The Sheep Among Wolves

The Mountain Wall

It has been about a month since Farland begun his journey. He is on a quest of documenting every creature he can, so he has been in many places in Armet. This particular journey he begun from his homeland of Slavar. He went north, past through Landaris, realm of mostly elves, and now he is about to pass to Karnod, realm of the dwarves. He liked traveling alone. Gave him peace and quiet, time to think. Sure, there was the threat of goblins attacking him on the road, or even worse, while he is alseep, but he could handle himself. And he was able to choose good spots to rest, hidden areas and so, for his training as a ranger had taught him much of surviving alone in the wild.

He sighed. "The Borderwater." He said to himself, chuckling to the name of the river in front of him. Dwarves and elves never really liked each other much. Being neighburs gives neither much joy, so they like to seperate each other as much as they can. Well, most of them that is. There was an old stone bridge, seems to have seen much battles, traders and so on. There were not much bridges on Borderwater, for it was the river that divided Landaris and Karnod.

Farland looked beyond the river, and there he seen it, The Mountain Wall. He gazed in awe at the mountains, leading both East and West, beyond his sight. As he was passing the bridge he slowly breathed in the fresh scents. He could soon hear a few birds, beating the sound of the river. Farland closed his eyes for a bit, the breeze that came down from the mountains blowing through his black hair and his green cloak.

He followed the path leading through the bridge and up, into the mountains. He was officially in Karnod by now. After what seemed like an hour of walking he seen something poke out where the path went. As he got closer he had realised that it is a stone tower. The path led north to it but then only a few meters from it, the path split up into going East and West. It was just about noon, so the sun shined bright and the tower layed a small shadow upon a few trees to the side of it. He looked to the top of the tower and seen a head poke out. It soon jumped and dissapeared.

As he got about ten feet from it, to where the path splits, a dwarf ran out from the tower and stoped at the splitting of the path. "Halt!" He said as he straightened up and tightly grasped his spear in his right hand. Farland stoped to see what would happen next.

"What buisness have you here, newcomer?" The dwarf asks, a bit loud perhaps. Farland eyes him and responds "I am a mere traveler, looking to get to The Wildlands." The eyes of the dwarf widen through his iron helmet. "Wildlands? Why would you ever want to go there?" The dwarf raises an eyebrow to Farland, to which Farland replies "That is no concern of yours." The dwarf quikcly responds. "But it is! All buisness happening in this area of The Mountain Wall is my buisness!"

After a second of thought Farland then says "But The Wildlands arent in the area of The Mountain Wall." The dwarf grunts in annoyance. "What is your name newcomer?" Farland nods "Farland, and yours?", to which the dwarf gives his name "Radah." And then continues "I cant let you go wander for yourself, these are dangerous times. "What, you will acompany me?" Farland asks in a humorous voice, to which Radah replies "Aye."

Farlands eyes widen. "What? Oh no, i travel alone." Radah was not fazed. "You mean, you TRAVELED alone. And it will be just while youre here, stop whining." Farland let out a loud sigh "So be it. Can we just go then?" Radah was a bit amused at that point as he said "Not yet, I need to wait for the other guard. A few minutes." After so called few minutes, in translation, twenty, another guard got to the watchtower as Radah spoke to him. After a bit they noded to each other and Farland and Radah took the east path.

First there was about half an hour of awkward silence, but soon Radah begun talking and he wasnt finished for a while. He talked of his duty and job and how he has to watch the mountains, the rodes and the watchtowers in particular. "So the path is met by watchtowers every now and then. Helps to keep the roads safe and lets caravans pass as well as..." This went on for a while as Farland stoped listening at one point as he just looked around the environment.

After about an hour they spotted another watchtower. Radah greeted two or three dwarves inside it, one of them being outside, and the two quickly moved on, kept walking east. Farland rarely talked much to anyone really, and boy could this dwarf talk. At this point Farland was just noding at him and sometimes throwing in a suprised "oh" here and there. He thought Radah may have noticed but if he did, he did not care, he just kept talking even though night slowly begun to fall as the sun was soon to hide behind the mountains.

Farland had enough so he suddenly froze and stood still. Radah did the same. Farland was happy it worked as he only wanted to shut him up, but just as he was about to start walking, finger on his lips, signaling the dwarf to be quiet, some bushes started to sush, to his own surprise. Farland looked at Radah, who was looking in as many directions as he could as fast as he could, his spear griped firm as it flied through the air, allways keeping itself in front of the dwarf.

Farland placed his hand upon the hilt of his sword. It was a fine onehanded blade, given to him by his father. More bushes shushed as a screaming goblin ran out of one, wildly swinging his old, rusty blade about, charging towards the duo. Soon, two more goblins followed, to which another two followed them. It was a small band, but still they outnumbered the two.

The first one was of no trouble as Radah only thrusted his spear right into the quick goblin, killing it almost instantly. Farland prepared his blade as a goblin with an old spear charged him. Farland deflected the slear to the side and cut into the goblin. The first strike wounded it as the second finished it off. That left three more, two of which attacked Farland. One came up swinging what seemed to be a stick while the other had a small, broken down wooden shield and a dagger.

Farland charged at the one with the dagger and shield, breaking the shueld with two swings and then stabing the goblin. As he was about to turn around, he got hit by a stick in the head and then to the leg. Farland fell dowon. The goblin begun hiting him with the stick again and again. Farland managed to grab the stick and rip it out of the goblins hands. He begun paying him back with the beating as the goblin begun to flee.

Radah finished his goblin off, it had an old woodcuting axe, and the dwarfs spear made quick work of the goblin. Farland quickly took out a dagger and threw it at the fleeing goblin, it hiting him right in the back. Farland took his sword, run up to the goblin and finished him off with one strong stab. Radah looked at Farland "Good senses.". Farland chuckled a bit "Yeah..."

They have set up a small camp and spent the night there. After they have put out the fire they moved on. For three more days they have traveled, and although those days went quite uneventful, they still did not let their guards down. At about noon on the third day they have reached the final tower. Radah spoke "There we are, the Eastern end of The Mountain Wall." The mountains still went up North, but Farlands path led him to the Wildlands, and as the mountains bordered Landaris in the South, and The Wildlands in the East.