"Dodging the crude club of an ogre, I flung a dagger at a goblin that was about to kill a member of my clan, slaying the green scum. But as I rushed towards the troll that I was intent on slaying, to avenge those killed by its fangs, I realized that I was out of weapons."
"Eek! What happened next?" Miyata squirmed in excitement at Elder Thrikrondromm's tales of the past wars.
For the past few days, we had traveled through the dense forests of the southern portion of the empire uninterrupted, not even goblins or wild beasts hindered us. My father only knew a few stories, and those were all about weapon crafting, which bored Miyata to tears, so Elder Thrikrondromm had delved into his memories to tell stories of war and adventure, of which he had many from his thousand years of life.
"I was just about to tell you." Elder Thrikrondromm grumbled, cocking an annoyed eyebrow at Miyata. "The beast spotted me at the exact moment I realized that I had nothing to kill it with except my bare hands. Resolving to go to the ancestors with honor, I uttered a war cry that shook the walls of the cavern and dashed towards my doom."
"Eek! And then? And then? What happened next?"
Elder Thrikrondromm gave her a glare that could silence an entire school's worth of dwarven children. It was completely useless though. It washed over her like a gentle breeze, and she was entirely unfazed. So he cleared his throat and moved on.
"Ahem. As I was saying. I uttered a warcry that shook the walls of the cavern and rushed towards my doom. But the ancestors, hearing my shout, looked down and sent me aid. A sword that had become embedded in the rocks of the ceiling by an upward swing of a giant, suddenly fell in front of me, shaving a few hairs off my whiskers. I took up the sword that had retained all its sharpness, despite being embedded in the solid stone just moments before, and sliced open the gut of the troll. Forcing it to its knees, where I could jump up to slice off its head. A few minutes later, after more fierce fighting, the will of the monsters broke, and they fled to the dark cracks of the mountain where we could not follow."
Miyata gave a hearty applause before launching into an artillery barrage of chatter. "That was awesome! Do you still have the sword? Can I see it? What happened to everyone else in the battle? Did the goblins ever come back?"
Before Elder Thrikrondromm could answer any of her questions, even before she finished speaking, Gerde suddenly became alert. Sniffing the air as if she detected enemies.
"Papa, someone is attacking. I think he's human, but he smells weird."
Marcus overheard her warning and reined in the horses. Unsheathing his blade once the vehicle was brought to a complete stop. Everyone else got off the wagon at the same time and readied our weapons.
"Which way is the human coming from?" I asked Gerde. There was no need for her to respond though. Because from out of the treeline, a disheveled and dirty teenage human wearing a heavily worn and beaten school uniform, jumped out and dashed towards us.
"Don't worry, Miyata! I'll save you!" Is what I assume he said. He was speaking in Japanese, but his tone and gestures indicated that he thought we were holding her hostage.
He was going too fast to have a conversation to defuse the situation, so we'd have to fight a little bit. But since all of us were armed and armored, while he was bare handed, I figured it would be a short fight.
Boy was I ever wrong.
He first went after my father, dodging a hammer blow that would have knocked him out and then, sweeping the legs in a stunning display of judo, he laid my father out on his back. Then he tilted to avoid Delimira's sword thrust, and grabbing her outstretched arm, he flung her onto her back in what I'm pretty sure is called ippon. Gerde was next to receive the same treatment, although she managed to take several swings at the boy before getting thrown.
"That's enough of that, beardling." Elder Thrikrondromm stepped forward as the teen was saying something in Japanese. "I'd like to see you try that on me."
Recognizing the challenge, even though it was in a different language, the teenager rushed towards the annoyed Elder, and tried the same judo moves that had worked so well on the rest of our party. He grabbed Elder Thrikrondromm's wrist, pulled it over his shoulder and… nothing. The Elder's feet remained rooted to the ground.
"Nani?" The teen had a confused look on his face as he tried to pull Elder Thrikrondromm over his shoulder a couple more times, he then tried to sweep the legs, and a few other judo moves, all with zero effect.
"Sit down, young human." Elder Thrikrondromm used the shaft of his ax to pull the feet out from under the teen. "Boltun, give him the translator so he can understand us."
"My name's Miyata, not whatever Boltun is." Miyata grumbled as she gave the downed teen the bluetooth looking device. Boltun was an inside joke for those who spoke dwarven, it loosely translated to one who speaks but says nothing. We all silently agreed that it perfectly described Miyata.
"A bluetooth? Why is Miyata-chan giving me a bluetooth? Huh, it fits alright, but what's it supposed to connect to? My phone fell in the river weeks ago."
"Ahem." Elder Thrikrondromm cleared his throat meaningfully. "We can understand you now, and you should be able to understand us."
"You can understand me?" The teen tried getting up but was pushed back down by Elder Thrikrondromm. "Let Miyata go! I won't let you hurt her!"
"Sigh." Miyata let out an annoyed sigh. "Tatsuki, you big dummy, I'm not being hurt or held captive by everyone. They're keeping me safe from Baka-Taka, and they protected me from goblins."
"Takamori's here?" The teen who had been called Tatsuki tried standing up again, looking around to spot the school yard bully. "Where is he? Did he get strange powers too? Don't worry, with my new celestial gifts, I'll be sure to protect you this time."
"What god gave you his blessing?" Delimira asked as she gripped her sword tightly, wary of a mischievous or malevolent god giving their blessing.
"He said his name was Tarian. But he told me to figure out what the blessing meant."
"So the god of shields and defense." Delimira sighed in relief as she put away her sword. "He's one of the more benevolent of the gods, at least as much as any of them are."
"Another summoned hero?" Elder Thrikrondromm growled. "That's three so far, and three too many. Are the gods trying to destroy the world?"