The Dark Queen of White 1.22

22.

Queen Morgana’ health had taken for worse since her handling over of her crafts to the New Queen. She knew that her time of death was near, and with the vision that she had given to Clarity, thus sealed the successor to the lineage of Iron Lady’s. She sat back on her high back throne seat and reflected on her own life.

Morgana was born to the ranks of noble folks; her father was a Lord then of small land, but he was allied to the more powerful Lord Farris. The later was later succeeded by Lord Falstof. In her childhood, there was a Queen then who had ruled the Lords then; Queen Helena holding the Courts influence while the King Richard sat on the throne. Morgana was brought to the Courts by her father then to serve as the lady in waiting with the Queen.

Queen Helene was the reigning Iron Lady, and had to hold her influence against others, including the Dwarfs of Mirg. The Dwarfs of Mirg consisted of the dwarfs who were wizards and sorcerers among them. Among them were the infamous Ten Dwarfs of the Mines. The Dwarfs of Mirg had fought Queen Helena allied then with gnomes and Man, to a stalemate in the battles and had lost many of its numbers. Soon after the unspoken truce was set, the remaining Dwarfs had hidden themselves in the mines. They have decided not to get involved in the land of Man, and fight it war for them.

While both sides were recuperating, Queen Helena groomed the new Iron Lady. During that time, she was soon to become the Queen’s confidante, and then the next Queen in line to continue the Iron Lady influence. One of the initiations was for the Queen to become a witch but Lady Morgana then as she was called, felt that more allies were needed. And without the knowledge of Queen Helena, Lady Morgana had taken upon herself to seek out the Dwarfs of Mirg. She was advised that the dwarfs had hid the dark forest by the mountains, living a simple life as miners of the precious gems.

After a quest of nearly half a season, she came across them in the dark forest by accident. She was riding her horse then, dressed in the riding attire with the head hood and was armed with a sword on her waist belt. It was rare for a lady of her ranks to riding alone, but Morgana was not any lady. She was an expert with the sword having learned from the masters who were paid to tutor her. She was also a young apprentice of the craft under Queen Helena. It was near to dusk, and she was lost. She had reckon she may need to camp in the forest then. She dismounted from her horse when she reached a clearing by the stream. She reached for the pack that contained her camping needs when she felt the presence of an approaching person. It was a dwarf who was hurt in the right arm.

“Who are you?” The dwarf had called out to her with his mining pick raised to defend himself. He was bearded one, dressed in the dark suit covered in soot, and his right arm was wounded with the blood flowing out.

“I am Morgan.” The lady imitated the voice of Man to disguise her gender. She had then pulled her sword out to protect herself.

“Bah! Another one of Man.” The dwarf replied. He was to run on when the ogre appeared from the tree line. The ogre was a gigantic creature with a gray shade to its flesh, and had hideous features due to the environment it was created from. The ogre was tall at a height above Man, and twice the size of Man. It was armed with a cudgel and saw both of them.

“A man and dwarf.” The Ogre laughed “It must be my lucky day.”

“Yah!” Another Ogre appeared from the tree line. Like the earlier one, that one was taller and had a scar across its face from the left eye to the lower chin. It looked at the dwarf and then at the rider. Then back at the dwarf.

“Ego of Mirg, you had evaded us long? I would have your rump for my meal today.” The scarred ogre shouted out. He then rushed at the dwarf who had his mining pick raised. He must have called on a spell which projected a light beam from the pick edges that hit the tree branch above the ogre. The beam caused the branch to fell down onto the charging ogre. Once it hit the ogre, it became a set of gooey liquid and covered the ogre.

“Aargh!” The ogre screamed in pain, when the gooey liquid burned into its flesh. The other ogre tried to assist the writhing ogre but could not as when it touched the gooey liquid, its own flesh burned too.

“Get it off me!” The writhing ogre screamed out and rushed blindly into the stream. There instead of finding relief, it felt more pain, while the liquid sizzled in the stream water. It screamed out one more time and then collapsed into the stream. The other ogre saw its mate perished in the stream and retreated into the forest. It was then a group of dwarfs came rushing out, holding onto their picks and looking for a fight.

“Ego, are you okay?” One dwarf in red suit asked of the wounded one.

“I am fine, Dirty.” Ego replied while he leaned on the tree trunk. “Scarred one almost had me there. I had to….”

“Did you call on the spell?” Another dwarf in a red and yellow suit approached him.

“Yes, I did, and just in time.” Ego replied. The one in the red and yellow suit shrugged his shoulders. All the other dwarfs standing there sighed.

“Ego, you knew that we are forbidden to use the spells by the council.” The other dwarf replied. “You had broken the laws.”

“Doc, I had no choice. The ogre had me decked for the fireplace.” Ego replied. “What was I to do?”

“You should not have wandered off into the dark trails. You knew it was forbidden too.” Doc replied while he attended to the wounded dwarf. Ego shrugged off the assistance and stepped aside.

“I had enough!” Ego was upset. “All we ever did since the so named truce was dig. I am looking to go back to war.”

Ego looked to the group.

“Who among you would follow me? We would paved a new Clan. Not of Mirg but we shall called in Smorg.”

“I would.” Lady Morgana spoke up. The dwarfs all turned to look at her. Ego replied to her.

“Stay out, Lady. This is a Dwarf discussion.” Ego told her and then looked back at his friends. “Among all of you who knew me, did I ever led you astray in the forest, or the mines? Did I not locate the best veins of gold?”

The word gold lit up the looks on the dwarfs. To them, among all the precious gems, gold was the most desired ore.

“Stay out, lady.” Doc voiced up. “This is our personal issues.”

The lady walked up to the dwarfs, and took from her pack, the bar of gold.

“There are more where it came from.” Lady Morgana told the dwarfs. “Probe my mind.”

Lady Morgana had come prepared. She knew from Queen Helena, that the dwarfs had been split among themselves soon after the truce. Some wanted to fight on, and exact vengeance for their lost ones, but there were some who chose to end the war. She also knew that the dwarfs favored gold to many other rewards, and she had that in her mind. There was a mine that King Egan had where he held the mining on a need basis.

“It’s there.” Ego voiced out. Doc saw the look on the other and struck out. Ego fell to the ground with his aching jaw.

“Doc, you decide for yourself and I would do the same for myself.” Ego told the other off. “I am not keen to toil on the mountains for the cheesy gems we get there. Gold is what I am mining for. And if I had to used my crafts to find it.”

“Ego of Mirg, you are banished from the Clan. I would inform the Council.” Doc told the other off. “Anyone who chose to follow him would be subjected to the same conditions.”

Much to his dismay, two other dwarfs stepped out. They were Hiccup and Eirie. Doc shook his head, and then turned to walk to the forest. It was one of the few who did not join Ego asked.

“Doc, you can’t allowed this to happened? What about our alliance? Our long years of friendship? Our …” It was Grumpy who asked.

“The house of our’, would be short of three.” Doc replied. “The Ten Heroes of Mirg would now be known as the Seven Dwarfs of Mirg.”

With that Doc marched off, and the other six who did join Ego followed suit. It also was the beginning of the Lady Morgana who soon induced herself into the sorcery of the Dwarfs in return for the gold bullion in the mines.