Dalmon Sunstruck, Kind of the Dwarves of Thorbardin, lay back on his sofa and relaxed. The past few days had taken its toll on him. Ever since war had been officially declared against the Elves, he had not stopped working. It seemed everyone in Thorbardin was doing something, defenses must be sufficiently prepared, weapons made, recruits recruited, the list goes on and on.

But for now Dalmon didn't have to think about anything at all, his wife, Arina Shiningstone, was making them dinner. Arina had been Dalmon's wife for forty years, ever since he'd been king. They were both Hylar, and they lived on the top of the Life Tree, were all Hylar live.

"Honey, dinner's ready." Arina's voice called out from the kitchen. Dalmon grunted something incomprehensible in reply and was soon seated, pouring them both some good Dwarven ale.

Arina looked at her husband, hair everywhere, eyes drooping, "Rough day today?" she asked, though she new the answer all too well.

It took Dalmon some time to reply, as he was busily shoving food down his mouth. "Are you kidding me? Goddamn Theiwar arguing with everyone, everything today! And most of 'em too, like their with the Elves." He stopped to gulp down some ale before going on. "Don't want to do anything, this not good, that not good, weapons bad, defenses poor! And don't even start me about those Daegar..."

Dalmon continued on for some time before stopping to finish off his ale angrily and wiping it off his moustache. "Reorx's rust, what's gotten into those Elves?" As everyone in Thorbardin knew, their king did not want this war. Moreover, no Dwarf wanted it, except maybe the Klar, who given the chance to run around wild, might accept. But if the Dwarves would be attacked, they would retaliate and defend their home.

"Well, hopefully it'll be over soon and we can all forget about this." Arina replied.

Dalmon finished his food, and sighed. "Well, how about I go to sleep and make believe this is all one big, big joke?" He stood up and yawned, he longed for his bed.

His wife nodded, "I'll go too after I clean the dishes." She kissed her husband and went to clean. She looked over her shoulder and sighed, she was really worried about her husband, with the war started, and with all this pressure on him.

Dalmon grunted something sounding like a good night in reply and went to sleep. He dreamed a messenger came in the morning and with a grin told him the Elves were joking, the real reason they would come was to celebrate.

* * * * *

Talm Watertree scowled. Being commander of the Roving Guard of Thorbardin, he had been recruiting with two of his best men, Delmin Goldfoot, a Daewar, and Talc Nighthawk a Daergar. The Roving Guard currently consisted of 200 members, but they now need 300 more, to make 500. They were told to get at least 100 Daegar, for the Daegar have exceptional night vision and they might be attacking the Elves at night. More like harassing Talm thought. The Guard would attack, and then retreat quickly into the night, or day. The Roving Guard would play a major role in harassing the enemy, and then later on, in helping fight.

They had made trying-out headquarters in the middle of a busy market. Talm was interviewing a chubby Daegar; he seemed great for the Guard. Talm would take him; the Guard needed more night-seeing Daegar. At Talm's side, Delmin and Talc were jousting with the people that seemed promising; they were testing out their fighting capabilities. Talm didn't think this was needed, though, to Dwarves fighting was second nature. However Delmin insisted on it, pointing out that it would be bad if it turned out that suddenly half of their force couldn't fight in the middle of a battle.

"Sir, the Roving Guard is the most prestigious force of the Dwarves, we'll have to see how you fight, but before that I'm gonna go ahead and ask you some questions. What do you work as?" Talm asked.

"Talm Watertree, I am Darm Roseleaf, I would appreciate if you called me by my name." Talm nodded and Darm continued. "I own a shop next to the Life Tree, I sell food."

Talm nodded, he was ordered to ask what type of job everyone new recruits had, but he still didn't understand the point. He jotted something down, and asked his second question. "Can you shoot a crossbow or sling with efficiency?"

Darm scoffed, "Of course! The sling is my specialty, not the crossbows though, hate the dratted thing. But I've always been one of the best out of all the people I know."

Talm grinned, he jotted something down, he was going to put Darm on the sling/crossbow squad. "Ok, that's all actually. Now we need to you to go on that line right there, you'll be given various weapons and tested with each." Darm grunted something, and left to join the line.

The next Dwarf in line, a Theiwar by the looks of him, came up. "My name is Tark Ramfar and I can do anything better than you goddamn gold- molding Daewar, so you might as well just proceed to sign me right up!"

Talm sighed; it was going to be a long day.