The Roads Need to be Built.
The Fortress of Dedukvutok Deduk Akim was not having a good year.
First, on the 3rd of Granite, in the year 130, Early Spring, Sazir Nazomonul had become the Countess. There was much public rejoicing but in private most everybody, from the highest of Nobles to the lowest of the Surface Dwellers, there was private grumbling. She had many friends and family but was still thought of as a pain in the throat.
To be honest, the vampires were less annoying and one even had friends visiting him from time to time.
Than the Mayor had a visit from Altha Amalaureli, the Elfish Diplomat, who explained, nicely, just how UPSET the Elfish Kingdom, Ana Cetele, known as The Couple of Morality, about how the Dwarfs treated the trees. Not so nicely, to be honest, and there were rumors that her shouting could be heard all the way up to the surface.
As a few mandates had failed to be carried out there were a few beatings, a few Dwarfs were sentenced to death (which never happened because the Hammerer STILL did not have a hammer yet), and a few mothers were put in jail (then secretly released by the Nobles from their ropes so they could go find their infants).
Still, things looked like they would brighten. The walls and drawbridges were complete. More buildings were being built at a faster rate. The Surface Dwellers now had two diners and a bar. Each diner had a statue out of the door and the bar had one on the roof. The statue on the roof was a finely-crafted sandstone statue of Sigun Graniteequal by Zuntir Astisletmos. The Sigun Graniteequal had created a masterful mug in the midautumn of 126 and his statue showed him raising that mug up to the skies.
Frankly, everybody agreed it was a wonderful statue to put on top of a bar.
The bar ALSO had its own still and with it added to the other two, all now protected from the weather, the brewers could now work day and night. Oh, the glorious booze now flowed into the mouths of the happy Dwarfs. The hives were even starting to produce honey for food and mead.
Some of the other surface workshops were also protected from the weather with lean tos. More farming plots had been plowed. They were even making paved roads for the peasants to walk around on.
The surface was starting to look like a proper city. A maze of buildings, fields, ponds, and workshops but still a city! The layout even forced the visiting traders to move their wagons over the roads and not over the fields, much to the delight of the hard working farmers.
Boulders found on the surface were even smoothed and engraved to make public art for everyone to enjoy. Also, by doing so, they no longer blocked the passage of traffic.
The Grand Hall had been finished and the import of more metal bars allowed the smiths to have some jobs. Also some ore had been found deeper in the ground. Well, garnierite which was an ore for nickel. But that STILL counts as an ore!
The Nobles were even discussing the creation of another military squad. They just need a new name for it. The Surface Whiners? The Surface Pig Herders? The Surface Spits? Yes, they liked the sound of that one.
And then there were the moots dug outside the walls to be flooded from channels. The engineers and managers were very careful to restrict the area t all foot traffic. They wanted no deaths caused by stupidity.
So when the channels were open and the moots flooded it was shocking shortly after to find the body of a dead Miner in the moot. The horror was added to, like fuel tossed onto a fire, when they found two more adult Dwarfs, a child and the tiny bodies of two babies also in the moot.
Memorial slabs were made. A small area deep underground was made into a statue garden in their names, next to the tombs of the Noble class. Everybody, from the Surface Dwellers, to the Stone Class, to the Nobles felt the pain and suffering. As, in the end, everybody was in one way or related to the lost lives.
But in the end life moves on. The roads need to be finished. Children needed to grow up so they could join their parents plowing fields, striking the earth, or practicing their combat skills.
Than one of the Hunters, Thilcut Roughnesguise, WAS killed by the Hammerer who somebody was stupid enough to give a HAMMER!
The Nobles tried to keep the Dwarfs calm. Remember, they pointed out to their citizens, life goes on and the roads need to be built. Remember, bypasses need to be made. Trade goods were just as important as those made by the local workshops.
So things settled down, after a few fist fights, and the people went back to work. But some of them did not work as fast or with as much joy in their hearts. Or so it seemed to the Mayor.
The End.