Hirrin Ebonheart, the Dwarven Fighter

I heard the hushed breaths of my Shield-Brothers, our oiled and blackened armor silent in the half-finished tunnels hundreds of feet beneath our home in Galaf’s Bridge.  I heard whispered prayers in the dark, asking for blessings of Purity, of the Mother, of the Lady and of the Great Blade and any other god that would hear them.  I heft my hammer, testing its weight, even though I’ve felt its weight since my beard was white and soft as fresh down, a fifty years prior to this, a hundred battles prior to this, wielded by my father Hirri Ebonheart, and his father Herren Ebonheart.  I breathe in the moist air, and it fills my lungs and smells of earth and fire and iron.  Underneath the smell of all that is good and noble and strong, I smell the scent of our fallen brothers, not the noble warriors who fell in glorious red battle, but the half-men consumed by the Taint, stalking the old and unwary in the depths of darkness below.

They took two of the miners in Galaf’s Bridge, but our band has been tracking their movements, and the messages were passed through the stones from Helkral’s Hall to Kam’Kazud, about the duergar and their contingent of gnomes twisted into slavery.  We waited in the dark, waited for them to move.  They knew where we were, and we knew where they were, and both of our forces were waiting for the first one to make the first move.

I shift my shoulders, feeling the weight of the scaled hauberk resting on me.  This is my hundred and first battle.  We should be singing our war-hymns and pouring our ale in the battleground, but instead we are waiting, here in the dark.  It was fine though, to wait.  Stones waited for us to uncover their secrets, hidden for untold centuries in the dark. 

We will wait for them too, in the dark.

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I wrote this a while ago.  There aren't that many stories that feature non-human protagonists, especially dwarves, and I figure that they need a little more love.

In my notes about one of my fantasy realms, I wrote this story to help get a feel about how a dwarf views and interacts with the world I created, as well as some problems they might face.  I've got another dwarven story cooking, but for now, I'll be posting some of my other fantasy-related stories on this blog at (ir)regular intervals.