The Events of the 22nd of Opal, 1053:
"Ma'am," Dr. Bombay said, entering Paul's office. Paul was holding her baby in one hand and writing an order to ban the export of idols with the other.
"The idols are mine. All mine," Paul muttered, not looking up.
"Ma'am," Bombay repeated, more loudly. He fiddled with the scabbard of his sword nervously.
"What is it?" Paul said, picking up a felsite idol off of her desk. She made some random movements in the air with it, causing her baby to giggle cutely. "She likes barrels better, though."
"Paul, this is pretty urgent," Bombay said urgently. There was a certain sense of urgency in the tone of his voice, Paul noted.
This must be urgent, she thought. "What's wrong?" she asked him.
"There is a pride of giant lions wandering about to the east."
"Giant lions?" Paul knew to fear anything with "giant" in the name. Giant cave spiders, giant bats, giant olms. None of them were ever good. Suddenly something came to her. "There are worse things than cougars," she said aloud.
"Yes," Bombay said. "Giant lions."
"That's what the elves said," Paul recalled. When she had bought the cougar off of the elven caravan, an elf had said that to her and chuckled maliciously.
"Do you think they're behind this?" Bombay said.
"They're still bitter about the elf killings a year ago." A shadow flashed over them.
"What was--" Paul began, but General Valter burst through the door.
"The lions are moving closer!" he said. "We have to attack now or risk the civilians being killed!" Paul knew this was true, as it seemed that Dwarmin was the only non-military dwarf capable of holding his own against attacks. He had recently taken out a goblin snatcher with his pick.
"Get out there," Paul said. She knew that this was possibly the last time that she would see the soldiers.
Logbook, 25th of Opal, 1053:
The battle was easier than we thought. We won it with no casualties, but some injuries. I fear that worse will happen, though. If those elves fail, they'll try harder.
I bet they'll still come and trade with us, just to taunt us. They just want our money, the greedy tree huggers.