Chapter 1 - Year 81
"Glazedune, have you ever seen trees as huge as these?" Fountaindaubed asked with eagerness.
"Just imagine how many beds I could make from only single one these!"Glazedune glanced at Fountaindaubed and then turned her attention back to the map she was holding.
"Well, consider yourself lucky then since this should be the place we were supposed to reach. Or, at least I think it is, these old maps are pretty inaccurate.""By the way, do you mind if you could tell us one more what are we supposed to do here?" Fountaindaubed replied carefully examining her old axe. The same axe she had been using had been using to cut down trees since becoming adult. The axe was so important to her that she had even insisted to be allowed to take it with her when leaving the mountain home.
"Well, our Queen wants to spread the her influence across the world, which is worthy goal as itself. The thing is, she insists that our civilization can become more powerful through trading instead of war and military. So, she wants us to establish trade outpost to this very location. She did left all the details for us to decide, though there was one important rule which we must follow no matter what; the trade depots must be open to everybody all the time. She thinks that if we turn away even single caravan, her reputation as Mistress of Trade is ruined, which must not happen. So, we must have at least one depot which merchants can access.""But what if something happens to traders? What if something attacks us while traders are still visiting us?"Glazedune was silent for a brief moment before replying.
"For such cases there are unwritten laws. The safety of caravans is not the responsibility of outpost, though being openly hostile is not allowed. So, we only need to make sure that the traders can reach our trade depot, after that it's up to caravan to protect itself."The conversation ended and Glazedune turned her attention to the surrounding land. Their camp was located just south of small hill and northeast of small brook. Everywhere she looked she was able to see more of these huge trees. What made her wonder was lack of animals. Where had those gone? Had something scared every living being away? In fact, the only sign of life besides the dwarves and the animals they had brought with them was a group of spider webs nearby.
Something inside her mind was making Glazedune nervous. Not just the lack of wild animals, but the whole journey had "fishy" mark all over it. First of all, the name of the outpost was strange, especially when it was supposed to be trading outpost; "Deathtrap". Why and how had the nobles decided to go with such name? And why was the group she was leading called "The Wheel of Sacrifices"? That if anything was worrying. And finally, was it just a coincident that all seven dwarves were actually orphans, raised by the system? The only reason she was aware of this little detail was because her old friend, who had been apprentice of one of the bookkeepers back in mountain home and he had managed to copy some of the confidential records.
So, there they were, a small group of orphans, trying to fulfill the orders which didn't make much sense to them, surrounded by small details which could be considered at least strange. Something important hadn't been told to them, but Glazedune had no clue what it could be. In fact, she was already regretting that she had took part in this journey, especially since nobody had actually forced him to leave. After all, she wasn't one of those who loved to work all the time, to her leisure time was more important. So why had she took part in journey which was against the very nature of herself? She had no answers to that question.
And so the construction of Deathtrap, a trading fortress with name that reeked of bad omen. As the expedition leader Glazedune took over the position of construction foreman. The small opening on right north of the wagon was decided to be perfect spot for entrance, as the only possible direction to approach would be from south. Of course, to make the northern end of the opening suitable she ordered Grahar and Arlen to remove all the slopes to higher ground, as well as Fountaindaubed to clear all the trees from it.
The removal of slopes was quickly finished, after which the two miners were ordered to mine narrow entrance tunnel. At the end of the tunnel Glazedune wanted to have stairwell, which would later become the core of the fortress.
While the miners were working with the entrance tunnel, a strange incident occurred; a giant moth was flying over the wagon when suddenly it drop down, dying in the collision against ground.
"What in the name of Kil happened here?" Grahar asked after he emerged from the tunnel he had been working in.
"I have no clue. The moth just... fell and died from the impact." Glazedune answered, shaking her head in disbelieve.
"I have never heard such thing to happen. Nor have I seen as big huge moth as this one. It's gigantic!"Grahar turned his face towards the entrance of the tunnel.
"I think we must hurry and get everything inside as quickly as possible. I don't want to be hit by falling moths, especially moths as huge as this one."Galzedune nodded in agreement and then ordered everybody to return to work.
The amount of wood available was so high that everybody was astonished; not even Fountaindaubed had seen as much wood in her life. Perhaps the reason was that none of the seven dwarves had actually seen tall trees back in mountain home, so they had no idea actually how many logs each tree would result. In the end, after Fountaindaubed had cleared the area directly outside the tunnel entrance, there were so many logs scattered around that they had a hard time figuring out what to do with them. In fact, as Glazedune said,
"All these logs could support several forges for years! Where do we need magma when we have so much wood?"Of course, Galzedune was able to figure out uses for the wood; a huge wall was constructed at the southern end of the opening, narrowing down the access to the entrance. Also, the first trading depot of Deathtraps was built from the wood.
Of course, the usage of wood as material did make Glazedune a bit nervous; how would elves react when they see that the depot they would be using was built from wood? After all, elves were known to treasure wood over everything and they had even declared several wars against dwarves and humans for "inappropriate usage wood". Would elves see the depot as aggression towards them? That would be a bad thing since Deathtrap was meant to become a peaceful trading fortress, not a military fortress. But then again, it was unknown whether the elves would even visit the fortress.
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Topic: Deathtrap - It Was Inevitable! [Story fortress] (Read 1302 times)