"And I am not the one who wanted to forego granite and use basalt in the flooring of..."
"Black basalt would have looked better!" the prim man interrupted.
I gave up, stood up, and walked over to the most bored guard. "I need food." I said, "I'll be back before they decide anything."
"Sarge?" he asked a weathered, one armed woman.
She sighed, smacked her gums. "They've got two, maybe three months of grievances yet to go." she decided. "Be about it, but waste no time and hurry back."
"And bring back snack pebbles, if you could." the youngest said.
"I gave up my bicep to bring you into this world, child." the sergeant said. She thumped her chest. "We are biology. He is escamology. Like us, but made of fragile animal materials." <1>
The young lad blinked at me. "How do you not collapse under your own weight?" he asked.
"Mostly bones." I said. "I can teach you about it when I get back."
I debated for a short time just going the standard Tolkein route with the dwarvish government, one strong lord or lady, whom all in the city respect and obey.
And don't get me wrong, the man paved the way for a LOT of what exists in the fantasy genre today. But his stories aren't this story, and so the ancient dwarves chose representative councils instead. Because my dwarves aren't his, and they don't think in human terms.
Sorry for the missed days, we had our first 'programmer crunch' at work this week. It's amazing how tired you can become with just mental work.
Gift shouts- Most Recent: The_mage1zansabar, Largest single gifter: The_mage1zansabar.
Daily shout to Hopehard and CardinalSeven our top daily power stone donors for today.
As always, thank you for your readership! It matters to me more than I can put into words.