Volume 1 Chapter 23: Peter

After the party, Peter and his guards were ordered to return home. They were riding in a carriage drawn by stone horses. His mansion, the dwarven embassy, laid on the outskirts of the village. Sitting beside him was one of his usual escorts. A female dwarf that he has known for a long time. She acts as both his maid and personal guardian.

"I had such a fun time."

"I'm glad young master."

"Do you think Mother would like to hear about the party?"

"I don't know, but I'm sure she would not mind."

"Really? I wish Mother would also come with us."

"She is very busy with her work, young master."

"I know but still."

"Come on, we'll tell her all about it at home."

Within a few minutes, they appear at the entrance of their mansion. The dwarven maid steps out before turning to catch Peter as he exits. Entering inside he sees the usual dwarven architecture. Apparently his mother had this made when the village first started up. He rushes throughout the mansion, looking for his mother. His maid escort follows him around while the other guards relax and speak with the guards stationed at the mansion.

Upon reaching his mother's room, he sees two guards there. He attempts to enter, but is stopped.

"Young master, you can't go in right now."

"Why not?"

"Because your mother is busy right now."

"But I need to tell her how the party went."

The guard looks at him and thinks.

"Hmm… why don't you tell me how it went."

"But you aren't Mother."

"So you'll tell your mother but not me. I'm hurt, young master."

She pretends to cry, making a crying gesture.

"No… don't cry. Fine, I'll tell you what happened at the party."

"Oh really, I'm so happy."

With his attention turned away, the guard eventually convinces him to leave his mother's room and into the bathing room. From there his personal maid and several other maids bathe him in a sizable ornate bathhouse.

A few minutes into his bath the lights within the bathhouse began to flicker. Faint shouting can be heard along with the clash of steel. Confused, he asked the maids,

"What's happening? Did we forget to recharge the magic crystals?"

One of the maids responds,

"No. I remember replacing them with the filled ones."

With a simple pointed gesture, the personal maid orders the others to find out what's happening. Peter asks,

"Are the guards training today?"

His personal maid responds,

"As the instructor of the guard, I highly doubt they would, but they could be practicing. Perhaps they broke something. I'll grill them myself if so. The mistress will be furious. Let's get you dressed and find out, young master."

"Okay."

As he clothed himself, the mansion shook. Confused, he and his guardian head out to see shattered glass, broken stone, and splintered wood throughout the hallway. His guardian instantly deploys a steel barrier from her gauntlet and shields Peter from a flung stone. The maids who had left earlier were recovering from the surprise attack and began counterattacking. The gauntlets of the maids turn into crossbow-like weapons and flinging bolts of magic energy. Looking through the crack from, Peter can see humans in dark plated armor attacking. A human cavalryman, riding a heavier horse, readies a cannon and fires at the mansion, shaking the building again.

"Young master, we need to get out of here."

"Okay."

"Maid crew. Form up."

With the simple command, the dwarven maids rallied around the head guardwoman.

"Guard the young master with your lives. We shall head to the back entrance where the stable is located."

With an affirmative grunt from the maids, they quickly descended down the floors while protecting their most important personnel. Reaching the ground floor, the group is encountered by a most gruesome scene. The entrance was blown wide open, with guards who were formerly holding it closed, blown apart by the numerous explosions.

Peter gasped, the shock choking him as he saw people he's known for years lying lifelessly. However before he could react more than that, he was pulled away.

"Hurry! Take him away now!"

Through the broken doorway, dozens of human knights flooded in. Remaining guards fought tooth and nail to repel their assault. The head maid took Peter down a different hallway leading to the outside. Between his choking and violent shaking from being lifted and carried, Peter raised an urgent question.

"Wait, what about Mother?"

"She'll be fine. She's probably on her way out and she has her own escort. Damn humans, how did they get here?"

The party of maids continue down the hall while pockets of humans begin chasing them down. Some maids turn around, firing their weapons, but it proved less effective than expected. Instead, with grim determination, they threw themselves into the fray in desperate attempts to stall the pursuers. Even if they were cut down, their very bodies shall create time. Such was the loyalty the maids were to the StoneSeigward house.

"Wait wait wait, the maids."

"There's no time, young master. We must keep going."

They exit through the final door and out into the stables. Dozens of bodies, dwarven and human, lay across the battlefield, formerly known as a stable. To cut off the escape of the matriarch, the humans had initially attacked the stables, but faced severe resistance by the guards there. Being one of the escape routes, the guardhouse was stationed next to the stable. Two coaches were always readied in such a case. The dwarves still had control over the stables for now. Barging out through another door appeared several other guards, one of which was guarding the matriarch's door.

"Mistress, the humans are gaining on us."

Stepping through the doorway, a large and stout dwarven lady with hazel eyes reveals herself. Though wearing a simple dwarven garb. Her face was the epitome of dwarven beauty, but her body was a temple of strength and discipline.

"I'm aware. Get to the coaches. Where is my son!?"

"I'm here Mother."

"Good, head maid, take him and flee to the inner village. We shall head away to the port."

"Understood."

Taking Peter into one of the coaches, the head maid sets off together with him while the matriarch disappears into the other one.

"Hurry and go!"

Outright crashing through gates and running over human soldiers swarming the stables, the two coaches escape with whatever guards and maids still remaining either on stony horseback or hanging onto the coaches. The humans assigned to kill the matriarch quickly remount on whatever they came on and begin chasing down both of the coaches, unsure which one is which.

From within his shaking coach, he can see mounted human knights chase after him. Maids and guards on the outside use whatever they can to dismount or kill the pursuing knights. Traveling along the outskirts, Peter could see the human army invade into the heart of the village.

"Head maid, we're going right into the army."

"I'm aware. We take the outskirts of the village instead."

"They're gaining on us."

"Just do what you can."

The pursuing knights clash with the onboard dwarven crew, finding themselves disadvantaged in the melee. They relent after a few scuffles and instead a knight with a cannon slowly appears from behind.

"Head maid, they brought a cannon!"

She looks outside. Thinking on her feet, she deploys her barrier and breaks it off at the window facing backwards, letting it fly behind the coach and into the knights behind, however before the separated barrier gains any distance, the cannon fires. The collision of the barrier and cannon ball shatters into fragmented pieces, some of which destroys the wheels of the coach and some surrounding human knights. With a lurch backwards the coach falls down, with the stone horses being dragged into one another and eventually twisting the coach to collapse on itself.

Peter wakes up. His coach is now on its side. His head maid collapsed, covering him. He can hear noise around him, but with the daze that he's in he can hardly tell what it is. As his mind stabilizes, he can hear the shouting of human men and the clash of steel. Realizing his situation, he tries to wake up the maid, but she lays unresponsive. Suddenly the fighting stops outside and he hears several footsteps instead. Peeking inside is the head of a human man.

"She's not here."

"Then who is?"

"A dwarf child."

"Her son then."

"What now?"

"Kill him and we go back to the assault."

Peter panics. He is still under his maid. He tries slapping her awake, but to no avail. The human begins reaching in with a dagger.

"Don't resist and it'll hurt. Resist and it'll hurt even more."

He laughs before grabbing Peter's hair. Peter screams, but just before the human can stab him, falls limp. On his back is an axe, thrown right into his spine. A female dwarf can be heard yelling outside. The footsteps back off.

"Hurry up and finish her off before I cut you into pieces."

The faint groans of a dwarf can be heard with the stabbing of flesh. Peter could only helplessly imagine what's happening outside. Someone he knew was being stabbed to death outside. He wished to do something, in fact this whole time he wished he could do something, but he couldn't. He was unprepared. All of his training was proving to fail him and now he was going to die here. Tears began to fall down his face. He could do nothing at all.

"Young master…"

Turning back around, he sees the maid awaken.

"Young master… I can't move my left arm. Press the axe button for me."

Scotting himself around to see her right arm, he presses the button. An axe head appears from her gauntlet.

"Now scot back."

Moving as far back as he could, he then questions her.

"What are you going to…"

Within a second, she slices her left arm off, freeing herself. Her arm bleeding profusely, she slowly positions herself up, gritting her teeth. Peter could only look in shock and horror.

"Run young master. I'll buy you some time. Run towards the village. Find your way to the dragon roost. You must survive, young master."

Pulling aside the dead human, she breaks the rest of the back window and squeezes her way out with Peter in tow. Standing a few meters away from her were three humans, probably the only ones left to pursue them. They were stabbing a dwarven maid, one who presumably threw the axe.

Peter crawls out.

"Hurry up

"Lookie here, there's still one left."

"Quick. Finish her off so we can get the son. She only has one hand."

They move to surround her, but before they truly get into position, she pounces on the right one. In a single go, her single handed axe cleaves right into the neck of the human, cutting into his torso. He mutters a single gasp of noise as a reaction to his imminent death. Within no time, the other two humans leap onto her. She pulls the dying human to parry a spear thrust, but fails to shield herself from the other's blow, a staggering club blow to her left shoulder. Her already crippled body shakes with even more pain. She pulls her axe free from the human just in time to now parry the club, cutting to the wooden blunt instrument, but getting stuck there. She then pulls him in and headbutts him. His nose breaks as blood flies out. With him staggered, she turns her attention to the spearman. The spearman had freed his spear and thrust it towards her torso, a fatal blow if achieved. Instead she deflects it awkwardly, causing it to strike her thigh instead. She gasps from the pain, which is all now starting to blur now, before swinging her axe, the wooden club with it, and smashing the face of the spearman. He falls backwards and she stumbles forward, swinging her axe into him. With a mighty fall, the swinging weight of the axe crushes the spearman's head. She was now on the ground, gasping. The other human recovers and had picked up a blade off the ground. He straddles her, aiming to stab her. She weakly deflects the blows before he instead swings at her face, ripping into her eyes. Blinded, weakened from blood loss and pain, she could only hope Peter had ran far enough to reach the village. Expecting to hear only a stab and her own death, she instead hears a sickening crunch.

Peter had ran away, just like how she said. His maids and guards died fighting for him and he did nothing. Even now he was running away. He was scared. So scared that he'd leaked whatever he had when he was grabbed. He can hear the fight taking place. Somewhere inside he always felt that he was a coward. It's why he had wished to be a hero. The most cherished people in his life gave theirs for him, but he could not help them. What about now? He could do something, but instead he's running away. She said to run right? That he had to live. He was a StoneSeigward, an important figure for the dwarves. Why was that so? Despite the situation, he recalls the past. Why did he look up to his ancestors so much? Was it because they were heroes? Why were they heroes? Running through his memories, he remembered something important. It was Aldrich. Aldrich came to save him before. Of course he did, he was a dragon. He was a true hero, but what made him a hero? He never thought about it before. He never considered Aldrich a hero, until that fateful day. What made his ancestors heroes? It was their bravery of course. He knew that. He realizes now that he can't be such a hero, one that will come to save the day.

He stops running. Something twisted inside him. He turns and looks back. He can see his maid battling the humans with her single hand. Something snapped within him. With small steps turning into a full sprint, he found himself running back towards the fight. His thoughts began to blur, much of which became incoherent, but only one thing remained on his mind. Though he may never become a hero, though he may always be a coward, leaving her, his caretaker and dearest friend to die was something he could never do.

Running back, he picked up a warhammer dropped by another one of his dwarven maids. He could see his maid fall and with it, the last remaining human straddling her. He had one shot at this. As if it was destined to be, Peter runs at the human, turning the man's attention to him, before swinging the warhammer from a low angle and into the jaw of the human, splatting the man's head and flinging the body backwards. Panting with a slight pause, he turns his attention to the fallen maid.

"Young master… is that you? I told you to run."

"I know I know."

The state of her was beyond awful.

"We need to get you help."

"Leave me young master. It is not safe here. I… can't see anymore."

More tears poured down Peter's face. Bending down, he picks up her right arm.

"Please young…"

"I won't leave you. I'll carry you myself if I must. How can I face my ancestors if I leave you here to die."

Pouring whatever he had into a heave, Peter lifts up the burly maid onto his back and begins walking towards the village.

"We'll get you help. You will not die on me. I swear you won't."

Internally, the maid thought,

"He becomes more and more like his mother each passing day. Mistress, if only you can see your son now. I hope I can keep on guiding him. May the Dragon King give us just a small blessing."