Olag stood patiently outside the Baron’s door, waiting for the call to enter. Currently his liege was entertaining a guest, if you could call him that. All Olag could hear was the Baron’s exhausted voice trying patiently to calm down the frantic speech of Jiram the bookkeeper.
“Demons, elves, and arrows like elephants with their fucking eyes burning in the distance! The stories are true, the magna and the flames and the moniker logos infringe on copyright laws abounds! Baron I lost my damn business cards, every last one of them! CAN YOU IMAGINE!! I paid extra to make them smell good when you sniff them, that shit ain’t cheep mister!” This had been going on for quiet some time, and to be honest the bookkeeper had actually calmed down compared to the state he was in when the guards found him. He tried to kill one of them by beating him to death with a piece of cloth, claimed he was a spy from the elven monkey kings.
It was Olag’s job as the captain of Shatteredstone’s personal body guards to deal with this sort of thing, a very delicate situation indeed. A swift strike with the butt of his hammer knocked Jiram out cold and the guards who’d seem him were quickly reassigned a better post closer to home to keep their mouth’s shut. No one suspected the giant sack Olag was carrying on his back had a dwarf in it as he made his way down to the Baron’s office in the deep mines.
“Look Jiram, just settle down. There are no elephants . . .” The Baron tried to say.
“Fuck you elephant man! You don’t know them but they call with the trumpets of endless sand from the halls of rancid cankledom! The ridonkulous will inherit the earth and will praise to their kings on high the insect prince of rubbish! There will be seven . . NO EIGHT EIGHT wheels of cheese with various adornments upon them and none of them pay their taxes at all! CAN YOU IMAGINE!?”
“Olag get the hell in here and shut him up!” The Baron’s command was not fully out as Olag opened the door smacked the insane book keeper over the head with his hammer proper. It would be days before the dwarf would regain consciousness, if ever. “Thank the Gods! What in the name of the depths is wrong with him?” Olag could tell the Baron was stroking his doll behind that luxurious desk of his; he always did in moments of stress. Olag didn’t mind, whatever it took to get him through the day.
“You want me to toss him in the slag pit with the rest of the garbage M’lord?” Olag could tell by the look in the Baron’s eyes that he was seriously considering this idea. Shatteredstone shook his head no and motioned for his guard captain to toss the crazy dwarf in prison. This time he didn’t even bother with the sack and instead dragged the mostly nude and filthy bookkeeper from the room by his ankle. His face dragged against the cold stone floor leaving behind a trail of spit and blood.
From the Baron’s office he made his way through the beautiful halls of history, though he had stopped looking at the engravings a long time ago. From there he made his way into the entry hall and down the front steps of the Baron’s palace. The prison was in the lowest levels of the deep mines, which were themselves below the bustling and thriving fortress above them. Olag liked it down here; it was like he could hear the rocks heart beating so close to the center of the planet.
The citizens looked upon the captain of the guard with respect, but not fear. It wasn’t that they did not fear him; it is just that they feared The Hammerer more. To show Olag too much respect would draw the wrath of that dragon helmed arm of justice, and he did not hold it against them. Still they did make way for him and he never once had to slow his pace to wait for a dwarf to move. With his hammer leaning on his shoulder and the crazy Jiram dragging behind him he drew more than a few questioning looks as well.
The stairs leading lower into the fortress were unforgiving to poor Jiram and by the time they finally reached the prison he had very few teeth left at all. Olag motioned to one of his guards to open the holding cell. The prisoners that were already inside moved away from the cell door as they knew what happened if it even looked like they were going to try to escape.
“Uh, boss. Is he okay? He doesn’t look so good and you got a trail of blood and teeth a mile long behind you,” the guard said. Olag shrugged, which was all the answer he was going to give the guard. Taking a hint from his superior the nameless guard dragged Jiram’s lifeless body into the cell and left him there. When the cell door closed the prisons came closer to look over their new cell mate. He didn’t have anything to steal and no one was about to come close enough to the dwarf to see if he had anything hidden on his semi-nude form.
Olag rolled his eyes and said, “If he dies blame it on one of the prisoners and double his or her sentence. As far as you remember Jiram was fine when I dropped him off got it? Oh, and clean up all this damn blood before someone slips and falls down a flight of stairs!” The guard scampered off as Olag went into his own office, which was far less opulent than his lieges. Still it fit him well and he was more than happy to be where he considered himself the top dwarf.