothering to hide himself. He'd traveled nearly forty kilometers before he found a dwarf.

At least this time it was alive.

He approached the dwarf, sauntering over while occasionally bouncing from one rock to another.

Then the dwarf spoke in a language Elijah didn't know. Elijah could read the runes on his chest piece of armor though, and it read "(the) Watch", so he decided he was probably a guardsman, asking for his name and purpose.

"Afternoon," Elijah greeted, raising his left hand, "names Elijah, here on a field trip!" He started cheerfully.

The dwarf paused, then stated in english "yarr the second weirdest cat au've seen, first be'in them lungless down yond."

"Nice to meet you too," Elijah replied. "Is this a city?"

"Aye," The dwarf nodded, "ya lookin'ta enter? Cost ya a copper."

"Any change by chance?" Elijah asked, fetching a silver from his pack.

"Aye, holdamin" the dwarf said, getting out his own pouch. As he fetched for copper, he asked "wha don'ta traveler suchaser self hava pouch?"

"Incase a turd tries to take a dump in my sack," Elijah replied in Cant.

"What?" The guard asked, eighteen copper pieces in his hand.

Elijah swapped the contents and walked forward. He was met with an elevator of some sort.

"Neat," Elijah said. He looked for anything that might lead him down; a button, a lever, maybe even a hand scanner. Instead, the elevator closed by itself and started descending. "Neat", Elijah repeated.

After a few long minutes of waiting, the tug of descent a constant and the boredom and nausea it brought with it unreal, the door behind Elijah opened once more, revealing a massive cavern with poor lighting.

It was a hive of constant movement and noise, regulated humidity and air circulation keeping the place livable as the running lava everywhere made the temperature rise sharply.

Dwarves and a few other races walked to and fro casually, going about and crafting any manner of creation imaginable. Elijah could even spot some poorly designed guns.

Stepping out of the elevator to hug the ground and trying to keep the food in him from going out, he felt extremely uncomfortable physically. After adjusting, he stood up and started walking around, exploring. Maybe they had a hot spring somewhere.

Like over there, Elijah thought as he walked into a store only to come out almost immediately, horribly mortified.

It seems, Elijah thought wryly, that they were not expecting customers.

He kept searching until he found a promising place that read 'Hot Walter' in the runic language that he was fairly certain was Dwarvish.

Opening the airtight doors, he was assault by a blast of stream.

Very promising, he surmised.

It was indeed a bath house. After spending three hours and two copper, he came out refreshed and ready for sleep, but he had something to do before that. He searched for an inn, touring the city on his way and getting many strange gazes. This time he quickly found an inn called 'DrinKIng bReard', which he promptly entered, the doors being wide open. He found another dwarf at the counter, who cut a unique figure- red beard in braids and bald head, dressed in uniform brown clothes, and scars across the back of his head, which Elijah noticed as the dwarf's back was turned to him, busily cleaning glasses with running water. Elijah was relieved it wasn't the cliche where he spat in the glass.

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"You look like you've been prepared by the swinger" Elijah greeted. (Translation:You look like you've nearly been executed)

The dwarf turned around in surprise, and looked at Elijah with wide eyes. Then his expression turned turned into a gentle smile.

"Fledgling, ah hadn't met one so young as ye, nor hadah expected to in a place so... 'grounded'. Tell me, how long ye bin' a brother?" The dwarf recognized the Cant. He was a Rogue.

"Some days," Elijah replied, going over and sitting down on the floor and leaning on the counter. "I've something to share," he leaned in closer.

The dwarf raised his eyebrows with a surprised "oh?" And leaned forward too.

"What are those cats called down the ravine?"

"Them ones with the long ears and no noses? Call'em lungless round 'ere. So?"

"There's around a thousand nocked in a mound."

The dwarf looked shocked. "Really? Ye tell no lie?" 

"I suggest, if the sleeping have any use, that you send one to gather them- they've been laying for near two days."

"In the sun?" he asked.

"No in the cave," Elijah replied.

"Blessed be Eah's head! Ye've made a killin'! Even if they came a year from, they'd be fresh enough ta f***!"

"They last that long?" Elijah asked, intrigued.

"It's why they be a right bite outta the a** when tryn'a kill- resistant to all sorts, and the only thing they go' a true invulnerabili'y to bein' a physical poundin'. Makes for a right scare, seein' They nary leave a nest 'cept some two or twenty to go on a hunt. Sluggish in tha' sun and ro' faster, but in the dark an'ya better cry to mother Shade that you're on her good side. How'd ya accomplish i'?"

So Elijah explained in detail-except for the whole 'I'm bored so lets be stupid' part.

The dwarf muttered "so easily... I'm- at'a loss," he sighed then bent down to retrieve something underneath the counter.

"Ye did well comin' ta'tha'hide n'not some guard-doghouse. They be stingey, payin' in coin an'all. Here we pay right proper- in items. 'Ere-" he said, coming out from underneath the counter, "a pair any rogue should 'ope for," and he plopped two pieces of clothing on the counter, one a pair of boots and one a pair of gloves.

"What are they?" Elijah asked.

"Thievery gloves an' elven boots. One 'elps the the hand not get caught, the other helps no' gettin' caught in general. Takes three 'ells to make."

Elijah collected his new magic items, putting them in his pack, and waited as the dwarf went behind a door for some private Business.

When he came back, Elijah asked "what do you know about the lungless?"

"Came 'ere round three centuries ago, attacked the clan an' set'led close by. I'd say they're some magic bastard's mistake. Been a nightmare 'avin' such'a neighbor. Can't believe ye've killed'im."

Elijah and the dwarf talked some more, getting to know each other. His name was Braen of Ironbar, the alchemist and brewer.

Elijah ate a meal and slept in a bed for five copper. It was much cheaper than Durm, but it was an inn in the middle of a city in the middle of a mountain range in the middle of nowhere, and not a frontier city, so that might have had something to do with it. The inn mostly made coin from selling drinks, and the available rooms were less important for business.

When he reached his bed, he checked his status before sleeping.