The City
#24 of Dragon Hunter Saga
We approached the gates carefully, aside from Alberich; who was practically whistling. The stones of the city walls appeared to be made out of a single solid piece of stone, and there appeared to be no marks from the carving of the gate. It was a pale colored stone almost like they were made from sand stone. When I reach the gate I slide off Alberich's back and examine the wall surrounding the city.
"Lookin for marks are ya Hunter? You ain't gonna find none," I turn to see Defeck Largechest leaning against the gate. I look at him in suprise, "whose city is this Defeck? Is it yours?" The dwarf gives me a funny look and answers, "now I know ye ain't daft Hunter. This 'er is your city, we's been building it since I asked ye about it."
I look stunned and blink unable to speak, Alberich nudges me and looks at Defeck. "Pardon the Hunter sir dwarf, she seems to have lost her tongue for the moment." The dwarf chuckles and waves me closer, "I can see that unicorn. Have the rest stay while I give the Lady a tour of her city." I walk forward and Defeck turns and walks into the city.
He turns his head to me, "I seeing ye got a few more people than the last time I seen ye. If'n you got a pretty name for the city we's can carve it above the gate all pretty like for ye Hunter." I nod my head still shocked, "Hope Point; we decided to call it Hope Point." The dwarf nods his head, "and a right fine name that is Hunter."
He stops in front of one of the buildings near the gate, "we thought it best that yer guard be housed near the gate itself. Their workout yard is just outside the city gates." I look at the outside of the building the glass in the windows it had an interesting refracting quality to them and I move closer to examine them. Defeck smiles, "ye might be needin to keep an eye on thieves at first Hunter. Them there windows is made from diamonds, it's pretty common stone we mine and makes some pretty windows." I shake my head astounded at the fact that our windows were made from of all things diamonds.
The dwarf continues, "they is less flimsy than glass is as well so they is less likely to break." I nod my head, they would be as there isn't much harder a substance than them. Defeck looks a me a moment, "know Hunter we's have much harder stones than these here clear rocks. Dwarven mining techniques enable us to acquire metals that no one knew even existed. As well as a higher amount of metals that other species considered to be precious."
I nod my head slowly, he indicates the guardhouse again, "these 'ere buildings heat using hot water. We also have a cooling system set up as well, with cold water. 'Ere's why Hunter, we have a special ore that heats up on it's own. With no need for a fire what so ever, we do use an insulating rock to keep the areas around it safe from overheating or burning. So each house has a large hot water tank made with two different types of stone. One is a layer of our 'hot' stone, and a layer of our insulator stone. We also have a stone that cools things down and can if used with a secondary stone freeze things."
Defeck walks into the building and after walking through a few doorways stops at what appears to be a kitchen. He walks over to a small door along a wall and waves me over, "stick yer head in thar Hunter and see what I mean." I look at him confused yet I did open the door and step into the small room, it was cold inside. It reminded me of a walk in refrigerator, he continues. "The door at the back of this room leads to a freezing room, for longer storage. The stone lining the walls of this room are also used in cold water tanks. To heat or cool a building we have pipes run inside the walls of the buildings that are of a more inert materiel. The exterior walls are insulating to keep temps inside constant."
He walks over to a couple of switches on the wall near the door on the kitchen, and indicates the notches next to them that are numbered. "these here will either turn the cold or hot water on inside the pipes. They's off at the moment as the outdoor temps are so nice, though I'd suggest letting the buildings air out once everyone's settled in their new homes. Each building does have a set of screen on the windows."
He brings me back out of the building and starts walking through the city more, "most of the buildings are homes and shops. Pretty sure yer people can figure out which is which", he walks through a market square that has some pre built vendor stalls in them. Then at the end of the market square he stops me at a large building with a great many windows lining the front of it.
He opens the double doors and walks me inside, and I am stunned by the shear size of the chamber. He stops in the middle of the room while I look around it a bit. The room seems to be divided into two, with a row of seats being the dividing line. I notice on either side of the chamber there is a pool on one side of the wall, "them thar pools if for those fish heads what's been following ye Hunter. The pointy eared healer warned us so we made the adjustments for them, we's pretty sure they will like them." I nod my head taking in the size of the chamber.
I had already figured out this was suppose to be the council chamber, it appeared that it could easily hold a couple Dragons on either side along with a number of smaller species as well. There were seats with tables for humanoid species and raised platforms for four legged non humanoids. I turn to Defeck, "you are very good at your work Defeck. I never expected any of this, I had thought it would take me a few years to even have a decent amount of buildings built."
The dwarf chuckles, "it was nuttin Hutner. It's one of the best talents we dwarves have, now ye do have a few of our farmer types what decided to live amoungst yer city. Bakhous Aletank and his ale maker wife Hekkogar Strongbelly, she also decided to run the local inn for yer city Hunter. She said making her ale didn'a keep her busy enough."
I wonder what kind of person didn't think ale making was enough work based on what I knew of the skill. He walks me back out of the council chamber and back farther towards the ocean side leading me up to a large football field sized greenhouse. He stops in front of it and gestures at it, "this 'ere was quite a feat Hunter. Hopin yer gardener lady likes it that elf lad seems pretty pleased with it. We had to have his friend construct the frame for it complainin the whole time about how he wasn't a builder. We ran pipes inside it accordin to the elf's instructions, figgered he knew what was best for it."
I look up at it again astounded at the shear size, we could easily grow full sized trees inside it. Which could be good for citrus fruits and other hard to grow items in this climate. I look close at the 'windows', "Defeck these are diamonds too?" The dwarf nods his head, "yes Hunter tho these be a wee bit thicker than standard so they are more sturdy considering they are each set in a very thin frame."
Considering I couldn't hardly see the metal between the panes of diamond 'glass' they had to be pretty thin. "That thar 'green' house will stand up to one of them hurricanes, and she won't loose a single piece of glass." I was impressed as that would be a concern for a glass structure of this size.
He then leads me back more as I see the ocean on the distance past the rear wall of the city to a large open space within the city itself, yet behind it's own 'gatehouse'. Inside this area was a training area, what appeared to be open stalls. Most likely for four footed people as well as a large building nestled against the outer wall. The top most parts of the building were above the line of the outer wall, though seeing as how it was on the ocean side I was fairly certain the dwarves felt it was safe enough.
There was a small walled in 'yard' to one side of the building, just enough of a wall to denote it was a separate space and to prevent people from trampling the plants I saw growing within it. Defeck turns to me waiting, "so is this my Hunter base Defeck." He nods his head, and turns reds a bit, "one problem that we's now see is you having that scaly as a guardian. We's didn prepare for that so there isn't truly a space for him to lay his head inside yer walls here." Starbusrt lands on top of the outer wall and looks about, "sir dwarf I will be fine if you have the time to build a sort of roof over this section of the wall. I could guard the back gate when I am here, freeing up some of the city guard." Defeck nods his head, "bin watching us from above scaly?"
The Dragon rumbles out a chuckle, "yes and it wasn't meant to offend. Dragons can be a bit emotional to those we have been bonded to guard. For my own piece of mind I followed." Defeck nods his head slowly, "wouldn want ye to lose yer mind and have to have the Hunter dirty the new city with yer blood. So it's alright scaly," he turns to me. Then waves me to follow him out the back gate Starburst still perched on the wall, looking very much like a bird sitting on a telephone wire. Outside the back gate the dwarf indicates a city on the opposite shore from us.
"That thar is my city Hunter, we's close enough for regular trade with yer city. Some might even wander over 'ere once yer people is settled in thar own homes. We will see what time holds for that." He then let's Starburst know he'll send someone to make the Dragon a roof to keep dry at night and heads off to his home.
I spend a moment looking out onto the ocean feeling calm watching the waves crash and the selkies jumping. I then look up to Starburst, "so I guess I should give the all clear. Yet I have a feeling Cheshire was telling almost word for word what was going on to the rest of the group." {I was not, I left a few words out. I have already informed everyone they can enter the city, and explained the different buildings. I believe Gilorndir is waiting on Harriet at the greenhouse, he brought her a set of every rose that has ever existed for her to have a 'room' of just different roses. Though I recommend they keep people from touching them, some of them are magical and could harm someone}. His voice vanished from my head briefly as I see him fly over the wall next to Starburst.
Alberich comes up next to me, 'so Gwen what do you think of your surprise?" I chuckle, "well friend; it certainly was a surprise." I keep watching the selkies playing in the waters as I hope that our city stands the test of time.