5th of Sandstone, 132: The Sealing of Dragonlord The Ancient Bloody Age of Artifice (whos idea was to have such a long name anyway?)
Well, dear journal or eventual reader, today is the day we seal ourselves from the world. The first set of doors are locking today, and they will not open again in many years. Some may die before they are reopened. This is for the betterment of our people, and the metalcrafter's death proved this. I stand here now, staring into the setting sun only a few hours before the sealing, with my son in my arms. And we're standing at my usual thinking spot. No longer will we watch the sun set. No longer will I think here. I show him the sun one last time and walk back into the outpost. The gate seals and I watch as sunlight is purged from our great halls. We're all on our own now... Locked away from the world. Everyone is inside and my wife cannot bear to watch the gate close on us all. We're scared and yet relieved at the same time. We heard stories of dwarves that live underground for centuries and then emerge allergic to the sun and bug eyed, only used to the low light of the caves. The second set go up, reinforcing the defense we're taking. There are sounds of mechanisms locking in place, making sure we stay where we are... underground. My son, I'm so sorry you cannot remember the sun now, but I will teach you the ways of war, so you may retake the surface with your generation and your kin. I may die before the gates ever reopen, but you will live for sure. You will reclaim the surface and make this place the mountainhomes of the last dwarves in existence. Soon after, you may move away and make more outposts like this one, but you will always remember the halls you grew up in. You may become a greater warrior than I ever was or will be, or even greater then Serrak, but today, we hide, we wait. You are the firstborn of the last dwarves, and you shall become their King when they retake the surface, for you were born before we shut ourselves away. you alone of your generation will remember what it felt like to feel rain oon your skin, to feel snow on your face, and to feel the wind blow. You watched the world go by as your mother held you under the shade of trees on her break, and you grasped at the leaves tat fell close to you. Only you alone will remember these that no other child or anyone born after you will remember. You shall become a great dwarf someday, but today, we weep as the rest of the world is taken from us... You will ember the sorrow of the dwarves before anything else, for it will be here when you can walk on your own two feet... Armok have mercy on us all...