Banished

Hjalmir has always been odd, even for a dwarf growing in the Appalachian mountains of Virginia. Most had left long ago for the emerald mines in Africa, or the still-thriving coal mines in Australia. Hjalmir instead had a knack for mechanics work, and went where it was easiest - so he spent his days fixing the odd cattle farmer's tractor, or more often pulling overnight call with AAA.

This faithful night had fair weather, and a good chance for some profit if it had just gone right. A Peterbilt sit idling on the side of I-81, hood proped forward, heavy load threatening to drag it back down the hill it had blown an engine component trying to climb.

"Yeah, I reckon it's the turbos, you can tell by the sound." Hjalmir coughed through his beard between puffs on his cigarette. "Now, I don't have the parts on me to fix it here, but if you ride with me to Roanoke, we should be able to have you back on the road by dawn."

The young trucker, half-elf from the looks of him, and young, growled in aggravation. "I told that ignorant goblin not to send me up 81! This old girl's been tired for some time now! Ain't there some way you can get her going long enough for me to get to a hotel or somethin'?"

Hjalmir tugged at his beard, taking a long drag, and flicking his cigarette butt into the weeds. As quick as a master craftsman pulling strands of wool through a loom, he unscrewed the clips holding the turbo to the intake and threw a piece of pipe where it had been locked in.

"Now, take this with you, the next guy's gonna have to use the part numbers off it, but that'll get you to the next town. Don't hot rod it! I don't know how much metal got into the engine."

Hjalmir climbed into the cab of his service truck and lit another cigarette, punching in the information he needed into his ticket, billing the company of the half elf driver. There was a subtle peck on the window. Looking over, he was shocked to see a fair human maiden, mascara running down her face, huffing and puffing.

After rolling his window down, he asked gruffly, "What'cha need, miss?" Knowing good and damn well she was a poor college girl, probably ran out of gas and had no service.

"Sir, you need to get me out of here, now, he's coming back! Oh god! Please, let me in!" she said in a hushed but hurried tone, pulling on the handle of the truck.

Hjalmir looked around and saw nary a car in sight, but the truck he had just finished fixing had made it about a mile and a half, stopped, and was reversing as fast as the guy could handle.

"Get in, and you can tell me later what's going on." he opened the door to the truck and she climbed inside and over top of him into the passenger seat, Hjalmir catching the cent of bleach and cheap dollar store wine on her."

Not knowing what to expect, he reversed down to the exit they had passed by barely 400 feet, pulling a turn-about in the intersection, and hammering it down the side road.

"I thought it was weird he wouldn't go with me to get the part he needed... So tell me, where are we going and why are you leaving?" Hjalmir said, offering her a cigarette, and placing them back in the center console after she denied it.

"I... I don't really... He pulled me from a bar in downtown Knoxville, I just graduated and was celebrating... He was so suave, and offered me a place to sleep when I got sick, and I couldn't get back to my friends... He didn't do anything to me, though, when I woke up I asked where we were going and he just kept saying 'you'll see.'" she said, shaken up, but coherent and just ready to get home it seemed.

"Okay, well that'll keep me from breaking his nose if I ever see him again, but tell me, if he was so nice about it, why run away and jump in my truck?" Hjalmir said, finishing his cigarette and tossing it out the window. Glancing at his side view mirror, he saw the truck catching up to him. "Well, no need to answer, he may do that for us before the night's up.. Hang on."

The trick to living a long, happy life as a dwarf in the 21st century is to know where all the good caves are, and how to get into them, and if your truck will fit. Just so happened, on this exit on 81, there was an old gold mine that was renovated right before the gold ran out for more modern vehicles. As such, Hjalmir abruptly turned off the road onto a gravel path and turned off all but his fog lights, something he's had to do to avoid cops before, and slowed down to keep from kicking up too much dust. It was around 2am, so unless pretty boy was half drow, the chances of him being able to follow the dwarf were slim to none.

Now this part of the story gets boring. Hjalmir and Jane get away, her name's not really Jane, she just never gives her name. Hjalmir is nice enough to drive her all the way back to Knoxville, drops her off with her friends at the same bar and he goes back to business as usual, until he gets a phone call, right smack dab in the middle of a Sunday.

"Funny, you charged me without fixing anything. In fact, you made the situation worst, for all parties involved." the voice said in a rather sinister tone over the phone.

Hjalmir ran his impact wrench a few times to drown out the last bit of what the man was trying to say. "Aye? What was that? I couldn't quite hear you! I'm a working dwarf, ya see, we work even on Sunday. If this is about that pretty boy of yours and his stow away, I ain't got no story for you aside from I left them both alone."

"I know where you are." said the voice as the phone line went dead.

Hjalmir snuffed out a cigarette and took a swig of his coffee, and went into his back room to grab his axe.