Atlantivanne

A dwarven lass entered Rune’s quarters. She twirled her golden locks. She invaded the privacy of his cabin that smelt like earthworms. The logs were coarse and rotting and sealed and mudded with hay on a slant. It had a red rug and wooden floor under his table where he sat trying to enjoy the pumpkin sunset off the coast. He daydreamed about learning to read and write from his father Goin, and how difficult it can be to learn the dwarven alphabet, but so worth the time and effort.

He bobbed and weaved, “Janice you are in my way,” said Rune.

Before she turned and looked at him, he could see she was mesmerized by the orange sunset, “Not a bad place to build a cabin.”

Rune served his father by helping peasants stack logs in the Windart Village. The manor consisted of knights, ladies, squires, and peasants. Rune was a squire and so was his eldest sister Janice.

It was rare in these parts for squires to serve under their father. Usually, squires become knights in a different noble household. But their father Goin taught them the trade and Janice would inherit the land given by King Annon the Dwarf Lord when she became a knight.

“What do you want Janice? I am busy studying,” said Rune like she was bullying him all his life.

Her eyes twinkled as she raised her eyebrows twice to nag him, “Why are you studying that ancient, tattered scroll Rune? It won’t help you capture a dragon like I did.”

“I know, you keep nagging and bragging, you are the first dwarf in our kingdom to capture a dragon,” he stood like a lightning bolt to cross his arms.

She jumped, “Rune, I know what it’s like to survive dragon fire in the mines of Dunharn.”

“I’ll catch my own dragon, you have to believe me,” he said more quickly and loudly than needed.

“But I awoke in its hot breath, half swallowed, it’s a nightmare to remember the torment I felt in those jaws with its yellow fangs, slimy tongue, yet here I am whole.”

“I know, you lived through and bound it in the mine.”

“Yes, I am a legend that will be remembered forever in Dunharn, and you will never be one, ever, ha. Rune Accept it. Accept it now, and always, that you will be in my shadow.”

“Never, Janice, never. You see this old worn scroll? It has a map to Spiral Fang.”

“I will build my own skiff and arrive first brother.” She took the map.

“I don’t need that silly map. I will build a sailboat; I even have a crew of Dragon Slayers.”

“Yeah, you hired them with my coin brother. You won’t get far without me,” she turned away. “You’re such a peon, an ant, I know you hired Ledge, that moocher, he never lifted a finger for anyone, except to pick his own nose. He’s a rancher and a slumlord calling himself a dragon tamer. I know that we are rich and renowned only because of me. The truth is, you’re a beggar without me. And you are lucky Goin wants you to stay with us.”

“I am going to capture the Lord of the Dragons, Zarlock himself, and save Atlantivanne, I swear on King Annon’s life.”

“I don’t see how. You are nothing,” she murmured pathetically.

“You are a stubborn bully Janice, you never believed in me, and you never will. I am leaving now,” he said disappointed in himself. He knew better.

Rune opened the sharp, coarse bramble door and stormed out. The door still smelt like wild berries squeaking on its rusty iron hinges, trying to not prick his hand or squish the berries.

Bears were attracted to bramble doors like these. At night it can cause dwarves problems when bears forage for berries. At least pirates thought twice about raiding their village thanks to the bears. But dwarves don’t have dealings with pirates or bears, and never have, and never would like to.

The door was his father Goin’s idea from when he was a knight in the war of the zombies Twenty-five years ago when the Zombie Dragon, Lord Zarlock was imprisoned in the Fire Lamp, but he escaped the lamp and is raising an army of zombies, once again.

Rune strode angrily into the boiling rays of Atlantivanne to escape his older sister, whom he never won an argument against, and if he did, he knows she would win in the end by complaining to his father Goin, one of the greatest dwarven knights of Atlantivanne, he even survived the great war. She won this time. She is like the town crier, literally. Rune would complain to his friend Ledge.

Rune deeply inhaled the warm, aqua-bronze, fresh, tingling, cloudy air in his lungs as the sun set, until he saw his friend Ledge and a former page from another noble family feeding the squealing hogs, which brought a horrid smell to Rune’s nostrils. Rune always would make fun of Ledge or try to make him laugh at himself in the process. He learned that from Janice, especially when she puts him down.

“Are you bathing with those pigs Ledge?” Rune pinched his nose in disgust.

“I, uh, you caught me, Rune Windart, sort of—” said Ledge, pouring buckets of slop. His boots were ankles deep in mud, squatting like a hairy sasquatch in pig feces. “Where to, master dragon slayer?”

“I am to test my mettle with your aid, my dragon tamer, come at once,” said Rune.

“But I am not the page that has to tend to you anymore,” he said, being bloated, lazy, and scarce.

Ledge tripped and his face fell into the mud. Into the rotten smelling muck of the cold hard earth. The hogs had been shaded by a smooth, nearby whitish elephant tree, minding their mud. Chewing leftover slimy slop loudly. The dwarves had an abundance of food and what they didn’t eat they gave to the hogs.

When Rune was little, he saw Ledge’s noble parents from another manor make him eat muck one day for not caring for the pigs and cattle right. He felt humiliated, worse than ever when that happened to him, but not worse than how Janice made Rune feel.

“Do you remember when Goin gave you the title of squire five moons ago?” said Rune.

“Yes, Rune,” Ledge swallowed his pride like the mud he noticed. “You always treated me the best in the whole manor.”

Ledge followed Rune to take care of the other animals. The stable was made of rough timber, which was battered from a hurricane last month, and he saddled their brown-leather, fresh odorous mounts. They could almost taste the leather. Wood and hay had to be placed in the stable for their chores of the day.

It was an exceptionally windy afternoon pounding and slamming the shutters. And they could hear the clinking steel of a blacksmith in the distance near the castle. Ledge got to work on this hot humid afternoon tending the ponies.

Ledge was the laziest shield-bearer, but the most devoted ranch hand in the village.

No one respected Ledge because he loved the hogs from when he was a page. He deserves to feed the hogs in Rune’s opinion. Ledge’s suffering makes him forget about his own, which he knew was wrong.

Rune saw the peasants pulling heavy timber, weighing down the rickshaws with lumber, felling trees with a crack and woosh of its branches in greenish smelling leafage. The Windart manor was being set up and constructed after it fell from a hurricane. Rune could taste dust in the air from all the sawing.

Rune and other log stackers were resting from the day before, watching them work.

At sunrise the next day, Ledge and Rune rode on ponies to greet King Annon of Castle Windshelm and pay their land tax in coin to the sheriff.

They were known as the Dwarves of Island Casper. They also greeted other civil dwarves such as Sir Ivan.

Ivan had deep respect for Janice, owner of the title, Hero of Atlantivanne. Their rocky-green island was safe momentarily, now that the dragon menace was captured. A dwarf eater. Their kingdom was safe.

Ivan had a conversation with Goin about a daring joust, while the king was knighting Ledge who paid their land tax.

Later, Sir Ledge joined the conversation as Rune could not believe the widest dwarf of all Atlantivanne was now a knight in arms. He could not find the words to pronounce what he saw. Ledge, in a suit of shiny mail, ready to capture a dragon, or die trying, which was not in his character. He had a hammer the size of a dragon head though.

“You can be my shield-bearer Rune, I need a squire now that I’m a knight.”

“Okay,” said Rune.

I wished Ledge’s parents still lived, so they would be proud of him now that he’s a knight, not everything in life has perfect timing. But they were proud of Ledge’s singing, since he said he can make a dragon fall asleep. He said he did once recently, to help Janice survive the dragon and capture it. But I don’t believe him. Ledge was with me when Janice brought home the dragon tooth in a rickshaw. At least Ledge can sing better than Goin.

No dwarf dared to joust with a member of the Windart family, or even Ledge, because of fear and respect for Lady Janice, bearer of the title Hero of Atlantivanne. But Ivan and Ledge went to the Inn near the manor. They shared tales about the War of the Zombies and drank dwarven ale. Rune listened.

When Ivan was drunk, Ledge challenged him to a deadly joust to test his mettle. He accepted but fell off his pony on his arse just before Ledge’s practice lance struck his helm, which would have broken his neck. They were both drunk on mead.

“Now that was perfect timing, or just plain luck. Har, har!” Laughed Rune.