Elvenshore: 01 - The Dwarves of Elvenshore (12 page)

“I tried to bind Sal’s wound as best as I could, but it kept bleeding.  Soon a razor bear smelled the blood and started stalking us.  We tried to lose him but he finally caught us.  I scrambled up a tree but Sal was too weak.  I could not do anything without a weapon, so I had to sit there in the tree and watch the bear eat Sal.  I waited for the bear to eat his fill and leave,
then
I climbed down the tree and made it
to camp.

Caspin sat in deep thought, pondering the words that he had just heard.  The war that he was hoping to avoid was upon them. There intent was to destroy all but man. He finally asked. “The city, how long will it hold?”

Hardyn replied. “Just after we left Tabor, we could hear the sounds of battle.  He has a massive army and they did destroy Santera, so I don’t think that Tarlina will hold out much longer than it.”

“Is there a chance that we can catch them by surprise, while they are preoccupied with the Minotaur?” Cazz asked.

“They have patrols in every direction. Nothing moved close to the army with Tabor knowing about it," Hardyn replied.

“Let this man rest,” said Sarchise.  “It is getting
late;
we will have another council at noon tomorrow.”

Ferdin awoke Sarchise early in the morning.  “Sir, the humans are packing to leave.”

Sarchise got up at once and went to find Ermort.  The men were almost all packed when he found him.  “What are you doing?” he asked.

Ermort
looked at him with solemn eyes
, “
Obeying orders.”

“You’re leaving?” Sarchise asked.

“Yes, I am taking the most direct route back to South Fort.”

“What about us?”

“We are us. 
You and I, humans.
  You and the dwarves are not us. You are taking this prince thing too far.  Remember the Royal Scouts. You are still a commander of the scouts.  You should come with us back to South Fort. The general will have your head when you do not show back up. What are you a man or a dwarf?” He said to Sarchise, and then to his men. “Form into ranks, we are leaving.”

“I will stay where I am needed.  I cannot stay, safely within the walls of South Fort when there is a war going on around us.  Didn’t we hate the dwarf for doing the same thing? As for the general, tell him I respectfully resign my commission.”

Ermort looked at him. “It’s not that easy. You can’t put it all in a nutshell like that.” He turned to his men, “Move out!”

Sarchise stood there as the group marched past the gate and disappeared into the forest. He walked away in disgust.

The morning meal was prepared.  It was meager.  Game in this part of the forest was getting exceedingly scarce.  What was left of the bread was moldy and the cheese was all gone.  There were only a couple of strips of meat each, as the hunters had only found a few rabbits and a deer to feed the host. Two of the hunters had gone after the bear that killed Sal, but were in turn eaten by the hungry beast. It too was finding its normal food source gone.

The meeting was held in the inner wall next to the watchtower.  Caspin started by saying. “We cannot stay here, we have no food.  I will send a runner to High
Mountain telling them to have provisions for us when we get to the encampment at the elf tree.”

Cazz was upset. “We cannot leave an enemy in the forest and turn our backs to them.  They will catch us in the open.”

“We will starve here. The enemy is busy and will not follow us until he has dealt with the Minotaur. We leave in the morning.” Caspin said. With that the discussion was over.

The dwarves packed everything but their bedrolls, when the dawn came they ate a meager breakfast, packed their bedrolls, and started making their way slowly south.  Caspin set a small guard to protect the rear of the column. They were to follow at a distance.  If they encountered the enemy they were to warn the main army.  With this many warriors a journey that would take normally three days would
be four. Sarchise walked beside
Hemlot
and Cazz.  Cazz was still upset and was voicing his opinion.

“We should have gone north. We need to meet the enemy head on while they are still preoccupied with the Minotaur. The first time in decades that the dwarves come out of High Mountain, they hear that an enemy is around and make a headlong retreat.”

“Caspin is only doing what he feels best for the army, I don’t know if we could find food in either direction.  Perhaps when we get to the elf tree there will be supplies waiting for us.  I am starting to miss the dried meat.” Sarchise said.

“Only a human could miss that poor excuse for food.” Cazz replied. Hemlot nodded in agreement. Sarchise laughed.

At the end of the day the column stopped for the night.  Caspin set out patrols to warn of any danger and he did not allow fires while not under the protection of the walls of an encampment. The princes slept
together;
while the commanders took turns staying awake, to manage the patrols.

Around two in the morning,
the princes were awakened by Hemlot.  He led them to the edge of the encampment where they saw a group of seven Minotaur tied hand and foot and sat upon the ground.  T
hey were covered in blood,
I
t
was not
all the red Minotaur blood,
it was mixed with the green blood of gremlins.

Hemlot addressed his warrior. “Tell them what happened.”

The dwarf felt nervous at having the princes there but began his story. “We heard them coming through the forest and hid between the trees, when they were close to us we were able to take them by surprise and capture them.  They had been running for a long time so they were very tired and didn’t put up much resistance.”

Cazz kneeled down and looked at them. “What are you running from?”

The largest one, who had dried gree
n blood on his horn, said, “We
are from the city of Tarina, when the city fell we fled through a secret passage that the elves had built many years ago. Still, we ran into a patrol of gremlins and had to fight our way through.  There were twenty of us when we left the city.  We have run from them but they keep gaining on us and we have to fight them off just to run again.  They are not far behind.”

Cazz asked. “Did the city fall? How many of your people survived the fight? Do you have an army still out there?”

We are the only ones left.  The city was surrounded and nobody else made it out the elf door before the city was overrun.”

“How far back are they?” Cazz asked.

“We are only about an hour in front of them.”

Cazz stood up, with
alarm in his eyes.  “We must prepare, we cannot outrun them.”

“I agree,” said Caspin, then talking to the patrol.  “Put the Minotaur with Barazar and then wake the men. We only have an hour to get ready. I will put Sarchise in the middle, while I will take the left and Cazz will be on the right. An army of high dwarves will reinforce the center, and the other army will be held in reserve. Get your men up, the battle is upon us.”

Sleepy dwarves scrambled out of their bedrolls and were formed into ranks.  The brush in front of the formations was cleaned out so that the archers would have a field of fire.  Caspin sent runners to High Mountain to warn of the approaching gremlin army. He sent warriors forward so that they could warn the main body when the enemy was nearing. The ranks were formed in a matter of twenty minutes and all that there was to do was wait. 

Barazar and the other Minotaur struggled at their bonds.  Sarchise went back to see what the commotion was.  “Let us fight!” screamed Barazar.  Sarchise hesitated for a moment then got out a knife and cut their bonds.

“I don’t suppose it matter
s
anymore, we could all be very dead soon.  There are extra weapons in that wagon over there. I will put you in with the reserve.” Sarchise told them and then went back to his men. 

After standing in formation an hour and a half the first gremlins appeared out of the forest.  There were only about thirty of the green tinted creatures.  Their mouths were upturned in grins, exposing their fangs. They came forward quickly, supposing that there were only a few Minotaur to deal with. The dwarves let them
come
holding still in the darkness. Only the moon was giving light to the early morning encounter.  When the gremlins were well within range, the archers let loose a volley. The gremlins screeched as arrows hit their marks and those left standing,
retreated back into the woods.

A few of the dwarves rushed forward to finish off the wounded, and then rejoined their ranks.  “There will be no more of that do you hear me?” Sarchise yelled.  We do not break ranks for any reason!”

Over an hour later another group of a hundred approached the dwarf lines.  They were not bold like the first group, but crept cautiously forward. Dawn was just breaking and this time they spotted the dwarf lines.  As they turned to report their find to the main body of gremlins another volley of arrows sped them on their way.  There were more screeches and more gremlins hit the ground.

It was full light when the main body of the gremlin army came crashing through the woods and stopped just out of bow range.  They were not an organized army, but more like a mob. They were bending and hissing as they do before battle. They would slap their swords onto their shields in an attempt to intimidate the enemy.  But the dwarves are not filled with fear, but hate, at the sight of them.  You could see Tabor walking back and forth behind them, yelling instructions. Then with a sound of his horn they came forward.  Screeches filled the sky as more arrows hit their marks.  The dwarves emptied their quivers on them and then grabbed their battle-axes. The first wave of gremlins was mow
ed
down by the
dwarves’
battle-axes, but wave after wave followed.

At first the lines of dwarves did not falter.  But the lines weakened with each wave of attacking gremlin.  Green blood dripped from battle-axe
s
. But the short swords of the gremlins are very sharp and some of them were finding their way through the armor of the dwarves.  More and more dwarves fell with each succeeding rush of gremlin. 

They did a full frontal attack, coming forward en mass.  Sarchise held the center but the left and the right were starting to give way.  The gremlins were starting to flank Caspin’s warriors. 

A runner came up, “Caspin is grievously wounded and his commander is dead, you are now in charge of the left also.”

Minutes later another runner came up. “Cazz is wounded and being brought over here.  You have the right. “

Sarchise saw that he was about to be surrounded so he acted.  He ran back to the reserve. “Turn to face the rear.”

Upon coming to the left he had the warriors fall back so that they had the reserve on one side and the center on the other forming an arc.  He ran over to the right and had
them
fall back, completing the circle.

As the gremlins surrounded them, they could not find the rear of the army.  All they found was battle-axes at the ready in all directions.  This confused them, and gave Sarchise precious time to organize his defenses better.  The gremlins finally attacked, this time they attacked on all sides at once. The defenses held and they were
driven back with heavy losses.  But there were also many dwarves wounded and dead.  Gaps started to appear in the circle.  Tabor sent a large force to exploit a gap.  A small number of the gremlins came through into the center and even knocked down Hemlot and wounded Sarchise.  Barazar came to their rescue. Using his axe like a scythe, he wiped out the group of gremlins. He then ran off to plug anther hole.

Looking down at his arm and seeing that his wound was minor, Sarchise took off his cap and tied it around his arm.  “Step back! He yelled
,
step back until you are tight up against the warriors next to you!” They did this and the gaps were plugged. 

They were bringing the wounded to the center, but the dwarves were backing up more and more to plug the gaps that they were almost tripping on the wounded.  The healers were doing their best to patch up the slightly wounded and sending them back to the line.  The dwarves were tiring.  It was getting harder and harder for them to swing their axes at the next gremlin that came up to challenge them. Many had several wounds and the line began to falter in places.  Sarchise could see the Minotaur strengthening points that were giving out and then move on to another when the crisis was over. The bodies of gremlin
s
and dwar
ves
formed a mound around the defenders. It
added a degree of protection for
them.

The gremlins were faltering too.  They were not fighting in the large numbers that they started out.  Sarchise had a good field of view over the heads of both the dwarves and the gremlins.  He could see that the main body was marching past them. The gremlins were only offering a token fight now to keep the dwarves busy.  Then when they had passed most of the army to the south, the fighting stopped.