Tom Liberman - The Hammer of Fire

Time again passed in silence and Dol looked down at his heavy boot and then at the thick wooden door frame. He then leaned in and gave the door a little shove with his shoulder. “I’ll break it down,” he started to say just a pot-full of water came splashing down on him. “Do you think water will stop me?” he said as he stood back and looked at window frame from whence the water came. A woman peered from inside the house and over the windowsill. She held a cooking pot in a gloved right hand.

Dol shook his head and water sprayed, “Come down, I just want directions to the Five Sisters and to purchase a horse.” He reached into jerkin with his left hand, pulled out a little sack, and emptied a few gold coins into his palm, “Come on now, I have real gold. I don’t mean to harm you or your family. I need a horse.”

“What are you?” shrieked the woman and touched the pot with her right forefinger and immediately pulled it away with a shriek as she shook her hand.

“I’m a dwarf,” said Dol looking up at her with his eyebrows raised and then suddenly fingered the little amulet given to him at the last town and smiled. “You can understand me, right? Why do you ask?”

“That was boiling water,” said the woman with wide eyes and a death grip on her little pot. “Are you a demon?”

“No, I’m not a demon,” said Dol with a shake of his head which caused two more of the little apples to explode with popping sounds that accompanied the spreading of their seeds.

“Are you sure?” asked the woman.

Dol laughed, “I’m pretty sure. I’ve always had these apples in my hair since I was a boy. My grandfather was a tree shepherd.”

“Have you always been able to ignore boiling water?” said the woman.

“It probably mostly evaporated by the time it hit me,” said Dol with a shake of his head. “Please come down. I’ll pay you good gold for a horse. I don’t mean you any harm, I promise.”

The woman looked at him from the window again and shook her head, “I’ve got children here, and my husband is due to arrive home any minute. We don’t have any horses to anyway. Just a couple of mules and we need those to get in the crops.”

“With my gold you’ll be able to by ten mules,” said Dol holding up one of his gold coins to the sky.

“I can’t trust you,” shouted the woman from the upstairs window.

“I can kick in the door,” said Dol. “Or just go over to the barn and steal one of your mules. Be reasonable.”

The woman seemed to consider this for a few seconds and then ducked her head back down and away from the window. Another little bit of time passed and then the sound of a drawing bolt came from inside the door, and it opened enough for the woman to peer out, “Pass one of those gold coins to me.”

Dol immediately did as asked and she promptly slammed the door closed. Dol shook his head, rolled his eyes, turned around, and wandered in little circles around the front yard of the tidy little home. Two small flower beds decorated the approach to the front door with little yellow and red blooms while a vegetable garden was just off to the side of the house and Dol could make out strange little green things growing there. He walked over to the vegetables and stared down with pursed lips. In Craggen Steep the food was largely mushrooms and the meat of the darkling goats that flourished underground. Fruits and vegetables were a rare commodity for only the wealthiest of dwarves in Craggen Steep but they were readily available for all here on the surface. Since they came out into the world those many months ago he had acquired a taste for the tangy things.

He leaned down to touch a strange green fruit with narrow yellow stripes oblong in shape and about as thick as the width of his foot when he heard the sounds of approaching hoof beats. He turned in time to see the lead rider with long, yellow hair streaming out behind her. “Damn,” he said. Within a few seconds he was able to confirm Milli as the first rider and assumed it must be Petra right behind. They thundered up to the front door and Milli yelled out, “Hello, in the house. Have you seen a dwarf pass by recently.”

Dol stood for a moment without saying anything but then dropped his shoulders and started to walk back to the door. “Hello, Milli.”

“Dol,” shouted Milli with a broad smile on her face as she leapt off the horse, stumbled and had to put her hand on the ground, and then stood and ran over to him. “What are you doing here? We thought we’d never catch you after our last report. We were more than a day behind you. What happened?”

Dol reached up and gave one of the apples in his hair a flick and the thing exploded with a bang.

“Oh,” said Milli and reached forward to touch his hair.

“It frightened the horse and I fell off,” said Dol with a shake of his head and a wry smile. “I’ve been on foot ever since and I lost track of what direction I was headed. I tried to do what Petra taught us with the sun but it’s confounding trying to determine direction here on the surface.”

Milli laughed and so did Petra.

“Does this mean you’ll be wanting your gold back?” said the attractive young woman who stood at the now opened door with a small child clutching her leg.

Dol smiled at the woman, “Keep the coin but tell me in what direction lie the Five Sisters?”

The woman smiled in relief, slipped the coin into a pocket of the floral dress she wore, and pointed over her right shoulder towards the distance. “They’re about a week’s travel south,” she said but then took a closer look at the powerful steeds that Milli and Petra brought with them and her eyes opened widely “On desert horses like that it shouldn’t take you near that long.”

“Are there any towns between here and there?” asked Milli, staring up at Dol with a bemused smile on her face.

“At the foot of the mountains there are a several towns, Shandoria is the biggest city but it’s west up the coast a ways on the Southern Sea,” said the woman. “What are you going to do at the volcanoes?”

Dol smiled, “I am to become famous. In a few days you’ll tell people you met me.”

“Are you going to kill the fire in the mountain?” asked the woman, her mouth slightly ajar.

“The fire in the mountain?” asked Petra suddenly turning sharply to the woman. “Do you know about the elemental living there?”

“Everyone knows,” said the woman. “It’s been there for thousands of years or maybe since the dawn of time. They sacrifice to the great beast so that it doesn’t spew fire on them.”

“That will no longer be necessary,” said Dol with a smile as his hand went to the hammer at his side. “You’re an attractive woman,” he continued and took a step towards her.

“Dol!” said Milli. “Get a hold of yourself.”

Dol turned and looked at Milli with a broad smile on his face and reached forward with his blackened hand and arm, “You’re pretty good looking yourself, Milli.”

“By Davim,” said Milli and took a step back. “Are you going to be like a randy darkling goat all the rest of the trip?”

Dol shrugged, “A dwarf has certain needs and we’ve been on the road a long time.”

“The sooner you kill Gazadum and we get that hammer back to Craggen Steep the better,” said Milli.

“I’m never giving up the hammer,” said Dol his smile suddenly replaced with a grim look of determination. The weapon crackled with energy the metal hammerhead seemed to throb and glow with a deep red. The runes etched deep into it radiated a burning intensity and Milli and Petra had to look away. “With this hammer nothing can stop me, I’m invincible. Together we’ll conquer the world,” said Dol. “Bring on Corancil, bring on his armies. We’ll establish our own empire here in the south. I’ll subjugate the horsemen of The Sands and they’ll be my cavalry. We’ll return to Craggen Steep as conquerors of the world!” shouted Dol, his voice rising to a crescendo.