Chapter 12: Families saved?

Stonefist sat in a big room listening to the plan to save his wife as well as the other dwarves families before the demons come. Honestly he thought the plan wasted too much time and would have them all fighting back the demons here instead of being safe in the mountains. Most humans had no clue that the demons would not attack the dwarven kingdom, however dwarves outside of the kingdom were fair game. Stonefist could see that the other dwarves in the room were thinking the same as him. They needed to cut off as much time as possible in order to return to the mountain. 

Stonefist stood up with a loud bang. " No offense meant, however we need to go now. All this blabbering is wasting time. Also, as far as getting there, we will go by the stone. I know that area well and can get us all there safely."

The king's eyes narrowed and he looked at Stonefist and gruffly asked, " How close can you get us?"

" Within thirty feet of the building. That's as close as I can get with the number of people here. I also will not be able to help get them out if we want a quick escape."

" I don't agree with running like rabbits away from hungry wolves."

" Who says we are running! Are you saying our combat skills are so low that we have to fight them all night? As for the demons, if you want to stay and fight them, nobody here will stop you."

Several more dwarves said at once, " Aye!" King Leo grinned a bit mischievously at that. Dwarves could be just as bloodthirsty as the demons at times and clearly they were riled up. " Well then, should we get going or continue to talk about it?"

There were several snorts as all the people, dwarves and humans stood and started double checking their equipment. After ten minutes everyone turned to Stonefist. Stonefist was already near the longest wall and had already made the connection to the stone near their target. All he did once everyone was ready was open the way. There was no big light show to watch. The clear grey stone simply changed to a dark obsidian black color that seemed to have little lights within. It was like looking at a clear night sky.  

All the humans except King Leo gasped in shock. They had never seen such a thing and couldn't believe it when the dwarves started walking through the darkness without thinking twice. They hesitated until they saw their king move through the stone with the same calm as the dwarves. Then they rushed to follow. Stonefist couldn't stop himself from chuckling. This human king certainly deserved his respect. Once everyone else was through, Stonefist followed.

The coldness within the stone travel way was nothing new for the dwarves who easily ignored it. The humans, however, felt like they would never be warm again when they reached the other side. Even King Leo felt the effects of the bone chilling cold. It had been many years since he had stone traveled. He just kept walking to the wooden temple nearby. 

The dwarves had already rushed in and were killing everyone in sight. This really wasn't part of the plan, however king Leo was not surprised and therefore ordered his men to clean up the bodies while he caught up with the dwarves. The black robed priests had no chance as they were cut down and all rooms were searched. They finally found what they were looking for in a second story room.

When they busted through double doors on the left side of the stairs they saw five priests torturing a small child. They could not even hear the screams and cries from the outside of the room. Even when they opened the doors with a bang, they could not hear it. Only when they rushed through the doors and passed a magical sigil on the ground could they finally hear. Many people were crying and screaming while the priests simply went about harming the child in front of them. The king and dwarves quickly killed the priests, beheading them before they noticed.

The king found the keys and started unlocking cages. Meanwhile, the dwarves with him didn't bother with keys and simply destroyed either the locks or the hinges. There were more than just dwarves here. The king frowned, " Is everyone that you are looking for in this room?"

" No, about one fourth is here. I reckon that the others are in the other rooms."

" I see. I will go get my men to help move these people to the capital." After saying this he tossed the keys in his hands to the nearest dwarf and headed back downstairs. He was certain that the dwarves would make short work of the rest of the rooms. He wasn't wrong, within two hours time they had left the temple with every living thing there. Including several spirit beasts in cages who were tortured just as much as all the people. 

King Leo was now in his office reading the disturbing journals that the head priest kept. His wife was overseeing the healing of every person and creature they brought back. As for Stonefist and the rest of the dwarves, they returned to the mountain by the morning. Some dwarves were carrying their dead family back home. There would be grieving in many halls the next few weeks. 

King Leo had already made sure that the men who went with them to save everyone, could not speak of how they traveled so far in such a short amount of time. It was a simple binding spell that even non magic users could use. This annoyed the ladies and lords to no end, which actually pleased King Leo. Eventually Leo finally slept. There was only this day to prepare and he was determined to be at his best.