The construction progressed quite easily, with the Dwarves and the HobMankeys working together to clean up all the debris and wreckage in the area.
By the time they were finished, the whole place was nothing more than a bald spot in the middle of the forest.
Thrain and the dwarves felt a little bit sentimental once they saw the empty plot of land that they once called home. But, it was gone now. They couldn’t take it back.
Finally, they began the construction of a wall that would be more than ten meters tall and spanned from one side of a mountain to the other.
Their village was located in a deep valley, making it a critical spot for the Dwarven Kingdom’s defenses. Many intruders would find it easy to infiltrate the rest of the kingdom once they bypassed the destroyed village.
But with this wall, they would cut off any attempts from the intruders. If they wanted to get through to the kingdom, they would have to go through the treacherous terrain of the mountains.
By constructing this wall, Thrain and the villagers would fulfill their responsibility to the kingdom, which would give them the freedom to stay in Michael’s village for the foreseeable future.
They prepared enough concrete for the project, with everything being stored on a concrete mixer installed on the back of the automobiles.
With Michael supervising everything in the project, everything went as smoothly as they planned. By the end of the second day, they were able to create a ten-meter wall that would prevent an army from easily passing through the Dwarven Kingdom.
Thrain and the dwarves were officially free from their oath!
…
…
…
Meanwhile, further inside the Dwarven Kingdom, a few dwarves were making the journey out to try and find refuge in the unknown.
Just like Thrain’s village, these dwarves also lost their homes to the devastating landslide that affected almost half of the Dwarven Kingdom.
Because of that, famine and homelessness spread around the entire dwarven community. The Capitol, where the Dwarven King resided, experienced an overpopulation that caused a lot of chaos in the kingdom.
These dwarves didn’t want to further exacerbate the problems in the Capitol, so they decided to venture outwards to find their own temporary refuge.
Although they wanted to rebuild their village, their forges and their smithing materials were all destroyed in the landslide. And even if they had their proper materials, they would all be forced to work on restoring the kingdom’s walls first and foremost before they could restore their village.
With no choice left, all the men decided to search for a better place outside their kingdom.
This group of dwarves knew that there was still another village on the very outskirts of the kingdom, so they visited it in an attempt to make contact with their village for cooperation.
But instead of seeing the remnants of a destroyed village, this group of dwarves saw nothing but an empty space in the middle of the valley.
There was no debris and no destruction scattered about as if the landslide hadn’t affected it in the first place.
“Did the Dwarven King order for this village to be cleaned?” asked one of the dwarves.
“No, he’s too busy dealing with the capitol. And last I heard, he’s allocating all workers to rebuild the wall. They don’t have enough workers to clean up this village,” answered another dwarf.
A different dwarf from the back of the group couldn’t believe his eyes as well.
“This doesn’t make sense!” he said in disbelief. “I visited this place two days ago, and it was still full of mud and debris!”
The rest of the dwarves didn’t believe his words.
“Where did you get enough ale to mess up your brain this much? There’s no way it’s possible to clean up all that mess in two days,” said one dwarf.
“No, it’s true! I was there with him, and it is as he says. There were even remnants of the village still left standing. But now, everything’s gone!”
After hearing another dwarf recount what he saw, the rest of them began to get suspicious. Slowly, they walked forward to see what became of the village that used to be on the very outskirts of their kingdom.
As they got closer, they finally saw it—a ten-meter-tall wall with a grainy white color, standing grandly between the two mountains by their side.
They couldn’t believe their eyes. Not only was the entire landslide wiped off the entire plot of land, but a giant wall suddenly spawned out of nowhere as well.
Their minds immediately tried to reason this through supernatural means, like a god of dwarves descending into the lands and constructing this wall as a form of pity for them.
After all, no human, dwarf, or creature could create this grand structure in a matter of less than two days! That would be absurd.
Just then, one of the dwarves caught sight of a simple wooden house near the wall.
Judging from the campfire lit up by its side, they knew that the cabin was occupied.
They slowly approached it until they saw a single dwarf cooking meat on the campfire and drinking some sort of beverage in a cup.
As they approached, most of them recognized the lone dwarf.
“Thrain? Is that you?” one of them asked.
Thrain welcomed the group into his cabin as if he had been expecting them for quite some time.
“Yes, it’s me. Come in and make yourselves comfortable,” Thrain said.
The dwarves all entered his cabin and couldn’t help but question him immediately about what happened to their village.
“Enlighten us as to what is going on. Why is your village gone without a trace? What happened to the others? Where did that stone wall come from?” they asked Thrain.
In response, Thrain smiled and carefully explained everything that happened to him: how he met Michael and how that human invited them all to his village in the Parched Lands.
He was forthcoming with them, telling them nothing but the truth.
After all, the very reason why he stayed behind in the first place was exactly for this encounter. He wanted to invite more dwarves to live in Michael’s village!
