Page 12 of Charmed

Four

“Put him down, Fang,” commanded Stone, seeing his dog with a struggling little man in his jaws. “We are not here to hurt or kill anyone.”

“Ow! Really?” Aithrod, used his foot to scrape one of these cave-dwelling beings off his leg as the thing started to crawl up him. “Because right now, I’m so hungry that I’m ready to make a meal out of most of them.”

“Make your way to the mouth of the cave.” Stone used his staff to push the creatures aside. He still felt the pricks of their hoes and shovels at his back but tried to ignore them. He didn’t want to hurt them, so he refrained from drawing his sword or using his crossbow. “I have a feeling this is their home and they consider us trespassers.”

Just as he said that, a group of them rappelled down from the ceiling using ropes, with more ropes in their hands. They quickly wound them around Stone.

“Nay! Get off of me,” Stone yelled. “I don’t want to hurt you but I swear I will if I have to.” He pulled at the ropes and pushed at the creatures. Fang barked furiously and snapped at the air. Thankfully, that scared the little people, making them pull back a little.

“Run while you still can!” shouted Aithrod, dashing for the mouth of the cave with an army of the cave-dwelling beings whooping and waving their weapons right behind him. They not only kept up with him, but passed him up, circling back around him.

Just when Stone thought they had no chance of getting out of here without killing some of them, someone else appeared in the cave. He saw a flash or blur of color, and a small man with pointy ears like an elf stopped in front of him with his hands on his hips. He had a pouch filled with something hanging at his side. This man was about waist-high to Stone, but twice the height of the cave-dwellers. This one reminded Stone of an elf.

“Who are you and what are you doing in this cave?” the man demanded to know. His voice was high and nasal sounding.

“Oh, nay. They’re growing in size,” Stone called out to his friend. Fang lunged for the man, but the elf was too fast for the dog. The elf zipped around in a blur, ending up sitting on Fang’s back, yanking at his ears.

“Leave my dog alone!” shouted Stone, holding out his staff, meaning to knock the man off the dog’s back if needed.

“Balderdash! What are you all doing here in my cave?” The elf was thrown off when Fang shook. The man landed on a stone ledge. When he did, his pouch fell from his belt. Lots of rocks fell out. Stone realized that these rocks looked very familiar. Especially since they were sort of sparkling a little.

“I’ve seen those stones before.” Stone pulled another three of the cave people off of him. “Can’t you make these things stop attacking us?”

“They’re gnomes, and, nay, I can’t,” said the elf nonchalantly. “They have minds of their own. I don’t control them.”

“I thought you said this was your cave. So tell them to leave.”

“It’s not that simple, fool.” The elf scooped up the stones and slipped them back into his pouch. “And what do you mean you’ve seen these stones before? I just discovered them in this cave, and I can assure you they are not found naturally here.”

“Arrrgh,” moaned Stone, pulling more gnomes from him, feeling their weapons hitting harder.

“Tell me!” commanded the elf. “Where have you seen these stones before?”

“I have a stone just like that in my pouch,” Stone answered.

“You stole it from me!” The little man accused him, pointing at him with one gnarly finger.

“Nay, I didn’t. I found it on the other side.” Stone looked up to see Aithrod just about at the mouth of the cave. Fang ran in circles barking, snapping at the gnomes that continued to poke at him. The dog put down his head and tossed one of the small men with the pointed hats high into the air. The gnome made a squealing sound and his friends ran forward to catch him.

“Other side? Other side of what?” asked the elf in his high and mighty tone.

“Get us out of here and away from these gnomes and I’ll tell you what you want to know,” said Stone, trying to make a deal to be free of these pesky creatures.

“Oh, for Zoroct’s sake!” The elf sped around the room so fast that the gnomes couldn’t catch him. It took the attention off of Stone so he and his hound were able to make it to the opening of the cave.

“Hurry, Fang,” Stone commanded his dog as he and Aithrod stumbled out of the cave and into the sunshine.

“Aaah!” Aithrod held up a hand to cover his eyes from the bright light. Since the gnomes weren’t following them, they plopped down on the ground in the sand to rest. They seemed to be on some sort of beach. There was a sea of water nearby with waves crashing against the rocks and rolling onto the shore. Fang ran over to join them, turning to get in a few more barks at the troublesome gnomes that were no longer there.

“We’re free,” said Stone, wiping his brow and trying to catch his breath. Fang lay down by his feet.

“It’s already morning?” asked Aithrod. “It was night when we left. How long were we in there?”

“I didn’t think it was that long,” Stone answered, shading his eyes with his hand and looking up at the sun. “And it seems more like midday than morning if you ask me. That’s odd. I have a feeling we are far from home.”

“All right, fess up.”