Kinderling 58

 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.

Our homecoming didn't, couldn't last long.  It was a mere couple of days rest before I was found by one of the Elven warriors who informed me, rather formally, that my presence was requested by the King of All.  

The Elf guided me to a wing of the garrison that I hadn't been to much.  When I was last here, before Mama and I went to try to free Mouse, this was a completely unused wing of the garrison.  Now it was full of Elves who walked around like they owned the place.  It struck me just how well they fit.  The doors in this part of the garrison were perfectly sized for the Elves.  It was almost like it was built for them.  I would have to ask the Star Sailor, he was the oldest Elf I knew.

I was guided to a war room, where the King of All and a few others were busy arguing over tactics.  

"We could just sail up there and pummel them from the Sky Ship, raining fire upon their heads.  You have a catapult and barrels of liquid fire in your holds do you not?"  offered one of the Elven soldiers.  If my father was right about being able to tell military rank by how fancy the soldier's uniform, this one was high rank indeed.  

"General, we can not.  There is too much of a chance of  harming that human and her people... That Iowne..."  Said an obviously annoyed Lady of the Eastwood.  "I do not care for them, but the woman tried to help me, I will not participate in her destruction."

"Well then you can stay here when we go if you don't have the stomach for it."  Answered the Elven General.

"Enough!"  The Star Sailor bellowed, "If your plan puts the Lady of Eastwood's honor in jeopardy, you should find another plan."

"And you should go back to your goats goatherd!"  The General said snidely.  "It is not your place to question your betters!"

I wasn't going to stand for that.  "Why is it that all of you Elven soldiers are a bunch of bullies?  I have a particular dislike for bullies."

"Haha!  You've met your match now General!" laughed the Star Sailor, cutting me off before I could start a good rant going.  "Besides, if I go back to my goats, you would be walking home.  How would you go about your offensive then?  Huh?  The Sky Ship is mine."

"Enough with the bickering!" interjected the King of All.  "General, I will not ask the Star Sailor, nor the Lady of Eastwood, to do anything against their conscience.  Find another way."

The General thought for a moment.  "In that case, we should attack the front gate to cause a diversion, and have a team sneak in to extract the humans."  The General said much more casually.  "THEN we can stand-off and pummel them from a distance."

"See, that's more like it.  I knew you could do it!"  said the Star Sailor.  "Bravo!"

"Sounds like you all have things in hand, I'm not a military mastermind, did you need me for anything?"  I asked.

"Yes,"  said the Star Sailor,  "I have heard stories that you can create explosive arrows."

"Oh, those things.  I don't make them anymore.  Much to large a mess, and I almost killed myself the only time I used one."

"Arrows that explode?"  Said the Elven General.  "Like the rockets that the fireworks guild make?"

"By all accounts, nothing like that." replied the Star Sailor.  "Those rockets are just bang and sparkles.  They wouldn't do any real damage to anything.  The arrow I heard about, disintegrated a Gorf, and killed and maimed a few of his nearby friends.  It also knocked over a certain young Kinderling head over teakettle."

The General edged over to the Star Sailor and whispered,  "How powerful can it be?  She's just a Kinderling, and a girl at that."  

I rolled my eyes.  He could have at least waited till I was out of ear-shot to be insulting.

"Well, I do have one of those arrows left.  I suppose I could demonstrate for you.  Tilly would be happy for an excuse to rebuild this wing."  I, of course, was exaggerating.  The explosive arrows weren't that destructive, but they did make a mess of things.

"Actually, I really would like to see a demonstration.  Only, of course, not in here."  said the Star Sailor.  "Ever since I heard the first story about it, the tale has kept growing and growing.  I would love to see the truth of the matter.  Perhaps we could take the Sky Ship off somewhere in the mountains."

I have to say I was tempted.  What finally decided me was that I remembered Mizzy telling me how jealous she was and wished she had a chance to ride on the Sky Ship.  I told the Star Sailor as much, and he beamed.  "I would love to show your Mizzy the delights of my Sky Ship!"

That afternoon found us sailing away from the garrison, over Old Barrel, and North East towards a different part of the mountains from where the Mountain Gorf's stronghold sat.  The Star Sailor went all out and had his crew cook up the most wonderful meal.  The only thing that put a blot on the day was that I knew that rat-fink Captain was on board.  The Star Sailor explained that the Captain's family was close personal friends of the King of All, and he didn't want to upset anyone too awful important.

The Captain kept to himself and didn't cause any problems.

We soon found a nice cliff wall in a remote part of the Mountain range where nobody would get hurt.  I had to ask the Star Sailor to move us back from the Cliff a few times because he had us much too close to the target for my comfort.

Once everything was ready, I pulled out the box I kept the arrow in.  I learned my lesson that day we rescued Mizzy from Daggi's dungeon, and hadn't carried it around in my quiver since.  I never wanted to accidentally grab the wrong arrow again.

When the Star Sailor saw the explosive arrow he gasped and had his people pull the Sky Ship back even further.

"Tandy, I can feel the power off of that arrow." The Star Sailor said.

I just shrugged and fitted the arrow into my arrow-chucker.  At the Star Sailor's nod, I let it fly.

The "twump" of the explosion didn't seem all that big to me, although I have to remember, I was much much closer the first time.  Chunks of stone from the explosion clattered on the side of the Sky Ship, and a cloud of choking dust surrounded us.

"Yep, that's about how I remember it."  Said Mizzy.  "Only, I'm glad you are here with me rather than somewhere inside that huge cloud of dust Tandy.  Last time, I thought you were dead."  Mizzy hugged me hard and buried her face in my shoulder.  I comforted her the best I could.

The General stood watching the cliff wall which now had a visible scar as a huge chunk of stone split off and went crashing down into the valley below.  Then he walked over and bowed to me.

"I apologize for any offence I may have given.  That was incredible."

On the trip back, the Star Sailor came to talk to me.  "I noted the runes that you used to make the explosive arrows.  And I admit that I spent the last few hours trying to duplicate your effort.  I know how you feel about those arrows and didn't want to ask you to build more of them.  But I find that I am unable to make anything close to what you made."

"Do you really need them?"  I asked.

"We need to breach the front gate of the Mountain Gorf King's stronghold to give an infiltration team a chance to get the Human woman and her people to safety.  The Lady of Eastwood would not condone any plan that didn't involve saving them first, and I respect her wishes in this."

"Well then, you shall have what I can make."  I said.  "But I will only make them for you.  I will not make them for the General or the other Elven soldiers.  I trust you, I don't trust them."

The Star Sailor looked into my eyes as if searching for something, then he nodded.  "I will endeavor to prove worthy of that trust."

It felt like something important happened there, but I couldn't fathom what it was.  

The next day saw final preparation happening for the attack on the Mountain Gorf stronghold.  I managed to make six of the explosive arrows, I hoped that would be enough.  To my chagrin, I learned that the King of All decided that this was to be an "Elf only" offensive.  I would be staying behind.  I extracted promises from both the Lady of Eastwood, and the Star Sailor that Iowne and her people would be safe.  In the circumstances that was the best I could do.

I guess I should look on the bright side.  Being excluded from the Mountain Kingdom attack left me free to concentrate oh my people's problems rather than someone else's, and with the Elven General's plan for the Mountain Gorf Kingdom, I was pretty sure that Baot and Daggi would soon find themselves without support from that direction.  That could only make it easier to take the village back.  While the Elves were finalizing their plans, I called the Kinderlings together to make some plans of our own.

Kinderlings aren't warriors.  I guess it could be argued that during the days of the Last Kinderling King, there were indeed Kinderling warriors.  Soldiers even.  But now, we are potters.  We are gardeners, and farmers, and craftsmen.  Sure we have a few who might be called warriors, like Uncle Zon, Bez, and Tilly, and even my own Mama, who I recently found out spent some time as a scout for the Men of Dorinth during one of their  many wars.  But they are the exception, not the rule.

As I looked out over the faces of the Kinderling villagers, I saw only apprehension and fear.  It wasn't that these people didn't want to take their village back and reclaim their homes and their old lives.  They were afraid.  Afraid of killing.  Afraid of dying.  These were good people who didn't deserve to be lead into a bloodbath by a Kinderling girl who felt like she had something to prove.  

"Mama, we have to find another way."  

"I agree."