Chapter Fifteen
“Ever seen the inside o’ your own arse ye giant scum?” The dwarf, robust and barrel chested, with dark black hair, asked almost kindly. “If not we can help ye, jus’ let us out o’ the cage.”
Break reached for the latch and was promptly swatted by Tear. “Are ya stupid, Break? Do not do what the dwarf asks you to do. Only what I ask.” Tear said.
Break looked at Tear then asked, “What about Rip?”
Looking around, concern evident in his eyes, Tear asked, “What about Rip? Ya see him lurkin’ about?”
“No, but should I listen to Rip too?”
“O’course ya should boy-o.” Tear looked around again, his eyes landing on the distant form of their leader Rip, approaching from farther along the valley wall. “But if ya ask me, wif his weird habuts and all, mebbe should be a new leader, yah?” He gave a sidelong, conspiratorial look at Break and patted his well worn club.
Break laughed nervously and looked down at his captives, as though only noticing them for the first time. “Stupid humans and dwarfs.”
“Dwarves, imbecile! Or, if’n ye prefer, ye can call me daddy ya big ninny!” All the dwarves except one laughed.
“Actually,” The dwarf who did not laugh said, “Dwarfs is right as well, no need ta laugh at the poor stupid bastard.” Now all four did laugh.
Break, stood tall and looked down at the dwarves and shouted, “Shut up, or… or I will eat ya right now.”
“No,” said Rip, “You will not.” He cleared his throat and continued, “I had me a thought. Whys not we ‘ave the dwarfs in a pie tomorrah, and tonight we eat leftovers.” He threw down hunks of obviously bad meat. “Tomorrah we feast boy-o’s, so gets um in tha pot an’ ready to start boilin’ in tha mornin’.” Red mist seemed to fill one of the giants eyes briefly, but long enough for Tear to notice it.
“Oy, Rip, what happened wif yer eye jus’ there then? It were bloody a moment then just gone an’ clear.” Tear got to within an arms reach of Rip before he stopped speaking.
“Nothin’ that is what. Now get back ta work preppin’ dinner.” Rip spared the other two giants only another moments glance before heading, slowly, back to his cave.
Chapter 15 eh?
As Rip walked away, Tear, said, “Lookie ‘er Break. I figger Imma gonna go take a nap while you do the borin’ work. Gets me little fella?” Tear poked the smaller giant in the chest and laughed a little. “Ah, I am jus’ playin’, Break. Except not really.”
Break, used to it, merely nodded and continued where, Tear, had left off in the preparations. Looking down at Leira he found she was already out of her armor and ready to be put in the pot. “Hm,” he grumbled, “Expected a fight, or sumfin.” Turning to the dwarves he found that they too were stripping down.
“Oy, what is goin’ on ‘er. I want no shenanigans outta you lot.” Break said this sternly but smiled to himself as he turned away, happy with less work. After placing all the dwarves and Leira in the pot with the goblin, the giant place a large, heavy looking, grate on top of the pot. The giant then walked away, toward the valley floor, where he had planted a variety of giant approved spices.
Once they were reasonably alone, one of the dwarves, now out of armor and in a pot of water, asked, “Okay, so do we jus’ walk away? Does not seem they posted any guards? How long the two of you been here?” Then, as an after thought, “Who the hell eats goblin flesh?”
“Giants, apparently.” Jymgreen said this in his squeaky frog voice that had developed as his injuries had grown worse, and it was enough to make the dwarves laugh uproariously.
“Alright, alright, enough of the jokes, talk seriously goblin or I am liable to drown you right now.” The dwarf with coal black hair said.
“I am serious, I am almost certain that giants will, in fact, eat goblin.”
“Did somethin’ happen to ye, gobber? ‘Cause your voice is one for nightmares.”
Unlike her companions, Leira was tall enough to simply stand in the pot and she took full advantage of that. “We have to get out of here Jymgreen, Davien could be in trouble. Especially if he wakes up again like in the wagon earlier.” Leira tested the weight of the massive grate that prevented their escape. “It is heavy. I cannot lift it.”
“Do not worry yourself.” The speaker was an older dwarf with graying red hair. “This Davien, fellow is better off than we are. As for the grate, we will be no use to you here.” Leira glared the man while he spoke.
“I do not recall asking your opinion, good dwarf. We are going to send Jym out through the bars.” Jym took that as his cue and quickly scampered up Leira’s back and up onto the bars above them.
“Sorry, Leira, I cannot fit through. We have to wait for Davien to do whatever he is going to do.” Jym did whistle however, and the sound made all the of the dwarves look at him suspiciously.
“Callin’ for help there are ya gobber? I heard that call before, many times in fact. Jus’ before a goblin pack would descend on us back in the war.”
Jym looked down from where he was hanging and said, “Yep. I was a scout.” Looking directly at the dwarves he whistled again, with more inflection and intensity. A moment later Jymgreen had his ‘Darling’ and one of his ‘daughters’. The handles, which were made of a special stone that seemed to sense his mood, shone an ivory color currently. Jymgreen was tense. The handles were almost always ivory in color.
Startled the dwarves tried to swim to the edges of the pot, giving as much room as possible to the now armed goblin. “H-hey, no need to get stab-happy there gobber…”
“Then stop calling me gobber and be quiet.” Jymgreen looked at them briefly before striking the metal grate with the largest of the two knives, his ‘Darling’. The knife left behind a deep gouge in the iron of the grate. It also made a terribly loud clang of metal on metal which rang out and echoed along the valley walls.
The goblin gave a sheepish grin and a slow blink of both eyes, one after the other, before striking the grate again in the same spot. Again the goblin looked at the others and grinned, though less sheepishly than before.
As Jym went to strike again, Leira stopped him. “Jym, could we do this any quieter? We do not want to attract extra attention. Who knows what pets the giants keep.”
Jym looked at Leira and solemnly said, “Yes, Leira, we could do this quieter.” He then proceeded to strike the grate several times in rapid succession. “I just do not want too.”