Michael didn’t take their weird stares for rudeness. After all, they had just experienced something traumatic. Their entire village was laid to waste in a matter of seconds, and if they were any less alert, they could have lost their lives as well.
“We have nothing to offer, but please come inside,” Thrain said, welcoming him to their safe haven.
Michael entered the nearly wrecked house of the dwarves and saw an entire village of them crammed into this very small space.
If it weren’t for their small stature, they wouldn’t have been able to fit into such a cramped place. After all, their numbers were nearing three digits!
“As dwarves, we are indebted to repay twofold what you have done for us. However, we are currently unable to fulfill that,” Thrain said, looking apologetic.
But Michael shook his head. “There’s no need to worry about that for now. It looks like you all have it rough.”
Everyone was taking turns to nibble on a single piece of bread. This was their only sustenance.
“Our pride wouldn’t have accepted that, but you are completely right. Our village is completely destroyed and we don’t have anywhere else to go,” Thrain said, sitting on the chair opposite Michael.
“Why not?” asked Michael. “Aren’t you a part of the Dwarven Kingdom? Wouldn’t they help you reconstruct the village?”
Thrain and the others let out a groan. “Unfortunately, their help would only come months and months later. We do not doubt that the Dwarven King is currently allocating all of his resources into rebuilding the walls before trying to rebuild villages in the outskirts of the kingdom.
We do not blame him. His duty as King demands him to prioritize the walls over anything else. However, this leaves us with nowhere else to go.”
The dwarves looked extremely downtrodden as they thought of what the future would hold for them.
They would be forced to relocate to a place that wasn’t ravaged by the landslide and was bountiful with resources.
However, finding this place would be an extremely hard task. After all, this country was primarily a realm for humans. Everything was already taken or conquered by them, leaving nothing for them to live in even in the Kings region.
And they couldn’t simply try to live with the humans. As demi-humans, Dwarves were not normal in their society. This was especially true because it was their race who decided to shut themselves off from humans in the first place.
So, Thrain and the rest of the dwarves would either have to search the ends of the continent not conquered by humans or take their chances overseas.
“We appreciate your help, Michael. But if we want to take our journey to the oceans, then we should better start now.
If fate so decides it, then I hope we will meet again under better circumstances so that we can repay you for saving our lives,” Thrain stood up from his chair and offered his hand to Michael.
The rest of the dwarves also expressed their thanks to Michael before they started packing their things for their eventual journey away from the Dwarven Kingdom.
But before they even finished packing, Michael faced them all and asked them one simple thing.
“If you’re trying to find a place to stay, then why not stay in our village?”
Thrain and the rest of the dwarves looked at Michael. But instead of treating him seriously, they thought that it was just a meaningless gesture by a ten-year-old child.
“We appreciate it, Michael. But it isn’t that simple. We cannot live in any human society because our customs and way of living are completely different from yours. We are also creatures of the metal, meaning that we will eventually want to recreate our own forges for smithing.
So unless your house is located somewhere far away from human society, then we will politely decline.”
Michael smiled.
“Actually…”
He began to tell them all about his village in the Parched Lands, and how they had all the water, food, and space they needed to grow a large community of Yellow Mankeys.
Thrain gave Michael a strange look. After all, his words were completely too good to be true.
First of all, he said that Yellow Mankeys populated their community, where each of them had their own jobs and duty for the village. However, from what they knew, Yellow Mankeys were creatures of simple mind.
And second, he said that the village was located in the Parched Lands. As the name suggested, it was a place that was devoid of water. But Michael said that their village had an abundance of both water and food for everyone to sustain themselves.
It wasn’t that they didn’t trust Michael, but those words were truly too good to be true.
It was exactly what they needed, as if the heavens simply rained down gold for them to take freely.
“Why not just take a visit to our village first? You are all going to journey out into the ocean anyway, right? You can take a slight detour and see the village for yourselves,” Michael said, with the rest of the dwarves starting to believe his words.
“You have no reason to lie,” Thrain pondered to himself. “And it is as you said, we are going in that direction anyway…”
He, and the rest of the adult dwarves all convened together to talk about their decision.
After a few minutes, they all decided to do as Michael said. After all, they wouldn’t lose anything if they did.
“Then, we will take you up on your offer,” Thrain replied.
“Good! I already called in for help and they would soon arrive in this location,” Michael said, looking out into the distant Kingsbridge City.
“Ah! Michael, you have a carriage we can borrow?!” Thrain asked expectantly.
This elicited a bright expression on the dwarves. After all, with a carriage, they wouldn’t have to waste their energy walking great distances.
“I hope you brought quite a strong horse. We dwarves are quite hefty, haha,” Thrain joked.
Michael awkwardly scratched his head and said. “Well…it has horsepower, that’s for sure.”