A Pair to End The War

The Forge

I was woken up by someone shaking me, the pungent smell of hot metal and brimstone filled my nose, giving me yet another rude awakening. I itched my arm and couldn't feel the coarseness of my shirt. I looked down and saw I was stripped to nothing but a loin cloth. I let out a pained groan and held my head, "What happened?"

Orico, who was in the cage next to me, being hauled by several dwarfs sighed, "We were ambushed by the mountain dwarfs, they snuck through the darkness and knocked us all out,"

"Great, how long have we been hauled?"

"About 7 hours now," Landon sighed, tired of sitting in a cage.

"Damn, I guess I'm lucky I didn't need to be awake through all that,"

Craig stretched and itched his legs, "Ya, but you might want to check your head, you're generally not supposed to be unconscious for 7 hours,"

"I guess, but I don't think they really care," I reached out and poked one of the dwarfs on the head, "Hey, how, long till we get there,"

The dwarf growled and adjusted his posture, shaking my cage, "Touch me again and you'll lose your entire arm,"

I crossed my arms and threw all of my weight into the side of the cage, which threw the dwarves around, while I slouched against it, "Well you're no fun,"

Terrance chuckled and did the same, "Ya, they've been sour pusses this entire time. They're no fun to talk to,"

Landon copied Terrance and me, "I mean, we can try to talk to them but they're just so monotone and boring,"

Orico and Craig joined in, "Well, we might not be able to talk to them, but we can talk to each other,"

The dwarfs suddenly our cages separately. They all turned around and drew out scrappy and crappy-looking knives, "If you all don't shut up, we'll gut you like fish,"

My troop all looked at each other and nodded, "Alright that's fine,"

The dwarfs sheathed their knives, picked up our cages again, and started walking.

We'd been captured before, and by Volcanic dwarfs too, so we knew their drill. They'd take us to their forge, use us as slaves for their forges, we'd smuggle weapons from them, find our escape route, and kill our way out; standard procedure.

"So where is my axe?" I asked one of the dwarfs carrying me.

"Oh, you mean this?" A dwarf carrying Landon said holding my ax up. "It's very top-heavy but sharper than any weapon we have so we'll be taking it and seeing if we can make it better. May I ask how you got a weapon to be so sharp, Human weapons are dull and barbaric, weak, but this is strong and sharp, it far outmatches any kind of weapon we manufacture. You must tell me how you sharpened it," 

"I would love to, but you said you'd gut me like a fish if I talked anymore!" I growled.

"That's a shame we might've let your friends go" the dwarf lied.

"Still no, I know your tricks, you're lying to me. Besides you don't even know the technique of sharpening to my level,"

The dwarf growled, "Are you insulting my ability to make weapons?"

I leaned back in my cage, "Maybe I am," I said with a grin. The dwarf growled and looked forward, I suspected that, despite their threats, couldn't kill us.

"You know, these bars look awfully loose for something made by dwarfs," Landon said trying to break free of his cage by pulling on the bars, immediately eating his words.