Kinderling 40

 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..

The warning from the strange Kinderling left me a little unnerved and at a loss as to what to do.  We found Flower's people, but even with my arrow chucker Flower and I weren't going to fight our way through an entire platoon of Gorf soldiers to rescue them, even if I was becoming more and more convinced that the harnesses were making them slow and dumb.

While we were waiting for the slaves and Gorf soldiers to leave, Flower and I sat back in our hiding place and munched on our stolen mushrooms.  It used to be a joke around our house that pilfered snacks taste best.  When we were little, Tommil and I would challenge each other to see who could sneak into the kitchen and escape with a treat.  Father, of course, rooted us on only to extort a cut of the bootle for himself to buy his silence.  I know now that Mama was in on the whole thing too, but back then the rare occasion of getting one over on Mama felt like sweet sweet freedom.  It's not lost on me how much that game in my formative years molded my personality and fomented the individualist streak that tyrants like Baot despise.

These mushroom weren't so sweet though.  Don't get me wrong, they were primo mushrooms.  The kind that would put a bounce in Mizzy's step just having them in her kitchen and having the opportunity to cook them.  It wasn't even that Kinderlings rarely ate raw mushrooms, preferring them cooked where Gorfs, as far as I had ever seen, usually ate them raw.  Although, Watcher did mention a mushroom stew the day we first met, so I might be wrong about that.  My enjoyment of the mushrooms was damaged by the growing certainty that we failed our mission.  Sure, we found Flower's people, but in the process we lost Watcher and Mouse.  It was all for nothing for the amount of good we could do.

"Flower, what are we to do now?"  I asked, knowing that even if she understood me - I've been increasingly convinced that she was able to - I wouldn't understand her reply.

Oddly enough, I kinda did understand the reply.  Flower smiled a sad smile, patted me on the head gently, and then indicated the two of us, pointing at me, then her, with both thumbs of one hand.  Then she waved her hand out over the cavern and with both hands mimed breaking something.

"Gotcha, were going to break your people out."  I whispered.

She shook her head no, and waved bigger, indicating the entire cavern.  Then she pointed at where the three overseers were standing and waved as if she were pushing them off to the side. 

So, Flower didn't just want to set the slaves free, she wanted to set the Gorf soldiers free as well.

Well huh...  That wasn't such a bad idea.

I started looking at the movement in the cavern with an eye towards making a plan.

I waited till the Strange Kinderling that we had spoken to before was looking my direction and, throwing caution to the winds, I waved at him to get him to come over, and dove back behind the rocks for cover.  At first I didn't think he got the message, but after some tense minutes he made his way our direction.

"I told you two to lie low and go bring back an army."  he hissed.  "What are you trying to do?  Get yourselves killed?"

"I don't have an army to go get." I explained, "So I thought I might borrow yours."

He looked at me puzzled.

"You think you could get one or two of those Gorf soldiers to come back this way?"  I asked.

"Won't do any good, they can't be reasoned with or bribed.  They are controlled somehow."  

"You let me worry about that."  I whispered.

"You are going to get me killed."  he replied, "They have those two Dwarves now, they don't need me to tend to their mushroom beds anymore, and the overseers have been looking for any excuse at all to put me in their stew pot.  I heard them talking about it."

"Well, guess you really need to get out of here then."

The strange Kinderling huffed, then sighed, and walked away.

I watched from our rocky outcropping as the Kinderling went back to work, but I could tell he was watching the Gorf soldiers more closely, as if trying to figure out a plan.

Then, out of the blue, he stood up and chucked a round mushroom cap at one of the soldiers.  The soldier was looking the other direction, and the round cap bounced off the back of the soldiers head.  By the time the soldier turned around, the Kinderling had his focus back on the mushroom bed, counting as if he was counting the mushrooms, gradually making his way to the end of the row.  The Gorf soldier followed.  By the time the Kinderling walked past our outcropping, the Gorf soldier was transfixed on him.  I don't know if he was curious, or confused by the Kinderling counting mushrooms, but more importantly, the Gorf soldier now had his back turned towards Flower and me.  Flower got my attention, indicated herself, and mimed a pulling motion.  Then pointed at my knife and mimed cutting a harness off herself.

The plan went strikingly well.  Flower snagged the back of the harness, and pulled back with all of her strength, putting her weight behind it, toppling the Gorf over backwards while  I hopped in and cut the harness off.  

I sure was glad to have a good knife, because the harness was tough.  I almost didn't manage to cut through it, but after sawing for what was probably quite literally my life, it finally came away free.

Flower had her hand over the Gorf's mouth trying to keep him quiet, while also trying to keep him from getting up and murdering us all.  The odd Kinderling sure did pick the biggest one he could find.  Eventually, with much grumble grumbling and sniff sniffing in the Gorf soldier's ear, she had him under control.  

Not control like the harnesses, but quiet and mostly not trying to murder us.  The two of them were quietly grumble grumbling and sniff sniffing.  I also noticed that tears were also streaming down the enormous Gorf's face.  

I remember talking late into the night with Mizzy while we were recovering.  She had been awake, and aware of everything that happened to her while she wore the harness.  I wondered if that was the same for this poor Gorf soldier.  What had he been forced to do? 

"C'mon, we can't stop now.  We need a few more to make this work."  I whispered. 

With all the commotion, I was sure our gooses were cooked, but I guess we were far enough back in the back of the cavern that the other Gorf soldiers didn't see or hear the struggle, and I'm guessing that the Gorf overseers weren't paying attention.  They seemed to be breathing in the smoke from a small fire they had made in a small pot, and enjoying it far too much.  

I pointed the overseers out to Flower and asked, "What are they doing?"

Flower shrugged.

"They are breathing in the smoke from some of the non-edible mushrooms."  The strange Kinderling said, "It makes them feel good and see things that aren't there.  It doesn't work on Kinderlings though, so don't go getting any ideas."

"By the way, I'm Kniff."  He added.

"Flower, do you think our new friend can help us free some more guards?"  I asked.

She looked at the freed Gorf soldier and grumbled a few times.  He smacked his hand to his chest as if to say "Let ME do it!", pulled a knife out of  it's sheath at his belt and started casually walking up to Gorf soldiers, grabbing them, and cutting their harnesses off.  None of them had a chance to move out of his way, if they even saw him coming at all.  None of them put up much of a fight either.  My best guess is that all that time in the harness had made them dull and inflexible, like the kitchen Gorf had been.  Tiny little me was able to pull her away from her kitchen.  She didn't even resist.

All the while the overseers, secure in their positions, were sitting over by the entrance to the mushroom farm, alternately lighting their small bowl of mushrooms and breathing the smoke, and...  well I guess it was giggling, but it sure didn't sound anything like any sound a Kinderling would make.  Luckily, each Gorf soldier that was freed took a few moments to regain their composure.  Flower just followed along and softly spoke to each, now former, soldier to keep him quiet.  Some handled it better than others.

"Flower, ask about keys"  I whispered.  

Flower grumbled at one of the former soldiers that seemed to be snapping out of it better than the others, he shrugged and pointed towards the overseers.  One of the other former soldiers, a large Gorf easily bigger than Mouse, and covered in scars must have heard what they were talking about because he smacked his hand to his chest, much like the first freed Gorf soldier, and grumbled at a few of the others.  Before I could say anything, they closed the distance between where we were gathered and the overseers and hacked them to death with their swords.  Then the big one came back and handed Flower a ring of bloody keys.

All this time, the slaves in chains had, for the most part, sat quietly and watched.  

Flower started by freeing her kin.  There were smiles and hugs all around.  It seemed there were a few other Gorfs who were chained, but weren't part of Flower's tribe, but she unlocked their chains too.  Once Flower was done with the Gorf slaves, I got the keys and freed Kniff and the other two Kinderlings.

"Free the Dwarves next,"  the Kniff said, leading me to where the two of them sat.  He then said something to the Dwarves in a language that sounded familiar, but I was at a loss to understand it.  They clasped hands like old friends. The Dwarves didn't waste any time and set to gathering up some mushrooms, took what little they had, and started to leave.  One of the two stopped by the overseers long enough to take a belt knife.  He said something our direction that sounded like a question while holding up the knife.  Kniff answered in their language and they left.

"Oddly polite couple Dwarves those."  Kniff said, "Even asked permission to take that knife."

I didn't know anything about Dwarves other than having seen a few pictures in a book, and heard an outlandish story or two told by one of my grandfathers.  If I had never read that book, I'm not sure I would have even known they were Dwarves.

I then set the Men free.  One of the three was a woman.  The language of Men is still taught in Kinderling school in the village because enough of the older Kinderlings insisted that the race of Men would return back up the trade road one day and the village would once again flourish and become rich.  I always considered it to be wishful thinking.  For a while as a youngster, I wondered if the race of Man was something Kinderling parents made up to scare us into being good little Kinderlings.  I gave up that idea when I started learning their language, not even my weird parents would go so far as to make up a whole language just to propagate a myth.

"Careful Tandy, we don't know anything about these Men!"  Kniff said.  It was clear he didn't trust them.  I'm ashamed to admit that I considered leaving the chains on them.  After all, I was looking at the face, or maybe kneecaps, of what amounted in my view to a myth.  And a lot of the stories surrounding that myth were violent and strange.  Then I decided to talk to them.

"Hello, I am Tandy.  I am here to rescue you."  I said slowly in the language of Man.  

"You speak Dornish oddly little one."  The woman said.

"Wait, you can talk to these things?"  Asked the Kniff, shocked, pulling me around to face him, which I did not care for one bit.

"Yes, I can.  Let got!"  I said shrugging him off.  Flower grabbed him and pulled him away.  Kniff quickly found himself surrounded by the Gorfs of Flower's tribe.  

"Don't let them hurt him Flower, I don't think he meant any harm."  I said over my shoulder as I turned back to the Men.  I heard a gruff of what I hoped was agreement from Flower.

"We need to get out of here before more soldiers show up.  How do we know we can trust these?"  The woman indicated towards the Gorfs.  It wasn't lost on me that she included Flower's tribe as well as the former soldiers.

"These,"  I indicated Flower's tribe, "are friends.  We can trust them.  These others," I indicated the former soldiers, who I noticed seemed to be shaking down into three distinct groups, with a couple loners who didn't seem to fit into any group. "were being controlled using those harnesses.  They were just as much a captive as you were."

"I would feel more comfortable if we could go and leave all the Gorfs behind." The woman said.

"If it weren't for Flower and her tribe, I wouldn't be here at all and you would still be in chains."  I said.  I waved Flower over, "This is my friend Flower.  That is her tribe.  They are who we came to rescue.  The rest of you are sauce."

Then to Flower, in Kinderling "She's right though, it's past time we got out of here.  What's the plan?"

Flower looked at me like I had lost my mind, I could almost hear her say "I don't have the plan, I thought you had the plan."

"Ok then.  Make it up as we go along.  Hasn't killed us so far.  You find out what the Gorfs want to do, I'll talk to the Kinderlings and the Men."

I called the three Kinderlings together.  Kniff made the introductions.  "This is Hoak, my travel companion and partner.  We are traders, we came this way looking for a Dwarven settlement that we heard was around these parts.  Sadly, we found Gorfs instead.  The other fellow is Dobbo, he was here when we got here.  Said he was from a village not far from here.  I didn't even know there were any of our kind in the area."

I gave Dobbo a good solid once-over.  He was an older Kinderling, older than Father, maybe old enough to be my grandfather's age. 

"You wouldn't happen to be the daughter of Bonnie and Tadius would you?"  He asked.

I was happy to hear a familiar accent from Dobbo.  He was definitely from the village, although I didn't recognize him in the least.

"Should I know you?"  I asked.

"No, I would be surprised if you recognized me.  Last I saw you was when you were a wee baby, still in your mother's pouch, and even then I wasn't allowed to get close to you."  Dobbo said. "I was one of Baot's Lieutenants so your parents didn't trust me, although I swear I would never stoop so low as to being a baby snatcher."

As a side note, no, Kinderlings are not marsupials.  Some of the forest creatures around the village are, however, and "still on your mother's pouch" is a common Kinderling idiom for a young child.

"If you are one of Baot's Lieutenants, what are you doing here?"

"I know you aren't here to rescue me." Dobbo continued, "Baot left me for dead when I found out his plans and objected.  I think he expected the Gorfs to kill me.  I take it from the harnesses that Daggi succeeded, how bad is it."

"It's bad."  I answered, "The village was overrun by Gorfs.  A lot of Kinderlings were killed in the initial attack.  Baot has declared martial law with himself in charge and has been throwing his weight around ever since.  He has a couple platoons of Gorf soldiers with harnesses, and he put everyone who wasn't loyal to him in a prison camp."  I didn't tell him that we already rescued them, I didn't know how much I should tell him.  

"Please believe me, I didn't know anything about the plan to attack the village until Baot brought me up here and by then it was too late and I was in chains.  He bragged about it before he left."

"You seem to know an awful lot about the harnesses."  I accused.

"I only knew Daggi was working on a way to control the beasts, make them more docile and less dangerous.  I never thought the Gorfs were anything more than cleaver animals.  It made sense to use them for work if we could control them safely.  Then Baot brought me up here to meet the Gorf King.  I had no idea.  I know you won't believe me, but there was a Gorf that actually spoke Kinderling.  I swear, I'm not making it up!  Then Baot goes and asks the Gorf King for slaves to use in Daggi's experiments.  I couldn't take it.  I mean, it's one thing if they are just dumb animals, it's quite another if they are smart, like people.  So Baot and I got into a huge argument over it.  Next thing I knew I was in chains with Baot bragging that he traded me for a couple Gorf slaves for Daggi to experiment on, so I was still helping the cause.  I have been here ever since."

"If you were his lieutenant, why would he do that?" I asked.

"Because I threatened to tell the village council about him, about his real goal."

"And what is that?"  

"He wants to set himself up as the new Kinderling King.  Half the village council already knows about Baot's plans to tame Gorfs and use them for manual labor, but they don't know the half of it.  They don't know that Daggi is creating devices to control them and they don't know that Baot plans to declare himself King.  We gotta warn them."

"Too late, as far as anyone can tell, the council is dead."  I said, "My father is the only surviving council member."

"Your father became a council member?"  Dobbo said,  "I guess that makes sense.  As much as your father and I never got along, I have to admit he's well suited to it.  Probably much better suited than Baot was."

"As far as I know, Baot has never been a council member."

That seemed to shock Dobbo.  "Baot never joined the council?  How did that happen?  He had half the council practically in his pocket.  He was a sure thing for the next open seat."

After a short quiet pause, Dobbo chuckled, shaking his head. "That must have really ticked Baot off, your father got on the council but he didn't.  I never understood why, but Baot really hated both your parents.  When your parents got married he ranted about how his worst enemies were conspiring, as if they got married just to spite him.  As far as I ever saw, the worst your parents ever did to Baot was ignore him."

"If he was like that, why did you stick with Baot?"  I asked,  "He and his whole family are nothing but bullies!"

"Good question I suppose."  Dobbo answered,  "My parents were killed when I was very small and my grandparents took me in.  They were old money, from when the race of Man would come and trade for Kinderling silver.  Grandfather had a claim on one of the better veins handed down through the generations from the time of the last King.  The problem was, they lived in the Grand Trees, so the only other kids around were Baot and his gang, all children of  what my grandmother called boot lickers, who tried to elevate their standing by ingratiating themselves with the Grand families.  I didn't realize it at the time, but Baot was always nice to me because he had to be.  I was too young to understand how horrible he was to others."

I often heard Mama and Father talk about the Grand families, and it was almost never in a good way.  Most of the council seats were taken by members of one or other of the Grand families, and Father often came home exasperated because they were constantly wasting time trying to pass edicts that either made no sense, or were useless because they wouldn't be followed by anyone... or both.  Kinderlings tend to have a strong individualist streak.  It seems the Grand families buck that tradition by having a strong authoritarian streak.

The think of it is, I could see Dobbo's point of view.  Of course Baot would be pushed by his parents to be nice to Dobbo.  So of course he would think of them as friends.  At least until the inevitable betrayal.  I'm sure Beso's old friends, Ghead and Weph, who I last saw in chains, pulling Beso's carriage would agree.  On the other hand, this was one of Baot's lieutenants.  Part of me wanted to leave him chained here.

In the end, mercy ruled out.  Maybe I'm soft.  Maybe I need to suck it up and become tougher.  But I just couldn't leave Dobbo to his fate.  When we left, Dobbo went with us.