Chapter 47:Escalation (4/4)
August went away, saying nothing else. He knew that the next days will be the most essential for the city of carbon and the future of Mahakam overall.
August rented a place to sleep and waited for the situation to escalate. It took only a week before many people gathered in front of the Brouver's house. A crowd of angry dwarfs, gnomes and even halflings. They gathered in front of his house while demanding a change in the policy. They wanted to have freedom of choice.
They never wished to be stuck in the mines like their ancestors.
When the crowd gathered around his house was too much to handle for those guarding, the doors were broken and a huge amount of people broke inside of the house with angry shouts and faces full of belief in their victory.
They broke inside and went directly into the hall where Brouver did all of his jobs. Nobody noticed, but August was there as well. He was using the crowd as a shield and a shadow to stay unnoticed. Hiding in the corners, not to stand out as an immense man in the middle of the crowd.
August silently watched as a situation escalated. Despite August's biased opinion of the living creatures, contrary to those like elves and humans, he sympathised with dwarfs much more. They were way more civil and rarely created bloodshed between each other, solving their problems with arguments.
There was once a war which was caused by humans, that lead a lot of dwarfs, gnomes and halflings to die in the process. But this was already back in history. The war that broke out in 789 ended in a few years, leaving only elves as a defeated party.
Brouver stood in the middle of the hall, protected by a lot of guards, holding an axe in one of his hands. His eyes expressed extreme anger. He was serving this city as a leader for the last 100 years. Doing his absolute best to keep Mahakam as a united country, not letting its population die out.
The crowd didn't want to listen to him and that got him quite enraged by the situation. Knowing well how hot-blooded young dwarfs are and the only way to attract their attention was by force and authority.
With a loud shout.
"SILENCE"
To which nobody reacted. Taking a different approach, Brouver shouted once more, but with a shout, he did something else. Gathering all of his strength, he crushed a floor with his axe, implanting it right in the stone, which created a huge vibration and sound that made the crowd shut up.
"SILENCE"
The crowd shouts died out, leaving everyone waiting for the words of the old dwarf that were looking at his citizens with angry eyes.
"What is the purpose of your riot?" inquired Brouver
A lot of shouts rang through the hall, making it impossible to hear even the slightest bit of the demands that they tried to voice out.
With a heavy sigh, Brouver had to make some arrangements. Lifting his hand in the air asking for silence, he voiced out the only options he saw.
"I will give you all 10 minutes to decide on one representative that will speak up for all of you, and I'm ready to discuss your demands with him in person"
Young dwarfs had no other option but to agree. They were not ready to let the blood flow; they were not ready to fight their own kin. Arrangements were quickly made, and the crowd went outside waiting for the results of the negotiation.
[Process of negotiation]
Brouver faced a dwarf with a stern look. The dwarf expressed not a single bit of hesitation to speak about the problems.
"Let's start, I want to hear for the reason of your riot caused in the city," said Brouver, observing the dwarf.
Even when causing a riot, the dwarf was polite when he spoke. There could be clearly seen that dwarfs had authority in place and they didn't shout, but calmly spoke when they are one on one.
"My name is Tabhak Skanda. I'm here on behalf of the all young generation that wanted to voice out our complaints about the policy that is placed upon us." explained Tabhak.
"So what is the reason behind all of this disturbance that you caused without taking your concern about what consequences that could cause?" asked Brouver
"I want to express our displeasure with being kept in the city for the sake of your policy, which is too restrictive for the liking of most of the dwarfs," explained Tabhak
"So, what do you suggest? There are reasons for such a policy! I can't let our race vanish from the maps and history of the world. We are the noble and ancient inhabitants of this continent. Do you want to cause the extinction of our kind? Do you want to die in the hands of the humans that will have 0 respect for you? They will only try to kill you and exterminate you for the sake of their beliefs. I can't let that happen"
"I don't think you can decide the future of all of us. We have our own goals that we wish to achieve, and if they happen not to fit with yours, I don't think you have the right to lock them here and make them work for the sake of your belief. Don't say that there is nothing that could be done to change that," said Tabhak.
…..
The Argument continued for the next hour, trying to find a compromise between 2 parties, but nothing worked. Every side Tabhak tried to come from would be cut and deemed impossible and irrelevant. Brouver didn't accept even a single idea that Tabhak suggested. There were a lot of ideas that could solve the problem without causing a full fledge war or a huge rift between the new and old generations.
Reaching no pleasant conclusion, Tabhak stood and proceed to walk away from the old and stubborn man that didn't want to search for other ways other than causing a huge riot.
When the door opened and Tabhak was about to walk through, Brouver shouted "Stop, hold on a minute"
Brouver silently said under his breath, "I swear, if your words meant something else, Witcher, I will rip your head"
Tabhak looked towards the head of their city and inquired, "You want to say something else?"
"I will allow young ones to venture the world when they reach the age of 30, at least. Before that, they will have to stay inside the city, but after 30, I will allow them to venture into the world. However, they will have to swear not to cause trouble for the kingdom getting by into the fights with the humans." explained Brouver
Tabhak smiled for the first time this day. He could not say that this was all they wanted, but all of them knew how stubborn their leader was, and achieving even the slightest success was already something truly impressive.
Tabhak bowed deeply to their leader, expressing his genuine emotions. "Thank you, elder Brouver. I will make sure to inform everyone about your words but don't break them or it will only cost us lives or our friends and family"
Brouver gestured to the man to go away since even agreeing to those conditions was hard for him, but if the Witcher was right and he could get his wife to come back, it will compensate for all the things he had to sacrifice. He had to fight off his own stubbornest and conservatism.
Tabhak went outside and shouted that they got what they wanted and almost immediately, loud cheers shook the mountain. Their cheers could be heard in every single corner of the city, making it an event where everyone knew that something changed.
With a tired sigh, Brouver looked at the ceiling, completely ignoring the surroundings and being in his own thoughts. Suddenly, he heard a familiar voice close to him.
Looking to the side, he saw her in the hands of the Witcher. She was alive, with her eyes open and with a smile on her face.
She softly said "Hello darling, I hope you didn't miss me a lot"
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Well you know sometimes there should be some positivity in this story. I guess I'm a bit biased, but I love those small bastards and I can't let them be bad guys.
So here we go, I think it is one of the few positive chapters that are in the story so far. And I guess it is quite refreshing.
Support the story if you enjoyed something good happening for the first time lol.
Before we return to backstabbing and all other nasty things that I will write about.
Peace and have a nice evening. Oh, and I will update the characters' chapter and bestiary with those people that appeared in the story so far.