Skayre

Chapter Forty-One

Abernacky ran as fast as his legs could take him, he no longer had his pack or any of his possession. Though he wasn’t entirely concerned about the pots he had hoarded right now.

His main concern was to find his friends and get out as quick as possible.
He rounded a corner and stopped abruptly. Not far behind him Teddy ran right into the back of him. “you absolute fool why did you stop” he shouted at abernacky. Then he realised why, they had reached a spiral staircase, with only the option of going up or going down. Abernacky stood there with his hands on hips thinking. Then he leant forward and sniffed at the air. Teddy looked at him like he was crazy.

Suddenly Abernacky turned around, “just how much do you know about goblins?” he asked with complete seriousness. “are you questioning my ability? Or just making conversation” replied teddy though he sounded slightly hurt. “no, it is a genuine question, it may well help us get out of here” said Abernacky. “oh . . Umm well I know more then anyone else, since no one else believed in them” Abernacky frowned slightly, “it will do”.

“do goblins try to go deeper or stay higher up in the holes they occupy” asked Abernacky. “well from what I’ve seen they don’t go deep, they stay in the middle and make themselves comfortable with their machines and so on” teddy replied, though Abernacky wasn’t done yet.

“I don’t suppose you know much about dwarves or how they built their strongholds?” Abernacky was mostly just being hopeful. “not a great deal no, I know that they usually just built like crazy, tunnels and rooms and then more rooms and more tunnels, however from what I have seen the throne room tends to have an almost escape path out that takes you very quickly to the surface, the goblins don’t use it because they don’t fit” he chuckled slightly at the last bit.

Abernacky could tell that the dwarves didn’t build like crazy, from his knowledge any of the tunnels and rooms were just offshoots, the main section of any dwarven stronghold was normally held at the very entrance, with a large cave opening and a strong wall. Though deep underground was the most important halls and chambers, normally all spread off from one single main tunnel, the dwarves called them the deep road.
Abernacky knew if they could find that deep road they could easily find their way out, however it would likely have a lot more traffic of goblins on it.

“Teddy, do you have any idea what a deep road is and where you could find it” he asked, there was a puzzled expression upon Teddy’s face. “umm to be honest old chap . . .” he paused for a moment, “I haven’t the foggiest” he blushed ever so slightly. Abernacky sighed, “we shall go down then I think” he thought out loud, “deeper, why in the gods would we go deeper?” demanded Theodore.

Abernacky turned around surprised that he would even think that. “Well because dwarves don’t go high up into the mountains, they dig down, so the way out won’t be up, apart from obviously the escape that you mentioned earlier, we must firstly find my friends and then find the deep road” he trailed off and turned back around and sniffed towards the stairs again. “yes definitely down” he had a slight grin on his face.

Abernacky took his first step onto the staircase and faltered for a moment, he turned and looked at Teddy who looked hesitant to follow Abernacky anymore. “down we go” called Abernacky and off he went with a further thought, Teddy had no option but too chase after the crazed man in front of him, he had no idea what he thought of him or even how to think of him; all he knew was that Abernacky had set him free and his best option would be to follow for now. Slowly he followed down the staircase, he could hear the thudding step of Abernacky, who sounded like he was skipping steps as he went down. “what an absolute loony” puffed Teddy as he went as fast as he safely could down the steps; one at a time.

It was a prolonged journey down the stair case, Abernacky had slowed considerably and Teddy wasn’t far behind; with the pair of them huffing and puffing as they went. After a while Teddy caught up with Abernacky who was now leaning against the wall taking a short break. “well met, friend” puffed Abernacky, Teddy just nodded and waved his hand. “how bloody deep are we going?” He asked amongst deep breaths.

Abernacky smiled at him, all the while clutching the stitch in his side. “as deep as it takes us, normally from what I know dwarves only use stairs like this as a quick way to get from one important place to another” he smiled again. Teddy didn’t like it much when he smiled because it obviously didn’t mean anything good. “can we just get this over with, and go a little slower please, I’m not built for such a fast pace” he looked down at his belly and felt somewhat ashamed, despite being a prisoner he was still quite plump around the middle.

“a slower pace, yes . . . That sounds like a good idea” it sounded almost as though he was pretending purely for the sake of Teddy and not for the fact he was also struggling. It wasn’t long before they reach the bottom, however there was an iron gate between them and the way out.