The door knob was large and round with the tarnished look of old brass. Felek had spent the last five minutes turning it silently and was now preparing to enter into the room.
"Ready?" he asked, more to himself than to the furry presence at his elbow. "Good."
With a final check of the rifle he carried in his free hand and a wink at the huge burly wolf, Felek threw the door open. Rushing in, the wolf gave out a quick growl and Felek let loose a confident and inspired "Ha!" He was, however, stopped short upon finding no resistence. The room was empty. Well almost. In a large chair at the opposite end of the room was a tightly bound and gagged dwarf . Felek closed the distance quickly and untied the gag.
"Mom's gonna kill us," said the prisoner weakly, unable to even lift his head.
"No, Felak, she is gonna kill you," said Felek, as he set the rifle down and began to cut the bonds. The wolf watched for a second and then took up a guard on the door. "She's been worried sick. Not so much as a letter for three months! What were you thinking?"
"Gee, I was probably thinking: man, this sucks being tied up and tortured. What do you think I was thinking?"
Felek finished with a flourishing downcut and nodded towards the sole window in the small room. "We'd better use the alternate exit," he said. "I managed to only use the axe on the guards downstairs, but someone is bound to come by and find them."
"No," said Felak with finality. "We are not leaving without my armor, and we are certainly not leaving without killing DeGans."
"What is a gans?"
"Not 'a gans' it is 'DeGans'. It is a man. A man it took me two months of undercover work to track down and one I am not going to let escape."
"Ah," said Felek, pulling a flask from a pocket beneath his leather jerkin. "Then you had better have a drink of this. You are in no shape to fight, and there will definitely be fighting."
"Thanks," said Felak, taking a long pull and brightening. "I guess we'd better start with the armor then. Should be in the next room."
Felak got up slowly and stretched out. "Right lets go!"
With a nod from the wolf that the coast was clear, Felak and Felek ran into the hallway and burst into the next room.
"Ha! er..ugh." Rather than finding any armor for Felak, the dwarves found themselves facing a tightly bound gnome.
"I think we are too late for that one, mate."
"Nah Felak, we'll just untie him and he'll be fine. Look I think he is smiling!"
"You can't tell that. He's gagged!"
"Sure I can. Look, just help me with these knots."
"You wolf just licked his hand...and it fell off..."
"Uh...right then, lets try the next room. C'mon Navarre, you can eat later."
With a quiet whine from Navarre, the trio moved on to the next door.
"Right, this is it. My armor should be inside."
"Sweet."
With yet another "Ha!" the three leapt into the room. Only to be stopped short by a tall ornately armoured man wearing a scarlet cloak, who, as it happened, was reading a book by candlelight. The book was of course, The Truth About the Light, but neither Felek or Felak noticed this. Navarre noted the book immediately, however, and quietly filed it away under "things that probably shouldn't be eaten."
Both Felak and the stranger shouted at the same time, "Dwarves!" "DeGans!"
Felek took longer to respond.
*BOOM*
As the large amounts of dust caused by the explosion began to settle, Felak began to shout again.
"What was that! You shot him?! Oh very good, now nobody will know we're here. Does secrecy mean nothing to you?!"
"You didn't need him for questioning did you?"
"You shot him! You shot DeGans!"
"You said you didn't want him to get away! Ok. So it was a little easier than you thought."
Both dwarves began to pace about the room: Felak trying to make sense of what had just happened, Felek searching for their quarry.
"Ah ha! Look, Felak! Your armor and mace. DeGans was all bent over it."
DeGans was indeed bent over a dusty cuirass, a broad set of pauldrons, and a fierce looking helm. Felek noticed the book was conspicuously missing, as were major portions of DeGans chest. Felak came over and began to reassemble his armor. Felak quickly donned his kit and with a smile flourished his mace. "Now I feel better. Uh oh."
"What now? Missing your horse?"
"No. But you had better draw your axe, the mutt is growling, and I don't think its because he's hungry. You're hand cannon has obviously awoken someone."
"Look buddy, this 'hand cannon' has got rifling."
"Whatever. Lets get out of here. Quick, through the window."
Felak and Felek dropped out of the window and into the courtyard below, followed quickly by the wolf. Lights were beginning to appear in windows, and shouts could be heard from the rooms adjoining the one they had so recently vacated.
"Um...where too, Felak."
"This is your rescue! Where are we?"
"Well, we are in Duskwood, so I guess this must be Darkshire."
"Ok, we are gonna need to discuss you're planning, but right now we need to...um...head south. Out of town."
The brothers crept swiftly from one shadow to the next, skirting the squat, thatch-roofed houses, and made their way south.
"Felek, we need to alert the Night Watch."
"That is a really good idea. But I feel I must warn you that the two goons who were guarding the entrance to your 'hotel' were Night Watch."
"Ah. That explains a lot. Which I will explain to you later. Ah, finally the city gates."
"And we even caused our own diversion, they are unguarded."
The brothers quickly sprinted through the gates and off the road into the woods outside of Darkshire.
"Wait! Felek, look. On the road."
"Uh oh. It looks like a giant wound. With legs."
Galumphing down the road toward Darkshire was an enormous monster. Seemingly cobbled together from various cadavers, the hideous corpse bore purposefully towards the town. The dwarves backed further into the woods.
"Felek, what is that?" The beast continued on past the dwarves, intent only upon the city gates.
"I dunno, but we need to get as far away from it as possible." Felak, however, made no move. "Wait, Felak. You're not thinking about going fighting it are you?"
"We can't just leave it to terrorize Darkshire. Especially with the Night Watch scrambled throughout the town. C'mon Felek!"
Felak leapt back onto the road and began to brandish his mace. "Hey you big pimple! How about I pop you!"
"Nice, Felak. Real grown up."
"Look, it worked. Its coming back."
"Now what?"
"Well, did you reload?"
*BOOOOM*
"Yes."
When the dust settled, the giant lay prostrate on the ground. Felek was the first to recover from the concussive shock.
"Wow. I envisioned that being more difficult."
"Nice! Only one shot!"
As the brothers turned away to escape back down the hill, however, Navarre let out an alarmed whine. Slowly, they craned their heads back around. The ogrish corpse was slowly getting up, sans an arm.
"Ha. You only winged him!"
"Not funny, Felak."
"Well, it looks like mace work is needed to finish this one."
"No. Wait! Let Navarre have a go. Navarre, attack!"
Exploding from his tight crouch, Navarre raced down the road at the lumbering hulk.
"Now just you watch. Navarre is gonna kill...um wait...why is he running past...uh...what's he doing?"
"He's attacking the arm."
"Right. Mace work."