The night grew deeper and darker around Lyrani, the stirrings of the creatures within it like the grumbling of a ravenous belly. Her hair had never stood so on end in the darkness before. Then again, she had never been in a night that was so unfamiliar, so alive with strange and inconceivable creatures of enchantment.
Lyrani could see her surroundings perfectly, all the little rocks strewn across the path that would crunch under her boots if she were to step on them, all the gold-leaved trees rising from writhing roots to canopies that blotted out the teasing, twinkling stars. Still, it confused her when every turn the young gnome led her down took her to a winding dirt road within the forest that looked the same as the one they had just left behind.
Lyrani couldn't be sure that her gnome guide wasn't just taking her and her party in circles. She didn't know his name. She didn't even know enough of his language to ask him what it was.
Behind Lyrani, Revenus let out his weariness in a long, low growl. Meiyla showed her exhaustion in the short, sharp breaths she drew in time with her quick steps as she kept up with the gnome. Lyrani kept on, even though her calves were spasming with fatigue and all she wanted was to sit down and not get up for the rest of the night.
Even so, Lyrani glanced back at her team. She was the senior agent, the one with the most missions under her belt. She was responsible for her junior agent and their griffins. They trusted in her and her choices, but she couldn't help but wonder if she had made the wrong call by following this gnome whose intentions she didn't know.
This did seem like a dangerous neck of the woods with vicious dragons popping out of bushes and worse creatures hidden within them, no doubt. The young gnome had spared Lyrani and Meiyla a fight with a magical reptilian beast of unknown species, but the senior agent had no way of knowing if the little man was just tiring her party out before he fed them to something bigger and scarier that this forest harboured.
Surely such a round, childlike face couldn't mean malice. Surely someone who was leading them into a trap wouldn't do so with a little pom-pom bouncing at the tip of his hat, but the realm was a place of disguise and deception.
Nash had told Lyrani once that he initially thought her too pretty to be an assassin. It would be no less than she deserved to be disarmed by a cute, seemingly helpful murderer. Perhaps he wasn't even a little gnome but one of the many foul-spirited shape shifters who roamed the wild.
Lyrani clenched her free fist. The shadows rose at her sides, ready to rush to her defence should she command them to do so.
She allowed the gnome to lead her and her team along for a few more moments. Revenus's paws dragged in the sand. Even Meiyla and Killoam were barely pulling themselves past the trees.
This was enough. Lyrani's group was tired, and what was more, they had no idea where they were being led and if it would indeed be safer than the forest that had tried to devour them tonight.
Just as Lyrani was about to slide her hand out of the gnome's firm grip and thank him for his time but refuse any further help, they arrived at a small door in the ground. Lyrani may not have noticed it peeking at her through the sand scattered across it if it wasn't for her gift of night vision.
The door led into an underground lair with little windows peering out of the soil and chimneys moulded from mud and puffing scentless smoke. It looked so warm and cosy inside that Lyrani's misgivings left her mind. All she wanted was to be behind that door, out of the coldness of the night, safe from the forest's appetite.
The gnome stopped and looked at Lyrani and her team. He cocked his head then veered from his path and away from the door Lyrani longed to be behind, babbling in gnomish. Even though she couldn't understand him, her feet reluctantly trailed after his.
The griffins must've comprehended more of what the little gnome said because they followed him to a massive tree that stood nearby, obedient like a caladrius that was instructed to carry sickness away from a king's palace with a flurry of his white wings.
Double doors had been cut into the bark. The gnome guide pulled them open, the buttons on his coat gleaming in the lantern light. Another little figure sitting beside the door and dozing off in a chair startled upright. He smoothed his frizzy red hair when he caught sight of the elves, then stood and ran over to the gnome accompanying them, chattering in their language.
The elves' gnome hero handed his fellow clansmen the reins of both griffins, who strode over to him quite willingly. The red-headed gnome cooed over their injured wings that couldn't be further from their former bronze magnificence, and shot a glare at the elves that they couldn't explain their way out of.
Lyrani and Meiyla exchanged a glance and, wordlessly agreeing that it would be wiser to say nothing, simply looked around what seemed to be a gnome stable inside a hollowed-out tree with polished wooden walls.
A unicorn glowed where she sat in the dim, far end of the round stable, as pure as a star. A phoenix stood on a perch, adding as much light to the room as the lantern that sat on the armrest of the red-haired gnome's chair. A massive serpent rested in the rafters. From above the wooden poles crisscrossing beneath the ceiling, he swung his horned head down to Lyrani and Meiyla, baring his fangs in a serpentine smile. With a tongue that was as thick as Lyrani's body, he smelled their griffins. Losing interest, possibly when he realised they weren't his ideal prey, he curled back into himself and went still, the lantern light flickering off his huge scales.
Their little gnome guide waved his farewell at the stable hand before gesturing for Lyrani and Meiyla to follow him back into the night. They were only too glad to do so, even as they sensed the other gnome's accusing eyes boring into their backs.
A few steps later, Lyrani found herself back at the small door in the ground. This time the gnome lifted it open with a little grunt and invited Lyrani and Meiyla in ahead of him with a wave of his grubby, chubby hand.
Lyrani entered headfirst, crawling on all fours. Although eager for a warm, safe place to spend the night, she made note of the crevices where the shadows hid in the tunnel the door led into in case she should need to call upon them, in case the gnome had led them into a trap.
The tunnel was barely wide enough for Lyrani. She forced her hips past a particularly narrow section, sending little stones clattering down around her, only for her shoulders to get stuck further along the way. Panic constructed her throat as she stopped, wondering if this was where she'd meet her hand—within the entrails of a gnome's abode.
Lyrani took a breath. The shadows in the tunnel rushed in to calm her. She opened her eyes, and ahead, the darkness brightened into an opening. Chatter flooded through it. They were close, close enough for Lyrani to see and hear where she was headed.
"What's the holdup?" Meiyla's sharp voice asked behind Lyrani.
Lyrani would've glared back at the junior agent if she could, but her head was unfortunately stuck on the side of her that wasn't facing Meiyla.
"I'm stuck. I'll free myself in a moment." No sooner had Lyrani spoken than she unstuck her shoulders, using her elbows to pull herself to the end of the tunnel.
Lyrani clambered out of the passage, only too glad to escape its confines. It opened into an underground corridor room so low that she could touch the ceiling if she stood and held her hand above her head, but still, it was more spacious than the tunnel that had brought her here. She could breathe easy again now that she no longer had the fear of getting stuck.
As soon as Meiyla and the gnome had joined her, he gestured for them to follow him through the doorway ahead. Once inside, Lyrani stared around at the candles set into the hollows in the earthen walls and the rectangular wooden tables decked in plaid tablecloths only for a room full of gnomes to stare back at her, freezing where they stood as they set up the dinner table.
Some were tiny, only up to Lyrani's calf, with babyish, chubby faces like balls of dough. Some were taller, standing up to her thigh. Some were ancient, with grizzled beards, scraggly grey hair, and cheeks hollowed out by age.
Lyrani raised a hand, smiling around the room as she spoke in the Common Tongue and hoping someone understood her. "Hello."
The gnomes frowned at her, eyeing her from head to toe and muttering among themselves in that language she couldn't understand. She gathered the shadows around her, subtle though they were ready to strike even as she kept the smile on her face, ignoring how wrong everything would go if this clan was to accept her as a foe rather than a friend.
Meiyla made her entrance after Lyrani. Her mind must've been empty of any cheeky words because she stood silently beside Lyrani, beholding the room with identical apprehension. Their gnome guide entered the room after them, wearing a broad grin Lyrani hoped didn't mean he had brought his people two elf sacrifices.
The gnomish chatter in the room surged to a crescendo. Lyrani and Meiyla shuffled together, ready to escape if it became necessary. Lyrani kept her eyes focused on the gnomes and the shadows taut at her side, wondering if it wasn't a dragon she and her partner were destined to fight tonight but their way out of a gnome dwelling.
A middle-aged female gnome emerged from the diminutive crowd. She wore a simple long-sleeved dress made from a rough-hewn, acorn-brown fabric. Half of her dark hair was bound in a bun at the top of her round head while the other half spilled down her back in unruly waves.
She frowned as words spilt from her mouth in a way that suggested she was scolding the young gnome, the same way Lyrani's father used to reprimand her for putting her elbows on the table during dinner with esteemed guests.
The gnome shrunk back. In that moment, he couldn't be further from the confident, sure-footed being who had led Lyrani and Meiyla through the foreign, treacherous forest he called home. Seemingly unaware of the effect of her words on the young gnome, the woman smiled up at the elves in the same way Lyrani's father smiled at their visitors after berating her.
"I have told Pumguk many times to stop bringing every pretty girl he finds stranded in the forest home to our lair, but the poor boy can't resist. He has an eye for them, so he does, just like his father before him," the woman said in the Common Tongue, flipping her hair over her shoulder. Her voice was vibrant like the flowers that flourished above the ground but wouldn't last half a day beneath it. "I am Gaileanor, the chieftainess of this gnome dwelling. You've already met my son, Pumguk." She gestured to the gnome that had led Lyrani and Meiyla here.
He gave them a shy smile before clasping his hands behind his back and casting a wary glance at his mother. She didn't seem to notice as she beamed at her guests.
Meiyla made no reply, entrusting Lyrani with the responsibility of replying to their hostess.
"It's an honour to meet you. I hope my friend and I aren't intruding." Lyrani smiled.
She didn't remember meeting the gnome chieftainess at any of the events she had accompanied Nash to, but she couldn't be sure. Even if she had, she doubted Gaileanor would recognise her in her simple, solemn-coloured tunic and leggings, certainly not if the gnome had ever seen her in the finery befitting the lady on the elf king's arm. At least, Lyrani hoped she wouldn't.
"It is my pleasure to have you!" Gaileanor waved a fleshy hand that was much more generous than the berating she had been giving her unfortunate son. "Pumguk may over-extend our hospitality more than he should" —she shot her son a look— "but this section of the forest is no place for such lovely ladies as yourselves at night. We are just south of the northern plains, the last section of civilisation before the wilderness takes over." Gaileanor gave a theatrical shudder. "There's all manner of weird and wicked beasts that call this part of the woods home. I wouldn't like to see you fall prey to any of them." She gestured to the tables.
The other gnomes had gathered around them, each claiming a seat for themselves.
"Please, join us for dinner." Gaileanor gave the elves no choice, taking them by their arms and pulling them towards the head of the table.
Lyrani's mouth moistened against her will at the thought of a hot meal, even though she had no idea whether it could be trusted. Anyone could be hunting Nash. Anyone could want to kill her to keep her from protecting him.
Lyrani banished her paranoia, allowing herself to give the gnomes a chance. Proper food would be a nice change from rations, and perhaps there was some intel she could get from the unsuspecting clan.
"Thank you. Some dinner would be wonderful."
Gaileanor glowed with pleasure, offering Lyrani and Meiyla each a seat beside hers, seats the elves sank into all too gladly although they were low, and they could barely fit their legs under the table.
"Tonight, we have roast pigeon with mashed potatoes and vegetables." The gnome chieftainess looked between the elves.
Steam carried the delicious aroma of the food through the air. It smelt like rosemary and sage, like it was made with care and love unlike the rations prepared in bulk to accompany ECISI agents across the realm.
"No pigeon for us, thanks." Lyrani waved away the plate a gnome with voluminous curls held out to her.
"Oh yes, elves are vegetarian. Apologies for overlooking that." Gaileanor clapped her hands to get the server's attention. She gave an order to the curly-haired gnome in their language, then the young woman carried the plates away.
A second gnome appeared, her hair in thick, dark blonde pigtails. In her hands were plates carrying generous helpings of mashed potato and vegetables. She set the food down before the elves. The growl of Lyrani's stomach rumbled through her. She found she didn't care if anyone had heard it. She grabbed her spoon and tasted the mashed potato, sighing as she did so.
It tasted like dancing in the sunlight with Nash, like picnics in midday meadows with Dessie and Morloy. Lyrani closed her eyes to savour the taste.
Losing interest in the newcomers now that they dined among them, the other gnomes tore their eyes away from Lyrani and Meiyla returned to their conversations. The voices blended into a din around them, a wall of sound Lyrani and Meiyla could hide behind as they extracted information from Gaileanor.