Chapter 5: Meeting King Leo

As Stonefist was remembering the past six months, he reached his home. He took out some mead and food, then sat at the table to eat despite the late hour. If his wife were here, she would be ranting about the hour, however she still was not home and he was having no luck finding her. 

He drank as he recalled meeting King Leo for the first time. He had returned from the mountain with his king's hammer. Once he was out of his vault, he set the hammer down and grabbed some lunch and a quick bath. Then he focused on cleaning his armour and axe. His clan crest sat proudly on both the armour and the axe. It's a simple design, just a grey fist that resembled stone, however he wanted it to shine when meeting the king. 

Once everything was clean, he dressed himself up, carefully braided his beard, and checked himself in the mirror. He debated putting a helm on and decided against it as he placed his axe on his back. Then he picked up the king's hammer and headed towards the palace.

It was not strange to see a dwarf carrying some type of weapon, nor was it strange for them to be in armour. Despite this truth, the front guards of the palace would not let him through to see the king.

" I am sorry, weapons are not permitted past this point." The tall human guard said.

" Fine, bring the king here."

" Don't you think the king has better things to do?"

" I don't bloody care about the king's schedule." He replied with irritation. " I have orders from my king and I intend to fulfill them. Now you can either let me through of your own free will or the stone will curse you."

Both guards just laughed in his face. One even rolled his eyes. " I'm afraid it doesn't matter what you say. We can not let you through with any weapon."

" Suit yourselves then." As he spoke, the stone pathway crawled up the guards' legs. Both humans started to try and break the stone and forgot about him. Without looking at them, he strolled right into the palace. He really had no clue where he should go, so he asked another human in the hall. That human did not have a problem with him carrying a weapon. She led him to a grand hall and then went about her work. He thought that this was mighty strange after the guards put up such a fuss. Though what surprised him more was the fact that there was no guard at the entrance to this hall. Didn't humans value their leaders? What was the meaning of this?

The room was full of different people sitting on benches. The King was sitting at a long half circle table with other humans dressed in fancy clothes. There was paper in front of the king as he was currently discussing crops with a slightly grey haired woman. He snorted and started walking up the middle to complete his task.

Without warning he was surrounded. Didn't matter to him how, what mattered was getting through the threat. He was not the warrior that his grandfather was, however he still knew how to protect himself. As he took his stance, a voice rang through the room.

" What in the stones name is going on here?"

Shock ran through Stonefist. He never heard a human call the stone before. His respect for whoever called the stone went up. One of the men around him answered, " My Lord, there is a dwarf headed towards you with a hammer bigger than half of me. Clearly he means you harm and as such we must stop him."

Silence followed those words. Stonefist waited for his enemy to attack. Most the men around him were switching between watching him and watching the man that spoke to his lord. " You said a dwarf with a big hammer?" 

Confusion showed on the man's face as he responded, " Yes my king."

" Let him through immediately."

" My Lord!?" 

A fist hit the table with a loud bang. " I said let him through." The group around him stepped back. It was clear that they disliked doing so and watched him closely. Stonefist watched them for a bit before walking forward. As he moved towards the table, King Leo stood and moved to the front of the table. Stonefist  stopped several feet away from the king and placed the hammer between them with the head of the hammer down.

The king's expression was grim as he studied the hammer. Stonefist simply waited for him to take it. Afterall, this was the job handed to him by his king. Without a word, King Leo walked up to the hammer and lifted it up to his shoulder with one arm. Stonefist nodded in satisfaction and left without a word. On his way through the front doors of the palace, he removed the stone spell from the fools who tried to stop him. He then returned to the mountain to speak with his king and hopefully then he would speak to his clan.

The meeting with his king took hours. He found out that several families of dwarves within the human kingdom had family or family artifacts stolen from them. This explained why every dwarf was willing to wage war. This being said, the king wanted to attack the person responsible for the thefts. To that end, he sent Stonefist back to gather information. Luckly, he was not the only one. Truthfully, he uncovered nothing in the months since meeting with his king.  

As he stopped reminiscing about the last few months, he felt frustrated and plain angry. If he couldn't get the mastermind in this plot, then he will at least get the minions. If his wife wasn't returned to him by the end of a month's time, then those who exited the wall tonight will die to the stone. If those people actually kept their word, then he would cancel the spell. He didn't have high hopes for them to keep their word. He just hoped that his wife and the other dwarves taken could survive long enough for them to be found and returned to the mountain.