The Grand Catastrophe

Chapter Four: Diggy Hole

“There should be guards here,” Zenburu said, and Momonga tilted her head.

There they were, in the mountains surrounding the entrance to the dwarven city itself. The sun was high in the sky. The animals native to the area were having a grand old time, and Momonga was happy.

Yet, something was wrong with the city itself. After all, there were no guards, and Zenburu himself had lived here for several years. It was just a tad worrying.

“Hanzos,” Momonga called out, and about a dozen masked monsters appeared from her shadows.

They kneeled by her side, looking down on the ground as they awaited their orders. Their frames were lithe, and their faces were covered in black masks. Their bodies were covered as well by a whole body suit.

“Go into the city, and scout it out. See what’s happening. Report back in an hour, or until you’ve found everything noteworthy,” she told them, they bowed their heads even lower, and disappeared.

Momonga smiled, and turned back to her compatriots. Aura and Shalltear seemed perfectly fine. Zenberu was still looking over the entrance to the city, more confused than anything.

…

“It is empty, save for a group of demi-humans that look somewhat like moles, and a quiet yet consistent digging sound farther away from city itself. We didn’t investigate in case if whoever was down there was more powerful,” the Honzo explained, and she nodded her head.

That was good, it was good that they didn’t go running off and kill themselves. She hated when the AI did that. Of course, they weren’t AI, but it would still have been annoying. She sighed in her mind, and turned to Zenberu as he thought something through.

“Do you know anything about any kind of mole demi-human?” she asked, and he shook his head.

“No I don’t, last time I was here, the city was full of life and stuff. I can’t tell you why there’s no one here,” Zenberu said, and she sighed.

“Of course nothing would be that easy. Okay, new plan,” she started, and turned to Shalltear, “Shalltear, take the Hanzos and go and scout out the demi-humans. Make sure to keep an eye on them. I have a feeling that they’re against these dwarves. Stay out of sight, and out of their minds. Capture them when I tell you to.”

She then turned to Aura, Zenberu, and the other parts of their group. There weren’t really that many people and beasts that they had brought with. It was only just the mounts, and some elephant things that she forgot the name of.

“Aura, you’re with me, along with Zenberu. We’re checking out the sounds of mining,” she instructed, and the lot of them nodded their heads.

After a minute or two of simply looking around, she saw the source of the noise and sent Aura in to see whoever it was. She was a ranger after all. She would be able to hide her presence relatively well. All in all, it was a rather good idea.

…

Gondo was a dwarve that was honestly tired to the core. He was talentless, he loved a trade that no longer had any use, and he didn’t like drinking. That last one was the least important, but he felt like he should have added it anyway.

Right now, he needed rare ore for one of his many experiments. He was pretty sure that it would work, he just needed the metal. His pickaxe struck the stone in front of him again and again. The rhythmic sounds of his pickaxe stopped a while it had started, though. For he had heard footsteps.

Gondo stopped what he was doing, and dived to the ground. After that, he of course covered himself in a magic blanket, as anyone would do if they heard weird footsteps in a old mine that hadn’t been used in a couple years.

He stayed under the blanket for a good solid minute before a voice called out to him. Now, he expected this. What he didn’t expect was that this voice belonged to a child. He blinked as she spoke, for it was most definitely a girl.

“Hey there, you know I can see you right?” she said, and he started to inch further away from her.

She got in his way then, and he was forced to speak. Why a child was here, he didn’t know. She might have wandered here away from her group, or she had been sent here.

“What are you doing here kid? Don’t you know that this place is dangerous?” he asked instead, and she got in his way again as he tried and failed to leave.

“No, I don’t actually. I was told that this place as a city by a lizardman that had lived here a while ago. What happened here?” she asked, and he stopped, and got up, and looked at her.

…