Skayre

Chapter Forty

Moya was crouched down, still peaking outside of the cave from behind the waterfall, The others were all sat down further into the cave, all  looking completely dejected, all of them were incredibly tired and hungry having had no time for rest or even to stop for food. The last time they did was in the crossroads and for all they knew that felt like days ago.

Moya slowly snuck back towards them, “you should all rest for a moment and eat some food; no fires though, we must stay hidden” she specifically looked at Eddie, however it was a more well meaning sort of look instead of the usual condescending one she gave him. She quickly turned around, “I will keep watch for another hour or so and then we will move again, eat and rest while you can”

None of them needed to be told again. They swiftly rummaged around into their bags and found food which they all savoured it as if it could be their last meal. However Stripe carefully made his way over to where Moya was, He crouched there and stared out from the cave and was astounded at what he saw.

There was still a large group of goblins hanging around in the cave, they had a large bonfire roaring away and were sat around eating food and enjoying themselves, off in the distance behind them could be seen two of the huge mountain trolls. They towered above everything else around them and kept a good distance from the goblin’s so as to not step on them.
Stripe made an odd sort of strangled noise in the back of his throat, Moya turned and looked at him and raised an eyebrow in amusement. He coughed a few times and cleared his throat. “umm” he started to say and cleared his throat once more. He started talking again “umm, here is some food for you and thank you for defending us, if only I had sword and shield I could help” he sighed to himself and handed over a small packet of food to her, it was wrapped in a small green leaf to help keep it fresh.

Moya opened the package of biscuit and broke off a small piece, and smiled. “I’m glad my people gave you some food” she looked at stripe once more and eyes him up and down, “you know how to use a sword?” she questioned Stripe looked slightly embarrassed, “once upon a time, I was a sentinel once, though that was a long time ago” he had a sad look in his eye. “We will keep an eye out for some gear for you then” and she gave him a smile and a wink, stripe wasn’t sure if she was being serious or not. However she had turned away and continued to watch, he thought it best to go back to the others and get some much needed rest. It didn’t take long at all before the rest of them had fallen asleep leaning against the wall or laying their head upon their packs. Moya was still keeping her lone vigil, watching out into the larger cave. For a moment she panicked thinking the goblins were making their way over to the cave, she readied her bow to take as many shots as needed. However they were just collecting water and no more.

Moya decided shortly after that it would be best if they moved on. She crawled over to each of the group individually and shook them gently awake, each time they looked at her bleary eyed not quite sure of where they were. However once they heard the sound of rushing water and noticed it was Moya they groaned with disapproval and then slowly managed to get themselves up.

They were all stood around waiting to go, Moya was taking one last look into the cave. The goblins were all still there around the fire eating and drinking. “we should be fine” she said to them and she walked off first further back into the tunnel, by now it was much easier for all of them to see, they had slowly got used to the general darkness since they first entered the cave systems.

As they went further on, they noticed it wasn’t any form of habited sort of area, unlike that of the beautifully carved stone walls inside the dwarven stronghold. It went farther into just more untouched cave. There was an odd sort of soft crunch underneath foot that none of them could quite understand why it was there. The ground looked the same grey colour as everything else. They reached an even smaller tunnel where they would have to walk in single file. Moya went first to cover the front and then Eddie came last able to blast anyone with fire if they came up behind.

The tunnel have no inclination of getting wider or even going anywhere, however it was getting hotter, each and every one of them was getting beads of sweat start to run across their faces. There was an odd sort of glow off in front as well and more heat. They rounded a bend and were hit by a wall of heat; almost to the extent of it being a physical wall. There they saw in front of them was a large cavern opening up with a pool of lava bubbling away. There was a small island just to one side. Slowly they followed the path having no intention of falling to their collective rooms in the lava.

After a brief moment of being scared almost to death the group made it to the island; there was a small forge here. The dwarves must of used the lava especially for this forge. In the middle of the forge stood a beautifully carved stone statue of what must be an incredibly important dwarf. He stood there tongs in one hand and a forging hammer in the other. Metal grating surrounded the dwarf, probably used to place metalwork on top without dropping it directly into lava. There was a small work station housing a number of tools and other oddments.
Everyone was walking around and looking at different things. Moya and Stripe were in awe of the statue, they stood there staring up at the colossal stone carving. It felt almost as though it was alive, whoever this was they must of been incredibly important to warrant such a memory. Mert was looking around on the table, different tools for different types of metalwork littered the table and the floor. There was paper everywhere, most of it completely blank. However Mert did find one piece that had writing on, it seemed more like a diary then anything, it contained only one passage.

“I have done it! Finally complete! It has taken decades of work and countless resources, yet I’ve finished the most beautiful piece of metalwork ever. My life’s work has gone into this suit of armour, jet black and smooth. Nary a piece of ornament on it. It shall hang up here next to the statue of Jorgen Haimer” there looked to be something underneath it however it was now completely unreadable due to ages of grime, or maybe that was very old blood, thought Mert to himself though there was no way to know.

Mert immediately called out to the others, “hey, I’ve found something you should see!” they all came over straight away without a moment to waste. Slowly each of them looking over each others shoulders read through the note “is that blood all over it?” questioned Beryn once she had finished. They looked at her. “I imagine so” confirmed Moya without any concern in her voice.

Stripe however didn’t care about that at all, he had straight gone running off around the forge and around the statue. No one quite knew why, he ran the whole way around and started going back around a second time before someone stopped him. “what are you doing?” called out Beryn with a small smile twitching the corner of her mouth. “I’m looking for that armour of course” he shouted as he ran full of excitement.

Beryn was shaking her head, though it was Moya who spoke, “if the armour was really that amazing, do you think it would still be here?” she asked. Stripe stopped in his tracks as though he had just run into a brick wall “oh” he said his face had completely dropped.

He was mumbling and shuffled around kicking loose stones on the ground. When one of them he had kicked off into the distance pinged off of something. His head immediately went up looking for the noise. He went running towards where it was. He was kicking dust up everywhere in a small area in the hope of finding something.

Then finally he kicked something hard. His toe was throbbing with pain, however Stripe had no care for it. He dropped to his knees and was scrabbling around in the dirt. He had managed to dig a small hole in which he had found a helmet, not just any helmet it must of been from the note, Stripe lifted it and was whooping with joy. The others all stared at him with odd expressions, though none made any attempt to stop him. He saw something else laying deep in the muck and grime. He tugged it out with a huge amount of effort. Eddie came over to help because it was taking so much time and effort. Finally between the two of them they managed to drag it out. It was a huge sword, easily the length of Stripe himself.

He drew it from its scabbard, there was a small note scrap that fell out as he drew it. He held the sword up and noticed how sharp it still was despite being buried for god’s knew how long. Stripe had to hold it up with two due to the size of it. Eddie however had noticed the note.

“hey look, a note fell out” he said as he bent to down to retrieve it” the others gathered around and Eddie started to read it out. “these are all I can save, I am betrayed by my brother’s for my life’s work, I will bury the helmet and sword and hope that whoever finds them can bring them together again. I wish you luck”
Stripe picked up the helmet and placed it on his head, it completely covered his face, so no one could see his face at all, it had a small slit at the front so he could see though his vision was greatly reduced it would prove useful for keeping him safe. “does it say anything else?” he muffled inside the helmet. “no, I assume the rest of the armour was stolen and long gone” replied Eddie.

“Well shall we then” called stripe brimming with confidence, he had a beautiful helmet and sword to accompany it, he felt much more able to help now.