The Dungeon Fairy: Two Choices: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 2) by Jonathan Brooks (free e books to read .txt) 📗

most popular dungeons, as I understand it, are owned and operated by the Raider Delving Clan; they can basically dictate what they want to do there, as long as it doesn’t specifically go against the crown.  The difference here is that this land, and therefore our village, is leased from the crown – not from the Raider Clan.”

Sterge couldn’t see exactly what she was getting at, but it appeared as though Garthin and some of the others understood.  It probably helped that the old Hill Dwarf had been directly involved with the lease negotiations.  “By my beard, you’re right!  We have a solid lease contract here that cannot be broken unless we violate some of the clauses outlined within.”

“Uh…so what does that mean?” Sterge couldn’t help but ask.  Looking around, he was glad to see that he wasn’t the only one who couldn’t figure out what was going on.

“What it means, my dear lad, is that we are essentially in charge of this land – unless we do something like raise an army, or display evidence of plots against the crown; doing so would be in direct violation of multiple clauses, which would make our lease here null and void.  Since we don’t have any intention of doing that, there is nothing that anyone can do to take it from us.”

“But…won’t they try, anyway?” the soft voice of Annbury, one of the few Gnomes in The Village, asked.  From his own interactions with the young Gnome, she was normally a bit shy, so hearing her speak up was a surprise.

“Precisely,” Gwenda interjected, trying to take control of the conversation again.  “However, what if we don’t give them a reason to take it from us?”

“What…like…burn everything?” Sterge asked, shocked.

“No, lad, that would be folly; I think I understand what she’s saying, though.  Why don’t you tell us what you have in mind?” Garthin offered, motioning to Gwenda.

“Thank you,” his friend replied, before straightening up a little and laying out her plan.  “I think if we use this coin to purchase supplies, we can build up this village center enough to create a place where the Raiders coming this way can stay – for a fee, of course.  We could also set up a few other buildings where they could purchase supplies, and possibly even—”

“You want us to establish some sort of…town?  A Raider town?” Evandurel cut her off suddenly.  “I don’t know about that….”

  “Yes, I propose that we set up a town, where we would be in charge. For all intents and purposes, this is our land, so we can dictate what and even who we want and don’t want here.”  Gwenda seemed confident in that, though Sterge was beginning to wonder how they would even enforce that kind of thing if they went through with her proposal.

The Elf was shaking his head in disbelief.  “So, we’re going to just welcome them here with open arms?”

  “They’re coming anyway,” Garthin snapped out, before clearing his throat and softening his voice.  “It’s not ideal, I’ll give you that.  As I see it, we have three choices regarding the flood of Raiders heading in this direction: try to stop it, get out of the way, or go with the flow. Trying to stop the Raiders from coming here is a foolish enterprise, because they have strength and numbers on their side. I don’t know about you, but I’m too old to start new somewhere else; I’ve already dedicated enough of my time and labor to this land, and I’m not ready to give up without a fight of some kind.  If that fight means embracing the change that is coming, even going so far as to take advantage of it in some way, then I’m willing to do that to maintain control over my own destiny.”  He paused for a moment, before continuing.  “Of course, that’s just my opinion; everyone is free to choose what they want to do, though if we’re going to do this, we need to have a united purpose.”

There was a lot of grumbling, but in the end almost everyone decided to stay and follow the plan that Gwenda had proposed. One Elven villager, Wryndle, had a very traumatic experience in the past with a Raider and couldn’t even imagine being around a horde of them, so he left with a very small portion of their funds for traveling.  That just meant that it was going to be a lot of work for the rest of them, of course, and trying to balance that with taking care of their livestock and crops was going to be a challenge – but they were determined.

The next morning, a team of volunteers left with Dasper’s wagon towards Heftington to secure some building supplies and to order more for the future.  With the 3 gold coins from the Finder’s Fee, their haul from the dungeon, and the pooled savings of everyone in the village (minus the few coins given to Wryndle as he left), they had nearly 5 gold – which they thought would be barely enough to get started.  It was more than they could hope to see as a community in an entire year, so it really had to be.  There wasn’t much they could do if it wasn’t enough, however, except to hope that they could get what they absolutely needed to set everything up properly before the first Raiders arrived.

The news traveled quickly, however, or that was what Sterge suspected when the team sent to Heftington came back that night with some strangers in tow.

“Are you Sterge?” asked a bald-headed Human clad in a smart-looking, multi-shaded red suit, which still looked relatively pristine, despite having walked in it for quite a distance.  Stepping in front of the others, he appeared to be the foreign group’s representative, as the others were following behind and looking towards the suited man with