The days passed by in dizzying succession, each seemingly more tedious than the last.
"Its only been a week", thought Rith as he peered hopefully at his little garden. Was that the faintest tinge of green there? He knelt and brushed aside a few crumbs of soil.....Yes! A little shoot, might be one of those berries, could be the wheat, might even be grapes, no way to know yet. But things were moving, it was all progress.
He straightened with a groan and wiped a grimy hand across his brow leaving a slick brown trail in the sweat. Farming was a damn sight harder than he would ever have guessed, made doubly so by the need to constantly scour the surrounding countryside for seeds. Countryside....hah! His subconcious was being too kind there, this was the arse-end of the world surely.
The small band had settled into their new life without major complaint, after the first few days of hunger they had succeeded in gathering enough food to form a sizeable heap by the cart, which Rith was planting up as fast as they ate it. Yet...this was subsistence and nothing more, it was surely time for them to begin to settle more permenantly. Rith knew this was so, and yet was uncertain how to go about establishing a more secure foothold. It had been summed up during a discussion round a small fire in the evening of the first eventful day; "We need to build stuff, workshops, a shelter, beds and so on" "But we need an axe to cut wood" "We dont have metal for an axe" "You can make axes out of wood I hear" "But we dont HAVE any wood".
These thoughts had chased each other round and round in Rith's head for the last five or six days now and he was beginning to dispair. He sighed deeply and stomped off to crawl under the wrecked cart, as was his wont when troubled (or the sun was high). Lying there in the cool shade he tried to think clearly, idling picking at a splinter on the boards above his head.
Hang on.......the fucking WAGON was wooden, and it sure wasnt any use to them now. Rith slapped a hand to his forehead, adding an interesting palm motif in the ingrained dirt on his face.
So.....scrap the cart, might get a few usable logs out of it. Then what? He tried to marshall his scattered thoughts despite the furnace heat. Wood, wood was the key, use the wood to get wood. A carpenters workshop then, knock it up from a few boards, use another to fashion some kind of axe. It wouldnt be much use against the gargoyles but it ought to handle the saguaro cactii at least. Then more wood, for wooden things, more axes, more wood, maybe they would even find enough to build a little shelter. Four walls and a roof would go down a treat with the lads, a bed perhaps, table and chair. Yes, this was beginning to sound like a plan. There was precious little wood on the rocky plain but what was there, would be theirs.
He clambered back out from his refuge and scanned about, looking for someone to help him tear apart the wreckage of the wagon. Grue was as always over by the river, dangling a line hopefully into the murky depths. The initial hope had been for shining silvery fish, yet even the leeches that had proved to be the river's residents had provided a welcome expansion to their meagre diet. The rest of the crew had taken to calling Grue 'Gator-bait', there had not yet been any sign of alligators, but if they showed, it would be Grue that found em first. To the north Knarfle, MetalMilitia and Morul could be seen on the usual hunt for wildplants, in the west and south Mosus and Kol were doing likewise.
Rith cupped his hands to his mouth and prepared to let loose a holler when an almighty racket brought his attention back east to the bank of the river where Grue was now sprinting flat out towards their little camp. Shading his eyes against the rising sun Rith could just make out a shape in the heat haze pursuing Grue. As the two figures approached he let out a soft chuckle despite himself......an alligator, of course.
He stuck his fingers in his mouth and gave a piercing whistle, in the distance the other dwarves began running back towards him. Grue was still making a beeline for the camp, they had discussed this at length some days ago and had agreed that anyone in trouble would bring said trouble back to the camp for everyone to play with.
He glanced to his left in an attempt to guage the distance to Knarfle, who was at the head of the pack approaching from the north. As he did so the little running figures veered sharply east, diagonally away from the camp.
"What the...", thought Rith.
Another moment brought him the answer, 4 uncomfortably familiar shapes were bounding in from the west heading for the little pack of running dwarves.
"BLOODY GARGOYLES!", roared Rith in frustration, this was rapidly descending into chaos.
As he hesitated a moment the various actors all drew closer. He judged the angles of the various dwarves' approach and realised that everyone was going to meet some 40 urists north of the camp. With a soft curse he broke into a run, a glance over his shoulder confirmed his fears. Mosus wasnt going to catch up in time, they would have to handle this one without the lumbering giant's brawn.
As he had expected the running packs of dwarves met beside a cluster of boulders and he pounded his way up to them breathing heavily. Kol was grinning and poking 'Gator-bait' as the latter's namesake circled at a wary distance.
At Rith's approach however he turned and his face became more serious.
"We got four more of them gargoyle things Rith. Smaller than the first.....but four of 'em. There looked to be another three further west but I dont think they seen us."
Grue added "And ofcourse the gator, I may have accidentaly caught something he was planning on eating, and now he wants to eat me.."
"Well, we make our stand here", said Rith wearily. "Im not overly concerned about the gargoyles individually, they oughta be weaker than that big bastard, but as a group they might be rough, try and split em up. And watch that damn gator, those things have teeth like razors but they're slow, with any luck we can handle the gargoyles before it catches up with 'ole 'Gator-bait' here."
There were the usual grim nods from the assembled dwarves and as one they turned west, to face the rapidly approaching pack of gargoyles. To their south Mosus had just passed the camp but was clearly tiring, his pace was slowing and his arms were starting to flail somewhat. There was no time, just no time.
The gargoyles let out a cacophany of howls and wails as they came closer. Rith braced himself for the combat to come and waited for them to come into charging range.
"YAAARRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!", it was hardly the most original warcry but his blood was up and thought had departed once more. The six dwarves barreled into the approaching beasts and an all-out ruck began.
Rith lost track of his first opponent swiftly, the dust and dirt kicked up by the dwarves and beasts was rising as an opaque cloud and he found himself attacking whatever passed closest to him. The crackle and whoosh of flame told him that Kol was flinging fire again and acrid smoke boiled around the melee.
At length the gargoyles were defeated, the dwarves stood in a little circle panting hard as Mosus finally came trotting up, his face red with exertion. "Sorry....run...far", he managed.
Rith gave a sudden start.......the 'gator, he'd clean forgotten about it in the ruckus. He swiftly spun about and scanned for it but could not see it. It had to be between them and the river, so where was it?
A chuckle from Grue made him look round again. The dwarf was pointing off to the northwest. Rith followed his gesture and spotted the reptile at last. Finally some luck! The huge alligator was embroiled in a fight with the other three gargoyles Kol had mentioned. Rith debated moving the group back to the camp but realised that whichever side won that fight would be calling on them almost immediately. He hunkered down in the dirt instead and tried to get his breath back, the others following suit.
Presently the fight was decided. A gargoyle sank its teeth into the alligators midsection and with an almighty shake tore the creature in two though not before it had accounted for one of the winged monstrosities.
"Round two lads", muttered Rith and rose to his feet. Indeed the remaining two gargoyles were already heading their way.
The fight was much as the first had been. Namely a confusion of dust, smoke and flame, but a few moments later the dwarves were once more standing atop a pile of corpses. The extra muscle of Mosus combined with the 'gator's assistance had made this an easier engagement.
Rith wiped a hand across his brow for the second time that day and started down at the corpses.
"I wonder if you can eat gargoyles?", he mused.
