Goldenhold
Chapter 48: Closing the Hatch
The demons flew after them. Humans were shot off left and right, and some even turned valiantly to battle. All races agreed on the cultural premise that it was better to fall to your death because you were focused on the fight than to be slain, so none were bothered when several fell off the ramp. It was almost casual by this point.
Stonehand jumped up one story to get ahead of the rest. The other dwarves ran after him with surprising speed, the weapons of champions past giving them strength. By the time they reached the top, only three humans had made it. However, the demons mysteriously ignored the caravans, going after only one threat at a time. The luggage was not caught in any sort of crossfire.
A fireball flew in front of stonehand, which made the ends of his mustache fizz with heat. It was not an enjoyable experience, but he was grateful he wasn’t sent flying only to have to climb the tower once more.
The dwarves made it up there. Argon and Efud were waiting. In the end, all seven dwarves survived along with most of the caravans along with three humans. The hatch was slammed shut to the tower, the demons clawing against it. It seemed like as if the demons couldn’t go up, which was fine with them. Stonehand even went so far as to place a boulder on top of the steel hatch to prevent it from being breached. A hole gaped in the wall where Efud had dug from. They closed the hole off, the gap never to be seen again.
Suddenly, Zeon began to laugh. At first everyone glared at him, but then Stonehand started to laugh along with him. The other two human survivors, Zandria and a private in Zeon’s army started to go along with them.
In a few minutes, everyone was laughing. For some reason, the fall of the fortress was hysterical. In the end, the winners were the goblins, and they were only the survivors. Sure those on the tower were loaded with mystical weapons that could destroy armies with ease, but the rivers of blood and extreme worship of Armok that had occurred at Goldenhold had defiled it and anything that it ever was. The city of twenty thousand years had finally crumbled, and a million ghosts would haunt it forever. Maybe some person would come by in the future and retake it when the mountain had long been turned into a desert. But for now, the ten of them had no purpose. They sat in the tower, drinking some of the fine ale that was in one of the wagons.
So one of the cloaked dwarves pushed his beard aside for the moment and asked where they were going to go. Argon said that he intended on returning to Ironforge with the crown. Everyone looked at him like he was crazy until he pulled it out, a thousand jewels on his head.
The three humans had to head by Ironforge to return to Zeon’s kingdom, so the entire group in the end decided to head to Ironforge together, and split their paths there.
Efud dug a ramp for the caravans and the people within a matter of minutes, legendary considering the height of the tower. The horses ran steeply, but in the end all made it without harm.
And the party of eleven headed out, crossing the bridge with the bodies of knights littered over it, the elite warriors slain by ballistas. They went over the hills that were past the bridge, avoiding the much more convenient path in the name of the spirit of adventure.
Enemies of soon would turn into allies of the future as they walked together, bracing against the wind that blew into them. Stonehand led the party, the wagons following him and no others without having to be commanded. The champion continued over the hills as the others turned around for one last look. They saw two massive gates. But he didn’t. No, he saw an opportunity.
Author
Topic: The Age of Myth: Goldenhold (A DF Novel Length Story) (Read 115760 times)