As we were marched in, I took in my surroundings as best as I was able.
Honestly, the way the small town was set up reminded me of an old west reenactment. Off to the side, I could see that the main road extended away from the closed main gate we were denied entry. In the distance, I could see that the main road extended to what appeared to be a palatial estate that was barely visible from where we were. Wooden buildings that were either single or two-story with signs spelling out unintelligible words lined either side of the main road. I suppose they were stores of some kind.
Going about their day in the midst of all of this were more dwarves than I had seen before this point. Mostly male, I could see a few females bustling about. None of these dwarves were filthy rich looking like the dwarf that had bought us earlier, to my eye. These looked like tradesmen or crafters based on their simpler clothing. None of them gave our procession of manacled slaves more than a disinterested side glance.
I noticed once again that none of them had beards like the rich dwarf from earlier.
As we moved through the town, I was able to get glimpses of what lay beyond the main thoroughfare in the gaps between buildings. Residential buildings, it looked like. Beyond the bustle of the main road, I could see houses laid out between green fields of grass. I could even see an extension of the wall in the distance. It looked like this entire settlement including the residential district was encircled by the wall I had seen earlier.
The overseers moved us farther into the town, towards the end of the row. There, they directed us to the back of a large building that had a line of dwarves leading out of the doors. I guess this was some kind of administration building.
Around the back, one of the overseers knocked on a door set into the building. A few moments later, a harried-looking dwarf in some kind of uniform opened it. Before the overseer could even say a word to him, the clean-shaven dwarf audibly groaned. Ducking his head back in, the dwarf shouted something inside the building. Emerging again, the dwarven clerk waved us in impatiently.
We were brought to a back room where two other dwarves in uniform were preparing. The first dwarf was sitting behind a small desk, going over a large ledger book.
The second dwarf was warming up a branding iron in a cast iron oven.
We were directed to stand against the far wall from the dwarf at the desk, where we were unchained from each other and chained to the wall instead. After perhaps five minutes of tense waiting on behalf of us survivors, the dwarf at the oven said something to the dwarf at the desk. Looking up, the desk dwarf pointed to the first person in line and waved them closer to him. It was the woman who had been thrown into the wagon with me that first night after the attack. Unchaining her from the wall, one of the overseer's force marched her to stand in front of the desk. The woman was trembling in fear.
The dwarf at the desk didn’t even say a word to her, he just looked at her strangely for a few moments. After that, he looked down back at his ledger and wrote some things down. When he was done, he waved her away to his left. Where the dwarf with the branding iron waited.
With a stifling hand on her shoulder, the overseer marched her over to the dwarf that was stirring the iron around in the red-hot coals. The overseer shoved her to the ground, before turning her on her face. The woman was audibly sobbing now.
The overseer grabbed her by her arms, while the dwarf that waved us in earlier grabbed her by her legs. The oven dwarf took the iron out of the fire. Walking over to the terrified woman disinterestedly, he sat on the small of her back. Yanking down her dress to expose her left shoulder, the man brought down the branding iron.
I looked away, but I couldn’t block out the sound of her piercing scream or the sizzle of her flesh as she was branded.
I looked back up just in time to see the branding dwarf stand up from where he had been sitting on the poor woman’s back. The overseer and door dwarf let go of her arms and legs as well. Setting the iron back in the oven to warm up again, the branding dwarf grabbed a small piece of cloth out of a metal bin that I hadn’t noticed earlier. Striding back over to the woman he had just branded, he slapped the apparent bandage on her blackened branding mark callously, drawing a fresh wail of pain from her. Yanking her back to her feet, one of the overseers took her back outside for some reason.
I looked back up at the dwarf at the desk and felt dread begin to pool in my stomach. I was barely able to stop myself from shaking at the realization the same thing was going to happen to me.
Over the next hour, the pattern would repeat itself for the other twelve remaining survivors. First, they would be brought to the desk dwarf to get eyeballed, and then they would be branded. The first male survivor they brought to be branded somehow found the strength to struggle, but a swift punch to the back of his head stopped that. He, like everyone else, was branded anyway.
Finally, it was just me left. Everyone else had been branded and marched out of the building by an overseer. Looking up at me from his ledger, the desk dwarf motioned in my direction. Grabbing my chain, an overseer shoved me forward till I stood in front of the desk, shaking in fear.
The dwarf looked at me strangely like he had everyone else.
And then something happened that hadn’t every other time someone had stood before his desk.
He frowned.
He sat back in his chair for a second, before leaning forwards and looking at me strangely again. By this time, the other dwarves in the room had noticed something strange and were looking at the desk dwarf confusedly. Abruptly, the desk dwarf stood up from his desk before hurrying over to stand in front of me. Reaching up, he grabbed the length of chain that was attached to my collar before yanking me down to his eye level. This time, he looked straight into my eyes with an intense look.
Whatever he was looking for he didn’t find because he stepped back before turning around, shouted a single word, and kicked his desk. The other dwarves hurried over in his direction before the desk dwarf pulled them into a huddle and they started whispering to each other. Whatever they were saying to each other caused one of them to pop his head out of the huddle and shoot me an astonished look before he was pulled back down.
Chancing a look up at the overseer holding my shoulder, we exchanged confused looks.
I guess this fucker didn’t understand what was going on either.
After a few minutes of frantic whispering, the dwarves exited their huddle looking anxious. The desk dwarf hurried over to me before leading me back to the wall. There, he fumblingly reattached my collar chain. Turning around, he started saying something menacingly to the single overseer left in the room. Whatever he said to him caused the overseer to bow frantically and start babbling. Raising his voice, the desk dwarf cut him off and pointed to the door. The overseer hurried out of the building without a backward glance.
The desk dwarf turned back to me with a frustrated look and stabbed downwards to the ground. I just stared at him uncomprehendingly. With a growl, the dwarf grabbed a handful of my shirt before yanking me to the ground and pointing downwards again. I guess he wanted me to sit.
Looking up, I was able to see the dwarves hurrying out of the room through a door that led further inwards. I guess they didn’t give a shit that the iron was still in the oven. Gazing around the room confusedly for a moment, I tried to get my bearings.
What the fuck had just happened?
……………………………………...
I waited in that back room for hours, surrounded by the fading smell of charred meat. The only way I had to keep track of time in that room was from a small slit window situated near the top of the outside wall. From what I could tell, it was twilight by now.
Despite how exhausted I was from hunger and dehydration; I wasn’t able to take a nap during the wait like I wanted. I had a feeling that the dwarven clerks from earlier weren’t done with me.
I was proven right when the door they had left through earlier creaked open slowly as if nobody wanted it to make any noise. Two of the dwarves from earlier slunk into the room surreptitiously and closed the door behind them gently. With no source of light in the room, I couldn’t tell who they were from this far away.
As they got closer, I could make out that it was the desk dwarf and the door dwarf from earlier, with the door dwarf carrying a bag over his shoulder. The desk dwarf came closer to me, while the door dwarf walked over to the outside door to gently unlock it. When the desk dwarf reached me, he looked down at me, scowled, and made two extremely understandable gestures.
He put a finger to his lips in a shushing motion and then slashed that same finger across his throat.
Alright then, message received.
I nodded and kept my mouth shut.
Slowly, in order not to make too much noise, the desk dwarf undid my collar chain from the wall. Once done, he tugged me to my feet and led me to the back door. The two dwarves conversed briefly in whispers before leading me out the back.
As we left the building, I was surprised that they seemed to abandon all attempts at stealth they had been exhibiting earlier. They made no attempt to conceal what they were doing as we started to move up the road. If I remembered the orientation of the town from earlier, it seemed as if we were heading in the direction of the estate near the end of the road. Despite not attempting any kind of stealth, I could tell that the two dwarves were still somewhat tense. They only got tenser as when we neared the end of the back road, a dwarf in plate mail came around the corner carrying a torch.
The guards-dwarf called out a friendly-sounding greeting to the two dwarves before saying something in a questioning manner. When our group reached him, the desk dwarf started speaking to the guard in a friendly manner as well. As they conversed, I saw the desk dwarf gesture to me. With a glance, the guard made a sound of understanding before looking away from me. When we were about to leave, the desk dwarf smiled and held out a hand in order for the guard to shake it. From the angle that I was at, I could see the glint of a gold coin in his palm. The guard smiled as well and shook the desk dwarf’s hand.
As we got underway and the guard went down the way we came from, the door dwarf let out a sigh of relief and slumped over slightly. The desk dwarf snarled something at the door dwarf under his breath, causing him to stand back up straight.
The two dwarves started to lead us around to the left side of the wrought iron fence that surrounded the palatial estate at the end of town. There, I saw that there was a smaller path that led up and along the fence with dense tree cover along the other side. Our group traveled up and along that small path for perhaps fifteen minutes in tense silence before the dwarves stopped again. Looking around to see why we had stopped, I was jolted out of my inspection by the desk dwarf jerking my chain again. Glaring at me, the desk dwarf led me towards the tree cover and a small foot path in the trees I had missed in the dark. We proceeded down it.
After another five minutes of walking down the path, surrounded by forest on both sides, we emerged into a clearing.
There was a house in the clearing.
It wasn’t enormous like the estate that we had passed, but it wasn’t tiny either. Two stories and made out of what seemed to be red brick, it was almost quaint in comparison. Off to the side, there was a smaller structure that nonetheless had a chimney on it. There was smoke coming from that chimney, and hammering noises coming from the building.
The two dwarves started to make their way over to the smaller building, tugging me along with them.
For some reason, the dwarves stopped some twenty feet away from the open entrance to the building. It was too dark out for me to see far into the building. I couldn’t make out what was making the hammering noise. For the first time, I heard the desk dwarf sound nervous as he called out a greeting into the structure.
The hammering stopped.
I heard the clomp of boots as someone started to make their way out of the building, making the two dwarves tense up.
Emerging from the building was perhaps the biggest dwarf I had seen so far. While most dwarves only came up to about stomach high on my five-foot-eleven inches frame, this one came up to shoulder height for me. He was bare-chested except for a heavy brown leather apron pockmarked with burns, and a pair of leather pants, boots, and gloves. Heavily muscled, broad-shouldered, and soot-stained, he had long, bright red hair and a long, bushy beard. I noticed that he was the only dwarf other than the one that had ‘bought’ me that had a beard.
He was also scowling.
When he came out, the two dwarves that had led me here bowed to him at the waist and started to speak to him once they had risen again. Even though they were speaking in a deferential manner to him, whatever it was they were saying clearly didn’t make him any happier. Noticing me for the first time, he scowled harder.
Glancing back to the two dwarves, he finally spoke to the two dwarves in a rough, deep voice. Whatever he said to them caused the door dwarf to panic, as he literally fell to his knees and started to beg the large dwarf. The desk dwarf didn’t stop him and started to speak to the large dwarf again in a pleading manner. Whatever it was that the desk dwarf said to him caused the large dwarf to visibly recoil in surprise. This time when the large dwarf looked at me, it was with clear pity.
Sighing, the large dwarf covered his eyes with one large hand. Dragging his hand down his face and smearing more soot on it, he said something to the two dwarves in an acquiescing manner. Visibly brightening, the two dwarves bowed to him again and began to babble. Cutting them off with a gesture of his hand and a gruff word, the large dwarf waved at us to follow him.
The large dwarf led us to the door of what must be his house before stopping. Turning around, he said something to the two dwarves. They clearly didn’t care much for whatever he said, as they began to protest. Raising his voice, the large dwarf said something to make them go quiet. The large dwarf opened the door before glancing at me and gesturing me closer. Hesitantly stepping forward, I was surprised when the desk dwarf defeatedly let go of the chain attached to my collar. For a wild, stupid moment I considered trying to make a break for it before the reality of my condition reminded me of what a shit idea that was.
Slumping forward, I stepped through the door that the large dwarf had opened.
