15 The White Fortress
On a cold winter's day a lone woman rode her mount. She wore exceptional mythril plate armor and had a huge shield. Her Sleipnir was white colored, thereby perfectly blending in with the surroundings.
She has been travelling for a whole month, but finally reached her destination - the white fortress.
It was one of the strongest elven-built fortresses ever. It was thousands of years old, but still stood without even a sign of collapse.
Just as its name suggests, the fortress itself was white, and was built from unknown material.
The woman crossed the stone bridge that was built over an enormous abyss, which surrounded the fortress, and reached the front gate.
"Who's there? Announce your name, elf!"
Multiple soldiers moved atop the walls and pointed their crossbows towards her.
"My name's Alison Goldglow! I've come here to meet Eiwiwirin!"
After she finished her sentence, the soldiers started to move around in a disorganized manner, seemingly in panic, but they were disciplined by a rough-sounding voice.
Alison could not see nor hear what the person told the men, but they calmed down and with a heavy metallic sound, the gate started to open.
---
Alison walked the streets of the fortress, which did not resemble a fortress at all. From the inside it looked more like a fortified city. Young elf kids ran about the streets, and she could smell the freshly baked pies coming from a nearby shop. There were hundreds upon hundreds of houses, some were small, while others were so big they resembled mansions.
The nice and calming mood did not last though. As soon as she went further and further into the city the amount of soldiers, smiths and barracks increased.
Instead of kids running around, adult elves ran with their armor on, or some even pushed carts filled with rock and metal tools.
After walking a bit further, she finally reached the keep. Since the fortress was built to the side of a mountain, the keep itself was built inside of it.
As she admired the impenetrable defense of the keep someone called out to her.
"Alison! Long time no see! How long has it been, 60 years or so?"
Alison opened her eyes in surprise. The person who called out to her was equivalent to her mother. She took Alison in when she was little, raised her and taught her everything she knows.
"Teacher!"
Her name was Cybil Goldglow and she was not your typical elf. Her hair was brown, which was rare in the first place, but the biggest difference was her skin color. Her skin was grey colored, she was a rare type of elf – a dark elf.
Dark elves had zero talent in magic, some were even born without an attribute, but instead of magic they were strong. They were born with very strong physiques, if compared to humans a common dark elf would be twice as strong without any training.
"Fufu, you don't have to call me like that anymore. It's been decades since last I taught you anyway."
"No, you'll always remain my most important teacher! I can't believe I've met you here, weren't you planning to retire and build a family?"
"Ah, yeah, that was the plan… Well, some stuff happened and I ended up here." the dark elf seemed bothered by something as she spoke, and tried to divert the topic. "What brought you here anyway? Aren't you supposed to guard the Miss?"
"Yes, I am. Though, as always, the higher ups got ahead of themselves because of the war, and started ordering everyone around as they see fit…"
"Hmmm…so, what did they think up this time?"
"They want me to speak to Eiwiwirin."
"What?! Are they out of their minds?!"
"That's what I thought at first, but apparently they have something that might sway him to our side."
"I find that hard to believe… In the first place, even with your skill, I doubt you could survive the encounter…"
"Well, that's true, bu-"
"Miss!" an exhausted voice of a guard called out to Alison. The man must've been running all the way here.
"*Pfuu*…the commander…sends his approval, and will proceed immediately…I think you should come" the man could barely speak as he was trying to get his breath back.
"I'm sorry Cybil, I really wanted to speak more with you, but I have to hurry."
"Yes yes, I understand. You be careful, and know that you can always rely on me!"
The two women hugged each other and went on their ways as the guard tried to fix his rugged breathing.
---
It was a dark corridor. The walls were made out of ordinary stone which were supposed to be made into bricks, but during the millennium they seemed to become completely misshapen and the corridor now resembled a cave's tunnel.
Alison walked along this corridor, barely seeing two meters ahead of her. She was accompanied by a guard which carried a lantern. The light from the lantern flickered and shook annoyingly, so Alison could not keep her temper. It was creepy enough in here.
"Stop shaking already, you're pissing me off! You're supposed to be a warrior, what the hell is wrong with you!?"
"I- … sorry." the guard answered with a meek reply.
He wore mythril chain mail which covered most of his body, and even had a shield. His face bore a massive scar and he was missing an ear. He obviously outlived a lot of his comrades and prevailed on the battlefield, but now he was shaking like a greenhorn recruit before their first battle.
"Give me that!"
Alison grabbed the lantern and the guard submissively allowed her to take it. It felt like stealing candy from a child, which made her even angrier. This time, however, she kept silent and hurried her pace of walking.
This was the deepest part of the mountain. The entrance to the corridor is always locked behind an adamantite door. To enter here is a pain in the ass in the first place, because the door is so heavy it has to be opened by a dozen of elves, and it being locked with magic is not helping either. Alison had to wait two hours for the spells to be removed, which made her stress out even more.
She had limited time for this mission, and she didn't really want to do it in the first place. But doing this was part of her job in keeping her friend safe.
The walk did not take as long as she thought it would and she quickly reached the end of the tunnel. At the end there was a single wooden door.
She walked up to the door and reached for the handle. As she pushed the door open it broke and fell off its hinges.
"Hueeeeeeeeeee!!!!"
The guard screamed and suddenly started to run all the way back, in complete darkness.
The door was completely rotten, that's why it broke, but it apparently was enough to scare a veteran fighter.
"I guess I'm alone on this one…"
Alison sighed and walked forwards.
"Big…"
The room she entered was vast, and her puny lantern could not light it all the way through. But the 'big' thing was not the room she was referring to.
As Alison walked deeper and deeper into the room, she got the better look at the sleeping giant. It slithered around in its sleep and seemed to be using a massive golden statue as its sleeping pillow.
She could not guess the exact size of the being, but it was easily the size of a warship. It was covered in black scales and had four legs. This dragon-like creature casually slept in this massive room while not paying any attention to Alison.
Alison did not know what to do. She read her childhood books, and doesn't know if it's true or not, but awakening a sleeping dragon never ended well. But she has no other choice, when dragons fall asleep, they can easily stay that way for decades, or even centuries.
As she was racking her brain about how to wake up this giant, an inhumanly deep voice spoke to her.
"How long are you going to stand there?"
The inhuman voice was so powerful the vibrations it created made the dust rise from everywhere.
The dragon slowly uncoiled from the statue and stood up. It was so large it had to keep its head down to not hit the ceiling.
The dragon managed to surprise her, and her body has entered her battle-mode, though at the moment it was trembling in fear out of instinct.
She gulped and carefully chose her words. "O-ooh mighty dragon! I am Alison Goldglow, a paladin from the elven Kingdom! This insignificant life form, which is only an ant compared to your greatness, has come here carrying a proposal from my country!" She herself was surprised at all the flattering words she managed to pull off. Now, her part has been done. All that's left is to hear the answer, be it death or not...
