You've Got A Friend In Me (2)

Archie stared at the handsome, chibi-looking dwarf, councilman Oin Edda. Archie didn't realize that underneath that metallic robe was such a cute figure waiting for him.

Oin Edda, one of the twelve majestic councilmen, had a body that was all proportion but shortened. His hair was brown, and he had a wrinkled complexion, with blue eyes shining like moonstones.

Archie did not notice that Oin Edda's eyes sparkled in the Astral Hall as it was all lit up, but here, in the dark room, his eyes glowed and gleamed with excitement, finally able to talk to Archie without any prohibition.

Archie walked towards the bed and whispered, "Oin."

"You looked just like your mother—strong-willed, filled with passion, probably discriminating dwarves at the beginning just like her."

"Mom thought dwarves were boring too."

"That's right! That's what she called us! Boring! Boringly good, boringly neutral, boringly passive, and boringly indecisive. She was right, of course."

Archie was dumbfounded when he realized this was the dwarf that his mother always talked about during his bedtime stories, but he always asked her to skip it.

"I am sorry. I thought you guys were just boring blacksmiths that create tools supporting other races but never side anyone, not even showing any animosity towards the dark creatures."

"That's true; we didn't want to oust the human beings away from Elysium after the war was over either."

"Was that why you helped Mother?"

"You figured it out." Oin smirked in delight, seeing how intelligent his friend Son had become.

"Let's secure the place so that we can talk freely. I know your little birdy friend is still lurking out of your room, monitoring you. Thankfully, you know how to tamper with that watch, so it called me here." Oin smiled widely.

Oin took out a miniature cottage toy house from his pocket and placed it on the desk beside the bed. He then opened the door and said to Archie, "After you," with a huge grin on his face.

Archie didn't know what to do; he was looking at the miniature cottage and then his body and wondering how in the world he was going to fit into that house.

Then Archie's eyes widened and he said, "Was that how you guys?"

"Shhhh. After you," This time, Oin Edda stood on the bed to place a finger on Archie's lips, asking him to shut up before his golden girlfriend heard them.

Archie smirked, his hand reaching for the tiny handle like it was the most normal thing to do, and then he took a step towards the house.

Instantly, Archie felt a familiar pulling sensation and was immediately sucked into the cottage. He looked around the beautifully decorated cottage, with ornate woodcarvings of various animals and occasional dwarf figures. Almost every object, from chairs to tables to candle holders, was carved in detail.

Not long after, the little dwarf warped through the cottage door and landed right behind Archie, inches away from hitting him down across the floor.

"Be careful not to stand too long at the front door of a dwarf's cottage." Oin warned.

"I am sorry. I wasn't thinking." Archie admittedly wasn't used to this, but it was a common courtesy to not stand in front of a door for too long anyway.

"Come, let's go to the fields." Oin offered. "I set a table for two to have supper somewhere. You can stay here if you like; I have prepared a room for you as well." Oin continued.

"Was that how the dwarves evaded the war all this time?"

"We did not evade the war, but we created a small space for ourselves in case of contingencies like the war. So that our people will not be sacrificed in vain."

"Are we still in Astral?" Archie asked.

"Well, now we are not." Oin replied, which baffled Archie.

"What does that mean?" Archie asked in search of the dwarf's clarification.

"Well, if we were still within the confines of the cottage, then yes, we were in Astral. But, right now, we are at the fields of the Blue Mountains in the east of Elysium, far away from Astral." Oin concluded with a huge smile on his face.

"Oh, and it is daylight here." Oin added.

Archie looked at the field with profound excitement as he tailed along with his mother's friend in delight, happy to be away from that suffocating phoenix.

As they walked through the flat fields, Oin stopped his tracks, and Archie was too distracted by the surrounding beauty to knock against the dwarf, as he was not aware that they had stopped.

In the middle of the field, there was a rabbit hole. The chibi dwarf looked at Archie and said, "Jump in." This time, without another word, the host went in first. Archie was taken aback, hesitated for a moment, but decided to jump after Oin.

To his surprise, instead of falling, he was sliding through the hole and his butt landed on a chesterfield. Opposite sat a group of dwarves surrounding him, saying, "It's him! Lucia's son."

In the middle of the audience, Archie was struggling to find Oin, who had disappeared from sight.

"Excuse me,"

"Coming through," Archie walked through the crowd of dwarves.

The crowd that was gathering around Archie was pale and wrinkled.

'Are they sick?' Archie's face was filled with concern for the dwarf race. Even though they were secluded from the threats of war, that also meant they isolated themselves from facilities and amenities like healthcare, which were cautiously gatekept by the phoenixes and the elves.

Archie walked past the hallway as one of the dwarfs let him into a room filled with watches, miniature cottages, cars, airplanes, and other toy trinkets displayed or hanging all over the room.

In the middle was Oin, busy tinkering with items on his work table that were lined up waiting for him to finish.

"There you are; it took you long enough. I see you saw my family."

"Yes, I did."

"Those were all the dwarves that's left in Blue Mountain."

"What?"

Oin's smile faded from sight as he stopped what he was doing and wiped his hands with his working towel, as if he were done tinkering with toys for the day.

"I believe you have questions about your mother, and perhaps about our well being, after seeing our conditions."