A Pair to End The War

The Fall of The Forge

I woke up in my cell again, "Ugh what happened?"

"Logan, are you awake?" I heard Terrance ask.

"Ya what happened?"

I heard Orico cheer, "It was amazing! You beheaded the mountain wolf!"

Landon cheered too, "You showed those dwarfs what's what!"

Terrance clapped and announced in a vibrant cheer, "Logan, the virus killer! His name shall forever be remembered as the man who decapitated a spore-infected mountain wolf!"

A booming dwarf voice sounded out around the arena, "Everyone shut up!" A short dwarf with a beard braided into two beards. He was covered in roughed-up metal armor, and was carrying a plate with 4 loafs of stale bread, "Here food," He threw the food through our bars as he walked past us, "Eat, you're going to need your strength for tomorrow,"

Orico protested, yelling at the dwarf, "We're going to need more than just bread,"

The dwarf stopped in place and stormed over to Ori's cell and slammed his fist into the bars, "Bread is all you're going to get! It's more than you deserve!"

We all collectively groaned and snatched the bread from the ground. The dwarf stopped in front of my cell and glared at me. I glared back at him while biting my bread, "What do you want?" I snarled.

"You've caused quite a ruckus around the forge. I heard you killed Duke."

"Duke was dead!" I snapped, throwing the bread at the dwarf and hitting him in the face, "You forced that poor animal into eternal torment! It died the moment you infected it with those damn spore!" I felt angry, and for good reason, but I didn't know the extent of my anger until the dwarf reacted.

"Why you little piece of shit!" The dwarf reached into my cell and pulled me into the bars. I groaned in pain and reacted the same way, I grabbed his beard and yanked his face into the bars. The dwarf grunted in pain and held his head. I saw red, my blood boiled, and I grabbed onto the dwarf's beard again and slammed his head into the bars repeatedly, slamming his face into the bars until he was unconscious. "That's for everything your worthless species has ever done!"

My troop sat in silence, and shock. I could feel their shock around me as I growled angrily, "Worthless piece of living garbage,"

Landon piped up timidly, "Logan, where did that come from?"

I didn't even offer a real answer, I just said, "Everything I just did was valid for what they've done tome and other species,"

Terrance agreed, "Yes, it was totally valid,"

"I don't think I've ever seen you lash out like that Logan, but I agree totally justified," Orico said solemnly.

Lucas took the side of Landon, "I'm sorry, but that seemed a little brash and violent,"

"We're in a war," I snapped at Lucas, "There are no rules, it's either kill or be killed,"

The dwarf groaned and woke up, "You'll pay for that stupid human,"

"I'm not the one who underestimated my enemy and ended up unconscious on the ground," I rebutted.

The dwarf grumbled and walked off, holding his head and bloodied nose, mumbling to himself.

I growled as I watched him walk off. I watched as he pushed on a section of the wall in a preset pattern, which started opening. I waited until the dwarf disappeared into the wall: "Did you guys see that?"

"We sure did," Landon said, "It's our way out."

"Yup, Lucas did you see what he did?"

"Ya, and I've got it figured out, the code for the stones and rocks on the wall,"

"Good, the next time any of us get out there you shout the code at us," Terrance ordered.

"Will do, what do we do now?" Lucas asked.

"We wait," Orico huffed, while chewing o stale bread, "We'll wait like we've always done,"

So, we waited; we waited for what seemed like an eternity. Minutes turned into hours, hours into days, days into weeks. The arena seemed empty, there hadn't been any kind of fight in so long. "They're trying to break us," I told our troop.

Lucas sighed hopelessly, "We know Logan, and we're hanging out here, but we've been stuck in these small cages for weeks, we're starting to lose hope,"

"Lucas is right, Logan, this arena has been empty for so long," Landon sighed.

I shook my head and leaned back against the wall, "We're going to get out of this,"

"Logan just shut up!" Orico snapped, "We know we're going to get out of here, so just shut up!"

I shut my mouth and slumped over. Terrance then chimed in, "I know that you guys know that we'll escape, we always have, Logan is just trying to help," Terrance then grunted, and we heard the sound of a metal bar falling against the ground. Terrance, triumphantly, strutted out, with his arms raised.

"How did you managed to get out!" Orico asked in awe.

"I've been picking away at the rocks holding the bars and managed to break one loose, Now, what's the—"

The ground started rumbling and everyone froze, there was a commotion from above, dwarfs screaming and yelling, the sounds of metal clashing going on. Terrance looked up, hoping to see if he could see anything "What's going on?" he whispered.

"Terrance, can you see anything?" Landon asked, trying to see too.

"No, there's nothing," Terrance ran over to the wall that the dwarf opened and turned to Lucas, "Give me the code Lucas!"

"Um ok, let me see if I can remember it..." Lucas scratched his chin and tried to remember the code, "Top right stone twice, middle let rock, bottom right stone, bottom middle twice, the one next to it three time and finally push," Terrance followed the directions and the wall lifted, opening up to a small room with multiple levers in them. "Hey guys! I've got like 20 levers in here!"

"Pull them all!" Lucas shouted.

I thought for a moment, why would there be levers inside "Wait don't!" I shouted, but it was too late. Our cages all opened at once. Lucas Orico and Landon cheered, but I knew better. Growling sounded across the arena. Everyone froze and turned towards the growling.

Dozens of animals walked out, all of them infected with spores, but none of them were the owner of that bone chilling growl.

From out of the darkness of a nearby opened tunnel came a glow, one that came from only one kind of animal. I ran to my troop and pulled them behind a large boulder.

Everyone's face was pale, lifeless from fear. Landon looked at me, "Was that?"

I nodded my head, "That was a dragon," I peeked around the rock and was shocked to see a large male dragon ravaging the other infected animals who were attacking it, scorching their rotted flesh with fire, ripped them apart with his claws, bit then in half with his jaws. He laid waste to the animals, but he didn't fly off. I watched him carefully, as he lurked around, then I noticed something both heart wrenching and terrifying, his wings had been chopped off, which means we're stuck in this arena with a savage dragon.