The Dwarven Sorcerer

The Dwarven Sorcerer Ch 22

Thrack could smell the town long before he could see it. The faint odour of wood smoke wafted on the thin mountain air mixing with sweet scents of baking loaves of bread and roasting meats. It wasn't unpleasant but as Thrack moved closer, he could smell the sour funk of unwashed bodies and, Thrack sniffed, something else more repugnant. He must have made a face because his father took notice.

"Sewage," said Durim. "Humans have open sewage here. They cut ditches in the roads that lead to nearby rivers or streams to wash away their waste. Sometimes they don't even cut the ditches, they let it flow over the streets; letting nature take its course, as it were."

"Disgusting," said Thrack, thinking of the closed system in the dwarven cities. Pipes buried deep underground washed dwarven waste with a constant stream of running water to the distant sea. It seemed unimaginable that humans leave their waste in the open like that.

"Right you are," said Durim. "But that ain't nothin'. I've heard in some of them big cities, people keep their waste in a pot and then just throw their shit right out their windows and onto the streets." Durim laughed. "It rains piss and shit in them there cities."

Thrack smiled and shook his head. People were a strange lot.

The town was surrounded by a tall wooden wall that was black with soot and age, each pole was cut into sharp points, and it had a wide walkway along the top for armed guards and thick merlons.

The Red Road ended abruptly at the town's entrance; the perfectly shaped bricks gave way to uneven cobblestones that were once dyed red but had turned pink with age and were roughly set in the ground by unskilled hands. The gates were wide open, a single sign was nailed to the top of the gate 'Zwergberg,' it said. Reckon must be the name of the town. Although there were guards posted at the gate, the dwarves entered without drawing any attention from them. The human-made road felt rough under Thrack's feet and he nearly tripped over a stone sticking out higher than the rest as soon as he entered the town. He cursed the humans and their shoddy workmanship under his breath.

Thrack brought his hand to his nose, using the smell of his leather glove to hide the stench of the town. "Gods, it's worse than I thought."

Durim nodded, "Aye, but you get used to it."

Zwergberg was strangely built compared to what Thrack was used to; the main roads were relatively straight and looked to be built on a grid, like dwarven cities, but the side streets were narrow and looked almost randomly laid out; growing organically around the houses that the citizens built, finding space wherever they could. The streets were crowded with people. They were dressed in faded and dirt-covered clothing that looked dull and uninteresting in comparison to dwarven wear. Undied woollen tunics and belted leather trousers for the men, and simple dresses for the women. They all had long braided hair similar to dwarven fashion but their beards were unkempt; they didn't wear much jewellery, most of it made out of leather, shells, and bright polished stones. They were taller but thinner than the dwarves but lacked the speed and grace of the elves; they didn't look frightening, unlike the warrior counterparts he fought in the caves. Dwarves truly were the superior race.

The buildings were made of a combination of uneven stones stacked on top of each other and held together by mortar, wooden planks, and roofed with sod. They were brightly painted in pinks, reds, blues, and yellows. Although the dwarves were appalled by the craftsmanship of the human-made buildings, they had to grudgingly admit that there was a certain appeal to their beauty. Dwarven made buildings were intricately carved and detailed but generally left unpainted. Smoke drifted on the gentle breeze from tall chimneys that grew out of every rooftop adding to the strange jumble of smells.

Nearly all the buildings were small in comparison to dwarven and crowded unnervingly close together. They were narrower on the bottom and wider at each elevated story until the roofs touched. Thrack had to admit that there was an ingenuity to the design, leaving room for travellers to move between the buildings while creating the larger living spaces within.