Weekends seem to be the easiest time to write these days... well, here's the next bit of the tale. I'm going to try to get another update done tomorrow.
"Ah, hello Mosus." Alath looked up from his desk as Mosus came in. "Please, have a seat."
Mosus came in and sat down. He looked grimly at the four engravings at the back of the room... they were made when the office was still his. But this was not a time for nostalgia; there were important things to discuss. "How's the fort, Alath?"
"Well, I'm still worried about the safety of the dwarves." Alath looked troubled. He leaned in, speaking quietly. "Did you hear that one of the brewers was attacked in the chasm by a batman?"
"Really?" Mosus's face betrayed no emotion. "I thought the marksdwarves had cleared it out?"
"They did their best," continued Alath, "but those blasted bird-men and bat-men flew out of the chasm and took to the air. Even after Udib dug out stairs connecting the ledges to the surface, those beasts would fly over the valley, so that our soldiers couldn't follow them without jumping off a cliff. When they went back through the tunnel to our fortress and out the back door into the valley, the fliers jump hopped back up onto the cliff! And while they were trying to chase one of these things down, this brewer got jumped by another."
Mosus was still controlling his reactions. "What happened to him? Is he all right?"
"Oh, he' fine," went on Alath. "Apparently, as soon as the batman grabbed him, he went into some kind of trance. People who were there said he got this strange look in his eyes, and started screaming bloody murder. Then he tore the batman apart with his bare hands! I'm impressed, the guy had always seemed so peaceful."
Mosus gave a tight-lipped smile. "I guess a dwarf in distress is capable of things he never imagined he could do."
"Yeah. Anyways, I'm worried about security. First of all, what do you think of this?" Alath passed over a schematic he had been working on. "It's a design for a stairway up the west side of the valley, so that our marksdwarves won't have to go all the way around through our fortress to get to the top."
Mosus looked over the diagram. "Sounds like a sensible measure. Once it's done, Lor and the other marksdwarves should have no problem finishing off those last few cave swallowmen."
Alath beamed at Mosus's approval. He went on. "Also, I'm worried about frontal assaults. Our fortress population has reached seventy-nine. That's a lot! It can't be too long before the goblins sniff out the wealth of Authorgilt and siege us! So I want to cover our front entrance with traps."
An image came into Mosus's mind, an image of Slicer and Dicer standing behind rows of traps, sadly denied any combat while goblins were cut to ribbons in front of them. He could almost imagine Slicer's sadness. "Well, Alath, I don't know if that's such a good idea. After all, we can't put traps over our roads, nor can we build them on the drawbridge."
Alath frowned. "But... we've got to do SOMETHING! I mean, right now an ambush party could sneak right up to our front door without us noticing!"
Mosus almost smiled. A plan began to form in his mind. "Oh, you're right!" he cried, trying his best to sound saddened and hopeless. He wasn't much of an actor, but it seemed to be enough to fool Alath. "There's nothing we can do! The goblins won't leap from hiding until they have something to attack! And what would they attack besides dwarves?!"
"Yeah, it's a real problem..." muttered Alath. He was a bit confused at this sudden outburst of emotion.
Mosus had hoped Alath would answer the question. He'd need more prodding. Mosus put on his best woe-is-me face, and continued. "Yes! They slaughter us, plunder our treasures, even KILL OUR LIVESTOCK. Oh, it's such a shame that they ATTACK OUR ANIMALS. And they don't come out from hiding until they're close enough to attack! If only there was some way to trick them into attacking too early! Before they came in and KILLED OUR ANIMALS!"
Alath looked at Mosus strangely. Slowly, he began to get an idea. "Heeeeeey... Mosus... I'm not sure how, but... maybe we could trick them into attacking early with some animals?"
Thank Armok, he had finally gotten it. "Oh, excellent plan, Alath! We'll tie up some of our livestock, animals we'd end up slaughering anyway, to ropes far from our front gate. We'll tie up three, one to the north by the hills, one to the south by cheesemaker pass, and one to the east by the edge of our road. Then any attacking ambush parties will reveal themselves to kill the chained animals, giving us warning! Oh, your idea will make the whole fortress safe!"
"Well, thanks..." Alath seemed a bit unsure of himself. "But, um, was that really my idea?"
"Of course it was! Quite a clever one too! If there's nothing else you need of me, I'll go distribute the orders immediately!"
Alath began to look more confident. "Well, I... yes, I suppose it WAS my idea. Yes, you go and distribute those orders." He leaned back in his chair, smiling.
Mosus left the room, the false emotion melting from his face as he turned from Alath. Sometimes you really had to throw subtlety to the wind to put an idea in that dwarf's head...
And so it happened that, on a fine summer morning, Mosus and Alath stood on lookout hill, watching a craftsdwarf tying up the decoy bull in the north. And as he tied the bull at its post, far from the front gate, a squad of goblin ambushers lept from hiding and charged him with a wild howl.
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Topic: The Tale of a Sensible Dwarf (Read 11061 times)