Esveldza: 'The Lonely Child of Fire'

Chapter XXVI- Dwarves and Pixies

Chapter XXVI

Dwarves and Pixies

That night we ate a feast, the bards of Hadar had heard of our arrival and so they took their turns in entertaining us. I had only bought chocolate from Hadar so as one of them really impressed me with his comedic dance I gave him 5GGC and he looked incredibly happy. I beamed in return and then he grabbed my arms and began to dance around with me.

Daarken seized the opportunity and danced as well, Sarben told us we were fools and pretended to not be interested when another bard grabbed his hand. We sang and danced around the room; the melodic sounds of the traditional Esveldzan flutes and the other various instruments melding together.

It was quite a few hours until we all went to bed to get some rest before the next day. When I awoke the next day the reality of our first quest hit me; we were finally going to see the dwarves of Half-Moon Mountains and all our training could be finally be put to use.

The rest was good, the cooled underground beds of the inn were a pleasant change and the delicious freshly cooked food were also a welcomed change. We left the inn early in the morning, our adrenalin outweighing our fatigue. Volcarn and Noomkiara greeted us quickly before too much of a large crowd gathered and they flew off together towards the mountains.

“You are not going to fly with Volcarn?” I asked Daarken as the dragons took off into the sky.

He was walking beside me, Sarben and Salvator ahead of us. He shrugged casually at me, “I decided I would stay, otherwise you would get too lonely without me again.”

I scrunch my face up, preparing to tell him that there is no way I would be lonely without such a fool in my company when I realise he is sniggering; it is the exact reaction he was waiting for. I stuck my tongue out and him and fold my arms.

“Come on Akaiya, I sacrificed riding a dragon to talk to you! You should be thanking me for such a gracious gesture!” Daarken said, putting his arm around my shoulder and ruffling my hair.

I struggled with his hold; “You can go away if all you want is for me to kiss your feet!” We continued to banter with each other for quite a while until Salvator tells us off and once again quizzes us on Dwarven etiquette.

I had forgotten to buy my ice cream and remembered this when the suns were in the middle of the sky; their relentless heat shielded partially by the trees that began to thicken as we reached closer to the mountains. Luckily  Volcarn and Noomkiara were not too big so they walked beside us, there are some strange creatures in this forest, with strange tastes too. Noomkiara was commenting. I was listening curiously to her adventures of last night; I still have some I have not properly digested if you wish to share some with me.

I almost gag, regurgitation and the sharing of food was a dragon act that I did not wish to partake in. “That is quite fine, Noomkiara, I believe what you say.” I replied, trying to hide my disgust.

Noomkiara caught on, Fine, suit yourself but you should get over your weird Elven hygienic obsessions.

I almost snort, we are the weird ones? I could feel Kirrahh almost laughing; agreeing with Noomkiara.

The trees grew taller and taller, their canopies eventually covering large portions of the sky. We were following a path but the amount of hunters and other travellers passing through began to lessen as we ascended further down the road to the mountains. The mountains were growing even larger; I felt glad that we would not be climbing them. Just climbing Arimur Volcano was a horrible enough hike and that volcano was only half the size of the smallest of these mountains.