The Claiming of MINT Mountain, a dwarven mining tale

  The story of One, Two, and Three—three little dwarf brothers—ends in a small bar on the docks of a port town.

  The pub is called The Licking Stone. The men in the bar tell the tale of One, Two, and Three.

  As infants, the three dwarves were left on a church's doorstep. A note found with them explained that their caravan had been attacked and that no one had survived except these three babies. They were wrapped in cloth bearing the insignia of a dwarven clan.

  Years passed before the name of the clan was finally uncovered. When they learned it, they discovered the clan had been annihilated. This revelation sent the church into secrecy, and the boys were instructed never to speak of their origins. They became inseparable, as close as brothers could be.

  By the time they were seven or eight, the church assigned a monk to take them outside town, to a small mountain where a coal mine lay hidden. With the help of the townspeople and their church family, the boys crafted their own tools and built a small, concealed refuge. They weren’t afraid of their own people—they simply didn’t want to be the cause of anyone else’s suffering.

  For the first two weeks, they ventured out only at night, leaving under the cover of darkness and returning before dawn. They hunted, mined, and dug. The little metal they found, they smelted in a clay furnace they built themselves. Hours—sometimes days—were spent melting down small amounts of iron. Slowly, they forged chains to cut trees, fashioned hand picks, and, in time, even built saws. With patience and effort, they constructed a proper campsite.

  This routine continued until they had gathered enough money and tools. When they were ready, they informed their church family of their departure and set off for a distant port town near a vast mountain range.

  Upon arrival, they wandered through the streets, eventually making their way to the docks to watch the sunset. This was their new home. The town itself was simply called Port Town—not the most creative name, but fitting for its practical residents.

  They kept their hoods up, concealing their faces. Having been raised by humans, they bore no beards and appeared as short humans to the untrained eye. Some townsfolk suspected the truth but chose to ignore it.

  Sitting on the docks, their feet dangling over the edge, the brothers finally broached a subject they had long avoided: their parents.

  They had few memories but recalled small stone toys—dreidels and trinkets they had sucked on as babies. The taste and texture remained vivid in their minds. Each of them had possessed several of these toys, each made of different materials. They suddenly recognized them for what they were: licking stones, a childhood term they had all known.

  At that moment, they turned and noticed an empty stall behind them. It was the perfect size for a small pub.

  That was when they decided: their new tavern would be called The Licking Stone.

  They quickly set about gathering supplies and befriended local merchants, securing deliveries so they could focus on mining rather than hunting for survival. With better equipment, they obtained safety ropes and other necessities. While digging for coal—the fuel that sustained their efforts—they discovered a small vein of ore.

  More intriguing still, they found a narrow crack in the rock, from which a faint breeze whispered, hinting at unseen depths below.

  To explore further, they acquired headlamps, ropes, emergency candles—and, for the first time, a bottle of booze each.

  The church that had raised them had strict rules about alcohol. Some dwarves claimed it was essential, while others said it was unnecessary. Since they were now on their own, they decided, as a family, to give it a try.

  The next morning, they awoke with the worst headaches of their lives, tied to their ropes inside a cave. Their bodies were fine, but their heads throbbed. One groaned, nudged Two, who then kicked Three. As they stirred, realization dawned—they were alive. That was enough.

  One attempted to turn on his headlamp, but it was dead, the liquid fuel completely drained. He lit one of his emergency candles and took in their surroundings. A stalagmite, about a foot away, held their rope. The cave was small, no more than fifty feet across. They had widened the crack in the rock and crawled through, opening up into this chamber.

  And in the chamber lay a snake.

  Not just any snake—a massive, pitch-black serpent, its head cleanly severed. Memories flooded back. The fight. The struggle. Then… the drinking. Oh no. The drinking came first.

  As Two and Three sat up, they took in the scene. The snake, about six feet long and nearly a quarter-foot thick, had been slain with several well-placed pickaxe swings. They carried their bags as usual, so they stuffed the snake inside—only to realize it was still bleeding. That would be a problem for later.

  They didn't need to speak much; they understood each other instinctively. With their single candle, they relit Two and Three’s, illuminating more of the cave. Scattered bones littered the floor. They cleaned up as they worked, realizing this could serve as a home—cozy in its own way.

  As they explored further, they discovered another opening behind a stalagmite, barely large enough to fit an arm through. The snake must have come from there. They knew they would need to break through.

  After ten minutes of searching and assessing, they paused and looked at each other. There was no need for words.

  Home.

  They nodded in agreement, placed their hands together, and shared a smile. Then, in a rare display of sentiment, they wrapped their arms around one another in a tight embrace.

  They took out their small shovels—one of poor quality and the other two well-made. They assigned the bad one for sand and soil, while Two and Three, using the better shovels, focused on moving rocks. They filled in the area behind the stalagmite, preparing for when they would need to open it up. For now, they used backfill, leaving a small pocket of air.

  As they worked, they noticed the wind being sucked downward. When they placed the last bit of soil and sand, it kept disappearing into the hole. They had to use rocks to block it. As they made the hole smaller, a whistling sound emerged. Curious, they removed some rocks and drove a climbing spike into a natural rock face to prevent anything from coming through while leaving an opening for air to pass. The gap, about a quarter-foot wide on either side of the rod, served as a security warning system. If anything tried to pass through, they would hear the whistling change.

  Two suggested building a fire pit with a vent leading to the hole, potentially smoking out anything inside. However, he realized that whatever was lurking might charge toward them, so they opted for a different approach: trapping the entire room with spikes.

  They fashioned a rope ladder using their existing ropes, securing access up and down. They cut small trees, no more than a foot in diameter, and spent days sharpening them into spikes. If a spike couldn't survive being thrown down, they deemed it unfit for defense.

  They arranged the spikes at 30- to 45-degree angles, depending on the floor, creating three levels of defense up to their head height of about four feet, five inches.

  Satisfied with their work, they returned to town. But this time, their visit to the general store took an unexpected turn...

  They returned to town once more, heading straight for the general store. This time, however, the shopkeeper took notice of them.

  "Hey, you guys are dwarves!"

  Instantly, the three of them tensed, twisting toward him, ready to fight. The shopkeeper raised his hands. "Whoa, whoa! I’m sorry! I mean… I misunderstood. How can I help you guys? What do you need?"

  Their postures relaxed slightly, but One—always claiming to be the oldest, even if only by a minute—stepped forward. "We need to smoke out some monsters from a cave. We don’t want to use wood or coal if it’ll leave a residue. Do you have anything that won’t poison us if we decide to use that cave later?"

  What they didn’t reveal was that they had been trained by the church in various languages, poisons, and alchemical mixtures. One wanted to see what the shopkeeper would offer—whether he was trustworthy. But he also didn’t know what might be hidden behind the counter. Some trust had to be given to see what would happen next. It could bite them in the ***—but they'd find out soon enough.

  The shopkeeper's lips curled into a sly grin. "Ohhh, I get it now. My apologies, adventurers. Have you been to the Adventurers' Guild yet? If you’ve got your adventurer’s pass, I can give you a 10% discount on all sales here. So… do you want me to tell you about the poisons I can offer? Or would you rather visit them first so I can show you the good stuff—only available to adventurers?"

  One, knowing that this was a trap, said, no, I'm fine. Just the way it is. Do you have anything? What is your cheapest thing that you could offer us? The shopkeeper had kind of tilted. It looked at him not getting the answer he was expecting. But what. How about mint? I have a large container of mint. And if you burn that the oils can be very, very bad. But it smells really nice. So as long as you let it air out, you. might be able to use that. I can offer you that for 5s?

  Before they left the church, they had done enough work that the church actually raised the money to let them go with it. And they had taken that and sold. coal after going and digging it out and had started small amount of money coming in. So they were pretty good with that. So they weren't short on money by any means, but they didn't have a lot. 5 silver was kind of a lot of money. But to do this right, they would need two of that amount. So Penn Silver to get the job done.

  One, two and three all looked at each other, and they all nodded almost at the same time to each other. And the shopkeeper noticed that. And just smirk to himself, knowing these guys are totally dwarfs, but they're not. They've shaved their beard. They must have really **** **** or something to have everybody hunting for them. Someone would definitely pay for that information. But for now, he didn't need to get dead from them. So he just kept his mouth shut, and he waited for what they were going to say.

  One turned, pulled out his coin pouch. Put 10 silver down and ask for two of those Some more liquid. for their lamps and some more emergency candles. And with that, he put down another silver. The merchant picked it up, grabbed the candles off the shelf, grabbed the two boxes of the mint, put it down. Gentlemen, have a great day

  As the door closed the. owner called to the back and he called his helper and told him to get down here He was going to take off for a bit and he was in charge of the store till he came back.

  He waited about three minutes after the gentleman left, and he went out and went the exact opposite direction, down to the local bar because he had to go talk to 1 of his friends that worked for the underbelly. If there's any dwarf contracts out there it's easy enough to make some money off of information in this town. Looking for three dwarves on the run. to his side, and disappointed self after talking to his contacts, there was absolutely nothing out there.

  But being the Loudmouth **** he was his contact, now was told to do three dwarves hiding, and he didn't know why. Hiding dwarves always ended in something big and exploding, which could be fun, but he would have. tell one of his friends that was going to be coming to town in about a week and a half, who happened to be a dwarf about it, thinking maybe, just maybe he'd no more

  They had gone to a different store owner who has made them a deal on the booze they had bought. And they. had figured out that he had also realized their dwarfs and the bottles of booze. They had never drank something that strong. So yes, they they loved it, but they couldn't remember **** all. And for them, that was not a positive sign. So they were. to know what he had given them And their conversation basically went, I gave you dwarven alcohol. And the moment he said the word dwarf, they all looked at him and he went, I whatever. Do you want something lighter or heavier?

  This is one of the only times where all three of them started just yelling at the guy, telling them how they loved it so much, but how they woke up after a fight. They don't even remember having.

  One calmed two and three down and then. the look on the alcohol salesman's face was prices as he tried to hold in the lab and he had apologized right there on the spot, not knowing that they didn't drink alcohol. And that was her first. He had given them actually strong dwarven alcohol. What he now pulled out, he says on the house. I have a couple extra bottles here. Take 6 bottles. This is some wine that a friend of mine made. It's **** but it's cheap. It's yours as an apology. This is low quality. You can probably kill a bottle and it won't hurt you I'm so sorry. When you want something stronger, you come back to me. And that's what happens. People get I didn't say the other people. I said people get used to. it used to it over time. The same that happens at the beginning. They try to chase that over and over again. Don't do that, guys. Keep it. Keep it light and keep it. Simple.

  They wouldn’t know how accurate those words were.

  Keep it light, keep it simple—that was the plan. That night, they sat on their wooden deck, carved out over the last little while, drinking from their mugs and living deep in the forest. They ate stag, potatoes, and carrots, washing it down with a mug of wine. And in that moment, they realized they were happy. They felt whole. They were ready for a fight.

  One mug, one meal, and then they were off.

  In the dead of night, they made their way to the cave. It was time to smoke them out. They built a fire pit, piling in wood, stacking rocks at the entrance, and feeding the flames. Then someone said, Screw it. Let’s just set the whole thing ablaze. It would burn hot enough to seal the cave shut, trapping whatever was inside.

  They stacked wood higher and higher, at least twenty feet back from the entrance, and then lit it. Within minutes, the fire roared to life, smoke curling into the air. The heat licked at their faces. That’s when it hit them—we should get out of here.

  They climbed the ladder, choking on thick smoke as it poured from the cave’s entrance. The horror below was filling up fast.

  They grabbed a few sharpened wooden spears, thick and long, ready to stab at anything that might crawl out. A pile of extra weapons lay at the entrance, just in case. As a last resort, they had a plan—a rock formation they could collapse, sealing everything inside for good. But that was a desperate move. One they weren’t ready to make. Not yet.

  They downed another round of drinks. Then, a scent of mint hit their nostrils, sharp and clear. Their minds buzzed, thoughts racing. Drunk, but in control. And suddenly, they were banging their makeshift drums against wooden logs, dancing, celebrating.

  This felt right.

  Smoke billowed from the cave, thick and black. And then, they heard it.

  A scream.

  At first, they cheered. But then they realized—it wasn’t coming from just one cave. It echoed through the mountains, from deep, hidden tunnels. And it wasn’t a scream of terror.

  It was pure rage. A sound of anger, defeat, and the gut-wrenching realization of being utterly screwed.

  The absolute mayhem that erupted from small caves all throughout the mountain was bats—and I’m not talking one or two million. I’m talking one or two billion bats. They just said, "Screw this, we’re out."

  Now, those who’ve played Dungeons & Dragons probably know the rule: Don’t light fires in places you don’t know. Because of gases. Or whatever. Whatever is exactly what happened next.

  All those bats, evacuating their body mass as fast as they could, poured out of every cave entrance. Meanwhile, the fire they had started was growing, sucking in air like a massive bonfire. The sheer force of the bats' departure created a vacuum effect—pulling the flames inward. Smoke, fire, everything started getting sucked down into the caves below.

  The dwarves stood at the edge, looking down, watching the unnatural pull of air. They saw fire racing inward, and they heard the sound. That was their cue. They pulled their heads back from the cave, turned, and walked—fast—about 60, maybe 80 feet away.

  Luckily, they did.

  Because what happened next? Even in the darkness, even with the stars in the background, they saw a giant swarm of bats blacking out the sky.

  First came the sound.

  The sucking stopped.

  Then, pop.

  A rush of wind blasted out, hitting them square in the chest. Then:

  POP-POP-POP-POP-POP-POP.

  A relentless chain of explosions—like one long, drawn-out blast.

  Then came the fire.

  Not just from the cave. From everywhere.

  All over the mountain, different spots suddenly erupted—shooting out fire in massive funnels. Blue. Green. Red. And the force behind them was insane—fire blasted so violently that it shot straight into the sky. The ground itself caught fire.

  They counted nearly a hundred separate points where flames were bursting from the mountainside.

  The brothers hit the ground, arms wrapped around each other, faces pressed into the dirt as the heat roared over them. When it finally started to die down, they dared to look up.

  The sight was breathtaking.

  At the mountain's peak, three distinct points blazed like volcanoes, fire pouring from them, slowly fading.

  Number One, with Two and Three still under each arm, pulled them to their feet. He looked at them, then at the burning mountain.

  "Gentlemen… welcome to Mint Mountain."

  Now, if you’ve never burned mint before, let me tell you—it’s one hell of a nostril-opener. But that wasn’t the only thing they were smelling. They recognized the other scent real quick.

  Guano.

  Thousands—maybe millions—of tons of bat droppings. Which, in case you didn’t know, is basically rocket fuel when ignited.

  Oops.

  The three of them surveyed their massive mess.

  "Uh…" One of them broke the silence. "So… we just screwed up."

  The other two nodded.

  "And someone’s gonna investigate this, right?"

  Another nod.

  They locked eyes.

  Then, clasping hands, they grinned.

  "Brothers for life."

  They turned back to the absolute destruction they’d just caused.

  Let them come.

  They can take us dead.

  Five miles away, in a quiet little town, the shockwave rattled the bell tower. The bell shifted ever so slightly. When the tower guard gave it a routine pull, expecting resistance, the thing swung violently.

  It rang. Loud.

  Then it rang again. Hard.

  And again.

  The town woke instantly.

  People rushed outside, eyes wide as they stared at the burning mountain in the distance.

  It took about ten minutes for the fires to finally die down. By then, the entire town was already making its way to City Hall, scrambling to figure out what the hell just happened.

  The shopkeeper and the pub owner—miles apart—had the same thought the second they heard the bell:

  "What have those dwarves done now?"

  And yet…

  They weren’t mad.

  In fact, they both smiled. Because those dwarves?

  They meant business.

  And business meant money.

  The shopkeeper poured himself a drink and sat on his balcony, watching the last embers fade from the mountain.

  This?

  This was gonna be a good financial month.

  As soon as the fire in their cave started to die down, they wanted to check on it. They knew it would still be warm, but they didn’t expect just how hot it actually was. They could only get about four feet from the entrance before the heat forced them to stop.

  When everything settled, there were small rockslides, but the rock side they had set up actually didn’t slide. They were impressed. Still, they knew they had to check it—like a bomb that should have gone off but didn’t. They saw that all the weight was resting on their little support. So, they reinforced it with extra support under the lever and added a breakaway one a little farther down. Then they just prayed it wouldn’t pop, though they still wanted to have it there in case they needed it for the exact reason it was built.

  By sunset, the bats couldn’t return. The caves were too hot, so they scattered. That night, the bats infested the woods, and some of the larger prey animals didn’t stand a chance.

  The bats clung to the trees around the dwarves’ small cabin, but they didn’t get inside. The cabin was built slightly into the hillside, looking like a hobbit hole from the outside but more like a proper cabin inside. It was well-hidden—green and rocky enough that, if you didn’t know it was there, you wouldn’t see it.

  They couldn’t do anything until it cooled down, so they went to sleep. When they woke up, they were surprised to have no hangover despite finishing a whole bottle of wine before bed. That meant it hadn’t hurt them too much.

  When they went to check on the cave, they found that instead of expelling air, it was now sucking it in. They had slept while it was still light out, and now the sun wasn’t too far past the peak of the arch—almost noon.

  One of their favorite games was Rock, Paper, Scissors (or, as some called it, Rochambeau). The three of them played, and Three won. He would be the first one to enter the cave. They filled their lamps with fuel, grabbed extra candles, and headed in.

  The moment they entered, they realized there was glass everywhere—shards of melted and hardened sand crunching underfoot. When they had started, they had removed their ladder, so they threw it back down into the smaller cave. The entrance had widened because the heat had caused the rock to crack and collapse. They had to find new places to tie down their ropes—ones that weren’t "cooked" by the fire. It took a few minutes.

  One thing they noticed was that soot covered nearly everything. They wrapped cloth over their mouths as they climbed down the rope ladder. The stalactites and stalagmites had been destroyed by the heat, crumbling into powdery fragments. The rocks had been cooked so hot that they seemed altered. They set some of it aside, intending to analyze the material later.

  Surprisingly, there was very little ash; the intense wind had blown or sucked it all away. As they cleared some of the broken white stalagmites, they saw that beyond where the fire had burned was another chamber. It was like moving from one giant bubble to another, except the floors weren’t even—each bubble was either higher or lower than the next.

  To navigate the uneven terrain, they used their picks to carve a makeshift staircase, breaking their way from one bubble to the next. After six chambers, they finally decided to turn back for dinner.

  None of them needed to say a word—they all instinctively turned and marched out. When they got outside, they had a water barrel and a separate wash barrel for cleaning off the soot. By the time they were done, the wash barrel had to be emptied. They made sure to dump it near their house, where the nutrients could enrich the soil.

  Once the barrel was empty, the three of them worked together to carry it down to the river, about two miles away. They had rigged up ropes to make it easier—one person in front, two on either side in the back. After cleaning up at the river and filling the barrel with fresh water, they hauled it back home. That night, they ate, slept, and dreamed of what they might find next.

  This routine continued for two more days. They hadn’t yet explored all 25 chambers. These rooms were about 10 feet by 10 feet by 10 feet, or sometimes as large as 20 feet by 20 feet by 20 feet. It seemed that this had once been some sort of tunnel system, but the heat had melted parts together while trapped gases prevented them from fully sealing. It had formed something like a thin film layer.

  It wasn’t until they reached the 21st chamber that they realized how reckless they had been. At the 25th chamber, the floor was see-through. They only had about two inches of solid rock left to stand on. Below them, there was nothing but darkness. When they shone their lamps across the chamber, it was like looking through a glass floor in a skyscraper. It freaked them out.

  Checking under the 24th chamber, they found solid stone. That meant they were on the edge of a massive open space. If the floor was going to break, it might as well break now while they were prepared. They knew that.

  So, Number Two—being the reckless one—grabbed a rock the size of a human head and hurled it into the room. It bounced once… then nothing. The others stared at him, and he just shrugged.

  One, Two, and Three each grabbed a rock. Number One gave the signal: "One, two, three."

  They all threw their rocks at the same time.

  Thud. Thud. CRACK.

  The first rock caused a small crack. The second widened it. The third made it even bigger.

  The fourth?

  It shattered the floor.

  A wave of pungent sulfurous rot hit them. Then, suddenly, the air started rushing downward, as if the space beneath had been a vacuum. The three of them stood frozen as the current pulled past them, vanishing into the depths of the 25th chamber...

  broom was enough. was another entrance to another. set of orbs or rooms or something and as it starts sucking air it starts sucking in from that side but you could hear pieces of glass shattering and then more and more and more and then all of a sudden the far side broke and pieces of glass were getting sucked down into the hole in the 21st rooms floor and it was really weird to see bats going hi there by there as it just went past the down the hole with the air and they were getting sucked down and there's got to be a couple 1000 50,000 bats getting sucked into this hole at high speed and the boys are like they were holding on to their lines and there was a little typhoon like they could stand I guess like it wasn't that strong but I guess it was strong like they had low centre of gravity I guess.

  Number one had been counting with his hands, and they were kind of watching him what he was doing. And they questioned, and he just said, 6768 sixty 9. And he just kept on counting with his fingers. After a while, he stopped counting when the wind stopped sucking so hard. And yeah, so what was it?

  212 Seconds. For air to flow in and fill that cavity that's in there. That is huge. We found a giant cave system. We can find probably lots stuff in here. They're all three of them were just smiling. and they felt they were doing the right thing. But that was enough for today. They had the last bottles of wine to drink and they hadn't had anybody coming in from town so they were going to make a quick run to town and get some more rope.

  They knew something was gonna go wrong when they went to town. They could feel it in their bones, and they were not wrong, because the moment they walked into the general store, he smiled and told his. apprentice tell Patty his parcel just showed up. and then walked in to see his three customers where they hadn't heard him say that to his assistant

  He sold them. all the stuff they were looking for and they. left. and then they went next to the alcohol salesman. Then they told them that it was good and they wanted more of that. And this time they wanted 3 kegs or barrels or whatever they could get. And they were talking with the alcohol salesman getting them to give him a good deal. And in the end, he got rid of some old apple wine Three casks of it. They put one on each of their backs along with giant chunks of rope. and some tools and some food. And they went back into the hills

  The three rogues that had been sent to follow them, literally told one of them. Hey, I don't need your help. Go **** **** Go have a drink. And he told the other two to go away. And this old timer just do the follow the dwarves. because he was in charge. The other two are like we're getting paid still right

  The old guy said, "Yeah," and threw them a couple of coins—two silvers each—and they just fug off. "Tell the Guild master what I just did, and that shocked them, not thinking he actually wanted them to rat on him. Tell him I'll be back in a day or three."

  With that, he grabbed a backpack that he had hidden around the corner where he was talking with the other two. He put it on his back and started walking into the forest behind them.

  About two miles out of town, he actually started to pick up his pace until he could see them in the distance. The three boys saw the man as they were almost to their own house. He waved to them once he saw that they saw him, so they stopped in their tracks and waited for him to catch up and ask what he wanted. Why was he following them?

  The old man smiled and said, "I'm from the rogue guild. Let's put it this way. People want to know why you're mining. Did you have anything to do with the fire on the mountain, or was it something else? People are really freaked out about that. And there’s been a couple of people hurt from the bats. They’re getting more aggressive."

  As the three of them didn’t want to say anything, they just shut up real quick and tried to give each other signals. The old man started laughing. "Don’t worry. No one’s in trouble. You guys didn’t do anything wrong. They just want to make sure a dragon’s not in town or something like that. Plus, everybody’s kind of worried why there are three dwarfs who have shaved their beards hiding in our town. Like, shaving your beard is a big deal. We’ve never seen it, and we don’t know why you guys are doing it, and we're worried that you guys might be up to something bad or that you’re evil people. But you don’t seem bad. You seem like kids. So, hey, my name’s Larry. Just tell me what’s going on."

  One, two, and three, knowing the jig was half up, realized they couldn’t even see where they lived. They just said, "Sorry, sir," and all bowed their heads to him.

  Larry said, "Hey, kids, don’t do that. Now you’re making me feel bad. Just tell me what’s going on, and maybe I can help."

  One, two, and three didn’t know where to start, so two and three pushed one forward. One stepped up and said, "We were abandoned as babies. We know our parents are dead and our clan is dead. We don’t have anybody to go back to, and we don’t want to die. So we’re hiding here trying to find a place for ourselves."

  The old thief was mad at himself. Now it felt like a chunk of crap..

  "Kids, here’s what Larry’s gonna do for you." He looked at them and said, "Hold your heads up. You haven’t done anything wrong. Whatever happened, I’ll take the blame. If anything goes wrong, I’ll protect you. Tell me what’s going on." He explained to them what everyone was expecting. And Larry was going to come back with some knowledge of what had happened.

  One explained that they were trying to clean out the cave. He pointed over to the cave and explained what he had done. As he got to the part where the wind changed, Larry just facepalmed. "And I’m guessing after that, the fire started in the mountains, and that’s what—" "Yeah," they said. "We were knocked on our ass’s, and we covered our heads. We put our ass in the air. Once the fire died down, we looked around and, yeah, we went and checked it out. There are lots of glass rooms in there, molten glass and rock. It’s been burned, and it’s really beautiful."

  Larry said, "You’ve been in there already?" "Yeah, we’re going to go back in. You want to come with us? These kids want to have fun. They’re excited."

  Larry just looked at him and said, "Kids, you may not know your heritage, but you are absolute dwarfs, no matter what anybody says. Just the way you act, the way you’re happy, and the way you are—you're awesome and perfect just the way you are. So I will keep an eye on you, and if it’s okay, I’ll sleep outside tonight, and tomorrow we can go in. I brought my own tent and everything."

  The three of them said, "Nah, don’t worry about it," and let him sleep in the cabin with them. They didn’t realize it was actually pretty big in there—they could fit about 7 to 10 people if they wanted to. They actually had extra beds made up in case, and they had all the little sewing things they made from different animals and hides. That’s what they did for fun: they made things with their hands.

  On one of the shelves was a set of children’s toys made of stone. Each of them had made them in memory of their parents. But it wasn’t until the next morning when Larry was looking around and they were offering him food, and he was offering them some food he brought for warming up on their fire pit/stove area inside their house—which was amazingly beautiful—that he picked up one of the baby toys. On it was one of the dwarven crests that he knew. He recognized the House of Coal and Fire.

  He turned around and asked them, "Do you guys know the symbol?"

  They all shut up real quick and just said, "No." Larry knew they were lying, but he just dropped it and put it down. "Okay, no worries. So what’s for breakfast?"

  And with that, they were happy to change the subject.

  That day, they went with Larry into the cave system. Larry watched as the boys started to go down into the hole of the 25th. Larry said, "I’m not going down there. That’s too big for me. I’d have to open this up a bit more." So Ashton just kept an eye on them up there, while one and three stayed up. Well, two turned to go down. Two shimmyed down the rope into another room, except this room was a lot bigger than they expected. As the light moved around the room, 13 and Larry, looking through the floor of room 24, could actually see the light coming through and realized they weren’t actually on rock. It was just thicker. They looked back into room 23 and could see the lights. So they moved into an extra room.

  Larry looked up and they could see him pointing the light right at them. It was hard to see because it was so thick, but yeah, Larry was literally walking underneath them until his rope stopped. He just turned around and tugged on the rope, and they checked for sharp edges. They helped pull him back up. What they weren’t expecting was for him to be a little bit heavier.

  He had this stupid smile on his face and said, "Hey, Larry, I have a gift for you, if you don’t mind keeping our secret."

  Being a rogue, stealing secrets was Larry’s jam. He loved that stuff. So he said, "Sure, I can be bought off. What do you have?"

  Number Two said, "Let’s go outside, and I’ll show you." Once they got outside, they all made their way to the mouth of the cave. Number Two took off his backpack, which was a little heavier than it had been when he came down, and pulled out four objects. They were the size of two fists put together, solid metal, and silver in color. They were four teardrop-shaped objects that had warped and melted from the intense heat.

  He said, "With these, we seal the pact of the secret. Now, Larry, I’m willing to give you mine. I’m the best of my brothers, and they’ll probably give you theirs too—if you can do us a favor. How do we get stuff from town without being assaulted or without anyone figuring out what we have up here? And how do we get ahold of you so we can sell stuff through you?"

  One and Three both looked at Two, then at Larry, and smiled the most evil smile.

  The next half hour was spent negotiating. Afterward, Larry took all four giant chunks of metal. They were so heavy it took him a long time to get back to town, but he now had a business partnership to take care of.

  Larry didn’t even stop at the general store. He went straight to town hall and asked to meet with the mayor.

  No one in town knew that the mayor was actually in charge of all the different guilds, including the thieves' guild. He wasn’t the chief of the thieves' guild, but they all reported to him. The mayor needed to know if anything was going to affect him. Plus, Larry and the mayor were family, so Larry knew he could trust the mayor as far as he could throw him. But with money? Definitely trust.

  Within five minutes, he was in the mayor’s office. He closed the door and said, "I need you to pull out a deed for some land right now. No questions asked." The mayor, knowing Larry would never say those words without good reason, asked, "Why?"

  "I need to buy the sign right now, no questions asked."

  The mayor pointed to a spot on the map on the wall. "M703M, 74, NM72, 70, 79. Actually, MN70-MN79."

  The mayor had been through this before. "Okay, not a problem. It'll cost you this much." As soon as the mayor said that, Larry pulled out one of the teardrop-shaped objects and handed it over. "Here’s my payment, and that'll cover everything else, Uncle."

  The mayor took the teardrop, held it in his hand, and asked, "What the hell is this?"

  Larry spent the next few minutes explaining how three human miners came to sell items and that he was sending them to keep an eye on them. "They’re buying the mine, and they’re going to work it. I don’t sell to our town; I sell through me."

  The smile on Larry’s face matched the smile on the mayor’s face. They shook hands, and the mayor said, "Pleasure doing business, nephew."

  With that, Larry went down to the appraiser’s office in the same building and rang the bell.

  An older man was sitting at a desk. A younger man looked up and said, "How can I help?" Larry said, "I need an appraisal for some metal of an unknown type. Please get your boss to appraise it for me."

  This got the older man’s attention. He was short and didn’t look entirely human—more like a gnome, but uglier. The little man waddled up to the counter, which he couldn’t even see over, but he had a small ladder. He climbed up and said, "Let me see it."

  As Larry put the teardrop down, the old man whistled. "I haven’t seen one of these in probably 50 years. I guess this is from what happened the other day, with the mountain getting too hot for you. How many do you have?"

  Larry replied, "I’ve got three. I might be able to get more, but I need to know what they are first. This one looks pretty darn pure. Can you tell me what it is?"

  The old man walked over to one of the shelves, which had a glass set of mechanisms and contraptions. He placed the teardrop in a holder, and the machine lit up. He pressed a button, and the machine scanned it. After a moment, the printer slowly printed off a report. The old man grabbed the paper and read it aloud, "This is silver—99.9% pure. We will offer you 17 gold pieces for this weight."

  Larry agreed. "That would be perfect. Can I have half of it kept in the bank?" (which also served as the town’s bank), "and the other half as a promissory note for the general store?" The reason Larry did this was that if you kept money in the bank, you got a 10% discount at the general store.

  Larry left the boys alone and went back to town. He went to his contact and let him know that the boys, and that's what they were — children — were under Larry's protection. Larry was one of those people. He didn't grow up in this town and was hiding. Everybody knew it in the bad guys' guild. They were all pretty sure they knew what was going on, but he had a couple of tattoos that one or two of them had seen. Think of the Russian Mafia. They have rules about how tattoos are. The tattoos on this gentleman made everybody very, very nervous around him. At the same time, Larry was the nicest guy you'd ever met.

  So when he headed back to the bar and talked with the owner, Justice said, "Hey, those boys are under my protection." There weren’t too many questions other than **. Then the next question was, "Hey, when McDurbish gets into town, let me know. I have to ask him some laws from his race. Do you understand?"

  Larry and the bartender were business friends. They had their own little way of communicating with each other. Larry got his message across, but this also let the bartender know that something with the boys was up, probably involving the law. One of the rules was that when you find that, you just stop asking questions, or you could get your nose cut off, or worse. So now the boys had a somewhat good alibi with the bad guys in town and could do their stuff through Larry. Larry waited for two more days, and then McDurbish showed up.

  It just happened that Larry was at the pub when McDurbish showed up. Out of respect for the old dwarf, a tankard of the nice, good dwarf whiskey was given to him. The moment McDurbish saw free alcohol and a big mug of it, he knew they needed something, so this was going to be an interesting conversation that night.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  As they sat down, only one question had to be asked. Larry just looked at McDurbish and asked as he drew in the dust on the table the symbol he had seen on the dreidel in the dwarf’s home.

  As he was about to finish drawing it, McDurbish's eyes opened wide, and he quickly wiped the drawing away. "Who wants to know about that?"

  Larry knew instantly this was a touchy subject.

  Larry looked at the man and simply said, "There may have been an incident where some people died, and that was carved into a piece of wood where we found them. What is it?"

  McDurbish took a deep breath, relaxed, and looked at Larry. "That was a really bad family that died because one of the kids fell in love with another family, and it didn’t turn out well. Now that family is gone forever. We don’t talk about it. Please."

  McDurbish looked at Larry and asked, "These graves… where are they? Will they ever be found?"

  He knew some of the rules that men like Larry followed. So asking this was almost like asking for proof that they were killed by this person. He didn’t care. He just wanted to make sure that no one would ever find them because the history would bring bad business if it was ever brought up.

  Larry, not knowing this, said, "They were in the deep woods. I found them while traveling. It was very odd, and they had been partially dug up by some animals. I did rebury them, but I don’t think I’ll ever find that spot again. It was deep in the woods."

  McDurbish actually looked quite happy with that answer, simply because a story for a ghost in the past should sometimes be kept in the past.

  And with that, they changed the subject and started talking about anything else. That made Larry very happy. Towards the end of their conversation, he quietly asked, "What was the name of the family?"

  McDurbish, not thinking there’d be any problem with sharing a little bit of information, said, "The clan was called Fire and Coal."

  Later on, they went their separate ways. From that day on, Larry knew something about the boys that they didn’t know.

  After they left, McDurbish was now very interested in how a family that used to own an entire mountain and was murdered off over 40 years ago had a grave found by accident. He knew better. He smelled the gods' involvement in this, turned his nose up at it, and put one finger on one nostril, blowing out of the other. He muttered to himself, "This is for you," as he blew into the dirt, thinking this was going to bring nothing but trouble. But he knew, being a dwarf, he would quietly go look up what actually happened. He had one or two friends in the old clan houses who might be able to tell him more. Next time, he’d come around with more information for Larry, and that would buy him another good drink. It was always worth a talk to get a free drink, especially in these backwaters.

  Larry also had some friends, and when he went to talk to the bartender, he asked to send a message by bird to the central city of the country. It would cost, but Larry wanted more information. The message was short and simple: "Dwarf clan name: Fire and Coal. Send rep with information to sender."

  With that, he got a small ball rolling, knowing that something wasn’t right here. He didn’t have a problem dealing with bad people, but when good people went bad for bad reasons, that wasn’t allowed. Big, bad people, the ones that eat other people and sell others into slavery, kill for fun, and hunt humans for fun — that’s just hell, no. He had his morals, even being an ** and a bad guy. But he knew what was just. Larry had feelings for these boys. He was going to let them be themselves. He was going to make sure that whatever was coming after them, he was ready.

  **************

  This caused a rift between the brothers, and in the end, the leader of the clan told them to dig homes on either side of the mountain. Whoever could get 300 feet deep first would inherit the mine.

  The sad tale was that one brother was better at mining than the other. He was a little faster. The problem was, the faster brother was also the one who married the girl, but she wanted to marry the other brother. When the mine collapsed on him, the faster of the two, she went to see him, but he wasn’t interested in her. She was angry.

  What no one knew was that the other brother had a secret wife. He didn’t want to bring her into the family feud. She lived far away with their daughter, and it wasn’t until 50 years later when she moved to a new city that her name was registered. They found out one brother had taken the name "Fire and Coal," while her family’s name was "Coal and Fire." It was recorded as a different family from the original line of "Fire and Coal."

  The bloodline of "Fire and Coal" had been snuffed out, and nobody knew about her until now.

  The monk and the librarian got so excited when they figured this out, that they became a little more excited than they should have. A couple of monks, who were nosy, overheard their conversation and rushed off in different directions: one to the head of the clergy and the other to a lawyer for the clergy.

  Meanwhile, the monk and librarian were so engrossed in their conversation that they didn’t hear the others come in and surround them. After a few moments, the librarian looked behind the monk to see everyone smiling at them. This was a very good day, because this was a very good find. The reason for this excitement? It was worth money.

  However, due to potential conflicts, the lawyer brought up that they wouldn’t profit off of this in case it led to someone’s death. But what they could do was write a book—a story—and ask for permission from the descendants to publish it. Once published, they would have the right to approach the dwarven people and offer a "lost clan informational referral" for a fee.

  Dwarves were very, very big on family lineage. If you could prove someone's lineage was incorrect or null, you could essentially ask for almost anything. It was extremely important to their society and personal belief system. Mountains had been lost over this, and in this case, a mountain had been lost. It was a good mountain, but not very popular, as it only had a hole and magma. It stank, really.

  The head priest and the lawyer priest asked the monk what he thought should be done in this situation. This was the test to see if he was worthy to go out into the world with their name.

  The monk took a moment to think, then looked over at the librarian, who he had had a crush on for so long. He was pretty sure it was mutual, but it wasn’t allowed. His mind began to formulate a plan. He looked at the head priest and simply asked...

  “ Can I request? to have? the test of the faithfulness. And I want the librarian to be my proctor. The test will be to go and find out what happened to the clan of fire and coal. And I will hereby inform you now that I will put in the dwarven documentation of research before I leave. This will be three. things to me My naming ceremony. Her naming ceremony and my request of marriage to her.”

  Everybody just started smiling ear to ear. These two kids had grown up together and were in love. They even got caught kissing one time a long time ago. And we're. well, getting hit on the knuckles with a ruler would be a light statement. Let's put this way. They both felt it. They were very young for that. No one wanted anything else but their happiness. And this sounded like a great reason for them to get out. So. with the head priests blessing, he agreed.

  But then all eyes went to the librarian, and she dissed, looked at the monk, and he looked at her, and she just nodded her head

  With that everybody was cheering and happy in the library. And then someone just had. so they had a quiet cheer. It was great. They all. decided with the hand signals to move to another room and they could start talking about what they were going to do and how they're going to do it. That went on for many hours and I believe one of the priests even went and raided the liquor cabinet and they all had a very good drunk night. Next day, the monk in the librarian would have to put in paperwork with the dwarven people to let them know that they are looking into a story from their old history. And they would like to have a historian of the dwarven archives look up information. This alone would send up some kind of red flag, but because it's been done enough as long as it wasn't a really weird red flag. Hopefully it wouldn't get picked up and they could just get the information for some money.

  One of the reasons for the church was around was to make sure information could be sent to where it needed to be and research could be researched in safety. They had lost too many people due to monsters and other things that just came out of the darkness. Like if there was darkness, creatures from your worst nightmares would appear. So this one. So this wasn't a good world People needed protection. The church had their nights, their Paladins, their exorcists and every other job you could think of. They had cities devoted just to protecting the citizens and letting them do adorable job of the normal day within a giant ring city. Those were all over the place. But where they were about to go was quiet from what they were told. But was also the wild so they wouldn't be going alone.

  The paperwork got sent over to the dwarf quarter. And the head pre said requested a. and a couple of nights to go on a trip to make sure that the town that they were going to go to was. how do I put this? Was not invested with something super evil. Got to remember, these aren't good nights and good paladins. These are your bad guy. Like, let's go see what kind of trouble we can make in town, but let's make sure there's nothing like demonic or something from the void there. Like, let's go. Let's go cause some problems.

  Now, the dwarfs getting a request like this is nothing, as long as the money is prepaid, which it was. And within. one day they already had a scribe show up. at the church with two books and 20 minutes of his time available for questions because they had just already read the books while they were waiting.

  The monk was grabbed and introduced to the information broker. And they talked. once the clan's holdings were brought up. the scribe. told the monk that they were no money for that plan. It was dissolved a long time ago. So honestly, the other one, the clan of coal and fire is actually still a real clad. But the clan of fire and coal was murdered off and disbanded. It was actually what happened and why they were called at the end. One of their enemies took a bomb into their mind right next to a coal vain and lit it on fire with an explosion. They think to this day that mine and that whole mountain is still burning. So. that clads just gone So the weird part is the symbol is on both clans and accepted on both clans. So when the scribe said this that sent up a red flag for the dwarf. But he just added it right there. And the monk didn't want to bring it up. So he just let it die too quite quickly, actually. And they finished talking and they went their own ways. The monk was. I have enough information. Let's grab my lady and let's get this show on the road. But that's not what would have happened.

  When the dwarf scribe returned, he went directly to the clan chief and asked what it meant. He knew many of the rules, but this wasn't in any of the books he had studied, and he couldn’t understand its significance. So he asked, What if one clan had the exact same crest as another, and both were accepted? Would that make them the same clan under different names?

  The king’s expression was one of pure confusion. What are you talking about? he said. There is only one shield per clan. No clan has two names.

  The scribe had brought back records with him, so he showed them to the king. Alarmed, the king summoned advisors and scholars, and within three hours, the royal chambers were filled with people, tables, and stacks of ancient documents. They pored over the records, searching for any mention of the Clan of Fire and Coal.

  What they uncovered was astonishing. The original mountain home of the clan had been destroyed long ago, and only a single generation had survived. Two of the household heads had died protecting their people, and the last of the housemaids and ladies-in-waiting had been dismissed, told they had no more obligations since their mountain was gone.

  But what no one had realized at the time was that members of the clan had invested in other dwarven houses. Over time, those investments had been consolidated and entrusted to the king’s supervision. For three generations, this wealth had been quietly passed from one royal steward to the next. Without realizing it, the king had been holding a financial legacy—a small nest egg—for the descendants of the lost clan, hidden within the royal treasury.

  It soon became clear that this history had been deliberately erased. As they dug deeper, they found old banking records that showed a previous king had withdrawn funds against the account. In fact, the dwarven and gnome banks both confirmed that a significant sum had been borrowed. Interest had accrued over the years, and when the current king realized this, he immediately ordered a withdrawal from the account to repay the debt.

  But a royal lawyer stopped him. No, you don’t, the lawyer said firmly. You screwed up. You must repay the debt yourself and restore the full amount to the account.

  Recognizing that he couldn’t break the law, the king had no choice but to cover the deficit from his own finances. However, this wasn’t an isolated case—other accounts had also been tampered with. Those could wait. This was the priority.

  And then they saw the final balance.

  All they could offer was three platinum coins. That didn’t seem like much—perhaps a few hundred or thousand gold at most. But these weren’t ordinary coins. Each one was massive, the size of a truck tire and half a foot thick. The metal alone was priceless.

  Three coins.

  A fortune.

  A billion gold pieces.

  Each coin was worth 333 million gold. And that was the amount owed to the lost clan’s account.

  The king made the account whole again, but now, a staggering fortune sat in waiting. If a descendant of the clan could be found, it would rightfully be theirs. If no heir existed, the wealth would return to the king’s holdings.

  Many expected the king to declare that any surviving heirs should be hunted down and eliminated to keep the fortune within the crown. But he had no such intention. If a branch of the Clan of Fire and Coal still remained, he would rather see them restored. He would fund their revival with their own fortune, ensuring they could help their people and reclaim their rightful place in dwarven society. It was not only just—it was wise.

  And right now, his people needed something good to believe in.

  So before anybody could get some stupid idea, he told everybody that was in the room that there was no one and he repeated that no one is allowed to harm these kids or these people or whoever they were looking for. But no offence if there are people that have a relations to the originals, we need to get the grandmasters of the clans down here to do the ritual of blood to verify the people once we find them. So please. inform them of what we found privately. But give us a week or two to have a head start before all the idiots leak the information and then whoever these people are, I'm going to take 100. of the guard. put them on-detail with the captain of the guard for the castle and 20 of the guards from the castle are going to follow the trails back to these relatives. clan heads, these family. and bring them home.

  ********************************

  It took about a week to get most of the supplies together. Larry had 52 gold to spend, but the boys’ requests were more expensive than expected. To make it work, he spread out his purchases, buying little by little from different stores, making it look like he was just handling small, separate orders. This wasn’t a tiny town, after all—it was big enough that you could get lost in it.

  He managed to secure plenty of rope, knowing the boys would be descending some sheer cliffs in the mines. Explosives were never cheap, but they were always worth it—and Doris loved them. There was no way Larry wasn’t getting some. He also stocked up on alcohol, the light and cheap kind the boys preferred. While he was at it, he bought a wagon; they could rent a horse if needed, but at least now they had a way to transport their supplies. It came with a tarp, so he grabbed a couple more of those, along with extra axes and other essentials.

  People who knew Larry could tell he was up to something. But in a town where a few families ran things, everyone had an unspoken agreement: if Larry had taken someone under his wing, they’d just keep an eye out and let him do his thing. The mayor, knowing some money was changing hands, was happy enough not to ask questions. So, everyone minded their own business.

  Larry had already made two trips out to deliver the supplies. Both times, the boys weren’t there, so he left everything in their mountain hideout. He raised a flag outside their cave to let them know someone had been by. When he returned the second time, the flag had a note attached:

  “Thank you. Two weeks. Come back—dinner’s on us.”

  But when Larry got back to town after his second trip, he wasn’t expecting a small group of newcomers. It was obvious they were together—they dressed alike, carried themselves the same way, and had a certain disheveled look that marked them as travelers. He took immediate note of their weapons, their smiles, and the way two of them held hands. Something about them gave him a bad feeling.

  Then he saw the lone dwarf. And worse—he saw the dwarf talking to McDurbish.

  In that instant, Larry knew this was turning into a much bigger problem than he had planned for. His stomach sank.

  McDurbish caught sight of him, instantly freezing in place. The dwarf he was speaking to noticed and followed his gaze, his eyes landing on the massive human standing nearby—Larry, wearing the meanest expression imaginable. The dwarf squinted, then simply pointed at Larry and said, “Come here.”

  The church folks didn’t miss this moment, either. They, too, turned their attention toward Larry and began walking over.

  Larry had to think fast.

  Before anyone could speak, he cut in, his voice low but firm enough to command attention.

  “I asked the bartender to dig up some information on the Clan of Fire and Coal. Found a grave in the deep woods with this symbol.” He knelt and quickly sketched it into the dirt. “I asked McDurbish about it, and he told me it belonged to a clan that no longer exists. So... what do you all want to know?”

  The dwarven man looked at the group, then turned to the couple holding hands. “You from the Church?”

  By his tone, it was clear he didn’t mean the kind of church that preached on Sundays. He meant the kind that dealt with things that went bump in the night.

  The monk grinned. The woman gave a small curtsy and replied, “Yes, sir. We’re from the Church. We’re on our honeymoon, actually. Figured this was a nice little town. And to be honest, I haven’t been out in a while—I need to work some violence out of my system. Being stuck in the city so long makes a person stir-crazy. So we thought we’d do some monster hunting, drink a little, and enjoy the peace and quiet.”

  The old dwarf burst into laughter. “That’s the best idea I’ve heard all day. I think we should all do that.”

  Then he turned back to Larry. “And your name?”

  Thinking fast, Larry gave a smirk and said, “Charlie the Spy. But my friends call me Larry.”

  The Church knew exactly who he was. The dwarves, though, were left wondering—was Larry the man who had killed the people they were looking for? Or had he simply stumbled across the bodies? Either way, they needed to get him drunk and pry the truth out of him. And if it came to it, well... dwarves had no problem putting an axe in a man’s back. The Church folk would likely help, too. They had an old agreement: don’t cross each other, and stay friends. That pact had held for nearly a thousand years.

  Larry knew they’d start sniffing around town, talking to the general store owner. He couldn’t just go tell the man to keep quiet—that would only make things worse. So it wasn’t a matter of if they’d find out about the kids. It was a matter of when.

  For the next few days, Larry played a game of cat-and-mouse. He let himself be seen just enough to keep them chasing, darting around town, slipping away, then grabbing a beer before disappearing again. The married couple found it hilarious. They lounged on a veranda, eating fresh-baked bread and sipping coffee, watching their fellow Church members flounder. Sure, they were trained, but there wasn’t much information to find.

  Then came the mistake.

  The town librarian ran into the three boys as they were leaving. She had assumed they were six or seven years old—young dwarven children, perhaps. But when she looked closer and saw their stubble growing in from a morning shave, she knew something wasn’t right. She didn’t press them, but when she approached, they stiffened, exchanged glances, and hurried away at an almost-run.

  She let them go, but she had seen enough. Returning home, she told her husband everything.

  Now, the Church had a new mystery on their hands. Three young dwarves, hiding in the mountains, possibly being hunted. It fit dwarven stubbornness to a tee. They decided to send word back for instructions, but until they received a response, they would stay in town, keep things safe, and quietly gather more information.

  Larry, meanwhile, realized he was running out of time.

  Then came the worst news—he heard the kids had come into town. Now, they knew things were going south. And Larry didn’t even know if they’d still be in the mountain when he got back.

  That night, under cover of darkness, he made his way up to the cabin.

  The place was abandoned. Everything was gone.

  But something was missing—the red flag. It wasn’t where it should have been.

  Frowning, he checked near the cave entrance. Nothing.

  Then he turned and saw it, tied to a tree. Wrapped around it was a rolled-up piece of bark. Climbing up, he pulled it down and unfurled it.

  A simple drawing. A cave. An arrow, pointing down.

  Larry smirked. Smart kids.

  He crumpled the bark and let the coal-drawn image smear away. Then, knowing he had been followed, he played dumb when the Paladins and Knights arrived.

  Inside the cabin, everything was stripped clean. Even the toys were gone—except for one thing.

  A carving in the stone. Deep, permanent. Something the boys hadn’t been able to take with them.

  The Paladins and Knights stared at it, their expressions hardening.

  Then one of them moved to relight the fireplace.

  The moment the flames caught, thick, choking smoke billowed out. The stench was unbearable. The whole cabin filled with an acrid, stinging haze, forcing them to stumble outside, coughing and gasping for air.

  The boys had left a little gift for anyone who came snooping.

  Larry couldn’t help but chuckle.

  With that, Larry said, "**** you," and he just went back to town, hoping that they didn't want to go traveling down into the cave too much and go looking. But they had found the cave entrance along with the cabin. They said they weren’t too far apart, so Larry had to ditch these guys and then come back with some gear to find the boys. But he also had to follow the church's rules, so he didn’t have to tell them anything, but he didn’t hold anything back. It was a fine line of being **** **** and then letting your friends get **** ****.

  What no one knew was that the boys were actually in the cabin, hidden behind a false wall in the back, and they had their own air supply. So when that bomb went off and those guys all ran out, they actually opened up a small little flue and let the smoke go out the front of the house with those guys to air it out. Then they closed it, allowing someone to stay in the house in case the guys didn’t come back. When they knew they were gone, they let the whole house air out for about 20 minutes while they remained in their little hiding hole. The brothers all looked at each other, except for one who knew he was the one that had done it. He had drawn in the rock enough times with his fingers to leave an imprint. Now, that was a sign of whether they were going to run away or not, and their misdirection about the cave would be a good one for what they had found.

  Two weeks earlier

  To explain what they had found, they had gone down through 25 small bubble caves and came across a glass floor for the last three caves. On the 26th, they had broken through into a giant cave system below. Well, Number Two, while moving around for the last couple of days, found another room behind the glass around cave 17. Before he broke it open, he showed his brothers. They were super happy they didn’t open it because, as they put light to it, they could see there was a liquid inside. They wondered what type of liquid could have survived that heat and decided, "No, we don’t want to play with that crap. Whatever that is, it’s probably toxic as all hell to our health." So they left it alone.

  But it made them start looking at the walls. If they hadn’t been looking, they wouldn’t have seen it in cave 4. Little Dome Room 4 was actually one of the smallest of them all. Off to the right-hand side as you’re going down, about head height, to the left and up a little bit, there was this shining glitter. If they hadn’t been looking, they could have just missed it. But once they saw it and brought the light to it, something reflected the light inside. So, they gently used their axes to break through the rock/glass. It was semi-transparent but not perfect—very crude.

  The moment they put a crack in the glass and let whatever was outside in, that little crystal started glowing. The cool part? It wasn’t the only one. There was a whole little cove of them, only about two feet deep and about a foot thick and wide. But that brought so much light in. They were trying to figure out what they were looking at. These crystals weren’t bright until they made a crack and let air in. Even though only a little bit of air was getting in, these things were becoming brighter and brighter, until it was like a light source.

  Not wanting to mess it up too badly, they actually put some dirt and water to make a little plug for the crack and sealed it up. It would take about three days for that little bit of air to move through this small, weird tube. But then cave 14 started glowing because there was a giant chunk of that crystal behind it. Because of that, cave 15 got this radiant shine, and the shine actually made it through small pieces down below into the main cave. Now the main cave looked like it had starlight coming from above. It was really neat to look at.

  The boys had done enough cave diving to find a couple of caves around 11 that actually went toward their home. They spent a couple of days mapping out all the little micro caves and slots until they found one that connected with their home. That’s where they were hiding. Their first idea was to trigger a landslide to collapse the entrance. They had waited for everybody to leave, but they could still hear the Paladin and the two knights outside the house.

  After quietly discussing it, One and Two agreed, and they Rochambeau’d it. Three lost. So Three was asked to go down into the tunnel system, head to 11, go down to 13, crossover, and come up one of the air shafts where they had placed an emergency collapse trigger. They never thought they'd actually need it, so it was in an awkward spot. Three, being the skinniest of them, was tasked with doing it.

  What the kids didn’t know was that the Paladin and knights had started as miners. These were old-school dwarves. They were inspecting the **** out of everything the kids were doing. There was a lot of noise in the woods, but when you hear a piece of wood being yanked on by a rope, you know what that sounds like. They looked up, and about 100 feet down the hill, they heard "click, click" as something tried to be pulled. Then the rocks started sliding. The knights just smiled ear to ear and backed up. The cabin was still there, but the cave entrance for the mine was now totally plugged and covered. It would take at least a week for the three kids to unblock it.

  The two knights looked at the Paladin. The Paladin just smiled and said, "They’re dwarfs, I’ll give them that. We’ll put it in the report and tell the king when we get back. For now, let’s wait here for a while. If they don’t come back to their house by tomorrow, we’ll say they are hiding and go back to town. We know they’re not going anywhere. They found their hoard. A dwarf won’t give up their mountain once they’ve got it. And from what I heard in town, someone just bought this chunk of the mountain. These kids have already claimed it as their own. Good. We know where they are. Let’s find out more about this family and this town. The Great Church is after these kids, and after meeting Larry, there’s more going on here than anyone understands. I feel a dark presence here. Plus, what the hell? There’s a lack of beer. We have to fix that."

  They had been to the liquor vendor, who told them a story about giving the kids heavy alcohol, which made them extremely mad. But when given sweet, fruity wine, they enjoyed the heck out of it and kept coming back for more. That alone was enough to raise flags that these children were not raised by dwarves. No one could even give an accurate hair or beard color. The kids were always shaved. While shaving wasn’t against the law, keeping yourself clean-shaven for years made the knights and Paladin question what was going on. "Crazy humans," they thought.

  The knights stayed overnight. The kids never came back. By then, the boys were deep in the mountain, using emergency supplies. They explored new tunnels created by the fire that had melted holes in the mountain. But the bats were returning…

  It wasn't until 17 left Did they find a set of small caves connecting, going downwards almost in a spiral and with a little bit of their help, they actually made a spiral staircase going down almost 100 feet when they came down into the last room They brought a torch in They were in a twenty foot diameter glass bowl and the walls had been melted

  What made this room this cave special was? as they lowered themselves down the last five feet into the room They hadn't cut the new stairs yet, but just injured it They realized that they are in a bowl The bowl was glass, but when they stepped on it, it reverberated in the wrong way They freaked out and they were standing there holding on to their ropes with their hands and themselves tied off, please They thought they were going to fall through But once they brought the light to the glass It was a dark green black glasses They couldn't see through it So two seeing something with his magic eyes Ask the brothers to put out their torches and when they did two things happened

  One in three were able to see into the next cave And the next cave was almost wrapped around them They were in a teardrop from a ceiling They were the chandelier And when they turned off the light, what they would see is right across from them and a little bit up It would just be little pinpricks of light blue that were feeding down and and looking down Well, what scared the living **** I mean, absolute car out of two was with his magic sense He could see these things directly below him moving And they had magic to them Every once in a while he would see a something move past one of those little bits of blue light And it had legs So to just just quietly and slowly freaking out, climb back up the rope and into the other chamber and didn't say a word 1 in 3 of course, seeing this followed after him And when they all got up there two told them to follow him And he got back to their safe room at the top of 17 And he told him what's down there This free one in three out just a little bit that there was something with lots of legs down there

  From this point on they were absolutely paranoid of going deeper So they actually decided to go back up to the cave entrance and start working on cleaning it up and shoring it up so that they could use it once it was time to dig it out And at the same time, they just started looking into the side rooms that, honestly, were there, but they had to break into They'd find a little bit of a piece of glass between the two circles And some were really thin, and some were like 4 feet thick, and it was more rock than glass So after a while, they relied on two with his eyes, because magic kind of wanted to leave the mountain So if they got to a room and they didn't know which way to go, they'd ask too And two would just sit there and watch And I'm talking super small amounts, like watching lightning bugs or something super small that you just have to catch the whiff of it And then you have to see which way it goes So after a while, he would just start seeing little flickers and these little flickers would go towards this 1 area, and it would be just a chunk of rocky point The other two would have been like, okay, and they'd start going there, and they either find a vein of metal or a crack into another room And if it was metal, I guess the man who was leaving through the metal But now the boys had metal to sell And if not, it led them into another room They had enough food for about three days, and they can always go back up into their home While they did this for four They were really hungry, needed water The whole 9 yards And when they got back inside their house was food, water, a note from Larry telling them that he had taken confidence to 2 of the people from the great church And in return for that, they had admitted that they had witnessed the kids and witnessed that the church was hunting down children And because this was not a bad thing in the church's eye, but it's kind of goes against They were the bad guys that killed the really bad guys That's the stuff that makes you into a really bad guy So that's just kind of a off the table So they were waiting for permission from head office to stay in town and open up a branch of the Great Church And Larry actually loved it And the mayor had already given permission and everybody was on board the church The church army of the two nights and palden were waiting to get permission to either leave or stick around and clear the area to make sure there was nothing really bad

  The dwarfs on the other hand had kinda gotten a little belligerent

  Three days after the boys had come back to their cave and resupply and gone back down to do more cave searching at that time they actually left the red flag and a note Telling Larry where outside the house, in the ground they had buried it and that they had found a little bit of mineral wealth if they could sell for the boys and for the group, they would be back up in a couple of days They had ways in and out and not to worry about them And thank you for the food Keep it coming They were going to be able to hunt while they people from town were around and they asked for any more information what's going on and just keep them informed

  Larry came back into town in the middle of the night with the bag and he literally went to his uncle's house and he knocked on the door and the mayor came down and was like, what the **** is? And he didn't even let it finish And Larry just pushed into quiet And the moment and the moment that happened Hi Larry smile that smile that you get proved that Larry is up to absolutely no good His uncle said, I'm gonna need a drink for this, aren't I?

  Larry asked and kind of pointed to his uncle study and said let's let's go in there and talk And when they went in there and Larry closed the big double door with the bag on his back, the uncles like what's in the bag? So I own this What's on my back I also own that mine Does that make sense? Yup So if anybody comes up, says that someone else owns it No, it does not I legally own it, and you're backing me on that And in return for that, you can have almost what's in this bag The **** problem Did you get me into now? Larry, the uncle was very interested, but also, this was not too good to be true This definitely smelled like trouble

  Larry just looked his uncle in the eyes and said three dwarf kids were abandoned and they made themselves a home and I'm letting them live there so that they can have their self a home and not be abandoned Does that make sense uncle?

  The mayor, Larry's uncle was the most not despicable manual ever meet He wasn't a snake charmer, but he had the golden tongue And he knew when he was being sold something that was too good to be true And then he had to think, and he went pour to drink for himself, and he just handed blurry the bottle Larry was one of those huge guys where he was just going to do it himself And honestly, Larry went over to the shelf and grabbed a mug because he get a least gravel onto it And he poured mug, and they had ice Like this was semi technology So there was ice and a bar fridge It was using magic non electricity, but nonetheless

  The uncle snapped his finger and said, I got it I know where the problem is Are they a proper clan? Larry, Larry told his uncle the story of how the Klan died and came back, and all the information he had gotten from the different groups in town And the moment Larry mentioned the dwarf and the Great Church, his hands hit the desk And he's like, Larry, I told you to stay in low profile while you were here You already got yourself in enough trouble This was supposed to be a place to lay low You weren't supposed to bring problems here

  Larry just raised his glass Looked his uncle dead in the eye and smiled, said, hey, I didn't bring this here I just found an opportunity and I'm taking advantage of it Now I'm going to protect three kids I don't Do you have a **** problem with that uncle? The uncle looking straight in the eye He said if they are a proper clan, this could be a clan war You go and find out if this is going to be a **** clan war in my town If the answer is no and you can give me guarantees of that or some sort of assurance, then what? I will take what's in that bag and we will start a proper business partnership like you don't want it to do with it from the beginning But the mayor, Larry's uncle was looking at him as a very angry man that wanted to take him up, but the harm the town could have because of a clan war was nothing to be scoffed at and everything to be feared

  Larry didn't move and he waited for the mayor to look at him And when he looked at him, Larry still didn't move He just kept on smiling and this was the one thing that Larry got from his mother that the mayor could never ever get could never, ever have, could never, ever earn And that was just a hint of fear in someone And it's not that he was worried that his nephew would hurt him, but Larry's talent was for being an agent of chaos is the nicest way of saying it, and he did it with a smile He would shake your hand and introduce you to the devil He wasn't evil He just had evil or more chaos than evil, not evil Just he had chaos on speed dial and truthfully, I think And the mayor even asked him one time Did he ever just have the phone connection open with chaos and just forget to hang up one time Larry that one time just looked him in the eye, smiled and nodded And from that point on, the mare was always a little hesitant of his nephew

  It wasn't until the little game of staring slash, who's got the bigger pee pee? that the mayor just said, fine OK, what's in the bag? And Larry smiled Even fingered his eye I honestly don't know I haven't even checked Let's let's dump it out and see So, mayor, I've done this is enough times Do you have a rug we could possibly use? And the mayor, of course, had a rug in the next room and just opened the door pointed Larry brought it in, laid it out and then dumped the bag on the rug

  The thing the two men did almost not in tandem, not at the same time, but almost in unison, was they both grabbed their glass, went to their chairs, sat down, looked at what was in on the carpet and took a sigh, a deep breath, and just basically started to think, because what was laying in front of them was about 20 pieces of black rock But within those pieces of black rock was silver, gold a green glowing one, blue glowing And 1 that didn't have any colour And it was a type of glass But when the light hit it, and I bet you the boys only got to see a little of this underground, because they were above ground, they had more light The moment it hit, it was like putting light into a prism, except this was magic Everything that that light went in and then hit if it was magical, it would almost not imbued It was like photosynthesis for everything around that little bit of magic If it was a magic item, it would absorb it If it wasn't, it wouldn't really absorb it Maybe over time, it would absorb into the wind The whole building would become magical But that's the point This was a focus, a literal lens that converted light into magic This alone That one little piece that was no bigger than a piece of a dice was small er than three inch by three inch by three inch The two of them just can take their eyes off of it and every once in a while one of those lights would hit piece of metal inside the other pieces of rock and they would actually start absorbing the Magic is the metal like that it would absorb it and that metal out of just a hint of a glow You could turn off the lights in the room would start glowing after a while This was immense this was a magical mind It was something different

  The first one, the move any actual movement other than just a little bit of twitching and looking around was the mayor who got up, walked over to one of the walls, looked at the clock that was there, realized at 5 in the morning and said **** I'm already awake Let's do this Went back into his bedroom I'd started to get dressed out of his housecoat and slippers Within 10 minutes, he was back Hem and Larry Larry had already rolled up the carpet, and they had just thrown it over his shoulder And the mayor led the way to City Hall and down into the Treasury The mayor the mayor took us out of keys out and went to one of the lock boxes in the Treasury and just said, dump it in And they dumped everything, including the carpet now in there, because the carpet was glowing

  The mare looked over at Larry and said, come back to me in a day, and I'll have most of that figured out for price We'll buy it all off you, and I'll give you coins for the kids I'm gonna start up a trust for them You're gonna put the first amount of money they get in And when the legal issues start coming, we're gonna give this legally larry And I want to hear these words come out of your mouth and repeat after me Uncle, I promise to protect these children But when the dwarf human or elf law comes to town, I will come to you, the mayor of this town, first before I do anything great Church of myself on their ass’s

  Larry wanted to show to his uncle He was serious about this And then him and his uncle would be on the same page Larry, in front of his uncle in the Treasury Vault, went down on 1 knee and bowed his head and said, I will protect those children and let you deal with the law But uncle, it is your job to deal with the law Do you understand?

  Larry looked up and his uncle smiled, put out his hand Larry stood up and grabbed it by the the forearm and the two of them held each other And they looked at each other, and they repeated the family crest So their family motto, if you will, “until the law fails”

  Larry took off and yeah, it was a good morning because the mayor decided the Baker He could smell it from the down the street He said I deserve this and he went in knocking on the Baker's door down the street in the Baker hooks up and goes mayor Come on in unlocks the door and let them in Mayor sits down out of stool, out of counter and talks with the Baker for the next 20 minutes After that, he leaves with two big bags full of Danishes and sweets, paeden and everything Next stop is actually to the mayor's assistant and one of the people that runs the Treasury That's he's knocking on this guy's door The guy is like, who the hell's here at this hour of the morning? He comes to the door and opens it up to see the mayor Him not wearing a shirt in the mayor's like, good morning, Murphy We are going to have a great day I brought you breakfast and handsome a bag of danishes When you get to work I've got a key on me Come find me We have a vault to inspect We had someone come in the middle of the night and drop off something pretty rare You're going to have a good day with the appraisers fees I think you're going to get So my gift to you and if we could have it all checked out by the end of the day, I'd love to know what we got

  Murphy being one of those really old cranky guys actually put on a smile, took the Danishes, which were way bad for his diet and close the door on the mayor The mayor just might and turned around and walled before he got less than 10 steps to door open and Murphy holding the bag with a shirt on and his shoes on started walking with the mirror back to work The two of them headed back with their bags of pastries and headed directly to the vault

  Murphy opening after opening up the safety deposit box putting it on the rug, inspecting it, freaking out, shoving it back into the safe deposit box, eating three of the Danishes, going into his personal stash of smoke weed that he wasn't supposed to have at work anymore And the mayor was getting mad that he had a stash, started smoking it pretty heavily and handed one off to the mayor, who also got quite blitzed just to calm the hell down, realize that they didn't not have enough money in the bank to cover what was there almost guaranteed that one little crystal alone could buy the town

  What not too many people knew was the mayor's family, who Murphy was married into were old were old members of the Great Church, like really deep old school, great church, and they had gone off and Larry's little bit of his family wasn't really a part of them anymore But Murphy at one point, just like Larry had been a part of it, and he realized right there how screwed they all were But Murphy wanted to know who dropped this off

  When the mayor just looked at Murphy after being asked, who dropped this off? The mayor just looked at him and said, what have you been hearing around town lately? Took Murphy less than 30 seconds to come up with the three kicks

  That then ship Murphy up hard And then he started to pace and puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, pacing, eat other Danish and he just started walking circles in that office over and over again, until he just stopped, looked the mayor and said the law

  The mare looked at him and said, Already discussed it We're in charge We have to fix this

  All Murphy could do is kinda just slump into his chair and say the one word you could think of that kinda describes the whole situation they were in “Fucked”

  They must have sat like that, getting high and eating sweets for at least an hour, until the mayor's secretary came in looking for them, finding them stoned and eating munchies at like 9 in the morning She just almost started freaking out until the mayor just had come here, handed her the pipe and the bag of Danishes and for him to do that to her with no contacts She knew something had just gone down, so she calmed down and asked what's going on

  The mayor secretary and Murphy were husband and wife When she found her husband totally calm at her getting angry and the mayor had just gotten up She looked at her husband and he just put up his finger for a second to her and just it was like just wait for it

  The mayor just went over to one of the sidewalls where there's a whole walk of boxes They pulled a nice little ornamental box open They looked at his a velvet line empty, went over to the safety deposit box, looked inside, put something from in the box, safe deposit box in the little velvet box Close the safe deposit box back up, locked it, walked over and handed the box to her

  She opened the box, looked in, looked up at the mare than her husband, down at the box, closed it, handed it back to the the mayor, took the pipe, lit it, started puffing and then looked at the bags of sweets, grabbed you and sat down in the desk opposite her husband

  The mayor was gonna start, and all he said was Larry before he could say anything else She just said, and looked up at the mayor and said, the three kids, huh?

  The mayor and Murphy just looked at each other, and they, they knew that's why she's the smart one of the family She was near town She, she really was the boss of the whole crew What no one realized was she used to be the captain of the ship, literally, Then she married one of the Pirates, and they went inland and set up their own little town and settled down And, yeah,

  The mayor hadn't told Murphy this, and he just looked over at her and said, everything that's in that box is set up for the law We are already in charge of setting up an account for them and getting the process going, because this is their horde, and the word horde had connotations in this world to have a horde was to be a person of influence if nothing else, mostly people that had hordes were contracted by the local governments and Knights kings, emperors, whoever Because you didn't usually earn a horde without either doing work for it or doing a lot of bad things for it

  The mayor looked over at Murphy Murphy just was smiling ear to ear and when the mayor looked over at his secret ary she had stopped moving and was absolutely still and he had only seen that basically four or five times in his entire life working with the three of them She didn't just have a plan She was about to have orders and the boys They fell in love with her one being a brother and one being in the lover So they were all part of the crew in the old days and They might have to grab some more of their crew members through this, I think And she just smiled, and that smile was all they needed That was the gift, to have her smile made their day She just looked over at the mayor and said “

  “ Murphy I want you to get me a general list of everything that's in there I don't want split into three groupings one that we're going to store here that we can use to pay off small amount So the cheapest stuff that goes into one pile that's going to stay here Then pretty much everything else is going to go in the second pile But the 3rd pile only want 1 or 2 of the best items Like this box share I want to have it filled with just a really, really, really good stuff and that is going to have to be a gift for the king I want that representative in town here brought to the mayor and the mayor is going to explain that there are we have to get people involved because the kids don't have any buddy but the culture at this point they won't allow a non cultured group to take care of the children they will fight for them but we have to show them that they've already failed them and we are doing better than they are”

  Being so blitz other mind, they had it noticed that Larry was literally on the other side of the door with his back against the wall And he was just resting But his ear was just in the right spot where he hit understand the conversation and he just had a giant smile on his face So He just turned and left, and no one even knew that he was there But he knew exactly where he had to go to do So Larry just took a left out of the City Hall over to the pub slash in that the dwarf investigation squad, aka the two guys that were here drinking and hanging out for a week while they tried to figure this out

  As Larry and Larry entered the main floor of the inn, off to the left was an eatery slash the bar So it's kind of like a tavern, if you would, as he walked in They all knew him in town He just waved to the bartender, and the lady behind the desk, and he just kind of looked around the room, and he was hoping to find them in there But no, the lady at the front desk kind of looked at Larry and said, with her hands and no words, what you're looking for

  Larry, not using anything but hand signals and a little bit of charades Just short people and she went and she went out They were out by pointing her thumb behind her to the outside of the world

  Larry was like, just bowed his head, gave her a little hat nod and took off So he was decided to go over to the bakery next And before he could even get there, he could hear them They were at the bakery and they were just filling their face with the the Danishes They really seemed to like the ones in town here Now you have to remember Larry's not a little guy Larry's a human teddy bear He's super quiet, and I don't think there's a lot of fat on this guy, but he could just give you a hug and you would pass away He is He is nothing to be scoffed at

  The two dwarfs saw this mountain of a man Well, not a mountain, but a very impressive human start strolling up to them And Larry always wore black just what Larry did Black or gray That's just what he was He came and asked the gentleman as he got about five feet from them He said, gentlemen, can we have a conversation about the three individuals you're looking for privately? And he said it with a depth in his voice to kind of get the message across that he was smiling But this was not a happy smile This was, I'm here to do business Let's go have a talk

  The two of them were not afraid of any human So of course, why not? They decided to start walking back towards their tavern where they could have a beer and have some of their dainties this early in the morning And, oh, it was going to be a good morning As they were walking one of the two, the younger of the two, looked back to Larry, who was behind them, and asked, so, what is this all about? Do you have some information, maybe, to sell us about the children and what's going on

  Larry just had the biggest smile and his eyes open wide and just said we'll wait till we're inside

  Both of the dwarfs instantly changed their attitude a little bit on the way Larry said this And they were one more notch on that 0 my god, are we about to get shanked here? Scale of what the hecks going on?

  They entered the Inn, went over to one of the tables that was just basically 2 long benches with a table in between on the dwarf sat on one side of the table Larry sat on the other side

  One of the two dwarfs pulled on a notepad, and the other one started asking Larry questions And like, what can we do for you? And hi larry

  Larry said some general greeting and he basically looked him straight in their face and said I'm gonna make this very straight and clear I'm gonna ask a simple question and based on your answer, you may have a friend here in town or you might have a lot of enemies So I'm gonna make this very clear And here's my question to you If you were to find these children would you take them from here by force if they did not want to leave?

  To the dwarfs This really wasn't a question These were their kids, and they were coming to get them So the younger the one, no one that was taking notes, just looked up at Larry and went, of course, our family, like, well, also we gonna do And he didn't really say that with words He kinda just looked up at Larry and with his hands, was like, what? Like, what are you talking about? Like, just the amount of difference in thought here was the divide had to get across

  It was then the older man understood that this question was more of a test And he stopped to think, what was he being tested on here? This was a question of violence that was understood But what if the children didn't want to leave? What would keep the children here? And then he understood the children had something that they didn't want to leave

  The old man dwarfed looked over at the younger dwarf and snatched a pad of paper away, folded over all the pages and get to the back In the back of this book was a set of documents that had been rolled with a roller So there is the same over and over again, kind of like making copies He went to the back with one of these sheets, and it was a form that they would fill out and it was a legal document So the old guy pulls one of these sheets out of the back of the book, hands the book back, keeps the pen type writing device and starts filling out this form in front of Larry

  After a moment or two, Larry is very interested in what's going on here The young dwarf is just astonished that the old dwarf just automatically going to a writ for whatever is going on here He has no clue what he missed and he just kind of shuts up and watches what's going on And Larry is like, well, at least the kid can learn as he notices that And he looks over at the kid and then back to the old timer

  The old timer finishes right finishes writing and looks at it, thinks if for a second and then just spins it around so Larry can see it and basically it's not that complicated It's like all of three paragraphs It says basically this

  ______

  Proper letterhead for the dwarven kingdom This is a royal decree from a agent of the crown With all the flowery little extras that would come on a royal document for aesthetics and how it looks Lots of sharp lines in the letters

  On this day, I officer of the crown McfinaSwitch Mctoggel Hereby give a writ for the three children of fire and coal or at their discretion, coal and fire here by are reinstated with the family names and all the duties that come with it They will need to accept this & this document, which will be taken back to the king and from there the king will read all the reports and then make his decision And at that time, if the decision is to return, and remove the children back to the homestead compensation for that relocation will be discussed

  This rip will only last for one year at that point It is null and void This is to give time to get all the proper paperwork done in the heritage of the lost clan

  Larry looked over the document and said I think that's perfect, but I'm going to be letting you know that the kids aren't going to want to leave so you better be willing to pay them a fortune to leave And then when I meet a fortune, I think it's just smarter for you to make friends with them than to try to make them leave That's all I'm saying And then Larry did something he promises uncle he wouldn't do This promise was about 12 years ago when Larry started to hang out in town Larry then with his palm faced up on the table and his arm displayed He raised his sleeve on his right arm all the way past the elbow And what the two dwarves saw there was a decree from the Great Church naming Larry as a gray member, the younger dwarf looked at the tattoo that was there I knew it was from the Great Church, but didn't know all the things that he was seeing He had never seen of this The older of the ones, the dwarf Well, he didn't **** a brick He just looked at it and said, I understand And said I will sign this here if you are good with that

  Lowry district his head and said no I have your word on this after this conversation, I would recommend to you, gentlemen Take that piece of paper Go see the mayor right now I bet you by tonight you'll be back on the road The older man felt and felt like he had just been slightly played But because Larry didn't take the piece of paper, he didn't understand what he he was basically given a piece of information by Larry and threatened to be a really bad person if they didn't play nice with the kids Basically, the old guy was like, yeah, no, I got that So yeah, something Something wasn't right here And these people were protecting the kids So this was, this was a step up in perception for the old man towards his town

  Larry put his sleeve down, got up, nodded to both of them, and said, "Gentlemen, you have yourselves a great day."

  He then took off out of the inn and went directly to the other end, where the honeymooning couple from the Great Church were up on the balcony. As he walked up, he waved to them, and they said, "Come on up."

  The bakery wasn't far, so he said, "One moment," and literally went and got himself a bag of danishes before heading up to hang out with them for a little bit. He needed to let them know that they had actually checked up on Larry and understood he was a member of the church. But when the records are locked and you don’t get to see them, they knew that meant Larry had either done some really bad stuff or was hiding something. That meant he was just the local guy for the town. So, they understood that. After talking with the mayor on their first day there, Larry had been told to be their representative. He was local, if you will.

  He entered the room, headed to the balcony with them, and grabbed a chair. As he put down the danishes, they looked over at him, and he just had this really, really ****-eyed smile. He tilted his head at them and said, "You guys are staying, aren’t you?"

  The monk was kind of grumpy but then looked over at his new bride, the librarian. She was grinning ear to ear, and when she nodded, he sighed and said, "Yeah, we’re staying."

  Larry grinned. "Good. I need some help. We’ll get you taken care of. The mayor," he pointed to the librarian, "needs his assistant’s assistant. And trust me, that’s where you want to be. She has the pulse of the town, and that’s where you’re going to be because we’re going to need a lot of help moving forward."

  Then he turned to the monk. "You are going to be given a very, very special role. You are going to be literally named a Guardian. That means you can’t leave the city. No, no—I’m not even going to do that to you. You are going to be my replacement. You are going to be the Grey Man of this town. I’ll talk to the mayor about it, and I’ll be their Guardian. I have no problem with that. I like the little guys—just until they’re old enough to take care of themselves properly."

  The monk and the librarian were gobsmacked. They hadn’t just gotten their names—they had also been promoted and given their own home. They had just been handed everything they could ever want, and now they had time to make a family in a place they wanted to call home.

  Larry understood the emotions he had just stirred up. Going from having nothing to having your dream—a place to call home—was overwhelming. A lot of people who came through the Great Church started off in a bad way and maybe did bad things. But the idea was that everybody was worth something. No one deserved to be killed just for the sake of it. So, why not treat people with at least a little bit of respect?

  Understanding what he had to do next, Larry simply said, "I’m going to go make one more stop. I’ll be back later if you’re around."

  With that, he headed to City Hall—to see his uncle.

  As Larry entered City Hall, he could see that the vaults were downstairs, and his uncle’s office was upstairs. Since the secretary wasn’t at her desk, he figured they were all still downstairs. Perfect. He let himself into his uncle’s office.

  Larry walked right to the mayor’s chair, sat down in it, looked around, and opened a few drawers until he found the notepad with the mayor’s logo. He then wrote the following:

  As of today, Larry is hereby certified as a trainer for the Grey Church. He will be legally responsible for the safety of the three minors known as One, Two, and Three.

  This does not grant Larry any privileges over their finances. However, the town of Port Town will hold any finances in trust, distributing them according to the children's wishes while keeping an eye on them to ensure they grow into valuable members of the community. When they turn 14, they will have the choice to continue this arrangement, change it, or end it.

  Larry hereby swears not to harm them and will care for them with the help of Port Town. This ensures there will be no legal disputes regarding their rights and privileges in both human and dwarven society.

  Larry liked that. It had just the right tone. He signed it, put everything back where he found it, and left the office, closing the door behind him.

  As he crossed the assistant’s office, he saw two dwarves approaching City Hall. Larry picked up his pace, headed down the two flights of stairs, and reached the vault area just in time.

  At the door, he used one of his tricks—the lock wasn’t quite in the right spot. A little bit of weight, and pop—the door swung open. As he stepped in, everyone in the room spun to see who it was. When they saw Larry’s big grin, they groaned.

  "Larry!" someone muttered. He always got in when he wanted. He was a real pain that way.

  He looked at everyone and grinned. "Hey, guys. Showtime."

  At that, the whole room snapped to attention. "OK, what’s going on?"

  Larry walked up to his uncle, lifted him out of his chair, straightened his lapels, and handed him the piece of paper. "Your guests will be here in less than a minute. You need to get upstairs and into your office. And you—" he pointed at the assistant, "—should meet them at the door. Gives him an extra moment to get settled. That’s all you need to do."

  Larry then simply left, slipping through a corridor, out a back door, and down an alley. All the pieces were in place. It was like dominoes, ready to fall.

  As the mayor made his way up the stairs, almost crossing the threshold of his office, he unrolled the parchment Larry had handed him. He stopped dead in his tracks, looked down at it, realized what it was, and muttered, "That little ****... He planned all this."

  His assistant, having come up the stairs behind him, leaned over his shoulder. Within three seconds of reading it, she spun around, pushed him inside, shut the door, and tried not to hyperventilate. She barely had time to sit down before she heard the downstairs door open.

  Footsteps. Two people coming up the stairs.

  As the dwarves came up and met her eyes, she smiled professionally and said, "Good morning, gentlemen. How can I help you?"

  Within two or three minutes, they were seated before the mayor. After the usual pleasantries and political schmoozing, the moment of truth arrived.

  The dwarves looked at the mayor and asked, "What can you tell us about the three kids living outside your town?"

  It wasn’t a secret. But for them to ask so directly, the mayor knew something bigger was at play. Larry hadn’t given him any more information than that. These dwarves had talked to almost everyone else but had never come to see him—until now.

  "The reason we’re asking," one of them continued, "is that we just spoke with Larry. And yeah, we understand we might be stepping on something bigger than just three lost children. Now, our culture demands that we take them home. But why are they here? Why are they shaving their beards? And why do they look at every dwarf with fear?"