The dwarves escorted Kyle to their village, constantly proclaiming that he was a strong dwarf.
As soon as Kyle saw the village, he was surprised.
’Wait, what? They have stone houses? I thought they would be living in tents or something like that.’
Sure enough, the dwarves actually had houses made of stones and even some streets.
“They can build houses,” Kyle whispered. “Maybe they are not as dumb as you think.”
“They learned to stack stones,” Theodor commented with disgust. “So what? They’re still using sharp sticks as weapons.”
Kyle looked at the makeshift spears.
“Yeah, but they’re made of iron trees,” Kyle whispered. “Seems quite practical.”
Theodor just snorted.
All the dwarves in the village gathered to look at Kyle.
He saw a couple of female dwarves who were not in any way smaller or bigger than the male dwarves.
“Strong dwarf!” a young child shouted, pushing Kyle’s thigh.
When the child tried to push Kyle, everyone looked at him expectantly.
’They want me to push a small child?’ Kyle thought.
Kyle just gave the child a light tap on the chest, and the child fell on its ass.
“Strong dwarf!” the dwarves echoed again, returning to their partying.
“Strong dwarf?” someone with a deep voice asked.
Everyone became quiet and looked with reverence at the newcomer.
He actually wore clothing that came from one of the towns, but the clothing was quite torn.
This dwarf was gigantic!
He was probably 170 centimeters tall, which was enormous for a dwarf!
However, Kyle was still quite a bit taller, with about 185 centimeters in height.
The gigantic dwarf slowly approached Kyle.
In the end, the two of them stood chest to chest, and the dwarf looked into Kyle’s eyes.
Kyle just looked with confusion at the dwarf.
“Do you want to stay and be chief?” the dwarf whispered so quietly that only Kyle could hear it.
’This guy can actually speak normally!’ Kyle thought.
“No,” Kyle whispered back. “I just want to go to the south.”
“Then, fall over. We follow the strongest. If you win, they will all follow you,” the big dwarf whispered.
Sweat ran down Kyle’s back.
’Brah, I don’t want to be responsible for an entire village of dwarves! I don’t even want to have a kid!’ he thought in panic.
“Strong dwarf!” the chief proclaimed loudly.
“Strong dwarf!” everyone echoed.
Then, the leader pushed Kyle’s chest with all of his power.
Kyle could have resisted the push, but he let himself fall on his ass.
Everyone looked shocked as Kyle fell over.
Then, they left Kyle’s side and crowded around the chief.
“Strong dwarf!” they echoed.
Kyle slowly stood up again.
Nobody, except for some curious children, was looking at him anymore.
The chief looked at Kyle and gestured to the south with his head.
Kyle nodded and walked past the dwarves.
He passed by the last houses, but he could still hear the chants.
“What the fuck was that?” Kyle whispered as he continued towards the south.
“Dwarves,” Theodor answered with disgust.
“How are they dwarves? They’re just manlets,” Kyle answered.
“They are not human. They are dwarves. Dwarves are small,” Theodor answered.
“Yeah, but I thought they would be smaller. Like, three feet tall and really muscular,” Kyle answered as he continued towards the south.
“Why would they be so small?” Theodor asked in confusion and annoyance.
“I dunno. Maybe they fit into holes better,” Kyle answered.
“And how is that relevant for survival?” Theodor asked.
“I mean, if they live underground, they wouldn’t need to build such large tunnels,” Kyle said.
“Are they living underground?” Theodor asked arrogantly.
“No,” Kyle answered.
“Then, why would they be small?” Theodor asked.
Kyle was getting annoyed.
His image of stocky and blacksmithy dwarves was completely destroyed.
“But they have powerful bodies, right?” Kyle asked.
“Yes, so what?” Theodor asked.
“Shouldn’t they be bulky and muscular?” Kyle asked.
“Are beasts bulky and muscular?” Theodor asked.
Kyle thought back to a couple of beasts.
Sure, they had a lot of muscle, but all of that seemed natural.
They didn’t look like they were consuming steroids on the daily.
“No,” Kyle answered.
“Then, why would they be bulky and muscular?” Theodor asked. “Dwarves are just human beasts.”
Kyle just grumbled.
His meeting with the dwarves was really disappointing.
Where was the beer?
Where were the huge forges of fire?
Where was the underground city?
“Did you gain anything out of your visit to your homeland?” Theodor asked.
“Well, I’m no longer curious,” Kyle said.
“So, you gained nothing,” Theodor said. “I told you there’s nothing to be gained. You could’ve just walked around the territory.”
“But we saved some time, right?” Kyle asked. “We don’t know how big the territory is.”
Theodor just did his thing and snorted again without saying anything.
“I’m starting to associate you with a horse,” Kyle said.
“Insolent! How am I similar to a mere equine?!” Theodor shouted.
“You keep snorting like one,” Kyle said.
Theodor snorted again.
In Kyle’s mind, he just imagined Theodor as a horse.
It was kind of funny, but not enough to make him laugh.
After a couple more minutes of traveling at moderate speeds, Kyle walked past another totem.
The forest regained some noise, and Kyle felt like he was back in the wilderness.
He traveled for another 20 minutes and ate another Spitter.
By now, he was getting really annoyed by Spitter meat.
’I need more meat in my diet,’ Kyle thought as he chewed the Spitter meat with boredom.
Finally, Kyle noticed that the color seemed to change.
The horizon no longer looked blue.
Instead, it looked a bit brown.
A minute later, Kyle walked past the last tree.
As he looked forward, he saw a wasteland.
Clouds of sand were floating through the sky, and he saw a bunch of crevices and mountains.
It kind of looked like a mountain range, but also not really.
It was just very rough terrain.
“Well, here we are,” Kyle said.
“The outside.”
Kyle gulped.