Ruth gazed around the room in wonder. From this angle it didn't look very big, but if you walked a few steps either way you could see the whole library was a massive spiral, circling into itself until it reached the center. The decorations were similar to her room, except instead of a white wall it was creamy colored, and the leaf tops were the color of ivy. The bookshelves were double sided, and spiraled in with the rest of the room. They were so high they reached all the way to the ceiling. Ladders were needed to reach the top of the shelves.
All right, you can do this. Let's start with what you know. Ruth turned to the maid. "Would you mind telling me where stuff on dwarves would be?"
The maid led her into the spiral, stopping after a few rounds and pointed to a small section on the bottom shelf. At least, it was small compared to the rest of the library. It was really about the size of the kids' section in her library at home.
"Is this all the books on dwarves?" Ruth asked, thinking there might be more somewhere else.
The maid assured her it was and hurried off, saying there was much to be done, at least for her.
After the maid had left, Ruth collected a few of the books and settled down to read. In the book Dwarves For Beginners, she read:
Dwarves rarely leave their underground tunnels,
which are located beneath the Elven Woodlands.
They keep to themselves but can fight brutally
and without mercy. Over the past years, they
have stayed at peace.
Dwarves are expert miners and metal smiths;
usually they will have more talent on one of the two
mentioned then the other.
After that paragraph, the rest of the chapters she read—more accurately put, skimmed through—were not all that helpful. In A History of Dwarven Metal Smithing and Mining she discovered a few interesting and helpful facts.
The dwarves work with their metals underground—
where they stay for their whole lives—and mine for
the metals they forge with.
Dwarves create weapons, mining tools, and various
other necessities. There are many debates as to why
they make the weapons. Some say they are just making
them to protect themselves, while others argue that they
are making them all the time and are planning an attack
with the Sorceress from the tales.
The dwarves mine with incredible skill and speed. Since
underground is their natural habitat their eyes have no
need for lights, though they use them anyway for smithing.
It seems that every time a dwarf mines in a particular place,
the ground becomes rich and many great treasures are
found beneath the surface. No one knows why this happens.
Some say it is just because they are expert miners, but this
YOU ARE READING
The Fourfold Key
Fantasy"Ruth walked briskly through the woods, smiling happily to herself. 'This is just like a fairy tale. I'm off to rescue my father, who has been abducted by an evil Sorceress. Gee, this is really crazy.' " Ruth McKenzie is a twelve-year-old girl who a...
