C17 Chapter 17

The Dollhouse

Erogat was impatiently awaiting them. “Wonderful, you brought the second part of the suit of armor.”

Dana laughed. “A pair, rather.”

He looked at her strangely. After a minute, he smiled in understanding. “Certainly. And now tell me what happened.”

It took hours until Dana finished.

“…where do we go from here?” She shot him a questioning glance. Erogat, in turn, studied the map.

“Two parts are still down in the caves – here and here.”

He pointed at two dots that were specially marked on the map.

“They are both very far away”, Dana hypothesized thoughtfully and compared the distances with the part of the map they’d already explored.

“The King has the last part, isn’t that right?”, Dana presumed. Erogat nodded. “We’ll fetch that last … the next part is this one.”

He pointed at a dot on the map. It was far away from the last finding place at the Elves.

“So, we’ll travel back to the elves, climb down into the underworld, and search for the third piece.”

Dana said it in a way that could have fooled anybody into thinking she was planning a vacation.

“Don’t take this lightly.” Erogat shot her a reprimanding look. “There could be traps and guards anywhere, waiting for you. Be careful!”

With these cautioning words, he said goodbye to the trio. Dana wanted to stop by her parents’ place before she set off on the next adventure. Plus, she also had to look for elves and pixies. She’d promised Shari, after all. It had only been under that circumstance, that Shari had been willing to keep going along with their plans.

“Always just crawling through dark holes and tunnels. How is one supposed to not be frustrated after that?!”, the little pixie had told Dana at some point.

Well, Dana intended to keep her promise. Once home, they searched the gardens and fields and meadows of the plains, trying to figure out if they could discover the elves and fairies anywhere. Sadly, to no avail. There weren’t any creatures there.

Dana remembered something the Queen had told her. “…and since the humans have started changing nature, we’ve gone into hiding. We prefer untouched environments.”

It was in that moment that she already suspected where one could find elves and pixies.

She walked back to the old forest with Shari. And there actually were some there! The small fairy couldn’t contain herself anymore and disappeared for half a day.

A little later, Dana reminded them that it was time to leave. Shari only came along grudgingly. She now knew where she could meet some others of her kind without having to travel to the fairy kingdom, where they were now headed again. After all, that’s where the access to the tunnel was located that would bring them to their new destination.

They had hardly entered the cave of the fairies that Dana had to grab Shari tightly, because the little creature was about to fly off again into the elves’ kingdom, since she didn’t want to crawl into anymore below-ground tunnels, least of all dark ones. Dana reminded her of her promise. Grinding her teeth, Shari agreed and so they climbed down into the underworld. At this point, this was sadly the only way they knew to get to the next part.

For days on end, they walked through the tunnel, following the map. At every new knot in the road, Dana sent the information to Erogat to have him complete the map of the caves. They travelled deeper and deeper into the mountains. In some areas, parts of the ceiling had collapsed, which she could repair with her own magic and Gomek’s help. Luckily, because otherwise they would have had to give up. Especially since the treasure map hadn’t shown them any other way, despite Dana trying for it to do just that a few times. The suffocating darkness got to the trio more and more. Thanks to Dana’s magic, their food and water provisions were save. But even the prospect of good food couldn’t lift their spirits. And so, they glumly schlepped through the tunnels. Shari only shone gloomily at this point. All she wanted was to get out of there. Then suddenly Dana announced:

“We’re here. We’ll see the light in a minute. And you, Shari, …remember not to fly off right away … you probably also remember what happened last time.”

They reached another crossway. This one looked a little different. There were only two tunnels and one exit.

“Maybe this is a corner of the tunnel system?”

“We can only see that once we look at Erogat’s map. Let’s go up.”

Dana waved and climbed up the stairs. There, she carefully opened the weathered, familiar plate of rock. Finally, she pushed her head through the opening, watching Shari at the same time. With surprise she realized that the opening didn’t lead into a room like it usually did, but instead ended in a roomy rock cave. She couldn’t see any danger or traps anywhere. They climbed through the opening and studied their surroundings. Gomek discovered the monolith first.

“We don’t have to crawl back through the tunnels, then.” He grinned and pushed Shari. “I can think of one person that’ll be so happy about that.”

All three of them had to laugh, since the adventure in the tunnels had really gotten on their nerves. They were yearning for light and fresh air now. Shari – who else – was the first to discover a path leading away from the cave.

Fresh air and plenty of light greeted them. Dana looked around. They were, as expected, in another cave. This one was far bigger than any they’d seen so far. Yes, she even believed it was larger than the one at home.

They slowly stepped forward, always mindful of traps or enemies. But nothing happened. They crossed through a small forest and finally stood in front of a strawberry field. And what strawberries those were! They reached all the way up to Dana’s hips.

“Wow…”, she mumbled overwhelmed.

“Those are big fruits! I have read a lot about our flora and fauna, but I had no idea something as big as this existed! … Guess you learn something new every day.”

“I bet that back there wasn’t a forest then, either!”, Gomek said and pointed his thumb in the direction they’d come from.

“You could be right!”, Dana agreed with him.

They slowly kept walking. Wherever they looked, they discovered more gigantic strawberries.

“We should get these home somehow. Our folks could bake a ton of cake with them.”

Gomek’s grin took over his whole face when he said that. Dana was a bit less euphoric about it.

“I would much rather know who’s taking care of these and who planted them.”

Dana was surely right. The field looked well-cared for, as if somebody had been working on it just a short time ago.

“At some point, I’ve read something about it, but I assumed it was just a legend. There is only one group of people that is able to grow these fruits … Technically, they should be long extinct.”

“And who would that be?”, Gomek wanted to know with his mouth full. He couldn’t help himself, he just had to try the strawberries.

“Giants! … They seem to still exist. Down here, forgotten by the rest of the world.” Dana looked around in fascination. “Hopefully they’re peaceful.”

They sent off Shari as an explorer. She was supposed to find the giants.

“It shouldn’t be too hard to find a giant. They can hardly be overlooked.”

Dana said that with humor, but on the inside, she was worried. After all, since ancient times, nobody had had any contact to these creatures after all. It took a while until finally Shari returned, reporting that she’d found a big, in any way gigantic, village.

She led Dana and Gomek in another direction. They crossed the strawberry field, over a street – or at least that’s what they thought it was, and then another field that was more reminiscent of a forest: arm-thick stems that eared high above them. Gomek said that it was wheat, but he wasn’t entirely sure about it. None of them had ever seen anything like it.

Since they were walking, it took an entire day to reach the village. Here, they saw giants for the very first time. Dana had seen pictures of giants before, large and dumpy. These once weren’t meeting that criteria. They looked more like too tall humans. They even wore the same clothes, but naturally in the appropriate size. Dana guessed they were about twenty meters in height – on average. Their body size matched their fruits. Even the pigs, cows, chickens and geese matched the size.

How were they supposed to contact them? Dana seemed puzzled. Should they just keep walking it was possible that one of the animals would assume they were appetizers, or maybe they would step on them … that would surely make the completion of their task more difficult. Thankfully Gomek had the saving idea.

“Shari could transform us into giants. Afterwards we could move amongst them without running into any problems.”

Shari did the best she could. Despite all her efforts, she only managed to transform Dana. After that she was much too exhausted to try another transformation.

Unsure, Dana was standing in front of the now small…tiny Gomek.

“You stay here with Shari and wait for me. I will try to find their leader and speak with him. Shari will watch you.”

Then she marched off to explore the village. Dana hadn’t taken more than a few steps, when someone started talking to her.

“Our boss Galdur is waiting for you.” Dana looked at him in surprise. “For me? How does he know that? Is he a fortune teller?”

“Too many questions. Just follow me to his hut.”

The giant turned around without saying anything else and then marched off, taking giant leaps forward, towards a house at the end of the inner part of the village. He opened the door and stepped aside to let Dana in. A droning but friendly voice greeted her.

“A magician in a giant’s costume…Why?”

She stopped walking and searched the twilight of the hut for the owner of the voice. Behind a clunky wooden table, she recognized the truly impressive presence of a giants. His leather clothes, the long black hair and the mighty full beard gave him a dangerous look. The jet-black eyes with the kind and loving look in them didn’t seem to match his dark exterior at all. His mouth pulled into a smile.

“Are you getting scared of us?”

Dana looked at him openly. “Not of you, more your animals. You never know when they’re gonna be in the mood for a treat.”

Now the giant started laughing raucously. Out of sheer amusement he slapped his flat hand on the table. The force of the slap was so enormous that everything presently on the table started shaking dangerously, threatening to fall over.

“You’re funny, I like that. My name is Galdur, by the way, and I’m something like the boss here.”

He looked at her politely. “…and you are?”

“Dana. I’m sort of a … chief expeditioner.”

Again, Galdur broke out in hysterical laughter.

“Great!”, he panted for air. “Tell your friend that she and the dwarf will be picked up any minute. That way they won’t end up beneath anybody’s feet, at least.”

A short time later, they brought Gomek, sitting in a basket, into the hut and sat him down on the table. His face was a scarlet red and he seemed ready to burst. No one had ever treated him like that before. Shari, who was now feeling as tiny as a fly, was fluttering anxiously around his head.

“Don’t worry, nothing will happen to you. We’ve waited a long time for this day to come.”

Galdur turned to Dana. “You have surely asked yourself why I knew that a magician had come into our village.”

“Actually, not…”, she quietly objected.

Galdur walked over to a display and took out the model of a house with a bell tower, and put it onto the table.

“A long time ago, another magician visited us…”, he started his report casually. “He told us about the fight against the darkness, and about the victory. He handed us this model and said that if the bell chimed, one of us will come and take with them what’s inside this building. Today was that day. The only one that has come into our village today was you. Nobody knew you, so you had to be the magician.”

“And my friends.”

Galdur smiled again.

“You were being watched. Here you have what you came here for. Return to your regular size and find what you’ve been looking for. Afterwards we’ll bring you back to where you came from. You just need to name the place.”

Immediately, Shari returned Dana to her original size. Afterwards, Galdur placed her on the table and so all three could get a good look at the model. Inside, there wasn’t anything apart from a box. In the scripture of the Olden People it read:

“Only the locket can open me!”

“Well, that sounds easy for a change!” Gomek was clearly happy. “Without fire or magic, we’ve never had it this easy before.”

Dana used her locket to unlock the chest. Then she could open the lid without any problems.

“Don’t get too excited just yet.” Dana made a face.

The chest was empty. At last, she stormed outside to ask Galdur if maybe he’d forgotten to tell them a little something.

“Oh, yes, that’s right. …find, what is not visible. That’s what the other magician also said.”

Dana slowly walked back into the building. There she told Gomek and Shari about what the giant had said. They desperately racked their brains trying to figure out the meaning of those words, when Dana’s face suddenly lit up. She had remembered the solution. She walked up in front of the chest and said:

“Show us what you hide inside.”

At first, nothing happened. After a minute, though, slight smoke rose from the box and they could see wonderfully detailed elvish gloves. Dana carefully took them from the chest. She didn’t know, after all, what kind of powers they possessed. Nothing happened. More relaxed, she stuffed them away and then left the building together with her partners. Outside again, Galdur already waited for them, anxiously scooting around on his chair.

“Well, did you get everything you wanted?”

“Yes.” Dana smiled.

“Everything was there that we’d hoped for. Thank you so much! Can we go now?”

“Surely…not now! We have prepared festivities in your honor. Afterwards, tomorrow, we will let you go!”, Galdur laughed.

It turned out to be a truly gigantic party. Dana and Gomek had a small table placed on the much larger one, and one of the giants catered them. He had to cut up everything in very, very small portions, so that they could enjoy it. The party lasted until late into the night. Afterwards, the three adventurers exhaustedly fell into bed. A kid from the village had provided them with their dollhouse.

The next morning, it was time to leave. The basket Gomek was already familiar with, was used for transportation again. In front of the cave’s entrance, they were set on the ground again. Before they disappeared into the cave, they said their goodbyes to see sweet giants. Gomek hadn’t missed out on asking if they could start trading with each other. He just hadn’t considered that, when they agreed, there needed to be a way to transport the large fruits. But that problem, as he happily stated, was for someone else to solve. In a great mood, the trio stepped into the cave to return home. Erogat would surely already be waiting for them anxiously.