A clash

"Hullo Chucky!" Lucky said.

Chucky jumped and almost fell of the stepladder. "Oh, Lucky! Flucky! You got back allright then?" said Chucky.

"Surenoproblemwhatsoever" Flucky babbled.

"Er... what's that thing lying outside your door," asked Lucky.

"That was a cavetroll," Chucky said smugly, patting the side of his mechanical giant. "I haven't had time to get rid of it yet.
"But never mind that, we've got work to do."

He jumped down from the stepladder and walked over to a machine covered with a sheet.

"I've been working on this all day" Chucky said as he grabbed a corner of the sheet and pulled it of the contraption.

"Oh my" said Lucky.

"It's beautiful," said Flucky. His eyes were starting to glaze.

"Yup," said Chucky, sounding quite pleased with himself. "I need you guys to finish it though. If we work all night we might get it ready in time."

The three gnomes did work all night, and through most of the next day, but finally near the evening they were ready to really start working.

***

Alfredo had lost count of how long he had been imprisoned. He sat in the middle of his small cell, gently rocking back and forth on his heels.
Occasionally his captor would bring him some foul food of unknown origin and torment him while he ate.
Occasionally he would fall asleep and escape for a short while. Everytime he woke up he thought it had just been a bad dream, but everytime he found himself in the same small cell.

He heard the something rattle and the door to his cell opened. His captor came in. Alfredo dimly noticed a large amulet hanging on a string around her neck. It seemed familiar somehow.

"Hello mister Smelly!" the girl said cheerfully. "Here's your food."

She put down a platter with something brownish on it.

"Now what do you say?"

Alfredo forced his mouth into something that resembled a smile. "Thank- you-very-much" he droned.

"You're very welcome" the girl said delightfully. She patted his head. "Now eat it all up and maybe I'll give you a treat" she said.

Alfredo obediently reached for the platter. Then he suddenly felt a tremor in the rock under him and a low rumble. In front of him the girls eyes widened as the tremor became stronger. She began to speak, "What is..." but was interrupted when a bolt of searing light erupted with a crack inside the cell. Alfredo flung himself to the floor, sobbing in terror as several more bolts discharged over his head.

When silence fell again he slowly looked up. The girl stood where she had before, immobile like a statue. Her hair was spread out around her head like a halo and small sparks poped from the ends. She had an expression like none Alfredo had ever seen before; Her face was locked in a snarl like a mad dog. And her eyes, they glowed yellow like a cats eyes in a moonlit night.
Alfredo shakily got up on his hands and knees. The girl still stood as if frosen in place, staring unseeing in front of her. Alfredo saw the open cell door behind her and swallowed. Slowly he began kreeping past the girl, close to the wall. When he was right beside her he could hear how she hissed faint words without moving her lips.

"I'll...find...you...I'll...find...you...I'll...find...you..."

Alfredo held his breath and continued creeping out of the cell.

***

Brother Mulgrow suddenly gasped and stopped in the middle of a sentence. Sister Liza and the Trackers that sat around the campfire looked up in alarm.

"I... felt something." Mulgrow said, "Some great power from the mountains."

Sister Liza stood up and walked around the fire to brother Mulgrow. "What? Who?"

"I think it was, " Mulgrow spat in the fire, "gnome-magic!"

"Gnomes?" Lize said confused. "What are they up to?"

"I don't know," Mulgrow answered, "but it's bad, really bad."

"Can you find them?"

Brother Mulgrow nodded, "I think so..."

1. ...and on the hooves of madness came a horseman in the night...
2. Velus in the Vale, part II

Add New Option

Go Back

View Forward Story Tree
View Back Story Tree