Chapter 2 - C

  When they got back, they sent off the messages. It took about eight days for all the relevant people to arrive. They used this as an excuse to gather all the higher-ups from different countries and races. So, there was a group of nine—three from the dwarves, three from the humans, and three from the elves. This was the Great Council.

  When they rolled into town, the mayor had already requested a building to be retrofitted for meetings and important dignitaries. They chose one just off Town Square, and when the council members arrived, they were shown directly to it. Attached to this building—though technically next door—was a newly built hotel. Yes, a hotel. You might say, "Didn’t they just have an inn?" Well, that was last week. When this many dwarves start showing up, buildings just seem to sprout out of the ground like fruit.

  The town had changed so dramatically in just three weeks it was almost unrecognizable. The docks now stretched two miles farther in each direction. The town had blown up—huge, massive, monstrous. Every stretch of the main route from nearby towns had become its own little mini-city. The roads were paved. Construction on the castle had already started atop the mountain after they discovered three air vents converging in one area. That spot was chosen, and it happened to be directly above the kids' cabin.

  To avoid disturbing the children, they carved a separate path alongside the air vent entrance, cutting a trail all the way up the mountain. Stones were already being cut and placed. They’d figured out how to pull air from inside the mountain, creating a direct connection—amazing, really. Once they found a way to link the vents, they'd do it. And that was just the base. They planned to chop the top off the mountain and turn it into bricks. "Why not use what’s here?" they said. They started clearing the scrub from the mountain’s peak, cutting down to bedrock, and working it like normal stone. I was like, “Okay, rock and roll.”

  The kids were stunned. They were told they were already enrolled in the new school, and that teachers were being brought in. These children would be the first students of the Royal Academy of Port Town—or Park City. The name hadn’t officially changed to Port City yet, but it was still being tossed around.

  When the Great Council finally convened, food, booze—the whole nine yards—was brought out. Then Larry walked in with a knock on the door. He placed a piece of glass the size of a fist, wrapped in a beautiful black cloth and tucked into a reinforced leather drawstring bag, right on the table. Then he said:

  "For the rest of the day, the question you need to ask is this: Is it worth dealing with and working alongside creatures from beneath the earth? From the depths. They seem intelligent. They seem polite. What is the Great Council’s position on this? Because this is another race that wants a seat on the council. You may want to meet them, but you’re here to talk it out—so there are no more mistakes or wars started over miscommunication."

  One of the elf representatives snapped at Larry:

  “And who are you to tell us what to do? What is your name, sir?”

  Larry said nothing. He just smiled and started unbuttoning his shirt. When he got to the last button, he let it drop to the floor, raised his arms to his sides, and slowly turned in a full 360-degree circle—three times.

  After the third spin, one of the dwarven council members stood up and said, “Stop. Do not move.”

  Larry, caught off guard, actually froze. The dwarf walked over and inspected a mark near Larry’s shoulder blade.

  What he saw was his own family crest tattooed on Larry’s back.

  When Larry stood still, everyone in the room began to recognize more symbols—familiar crests and sigils scattered across Larry’s skin. Almost everyone there had their mark inked into him.

  The mayor, as the town’s representative, technically had no say in any of this, but he was allowed to observe. As he stepped forward to explain, one of the human council members raised a hand and said:

  “Don’t move. Mayor, please go get the ceremonial heating plate.”

  The mayor turned silently and did just that.

  Then, the first human placed his ring—with his family insignia—face-down on the table.

  Without hesitation, a dwarf added his. Then another. Then a third. The humans followed suit. Then all three elves. All of the rings bore different family crests—and all of them matched tattoos on Larry’s body.

  They realized who Larry really was: their cleaner. Someone who had messed up so badly, he was sent on dangerous missions to atone. And each tattoo told the story—he saved this person, that clan, did this job, that mission. If you knew how to read them, his body was a résumé.

  And someone who spends years doing that kind of work might one day want to stop being a murderer. How do you atone for everything you’ve done? You burn it away. You remove it through pain. You ask for forgiveness in fire.

  The mayor, knowing exactly what to do, placed the heating plate on the table, turned it on with a touch of magic, and began placing the rings onto it.

  Larry looked at his uncle and said, “I had a choice. Yeah, I screwed this one up, didn’t I? I stuck up for the kids, and now I’m gonna pay for it.”

  One of the elves overheard and asked:

  “Larry, would you undo all the things you’ve done? Do you regret it?”

  Larry laughed—deep and genuine. You couldn’t fake a laugh like that.

  “No,” he said. “I’m not gonna enjoy getting burned. It’s gonna suck. But those kids? My life for those children. If this is what I have to do for them? Easy. No worries. Whatever else you need from me, I’ll kill whoever you need me to kill. Those kids are worth dying for. I’m all in. How about you?”

  This didn't shock any of them, because once they realized who Larry was, they had called on him for the last 30 years, on and off. They never, ever saw his face. They never, ever knew who he was. They just had problems that need to be dealt with, and they were dealt with. And there was always done properly to see him in his home. town, if you will, putting up a fight for three children who now own an entire mountain. And the entire clan that they have behind well, that kind of just made it easy, like they were all kind of weary at about Larry and his priorities. But least they understood him now and not saying they were good or bad, but they could work with this.

  When they were about to start Larry's uncle, grab the bottle of 600 year old dwarven brandy. They're keeping couple bottles of. This is like the second to last bottle. So he knew it was kind of special stuff. So he handed off to Larry and said, there's never, ever a good time to get burnt. But there's always a good reason to drink this. This is one hell of a reason for the kids. And no one realized that the mayor was now taking off his shirt too. What the ****

  Within a minute all. of them, all of the representatives were about to initiate two more into a council. but they needed a third if they're going to do this before they were going to make Larry a backup to one of them. If they passed away for the humans. But now, with two humans, they needed. someone else. was getting off track. So one of the council members just said we could worry about that later for today. We bring two in as replacements in case. And once we can find a 3rd of the same race or other, this will be a special 3 person council for this area for this place. And before anybody could really say anything, there was a knock on the door

  Standing in the doorway. was Murphy, the guy that ran the vault. The guy married to the receptionist. The mayor's assistant.

  He very politely said excuse me, but I have a suggestion and that. he walked into the room, took off his shirt and there was no tattoos on his front. But when he turned around on his back were whip lash marks and a small tattoo tattooed in the middle of where the marks were not dead center. It was off of it because it was in between where actual lash marks had been lashed on this goblin or. he didn't look like a dwarf. He didn't look like a he was a gnome. It was an ugly **** gnome. You would get him mixed up with a goblin because of his size, but he had the facial features of a dwarf. It was just a little bit smaller. Well, everybody noticed that. the tattooed mark in the middle of his back was that of the slaver. Except it wasn't. a tattoo. A slave would get or the slaver. It was a mark. The gray Church designated to slave people, people that were enslaved, that were freed It was meant to say this person was treated poorly as a slave, and they were freed. They belonged to no man or person, country or anything. They are a free person. Anybody stopping this person? We'll have to deal with the great. Church.

  By him offering this this. up it removes his. safety that was given to him by the Great Church by having it burnt off. It says that he is willing to give up his freedom to protect these children. and that he was. once. one of them.

  My race hasn't been allowed. to join the Council of three. But in this circumstance, I would hope you would allow me. to join the smaller group to protect this town and the horde and the children and the mountain and the Great Church. Would this be OK with the current council?

  You didn't hear a pin drop, because every once in a while you hear someone sniffling in the background. These were a whole wack of old softies, freaking guys crying. Raul.

  So one of the nine council members put a glove on, grabbed their ring, walked over to Larry and didn't even have to say anything. They had already said all they had to say, went to the spot where it was aligned it and impressed it. He then put it back on the heating plate and put his finger into a bowl a cold water.

  This went on 27. times over three people. In the end, there was none of the three of them standing that wasn't crying or drinking alcohol. I think even the the mayor peed himself a little bit after a while. This was torture. Nonetheless, this was total proof that they were willing to die for the children.

  With it over. the doors burst open and the three kids ran in and the Council was **** Why they were being let in and why they had to see their friends in this condition. It wasn't until the receptionist and her two dwarf assistants came in with the boys saying we got them to overhear to heal these idiots, you morons. It's all done. No one needs to be in pain over the night. They've proven their point. Correct. And she looked at the council just with like, I'm going to kick your **** if you don't stand up and not be a total tool right now that looked at tells you you screwed up. Don't do it anymore

  They just said, yep, you're good. And with that, number one, the king of all powers, king one, child one He went over and just started healing them all. It made him, made himself a little more stronger doing it. But it was superficial burns. They didn't press hard into these guys. They did it just enough to bubble the skin. They were really nice to them. They didn't, they didn't gouge him like they could have.

  So after that Larry. just said I have one last question and then I'm going to kick you all in the balls, those that have balls.

  That threat after what they just did to Larry was very, very. not on the nose, but palpable in the air.

  What do we do about the giant glass beasts over at the fort? And the probably 100 tons of weapons grade poop.

  I am going with the kids home. It's late. I'm severely drunk. I just got burnt a whole lack of times. Can we continue this tomorrow?

  The mayor without even missing a beat, looked at the council like just don't say a word. A said Goodnight, Larry and Larry Murphy, the kids, the receptionist, the receptionist. assistant. All but the crew from the City Hall. took off and left the 9. members and their guards. next to their own hotel and just walked away from them.

  On purpose, they had left the bottle for the council to finish off. and finish off. They did sitting in that room, honking for hours to go. until the wee hours of the morning. They were not disturbed for one full day because Larry just didn't want to deal with them But on day three, a messenger came saying the people living at the Fort had figured out how to ask questions and they could do yes or no questions. And what they had figured out through yes or no questions was that there was more than one species down below. There was only 8 of these giant creatures. They once were pets or friends to dwarfs. and elves. The elves didn't stay long, but the dwarf stayed until the day they closed up the door. Now that they got the doors opened again, they never wanted to have them closed. And thus they could have broken through But what they were told was that. their friend had died and was on top of the door to guard them. And until you guys opened it, we never thought to open it ourselves because we thought he was so up there kind of thing. It took a lot to get that chunk of information there, saying in their note, it was 5 pages long. This whole note.

  Recently, they noticed something unusual—the glass-like beasts would emerge to bask in the sun but quickly retreat underground. When they followed the creatures inside (with their permission), they discovered something strange. The beasts glowed in the dark, but as they approached a particular section of stone, their light dimmed. It was as if something was draining their magic.

  The dwarves suspected a mineral deposit was blocking them. The beasts had been trying to dig through it but were stuck. They took turns pressing against the barrier, but rather than breaking through, they were only compacting the material further. The moment the dwarves saw this, they told the creatures to step aside. The beasts did not resist.

  After ten minutes of digging, the dwarves realized the obstacle was nothing more than silver—just a foot-thick layer of compacted metal. The beasts had been trying to push through it for ages, but their efforts had only made it denser. Once the dwarves broke through, the beasts surged forward, their excitement palpable. The instant their magic passed through the opening, they effortlessly cleared the surrounding dirt. It was never the earth that trapped them—it was the metal.

  Grateful, the beasts allowed the dwarves to take all the silver. The dwarves, somewhat surprised, accepted the gift. With the barrier gone, the crystal beasts carved a path forward, their progress now effortless—like cutting through butter.

  It seemed they had been trapped for generations, growing too large to fit through the few remaining tunnels that lacked these metallic barriers. Everywhere they led the dwarves, the pattern was the same: the dirt and stone had been cleared away, leaving only thick metal deposits blocking their path. Small crevices had provided air, water, and tiny creatures to sustain them, but nothing more.

  Now, the dwarves face a difficult choice. Do they break open more of these barriers, unleashing these massive creatures into the depths below? Would that be a mistake? They’ve decided to wait. The decision rests with the council… and with Larry.

  For now, the crystal beasts continue their routine. They emerge, bask in the sunlight, and clear out the waste from their caverns, sealing it underground. They seem happier, more energized. Their skin, once a pale green, has deepened to an almost black-light glow—hypnotic and beautiful. It’s as if they were dehydrated for centuries, and now, with an abundance of energy, they are transforming. But into what?

  ************

  When the Duke (herald) was informed of the glass beasts, The Duke requested a meeting with the 3 kings, and it wasn't till the next day when The three kings sent the Duke a request to go see the crystal beast before talking with them and informed them in the letter that they were semi-safe, but you had to see them before they decided what to do with them and recommend. and recommended taking a small group of people and going there basically. they also explained in the letter that they were thinking they were smarter than the dwarves and humans were and now thanks to them, they had magical. explosives in the tonnage.

  After the Duke realized that there was more going on here than he had basically thought in the beginning. So accepting their knowledge and though. they sent it, it was actually probably Larry that actually wrote it out with their help.

  The Duke had met Larry twice now, and it was both times in passing in town, while both of them were going to different things. And let's put it this way, the Dukes impression of Larry was that of a very confident man that didn't just get what he wanted. He had a smile on his face while doing it. But Larry didn't give off that bad guy vibe, more like that uncle or grandpa that was a little bit sketchy, but he did a pinch. They come through with a barrel and a hole.

  So the Duke grabbed. his guard in total. In total, it was 11 people including himself and they rode off and made it to the fort or kind of what was left of it.

  The Duke was lucky because. his personal. guard. He only had two of them, but they knew all the rest of the other guards, human and dwarf and alpha like that was living in the city. So the crew of soldiers that escorted the Duke. was made up of all three races and people that had already been to the fort before it was destroyed. and had met the Crystal Beast. So the whole trip there 6-7 hours on horseback was Very informative

  The Duke basically got the whole story from all of them. And around the last hour before he got there, he was just in quiet contemplation of what he would find. And they got there just as that sun was setting.

  As the Duke Crescent. crested the hill and then looked down on the remains of the Old Fort What he saw was. breathtaking absolute horrifying and terrifying and just a little bit of magical just enough to kind of give him a little bit of hope that magic like he had when he was a kid who was still out there because. this was amazing. There was six of them. They were in three circles, 1 circle, the closest to where the fort was in the now tunnel had just one of the. beasts. The next circle had two of them and they were almost touching, cuddling each other and they were. That's how big the rings were. Then the 3rd ring actually had 4 of them in there. after the Duke counted again, he went hold on 1+2+4 not 6?=7?.

  It took like three seconds for the other guards and nights, just to kind of do the math themselves and the look and the ohh wow. We thought there were six. There's actually seven of them.

  That distracted them from the beauty of these creatures laying out in the sun Their skin dusty and dirty looking, but just under the surface is a beautiful, dark green emerald shelf that is over the whole bodies.

  As they neared the first ring of Glass beasts. the creatures all. put their heads up in the air and look towards the group that was coming.

  It only took a couple seconds, but once they got into range, where the. glass beasts could see them. They. literally just moved a little bit and all three rings opened up and the path right into the fort was opened to them. It was kind of cool because the ones on the outest most ring, they just moved a little bit and then their tail and head just moved away from each other and it was a little pop. So as you're going. on the road to the fort. You're literally either seeing on your left side ahead looking at you tasting the air with a tongue like a? Snake.

  Or you're seeing the **** of one of them And it was very, very disconcerting to see three heads as you go by. Just keeping an eye on you, like 20 foot wide heads Just, yeah, if you did. if you didn't have your brown pants with you, you had brand new brown pants.

  When the Duke entered the fort, the walls were still there, but they had collapsed so much had gone on that there was really nothing much left except old school ruins. All that hard work gone.

  The Duke Nukem. not realizing that they had passed the camp that they'd be sleeping in for the night. Realize they had to turn around and go about two miles back still. came into the middle of the rings. and as he dismounted and the Knights all looked around, they almost all had their hands on their weapons and even. the Duke was absolutely freaked out because these were beautiful creatures, but they were monstrously huge.

  So after the Duke just looked at the giant hole and looked down the hole. Oh no, he saw two more eyes. There's 8 of them, or more

  Him and his man only spent about five minutes there and then just bailed back to camp and as they left the. glass beasts closed up over the road without destroying the road and now their title was protected overnight.

  Azure leaving and the sun was setting they heard everyone. of the giant beast start moving and they all one at a time started to go down into their tunnel.

  Asaik reached the top of the hill They stopped for a moment and looked back just. as the last rays of light were allowing them to see one. very big blast beast came out at night time, wrapped itself around the fort twice. and then you could almost hear it snoring.

  That you didn't have an absolute clue what to do with any of this, other than they were super smart and. very hopefully could work with them because. fighting them was not an option not because they didn't want to be able to do it because they didn't have any way of killing them except sending. one lone soldier into one of the tunnels below with a bomb and igniting all the poop and that would just destroy the mountain too. So that was a big no no more Mount Doom again.!!

  The Duke stayed in the camp overnight and talked with all the dwarves that were making their homes there. And they actually had a nice little temporary cabins already put up so people could stay overnight when they drove and they place with the horses with a roof. And they made themselves a nice little like farmhouse feel to it, where it was a basic. set up as they got stuff made.

  It was a Duke asking about. the bunkers of poop that the. glass beasts had brought. out. Did the information be provided? that he now has a better idea of how to help and ask if he could give some advice to the work crews that those working the site.

  Two of the foremans were there speaking with the Duke along with a lot of the working men and women. Yeah, at night time in the. mess all the type building that they had set up.

  The Duke actually. wanted to confirm two things in this conversation. The first. was that if. let too dry the fecal matter. would become a material that they could transport.

  And no one really wanted to transport poop. So they asked what he was thinking. So he explained on the trip there, they talked about coal and how to make him. And one of the things that the Duke knew about was how to make a very rare type of coal. What you had to do is you had to take the wood in a oven, and you had to get it over 500to 600 degrees, And keep the oxygen out of it. And what what happened is that wood would then take all the energy that was in all the little fibers that the wood was made out of, and would carbonize that into an actual carbon that could be burnt. The neat thing about that is that when you drop this carbon on the ground, it made the sound of metal.

  The dwarves listening around. Some of them had explosive knowledge, and some of them had cold knowledge shoe. And they thought about it. And they went. Yeah. So the Duke went well. What if we dry it out and look? and then light it and get it so hot that it crystallizes.

  He didn't really sell it the exact way, but a couple of them also understood he was trying to make a product out of the poop. So they said, what? We can try dehydrating it by taking a small amount and placing it in a. place where the air will remove any moisture and bring it out.

  The Duke then said, my second idea is, if you can get crystal beast to do the same type of trenches that they did with the wood and the logs, which is beautiful, I couldn't believe they did that when I was told, but now I understand. Can they do that for your camp here? Just have one of them come over and literally follow you and make a giant path. And then what'll happen is they cut down the trees, make that path into one big building, and then we can just keep on moving stuff in and out. And we don't have to use it for poop, and therefore we have a lot of living very. quickly for everybody. We can have it done in that day, and you can at least get yourselves out of the rain.

  One of the dwarves was a little bit older and got a little grumpy when you I like the idea, but I really hate the place that we have this. There's a hill about a kilometer away from the. fort that was just higher. If we did it there, we could make a nice defendable location that we wouldn't get flooded all the time. What do you say?

  The Duke and the two foremen just looked at each other and thumbs up and they said, Yeah, so do the Scouts were told that tomorrow's mornings duty was for them to go scout that pill out And then the Duke would be heading back and the former would figure out how to ask the. flask beast to follow and help make a place for them.

  It wouldn't be until almost a week later that Duke would get a letter from the two foreman explaining that they did exactly what they were talking about but they think the glass beats are more intelligent than they are because what happened was when they asked the gb to follow the dwarfs and the glass beasts they did.

  One of the glass beasts followed them to the hill and then. The work crew at the bottom of the hill were all talking in front of the glass beast of what they were trying to get the glass beast to do

  One of the people (wc)(wORKcREW) said they were watching the glass beast and it would Twitch its eye when certain words were said.

  So he thinks that it understands certain words because within three minutes of them talking it took off and it made rings that were concentrically smaller and then the cool thing is it lifted itself up and over three other rings and it jumped back into the that ring and went backwards and then made itself a bigger spiral all the way down the hill.

  Then while it was doing that cutting down the trees, it then took those trees that It had put off of the sides. So there was an area between the rings that was like 50 feet wide all the way down the mountain. It started to do walls and a ceiling. It took two days, but it's all. done. We literally have an entire hidden mountain resort out here. We probably have 1/2 a kilometer wrapped around this hill. This is an amazing thing and they get it in two days people. send people.

  The Duke just passed that exact message off to one of the guards and said, take it over to the Inn and give it to the door over there. Just tell him. the Dukes like send more people. Thank you

  The guard rushed off, and the Duke went on his day of just hanging out in town, going, not my problem.

  During this whole time 100’s and 1000’s of dwarfs had just started showing up in town.

  So as soon as the Fort Resort, as they were calling it, was up and running a lot of them went that way. The first big group had gone up into the mountain and found almost every single 1 of the holes. There was 3 large groups, and they actually picked three of the largest holes that they found. It's the same holes that the boys saw when the mountain was expelling fire.

  Now, at this point, the two major clans, the one called the clan of glass and the clan of harmonics, had shown up, had sent their people into the hills and basically claimed one of those 3. main tunnels themselves The third one was claimed. by the albums, saying that it was the closest one to town and they were going to make a magic academy at the top of it, which we had all agreed on already and it was part of the whole legal battle. Now you would think it would take time, but the. moment the first war showed up that weren't the kids that were the real **** dwarf miners that were unplanned, showed up the mountain was swarmed like an Angel. But instead of coming out, they went in and what they found was freaking amazing.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  It wasn't until Larry got a request for. a place to store wouldn't. safe boxes. And these boxes were made. by. elves, dwarfs and humans working together to make boxes that could transport mana glass Did Larry have a suspicion something was going on?

  Well, the next request to have a place to store them in in the mountain, then set off red flags asking how many of them had actually found chunks of manic glass. And where was this? And there wasn't until a day after the Duke got back that he was asked to come up to the kids cabin. The three kings were going to have him and Larry and the main miners for the different groups and the clans and everybody to come in the head honchos to explain what's been going on because they kind of felt like they were losing control of everything. And out of respect, everybody agreed to take a day off. And the bosses will all call to the kids.

  It started early morning where one or two dwarves showed up with coffee and food, and it was just like, ohh yeah, someone had made AA run to the bakery in town and then come up to the cabin.

  Around 10:00 o'clock twenty people had poured into this little house and Larry looked and said, we may not have the room. Well, this is where. King 2. had a really cool idea.

  Him and Larry had been working on. pushing areas of the house out so that they could have more room in other zones. They make more rooms by dumping. magic into Larry's move rock ability and hopefully they're going to try and find a bigger room that could house everybody in the back. Well, they had found one but when they popped into it, it was like a giant cave. They didn't have a way of getting down.

  With all these people piling in, that big, open area was all about 500 feet One Direction from the cabin. So Larry and the three kids all said, let's do it. And they all held on to Larry and Larry knew that wasn't physically or magically doing anything, but he wanted the kids to feel like they were helping with this. So he dumped everything he had into this attempt, and he pushed a tunnel from the cabins stonewall all the way over to this giant dome that they had to go through. a really odd way to even get to it. But now that they knew where it was, Larry was able to push and he came one foot lower than he should have been. And it carved out this nice little walkway into the cave It was a giant orb. It was huge. It was like it was a perfect place for a meeting

  Larry then worked for about 20 minutes after that, just making small air tunnels and popping back into their air system that they had started working on And by air system, I mean, they just started popping the bubbles between areas and allowing air to flow naturally. So the more they pop, the more the air flowed. Some of them were strategically popped, and other ones were just screw up. We need an air hole pop one here

  And by this point, King 2 wasn't the only one that could see magic. There was a always at least one person in the group they sent that could see magic and won that could morph rock and move it around. These were the crews that started to go through one of the crews actually had said that he made it down to level 60. in their own little area, but all their orbs are quite small, so they didn't know how deep they were actually getting and they hadn't run into any insects or any other creatures yet.

  They had talked about going back to the laser room and working on that, but because it was so far away from. the glass piece, they're almost sure that was gonna be something else other than that one creature. They could at least work with so before they just turned on the laser and ducted through whatever is living in there, they were gonna work their way back and get into that area. But for right now. no one had gone down except for. before once down the whole on 26. or into the chandelier. over the big cave.

  They could still see and hear movement down there. So they really didn't want to give whatever was down there, more energy or reason to come up

  Their plan was if it was evil, they were going to just throw bombs down on it. And actually, that wasn't a bad idea. But they're also like, that'll also blow up the mountain. Let's not do that, right? Last resort

  So when Larry and the kids made a table and everybody made chairs and they they took time because this area was so packed with magic, it was like a kid painting with finger paints. It was nothing. It was easy. They made themselves giant cable and chairs and they sat down. They brought food from the other area in. Now it was a party. They even had someone go. along the walls and make little spots where they could put candles and torches. And they lit up the room. It was really kind of nice. And as the fresh air started flowing through, it was really a nice room.

  When everybody got calmed down and they just basically started asking the kids what they were doing about the beast, what they were doing about the mountain and in the end, Larry just said, OK, I'm going to ask everybody to give their first reports every group that's here has a report. Let's hear them Larry just pointed to his left and to the left was. actually one of the rejects and he just had the stupidest smile on his face. He said OK and stood up. This is his report

  This dwarf had a look of him. He had a pair of goggles on that had multiple lenses on one eye and on his hip he had a wrench. When he started to speak, he explained that. he was one of the rejects and they were the ones that supposed to be called in with magical machines. If they found them just to make sure they weren't booby trapped. Other than that, the other group members. were. proficient in. explosives building bridges and everything in between. So if you had something wrong or a path you couldn't get through, give the rejects a call. And in this they were actually asked to check all three of the major events to make sure that there was a way in and out and to make sure that nothing was booby trapped somehow. And they had worked with eight other teams and had made a drop at least 20 cave tunnels down in all three. of the main shaft. So right now they were. quite deep and what they had found was there is no connection between them all yet. They knew it was there, but they hadn't found that layer yet that connected them all together and everybody was afraid it was a layer that they saw all the legs. and heard from 26 is hole.

  It went around the room, and they explained all the different members of the different teams that were there that each. one of them had gone down and found things like Crystals Like the ones in cave-4 the blue glowing crystals.

  No one else had added oxygen to their, so they were all dormant, but they had recorded 10 to 20 spots along the whole mountain range where these things were. So they had light when they wanted to, so they could definitely light this place up. But that was kind of counterproductive at the moment they thought.

  It wasn't until the clan of harmonics was talking did everything change their report kind of shocked everybody.

  They had gone to the middle hole on the very top of the mountain, and they had gone down as far as they could. And then they had trained their special ability to harmonize. metal tuning fork with the material around them because they were. because they would literally bury themselves in liquid stone and then start humming. Then take that humming and make the material that they were covered in start to vibrate at the right frequency and then they would make it solidify into whatever shape would take the hum properly and then they would use that to amplify their own hum, which would then turn the room into a echo chamber They started this process and when they had started the process, it seemed normal. It actually seemed so easy because there was so much extra mana around. So they did everything. They got themselves shouldered deep in the stone. And when the first come came out of their mouth they got tuned, not the mountain tuned to them

  What did that mean? Everybody wanted to understand that. So they explain something was already tuning the entire mountain. And when they did. their trick. The area around the cloud. the Klan member. The material because they were making it softer and more appliable. The mountains own tune tuned it to itself. So. if they liquefied as much rock as they wanted, then anybody could do this. You were actually tuning it to the mountain because the mountain was trying to tune it just naturally. So this is doing it by itself without their help. Every time they put magic into some room to move it around and move the stone into a like liquid stone. It would basically start harmonizing with what the mountain was. So they had to figure out if this was natural or if there's a creature down there trying to tune its way out Or what the hell was going on here?

  The Klan member across the whole table, but the clan member from the clan of glass stood up and raised his hand and this got everybody's attention.

  Someone said, yeah, go ahead speak and. the Klan member basically just explained that it is absolutely possible to have the mountain tutoring itself but to have a constant tune or hum if. it was doing that it means it was being fed 24/7 if there was a stop off it probably means it was a human being so they would have to keep an eye on the next day or two and see if there's any breaks even a couple of seconds means that people were swapping in and out for a ritual of some sort but if there was a laser light beam coming from some chamber down causing this they should have found it by now and close it up so they almost wanted to say no they they had enough people on the mountain that they would have found this and they would have closed it up if it was natural and light so bad guys cultists or something they don't understand yet more than they can explain but they understood what they had to do so. the big question everybody had was asked by Larry

  If we keep on using magic here, and it keeps tuning more to this frequency, well, does that mean that it'll get stronger? Can we follow it? Should we be using magic in here? Is there an issue with that

  The member uh from clan glass. explain that once he used magic to break the glass. that it was dead to the world. But if you use physical force, it would still be precious. It would still have its magical abilities. So if they use magic around and it broke the crystal, who cares? It doesn't really bother. But if you take a pickaxe to it now with it being tuned, check the glass because they had a suspicion that as the whole mountain tune, the glass might tune too. And that might might be how. it was being used by whatever was down below. and they had checked over by the port. There was no hum. It was only in this one corner of the mountain range that threw up lots of red flags

  The Duke made it very clear. After five hours, he just goes kit. You guys have this under control. You've got very, very, very great people working for you. Keep them doing what you're doing. Keep trying to talk to the glass beast. And I want someone to investigate the laser room and do it very quietly, because if we have to fight whatever's down there, I don't wanna let them out by accident. So anybody got an idea how to figure out what those. bugs are that we don't know under number twenty-six in the big open cave system?

  Larry said, give him a day and they would figure out what they could do, because they didn't want anybody going down there getting hurt for no reason. And the Duke was like, yep, keep me informed. And with that, him and his guards took off. And then as this happened, everybody started filing out, leaving only the three older dwarves, Larry and the three kids

  20 minutes later, a knock came to their door, and there were two little old ladies. And when the older dwarf. triplets saw these two women. They. holy crap. They changed their attitude. They stood up. They stood straight and they went to the door and greeted them properly and basically very politely asked Larry to get back in the house

  When the two ladies were brought into the house, they were introduced to Larry and the boys properly and. the three dwarves explained that these were the matriarchs of the Guardians. They were. Queens in their own right. They commanded all the Guardians, all the people that came to take care of the three kids and the town and the mountain and everybody else and everything.

  Their representatives were at the meeting earlier, and now they had just come to meet the boys and kind of get a reading on them because, well, they had to start their schooling soon

  The first dwarven lady was. very strict, very straight up and do.... mage, if you will. She enjoyed chaos!!!

  The two of them made a very good team because it was Yin Yin Yang, good and bad, good call, bad cop, except in this case it was strict and insane. But still loving, caring and they were someone's moms. So yeah…

  After the introductions were done the crazy. little old lady walked around the boys and they had just shaved that day and she has to see the razors.

  The three boys didn't know what to do. The older doors just nodded their heads and went and grabbed their 3 razors and gave it to her. And she said, thank you. And she took them over to a rock and just started to dull the **** out of them.

  After the boys just started freaking out, she just gave a deadly look to the three older dwarves, and they all just kind of bowed their heads in shame, like they've been just smacked over this net with a paper.

  The other dwarven lady pulled out a very small book and handed to three children and said you will read this and you will talk to me about this tomorrow and I will be here to find out what you don't understand. Do you understand me?

  The crazy little old lady just looked at the boys and said, no more shaving. I want to find out what colour your beards are. And you're not an old enough for me to find out the courage way.

  The old dwarves Larry and the boys all spluttered at that. The older guys bore the young boys not knowing really what that meant, but had a guess. Larry.'s try not to laugh his **** off here.

  And with that, the more strict of the little leaves is kind of sugar head and put her hand in her face. And it's like, Oh my god, really. OK, we're leaving And with that, she dragged a crazy little lady out the door and said, we'll see you guys tomorrow for breakfast. And they left.

  Everybody was in a little bit of a different state. Larry was trying not to hold in as many lives the old dwarfs just felt ashamed and depressed, and they were happy was over, but they were not looking forward to getting in trouble with those little ladies and the three boys just had a whirlwind come into their house to serve everything and then leave. They went crap and then they started looking at this book and it was a story on this story after they read it. When something a little like this

  The story was about one of the first dwarves and how. his father told. father told him as a man he can have a beard, but not until he killed a animal in the forest. and the day he brought back a bunny rabbit. His dad was like you're almost there. You're doing good. And he was super upset that his dad didn't give her mission to how his beard dad and he had to shave it and keep it clean, even though he was coming in.

  A couple days early, he went out hunting again. And this. time. he brought back a fox. and he showed his dad and his dad said no, not not and he got angry again

  And it wasn't until he came back that day with a bore and shot. and showed his father that his father look into his eyes and see that he regretted killing this. And he asked why and he explained that he had killed the mother of the babies and they were going to die because of what he did And that was the day he gave his son permission to have a beard. His now he was the man that understood. That hunting wasn't about getting the biggest or the best, or this or that. It was about defending yourself defending. the ones you love and providing for them. That's it. You didn't hunt for fun. You hunted for food.

  The story goes on that that dwarf boy went and collected the babies after and raised them until they could be let losing to the forest. And because of that, there was a forest known as the boar forest that, to this day, there's hundreds of boars running wild in that forest from those three. little baby boards that they saved. And that's where Klan Borg gets their name. The first clan.

  That night they all talked about it and they? basically shared stories and the old timers basically. gave them more information on the clans and every night it was like this where they had come back and they would talk and they would get to know the people that they were dealing with.

  What no one knew about Larry kinda. Everybody knew, but no one said anything. Was Larry was going every morning down to the docks before sunrise. And he was literally humming tunes at this ocean's edge, watching the Magic infuse into the fog and not waking everybody up, but harmonizing the whole town. And he realized when he's doing that, he's not harmonizing the town. He is harmonizing with the town and all the people that are living in it have already harmonized some. Amount

  He was just acting like an amplifier for a small area. He wasn't that powerful. It was the magic of the town that was doing it. And this time over the. next couple of days, he would notice that the fog was getting thicker and denser every morning. It wasn't getting higher, but as you passed your foot through it, it was more heavier. There's a more dense.

  After five days of this, people would come out every morning to watch this little show. Larry would put on while it wasn't until there was a. there was a morning where it was raining out and he didn't go out that. the whole town felt the concert. The consequences of what they had been doing.

  During the rain storm. the pounding of the rain on all the buildings made such white noise that the harmonics of the mountain got drowned out of it. And when it got drowned out, they could feel the magic leave the whole town and the fog was super thin, and it looked like someone had been crying. The whole town felt like it was sad, but it wasn't that it was sad. Is that the connection was weaker, so they were pushing a little harder. And that was great. And all but it had a side effect that when the rain stopped and they were all pushing so hard their connection to the mountain and the Magic came back, and they were all pushing so hard on that ability that it over the next hour or 2 in their sleep started kicking in. And it was absolutely. terrifying how. deep the people wanted their connection and when it came back that next morning when the fog came back and there was no rain. Larry had come out the fog. wasn't at your ankle height. It was up to your knee caps and the whole thing was blowing from the ocean into the cave. Larry literally came down to do his his humming and dancing and his just making himself feel better in the whole group of people around him liked it. So they kept on asking to do it this time. He did a stomp March and he just followed the fog. And as people that were getting up in the morning because of what happened the day before, they felt everything that was going on. Larry's ability wasn't just amplified It was carrying more distance. And because of that, people felt Larry just doing this step lock step marching. And after some people came out, they started just following him and he had walked into town and I was walking kind of back out of town. But it was behind some buildings. He was leaving town not on the road, but just on hike. And as he went to from the stone paved and the dirt to grass, that banging that he was doing with his feet stop and he looked back to see 10 people behind him and they said keep going. We're with you. So this group of 11 people literally started following the fog and they found not a cave but it was a rock and it was. just a normal rock. but it was against the side of the mountain. So everybody's like yeah there's got to be a cave behind it right so a whole walk of the guys grab their hand and tried moving this and they're like no this is part of the mountain there's no break in this like we'd have to cut it off and break it it wasn't until they started to touch it and feel it did one of them go ah and realize it was sharp so they look they went is it glass and they're looking at it was not clear at all it was very very dim and they couldn't figure out what was going on until Larry looked at it and went hold on and he tried molding it and it wouldn't mold he goes this is glass but it's dead why is this dead why is there flowing magic through dead glass in the middle of the mountain here like what the hell?

  Couple of people just took a couple moments to think it and said, Hey Larry, do you mind if we take a walk at this? He said, it's dead crystal, right? Should be fine if we take a hammer to it. You don't need it for anything. We're good

  Larry was like, yeah, go for it. As David started to hit it, they realized that there was no real place that they could crack it. So they just kind of took time. and whacked it a whole walk of times in someone else's light here. Let me try it. They just kept on doing that. And they all kind of felt good that they were doing something. It wasn't till Larry said here. Let me try some magic on it. And he went to try to move any of it, that his magic was almost ripped away from him. It flowed through the piece of glass. And he says, yeah, there's something back here. I can't even start molding this. Can you and a couple of the other guys like, yeah, we got this. And they all they basically sat down. and all took turns taking a whack at this chunk of rock. It was absolutely stupid. Couple guys went back and got more tools and someone even went and got some food. And they all kind of made up a time of it because it's like, what the hell is going on? They could see the fog literally going there and the water would draw and there was moisture everywhere. But the magic was going into this piece of glass. So they. dugout a hole about six feet deep of rock. It was still flowing it. It just looked like normal rock. It was until the 7th foot deep that they heard a difference in the rocking sound.

  The moment one of them heard it, they went, hey, do that again. I think Danny goes, yeah, there's a hollow behind there. Let's see what we can find. So they all got really excited and they broke it. And what they found was one of the blue crystal veins. And the Magic was going directly into those crystals. It was getting sucked rated. But the moment they added air at a lot of air, they got really, really, really, really, really bright And then just kind of just sputter into liquid. And this blue sputtering liquid was coming out of the top of these crystals. And they just kind of melted into a pile of blue liquid that kind of slowly started to lose its light. They just looked at this went okay, what the hell

  They realized that the fog wasn't being pulled in as fast anymore. So they realized this must be some of these blue crystals. And if they kept on opening up, they would probably destroy all them all. So they said, no, no, stop right there. Grab all that liquid, or whatever it is. Is it hot? And it was like, yeah, it's boiling hot. Okay, let it cool down. And make some molds, bring them back, pour it and do something with these things. Actually, can you go and run and get some mold so they can take? Yeah, yeah. We got some molds made. for coins and pieces for jewelry. Let me go get them. And one of the dwarves ran off and came back, and they basically brought back a spoon too, and they just basically poured this liquid boiling hot crystal into these molds. And as they did that, they started pumping out these little disks. And it was beautiful, bigger than American silver dollar. And they had about 20 of these little desks when they were done. And they said, OK, just leave it alone and close it up. We get, like, put some dirt in here so that more air doesn't go through another one of these tubes and melt in the middle of the night, or something like that. Make it protected, right? And I said, yeah, yeah, yeah

  They gave 10 of them to Larry and the other dwarves all took one of these discs and said that they're gonna check what they were 'cause everybody looked at me and tell that these things were magical, but no one knew what they did yet. And everybody's like, come back at dinner time to the king's cabin and tell us what you guys found all ya. And they all agreed, so they all took off. And Larry took one for himself, and he went back and gave the kids and the dwarves and the mayor, and he went. to the vault and he had the appraiser there. Look at the crystal. Discs

  No one had any clue what it was. But they all said they were going to figure it out during the day. It wasn't until the end of the day that Larry got the information that it. you put a piece of manic last behind it. and then put light into it after a couple seconds. The disk would start glowing bright blue and a couple of people had drilled into them and made holes in them and acted more like a stone than a metal. So this stone would blow. and they were basically holding them around their necks with rope like glow in a dark necklace.

  They thought that was really cool and asked if they were sick or any side effects. And they did explain that one person that gave it to you had just shown up. They handed him the necklace and after a couple minutes he got sick and was taken over to the hospital for mana poisoning. So these things were just juice with mana.

  Larry banned them from going into mine with these at any time, because it would be a chain reaction that they couldn't turn off. But using them outside seemed like a great idea. So he said that the guards should be getting them, and the Kings all had one, and they, they just knew that to keep these safe, that these could be a light source. So they all wanted to. they wanted to try them on, but they're also a little worried that there was something else to go wrong, waiting for the other shoe to drop, if you would. That's an idiom.

  You might be wondering whatever happened to getting into the mountain and making a horde and all that jazz. Well, kids hadn't forgotten what they. had got. to was a point where they had to figure out if they were going past 26 or not.

  Larry didn't like that, because they sure as hell didn't know what was down there So there was one more option that they've been putting off. Was the laser chamber. Larry was gonna go down. and see what was on the other side. And he was gonna take. one of the glow-in-the-dark. crystal necklaces. But he was going to put it in a bag in cloth If he had to, he was going to try and tag one of the creatures with it and see if. they could see light or all no offence. He just need to see what they were.

  The older dwarves being in the room when they were talking about this said, hey, can we throw a piece of information in? There's a guy, a dwarf in town that can see through rock. He's the one that actually unlocked that. Get him and go with him. Because what he can do is he might be able to see through the rock in case you there's one on the other side who might be able to let you know what's there before you get there. He's a little bit older though, and he doesn't run right, so don't take him too deep at also, there's. at least two dwarves with the ability to use magic. And in this case, fire magic, bring them in case you have to burn some bugs.

  Larry agreed. And one of the older dwarf said, I'm going into town to do my shift at the end. I'll make sure they show up in a bit. OK, and if they're not in town, i'll send another. replacement that has the same abilities. We actually have a couple people now that can see through the rock. Most of them. actually all have eye injuries. So it's kindly oddly specific that they get these powers after they lost eyes. But hey, I won't say no to more people seeing it through Iraq. We've been able to find more rod or like this than we have in the last 100 years. Great.

  Later that morning, Larry had his group together, and they had gone in all the way down to the lazer room. And when they were on their way down, they communicated with each other about what they were going to find. And when they. went. And when they got there, what they found was exactly how Larry left it, except that their little bridge and all that had collapsed. And the first job was to remove all that. So they didn't break whatever it was. And they all worked and cleared it out. And they did most of this in the dark too.

  Larry after the after they cleaned all the stuff from the floors and off the walls that they had tried to put up to protect themselves. They. grab the whole team and move them back into the tunnel around the corner and around another corner because Larry had an idea book that necklace. He wanted to see if the. laser set up here at the crystals reacted to the light

  Everybody was a safe distance, and he just pulled up the. necklace, and it was out for less than three seconds. And he put it back at first. It didn't do anything. And Larry was kind of happy, but he had felt something change. And when he pulled out out the whole room reacted to it. Now what Larry wouldn't have been able to see was it didn't absorb some magical light and not magical light was getting. refined, broken down and resent just like the other light was. But you couldn't see it. So when he walked through it, it was. not dark. It had a slight glow coming off of it, but it almost was pure dark. But the moment Larry's chest hit that spot where they were focusing at all, it's just warmed up a lot. And then it cooled down. He hit the ground almost. He stumbled a little bit and walked through. He just got hit with a magical blast with his chest and he knew it. He hadn't felt that since he was a kid, when he hit one of his friends tricked him and used matchcom in the wrong way. He didn't like that memory, so he didn't like this feeling. So he was quite mad

  He explained that. what had happened and he had to go backwards. So he walked through it, but it didn't happen again. He had absorbed it all as he walked through it.

  As he walked around the first corner and came to the 2nd quarter, they all asked, so what happened? And he explained, it did something and it hurt. I got hit by magic, but not in light. It also reflects magic, so make sure any of your magical devices don't get off or else what will happen is you'll get. well, I think I walked right into an orb of really dense magic. My chest still hurts a bit, but it's not like I can't breathe or anything. It's just all my veins feel like they're on fire. So I think I just got juice real hard. So be careful about that. OK,

  He grabbed them and they all walked back in single file holding hands, literally in the dark. One person had good night vision. That person was in the front. That was Larry. one of Larry's parents wasn't human. You wouldn't know if I'm looking at him, but yeah, I gave him a couple of gifts that Larry didn't let people know about that he loved while them was what night vision but low light vision

  When they reached the door, the old dwarf with the x-ray vision said I'm going to try to see what I can see through the door.

  He said he couldn't see anything, and they were gonna open a door now. Larry agreed, and they wedged the bar they brought in, and they had to do some jigging on the back as they had kind of jammed it shut. So the old timer using. a metal bar they had brought thin one, but sturdy. He started playing around with the broken gears in the back and Larry just said hang on and put his hand in there and made a hole so his hand could go right into the gear stuff. using the big bar while the dwarf had his hand in this wholesale. They didn't kill him or crush him, but he started pulling out these really old gears that were in pieces.

  Larry asked if they could. Maybe we're down the road, put that back together and reinstall it on the dwarves. All right. Yep. Well, that's a good. II think we have some guys that have the talented and need a job. That's perfect

  One of the things they had set up was Larry bringing the gem that was in the pedestal before. And all. the dwarves that had come brought claw and they made themselves a fort like a pillow fort kind of around the pedestal and this way they could bring up light without activating the laser array behind them. So while they were doing that they were investigating. the mechanism that created the focusing beam and once they figured it out there like all we can all this is easy. It's just a simple lens and they pulled out the lens and start polishing it cuz it had been scratched and dirty over the air so yeah, it worked out really well so they realized they could have it either disperse and just send light down and very I basically would bathe everything light or if they turned it the other way it would send down a very, very, very thin beam of pure light as far as it could go and I'm thinking they were using the pure one to do the mining.

  They were all told. We're going to open up this door and The old timer couldn't see anything behind it. So when they started opening it, they opened it, and the smell was horrendous. But they all brought nose plugs for that, because they were told and remembered.

  On the backside. was actually a hip height was pooped The tunnel was just layered in poop and they didn't even get less than a foot in the rolling of the door must have announced that they were there because within 30 seconds of them trying to walk through a giant ash. about the size of three dogs came through and it was hurling at them. It was like Nope, Nope, Nope. And it was coming to kill them. There was no mistaking this. So Larry just bailed his **** back and they rolled the door backwards.

  Larry told them that they had to booby trap this. So if anything came through that laser would turn on at once. The dwarfs knew that they took the focusing crystal and they put it in to make the laser beam. And one of them said, no, no, turn it the other way around. It'll then permanently just cook them over a long period of time. We don't know what's at the end. And this way we can come in and look. Plus, it should kill the smoke if it starts anything on fire.

  Larry only asked one question, which is the safest one, so that doesn't hurt the kids and everyone. Yeah, do the wide range one, not the little laser beam. And that'll just basically cook everything for the next couple of feet in a tunnel. No one will be able to get through. Larry, then hand it off the. glow in the dark, crystal medallion. And he said, set this up so if they come through that, that this piece of cloth is pulled off.

  They all understood what Larry was trying to do. So they made a booby trap, and they all bailed. They set it up so if anything came through that door, that cloth would be removed, and this thing would get blasted with light.

  It was a really good thing they did it. They were less than 50 feet down two extra tunnels when they heard the big door opening. They turned around and Larry said no, no, no. Let's see if it goes off. We don't want to be too close. If it goes off and they went. Yep. And the door, I guess, didn't open very much because it was set off and. A whole tunnel they were in was based in white light.

  Larry just realized that that medallion giving off that much light means how many. means how much magical energy is being shot down those tunnels? Well, they didn't have to wait long!

  Thank goodness one of the other dwarves wasn't a stupid idiot like Larry, 'cause he was like, how do we turn this off? And the dwarf just kind of shook his head. He was 1 that only had one eye also, but he didn't have the X ray vision. He had the really good night vision. So he closed both eyes. I know that sounds stupid, but he did. But he did this because he had left a string in a rope in a certain place off the. side, he said it all up so that he could pull the necklace back. Everybody's like, you're so smart. He goes, yeah, hang on. And he lily knew where he was going by feel and touch. He lost depth reception. So he got there with his eyes, basically closed, opened him once or twice just to get a bearing. And then he pulled on it. And when he came back, he had the necklace in his hand.

  They all said that they were gonna get back, and they were gonna send guards in here to start clearing it out. And that's exactly what they did, except Larry and the boys worked for a. work for a day to figure out how to get around the laser. But then they realized they shouldn't do that because it was their only safety mechanism to keep whatever is down there go away. So they picked the guards that were the lightest so they didn't break the glass over the laser bridge and that's the area that they walked through is a glass tube over a giant geode.

  For the next two days, everybody was going in there and killing the giant ants now. They explained when they. first got back in there that the ants hadn't really opened the door more than a foot. So nothing had come through. But when they got it wide enough that the dwarfs could just shimmy through what they found on the other side was all that light had come in and and actually powdered the whole place all the fecal matter dirt whatever it was basically just got sun cooked to the point where it was like having sand and dust so when they came out they came out with these bags of sand and dust and everybody's like what's going on they said just just trust us. We think we know what this is. the next morning they took a bag out and they literally put it. in the middle of a field and they said everybody ready for this everything. Yeah. What are we waiting for? Well, the bag had that powder on the outside when the first rays of sunlight hit it the bag started to glow everybody's like dots really cool and he goes out wait I take cover fire you. I think this is going to go boom.

  And then everybody understood this is what happens if you dehydrate the poop from the crystal beast, probably. And they had a bag of powdered explosives in the sunlight

  If you thought that it exploded, you'd be absolutely wrong. And that's what happened Kinda the bag around it melting, and all the. and all the the dust kinda just made a pile as the material kind of gelled It was sand. It had no moisture. It didn't have any combustibility.

  What it did have is the ability to go on the wind. So as the wind picked up, these small particles of crystal. now flung into the wind and the whole meadow within five minutes was bathed in this eerie glow. Greens and yellows from the first rays of sun giving magic to all the plants in the area.

  This got back to the kids in Larry, and they went, ok, so we have a new type of magical weapon. Great. Who came up with this great idea?

  The kids were loving having all the stuff, but so much weapons that they were devising and making without even trying it seemed they were getting a little how how war hungry were dwarfs.

  By this point, the castle above the kids must have been not more than half a kilometer up and on top of the mountain range had started being built to the point where people were living up there. There was. hundreds of dwarf houses made out of stone all along the mountain range. Little paths between them all too. It's like hundreds of Little Hobbit holes. It was great.

  Some of the deeper ones that they had done, lots of room inside, had a lot more extravagant. extravagant carvings on the entrance of their homes because they had lots more people to do it and everybody doing a little bit makes a large different versus 1 or 2 people that had, like, just walls that you didn't even realize was their home until they move the wall and then they walked right through a wall. Be a very beautiful way of doing it. Clean, minimalistic.

  Everything came to a halt the day that the emissaries for the Kings and Queens of the countries came into town, not because of what they brought or what they were to be taking with them, but due to the fact that that day 1 of the dwarfs would come across another burial site, this burial would change everything going forward. due to it being hidden in a small shrine in the forest between the fort and port town.

  The shrine was not of a god they know of, it was a fox with 2 tales rapped sleeping around a hand but every finger was of a different race (5 races?) human, dwarf, elves and one that looked like scales on a fix and the last was like a spiders leg? supper weird, they would not harm the shrine so a group of wood carvers where sent out to copy the shrine and they would not harm the shrine in any was. that was the request from the 3 kid kings.