War for the Skies (completed) (Book 1 of the Heroes of the Realms series)

Chapter 51

Apparently, news in Stoneforge spread fast. The guards who were banging on our doors had disappeared, so we had an easy path to the elevator. Once Theo shouldered Dawn and we collected all of the runes from the ground, we went back up to Stoneforge city, where there were riots going on.

"Our Queen is dead! What will we do?!" the people were screaming.

They didn't seem to notice that we killed their Queen, as we just casually walked past the screaming crowd. We spotted Thrain blocking the alleyway where Bofur's workstation was.

"My brother did nothing! I will not let you in! I am second-in-command, and you will obey me!" he bellowed at the crowd in front of him.

"Your brother killed our Queen so you could become king!" a dwarf woman shouted.

"I had no idea that this was going to happen!" Thrain protested.

Another "STOP!" from Mia cut through the air. The dwarves stopped running and screaming, all of them eyeing our group.

"There he is!" someone from the dwarven crown pointed at Bofur. "Get him!"

The crowd rushed towards us, and in panic, I used the wind to push them all back. They were easy to lift and move a few feet, even though there were about two dozen of them.

I kept a slight wind barrier around our group, just so the dwarves couldn't come in and slaughter Bofur and maybe us.

"Thrain is your new leader. Any objections, and all of you will be going to where your Queen went," Mia said.

Everyone looked at each other, horrified.

"What she meant to say was," I cut in. "Now that your Queen is gone, you will need a new leader. And that will be Thrain. Any objections?"

"You killed our Queen!" a dwarf cried from the crowd.

"She left herself," I lied.

"What do you mean?" someone asked.

"Um..." I looked at my friends for an answer. Luckily, Bofur had an idea.

"She went to look for new workers. She believed that I was bad at finding them, so she decided to look for them herself. I'm now the leader of the Forgemen, and my brother, Thrain, will be our, ah, temporary king until our Queen returns!" Bofur explained, which was much better then what I could make up on the fly.

The dwarves seemed confused, but some of them bought it, and as if nothing happened, they walked back to their houses.

"But, you should be punished!" someone yelled to Bofur.

"Since I am your new king," Thrain answered. "I remove Bofur's punishment. He is now a proud member of us dwarves," he beamed at Bofur.

The dwarves who hadn't bought the bait and left, looked skeptical and angry, but decided that a fight against us would not be a smart move for them. They turned and bowed to Thrain. "All hail, our new lord, Thrain II, son of Thrain I," they chanted in unison.

I smiled at Thrain and gave him a slight bow, and so did the rest of my friends.

"Welcome home, truly, brother," Thrain opened his arms for a hug. Gratefully, Bofur hugged him back. Even though the crowd was angry and bitter about their Queen leaving, they still let out a loud "Awww!" before everyone left to their work, and Stoneforge was back to normal, kids playing roccer (get it? Rock soccer?) men carrying their wives' groceries, and blacksmiths, well, blacksmithing.

It brought a smile to my face to see everything back to normal. Then, I remembered Dawn's condition, and turned to Bofur for some insight on what happened.