Curious

They both stood motionless staring into each other's eyes for several moments, Tar visibly calm, as if he had casually asked his friend something and was waiting for their reply, while Arlen was merely speechless. He had now officially vowed to fight against the man before him, to make him his enemy, but he didn't know how to react with him standing right in front of him. Arlen was frozen speechless, so Tar spoke up first,

"Isn't The Underground beautiful?"

"I-I'm sorry?"

"The Underground, the dwarf realm I guess it's more commonly called nowadays."

"I-It used to be called The Underground?"

"Oh yes, you see each realm is part of the same planet, just separated. So really calling them 'worlds' isn't an appropriate description. Only the dragons knew this though, or at least it was only common knowledge to them. They didn't need portals they could fly wherever they wanted," Tar explained with a somber hue coating his inky black irises.

"I didn't know that. Why are you here?" Arlen stated bluntly.

"I heard you made things official, at least as official as you can make them. I'm letting you know ahead of time that I'm not going to hurt you, you don't realize it yet but we're allies. Although that meat head you're partnered with I make no promises."

"What do you mean as official as I can make them? And I won't stand for you hurting Gunk."

Tar chuckled softly, "The more I talk to you the more thankful I am I decided to make you my ally; bravery is a very valuable trait. You don't fully understand the power you're capable of wielding, or the extent to which everyone else wants it suppressed. Mr. W understands that, that's why your father sent you to him, and why I helped you along to meeting him faster."

"How do you know my father?"

Tar stared deeply at Arlen for several moments, his eyes continuously shifting through unrecognizable emotions, until he spoke in a serene, monotone voice,

"I can't decide whether your ability to fearlessly ask questions is bravery or naivety."

"Why won't you answer my question?"

"I'm beginning to think it's naivety."

"Maybe but the fact that you won't answer my question means something doesn't it?"

Tar's face twisted downward briefly before correcting itself back to it's serene and comforting gaze and responded,

"It certainly does. We've run out of time to talk. But I'll be back soon." Turning on his heels he threw a green orb in front of him and hopped into the open portal.

Arlen felt a brief moment of vertigo and was suddenly greeted by Gunk's massive frame blocking the entirety of his view. With a concerned look on his face he questioned,

"Are you okay brother? You've been staring into space for a while."

"Uh yeah I'm okay, just thinking about how different the dwarf world is from the human world."

"Oh yes! Pop Pop told me the human world has massive buildings that go up to what's called the sky, have you seen the sky before brother?"

"The sky? Uh, I mean, yeah kinda hard not to see it."

"I heard you can't really see the elf world sky because the Life Tree is so big it blocks it."

"What's a Life Tree?"

"I don't know, I just know it's big and it's sap has healing powers!"

"Oh I see." Arlen felt guilty about hiding his meetings with Tar from Gunk, but also felt it unnecessary to tell him and felt it would only cause suspicion. Tar hadn't offered anything, and, if anything, he had cooperated with Arlen and answered his questions at least thus far. Arlen was really a boring person, at least he thought so, he never had any interests or preferences and was always accepting of the bare bones life style he had living on the streets, but one thing he did have was fascination and curiosity. He planned to milk every ounce of info he could from Tar, for as long as he kept visiting him.

The duo approached a small crack in the cliff face. Although in regards to the monumental wall of earth it seemed small, but the crack itself was about 16 feet high and about two feet across, it traveled into the rock and curved around into an unseeable direction.

"It's right through here, usually the train would take us under this cliff and out to the city but Pop Pop wanted to make things hard for us," Gunk said with a slight pout as he began to shimmy into the crack, for him it was a slightly tight fit, for Arlen it felt no different from walking through a door. As the duo maneuvered through an ever shifting tunnel they eventually broke through, and were greeted by a gastly sight. Massive lizards at least 13 feet in length were skewered lifelessly on massive logs sharpened to a point, their eyes held a lifeless gaze and mouths stood agape, but was more pressing to the two was the lizard's necks. They were entirely covered in purple scales shimmering in the light except for two spots right where the back of the neck and their spines connect, there there was two massive wounds, gaping holes showed no end as thick black blood pored from them and down the lizard's bodies, it was a gruesome scene. Arlen was taken aback by this sight, but was surprised at his own mental framework. This was gore on a level he had never seen before but instead of anxiety or fear he felt alerted and slightly invested. Gunk on the other hand showed nothing but confusion and concern.

"Um what happened to them?" Arlen questioned.

"I don't know. Their sacks have been taken, it's where they produce the gas that makes people sleepy, I don't understand why someone would take them." Gunk explained while removing his backpack, he fiddled inside for a moment before pulling out a massive staff folded in half, only one end of it was a completely flat disk, almost like a plate. He walked over to the cliff side they came from and poked the side with the plate toward the cliff, and the ground shook. The earth around the staff seemed to crawl and morph as glittering jewels popped from it and onto the staff face, Arlen stared in disbelief.

"This used to be Pop Pop's hammer, he used it in the war. It's been enchanted to pull the strongest rocks and minerals to use as it's hammerhead, pretty cool eh brother?" Gunk said proudly, and on closer inspection Arlen concluded that the glittering jewels were in fact diamonds, that had now morphed into a square flat head with slightly spiked edges on the four corners and the other side a pointed tip, curling slightly downward.

Gunk turned toward Arlen with a neutral expression, "This wasn't done by animals, are you okay with that brother?"

Arlen understood what he meant, that there were people here, armed and dangerous people here, and that more than likely they'd have to fight. In response he nodded confidently, as the two began their first few steps into the massive ravine.