The war had raged for near 40 years. Not a great span of time as we Dwarves recon it, but against these beasts it may well have been a thousand. Goblins had fought our ancestors in ages long past. But their cowardice had poorly prepared us for the hordes we now faced.
Tigermen they were, and white as the snows they flowed from, as steady as any river. For every Dwarf that fell in combat against them, we slew five. But to no avail, for even as they fell in fives so too did they rise up in fives and five more against us. In the first years we had fought with unbreakable confidence, our valor matched only by the shed blood of our foes. Our Kings, warriors all, led the charges against the enemy, and each fell in battle in little more than a year. Indeed have we had nearly 40 kings in this long and haggard war and generals with them.
Our strength failed, our mountainholds were overcome and no survivors were known to us. At last we held to one single stronghold, that of Boatwilts, high in the mountains. Here did all that we were prepare for what we knew would be our last stand. Our courage had been beaten and scoured and now hung like Thin Rags upon us. But not all courage was lost, nor all valor defeated.
The young King, Rith Shovedmanor, knew that the battle was lost, knew that none would survive, that the name of our valiant and courageous people would be lost to the wind and remembered only in tales of despair. He knew well that we would each and all fight to the end of our very race, even to the last child hefting the axe of his fallen mother. This he would not allow. Now he gave us a different command.
We were to flee. Flee into the hills, into the caves, into the very pits of hell if it were all that were left to us. Flee from our utter destruction that the world might one day know our people again as the wardens of cunning and wealth and power as once we had been.
Grumbling did we go, carrying all that we had with us, not knowing where or when or even if our journey would end. Naught but Rith himself and his general, Reg Riddlepaged, were to stay behind, guarding the passage of our escape. None know in truth of that last battle, there in the tunnel, but not a Dwarf who lives would speak of it differently than this: The pair of fearless defenders fought for two days and nights, gleaming in the steel armor of their fathers, slaying more than all the kings and generals who had come before and, with their last defiant breath, destroying the fortress itself and all the foes who remained within.
We who fled took with us all that remained of our great people, armors and weapons of all-surpassing craft, trinkets and toys of a time when peace reigned, and even the last of our wealth, ten emeralds from the conquered mountainhomes. We wandered for many years, facing hardships and trials, beasts and men, cold and famine. Many fell in battles against dangers unknown. Many more fell away to the side, hoping to start anew in lands hidden from the Tigerman's eyes. But this was not to be and many who had left the everwandering came back telling tales of surprise attacks by creatures and foes unprepared for.
Finally we came to a valley, long and narrow, secluded from all sides and watered by a bright mountain river. Nearly all who remained with the wandering now wished to remain here, having grown weary with a tiredness beyond fatigue. Our warriors had fallen, the great works of our ancestors lost. So many who had started out with us had been lost along the way, it seemed then that if we did not stop our endless journey we should come to the same end as Rith had sought to save us from. And so we settled there.
Some who feared still the Tigermen, now across the mountains (for we had crossed them) thought that we were doomed to destruction, that we would be found out and all the Mountains would be filled with the Rage of our enemies.
But Bembul Scouredsteel, who had long been our leader, answered them: "If our enemies of old are to discover us, let us then be worthy of that discovery! Let us make ourselves such a place here, amid these hills of marble and granite, that when they come with blood in their eyes, we shall turn aside their wrath and show them the rage of the mountains! We will braid their manes with the blades of our hatchets!"
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Topic: Mountainrages - Of Granite and Marble (Read 915 times)