Chapter Fifteen: What Once Was A Meal…
The gnome belched loudly, wiping the green slime off of his face with his shirt sleeve.
“Oh dear, excuse me. My manners must have been lost in the myriad tubes of Grombler’s guts. What would old Cermonius say if he saw his majesty the king’s firstborn behaving in such a light?”
Tobay chuckled and set down the empty pot, vestiges of green sludge and a congealed eyeball floating in it. Brian glanced over at the remnants of the spi-rab stew. He made a sound of disgust and shifted his body so his back faced the man.
“Whoo, you don’t know what you missed! Those little guys make good eating.”
Tobay patted his stomach and settled back against the wall, sliding down to a sitting position. Brian ignored him as he sat and contemplated his situation. They’re had to be some way out of the mess he’d gotten himself in. He knew that one day he would have to face his end but there was no way it was going to be out someone else’s. He shuddered at the thought. He saw a motion on the wall and his attention followed a small little insect-like creature—a parasite, perhaps—as it crawled about in its miniature land of stomach lining, completely unaware of the larger world around it. If that was indeed where they were. Neither of them really knew although the hypothesis had good evidence to back it up. Assuming the small man was right, Brian had deduced that they had made their way down the digestive tract and into, well…Basically they were in storage until the next ‘drop off’.
He thought of his journey through the woods and the events leading up to his predicament. He remembered entering the cave mouth which, ironically enough, may have been more than metaphorical. If indeed he had walked right into Grombler’s chomper, that explained the whistling sound he had heard from so far away. The thing was probably snoring. Snoring. Brian was thankful no one had seen him go in there. The embarrassment of being rescued from such a self-inflicted blunder almost outweighed being digested alive by a living lump of forest. In reality, there was little chance of rescue; finding the place was hard enough and he had been looking for it. And even if someone did stumble into the same territory as he had, the sheer acidity and size of the tracts made it near impossible to venture back to the surface. No, if he was to get out of Grombler it would be of his own volition.
An annoying sound jarred Brian out of his plotting and he looked over his shoulder at the gnome who was now snoring, fast asleep against the wall. He looked from the gnome to the spilled empty pot of stew. Suddenly, a realization came to his mind. He walked over to the pot and picked it up by the handle. Tobay stirred, opening one eye partially.
“Sorry. All gone. You’re too late jumping to the table, my friend.”
“I’m not interested in eating this slop. What I want to know is where you got this pot from.”
Tobay frowned at the human. “It was in the larder, where I keep all my cooking paraphernalia.”
“Smart-ass. Seriously, where did it come from?”
Tobay exchanged glances between him and the pot. “Does this have something to do with your impossible plot for an exodus, perhaps?”
Brian shrugged. “It’s a start. I have a theory, but first you need to tell me where it came from.”
The gnome rubbed his chin, staring at the pot. He thought about it for a second.
“Seems to me that I remember it being with all the rest of the junk over in the Sea.”
Brian looked at the pot. “The Sea?”
The gnome shook his head, stretching and yawning. “It’s just that: a sea of hodgepodge–whatever it managed to swallow. I don’t know if it was on purpose or not but…you’d be surprised what you can find in there.”
Brian wrinkled his forehead. “This room…or, sea, I mean…It’s nearby?”
The gnome turned over, ready to sleep. “Yeah, I guess you could say that.”
Brian held his chin, trying to piece it together. “But if we are where you say we are, then how could there be loads of freshly-eaten things nearby? That doesn’t make any sense. This whole place pretty much melts everything it touches.”
“Silly boy. Not all creatures have only one head.”
Brian raised an eyebrow in question, tossing the pot back onto to ground.
“Can you take me to this sea?”
Tobay blinked. “It’s the middle of the night…or day…or….whatever. Either way, it’s bedtime. Why do you need to do this now?”
“What if I told you that you might be sleeping in your own bed sooner than you thought?” Brian said.
The gnome stared blankly at him for a long moment then laughed when he realized Brian had meant what he said.
“Unless you’ve brought it with you, somehow, I sincerely doubt that.”
“Get me to the sea and we’ll find out.”
***
Tobay led Brian through a series of walls that opened to his touch, sliding open like valves every time he ran his hand down them. The gnome called it ‘unzipping’, which was about as apt a term as Brian could think of. Yet, try as he may, Brian could not get them to do the same. Tobay chided him, explaining he just didn’t have the ‘magic touch’. They pressed on and, after a time, they came back into complete darkness. The halls were even devoid of those strange glowing networks behind the walls that he had seen in many of the other areas. Brian didn’t quite understand the whole lighting system inside Grombler but the gnome seemed to think that they were electrical surges given off from Grombler’s nervous system. The theory made sense. Perhaps, portions of Grombler’s body weren’t innervated then? Brushing off the anatomical mysteries for the moment, Brian focused on following Tobay through the darkness, his only lifeline the sound of the gnome’s footsteps. Brian tripped over several protrusions and sudden declines, but other than that the way seemed to be relatively clear of debris. After some time, a fold opened in front of them and the familiar neuronal light greeted them on the other side.
“After you.” The gnome said, allowing Brian to step first through the new passage.
They came onto a ridge overlooking a massive open area that appeared to be a cylindrical chamber so high Brian could barely make out the ceiling in the waning light. The ridge on which they stood adjoined others of the same kind, forming strange grooves which lined the walls at broken intervals. About ten blades below their position, a massive spread of junk of all sorts, floating in a murky film of brown water and sludge was laid out before them.
The Sea.
The placed looked more like a landfill than a sea; a monstrous internal garbage dump. A movement of light from high above stole his gaze from the trash heap and high above, Brian could see a dimly-lit passage that appeared to be contracting as if it were alive. It appeared that the ridges didn’t come even close to the opening, so he would have to find another way up. Tobay put his hands on his hips and he glanced up the steep column to where Brian had locked his gaze.
“That’s our way out. Are you convinced now?”
Brian looked at the small man. “If we look hard enough, I’m sure we can find a way. Come on. With two of us this will go a lot faster.”
The gnome shook his head. “Uh uh. No way. I only go in there if I have to. It’s not as easy to get out of there as you think. And there are…other considerations.”
Brian gave the gnome a questioning look. “I don’t understand. Whatever is in there can’t be worse than a life condemned to that.” Brian pointed back the way they came.
The gnome turned and stared at the hall from whence they came. Brian thought he see saw something play across his face then. Nostalgia, perhaps? The look was gone as quickly as it came.
“Sorry. I won’t do it.” He said adamantly.
Brian shrugged. “Fine. Suit yourself. Though, I have to say, for a prince, it’s pretty sad that you made a name for yourself when you won’t even face a sea of garbage for a chance at freedom.”
Brian pulled himself up onto one of the higher ridges and began to climb up the wall as he made his was along the perimeter. Halfway up he glanced back down at the gnome whose head was cast down at the floor in shame. Brian shook his head and continued on. After several minutes of climbing, he had reached another extruded ledge where he took a moment to collect his breath and bearings. The opening was still far out of reach, but he had made some progress. From his new vantage point, Brian could see that the ridges would only take him about three-quarters of the way up. He would have to find another way to bridge the gap. Beneath him, he could see the sea in its near entirety.
Tobay wasn’t kidding when he called the sea hodgepodge; amidst the plethora of shattered tree trunks, foliage and mounds and mounds of dirt, Brian could make out the forms of a waterlogged chesterfield and even the frame of an old rusted car. How on Rynn those things had ended up in Grombler Brian had no idea, but it only confirmed his notion that something strange was going on. Though most of what ended up in the sea appeared to have come from the forest, whatever kind of natural appeal the sea had was lost in its abhorrent smell. Brian had never been exposed to anything quite like the stench that marinated there. Up high, the fumes were all the more repugnant and he had to tuck his shirt over his nose in attempt to quell some of the damage being done to his brain cells while his olfactory senses adjusted. As he looked down on the mass beneath, Brian glimpsed the ledge from whence he had come. Tobay was nowhere in sight.
Brian scoffed. “Figures.”
Giving the opening above one last forlorn look, Brian began to climb back down, more determined than ever to find a way out. There had to be something he could use somewhere in that endless sea of garbage.
***
“This is all your fault, you know that?” The gnome glared at Kade from across the cell.
Kade ignored his jibe and continued to search the bars for weaknesses. The gnome sighed and began swinging his feet back and forth as he sat on the bench. Kade moved his hands slowly across the metal, mumbling something to himself. He grabbed the bars and began to shake each one, testing its fortitude. The gnome glanced over at Kade, frowning.
“What do you hope to achieve? Do you think you can actually get out of here like that? Those bars are reinforced steel. Maybe you should use your head…as a wedge.”
The gnome laughed derisively. Kade grit his teeth and turned to the gnome, casting him a death glare. Unaffected by the gesture, the gnome eyed Kade up and down, noticing for the first time the youth’s disheveled and unkempt appearance.
“Aren’t you a sorry lot; trying to find a way out when you can’t even find a scrub brush.”
The gnome laughed again. “Well I guess it’s not so bad, though. If ya get hungry, all you have to do is pull a dead critter from ‘yer hair and you’re set!”
The gnome fell of the bench and burst into hysterics.
Kade stormed over to the gnome and lifted him by the arm.
“Hey! What are y…”
Kade swung the gnome into the bars and his face made a loud twang against them. The gnome yelped in pain and held his nose.
“Aah! By nothe! You sthtupid hum…”
Kade forced the gnome’s face between two bars, the gnome struggling against his grip, unable to outmatch his strength.
“Or maybe,” Kade said sternly, “I should use your head as a wedge, since it would be more likely to fit.”
Kade pushed harder. The gnome squealed and swiped backwards at Kade, attempting to kick him but Kade stepped off to the side and held him in place.
“You got me into this mess, so now you’re gonna get me out!”
The gnome yelled and whimpered as his face squished against cold metal.
“So I’m going to ask you once and only once: how do we get out of here?”
The gnome fidgeted several times more but stopped resisting when he realized that Kade wasn’t letting up.
“Ok, ok!” The gnome panted. His breath came in fast, short bursts. “I can help you get out, but on one condition.”
Kade let some of his weight off the gnome’s back. “What condition?”
The gnome pressed himself away from the bars, trying to catch his breath. “That you declare regnomeination.”
Kade raised an eyebrow. “Re-gnome-a what?”
The gnome groaned impatiently. “Regnomeination; it means that the captor officially relinquishes all claim to servitude from the captee from the time spoken and for all time after, until the event of recapture or conscription.”
Kade frowned. “I don’t understand.”
The gnome squirmed against the bars, clearly at his wit’s end. “It means that you tell me that I’m not your slave anymore!”
Kade pondered what the gnome had said previously about the strict laws surrounding a gnome’s capture and how badly it had upset him. In his haste to save the gnome from being sentenced to death, Kade had accidentally brought to light the little fact of their encounter on the beach and that had not played out well with the gnome. Not well at all. But, perhaps, there was some leverage there to be used. After all, he had outsmarted a gnome—the allegedly cleverest of all the small folk in the woods. He cocked his head as something came to mind.
“And if I let you go, what are you going to do? Just because I release the claim over you doesn’t erase the fact that you were caught. What does your gnome law say about that part?”
The gnome stopped fidgeting and stared through the bars at the cell across from him, the gnome prisoner there giving them both a dirty look. The gnome’s angry expression faded to one of dull disappointment. He had hoped the human was too stupid to think that far ahead but the boy was right—the King would surely have his head if he was to prance back into the town an escapee. Where would he go? He thought of the forest—the vast tunnels and warrens, the endless mazes of trees to play and hunt for the treasures hidden within. Maybe the elves would even entertain a gnome guest. He had always wondered what their lives were like, living in abject secrecy as they did. Yet, the thought of assuming all responsibility for every aspect of his survival, coupled with the prospect of starting from the beginning all over again terrified him and scared away all notions of grandeur that adventure may have originally posed. But he wouldn’t tell the human that.
“I could find places to go.” The gnome said, defiantly.
Kade looked at him for a moment longer and then released his grip on the small man. The gnome dropped to the ground, rubbing his bruised cheek with his sleeve. He adjusted his jaw with his hand and stood up straight. He looked at Kade with a half disgruntled, half resentful look.
“Then if you help me, I’ll do what you ask.”
The gnome’s face lit up. “Really? You promise that…that I won’t have to follow you?”
“I promise.” Kade said, as sincerely as he could sound.
The gnome pointed to a stone in the corner of the roof. “That stone in the upper corner can probably be removed by hand with enough force. In case of floods we put in drainage channels so that the water doesn’t pool in any one area and cause structural damage from above. If you can get it to move then it should get you access into one of the channels which you can use for passage back to the surface.”
Kade looked at the stone in question.
“Where would we come out, exactly?”
The gnome frowned, placing his hand on his chin. “Hmm. That’s a good question. I’m not too sure, to be honest. There are hundreds of these things all over the kingdom. It could be anywhere. It definitely leads to the surface though. That much I can be sure.”
“Well, that’s a start I guess. How do you know about these channels?”
“I’m an architect in this city. I know all the channels ‘cause I helped design them.”
Kade looked back to the gnome. “How do I know you are telling me the truth? You are a thief, after all.”
The gnome crossed his arms, looking offended. “Takes one to know one. You stole my freedom, don’t forget. I’d say that was a pretty raw deal on my end. Besides, do you have any better ideas?”
Kade looked back to the corner. “No, you’re right. I’ll have to try it.”
He went over to the corner and stood on the bench. He wedged his fingers around the edges of the stone and pried as hard as he could. Surprisingly, the stone shifted out with little effort, slipping out of Kade’s hand and falling to the floor below where it fractured into several pieces.
“Subtle.” The gnome jibed.
The stone removed, a dark passage had been revealed, sure as the gnome had described it. Kade began to pull himself up into the passage.
“Hey! Wait! What about your part?” The gnome said in a frenzy.
“You said…”
“Right, right.” Kade, stepped back down on to the bench. “I officially declare you to be regnome…uh, free from being my slave.”
A smile spread across the gnome’s face and he ran up and hugged Kade’s leg in joy.
“Oh, thank you! Thank you! You have no idea how much that means to me! Gnomes spend their whole lives regretting their capture. Oh ,thank you!”
Kade waved his hand and grinned wanly. “It’s not a big deal. Forget about it.”
He pulled himself into the hole and disappeared out of sight. The gnome looked around the cell smiling and drew in a deep breath, content in his rediscovered freedom. The other prisoners gave him confused looks but the gnome didn’t care: he was his own gnome once more!
Kade popped his head back into the cell.
“Well, come on. I don’t have all day.”
The gnome pivoted around to face him, his elated expression fading quickly.“What do you mean? You released me so I can do what I want. I’ll stay here and tell them you got away when I was sleeping and…”
“Don’t be stupid.” Kade interjected. “Brian caught you too and he hasn’t degnomeified you yet, or whatever, so you’re still under his command.”
The gnome’s eyes bulged and his mouth drooped. He had forgotten about the other human on the beach. His eyes began to water and his lip twitched.
“But…but…you promised!” The man whimpered.
“And I kept it.” Kade snapped. “You don’t have to follow me. But you’ll have to follow him. At least until he degnomeanoma…argh! You know what I mean. But you’ll never get to him without me, so let’s go!”
Kade could see that the gnome was clearly stupefied and wasn’t going to come easy. Kade groaned and plopped back out of the hole. The gnome wailed and ran over to the bars, fiercely grabbing hold. Kade grabbed the gnome by his legs and began reefing on him but the gnome’s grip was formidable. After several seconds of struggling, the gnome pulled free, sending the two of them scrambling back against the wall in a jumble. The gnome quickly righted himself, making for the bars once more.
“Oh no you don’t!” Kade said, snatching him up by the midsection and hoisting him over his shoulder.
With the gnome thrashing about, Kade stepped up on to the bench and attempted to shove the gnome into the passageway. The gnome splayed out, pressing his arms and legs against the opening as he resisted Kade’s shoves from behind.
“Seriously, you’re like a child!”
“I’m not leaving! You can’t make…”
He gave the gnome a good shove and he buckled from the force, falling into the passage. Kade hopped in after him and ushered him along, the gnome’s whining echoing through the passage as they made their way to the outside.
A crusty old gnome, looking somewhere in the range of sixty-something, looked over to his cellmate who sat beside him reading a faded old magazine.
“Never seen anyone so desperate to stay in prison.”
The other spat on the floor, giving his cellmate the briefest of eye contact.
“Nope.”
***
A dark form touched down on the hard-packed soil, the silhouette of the jagged black fortress looming in the near distance. A uniform black sheet of treetops were all that separated them now. Lightning struck, illuminating the craggy cliff side upon which the arcane structure sat, the dark forms of violent waves hissing as they bit at its limestone flank. Several lights were on in the east wing, shining like ominous eyes watching out to sea. The man wiped the rain and dew off of his face which had collected there during his long flight over, taking care not to gouge his skin with the newly-acquired orcish gauntlet that came with the set.
“Looks like somebody’s home.”
He continued on foot.
***
The southern courtyard was vast and open to the forest. For whatever reason, the original builders had neglected to fortify the one side, though the man knew it was intentional and borne of hubris: you didn’t need to fortify it because you knew no one would dare come at you in your sacred meditative grounds.
Mokul. The name. The man. The sorcerer. The legend.
It was imbued in every stone and facet of the place. He could feel the wizard’s presence like a palpable chemical in the air, even after the impossibly long three thousand years since he had frequented the fortress’s grounds. It was unclear how he knew about the man or even the length of time separating them; they were memories that were not memories. Stories that weren’t his to tell but only to finish. Somehow, he also knew the fortress in detail, including the purpose of the courtyard, back when Mokul had been around to make use of it. It was not a training ground, no, though it was easily large enough to be. Rather, this particular space held a significant purpose in history: it was where Mokul had gone to integrate. That is, to consolidate a wizard’s knowledge and training into a singular, functional thing. It wasn’t unlike meditation, but it was so much more. Integration took one’s psyche to a whole other depth, down into the very essence of the spirit and beyond. It was not uncommon to discover things in that place that one didn’t even know they knew about themselves.
Such was the way of a Master. Yet another thing he had no idea how he knew.
The man walked by a large pile of blackened, alabaster stone, perhaps once a majestic fountain or statue. He ran his hand along one of the smooth pieces, imagining how grand it must have been back in its day and what forces it would have taken to reduce it so. He glanced up at the towering walls of the fortress, hemming him in on every side. Instead of feeling the oppression of their daunting presence, they invigorated him. Challenged him, even. It was as if the fortress was saying to him: come inside if you dare. If you think you can handle it.
And that was exactly what he would do. It was why he had come. Why he had come back. Back from where, he did not know but he was certain it was the case. Like the majority of his thoughts, they were not dictated by him but to him. It was strange to live such a life but a strange life was better than no life.
And he knew the latter all too well.
He raised his face into the night air and closed his eyes. He could sense lifeforms inside the fortress. There weren’t many and only a handful were gifted, but none were considerably strong. They would buckle to his powers. He could sense their emotions even from a distance; they felt…excited about something. An event. Mere days away. Were they here to celebrate something? The man opened his eyes and smiled. These chattel would not live to celebrate another day. Their very presence defiled the name of the place.
As he approached the huge iron doors leading into the fortress, he reached out with his senses and discovered a sealing spell placed there. This was not the work of the wizard, no. It was newer. Weaker. A pathetic working and nothing Mokul would have ever signed off on.
With a raised hand he reached out with the flows and pulled the massive metal doors off their hinges, the several ingons of steel floating passively above the earth. He jerked his arm downwards as if pulling on a ripcord and the doors flew to the side with violent force. A wan light emanated out of the fortress from the gaping hole and he proceeded inside.
“Klath’en Diar, once again I welcome your loving embrace.”
***
Brian jumped down from the ledge and his feet sunk into a foot of trashy water, spraying grunge is his face. He turned and spat in disgust, wiping the grime off his cheek. He proceeded to the center of the room where a massive pile seemed to reach an apex, as if it was loaded up more frequently than the rest of the room. As he tread through the sludge he saw several different kinds of bones floating among the rest of the garbage. He could not discern the types of animals, though none appeared to be human.
“Guess you’re not a vegetarian.”
Brian came to the heap and began to climb. As the rest of the waste, it was mainly things from the forest but buried within, poking out here and there he could make out strange objects: cinder blocks, rebar, the makings of a street sign–an actual metal sign, not a hologram. It was if there was a second-era city broken down and hidden within the mess. How that could be possible, Brian had no idea. There weren’t any cities within bouts from the deepwoods, and all of the things he had seen were things from history. Even backwater rural towns were more sophisticated than building with cement. One earthquake and everything came down. It was no wonder the cren had nearly gone extinct back then.
***
While Brian climbed and pondered the pile beneath him, several pairs of eyes watched in the darkness. They analyzed his motions, sensed his heat signature. He was confirmed to be prey. The creature slithered from its den and glided silently into the water, making its way toward the central mound.
***
At the top, Brian stared up into the crevice high above. He yearned the freedom that the light offered. He stood, tantalized by its natural radiance and found himself daydreaming about the possibilities on the other side. Realizing that his thoughts had drifted, he collected himself and began to scan the area for anything he could use to get himself higher up. Of course he could try piling garbage but Brian knew that it would take far too long and that a pile can only get so high before physics wins. Looking down at the base of the pile, he saw an uprooted tree and watched as a large lizard with pink spots crawled out of one hole and around to the other side, out of site. Then it occurred to him, there was something very odd about the tree: unlike everything else he had seen in the sea, it was dry. Completely, bone dry. How had the humidity not rotted it? He looked up at the crevice of light again, the opening appearing to shift every so slowly, though he couldn’t be sure if his eyes were playing tricks on him. He looked back down at the tree and then it hit him all at once: how did anything get in the Sea to begin with? He had never even thought to consider that. If the tree was dry then it must have recently been put there. Which meant it had to have come from outside. The only way that could have happened…
Excited, Brian suddenly got an idea and began sliding down the trash heap towards the tree. He made it to the log and ran his hand across the top of it. Sure enough, the tree was as dry as it looked. He found two small branches still attached to the tree and broke them off. He plucked off several more and formed a kindling pile atop the tree. He held up his watch and began to dial in a magnifying function. As he did, motion from behind him caught his eye on the reflective surface of his device. He span around and a giant mouth full of serrated teeth lunged at him. He yelped and dove out of the way as the creature flew past him, burying itself into the mass of garbage effortlessly, disappearing.
“Get out of there! Its A wyrm!” A voice cried from across the chamber.
Brian followed the voice and saw the gnome up on the ledge, jumping up and down frantically and pointing in his direction. Brian turned back and the wyrm burst from the murky, knee-deep water, flying at Brian with its voracious mouth agape once more. The thing was nearly the size of a school bus. Brian fell on his side and the wyrm missed again, slamming into the mound and getting a face-full of garbage. It screamed angrily, spitting out the pieces of waste sticking to its face as it shook its head violently side to side. Taking advantage of the temporary distraction, Brian got to his feet and ran back up the mound of garbage, maneuvering to the other side. Spitting out the last of the things stuck in its teeth, the wyrm recoiled and sped after him.
As he ran up the heap, Brian’s shoes struggled to maintain grip on the mass of slimy leaves, branches and other detritus that had collected over the years. He fall onto his face, catching himself on his hands. Several hands away, two pleading glass eyes of a soggy teddy bear stared back at him, the toy so buried in waste that only its head was visible. By the look of it, it had been down there for ages unknown. What was a child’s stuffed animal doing inside Grombler?
A screech emanated from behind and Brian glanced over his shoulder to see the massive creature having an equally difficult time finding traction on the mound. But it was making better headway than him, its several thousand bunch surplus giving it a significant friction advantage over him. Brian hustled to his feet and charged his way to the top.
At the summit, Brian realized he had made a grave mistake. Not only was there nowhere else to go, there was nothing around him that could serve as a weapon. Watching the behemoth wyrm slither its way hungrily toward him, its overlapping maroon scales glistening with wastewater, Brian considered the fact that even had he a weapon, it may have done no good against such armor. The thing was a veritable tank. Brian backed up to the edge of the mound and looked over his shoulder at the twenty-blade drop. The water was sporadic at best and even if he could clear the base of the mound–which looked to be wishful thinking at best–there was no telling how deep it was at any given point, nor what lie underneath. Surely, he was looking at broken bones, possibly death. And since broken bones meant being helpless wyrm food, it was death and death. But he had no other options. Brian swallowed, watching the wyrm come at him, facing the very real fact that he may have used up the last of his death-defiance credits.
Then a turgid bellowing emanated around the chamber. The wyrm stopped, jerking its gaze toward the obnoxious bellowing. Brian frowned and followed the sound to a half-buried and completely rusted vehicle. It was first era tech, to be sure, possibly even a carbon junker. Veritable dinosaur. And it was wailing at the top of its lungs, horn blazing like it was its swan song. The horn cut out suddenly, a flicker of sparks from within the engine block, and a small head popped out the side where a door had once been. A small hand waved up at him and Brian watched in horror as the wyrm sped down the pile towards the gnome, screeching and hissing in tones that rivaled the junker’s beacon. Cursing could be heard as the gnome shifted in the awkward bucket seat, struggling to get out of the prehistoric mechanical beast. He managed to untangle himself and he was swiftly off, meandering through the maze of junk with surprising guile. Brian guessed his time spent in the Sea would pay off in the time of a chase. At least, he hoped he was right.
Brian wasted no time heading back down to the Sea himself. Once there, he checked for the clear and the wyrm was nowhere in sight, though he thought he could hear clunking and hollering in the distance. There was nothing he could do for the gnome, however, so he resigned himself to being useful another way. He came upon the strangely dry log that he had spied previously and he quickly dialed up a setting on his watch, calling up his flashlight function once more. This time, however, instead of setting the power level to reserve, he dialed up the input power to maximum, programming all other apps to shut down. A near-blinding beam of light shone out an aperture and Brian had to level the thing away from his face, lest he accidentally blind himself. Through squinting eyes, he managed to dial the lens into focusing a condensed beam, which he pointed at the log. After several seconds of no results, Brian feared the worst, that his plan might not work. He watched as the power meter visibly drained before him, the percentage values dropping by the second. Even with Glo batteries, a device as small as his forced to generate such power output could not withstand such conditions for long. But then there was a sizzle of smoke and a portion of the log caught fire. Brian smiled and slowly panned the light to an adjacent area of the log, that spot in turn setting alight after a short time. In about a minute, the log was nearly ablaze and thick black plume of smoke had begun to waft up toward the ceiling.
A scream sounded to his right and Brian looked over to see Tobay emerge from around a hulking pile of waste, the massive wyrm close in tow.
“Quickly, back to the top of the mound!” Brian called.
The two of them hustled back up the mound, past the blazing log which was quickly gathering heat and smoke. The wyrm paused at the base, cocking its head at the strange glowing log, unsure of what it was looking at. Deciding the log was better left untouched, the wyrm proceeded back up the mound in pursuit. Once more at the top, the two of them watched in terror as the creature quickly approached to finally claim its hard-earned meals.
“What are we going to do?” Tobay squealed.
“Just wait. I know this will work.” Brian motioned at the burning log.
Tobay frowned. “What… are you going to make him marshmallows to go along with the gnome/human souffle? We don’t have time for games. Are you cra…”
Suddenly, the ground beneath them heaved upwards. Both Brian and the gnome lost their balance and fell onto their backs. The pile shifted from the force and the wyrm slid downwards along with a collection of other debris that had been knocked loose.
Tobay sat up, rubbing his head. “What on Rynn was that?”
Brian nodded, pointing up at the crevice of light which now visibly convulsed as the smoke channeled up and through it to the other side. “That was our ticket out of here. Hold on!”
And then the wyrm was upon them, circling the summit as it bared its teeth for the kill. The two of them screamed and the wyrm lunged, its mouth easily wide enough to ingest them three times over. The ground heaved again, this time violently, and they were thrust upwards with incredible force, the entire mound shooting up towards the ceiling, towards the crevice. The opening widened at their approach and light poured over them–beautiful, beautiful sunlight–and then they were blinded by the sudden flash of Karayus bearing right into their eyeballs. Gravity shifted into gear and they found themselves sailing downwards. Brian’s eyes barely had time to adjust before the shape and color of the forest floor became apparent, he and the stream of trash sailing down toward it. Luckily, it wasn’t much of a fall and the momentum of the pile somewhat abated the force of impact, but not totally. Brian grunted as he struck hard earth, sliding along with the pile of debris as it collected and washed over him. After several moments, he came to a stop and all was dark and silent.
Brian shoved the pieces off him and slowly pulled his way back to the surface. His clothes were stinking and wet, surely never to be worn again. He sat on the surface of the pile, shaking off a thick sheen of slime that had collected on his arm. Looking around, he saw that we was back in the forest once more, though a pile of garbage was spread out in a large radius all around them. He slowly got back to his feet, looking around for Tobay. The gnome was nowhere to be seen. Had he made it out safely? Brian considered that he may have been crushed by the garbage but then a cough sounded from nearby, somewhere underneath the pile. Brian followed the sounds until he came upon the rusted frame of a car–the same vehicle that the gnome had used to distract the wyrm–and found the small man wedged between the center console and the passenger seat which had buckled over and pinned him in. He appeared to be uninjured but that didn’t stop the curses from flowing. Brian managed to move the seat enough for the gnome to free his leg and he helped him out of the vehicle.
“Are you okay? Did you break anything?”
The gnome coughed and squatted down, rubbing his left shin.
“Think I mangled my leg a bit but I’ll survive. Thanks to this car for that.”
Brian looked at the old clunker and laughed. “Double-thanks are in order, I think. How did you manage to get that thing to work in there?”
Tobay tested his leg and appeared to be able to support his weight. “I’d messed around with the battery before for some time. It was completely corroded when I first got there but you’d be amazed at what stuff is kicking around in the Sea. Luckily, First Era tech isn’t all that complicated so even I was able to figure out how to tinker with it. I was trying to use it to send a signal for help to the outside but no one came. Eventually, it became too dangerous to keep going back. I don’t think I need to explain.”
Brian nodded. “Still, it was a bold move. And you even managed to get a ride out of it.”
The gnome laughed. “Go with what you know, I guess.”
He looked around them and a wide grin spread across his face. He opened his arms as if to embrace the sky. “Look at this… I can’t believe it! We made it!”
The gnome grabbed Brian’s hands and began jumping up and down in glee. Brian couldn’t help himself and cheered along with the gnome, joining in on the victory dance. After several circles they stopped and Tobay’s expression went straight serious.
“But all fun aside, Brian, I can’t thank you enough. Without your help–and your caveman idea back there–I fear I would have been stuck in that pit forever. I would have never gotten to become a husband. Or a father. Or a grandfather. These are all timelines that I owe…to you.”
Brian rubbed the back of his head. “Nah, I think you would’ve figured something out. Well, either that or you’d be wyrm food…”
Suddenly, Tobay’s expression paled, his eyes widening to saucers. Brian followed his gaze, looking back over his shoulder.
The massive form of the wym rose up on its haunches, a black form silhouetted by the sun, its multiple jaws clacking together audibly. It screeched, its bone-chilling scream echoing across the forest canyon. It dropped down onto its belly and raced toward them. The glint in its rows of eyes told Brian that it would not be denied again.
“Oh, you had to say the devil’s name, didn’t you?” Tobay whined.
The two of them turned to run but, before they could take a single step, a giant shadow began to form around them, the sun becoming occluded, and a great mass slammed down into the earth, burying the wyrm from sight. Brian’s heart raced as he stared at a massive wall of rock, moss and dirt, nearly an arm’s length away from their position. The gnome’s mouth moved up and down but his words were inaudible. The ground quaked and the wall lifted up, revealing a crater where it had once been. The wyrm was nowhere in sight. Beyond, Brian could make out a massive, shifting form and his eyes trailed up, watching the wall lift into the air.
But it was not a wall after all. Walls were not connected to impossibly large appendages which in turn were connected to impossibly large torsos. No, what Brian had witnessed was a fist the size of recreation center pound the earth a blade away from his face.
“Grombler.” Brian gasped.
“I…I always thought they were just stories.” Tobay said, nearly a whisper. “I had…no idea such a creature…magnificent.”
Brian shielded his eyes from the sun as Grombler rose up to an erect position. As he did, the sunlight became blocked from view and his features came into view. Though he appeared to be half-buried in the earth (or was he kneeling?), Grombler still stood taller than most buildings outside of the skyscrapers one found in a large metropolis. His hide appeared to be an amalgamation of bark and stone, though patches of earthy-colored flesh of some kind were exposed at intervals along his surface. Oddly enough, the same strange blue-black stone could be seen throughout his form, its exotic energy ebbing softly as if alive. Grombler himself (itself?) had two large, muscular arms, as well as two heads: a grumpy-looking bulb on its abdomen, with two lumps of coal for black eyes, its chin covered in glistening liquid, signifying that was the mouth which had vomited them out; and Grombler himself. Grombler looked to be something of a mix between a catfish, with two long whiskers protruding out of his cheeks, and a mating between a jincren grandfather and a tree. Behind a massive beard of moss, which hung down to his chest, a jovial old face looked out behind almond eyes hidden deep with wrinkled pockets of ligneous flesh. In a motion so slow it was almost labored, Grombler waved at the two stunned onlookers far below.
“Good day down there! Or is it? I can’t tell from up here!”
Grombler’s voice was deep and guttural, causing the earth around them to shake every so slightly with each consonant. His speech was meticulous but not so slow as to be a bore. He even sounded like a grandparent.
It held its stomach and began to laugh, a thundering sound that threatened to pop Brian’s eardrums. Both he and Tobay covered their ears. Grombler stopped mid-laugh and groaned, holding on to its gut, rubbing the secondary head attached to its belly. The belly-head’s eyebrows relaxed and its eyes closed in rapture at Grombler’s touch.
“Oooh, that last upchuck gave the system quite a beating. Good to get it out though. I should have paid greater heed to this new raw food diet; I was warned about contracting wyrms.”
Grombler scratched his beard in thought.
“Though I have never heard of one starting a fire before. Strange, indeed.”
“Um…excuse me for saying so, but…aren’t you a bit…strange yourself? What are you, exactly?” Brian asked.
Grombler made a face as he considered the question. “Hmm. I am not so sure. Though it is a question I have been asked before. I am unlike you, this much I can be certain.”
Brian exchanged confused glances with Tobay.
Tobay stepped forward. “Great Grombler, please forgive my friend’s…forthcoming personality. He merely wishes to thank you, just as I.”
Grombler seemed surprised by the graciousness.
“Whatever for, little fey?”
“Why, for doing away with that wretched creature–the wyrm that has plagued your insides for so long.”
Grombler waggled a finger at them. “Ah, I may be old but I am no fool. Though the wyrm may have started the fire, I know you were instrumental in extracting it. And for that, it is I that am in your debt.”
Brian and Tobay exchanged incredulous glances again.
“But, great warden, a wyrm is but a trivial threat compared to some that live in the Deepwoods. This is not worthy of such a life-debt.”
Brian frowned at the gnome. “Not the worst thing?” Brian hissed under his breath. “What kind of crap lives in these woods? I’ve lived here my whole life and never seen anything like that frigging…”
Tobay held a hand up to silence Brian. “But as custom has it, I would not deny you your integrity. I will hold your word in esteem until the day it is necessary to redeem it in the form of a service, great warden.”
Tobay bowed. Grombler nodded ever so slightly, which was still very noticeable to them given his size. He eyed them up in silence for a time.
“Tell me,” he boomed, “how is it that strange creatures such as yourself managed to find your way into my gullet?”
Brian cleared his throat, reminding himself to use a little more tact going forward. “Well, sir…we…”
“Sir? I am not familiar with a sir. Is it like me? I was not aware of any others…”
“Uh…something like that. Anyway, I was sent to find you by a monk from the monastery, the one over…” Brian looked around, realizing he had no bearings on his current location. “Well, the one on the mountain. I was told that you have lived here for quite a while and that you know much about these parts.”
Grombler scratched his mossy beard. “A monk you say? Kindly folk, those. Met many on my travels. But I digress: you have been through quite a journey—through me it seems! And what is it that you wish to know, my little friend, that you would undertake such an…undertaking?” Grombler’s bushy eyebrows came down as he considered the lack of articulation in his last sentence.
“Well, I was with another boy and…”
“Boy?” Grombler asked, confused.
“You know—a young human. A boy. Like me, but younger. We got separated and I got lost trying to find him. I thought maybe you could tell me where he might have gone?”
Grombler looked around, scanning the forest from his towering vantage point.
“It is strange that you mention another human in these parts. Besides yourself, I haven’t seen another cren set foot into these woods for…well, a very long time.” Grombler trailed off in thought. “A very, very long time indeed.”
Brian looked over at the rusty old carriage of the car that had saved Tobay’s life. “Just how long have you been here?” He asked.
Grombler considered the question. “Time is very different to me than it is to you. I cannot say with any accuracy. Though, I have known some of these trees since they were saplings, barely a hand off the ground.” A joyous look came over his face as he reminisced.
Brian looked over at the towering evergreens to which Grombler referred. He raised an eyebrow. “Some of these trees have to be hundreds of years old. Are you trying to say…you’ve lived that long?”
Grombler chuckled, the earth shaking as usual. “Oh, little human you charm an old man.”
Brian just stared in silence.
“But I digress. You raise an excellent point: something has changed recently. The air has been…colder, and the trees have been talking. Something comes and I fear it may not be good for most. There is a…way about the world which signifies this. I do not quite know how I know this, but I do. Strange creatures, including yourself, are now not so strange. Though, I am strange, as you say.”
Grombler stopped as he pondered the thought.
“I am strange.” he grumbled to himself.
“Great, I think you’ve given him a complex.” Tobay whispered to Brian.
Brian sighed,
“However,” Grombler continued. “There is a rumor circulating among the birds that a human boy was captured in the city of gnomes, somewhere underground I believe.”
Brian looked from Grombler to the small man. The gnome looked up at Grombler with a look of concern on his face.
“You are sure of this?” The gnome asked.
“As sure as the sun is bright.” Grombler smiled. He leaned toward the small man. “Say, you look very similar to their type. Do you know these folk?”
Tobay looked stricken.
“What’s wrong?” Brian asked him.
The small man grabbed Brian’s hand. “We have to hurry if you want to save your friend!”
Brian jerked his hand away, confused. “I don’t understand. What’s going to happen to Kade? What do you know about the gnome city?”
“I live there and I happen to know that if any outsider—i.e. your friend—happens to get caught within town limits, they will be prosecuted under the most extreme penalties of the law!”
Brian frowned. “So, what…are they going to kill him or something?”
“Yes!” The gnome jumped up and down. “Now come on!”
He grabbed Brian’s hand and turned to run but a looming shadow rose up, blocking the light of their path, the earth quaking around them and they turned to find Grombler raising to his full height. Now certainly as large as a skyscraper, Grombler stood over them in full form, revealing two stout legs like three-thousand year old trees and a waggling tail like a prehensile log.
“Just you two hold on a second!”Grombler boomed with authority.
“This city is some distance. If your friend is in trouble, as you say, you will want to make haste. I can help you and pay my debt at the same time. It is the least I can do for your services.”
The bulbous head at its midsection nodded its assent, still looking grumpy as ever.
Grombler bent over, his large ligneous body creaking like trees in a storm. He laid out his massive hand out on the ground in front of them, his fingers more like branches than digits.
“What do you say, lads?”
The gnome nodded at Brian, Brian shrugged.
“I’ve never ridden a Grombler before.”
They climbed onto his palm and he raised them up off the ground. Their eyes widened as the treetops grew small below them. They squatted down and grabbed a hold of several of the roots that made up Grombler’s palm, in order to stay the vertigo that was rapidly building. Once they were level with his face he smiled at them, his massive mossy beard looking like a forest in itself. They climbed off of his palm and onto his shoulder which also had thick sheets of moss like a mantle draped across them. It made for a good grip at least. A small white bird nested near their position spooked and took flight.
Grombler turned to the wind, the stray gusts rushing past them, the rustling of leaves sounding around them.
“Show me the way!” He bellowed with exuberance.
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