Hello Misty, the father says. Yes, you're more than welcome to walk with us.
The introduce themselves; his name is Neb, a beekeeper, his wife is Deler, a waxworker, and this here is their son, Rovod. It's always nice to meet another farmer - you're a cheesemaker, right? You were shouting about cheese back there, but he just wants to be sure.
You nod your head and say, yes, I am a cheesemaker!...well...you've never actually MADE a cheese wheel before, but you're enthusiastic to start!
Deler speaks up and says, well, it's wonderful that you're so excited to join the noble field of farm work! Rovod here says he wants to be a metal worker when he grows up, can you believe that? He has such a rich heritage of farming behind him and he'd rather hit things with a hammer! Can't be helped, she laughs. Sometimes you just have to let your kids choose their own paths.
You nod pensively and think about your dumb dad back at the mountainhome. You can agree with her on that.
Oh, you say, I was wondering, I'm a bit unfamiliar with the surrounding countryside. What was that ruin we just passed through? And do you think you can tell me about that weird tower up ahead?
Neb raises his eyebrows in surprise. You don't know, he says? That ruin dates back to the Elf-Dwarf war!
Yep, it used to be an old fort that worked as a river crossing and as a checkpoint. Back then, the elves had actually managed to push us so far back that they'd taken the fort! It was a bloody battle, with their archers and Dyrads twisting nature itself to tear the thing down brick by brick. Damned elves; they won't hurt a tree, but they'll slaughter a dozen dwarves with one and gorge themselves silly on the poor souls.
Now it's just a pile of rubble; too damaged to man, not important enough to repair. Each year it crumbles a bit more.
As for the tower, well...we don't really like to talk about that. Tale is that a crazy necromancer lives up in that thing, doing ghastly and terrible things with the dead. Built his blasted tower right on top of an old tomb, where those who met Armok during the war were laid to rest. If you ask me, we should tear the thing down and put those bodies back in their coffins...but the Queen says she we shouldn't be makin' MORE dead just to save those who are ALREADY dead. She's got a point, I suppose, and it ain't like that loon is hurtin' anybody up in his crazy little tower. Don't mean I gotta like it, though.
Yep! That's all there really is to say about that. Anything else we can help you with, lil' Misty?
Poll
Author
Topic: The Littlest Cheesemaker - Updated 12/07/2022 (Read 1861149 times)