Friends In High Places

it was so quiet in the dwarf dungeon that I only could hear the sound of water dripping off of the bricks.

as I rose from my bed I began to think was it truly worth it becoming what I chose to be in this new chance that I had at life?

the dwarf guard banged a metal bar against the bars of my cell in order to get my attention.

when I came back to my senses and aware of what was going on around me I noticed that he had a tray with some kitchen leftovers for me to eat.

"just be glad that you have friends in high places. normally prisoners only eat bread or fruit they do not ever get any meat of any kind" the guard said to me as he looked down at me and grabbed one of the old chicken legs and began to eat it in front of me.

to ensure that he did not paint any of this food any further I quickly got out of the old rusty bed and made my way to the sale bars.

the plate had one chicken drumstick, eight white grapes, and two small pieces of bread. I quickly ate the food on the plate after I looked at what was on it so that I could quickly finish it before the guard came back and took all of it from me.

when I finished my food I placed the plate down on the ground beside the bed and began to think about what I'm going to do now that I am in prison.

"sir what are you doing here? why are you visiting the prison today?" I heard the guard ask.

"as the king of the King of the dwarves I can go where I please can I not?" the king said in a very dominating voice.

then I heard footsteps coming towards my cell.

"it seems that you are doing fairly okay. I hope that the leftover food that my youngest son and I brought to you is sufficing for the moment?" the king asked me as he approached my cell.

"well it has been decent enough your majesty" I said as I walked to the cell bars and bowed to him.

"I am truly sorry about putting you in this dungeon but, I have to follow our political customs no matter how unfair and unjust they can be on those who are not of noble or royal birth."

"l have to say that it is at least a bit of a relief that you were just following customs. next I have a question; since we are not surrounded by political figures I am curious if you believed me or your sons?"

"truthfully my eldest son has always let his political power and positioning go to his head; and my middle son usually follows my eldest son's lead since he's not much of an alpha male."

"I truly do not care as long as he gets punished in the end as a result of his obsession over power. your majesty please do not take that as a demand I am trying to tell you how to raise your son" I told the king as I bowed to him.

"you do not have to worry I have punished both of my older sons already. oh and just so that you know the council has all agreed to go to war against Zog the Destroyer."

then I sit back down on my bed so I could think about what was going to happen in this upcoming war against Zog. I wonder how long I'm going to be stuck in this cell or if I will be able to use my warrior skills to help this world stand up against Zog.

"guard open the gate this prisoner has been punished long enough" King Austroon said while he backed away from the dungeon bars.

guard quickly obeyed the king and opened the door of the dungeon. he then allowed me to leave but looked at me with a stair of disgust as well as rage.

"now that you are out of the cell follow me and we are going to take care of you in a way where almost no one will recognize you apart from myself and my third son Binyail."

"how are we going to do that your majesty?" I asked the king while I took my armor and great sword from the guards chest outside of the dungeon area and put it on. it felt like such a relief to finally have on my armor and weapon; I felt truly naked without it on while I was in the dungeon for the one night that I had been a prisoner once again.

when The King and I left the dungeon. he guided me to the Palace while trying to avoid contact with as many people as possible so that we would not draw attention to ourselves I was assuming.

"well first we are going to change your clothing into appropriate Royal garments and also give you better armor and a royal greatsword that has magic runes in it."

"well I thank you very much your majesty for helping me."

"I will be speaking to you now as a father and not as a king if that is okay with you Gilltrude. other than the fact that I feel like you have a lot of fighting potential as a warrior; the main reason why I am going to these links is because of the fact that you are the first true friend that my youngest son has ever made that did not try to approach him purely due to his political power and wealth." the king told me as he was laughing.

when we made it to the Palace gate the guards quickly opened it and allowed us to pass through as soon as they laid eyes on the king.

"so first we are going to change your appearance slightly by having one of our dwarf maids fix your hair and trim your beard since it is looking rather wild and also not well up kept."

"all right then let us go and begin my transformation".

we made it to a guest room within the palace without much interruption by any people.

the room that the king allowed me to stay in was quite fancy. room had two smaller rooms in it one for sleeping and one for socializing. both of these rooms had a gold trimming at both the base and top of the walls. the walls were white and had paintings of print types of dwarven art on them.

meeting area had a table with two chairs on the far side that were both on the same side. the room also had a table against the center rear wall.

"all right now wait here. one of the maids will be here shortly to help you pick out some clothes after you get your hair taken care of and your beard trimmed. oh and finally is there a color that you want to dye your hair since that will help make it more convincing if your hair color isn't the same."

"I suppose I would want to die my hair red" I told the king as I bowed to him.

"I will let you get yourself prepared for this new phase of your life. while you are preparing yourself I will get one of the guards to go find your female companion so that she can join you in this journey if that is what you want Giltrode."

"yes please bring her here if that would be possible" the king said as he left the room and shut the door behind him.

I waited for about fifteen minutes before I heard a knock on the front door of my room.

"maid service may I enter sir?" I heard a female voice say to me.

"yes you may enter" I said to her while I sat down on one of the chairs of the social room.

the female that opened the door was wearing a simple brown dress that was not very fancy. she also carried a bag with her and placed it on the table in front of me after bowing at me.

"sir I have been given instructions by his majesty that you are to be totally redesigned in the way that you look." she said to me as she took the other chair and placed it in the open area of the room. "can you please come sit down sir?".

I then stood up from the chair that I was in and came to sit down in the one she had moved so that she could begin my transformation process.

she spent the next hour trimming my beard to where it was very short but it still looks like it fit naturally. then she cut off all my loose hair till it was just around my head and thinned it out.

the next step that she took was to dye my hair red. she grabbed a red colored Stone and then placed it on top of my head. after a short while she removed the stone from my head.

"now hair should be a Scarlet red color."

"wait how did you do that exactly since I know that dwarfs have no magic."

"yes while you are correct that we have no magic capability unlike the humans, elves, or other species in this world; we have the highest grade of smithing so we use magical rocks that we find to change the color of objects. if the stone stays in contact with another surface long enough it will begin to change colors to match the stone. these stones are called transformation stones."

"that is quite interesting and a unique way to change colors of other objects".

"I'm overturned shortly sir" the maid said when she bowed at me after sweeping up all the loose hair that I had on the floor.

I waited for about half of an hour for the maid to return while which I set and thought about the new lease on life that I had been offered and all of the possibilities that could come with it.

she then came back with two other female maids and they had different garments with them. when they made it in front of me they handed me the garments and asked me to change so that I could decide which one I wanted to wear after bowing to me.

I quickly walked to the bed chamber and locked the door behind me so I could change in private. I walked to the bed and started to change into my new clothes after I removed my armor and great sword.

it took me a few minutes to make up my mind on which set of clothing I wanted to wear. I chose to where the clothing that had the Royal symbol on it and colored black.

the clothing was a fancy silk shirt and a pair of dress pants that were also black. next I put on the white gloves followed by the white shoes.

"you look truly dashing sir in your new clothes" the head made told me as she bowed to me after I opened the door of my bedroom and walked out of it. "now that our job is done sir the King has asked for you to meet him in the Royal dining hall for your next meal".

I then left the room and felt a sense of pride and wealth as I left and walked my way to the Royal dining hall.