mountains deep

Chapter 3

The small group of five sat eating lunch around a rectangular table in the middle of a very large room that no one recognized except Terrance and the king. Alyssa and Terrance sat on one side of the table, Alex and Claud on the other and the king at the head. When they had entered the room there had been cards that had names on them in front of placemats, forks, knives, spoons and glasses filled with clear water. The people that had set the table placements had either not known who Claud and Alex were or thought it would be a good laugh to sit a wizard and an elf next to each other.

" now," the king said " how long is the journey to the mountain take, on estimate, of course" he picked a few grapes off a vine and dropped them on his plate.

The king was a tall, lean man with short hair and a squar jaw. He had been ruling since he was 18, like all kings and now was approaching his thirtieth year of leadership.

" without any incidents," said Alex, " around two months. But, my lord, a troll and goblin army over threw that part of the dwarf kingdom years ago, it will be hard to enter as this army is loyal to Ccon."

The king picked a turkey leg up from the plater. He studied it, turning it until apparently he was satisfied and took a bite. He motioned for them to wait. He swallowed and spoke.

" I know, this will be dangerous, very dangerous, but I hear that you and Claud are the best and I know that elves and wizards don't classically get along, but the fate of the six kingdoms lies with this group, so please set aside your differences for now and help my son." He motioned to Terrance who hadn't been listening.

Terrance had been thinking of Alyssa, who was sitting very close to him. He had liked Alyssa for a number of years and, since they spent a lot of time together being friends, he knew her quite well. He knew for sure that she was the best healer they could ask for. When his father had told him that she was coming, at first he thought that it would be fun having her there, but now, knowing all the danger that they would encounter, he was having second thoughts.

" Terrance!" Alyssa whispered, he looked up at her, " pay attention, this is important!"

He stared to listen to his fathers speech on the mountain road right away. After hearing a little on what was up there, he almost end wanted to say ' yep, well, I'm not going ' but he had, above anyone else, he needed to be the one to throw the gem down the tunnel to releave the kingdom of darkness.

" I think that, personally," Claud said " that we should start on the road fist thing in the morning tomorrow, the enemy will guess we're going to try to destroy the gem, but expect us to move so quickly."

The king beamed at Claud with a big smile.

" perfect, I have will have horses ready. Mean while, the servants will escort you and Alex to your guest rooms."

Claud and Alex got up careful to avoid each other as the servers escorted them to they're rooms.

" wait," Terrance looked at his father, " where will Alyssa sleep?"

" we'll your sister is out of town," he said with a grin" she'll sleep in her room."