Chapter 39: The Journey

Chapter 39: The Journey

“Alright Balin, give me your hand.”

“Ugh, how aren’t ya tired yet Pete?”

“Easy, my vitality is seventeen.”

“That’s disgustin’, how?”

“I’ll tell you later. Focus on climbing.” I pulled and yanked Balin up on the boulder with me. I turned around to look at our goal. Only another hundred meters or so to go.

We’d found a section of road that had gone around a large... hill was the correct word, but mountain felt more appropriate now. We’d figured that a climb over the ‘hill’ would save us several hours of travel.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

“Watch it!” A rock slipped as I walked and bounced towards Balin’s head. He swore and ducked underneath it.

“Barck’s beard, Pete! This was a terrible plan!”

“You agreed to it!”

“It looked easy from down below.” Balin muttered, as he struggled to draw in breath. Balin’s vitality wasn’t nearly as high as mine. An increase of five worked out to be roughly a one and a half increase of the lower value. That meant the climbing was hard, but without several bags of ore the actual effort was pretty much a cakewalk. For me, anyway.

“Aye, but think of the view we’ll get from the top!” I trudged upwards, while this time I ensured that my feet were on steady stone before I took each step.

I waited for Balin at the top and we crested the hill together. The ‘horizon’ stretched before us; we were even higher than the ridge at the mining camp. This hill was about halfway to Minnova, but most importantly... the main highway lay directly beneath us.

A few other travelers and carts were on the road, even this far off from the city. We were high enough that they looked like ants from here. I shuddered slightly at the thought of ants and turned to Balin.

“Do you need to rest for a bit?”

“Aye. Gimme a moment. I need a drink.”

He grabbed his flask and took a deep drag.

“You know, water would probably be better in this case.”L1tLagoon witnessed the first publication of this chapter on Ñøv€l--B1n.

“Did ya bring any?”

“Eh... no.”

“Me neither.” Balin groaned. “We do have lots of beer though. Nice of Bran ta do that fer us.”

“Alcohol isn’t that great for dehydration, it’s a diuretic.”

Balin sighed as he took the flask away from his lips.

“Pete, if you want ta keep a low profile, ya shouldn’t be usin’ words like ‘diuretic’.”

“Hmmm... that’s a good point.”

“What’s it mean? Alcohol gives ya tha shits?”

I chuckled.

“No, it means that your body uses a lot of water to flush out the alcohol. Do you know anything about the liver?”

“Nah, just a few oddballs. There’s more of ‘em in tha capital.”

What surprised me the most though, was the sheer variety of bodies on display. Yes, they were mostly gnomes and dwarves, but they were nearly as varied as humans back on earth.

There were black and brown skinned dwarves, and some with pink or green hair. I saw one black-skinned warrior with a massive broadsword walk by who had a freaking afro for a beard. He met up with his party and high-fived a gnome who looked like the evil wizard from a kung-fu movie, complete with east Asian features and a fu-manchu. There were tall dwarves, short dwarves, dwarves in armor, dwarves in robes, and dwarves that were nearly naked. A dwarf had passed by wearing nothing but a loincloth and an incredible series of tattoos. I think he caught me staring, because he winked and wiggled his butt as he walked away.

“Balin,” I pitched my voice low and asked the burning question on my mind. “Why were all the dwarves in the mining camp white?” I’d gotten used to the basic whitebread beard combo from the mine, but I’d been sorely mistaken thinking that dwarves all looked like that.

Balin shrugged, “Crackian dwarves are mostly pale skinned with dark hair. The city has all sorts though.”

“Why would dwarves have dark skin when they live underground?” I watched the afro-bearded dwarf as he walked off into the distance.

“They’re from South Erden, near tha equator. Down there they actually live on top o’ tha mountains, and it gets hot. They’re mostly here for tha dungeon. Greentree is a good dungeon fer new adventurers.”

I thought back to Opal’s lessons.

“There are three inhabited continents, right? North Erden, South Erden, and Drakken?”

“Aye, though only dragons live on Drakken.”

“We focused on North Erden in my lessons... South Erden is mostly savannah, right?”

Balin nodded, “and full o’ some of tha scariest animals in tha world! Some of those beasties can even kill monsters!”

“Are there lions? A big yellow cat with a giant fuzzy mane?” I asked excitedly. I loved lions, and they took second place on my ‘coolest animal’ list to the all powerful moose.

“Sort of. There’s pinsirs, which look like big mountain cats. They got six legs, stripes, and a mohawk.”

“Whew, sounds nasty.” It wasn’t a lion, but it might do.

Balin clapped me on the back. “We’ve faced a stoneant swarm! Ya won’t find anythin’ nastier outside of a dungeon!”

We eventually hitched a ride from a passing cart full of faintly rotting cabbages. It was driven by a crotchety gnome named Gimbletack, no wonder he was crotchety, and he had been willing to give us a ride into town for a couple of coppers. Balin said it would be nice to walk, but I was itching to enter the city I’d only seen at a distance. Minnova was still a fair ways away, through gullies and over small hills, and I just didn’t want to be stuck walking all day. I enticed him with the prospect of seeing Annie even a few hours sooner.

Gimbletack was a terrible conversationalist. I tried coaxing some smalltalk out of him, but it always ended in disaster.

“How long have you been a cabbage farmer?”

[Translated from angry toothless gnome] “I have been cabbaging longer than you prime specimens of dwarven youth have been alive.”

“Wow. Is it fun?”

[Translated from angry toothless gnome] “It is about as fun as this conversation, you handsome and intelligent dwarf.”

“Do you take cabbages to any other cities, or just Minnova?”

[Translated from angry toothless gnome] “If you ask me any more questions I will most certainly make you walk.”

That was about the gist of any conversation, except with a lot more gummy swearing. Thankfully, the cart ate up the kilometers, and we arrived at the outskirts of Minnova well before evening. Balin fell asleep partway through, but I was barely even tired and I was too excited. We went up a small rise, and there it was: the city of Minnova.

Even from over a kilometer away, the walls rose up into the sky. They stretched for several kilometers to either side, and I could see hundreds of plumes of smoke from cook fires and forges. The center of the cavern was several hundred meters above us, and an enormous purple crystal embedded in it poured light into the cavern. A few clock towers and several steeples peeked over the wall; the bustling sounds of the city were audible even from this far away. I took a deep breath and inhaled the scent of civilization; it was glorious.

I shook Balin, who was gently snoring; he awoke with a yawn. “Hey, you, you’re finally awake! Look, we’re here!” I quipped.

“Aye, we made it, Pete.” Balin sat up and looked around. He smiled as his eyes fell on the approaching walls. “There it is, our new home. Tha city of Minnova.”

[Translated from angry toothless gnome] “You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”