The cave network was massive, expanding deep into the crust of the planet; miles upon miles of shafts, tunnels and elevator riggings. Clouds of dust pooled in the air which darkened the vast rooms. Stone, ore and water alike glistened in the dim light of mining lamps. Shiny gems and ore stretched across the cavern walls paired only with the dull framework of wooden scaffolding. Large buckets and minecarts lingered beside the railroad that stretched from one end of the cave network to the other, seemingly uninterrupted along the way.
   
Heavy iron pickaxes beat against the hard stone surface, shooting sparks every which way. Clumps of rock broke free and tumbled to the floor, devoid of any valuable resources. One pickaxe became two, four, twenty, a hundred, a thousand, beating against the world in a synchronous pattern. Each impact sent out a loud clang of metal which served as a reminder to some and music to others.
   
Groans and grunts, cries for help silenced by the crack of a whip, everything else was drowned out by the repetitious banging of metal. Rock by rock, steel bins on wheels were filled and rolled to a large dumping spot.
   
Waves of heat emanated from the forges where the previously gathered rock was melted down into its liquid state leaving behind only the valuable material known as iron. Hammers banged and beat the iron against anvils forming various shapes across the vast spanse of time. Swords, hammers, sickles and other various tools were forged from the iron that was ripped out of the ground.
   
Creatures roamed the vast expanses of caves, some were taller than others and some were fuzzy. These creatures stood taller than man and elves alike. Their large hind legs and strong muscles made them the perfect hunters, the perfect peacekeepers. They bared their fangs and growled with anger which made them known for their hatred of humanity. They bathed in the blood of the fallen showing no mercy to any who weren't them. They flung their weight around, prancing about as if they were kings of this realm. They were just gnolls.
   
Those who took the brunt of their wrath were tough, resilient and resourceful. Those who resisted were emptied, those who surrendered became their next meal. Those who were smaller, stouter, smarter were oppressed, forced into labor to feed the hunger of pride. Those who remember the sun passed on leaving behind only the words they used to describe its majesty. Those who are hopeful are beaten, those who are disheartened are enslaved, those who lost, lost more than just war. Those who toil in these caves are no friends of the gnolls. Those who work the forges and dig the iron and push the carts, they are the victims, the lost memory of a civilization beyond measure...
   
"Do you now know why we fight?" Asked a gruff voice. Dressed in old ragged clothes was a short man with a beard to rival any human's dream. He was speaking to a younger male who looked no better than himself.
   
The younger male was a forge worker, dressed in forge worthy clothes. His apron weighed like a lead necklace and his hands sheathed in the cover of burnt hide. His face was blackened from the heat and dust that came from the forges. He spoke with a dry and raspy voice. "I just don't know how we can hide that much from the gnolls without making it obvious that they're missing weapons."
   
"Simple, take one sword every dozen you make and toss it aside as if it was defective and have someone else bring it to our storage."
   
"That's easier said than done, Athaban."
   
"I've asked the same of the other forgemasters, it can be done. Trust me, Kudir. The revolution will come to pass." Athaban placed a reassuring hand upon Kudir's shoulder.
   
"Hopefully it'll not be the end of us."
   
"If it is then we die free."
   
"Hard to see it that way." Kudir replied doubtfully.
   
"You don't need to see it, you just need to believe it." Athaban stood up and pushed the wooden crate back against the pile. "I'll be seeing you."
   
"Fahrun Leben Bnet." That phrase spoke a lot for Kudir as it was something he'd never experienced; For Our Freedom.
   
Hearing that phrase made Athaban smile a little bit. "Yi Breden, my brother." Athaban and Kudir weren't blood brothers or even brothers in arms but that didn't stop Athaban from referring to Kudir as one. Athaban pulled out a crumpled up piece of parchment and read the lettering on it, crossing out another name on his list.
   
The forges belched out heat and fire as its smoke was funneled up into the volcano's windpipe. For millennia the mountain coughed out the byproduct of dwarven ingenuity. Kudir worked the forges alongside a forgemaster, someone who'd spent their whole life around the blood of the planet. Kudir came rushing back, "Haheiben, Sovoc."
   
Savoc was roughly as old as Athaban, some two hundred and fifty years. He hobbled over to a bucket and detached his prosthetic leg; a small leg, knee joint to foot. "Damn thing's locked up again."
   
"Probably a tight screw or you dislodged the spring again." Kudir picked up the leg and set it on a metal working table. He popped the covers and pried a few parts aside. "Yep, it's that spring again. How'd you manage to get it wrapped around the bolt?"
   
"Ach, hell if I know. That leg has never worked right for me, boy," He complained and used a nearby metal pole as crutch. "Where'd you go?"
   
"I met with Athaban." Kudir told him.
   
"If the Gnolls find out-"
   
"They didn't, dad." Kudir rolled his eyes. His attachment to the forge was because of his father, Savoc.
   
Savoc stood beside him and eyed the knee joint of the fake leg. The rebound spring was dislodged from its normal spot beneath the spring plate and unnaturally twisted around the rolling pin. "At least wait till I'm dead before joining his revolution."
   
"I'm no fighter, besides, he just needs weapons, not men." Kudir grabbed several tools, couple of pokers, a grabber and squeezer. It took a few minutes of bending and pushing but the spring ejected itself from the rolling pin and vanished into the cave. "Reeshen..."
   
"Language..." Savoc popped the lid on a small metal box which held a dozen similar looking springs. "Here."
   
Kudir took the spring and compressed it with the squeezer and wedged it into place. He grabbed the top and bottom of the knee joint and moved it back and forth, contract and expand. It worked smoothly. "That should do it."
   
Savoc reattached the leg to himself and stood up. He leaned into it with all of his body weight and it held. "You fix legs better than you make swords," he said mockingly.
   
"Har, har." Kudir rolled his eyes and grabbed the bellows, pumping them which breathed life back into the forges.
   
Several hours past when something peculiar got Kudir's attention. A tall slender woman was walking towards him. She was dressed in tattered clothes that seemed to have gotten too close to the forge. She carried something in her arms, cradled like an oversized child. From beneath the black and blue blanket that shrouded the object, a ghostly pale limb hung low in plain view. Kudir flicked his head around and searched for any gnolls. None were close enough to be problematic.
   
The woman approached the forges and set the rolled up body on the ground. She flashed a gentle smile towards Kudir. "I'm looking for Savoc, have you seen him?"
   
"What do you want with my dad?" Kudir leaned against the side of the forge.
  
"I have a favor to ask. Is he here?"
   
"He's dropping off a batch of weapons to the supply hut, he'll be back in a minute."
  
"Good." She said and picked up the body. She set it down on the metal working table and unrolled the robe from around the body.
   
"Uh... what are you doing?" Kudir walked up to her. "And mother of metal, what happened to him?"
   
The body was sprawled out on the table, the once gelatinous mass that hung from his eye socket had dried out. His whole right arm was three times whiter than the rest of him, inflated and dried out too. The woman sighed, "A demented man, an alchemist who went insane, attacked us and injected him with Swamp Blood."
   
"Swamp blood!? Get that out of here!" Kudir took several steps away from the body.
  
"I cured it. He's no longer afflicted with it but he is near death."
   
Behind them, a wooden cart was being rolled across the stone floor of the cave. It came to a sudden stop and the wooden arms hit the ground hard. "Do my eyes deceive me or are those the robes of the Queen of Fear?"
   
"Ah, Savoc. It's been a long time." The lady gave a friendly chuckle. She turned around and smiled widely as he entered her view. "Two hundred years later and you still look as lively."
   
"Hardly." He grunted and waddled over to her. "What brings you out here, Enderia?"
   
"I got an associate who was badly injured." Enderia stepped aside so that he could see the pale body of Tangurple. "I cured the Swamp Blood out of him but the damage he suffered is too critical for these otherworlders."
  
"Odis' army of adventurers?"
   
"More like a collection of war mongering neanderthals but yes. I need this one alive but his injuries won't regenerate. I've seen your handy work, Yi Maeda."
   
"Please, Enderia, those days are behind me. Kudir, my son is more capable at limbs than I am." Savoc took a seat on a cold anvil. "He knows everything I know. I don't have the patience for springs anymore."
   
Kudir looked over at him again. "Judging by the muscles on his good arm, he was very strong."
   
"Strong will, yes."
   
Kudir glanced over his shoulder towards Savoc who was carefully watching them. Savoc nodded his head and pointed to the body. Kudir refocused and examined the body. "He'll need a new eye and a new arm."
   
"Do whatever you need to." Enderia stepped back from him and took a seat beside Savoc.
  
Savoc looked up at her. She didn't appear to be concerned but it was the duty of every god to have a poker face. "Who is he to you?"
   
Enderia shifted her gaze. "Hm?"
   
"Who is he to you?"
   
"A great many things." Enderia sighed heavily. "But mostly a reality check."
   
"Hmph." He grunted. "And here I thought you didn't care about us mortals."
   
"When you lose your mana supply, you start to care again..."
   
Kudir tuned out of their dreary conversation. He studied the damage done to his arm and body and shook his head, 'By the forge, how did you manage this?' He talked to himself in his head. He listed out dimensions, lengths, thicknesses, which developed into a seemingly endless grocery list. He grabbed a measuring rod and held it up to his arm, measuring its length from shoulder to wrist and wrote it down on a piece of parchment. Then each finger got measured and written down, as well as the dimensions of the empty eye socket. He turned around, "Hey, uh, Enderia, what happened to his eye?"
   
"It inflated and exploded. Made a nice popping sound."
   
Kudir covered his mouth with his hands trying not to vomit at the thought of having an eyeball explode. A sound of retching gurgled out from his suddenly inflated cheeks. "Eugh, I don't even..." he shook his head hard, nearly to the point of beating his forehead into the metal table to break the thought's grasp on his stomach.
   
Savoc stood up and shook his leg. "Why didn't you just cast some shadow magic to fix him?"
   
"My people are gone and with that, my supply. It would be easy to undo the damage but the side-effects from an unstable mana supply, even with my capabilities, would be to risky or even deadly to him. I may be a goddess but even I won't take certain risks."
   
"If the gnolls find us, you know they'll come with a full party."
   
"Then it is best you act quick." Enderia stood up and crossed her arms. "I leave him in your care. Consider him and his abilities as repayment. I'll come for him when I am in need of him."
   
"With us?!" Savoc protested, "Pardon me but we are no baby sitting service, we can't just hide an entire ijiking human... pardon my Dweverish."
   
"Your rebellious friends may want him, think of that." She waved her hand and opened a bright purple portal. "I'm sure Kudir could tell you everything..." She stepped through the portal and vanished.
   
Kudir timidly looked over his shoulder at a now very unhappy parent. He gave a frightened and insecure chuckle, "I... uh.. I can explain?"
   
"The rebellion? What did you promise them?"