Book 2: Chapter 26 (2/2)

“…You’re not serious,” Lindyss said, raising her head off the ground.

“What?” Grimmy asked. “An ant is an ant regardless of its size.”

Leila sighed. “So it really was you who terrorized the dwarves in their legends.”

Grimmy’s head perked up. “There’s a legend about me? I want to hear it.”

***

“A black dragon burned down Plumby’s city?”

Cold sweat ran down a dwarf’s back as he kept his gaze glued to the floor. It was a shiny one made of green metal that reflected the dwarf’s pale face. “Yes, Your Gloriousness,” the sweating dwarf said. “Boss general sir was away to attend the annual assembly, and the city was attacked in that time. I came here right away.”

In front of the kneeling dwarf, there was a massive throne made of orichalcum. A minute figure sat atop it with three different colored crowns on his head. A red beard covered the majority of his face, only exposing two big, round eyes and an even bigger nose. “Plumby still insists on being called boss general sir? Haven’t I told him that name is too long and unwieldy to say?”

“He likes it, Your Gloriousness,” the kneeling dwarf said.

The dwarf king sighed and shook his head. “Tell me more about the encounter with the dragon.”

“It was a day like any other. I was crafting in my house when my ceiling suddenly shook and collapsed. The next thing I know, a massive, dead roc with an elf riding atop it was in my living room.”

“A rock?” the king asked. “Or a roc? Like the bird.”

“The bird, Your Gloriousness,” the dwarf replied. “It was dead. The elf was in the process of eating it raw. Her hands and mouth were bloody—it was like she hadn’t eaten in days. I thought she was going to eat me too!”

“Aren’t elves vegetarians? Didn’t you see incorrectly?”

“No, Your Gloriousness. She was definitely an elf. When I was about to say something, my ceiling broke even further and two dragons landed on my house: a black one and a silver one, but the silver one wasn’t Leoniden. There was lots of screaming, and someone fired a cannon at the black dragon. It didn’t do anything except piss it off, and the next thing I knew, my beard was aflame.”

“The flames came after the cannon shot?” the king asked, raising an eyebrow.

“That’s right, Your Gloriousness.”

The dwarf king rubbed his chin. “I see.” He hummed and nodded to himself. “Alright. You’re dismissed.” The sweating dwarf scrambled to his feet and left the room without looking back. “A dragon of darkness… did it provoke us, or did we provoke it?” He sighed and shook his head. “Ah… such a hassle.”