The Land of the Gnomes

The behaviour of Marisa had puzzled me but I was beginning to get a grasp of her psychology. Her pride was a typical defence, but deep down she cared—she just had a hard time showing it. Luna was more of a straight-shooter and wouldn’t hesitate to tell me when I was wrong. That was my assessement, so I wondered how I appeared in their eyes.

“I can sense you are keen to hear about our own adventure whilst you were missing, Ferdinand. How troublesome. But very well, I will tell you,” said Marisa. “However, you must agree to tell us about your adventure. Do you swear by this oath?”

“I do. I promise to tell you.”

“Good. After you left, I believed you to have met with Luna, but you were not there when I met with her. We sought to find you, but did not chance upon you anywhere in woods such as those. And being only two, we made the choice to press on and seek help.”

“For my part, I had met an alp disguised as a forest nymph that told me a witch had cursed the forest, causing anyone who wandered it to get lost.”

“I suspect the alp was the perpetrator of the mischief,” said Luna. “It would explain why we couldn’t find you—and we did try. However, after two days of finding no trace of you, we figured we must have just missed each other and that it was possible you had started heading northwest.”

“Yes, it is as Luna says. And perhaps this alp, too, tricked us with false clues on your whereabouts.”

“And at what point were you ‘beside yourself’ when you thought I had died, Marisa?”

Marisa turned bright red. “Such things did not come to pass! Luna is a lying-devil who will trick you with such falsehoods! Beware and do not trust her words, Ferdinand.”

Luna and I laughed a good deal at Marisa’s outburst, but I had to control myself because my jaw was still healing.

“Now fulfill your oath,” Marisa said, pointing to me. “What happenings took place to cause such awful wounds?”

I told them what happened: how I met the disguised alp, being pushed off the cliff, waking up in the witch’s hut and her nursing me back to health, and about meeting the fairy caravan.

“Fool. You are a great, big fool, Ferdinand. You are lucky to be alive...”

“My Lady, do not be too harsh.”

“...but alive you are, and glad I am.”

“Shall we rest for the day?” I asked. “The sun is starting to set.”

“Yes, that’s a good idea. It’s been an eventful day,” Luna said.

“How much farther until we reach the gnomes?”

“We should get there some time tomorrow.”

We setup our camp for the night and relaxed. Luna asked some details about fighting the alp. Marisa was initially appalled by the gruesome detail, but was soon asking her own questions. Neither of us talked about the fight we had. I’m not sure if it would resolve anything to discuss it now. We both knew we were at fault for it. Maybe I was being arrogant by assuming Marisa thought the same way. She was a completely different being from myself, and had different thoughts and ways of doing things that were alien to me.

In the end, I couldn’t find the courage to discuss the matter with her. The mood didn’t feel right and would likely dampen the setting. If it became an issue again then we’d talk about it.

What I knew about gnomes was that they were elemental beings of earth. From Earth, I knew them as little creatures with red caps that stood in my mother’s garden. The gnomes in this world lived underground was my guess. Marisa could move through water with no issue, so I wondered if gnomes moved similarly through the ground.

The mountain chain where the gnomes lived was not as large or contiguous as the one the sylphs occupied. Gone were the barren, snow covered peaks. These mountains were lower and covered in trees instead. We turned onto an old forest road, passing under an arch of intertwined branches and decorated with garlands. A low mist crawled through the forest. Trees lined the sides of a perfectly straight and clear road. Meticulous care been made to keep the path clear of obstruction. Spooky was how I would describe it.

We found two small creatures, gnomes, sitting at a junction where the forest road continued into the mountain. They wore red pants with golden-brown shoes with long toes, an orange coat with a small purse tied to the belt, and a red cap. Each held a short sword in his hand that hung lazily at his side.

“Yo! Ya wanna go in?” asked the gnome, nodding his head at the cave entrance. “It’ll cost ya.”

The gnomes partner moved to the middle of the path, held his hands to the ground, and the earth shifted upwards, closing the entrance.

“King Eulerich should have told you of our coming. We are her Lady Marisa’s entourage along with Ferdinand.”

“Yup. And, what of it? A toll’s a toll. Either ya pay up, or ya don’t go in,” he said brusquely.

I shot a quizzical look to Luna and Marisa. They weren’t sure how to respond either.

“Here’s the King’s medallion to prove we are who we say we are,” I said.

“No, I believe ya, but I’m not gonna repeat myself.”

“You shall let us pass or I will lodge a formal complaint with your lord over this matter,” Marisa said.

“Listen, Lady,” he said, pointing at her with his stubby finger, “drop the stuffy language, and pay the toll, or you’re not getting in.”

“Did King Eulerich pay the toll?” I asked.

“Yup, I suppose he did. So what makes ya guys different?”

We removed ourselves from the gnome and held a strategy meeting, huddling in a small circle.

“Should we pay the toll? They're quite stubborn about it.”

“It seems we have no choice in the matter. My Lady, do you still have the emergency funds in your backpack?”

“I do, Luna.”

Marisa put her backpack down and rummaged through it until she found what she needed. We turned back to face the gnome duo.

“Good gnome, will these undinic groschen meet the toll?”

The gnome put his sword away, clapped his hands, and, like a magician, revealed a small scale from out of thin air.

“Lay ‘em on the scale, Lady,” he said as he held it up.

The scale tipped as the coins were placed on one of the plates, then tipping back to an equilibrium that favoured the other side by small margin.

“Looks like ya don’t got enough,” the gnome said.

“How about this?” I snatched the coin purse and replaced it with the King Eulerich’s medallion. The scale balanced perfectly.

“That’ll do it. Georgie, let ‘em in.”

The other gnome put his hands on the ground and the barrier receded back into the earth. We took our leave and made for the dukedom housed in the mountain.