The Kingdom of the Dwarves

Deep beneath the Kingdom to the west is the Kingdom of the Dwarves.

The Dwarves live in caves far underground, and they hardly ever come up to see the sun and sky. They don’t like trees, and they don’t like flowers, and they especially don’t like big open spaces above the ground.

What Dwarves like is digging.

Digging in dirt. Digging in sand. Digging in stone. Give a Dwarf a deep, dark cave and a pick and shovel, and he’ll dig until there’s nothing left to dig. And then he’ll dig some more, because that’s just how Dwarves are.

The Dwarves are ruled by the Dwarf King. He has been king for hundreds of years, but even so, he is not an old Dwarf. Dwarves live for a very long time indeed. Some with the longest, whitest beards are even older than the mountains, and at least twice as wise. They can tell you stories about the days when dragons ruled the world, before the human knights came and built the Western Kingdom high above.

There are not so many dragons these days. The humans drove them up to the high mountain-tops long ago. To a Dwarf, that is a good thing. Dragons are dangerous creatures, and they like to live in the same kinds of caves that Dwarves do. Even worse, what dragons like above all else is gold.

Dwarves don’t dig for just any reason. They dig for gold, for silver, for rubies and emeralds and other rare treasures hidden deep in the earth. Dragons don’t dig, but they like the same rare things. If a dragon gets into your cave, it will steal all of your treasure lickety-split. So the Dwarves don’t like dragons very much, and the dragons don’t like them very much, either.

Dragons just sit on their nests of treasure, but not Dwarves. They use everything that they dig up. They make cups and bowls and jewelry and thrones and amazing mechanical devices, but what they are most famous for in all the kingdoms is their weapons and armor.

Dwarves make the best armor in the world. They make it good and shining and strong. They make swords, axes, spears, arrows, and a thousand other things that you may never have heard of. When battle comes, there is no better friend to have on your side than the Kingdom of the Dwarves and its mighty king.

And that is why, when the trolls attacked the Western Kingdom, the king of the human Castle asked his friends the Dwarves for help.

There is only one thing the Dwarves like more than digging, and that’s fighting. A good battle is always a fine time for a Dwarf, and the best part of all is telling stories about it after all the fighting is done. They like fighting so much that they don’t even mind doing it above the ground, with all its rain and wind and trees and flowers and big open spaces with nowhere to dig.

So the Dwarf King sent his best warriors to the Kingdom to the west, and they brought their armor and their axes and their clanking, clattering machines along with them.

Watch out, trolls! Here come the Dwarves!