The raging storm outside, with all of it’s lightning bolts and thunder crashes, went completely unnoticed by those within the mountain fortress of the dwarven inventors. Princess Nataleigh and Maid Madelyn were both awestruck by the size of the workshop as they were led through it’s many cavernous rooms and multi-leveled catwalks. Each room they entered was like walking into the heart of a living thing. The whole mountain seemed alive with moving parts. Machines whirred and hummed everywhere around them while steam hissed out of vents beneath them and water gurgled through pipes of every size over their heads. Gears turned, levers pumped, and pulleys rotated in every nook and alcove of the scientific structure.
“Please do not touch anything!” their guide warned as Nataleigh stepped closer to inspect a multi-armed contraption on large wooden wheels with various pieces of dwarven armor in it’s clamps. “That ees the ‘All-Terrain Fully Automated Armor Bearer’ machine. Eet can travel anyvhere a knight does and can strap a full suit of armor on it’s target in 10.4 seconds! But eet has a glitch in it.”
“A glitch?” Nataleigh asked. “What kind of glitch?”
Frangen stopped and shook his head sadly. “Unfortunately, the machine gets a bit confused vhen applying the armor. The last time ve tested it on my brother, Boz, it took Hiendel and I a veek to get the boot off of his head and the helmet off of his hinder!”
He smiled and continued, waving them on. “Luckily, that vas after Hiendel had invented the ‘Saw-bladed Power Can Opener’ or ve vould have never gotten heem out!”
“How many inventors work in this huge place?” Maid Madelyn inquired.
“Only my two brothers and I, but Hiendel does most of the inventing stuff. Boz and I just help. Eet is safer that vay.” He finally came to a stop at a round wooden door with a small barred window in the center. “Come. My brothers are in here verking on Hiendel’s newest creation. Since you like horsees so much, you vill love thees vun! Vatch your step.”
The two maidens followed the dwarf into a huge room filled with all kinds of wheeled inventions, vehicles, catapults and other war machines. The most impressive of these was a 30 foot tall wooden horse on a wheeled platform. A small wooden door stood open in the side of the horse and a rope ladder hung down to the platform. Inside could be heard the banging and mumbling of Hiendel as he worked on his invention.
Their attention was suddenly drawn to the top of the horse as they noticed another dwarf on it’s back. This one was shorter than both of the others, but looked the strongest. He wore a vest made of iron and some baggy shorts with no shoes. Sweat matted his long red hair as he pushed against the great horses wooden tail trying to move it like a giant lever. Slowly he shoved it downward behind the horse, but it was taking all of his strength to do so. Hiendel’s muffled voice could be heard inside the horse coaxing him to hurry.
With a loud grunt of determination, the hefty dwarf gave a final push and succeeded in getting the tail where he wanted it. There was a loud click as a hidden latch within the horse locked the tail in place. Boz wiped his sweaty face and leaned against the tail for a moment to catch his breath. Then he noticed the three newcomers and waved at them with a toothy grin.
“Fran, my brother!” he shouted. There was a loud clinking sound as the latch holding the tail in place released and the stocky little dwarf was catapulted across the cavern like a living cannonball right into a large pool at the far end. Hiendel suddenly appeared in the door on the side of the horse.
“Oh, hello dere.” he said as he noticed Frangen and the visitors. Then he looked up at the tail and asked. “Did it verk, Bozwin? Hello. Bozwin?”
He shook his head and looked back down at the others. “Vere did he go?”
Frangen pointed and Hiendel’s eyes followed his finger in a wide arc that ended at the water.
“Oops.” he said.
The three on the ground all ran to the water’s edge and Frangen released a valve that quickly drained the water out of the pool. There at the bottom stood Boz, wringing the water out of his hair and smiling the same toothy grin he had greeted them with a moment earlier.
“Are you alright, Boz?” Frangen asked.
Boz was jubilant. “Da! Eet vas a blast! I vant to go again!”
Frangen breathed a sigh of relief and turned to Princess Nataleigh and Maid Madelyn. “There, you see? There is nothing to fear. He is fine.”
Maid Madelyn also breathed a sigh, but the princess was no longer concerned about the inventors and their antics. Something else had caught her attention. She seemed frozen in place on the edge of the deep pool as she stared down into it.
Frangen noticed the strange look on her face and asked, “Um, excuse me, young lady, but are you feeling alright?”
At that moment, Hiendel ran up behind them and shouted down at Boz, who was climbing up a ladder that was built into the side of the stone pool. “Bozwin, vhat are you doing standing so close to ze tail like dat vhen you tell me to ‘fire’?”
Boz looked up at him as he climbed. “I did not tell you to fire.”
“Yes you did! I heard you.” Hiendel countered.
“No, I didn’t.”
“No? Then I suppose I vas dreaming vhen I heard you say ‘Fire, my brother!’”
“I didn’t say ‘Fire’, my brother. I said ‘Fran’, my brother! I vas greeting Frangen.” Boz explained. He was nearly to the top of the ladder now.
Hiendel turned to Frangen. “Is that what he really....?”
Hiendel stopped in midsentence as he noticed Frangen waving his hand in front of Nataleigh’s face like he was trying to snap her out of a trance.
“Vhat in ze name of scientifics are you doing, Frangen?” he asked. Then his face brightened as he remembered. “Ah yes, the girl’s size problem! I forgot about that! You are trying some new hypnosis treatment, no?”
Frangen looked puzzled. “Vhat?”
“You are using hypnosis to treat ze young damsel.” Hiendel repeated. “An excellent prescription! Frangen, you are a genius!”
“I am?” Frangen scratched his head. “How interesting. I don’t even know vhen I thought of it.”
Maid Madelyn touched her shoulder. “Princess, is something wrong?”
Nataleigh kept staring as she finally spoke. “Look at it, Madelyn. It’s bigger and better than I remember.”
The others followed her gaze down into the pool where they saw, resting on two docking clamps near the bottom, a large, iron-wrought submarine!
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