"Holy Mother of the Gods! What in the name of the Nine Hells was that!? Oh! Get it off! Get it off! Get it off!" Isaac screamed as he pulled his hand away from the gelatinous ooze. This caused him to fall forward and into the middle of the tunnel he had been trying to sneak towards. As he frantically wagged his hand to get the slime to come off, before desperately wiping it on his trousers, the gnomes stopped both their singing and their work to cower into a shivering pile of hats and beards behind a mine cart into which they had been placing precious gems.
Azrael was glad that it seemed impossible for him to die of embarrassment, as this was the ultimate test. Realizing that there was no point in being stealthy, he moved into the tunnel where Isaac had just finished getting his hands clean at the cost of ruining his pants. He did not even think to use his handkerchief. Isaac got to his feet after regaining what was left of his composure. Finally, he could look upon the creatures he had been hoping to see. Everything was worth it. Even his hand and then pants being slimed. Before Isaac was a mound of what looked to be cute little men. Their proportions were different, as if one had taken a small man then scrunched him down by putting a boulder on top of him, only instead of a grisly murder, it was something adorable. They had big bushy beards and big noses and ears, and pointed hats that seemed to be almost as tall as they were. Their eyes reminded Isaac of those he had seen on the puppies that Mr. and Mrs. Smythe's dog Penelope had birthed last spring. They were big and soulful, and at the moment, scared.
"Hey," Isaac said as he showed them his empty hands. He spoke softly, "It's all right little guys. We aren't here to hurt you. We just wanted to meet you. My name is Isaac, and his name is Azrael."
"Howdy," Azrael said with a small tip of his hat and a smirk.
Slowly, the pile of gnomes unfurled as they moved to inspect the two interlopers. They looked to be completely fascinated by the two of them, as though they had never seen a human, and whatever the hell Azrael was. Soon they began touching their clothes and belongings and murmuring to one another. Some even climbed on them to get a closer look at their upper bodies. Azrael was quick to put a stop to this with a firm downward push and a withering glare at the offending gnome. Isaac, however, viewed it as a potential milestone in human/gnome relations and therefore allowed the inspection with minimal fussing, until one gnome started taking things out of his pack, while another pulled on his hair that was not covered by his hat to feel its texture. Isaac encouraged the gnomes to get off of him immediately.
This seemed to make the gnomes feel rather hurt, as they quivered their lips and tear up their big eyes considering the rejection. Isaac then sought to console them in order to not ruin a chance for peace between the two races. "No, wait, you can... you can stay on for a few more minutes, I guess," Isaac sighed. The gnomes squeaked in appreciation. Issac shot a look to Azrael, desperately hoping he might have some way of getting him away from the little weirdos. Azrael's eyes told him in reply, "Nope. I am far too amused by this." Isaac was doomed to spend the next several minutes being poked and prodded and pulled on, as though he had been flung into a deep, dark pit full of babies. Eventually, the gnomes grew bored and got off of him, regrouping before the two interlopers. Isaac felt like he needed to bathe to get the feeling he was experiencing off of him. The gnomes beckoned the two of them to journey along down the tunnel with them, where the air seemed to grow heavier and the dark seemed darker. Azrael shrugged and pointed his arms toward the gnomes and the passage deeper into the mines. "Well?" he asked Isaac as he gave a shit-eating grin.
Isaac quietly whispered to Azrael as he began walking forward to the squeaking delight of the gnomes, "Why did you not tell me about how weird they are?"
"One, I told you all about the horrible geology fixation, and two, I've never seen any gnomes before. They tend to just keep to themselves except for the occasional bit of mischief. I've only just heard things."
"Well, great," Isaac grumbled," I guess now you know that they do not understand personal space. Fantastic." He still hoped that they could salvage the journey, though it would take a lot to fix what had been done by those tiny little hands. After a few minutes, the air got lighter, before the tunnel suddenly opened up into a large cavern.
Inside, Isaac beheld a most wondrous sight. Before him stood what looked to be a large city. Some structures were carved into the walls of the caves, while others were built using what looked to be stones quarried from another section of the cave system. All of it stood masterfully carved and inlaid with precious stones and minerals. Lighting this city was a collection of the luminous mushrooms that had been lighting the tunnels, only now they were larger and of a variety of colors. The effect gave the entire cavern a dream-like quality that made Isaac feel like he never wanted to be woken up. Never had he seen something so beautiful. He actually felt his eyes tear at the wholeness he felt in that one moment, knowing he had witnessed the sublime. But soon, the awe faded, as his mind wandered back to where he did not want it to go.
Isaac awoke with a start. It took him a moment to orient himself as lying in his bed inside the shack that served as his homestead. He had heard... something startling. His brain was still fuzzy as he instinctively clad himself enough to run outside. Once decent, he flung the door open, still trying to figure out what had awoken him. He smelt smoke and the burning of Mr. and Mrs. Weaver's house across the way from he met his eyes. Then he saw another burning house, and another, and another. Most of the houses he could see had at least some flames burning. "Good God! Someone must have knocked over a lamp or something and now everything's lit up! I hope our fire brigade is on top of things!" Isaac thought, as he quickly grabbed his jacket from inside the shack. He ran towards the nearest house when his ears picked up a flurry of sound. In an instant the sleepy haze that over-encumbered his mind was lifted as he realized the sound that had woken him up was screaming. Suddenly he noticed the men on horseback who were riding while holding a torch in one hand and a rifle in the other. He also noticed the bodies that lay crumpled to the ground. From his shack in the northeast corner of town, he could always see a fair amount of the buildings and houses that made up the area. What he was seeing now seemed more akin to a hellscape than the sleepy borough that Eden Prairie always seemed to be before. Isaac stood in shock, his mouth open in terror. His eyes were watering, though he wasn't sure if that resulted from the smoke. He could hear gunfire coming from the heart of the town.
He couldn't move. He didn't know what he should do in this moment or could do. He had no weapons, as Eden Prairie was always so quiet. There was water available to everyone because of the large aquifer that lay below the still fertile soil, and enough crops to feed the whole town, which meant crime was rather unheard of in the town. Because the town was so far out of the way, there never were all that many strangers who would make the ride out, which meant there was never any fear of bandits or raids either. All that being said, Isaac wished he had something to defend himself with now.
Isaac gasped as he felt a blinding, burning pain in his right arm. Almost as an afterthought, his brain heard the shot. In an instant, Isaac faced his attacker, his gaze focusing narrower and narrower until he was all that Isaac could see. The world slowed to a near silent standstill. Something about the shooter unnerved him, beyond the obvious danger he presented. He looked to be, perfect. In a world dominated by death and hardship, almost everyone Isaac had ever known carried with them the scars, blemishes and other signs of living that came with the struggle to survive. There were those that could still carry these imperfections with grace and beauty, and there were those weighed down by them through the faults in their character. This man before Isaac held no such imperfections. He was flawless, and it made Isaac's mind and body scream out in primal terror. Isaac was off like a gun. Running towards anywhere that was away from where he was, Isaac made his way towards the center of town. There, he found many of his neighbors, friends, and acquaintances, rounded up by the horseback riding men. Others were being marched to the center, while the rest had likely perished. He could see one rider dragging a corpse behind him as he galloped past the square.
Isaac concealed himself before anyone could notice his sudden arrival. Most of the people before him were preoccupied by the atrocities being committed, either in shock and terror or jubilation. The men on horseback seemed far different from the one who had shot him, though equally unnerving. These men carried many imperfections, and yet there was this dark feeling that many more lurked below in the depths of their souls. They kept howling in laughter and cheers as they decimated the town. Over the next hour, however, their activity level seemed to decrease as what seemed to Isaac to be the entire town was brought to the center. There were hundreds and hundreds of people who had been corralled by the scores of riders. Men, women, and children were huddled together in terror, many injured, several just moments away from death. As Isaac observed the horrid scene, the riders turned their mounts to face the steps of the town hall. Soon, one rider who had been off terrorizing the rest of the town rode up to the steps. After him came several others who flanked his sides. Isaac could not get a good look from his hiding spot of this man who seemed to lead things. Carefully, he worked his way closer a better vantage point that would give him a better angle. Slowly, he crawled along the ground, staying far enough away from the torches of the riders. As he came closer, he realized that not all the riders were men. A fair number of them seemed to be women.
Isaac moved carefully, knowing that one false movement could give him away. His muscles were tense, as though he was a spring ready to be sprung. Time seemed to still be passing in eons rather than seconds. Suddenly, light made its way upon him as a nearby rider made a passing over the area with their eyes. Isaac froze. Any movement might catch their sight, no matter how small. Even breathing seemed out of the question as Isaac held steady with his body against the ground. Eventually, the light of the torch moved back with the rider's gaze, towards the steps. Isaac silently began moving once more, certain that he had just lost at least ten years of his life from the stress, assuming his life wasn't about to be ended within the hour. Now he could see and hear what was going on before the town hall, hidden in a worn down gazebo just off of the square. Fixing it was supposed to be one of his jobs to complete over the summer that was soon to begin, but now he did not know if the town would make it that long.
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