Hearth Fire

Rugiel collapsed exhausted onto her bed, grime in all. Bauru forcefully fed her as she tried to sleep. Stronric set down the makeshift pack made from bundled spider parts and leather straps. Inside were the soldier spiders’ poison sacks, mandibles, and legs. After stripping off his pauldrons and setting down his equipment, Stronric filled a tankard and drank deeply. The day of fighting had been very fruitful.

Stronric finished the day at level sixteen and Rugiel had matched Bauru’s level twenty-five. During a previous break the group wondered how they were leveling so fast. They had concluded that the larger spiders were likely a much higher level and the vast numbers of the small spiders made up for their lower experience values. They had killed so many spiders that each new wave of spiders became weaker and weaker. Stronric started to wonder if the spiders had learned to quit sending their denizens to die.

What the party didn’t expect was how exhausted Rugiel became after each episode of fighting. Her fatigue limited Stronric and Bauru’s ability to gather materials from the rooms. They weren’t too upset though, leveling was their first priority and they could collect the supplies and materials tomorrow. Now that the siblings were both level twenty-five they could sort through the various goods in each room while Stronric continued to farm experience by fending off the spiders. They had looked within some of the rooms and knew which they would like to go back to. Stronric ensured every room was locked before they went back to camp for the night.

Bauru stretched and groaned, his sore muscles and joints ached.

“Wasn’t planning on leaving our little home tonight, but ye and Rugiel need to soak your bodies, or ye’ll be useless in the morning.” Stronric said. “Help me get yer sister up and let’s go up to the pond.

After a short fight with a sleepy and cranky Rugiel, the party was ready to run to the pond with their soiled goods. They were not looking for a fight as they left so Stronric threw Rugiel over his shoulder and Bauru carried the backpack and gear as they quickly slipped out of the office, locked the door, and ran up and out of the tunnels. Once at the pond, Bauru set the dirty items into piles belonging to each person then headed back for the entrance. Stronric deposited the mostly sleeping Rugiel into the cold pond and sprinted for the exit. Rugiel’s curses damning him to the nine hells echoed off the walls while he chuckled to himself as he left

Stronric let Bauru wash next, deciding to go last would give him time to check on his mushrooms. The pond lay inside the cave on the outskirts of his small mushroom field. Beatrice joined him shortly and became supervisor, baahing and stomping her hoof when he did something she did not approve of. Inspecting the small mushroom farm, Stronric could see several patches were ready for harvest. Stronric spored some of the overripe mushrooms. Allowing the mushrooms to spread naturally. He didn’t try to control where the spores landed because he knew those landing in fertilized areas would grow well and he could translocate those that didn’t later.

Stronric was tending to some larger mushrooms when he noticed two were different shades of gray. “Do these look different to you, old nan?” Stronric asked Beatrice. The goat inspected the mushrooms, let out a “baa” and nodded her head.

I need to purchase lights. I don’t want to suffer from cave blindness. Bauru should be fine since he goes outside to tend the animals, but I don’t think Rugiel has gone outside of the hold since she has arrived. This could be bad, cave blindness is painful when healing. When we head to town, oil and wicks will be at the top of our list.

Stronric harvested two of the mushrooms, one from each variation. I will need to inspect these when I have a light. We will need to identify them and work out which are edible. The old world had many different types of mushrooms. Some were poison, while some had healing properties, others were simply used for dyes. I wonder if I can purchase a book on local mushrooms, but then again why would surface dwellers catalog mushrooms in the mountain unless they were mad. Tho I have heard of herbalists who gather exotic plants for potion making. Learning that this world had powerful concoctions like healing potions, it wouldn’t surprise me if there were elixirs for everything.

Stronric heard the slow dragging steps of Rugiel making her way back to the front of the cave. She dropped her heap of now clean items into a pile on the nearest rock and laid beside them. Stronric could barely make out a mumble that sounded like, “I’ll wait here.” Before her breathing became deep and steady. Stronric just shrugged and went back to his mushrooms, knowing Bauru was next to wash. He continued making his way down the rows and counted mushrooms that were ready for harvest. Not long after Rugiel exited the cave Bauru followed, sitting down and calling to Stronric that his turn was up.

Stronric made his way to the pond, relaxing as the cool water soothed him. As he floated in the water he reflected on past days.

I’m a fool, forgetting to teach the young dwarves of cave-blindness. Dwarves are taught at a young age to avoid perfect darkness for great lengths of time. The eyes over adjust and when re-introduced to light, the eyes must adjust back which is a painful process that limits one’s ability to see for a short time. I’ll make sure to mention it before bed, especially if more extended explorations of the lower levels are planned. Seeking out a healer that can create salves and those wee potions would be very helpful. They might even be able to create poisons with the deadly mushrooms or the venom sacks from the spiders. Especially if we seek to reclaim more of the mountain. So far, we’ve encountered Gobi, orcs, trolls, and spiders. I can predict more enemies will be faced before the mountain is cleansed. A healer should help prepare properly for them. But how would we find a healer without the humans in town knowing what we are up to. Maybe Bauru knows of someone from his time smuggling slaves.

If the humans from Millstone were willing to sell me out the first time, I wouldn’t put it past them to do it again. Maybe I should go into town on my own. Scout it out and then let the siblings know that it is safe for them to approach. Stronric slapped his face with both hands. What am I thinking? Hiding the siblings would be a shame to their honor. I am ashamed of myself for thinking of such a thing. They are my kin now, they are Grudge Bearers. How could I dare to tarnish their honor and my clan by hiding them. I will check with Rugiel to make sure the clan paperwork is complete then walk proudly into town with my clansman. I dare any to stop us.

Stronric willed his mind clear and set to washing himself and his gear before exiting the pond and donning his clean dry sleeping garments. He made his way back outside the cave to Bauru and Rugiel. He found both sleeping and gently cleared his throat and nudged them awake. The exhausted party made their way back down to the camp and slipped inside the warm office, locking the door behind them. Rugiel quickly laid out her wet garments before laying back down to sleep. Stronric followed suit, planning on resting his legs a bit before making dinner for the party.

The smells of cooking meat and spices woke him some time later. He sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, looking around he saw Bauru tending a makeshift spit and fire. “How long was I out lad?” Stronric asked, clearing the sleep from his voice.

“Not long an hour or two at most. Between yer and Rugiel’s snoring sleep was hard to come by.” Bauru teased, turning to smile at Stronric. Bauru had removed the hair from the spider’s legs, cut them into hand sized sections and skewered them onto sticks. He packed the ends of each with a spice blend then slowly spit roasted them over the fire. The spice infused fats dripped into the fire filling the room with the savory smell. Bauru pulled a stick from the spit and handed it to Stronric before taking another over a waking Rugiel. She looked better than before, but she still sagged with exhaustion as she smiled and thanked her brother.

Stronric sucked the spider out one end of the shoot and chewed slowly.

“Now this will put meat on yer bones!” Stronric shouted as he patted Bauru on the back as he rose to pour drinks.

Stronric returned to the fire, dropping off a tankard of ale to Rugiel and Bauru and grabbing another skewer of meat. He watched as Rugiel tore into her meal and drink with desperation.

“Rugiel, there must be something wrong with ye to be slurping down spider parts without a single respectable retort.” Stronric teased with some seriousness behind the remark as Rugiel snatched another shoot of spider.

She sucked while contemplating Stronric’s remark. She handed Stronric the tankard and pointed towards the keg to refill it. Stronric sighed but stood and refilling the tankard, grabbing more spider shoots and a few slices of pork on his way back to her. Rugiel snatched back the tankard and drank deeply with one hand and took the pork slices in the other. She took one bite of the pork, before a look of shock spread across her face as the meat slipped between her fingers and fell onto the ground.

Stronric dipped down and picked up the dropped pork. “Aye lass, what’s wrong with ye? We don’t go wasting good pork around here.” He said blowing off the dirt and ripping a piece off with his teeth.

“Stronric, I don’t need pork. The spider meat is what I need. But… that makes no sense. Meat is meat, yet I feel compelled to eat naught but the spider skewers.” Rugiel said while turning to her brother. “Bauru, do you remember your lessons on animal and beast ratings? The one before you started as the manor’s hunter?” Her gaze locked onto Bauru, hoping that some of his schooling actually stuck with him.

“Ay, of course the only classes I liked. What this gotta do with you being sick?” Bauru asked.

“What would you the meat from the solider spider?” Rugiel asked, reaching for another spider shoot. Stronric grabbed the steaming skewer before she could get it.

“Nah, ye aint eating any more of this stuff till you explain you wild ramblings.” Stronric said pulling the meat free and eating it.

Bauru moved towards the fired and placed more skewers on the spit to roast. Rugiel and Stronric were both glowering at him waiting for an explanation. “Well first an explanation for Stronric. I was taught that animals and beast don’t have experience like us people do. They run on more spiritual type energy comin from the land itself. Since they don’t have levels and such they just grow, getting bigger and bigger.” He said looking up ensuring Stronric was following. He continued to turn the meat as he said, “If they aren’t stopped from absorbing the stuff, creatures become the stuff of legends. Like those thistle bears. I was taught they were once just bears who absorbed too much energy. Thinkin bout it now, it doesn’t make much sense since we fought cubs and the cubs couldn’t really have siphoned that much energy so young.” Bauru’s voice trailed off as if he was lost in his own thought.

“Mmmm Bauru now tell him about the meat and ratings and the like.” Rugiel said while stealing another skewer and quietly sucking on the meat.

Bauru dug through his pockets and produced a length of leather. He cut it into different sized pieces. He then distressed some with his knife, rubbed some in the dirt and others he used a combination of the two acts. Soon he laid out the strips from the worst condition, very dirty and destroyed, to perfect conditions that were fit for leatherworking. When he had finished he looked to Stronric and Rugiel, “Animals and beasts can be rated like these cords. An unclassed beast would be like this piece here.” Bauru said, pointing to the worst piece of leather. “They have no spiritual energy and offer nothing besides meat and by-products to us. The next grade is E. These beasts are strong enough to pose a threat to those of us who are unclassed people.” He looked back to his spider meat and continued, “That’s what I think the soldier spiders are, class E. They must be absorbing the spiritual energy down those tunnels and since they haven’t been bothered in year they grew making them able to provide more that food for Rugiel. The rest of the classes go up from E. The full list goes: unclassed, E, D, C, B, A, AA, S, and SS. Anythin above C is pretty unheard of around here.” Bauru finished taking another bite of meat.

Rugiel beamed back at her brother proud of him.

“So Rugiel is obsessed with eating the spider meat because she’s now needed more than just food? What’s she getting from the beasts, this spiritual energy?” Stronric asked looking annoyed at yet another thing he had to remember in this world.

“I think Morgal’s Flame is drawing on my soul energy. I don’t feel weak of body, yet I feel exhausted deep within me. It’s a very hard feeling to explain. In all my years teaching, I have never heard of an unclassed person to ever wield energy, like the flames that seem to pour out of me. My flames are outside of my boundary of understanding. Mana is the energy used by mages and magic wielders for their class abilities, but I cannot guarantee that this is what I am feeling the deficit of. I assumed I would learn more when I became a class holder.” Rugiel said as she looked frustrated at not being able to explain something for once.

Stronric pondered on everything he learned. “So what yer saying is the meat recovers this weird energy for ye better. If we want to use those flames we need to go hunting for stronger and stronger beasts? That means most of our time will be devoted to hunting beast just so we can fight beast.”

“I will have to learn to use my flames more sparingly. I can feel that I am recovering naturally, but I can feel that recovery increases more rapidly the more spider meat I eat.” Rugiel said, snatching another skewer from Stronric. She made quick work of her meal and wiped her face clean. She let out a large yawn covering her mouth before rolling over to sleep. Stronric smiled as she settled into bed. It was nice to see her act less lady-like. When the two men finished eating, Stronric let Bauru sleep.

Stronric cleaned up, flipping everyone’s laundry, and built back up the fire. As he lay on his bedroll his mind started to wander. A feeling came over him like an itch needing a scratch. He tried to sleep again, but he still was unable to turn his mind off. I need to think, and I only know of one place that I can clear my mind. He quietly got up, checked on his kin then he made his way to the door. He slipped out, locking the door behind him, he turned to the corridor. A single spider stood at the bend of the corridor staring at him. The creature made no move, it simply stood swaying a little as if the monster was also in thought. Stronric left the beast alone. Mine is not the only mind occupied tonight it seems. He made his way to the stables and out of the hold. Once free of the walls of the hold he looked at the mountains around him. The night was bright with the stars piercing the black night sky. The moon was full casting cool blue light down, banishing the shadows. The snow covered land sparkled in the reflection of the night. A second moon shadowed the first, casting down its own brown-yellow hue that left the land looking malicious. The lingering shadows seemed darker like the suspicion of hosting an unfavorable friend and betrayal.

The landscape was like Stronric, bright with excitement and the beauty of tomorrow’s promises, but holding an axe in hand, ready to cut those that challenged that ideal future. Knowing that no matter how brightly the dwarves shone like diamonds, there would always be those who wished to dwell in the shadow waiting for their moment to bring them down. The wind swirled the loose snow covering the mountain side, creating a fog of sparkling ice. Stronric watched as the haze built in speed and power sweeping up the hill towards him. The power of the wind hit Stronric first, blowing his beard before the snow drifted all around him. Stronric stood like the mighty peaks behind him, unmoving and unflinching.

If Rugiel can use the flames of Morgal, I wonder why I can’t use the powers of Thoranthana. She has personally blessed me and even spoken to me the same as Morgal to Rugiel.

Stronric pulled his axe from his back and held it with two hands in a neutral position. He sucked in a deep breath and swung the axe. Slowly moving fluidly through practiced stances and attacks, he leveled his breathing and released his thoughts. He began to speed up, his feet slowly becoming a blur as he entered the dance of death. The snow rose from around his feet and streaked behind each swing mirroring Rugiel’s blue flames with icy smoke. He emptied his mind of everything except for his movements. Soon steam began to rise from his body and billowed from his lips with each exhale, but he continued to push himself faster.

What is the Hearth and Home? The thought drifted into Stronric head out of nowhere. He knew what the hearth and home was but what did it mean to him? It was almost as if the though wasn’t his own. The Hearth and Home is a vow of safety, warmth, healing and more. But what do those mean to the kin who behold those values? Stronric stumbled and fell out of his trance. What is this madness? Who is there? Was something invading his mind? Stronric searched for someone or something that was trying to penetrate into his mind. The strange thought cleared from his mind the moment he left the trance like state of mental clarity.

Although the words were not his own, the voice in his head didn’t feel foreign or malicious. The voice is my own, but why do these thoughts feel like I am being questioned instead of doing the questioning. Stronric contemplated going back into the hold and away from these mind games, but instead he stayed. Only one way to figure out why. Stronric took a steadying breath and began his scripted maneuvers. This time it took him longer to achieve a state of mental clarity. He had trouble calming his mind and emptying it. As clarity came over him the thought returned. But what does that mean to the kin who behold those values? It was the natural law and order of things. Every dwarf is willing to protect that Hearth and Home. No, no that doesn’t feel right. With crashing clarity it struck him. The oath. Thoranthana’s domain was also law! All dwarves made oaths to follow the law and protect their kin!

Stronric felt a familiar feeling spread across his face. The feeling when he made the oath to the troll, and when Morgal called him a kin killer. Warmth built up around his eyes and began to spread down his face. Stronric let out a loud barking laugh. When he felt the warmth stop, he began to feel the taxing on his body. This must be what Rugiel felt as she used the flames.

A grin spread across his face as he continued swinging his axe through each position. Martial clarity was almost instant this time, but now he could almost predict how each movement would tax his body. He noticed he could adjust his movements to preserve energy, or he could increase his speed and power. The dance of death began to spread out slowly. A perfect circle formed around him and expanded a foot as Stronric improved his form. Confident he had improved and would remember the new movements he ended the dance. He didn’t know how to turn off the new power. He closed his eyes and concentrated on ending his new power. As he searched for an answer inside of himself on how to stop it the answer came to him naturally. Stopping the new power made him weak and weary.

If this is how Rugiel felt, I don't blame her one bit.

He sucked in a deep breath between his teeth and made his way back inside of the hearth.

Checking on the siblings on last time, he laid down to sleep.

“Thank you Thoranthana, for everything, my life, my honor and most importantly of gifting me back a clan.” Stronric said out loud, staring across the fire at the two sleeping dwarves.