Kinderling 33

  In case you are interested in starting this story at the beginning, Kinderling 1 can be found here:

The Tricycle of Thought: Kinderling 1

Please don't judge the story or the writing too harshly, this story is written with little to no editing.  It is just meant to get me writing regularly for practice.  

Now back to our story, already in progress...

Sadly, nothing lasts forever, especially peace.  We rescued Mizzy.  We rescued the villagers, or at least the ones that didn't go along with Baot.  

From the rescued villagers we found out that Kurnt did indeed make it back to the village, and just as Uncle Zon feared, told Baot all about our use of Old Barrel.  Kurnt earned every bit of the reward that Baot gave him, a slow terrible death roasted over a fire as a treat for Baot's Gorf soldiers.

While I was recuperating, Baot's Gorf Soldiers raided Old Barrel, only to find nobody there.  Since then, they have been patrolling the woods, getting closer and closer to finding the outcropping and the escaped villagers.  So far we were safe, and Bez insisted that we could easily pull inside the garrison, shut the door, and live there infinitely.  We had water from underground springs.  We had the mushroom farms.  We had the hidden terrace farms for fresh produce.  And we had food stores laid back all the way from the time of the last Kinderling King, stored in rune enchanted barrels so powerful they would keep for another thousand years.

I didn't look forward to living underground like a... well, like a Gorf I guess...  for the rest of my life.

"Won't have to."  Tilly said.  "Come see what I've been working on."

Tilly took me to her workshop.  She had been busy!  

"I hope you don't mind, I took a lot of your ideas and put my own spin on them."  Tilly told me as she removed a sheet from a large device.

The device was a lot like my arrow-chucker, only it was a square rack holding a hundred tubes, built on a wheeled frame.  With a single... shot... someone could fire a volley of  a hundred arrows.  It would take them a while reloading all those tubes, but I can't imagine needing more than one volley from that thing.  What army could stand up to that?  Then Tilly showed me that she had three of them.

Next Tilly showed me a large tube mounted to a frame with wheels.  This one had a barrel of huge spears, sized to fit that horrendous tube, standing by in case it was needed.  I had never in my life seen such a display of potential violence and death.  Looking at the spears, I felt such a revulsion that I threw up.

"Aw, Tandy, sweetheart... I'm sorry, I thought you were feeling better.  Have I tired you out?"  Tilly asked.

It wasn't that I was tired though.  I was disgusted at myself.  I created this.  I created this way of dealing death, and it was too late to take it all back.  I killed people with it, and certainly a lot more people were going to be killed with it long before this was all over.  While I was healing, I had vowed to tear up my drawings and never make another arrow-chucker, but none of that mattered.  Looking around the shop, Tilly apparently had a production line going with a small number of Kinderling villagers making components.  Sure, Tilly had to carve the runes and assemble the device, but that wasn't hard for a practiced rune crafter.  

I couldn't look at it anymore.

I ran.

An hour later, Mama found me curled up in the dark, in the corner of one of the garrison's Mushroom gardens.  Of course Mama could find me anywhere, she had a Tandy compass.  

"Tilly said you ran away."

Mama, blunt as ever.  Straight to the point.  

What I needed was Father.  I needed a hug and someone who would understand what I was feeling.  Someone who would know how to put the eggs back in the basket.  Someone who could convince Tilly to stop building those terrible devices, designed by a terrible Kinderling who no longer disserves to live in the light of Kindness.

"I see."  Said Mama, and she left.  Even Mama understood what a horrible person I was.

Not long after, a still-shuffling Mizzy came and wrapped a blanket around both of us and held me while I cried.

I guess Mama understood after all.

Mizzy at least managed to get me to come up out of the cold, damp mushroom gardens by the simple expediency of shivering so much that I was afraid she would become sick.  After that it took days for me to pull out of the funk that I was in over the fact that I had brought such horrible weapons into the world.  It probably would have been longer but for the intervention of Flower, with Watcher in tow.  They came right to the room that Mizzy and I was sharing.

I was amazed to see the two Gorfs inside the Garrison.  I know Watcher hated and feared the place.  Judging by the reaction that Mouse had to it, even the surface Gorfs knew of and hated the place.

"Tandy, it's good to see you on the mend!"  The old gorf said.  "Flower wanted to come talk to you about her sister."

"Sister?"

"Yes, the Gorf that you rescued." Watcher explained, "She is from Flower's tribe."

"So you found them?"

"Yes and no.  Seedling and the rest of her tribe were captured by a raiding party from another tribe of the Fallen.  A tribe from high up on the mountain.  Seedling was traded to the Kinderling witchdoctor because of her small stature and how ugly she is.  They didn't think she would bring a good price up the mountain.  The rest were taken up the mountain to be sold as far as she knows." Watcher answered.

There was quite a series of grumbling and sniffing from Flower.

"Yes dear," Said Watcher, "I'm sure Tandy understands that the name Seedling is imprecise and won't allow it to color her perceptions."  Then to me,  "I have to tell you, these Mountain Gorfs have become more advanced than I ever imagined they could, and taking other Gorfs - even if they are of the Fallen - as slaves is just beyond imagination."

"Weren't you supposed to keep an eye on them?" I asked.

"No, that was another's job.  My job was to watch the village and the small tribes around it.  Another Exile was tasked with watching the Mountain Gorfs.  A week ago, I received orders to check on him because he has been missing his check-ins for the last few months.  The priests were worried that he was captured and eaten by the Mountain Gorfs."

Oddly, I caught a hint of suspicion in his tone.  

"Oh?"  I asked, knowing that if I asked too directly Watcher would stop to think if he should give away such information, hoping that by not asking directly, he would open up.  It worked.

"I'm afraid that the Exile that was supposed to watch the Mountain Gorfs has been compromised rather than captured.  The Priests sent me up there expecting me to locate his remains.  Instead I found a much larger, and much more organized Gorf community.  They even have temples!"  Watcher paused exasperated, but seemed to realize he was talking to an outsider. "Enough said about the temples."

I knew from previous conversations that one of the biggest fears the Deep Gorfs have is that the surface Gorfs - the Fallen, as they call them - would re-discover the religion of Gorphism, which would somehow make them dangerous.  I don't know how I feel about the Deep Gorfs, and indeed my friend Watcher, actively working against the surface Gorfs in order to keep them poor and helpless.  Although I guess if I look at it that way, I also have to look at my own people.  If the surface Gorfs are poor and helpless, it's because the last Kinderling King made them so.  It was only a small hop to the question if the Kinderling Patrols have a small, if not insignificant, hand in keeping them there.

"What can I do?"  I asked.

"Flower and Mouse would like you to go up the mountain with them, help find their tribe, and rescue them."  Watcher said,  "While you are there, could look into the alliance between that tribe of Mountain Gorfs and the Kinderling Baot?  I don't know how they managed to communicate, let alone come to an agreement, but it looks like that tribe is at the heart of your village's problems."

I wish I knew what is right and what is wrong in this situation.  Could I in good conscience help Watcher?  I felt I had to help Flower, Mouse, and Seedling find their people.  They held up their end of the bargain, I would hold up mine, but I would try not to kill anyone in the effort.