Aj VI

The goblin picked up a large rock and tossed it onto a large flat stone. Nothing happened. The group behind him watched closely as he stepped up onto the stone. The group jumped in surprise as the goblin was skewered by a sharpened stake that was attached to a limb; it had sprung out from the far side of a large rock that the path sided. The stake hit the goblin in the chest with such force that it went through its body, and so rapidly that the limb hit the body before it stopped moving and knocked the goblin off the stake to sprawl on the path with a gaping hole in its chest.

Without turning his head Aj commented, “Well, that’s only goblins so far, I was hoping for a careless orc on that first trap. The next trap is a little trickier, I hope it at least gets the big orc, that would shake up the ogre and maybe he will go away. This isn’t the first time he has tried to find our lair. Last summer he followed visitors a couple of times, but didn’t want to stick his neck out. I would love to have him stumble into one of my traps.”

Hezekiah tried to increase his focus on the trail below to remember where the men had stood to protect the caravan as it entered the booby trapped canyon.

Down below the orcs marched two more goblins to the front of the group with the ogre following them. When the goblins had to pass their dead companion they hesitated, glancing around.

The ogre was taller than a large man, big boned and fat: grossly, hideously fat. His skin contained layers of cottage cheese rolls on top of cottage cheese rolls that were tattooed with a maze of black stretch marks that discolored the flesh. He had no ears, just holes in the side of his head, and no hair which made his sweat run without stopping. The tusks on his head would have reached halfway to his jowls, but his extra fat left them deeply embedded, causing the skin to gush out around them, and his eyelids hung so low that he had to raise his eyebrows to look through his small beady eyes. When he walked his big floppy four toed feet slapped the ground like cold, wet ham. Meb, then and there, named him the Great Ich .

Ich pushed the large orc out of the way giving threats and cursing the goblins, and ordered one of the goblins to start up the path. The goblin, connecting the distance it would go up the path with its life expectancy, started whining and shaking its head. Typical of all ogres, having no patience for others, Ich knocked the goblin to the ground and stepped on its back. He then took his club and smashed the goblins head, reached down, and stretched the crack in the head apart. Scooping the sticky brains out of the goblin’s head the ogre shoved the gooey mass into its mouth, and then licked the large globs off its fingers. Next he turned the head to the side and poked the eyes out, and holding them over his head, squishing them into his mouth as if they were a fine delicacy.

Sucking his fingers semi-clean the ogre smiled at the other goblins sending it the message that he enjoyed his little snack and wouldn’t mind another one. Then Ich motioned up the trail. The other goblin inched up the trail with a groan—edging to the side of the path. The goblin stepped into the water and followed the stream whenever it could. After about five steps it had to leave the water because the stream undercut the edge of the canyon. The goblin slowly started across a flat area between the twists of the stream. The large orc followed about five feet behind the goblin, stepping were the goblin stepped. As the goblin reached the far side of the flat there was a load snap and the ground below the orc collapsed. The orc had time to curse as it fell through the earth, it hit the bottom and started to squeal, but was quickly cut off with a “dguh”. The orc had fallen twenty feet to the bottom of the pit and through a couple of ropes that crossed the chasm. The ropes were attached to rocks, so that as the orc passed through them they were pulled by the orcs weight on the ropes, and started to fall with it. When everything reached the floor of the hole the orc was on the bottom, the life crushed out of his body.

Seeing this event take place just the way he had hoped it would, Aj turned his head in Hezekiah’s direction and commented in a quite voice. “Now, is the ogre smart enough to realize that the goblin didn’t weigh enough to trip the trigger for the pit but the orc was? If it thinks along those lines then maybe he will turn around and we will go get some sleep.”

Hezekiah asked in a whisper, “What silenced the orc?”

Aj answered softly, “The pit was about twenty feet deep, not easy digging in that canyon. Twenty feet is far enough to break bones, but the object is to kill. In the side of the pit almost at the top we carved ledges, and then set some flat stones on the edge that weighed about ten pounds.” Aj moved the fingers of one hand to show how they stood the stones up on the side by rotating only his hand. Not being able to move his hands as he talked annoyed Aj, but the necessity of remaining motionless so they would remain hidden was second nature to him. His patience in intense situations had saved his life more than once. “Then we strung some ropes across the pit, attaching them to those rocks. When the orc fell his mass continued through the ropes and pulled the rocks down on top of him. Those rocks fell about fifteen or sixteen feet before they landed on the orc. If you drop a one pound rock one foot it will hit with the force of three pounds, drop it two feet and it hits with the force of six pounds. Drop a ten pound rock fifteen feet and it will hit with enough force to kill an orc. We dropped four rocks that far. I was really hoping to get the ogre, but I think we got his right hand man in the big orc.”

Down below there were a number of squeals as a small group of goblins decided that the surprise of the trap ahead gave them a chance to escape the mob. Two of them stuck their knives into the orc watching over them and then the small group ran across the flat bench in an attempt to escape. Pandemonium broke out. As the goblins fled across the flat some of the orc-archers gathered themselves to shoot at them. Elsewhere along the trail the race war continued to break out. An isolated gang of goblins surrounded an orc, and with their knives, sliced and cut off chunks of orc flesh until one stabbed it in the neck. The blade hit the jugular spraying blood in the air. The gang had tried, too late, to use the same method of escape as their tribesmen, and before they could run the orc-archers cut them down. The trail was strewn with the bodies of massacred goblins. Of the goblins that ran off, two fell into a pit to their death, one was killed by arrows, and the rest escaped to the north. The orcs had fared better, just the unlucky were nursing wounds.

Ich seemed to gather himself after the slaughter was over. The frustration of loosing his cheap sacrifices to the traps of the canyon seemed to grow in him until he took a deep breath. He held it for a second, preparing for a frenzy, and then exhaled the frustration. There were no goblins to be victim to his release, and the orcs were too valuable. Ich stood quietly for a minute, thinking, then motioned for the orcs to start preparing the dead goblins so they could take them along. There was no need to waste goblin flesh, when it could feed so many. The orcs gutted the goblins; some sneaking an eyeball to see if it was the delicacy that Ich seemed to think it was. Others pulled out pouches to hold some of the guts. They would take them back to their village to feed to their young. Then they took some of the stakes that had been pulled out of the ground, and skewered the goblins bodies from head to tail so that they could be easily carried off.

Ich looked up the canyon at the huddling goblin that had walked over the pit without tripping the trap. The goblin had had nowhere to go, if it went up the canyon it might set off another, and if it tried to sneak out of the canyon the orcs would butcher it. Ich motioned the goblin to come to him. The goblin shook its head no. Ich slowly moved closer to the goblin signaling it to come to him. The goblin shook in fear. When Ich got to the stream the goblin streaked up the canyon until it came to a dead stop its face impaled on a spear.

Hezekiah had watched it step on the trigger, a rake-like contraption with a short spear attached to its handle at a ninety degree angle. When the panicked goblin had stepped on the rake, the spear, carried with momentum, rose up and struck hard enough to pierce the goblin’s skull.

Ich gave the goblin up for lost and, after looking down into the pit at his lost helper, went back down the trail gathering the orcs. Aj was right. The pursuers were giving up; the cost to continue was too great. Ich would waste goblins to find the entrance to the hidden cave, but would not risk his relationship as high chief with the tribe of orcs.

Aj and Hezekiah had watched the events below them happen in silence. Both were surprised by a slight snore that escaped from Meb. Lying down, out of sight and still, had been to relaxing for Meb. Their long march had been exhausting for everyone, but Meb had been scouting, before and after the train, giving him little time to sleep over the last five days. This respite, as exciting as it was, had put him fast asleep. Aj and Hezekiah let him sleep as they watched the war party below them head down the mountain, his quiet snores would not carry far enough to give them away.

Aj V

The elves had been greeted by a small group of their kin and had moved off to their own chamber after Marry was satisfied that all of the maidens were settled and watched over by their chaperones.

As the bustle had settled down Aj had gathered Hezekiah and in turn Meb and led them through a series of tunnels until they were laying in the location close to were Hezekiah had first seen Aj earlier in the day.

Aj saw the movement down the trail first and motioned to his companions to be still. Shortly after that they could all see coming out of the lower cut down bellow the orcs and goblins that had been following the caravan. The larger group must have waited for the smaller group to catch up because they were letting the smaller group take the lead. The party was being very cautious as it followed the trail that the caravan had taken earlier. There were about forty orcs and the same number of goblins followed by the ogre then the rest of the orcs from the second group. As the first orcs and goblins were reaching the point that the caravan had conversed with Aj, most of the second group of orcs were still in the slot canyon. The orcs were making one of the smaller goblins go first up the trail. Every time the small goblin stopped the large lead orc cursed him and threatened him with the spear that he carried. As the party passed the spikes with the heads on them they would pull the spikes out of the ground and through them from the trail with the heads still jammed on the ends. Aj said, “It will take me hours to put those spikes back up, I hope they turn around soon.”

Meb asked, “Why are they going to turn around soon?”

In answer Aj said, “Watch and learn my little friend.”

As the party below got closer to the entrance to the second canyon the little goblin became more upset. There seemed to be one goblin for each orc to supervise in the first group. With each step the little goblin became more upset wanting to go anywhere but up the trail. Suddenly the little goblin bolted from the lead orc threw a couple of stakes off the trail. The lead orc cursed and started to follow the little goblin then stopped as the little goblin disappeared with a scream into a covered pit that had long stakes imbedded in the bottom of the pit that impaled the goblin. The large lead orc moved back to the center of the path and pulled the next goblin forward and with a curse put his spear to the back of the goblin and motioned it up the trail. The goblin was watching the ground closely looking for were the caravan had trod.

Aj IV

Hezekiah was last of the original caravan into the cave, and Aj’s warriors followed right behind him. They had left their posts after the caravan had passed. Stepping in he signed to Aj who then motioned for Hezekiah to give him a moment. Aj moved over to the wall of the cave were a small stream of water was poring into a catch basin in the cave. He plugged the hole and the water stopped. Hezekiah watched the gape in the wall slowly close as the water level in the catch basin lowered. The catch basin acted as one end of a fulcrum. When it held water the weight of the water dropped the basin. When the basin was empty there was not enough pressure to raise the bridge and open the split in the cliff face. By plugging the hole the tension on the fulcrum was gone and the step and the split in the cliff face disappeared from sight in the canyon.

The inside of the cave was dimly lighted by lanterns, so some of the maidens had pulled lanterns out of their packs where they had been stored away. This part of the cave opened into a wide natural chamber with a high ceiling that rose above the floor to about twenty feet. Hezekiah patted Aj on the shoulder and smiled from the relief. He felt safe behind the rock. Hezekiah hadn’t realized the stress he had felt the last five days crossing the plains.

The two men started following the caravan deeper into the cave. “I think we are all about worn out. How long will it take us to get to somewhere we can all sleep? Other than a couple of quick naps I haven’t slept for five days.”

Aj chuckled with a deep voice and replied, “Ten minutes up the trail and past the next hidden door there is a large chamber with water for the donkeys and a little bit of oats waiting for them. Off the main chamber there are a number of branches were everyone can get some rest. Things should quiet down outside tonight, and then I can lead everyone up to the higher tunnels. Did you find the book I wanted?”

Hezekiah nodded in the affirmative, “I found the book, but its owner wouldn’t let me buy it, however, they did let Merry and Galahad copy it.” Hezekiah put down his pack and pulled a leather bound book out of it and handed it to Aj. Aj opened the book to the table of contents, looked for a particular chapter and then quickly flipped through the book to that page. Meb read the title from underneath, “Traps From the Desert by Gor the Dwarf.”

Aj smiled down to Meb and then showed him one of the pages. It was covered at the top in an elegant print with a picture of a rock , and detailed drawings that outlined the size of the rock and how it needed to be carved so that a large dart would snap out of the rock when a trigger was tripped. Aj said, “I had heard about this little trick but couldn’t figure it out on my own. How long until your pursuers reach the flat below?”

Hezekiah looked at Meb and after Meb held up two fingers answered, “Two hours at the soonest, might be two and a half.”

Aj motioned after the caravan and said, “Let’s get everyone settled so we can watch the fun.” Aj motioned for some of his men to go down a side tunnel that moved east and down inside the mountain so that the tunnel was following the canyon that they had traveled in.

As Aj said, after about ten minutes everyone was in a large chamber with a corral on one side for all of the donkeys. The donkeys were being put away, and Aj and Merry were directing the Dwarves and organizing things. Considering how tired everyone was, in a surprisingly short time all of the donkeys were brushed and given feed and the dwarves were all sorted out to sleep in what could only be considered different dormitories for the men and women.

Aj III

Aj was a large man with a barrel chest, thick arms and stout legs. He wore solidly made clothing with the shirt having long sleeves that were rolled back at the ends. Under his large straight nose was a gray mustache, and behind the glasses he wore were large eyes which shown with a merry glint. Hezekiah saw the happy disposition of the man through those eyes the first time he had met him, three years ago when he traveled through the mountain, the sparkle would have been hard for Aj to hide, especially when he was telling a story. His shirt pockets bulged with small items and some gray hair dipped out under his hat. Aj was an organized person always well prepared and he thought things out well in advance. He had a small group of warriors with him, a mix of men and dwarves, ten each. That was the normal guard for the east side of the tunnels. The Trail was a family heirloom of sorts inherited by each successive generation of Aj’s family. He felt it his duty to not just defend his home, but to protect as much as he could the safety of the wildlife and nature on the east side of the mountain. As such the stakes were set up to discourage the undesirable presence of orcs and goblins.

Aj, with his family that was made up of a wife, one son and the sons’ wife lead a small community that survived on and in the mountain. They had set traps for the unknowing from the start of this point up the mountain. His group of warriors would lead the caravan safely up the canyon avoiding the traps that were set. As Aj conversed with Galahad most of the caravan took the chance to rest. Micah, Hezekiah and Meb moved through the resting dwarves and joined Aj and Galahad. Aj greeted them each with a handshake from his large paw of a hand. Aj said, with a glint in his eye, “Ah, Micah, I suspect it isn’t too much of a surprise for you and Zeph, but there is someone waiting for you in the tunnels. We were not sure how safe it would be out here, so I wouldn’t let them come with us.”

Hezekiah interrupted, “Before we take much more time discussing interrupted love lives I think we should move to a safer place. There is a large group of orcs following us and I would feel better if we were standing in a more defendable place, than out on this flat.”

Aj nodded his head in agreement saying, “Follow me, my men will protect you from stepping on the wrong spot, but make sure everyone knows not to go outside the stakes. Those traps are too hard to predict, and some of them are so old even I have a hard time remembering them. We don’t wander around on this level of the mountain much anymore.” With that he motioned for everyone to follow him and started up the trail.

Aj put the first dwarf in place giving him directions and then motioned for others to follow him and started up the trail. They had only gone a few feet before one of his dwarves took position next to a large rock, and began motioning the people in the caravan to go around on the south side. After another ten feet another dwarf took up position spreading his legs over a rock in the trail next to a crack in the canyons side, and motioned those following him to walk around him without disturbing the rock. The caravan progressed up the canyon in this manner with Aj’s troops taking up positions along the trail until only Aj was left at the front of the caravan, and then Aj picked up the pace.

Aj and the caravan continued to move up the canyon and through the stream until Aj stopped before a wide pool that crossed the bottom of the canyon floor. On the north side of the pool was a cliff face at the deepest point. He motioned for the caravan to wait and then he waded through the pool to the far side. Reaching down he moved something in the water and stood up. Ripples quickly filled the pool, and suddenly a long flat rock emerged from the depths. Simultaneously, that sheer cliff face had split in half, revealing the rest of the trail. The flat rock acted as a step into the opening. Aj had clambered onto the newly made bridge through the water and was already motioning the dwarfs to follow him.

aj II

Hezekiah motioned up the trail for Micah to go before him. They had climbed up the first bench in the mountain range to survey, and were now started across the long flat area that hovered before the next ascent. They orcs would have to be careful following them up because there were numerous places to set up ambushes. Hezekiah, Meb and Micah were going to move up the trail as fast as they could, catch up with the rest of the caravan and continue to act as the rear guard until they made it too the cave or met up with its guardians. Here and there were scattered a few mahogany trees, but the landscape consisted mainly of rocks with a few boulders on top of the different slopes. These extended out of the natural curve of the mountain, and only thin grass struggled out of the little soil available. There were a number of small canyons that wandered up to higher levels of the mountain and Hezekiah could just see the last dwarf as he left the first open area and entered the canyon they were following up the mountain.

As slowly as the caravan was moving they had no trouble catching up. The caravan was led now by Galahad, with his wife following him, then all of the maidens with the donkeys, and lastly they were followed by the warriors.

They reached the top of the first canyon which opened out onto a wide mound on the side of a mountain that was mainly covered in flat rocks which had fallen off the side of the cliff face they approached. The cliff face was cut in the middle with a small stream tumbling from inside, and this is where Galahad was headed. The trail leading up to the cut and the stream was lined with stakes. From a distance it looked like leather sacks were hanging from the top of them. Closer examination revealed that the leather sacks were in fact the impaled heads of orcs and goblins. To make it to the head of the stream everyone would have to pass under the glare of those cold dead eyes, and the maidens were not the only ones who paused and shivered. Looking up at the top of the cliff face above him Hezekiah noticed what he had first thought was a rock, stand up. He recognized Aj motioning hello to the caravan. Aj was the keeper of the Trail through the mountain, it wasn’t as much of a trail as a system of tunnels and caves that had been purposefully carved through the mountain, so that those who needed to get from one side to the other in the winter could, without going south all the way around the mountain range. Since Jericho had fallen the tunnel was the only way for travelers to make the trek to the land of the Dessert Dwarfs—in summer or winter. As the caravan started into the slot canyon that the stream had carved out of the cliff face, Aj motioned to Galahad that everything was good to proceed and that he would meet him at the top.

The caravan slowed on the trail that passed through the stream as the dwarves started going from rock to rock up the canyon leading the donkeys through the water. After a couple of minutes the dwarves had to gave up trying to keep their feet dry and just walked in the water. As they went up the canyon they continued to find stakes wedged into the rocks, capped with an orc or goblin head in various levels of decay. Eventually the caravan came out of the canyon onto a small flat that the stream wound through. The flat was covered with even more stakes. Clearly the warning to the orcs and goblins should be clear: they were not welcome in this area. Across the flat again the trail led into a canyon, but this one was not so rocky nor as steep on both sides. As they exited Galahad was greeted by Aj.

Aj; (äzh)

Hezekiah looked back over the grassland that he had just crossed. The caravan had left a clear path through the grass; because of this the orcs that were following them would know exactly where they had started up the mountain. Micah was standing on a rocky outcrop that overlooked the trail as it started up the first slope between two small bluffs. He scanned south through a looking glass. They had found the missing army of orcs. As they neared the canyon Meb had recounted the size of the armies. One had nearly doubled its size, and that had seemed impossible, until they realized their “missing” army had simply joined up with the other. Micah was watching the tail end of the hoard that the trolls had gathered march through Jericho and then into the pass behind the city. Micah turned and looked back down their path, paused for a moment, and then put away the looking glass and turned to Hezekiah and said, “They are still back there, but far enough back that it is safe to go straight to the cave. With the kobold dead they will have problems following us once we get in the stream. However, there is a new group coming up from the south and it isn’t aiming for Jericho, if it keeps in a straight line it is going to cross our path right where we are standing. Here look for yourself a minute. I think there is an ogre in this group.”

Since the ambush two days ago the orcs had kept a safe distance behind them. They followed but were cautious enough that the caravan could keep its steady pace. Galahad and Hezekiah had both needlessly worried about how the maidens would react when the caravan came to the river, however the crossing had been without incident. The armies had swept the grasslands of any resistance except for the group behind them and a few stray boars. The boars had been easy enough to dispatch, and the mud huts at the shallow spot they used to cross the river had been empty. Either the inhabitants of the huts had run off to escape the armies or were now a part of those that had entered the pass. Hezekiah moved to stand by Micah and looked south in the direction that Micah pointed through the glass. It took him a minute, but he found the movement. Doing some quick estimating in his head Hezekiah figured there were over three hundred bodies moving in the group. From this distance it looked like the group was made up of mostly orcs, but there was one very large shape that had to be either an ogre or a troll. Hezekiah trusted Micah, if he said it was an ogre then it must be an ogre.

Going up the mountain would be a slow process with the caravan needing many breaks. Other than some short rests and a couple of quick naps the caravan had been going steady for five days now, even the elves were starting to show signs of fatigue. Last night a number of the maidens had begged for a break, but Marry and Galahad had refused; reminding the maidens that they would not be safe until they had reached the cave. The “missing” army of orcs had everyone worried enough that it was not difficult for Galahad to convince them to keep moving; that and the fact that the maidens didn’t want to upset Marry. The caravan had kept moving. If they had stopped the group of orcs to the south would be between them and the mountain and then they would have been in trouble. They didn’t have enough warriors to make a stand on the plains. Once they made it to the cave they wouldn’t have far to go before everyone could sleep in safety.