World Walkers
Chapter 1
(All characters are mine, so don't take them or I will sick the hounds of King Stoneshield upon thou, and they like man flesh!)
It was in a dungeon several thousand miles underground when it began. The message of a meeting in the great hall had been circulating, yet for some reason people were not coming promptly. Perhaps if they had, the incident wouldn't have been so devastating... But that will come to you, dear reader, at a later date.
In the dungeons, a door thumped. Then it thumped again. Several more of these thumps followed, which annoyed a dwarf of about 31 haircuts. You probably shrug at the terminology, so I will explain. Dwarves have much longer lifespans than humans, so they have longer periods of time to measure their age with. They live about seven times longer than men, so they measure age in periods of seven years, which is coincidently the amount of time it takes for a dwarf to need a haircut. They don't have the haircut, but it was a convenient term for Dwarven age, so it was accepted by the majority of dwarven population.
Anyway, that dwarf of 31 haircuts was hanging by his arms from two thick chains forged from adamantium, an incredibly strong, rather uncomfortable material, when he heard the announcement: "All able-bodied dwarves of four haircuts or more come to the great hall promptly. A meeting will occur in thirty minutes. If even one of you moronic children of under 4 haircuts comes to the great hall at that time, I will FLAY YOUR STUPID BRATTY SKINS ALIVE PERSONALLY! Thank you, and enjoy your day."
The murmuring of, "Long live King Barundar Stoneshield, our ruler of earth, and hail Moradin, his appointer and our one eternal deity." The reason dwarves said such kind things about King Stoneshield, was because if you didn't, King Stoneshield threw you in a private prison cell, which was shared by his hounds, who had the nasty habit of dismembering dwarves who looked at them.
Also, you may ask how the dwarves knew about day, as in the term "have a good day," when they lived thousands of miles underground. For dwarves, the term day was defined as the amount of time it takes to get tired, sleep, and become un-tired. The only real use of the term day was in the name of a group of prison purgers called the Day Bringers. It was a frightful name for dwarves, as they feared the light of day they had heard of from surface travelers very much. They were the group responsible for the saying "no one comes out" when referring to the dungeons. It was secretly a plot. The king didn't like criminals, so he made all the criminals pay him to join an organization that would turn all sentences for criminals into a death sentence without giving him bad publicity. This group was what happened to burst in after that dwarf of 31 haircuts, Ordius Stonebrain by name, heard the announcement. They were making the thumping noises.
The thumping halted momentarily. Ordius sighed. Then Ordius swore. Ordius enjoyed swearing much more than he enjoyed sighing. It was a habit his mother had tried to stop early on without success. The problem was that Ordius was a criminal, and one that lacked the intelligence to join the Day Bringers. That was why he was hanging by his arms from two extremely uncomfortable adamantine chains and swearing when the door exploded inwardly on itself and a squad from the Day Bringers swaggered through.
One of the Day Bringers, obviously the squads leader sauntered forward. The stale air around him reeked of a superhuman aura of hubristicity that had a tendency to hang around the dwarf, Denidor the Arrogant by name. He took one look at Ordius, spat to one side, and spoke these words:
"Ordius, we meet again."
"What?" Ordius questioned. "We've never met."
"Yes we have. It was 9 haircuts from now."
After contemplating this statement for a moment, he replied, "But that's the future! Isn't it?" Then he continued by proudly stating, "You can't go into the future! Can you?"
"You can," Denidor began, "if you are, like you are, Ordius, a world walker..."
To be continued...