When Tarja awoke he saw a small man with a huge red beard standing over him, holding an axe in one hand. Thinking back to Mahala's teachings on the lesser races, he realized that it must be a dwarf, one of the Kor-haggead! The dwarf was about ten man's-hands tall and he seemed as if his body was carved out of solid stone, so tense were his muscles. He wore almost no clothing, except a tiny pair of what looked like shorts with slits down the sides. His hair was a very deep red and pulled back in a plait of five woven strands, a five-plait. His face was the covered with the extremely dark tan that marked a dwarf. His eyes were inlaid and were a hard blue, set deeply in their sockets, so deep that it almost looked menacing, yet challenging at the same time. The axe that he carried had been used recently, and even to Tarja's unskilled eyes, looked like the axe of a warrior with many symbols etched into the side of the blade. Tarja understood these as runes and words in the Dwarven language which, he knew, told the house, clan, and name of the warrior, and the warriors whom of a higher plait that he had bested in combat, unfortunately, the axe was turned in such a way that only the names of the defeated were visible to Tarja. Tarja decided that he should speak with the dwarf, and counted himself very lucky that Mahala had pressed him to learn the ways of the lesser races. He greeted the dwarf in the dwarf's own language, as is traditional when meeting a dwarf for the first time.
"Revered five-plait, wilt thou grant me the honor of conversation?"
"You know our ways, white one, and for that I will converse with you. I am Benchadarga Jerdardlek Cuum of the family Schrada. You are in Habradu and if you know our ways, surely you must know that trespassers can be killed on sight. What is your reason here, that you risk you life, and that of your father so?"
"My father? Oh, you mean Mahala. He is not my father but a very good friend of mine and I never intended to enter Habradu. I intended to reach Jotbah but something must have gone wrong, terribly wrong."
"Jotbah! Your absolutely right when you said you were off because Jotbah's about thirty hulongs from here, about twenty-two and a half on land and seven and a half on the water of the South Sea!"
"We're that deep into Habradu!?! By the Great Prophet, it will take us years to successfully reach the Jotbah now!" With this Tarja sat down and put buried his head in his arms. Suddenly, Mahala blinked his eyes.
"Your friend seems to waking up," stated Benchadarga in good Dorfian, for a dwarf. Tarja was so surprised by Benchadarga's change in language, he was left speechless and fumbling for a response.
"Don't you know your own language, White One? Or are you just amazed that I do? We Kor-Haggead are not as stupid as we are normally credited for, most of us speak Dorfian as well as our own language." After Benchadarga's little speech, Mahala groaned and sat up. When he saw Benchadarga, his eyes widened, then took on a blank look and fell back, once again unconscious. Tarja saw this and was afraid for the safety of his good friend.
"Benkadagra-I mean Beknaradga-no, that wasn't it. Maybe it was. . . ."
"Please, for the sake of your tongue, and my ears, call me BJ. Besides, everyone who doesn't hate me, my. . . what's the word?"
"Friends."
"No, aha! I got it, acquaintance. My acquaintances, friends too, but I can't yet say I know you that well yet, call me BJ, and since you seem like a decent enough person, for a White One, anyway. No offense intended of course, but I have never met anybody other than a dwarf because my parents still keep a very tight leash on me, and probably will continue to until I get married."
"Thank you for at least giving me a chance. Most dwarves are to prejudiced against humans, and I met another dwarf once, but he wouldn't even answer me because he was so prejudiced." A strange sort of wheeze was emitted from the general vicinity of Mahala's throat. "BJ, my friend seems to be hurt, if I wouldn't be imposing, maybe you could find a good healer to see what is the matter with him. I could pay."
For some reason, unknown to Tarja, BJ looked as if he had been offended by the last statement that Tarja made. In light of this Tarja quickly added, "if you want." At this BJ visibly relaxed. Tarja felt much, much happier with BJ happy than angry, or even slightly annoyed.
"You do not know too much about a Kor-Haggead, thank the Exalted Plaits. No offense intended, but I am a Wilder, which you would know if you could read axes. You need not pay me for my services on one condition."
At this BJ had a smug look on his face and Tarja began to wonder if some of the stories about Dwarven rituals were really true, but he would be game and see what this condition was, otherwise BJ might take the refusal as an insult, rather than out of fear of the condition. "What is your condition?" He asked with a noticeable bit of fear in his voice.
"If you wish my services, first, you must tell me your name." At this Tarja began to visibly blush at his forgotten piece of information.
"Forgive my negligence, I must have overlooked that piece of information. My name is Tarja I have renounced my family because they have kept me from using my Bestowed power and hindered my learning process, so that I could not learn in Jotbah," declared Tarja, barely keeping his emotions in check and screaming out at his father's disregard for his own son's wishes.
"In my culture the stoppage of a dwarf's learning is a capital offense, and, if the parents, husband or wife, depending, then the penalty can be death, even if it is the person himself obstructing his own learning. If your father was blocking your learning, and you were a Dwarf, you could claim Death Rite, which means that you would get to kill him yourself, or anyone you chose to could kill him, armed or unarmed, which would also be your decision."
That must be what happened in those stories that I heard. The people who were killed must have violated some aspect of Kor-Haggead honor. I must remember to be careful not to slight any of the Dwarves, because, if they kill for obstructing one's right to learn, then what would they do to someone they thought who insulted them! Tarja thought to himself, swallowing hard enough that BJ could hear him.
When BJ heard this he understood that Tarja thought that this punishment was extremely cruel, for a minor crime, and he responded to this thought by saying, "You obviously think that this punishment is to harsh, but some of your punishments can also be too cruel for their crime. I think that putting any living being in a cage, no matter what the crime is a cruel and unusual punishment. I would rather die than be put in a prison for any length of time longer than one month. Yet, you White Ones will put one of your fellow humans in your prisons for a Winter or longer for a crime so trivial as killing one who offended them, or worse insulted them. I believe that the severity of the punishment depends on the culture of the one deciding, but we can talk philosophy later. Now we should get your friend . . . Mahala, yes?" Tarja nodded. "We should get him to a bed where I can work on him and, hopefully cure him."
Tarja looked at Mahala and agreed. Tarja then rolled up his belongings in the rug and put the rug on top of Mahala. He took Mahala's arms, while BJ took Mahala's legs. They carried Mahala down the hill and a small hut came into view. BJ directed Tarja to take Mahala into this hut and put him on a straw bed which was one of the room's only furnishings.
BJ then proceeded to inspect at Mahala as one would inspect a car's engine, prodding this, tapping that, seeing what works and what doesn't. After about ten minutes of this rapping on Mahala, Tarja was beside himself with anxiety. He suddenly burst out, "Well, how is he?!?"
At this outburst BJ was thoroughly startled and snapped at Tarja "Don't do that please!" in an almost imploring sort of voice. He then said "Mahala is in a form of shock. His spell was forced to bend to the will of another in mid-casting and this is very taxing on the mage who began the spell. He seems to be getting better, but another shock like that would most assuredly kill him without a chance of any recovery as a sane person. I am certain that Mahala's body is under a spell, as if his true form is concealed from me."
BJ turns to Tarja and looks very intently and then he said, "Your form, too, is not your own. What are you trying to hide from me? I show you friendship and you show me mistrust by concealing your form? Do you honestly believe that a Healer, and heir to the chieftanship cannot discern your magic, then you take my friendship for granted and believe me an idiot, that can't see the aura of magic! Explain yourself, or be sentenced to your own kind's punishment!"
"Please, BJ, believe me, I am not trying to hide my form from you! I was to be transported to Jotbah from castle Garanga, my home, by magical means. Mahala was to transport me and himself. The magic must have worked incorrectly. Mahala told me that sometimes the Jazer, the means we used sometimes backfires. Then, the person's face can't be seen until the person reaches their destination," Tarja begged.
"I know not whether to believe you. Your words feel truthful, but your disguise could be clouding my truth-sense. If you could change form, fooling my senses would be easily done. I will put your words to the test. I will heal your friend and if his story matches yours I will believe you, but if his doesn't, you will both be subject to the Law of Trespassers. You may not see your friend until he has told me what he says happened. Until then you will stay in the hut of prisoners and cannot leave without two escorts. If your friend proves your story true, then I will let you freely pass through Habradu and I shall give you Kor-haggead escorts to see you safely out of Habradu, give you rations and let you continue on your way." As BJ said this, two of the Kor-haggead took Tarja's arms and led him out of the hut to a even smaller hut at the other end of the town. By this time dusk was falling. He was told to go to sleep and he would be tended to tomorrow.
Return to Kraada's Lair or
Read the glossary or
Read the prologue or
Read chapter 1 or
Read chapter 3
Look at the map.
