A Guide to Kingdom Building - Chapter 167

“Ghwynmyr…” A voice whispered in his ear. “Ghwynmyr! You can hear me, can you?” It asked.

The dwarf tried to open his eyes only to be welcomed by the pitch darkness and nothingness of the place.

“Psstt…Hey…Ghwynmyr!” The voice called out his name again, but the ringing in his ear made it difficult to identify who it was. “Need your help!” The voice desperately called out.

He tried looking around again, but even for a dwarf blessed with an improved vision, the thick blanket of darkness in front of him proved to be a challenging feat for him to see as clear as he could.

“…Ose ‘ere?” He asked but his tongue was too clumsy to even form an understandable sentence.

He took a deep breath and spat. He tried to compose himself to get his clumsy mouth to work while looking around to get a clue of where the voice might’ve been coming from.

“Who’s der?!” He shouted as the echoes from his voice just made the ringing from his ear worse.

“Shhh…Don’t make it too loud.” The voice scolded him. “You’ll rile them up!” It said.

“Waddyamean rile ’em up?!” He whispered in a gravelly voice.

“Them!” Sighed the voice.

Suddenly, a strong gust of wind began to blow in their direction.  Ghwynmyr’s mind became bombarded with the memories of their tragic adventure, reminding him of the very reason he was stuck in that unknown place in the first place.

“Iz dat…Dem bats dat swooped us earlier?” He asked the voice.

“Yes,” it answered. “Hide over there, quickly!” The voice urgently asked him.

“O’er der? ‘ere do yah want me tah hide?” He quickly asked as he cursed in his breath.

His dark vision wasn’t working still and now it was impeding him from seeing the location where the voice wanted him to hide. His ears were still ringing and now coupled by a stabbing headache; he was in such a mess as if death was doting for him to die.

“Umm…what to do? what to do?!” The voice panicked as the gust of wind felt stronger. “Ummm…g-go farther to your left! Start crawling now!” It commanded.

Ghwynmyr who was currently as blind as a bat, followed the voice’s behest. He crawled fervently to the direction where the voice told him to go, all the while worrying at the impending doom he was in as the gust of wind became stronger and stronger.

“Gods’ balls! Where am I ‘eadin’?” He frustratedly said as he crawled further towards nothingness. “I am goin—” A hand suddenly grabbed him down a puddle of what seemed to be mud.

The mysterious person covered his mouth, “Don’t make a fuss, my friend.” It spoke. “Now, take a deep breath. I’ll submerge you really quick!”

Ghwynmyr wanted to fight but the voice and way of speech of the mysterious person was recognizably familiar, he simply obeyed. He closed his eyes as he was slowly submerged into the thick mud. The sound was muffled but he could hear wings discreetly flapping as it approached them. He could hear their muffled footsteps and their tails dragging on the ground.

Their growls and grunts were audible, like a conversation from hell. As the monsters made their rounds around the muddy pool, Ghwynmyr’s breath was slowly depleting. It seemed like the monsters were teasing them to come out, as if they knew too well where they were and was waiting for them to surface.

Ghwynmyr could feel his lungs complain as he could no longer hold his breath. He was slowly losing his consciousness, but he tried his focus on surviving. His pride would not allow him to die a miserably lame death like drowning in mud or losing your breath and get eaten by the bat-like monsters.

The other person with him patted him in the back to check if he was still alive. He patted back, albeit lightly. He was on the verge of passing out when the person pinched him to wake him up. He could hear the monsters’ wings flapping once again but this time it seemed to be fading out, like they were going away.

His lungs was giving up on him. His body was failing him. He was at the brink of his consciousness when the person behind him, lifted him back to the surface. Ghwynmyr gasp for air as he went up to the surface. He spat the mud out of his mouth and shook his head to get himself back to his senses.

“Are you alright, my friend?” The mysterious person said.

He tried to answer the question, but his breath was too sparse for him to talk. He took another deep breath and vomit more muddy water out from him. His head pounding hard while his ears rang irritatingly.

“Is he doing alright, Wahakim?” The other voice whispered.

“I am not sure if he is, Ulfaar, my friend.” Wahakim sighed. “I will check again.”

After hearing their names, Ghwynmyr felt a little sense of relief knowing that his comrades were still alive.

“W-wahakim…cough…cough…U-Urfaal?” Ghwynmyr efforted a whisper. “Y-you’re both alive?” He reached out his arms to the nothingness of the dark.

“I am here, my friend.” Wahakim held his hand, “Let me give you some vision.” He added.

Wahakim whispered words in his ear from a language that he couldn’t understand. A few moments later, his eyesight became clearer in the dark. The dark cave now seemed like daylight had shone on it and there was no shadow or darkness impending his eyesight.

“That should give you clarity over this dark veil.” Wahakim said as he gave Ghwynmyr a big smile.

Embarassingly, there was no need of such magic on him. Ghwynmyr had an ability to see clearly in the dark, but it seemed like the monster’s screech prevented him to utilize that ability. He took his time to look around to give himself an idea of the place. The craggy ceiling and muddy ground summed up everything there was to know about the place.

“Tis a shame dat ya hafta lift yer finger tah give me back me dark vision.” Ghwynmyr sighed. “But nae the least, thank yah! Tis muchofa be’er view now.” He smiled back.

“I am glad that I could help you, my friend.” Wahakim lowered his head. “But, enough of the pleasantries. We still need to save him up there.” He pointed at the ceiling behind Ghwynmyr.

Ghwynmyr looked around and saw his friend Urfaal stuck in the ceiling wall, his hands bound by something he couldn’t identify what.

“Whataryah doin der?!” He whispered as the look of surprise was written all over his face.

Urfaal smiled weakly at him, “Long story…just help me out of here…first.” The beastman whispered.

Ghwynmyr looked at Wahakim puzzled.

“I tried to, my friend…” The Orkamuu sighed. “But I couldn’t get the earth to obey me.”

“I see.” Ghwynmyr answered him. “Ulfie…could you still hang on for a wee bit?” He asked.

The beastman nodded but with urgency in his eyes.

“Give me a moment…” Ghwynmyr nodded back. “I’ll save yah outta der.”