(Had to make fun of nobles some point in the story..... Will try and post another today, as this was yesterday's)
Goldenhold
Chapter 11: Remedy For Pain
The captain was in a bed, wounded. There was no way he was going to return to the frontline.... and he was tired. It was as if every one of his waking moments he had to go to sleep, exhausted as if he had stayed up for a week straight. But he knew that it was his duty to help with the siege, and giving clever orders from his hospital bed he commanded the assault.
They did manage to close the bridge access to the caverns, and the miner’s guild were getting angry that their workers would be unemployed. He assured them that everything would be over within a week and explained that the gremlins were less of a match for them than even the humans. Things weren’t going excellently or badly on either front, but to everyone in Goldenhold it looked like as if it was going to be over quickly, a small interruption. Nothing could disrupt the lives of gods, after-all.
In the hospital were mostly those wounded by cuts and slices and jabs. This place was not meant for check ups, and was for the military almost exclusively. There was a person in the bed next to him however who was obviously not in the military, he carried no weapon by his bedside and wore clothes of a fisherman. They looked as if they had been burnt almost, but in a slow manner rather than that someone would have expected from a blazing fire.
His beard was singed, much shorter than it should have been and it seemed corroded in the areas it remained. He was awake, and he seemed more irritated that he was there than tired or upset. Which was surprising giving the condition of his arm, which seemed trashed and bent backward in a position it was not meant to be in.
The captain sat up slightly, looking at the other person for a moment before he couldn’t resist asking him why he was in this hospital. But all that came out was a mysterious, “Who are you?”
The dwarf looked at the captain with a glare, as if he was invading his private thoughts. “I’m a dwarf. I’m a citizen of Goldenhold.” He said this, his voice croaking with bits of anger that he couldn’t show to a noble in full. Then, as if it was required, he returned, “So, who are you?”
The captain balled his hand into a fist, proud as a lion when he spoke, “I am the glorious captain and commander of Goldenhold’s defenses, Stronghammer the first, son of the glorious Ironhammer, leader of Goldenhold’s navy.”
As if totally unimpressed at the full title, the other dwarf said, “Oh.” A long pause. “So your the one who got us into this mess.” His face was stern and serious, and the captain knew that he was not joking. “You have too much pride even for the king.”
Rolling his eyes and his body, the other dwarf faced away, making fake noises as if he was sleeping and the conversation was over. The captain gaped, never having been insulted so directly by a lesser.
Even when I was carried here, people only glared at me as I was carried away from the fight, impressed by my goldliness! The noble thought for a moment that maybe they were glaring at him out of hatred they couldn’t show, but he dismissed the idea. If he was insulted he knew he would treat with rationality and reason, attempting to improve himself as always. He was certain that the even the poorest man of the city knew that nobles were always ready for criticism. That was the life of a noble, one of perfection. So he gave a reasonable response.
“KILL HIM!” The captain pointed at the dwarf, and soon a few doctors along with guards walked up to the noble. One of the guards, his gleaming steel armor lined with fabulous silver walked up, and was the first to respond in a fast tone of urgency.
“What sir? Who? I’ll take down ANY of your problems.” He said this with certainty, for his family had been fortress guards for generation after generation, handing down the same silver hammer that he had in his hand for over a thousand years easily. It was his duty to maintain order.
Pointing at the dwarf once more, who was rolling his eyes, the captain said that he must be terminated for insulting the royalty and nobility of the fortress, including the honor of one of the king’s appointed. He yelled again, pointing his finger, “KILL HIM!”
The guard twisted around, and started to raise his hammer. But one of the doctors arrived just in time, telling the guard to stop. He did, his hammer hanging halfway in the air. The doctor explained that the captain may be having a hallucination, so ignoring him may be to the best of everyone’s interest. The captain yelled that he was leaving, but everyone ignored him, continuing to argue. Even the guard was convinced that the captain was suffering, after what seemed to have been an hour of arguing. But when they turned back to the bed where the dwarf had been laying, he was gone.
The doctors searched the many floors of the hospital but could not find him. They were too busy healing the other troops to find him in one of Goldenhold’s many glorious dining halls, drinking and eating the great food served in delight, happy to be out of the hospital and breathing.
The captain was not pleased when he heard the culprit had left during the argument. The doctors pulled out a vial and forced it into the captains mouth, forcing him into a deep sleep, a remedy for the pain.