The UmU Chronicles

Chapter 7

The messenger travelling along with a dwarven caravan spoke joyfully & drank quite a lot with them. He woke again in the morning, his head ached from the hangover as he saw the Dwarf, wearing a belted tunic with glasses, his orange hair seen from behind.

The pony running the cart neighed a little & the dwarf said,
"Of course, Of course, dear Bella, as soon as we reach there, I will give you a sack full of carrots! But for now, please bear with us."
He turned around, "Hey, you! You are finally awake!"
He glanced at the man & turning ahead said,
"Well lad, what makes you travel to our homeland? well, the Mountains are quite steep & difficult to traverse, I understand you coming with us. Just curious as not many noldukis come here except the usual merchants & the Kets from the eastern country."

The Man rubbed his head & checking whether his bag was nearby, said,
"Just hear to deliver some letters."
"Hmm? Couldn't you have used the post service or just pass the letters to us? Why come & travel so far just for some letters?" asked the dwarf. Usually, dwarf caravans take letters to deliver from other places to Heimurgrundr. They act as mediators between dwarfs who live elsewhere & their relatives back home.

Meanwhile, the dwarf talking about the mage service simply means sending a letter via transportation spells. Usually, there are mail offices in every country where one can send the letters & then the mail office sends their own men to deliver the packages & letters. This service is quite nice & most people do use this, but since there are not many mages excelling in long-distance transportation spells & since the spell itself requires quite a lot of mana & requires up to 5 mages excelling in transportation spells, the office usually sends the letters & package once every 3 months to the other country. Official Letters are usually sent via messengers as this service tends to be quite slow.
He calmly said, "Some urgent letters, that is all." The dwarf, pondered a bit & said,
"Hoping it's nothing ominous."

The Man looking outside at the mountain path, the pine trees surrounding both sides & the carriage behind them headed by another dwarf, carrying goods with his pony. The snow-laden rocky path was certainly quite interesting, with the faint smell of moss & the sounds of mountain birds being heard.

A few ptarmigans or snow quails were seen in their white plumage as they moved hither tither in search of food. The mountain journey is certainly something interesting thought the messenger as he leaned back in the carriage.

Just as he was about to drift asleep again seeing the scenery, He heard shouts & neighing of the ponies of the carriage, shuffling & flapping of wings & a loud squawk, echoing through the mountain pass. A Huge shadow passed by the carriage &the man looked outside. A tawny coloured bird resembling an eagle certainly bigger, well huge to be exact as compared to an eagle, with talons, the size of the carriage & huge wings spanning half the caravans. The Man gaped at the amazing sight of the bird.

 The other Dwarves of the carriages went down & freed the ponies & took them aside. The Carriages were about to be lifted, when the dwarf of one of the carriages, climbed above his carriage & struck the talon, causing the bird to flinch. The Bird dropped one of the carriages while making away with the other. The carriage left behind was quite destroyed but thankfully the goods were safe. Then the Dwarves suddenly in perfect unison spread a mat as if to catch someone & just as the bird was about to soar away to the mountains, a huge crash was heard as though cracking the earth.

The Man jumped out of the carriage to see what happened, as some dwarves having potions came where the mat was.
A dwarf, fully armoured though it was cracked, & the dwarf was bleeding a little, was seen clutching three sacks. The dwarf of the other carriage ran towards the injured dwarf & yelled, "OI! YOU STUPID RUNUR, WHY DIDN'T YOU JUMP EARLIER!?!? YOU KNOW THE GOODS ARE NOT MUCH IMPORTANT AS YOUR LIFE!"
he got angered & shook the injured dwarf, as a few other dwarves pushed the angry dwarf & poured some potions & applied bandage on the wounds while removing the cracked armour. They shook their heads as if mourning the damaged armour before putting it in a sack & carrying the injured dwarf in the caravan where the messenger sat.