Chapter I: Sneaky ghoulsAfter that, I really started liking this whole military and fighting busniess.
Everything went well for a while, I was happily adjusting to my new life. But one day, one of the most horrible acts imaginable was seen in the fortress.
This place is full of monsters, but I never imagined they would do such atrocities.
I hurried down, to save as many kittens, and perhaps dwarves, as I could.
Ubid, the recruit, managed to arrive before I did, quickly neutralizing the ghoul. But just as I arrived to give him my assistance, something horrible happened.
The screams of agony that echoed through the whole fortress were the only warning of another ghoul that had sneaked into the fortress, taking the life of one dwarf. Luckily enough, I was there to stop it, so it wouldn't kill more dwarves.
The fight was quick and my anger great, I smashed the killer monster with all my strength, I felt like I could have saved the life of that dwarf if I had been faster to arrive, but at least I could make the monster suffer to pay for it's crimes.
It didn't require much effort to defeat these monsters, but the damage was already done, I would need to be faster and don't hesitate to go fight in the future, if I wanted to avoid any more dwarven lives to be lost.
Chapter II: Labreck, the leaderAfter Labreck was injured by the elk birds, he was rendered completely unable of executing any physical labor, so he decided to name himself the expedition leader, it seemed he wanted to contribute somehow.
If you asked him, he always said he was happy, but one could tell he wasn't.
His beard didn't look good. He used to spend most of his time alone, in his room.
Or in the dinning room, standing alone, away from the other dwarves.
He started making schemes, and planning things that he didn't tell to anybody. First, he ordered the miners to dig him a bigger room for himself.
Then, one day, he just said: "We have been losing our time in here, chopping wood and making furniture. All the miners will now go down and start searching for magma, that's what we are here for."
He had the miners busy digging very deeply into the mines, spent weeks looking for the hot stuff, but finally his quest didn't go unrewarded.
I had to go down there myself to believe it, they not only found the biggest sea of magma I ever saw, or heard about, but they also found two different veins of adamantine! Now, I know the dangers that lie within this marvelous rock, but one dwarf can't not be cheered up by the splendor of it. Labreck ordered the construction of a magma forge, and everyone in the fortress was as happy as they ever were, nothing seemed to go wrong.
But, of course, this wouldn't last.
Chapter III: Engomod, the one forgotten
Just as some migrants arrived, surely because they heard of our success, a giant beast like nothing I saw before appeared in the underground.
No dwarf was sure what to do, I was ready to fight it, trusting I was strong enough to defeat the beast single handedly. But in the end, Labreck ordered the gates to the underground closed, most dwarves were too scared to give me a fighting chance.
The beast waited patiently outside the closed gates, waiting for a fight.
Meanwhile, life inside the fortress kept going on. Most dwarves trusted the gates would keep us protected forever, or as long as it was needed, at least. But one of the things I learned is that evil beasts are more clever than one would think.
Most workers just kept doing their work, some even got inspired by these dangerous times.
Meanwhile, Labreck kept planning how to make the fortress a better place. He decided a better farming area was needed, so an underground cave was prepared to be filled with water and then farmed.
But the miner in charge of channeling the water spotted something unexpected, that changed the plans.
As soon as the water began flooding the farm, the beast went under water and sneaked into the fortress through the farm.
Udib and I ran down, to the dinning room, as the floodgates were opened to let the beast come out of the water and fight. There was no turning back. It was the beast or us. It took down a dog in it's way to the dinning room, and the battle began.
The beast was dangerous...
But so were we.
In a quick turn of events, the beast was enraged and it unleashed its fury upon Udib.
I would not let my friend die now, after he showed he was a true and brave hero. As loudly as I could, I called for any brave dwarf that was willing to help battle the beast, to my surprise, many of them were willing to give their lives fighting.
With the help of these brave dwarves, the beast had little chance of victory. Even so, it opposed resistance, it wasn't a weak foe.
It was with a fierce strike of my blade, that the life of the beast was ended. In that moment, I thought I was invincible, nothing could stand in my way, I was acclaimed as a hero and an legendary warrior.
We had won, the fortress was safe once again, and the beast was broken, it's corpse doomed to rot and be forgotten.
End of book II 
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Topic: SparkGear XIII The Cursed -Courageous dwarf, grab 24th! (Read 10433 times)