There were twelve gnomes including Zeph gathered in the tent murmuring in low tones. It was obvious they were scared especially when they saw Rancor marinating in his own blood.

"Enod uoy evah t'ahw? Erew demood... erew l'la gniog ot eid rof siht," they lamented, twisting their hats in their hands.

"Eid ot gniog ton erew. Ew era gniog ot escape," Zeph said trying to calm them.

"Escape?" One old gnome with the bushiest eyebrows I had ever seen stepped forward spitting on the ground. "Uoy evah t'sol ruoy senses, Zephrius. Gnomes od ton eveal---"

"Okay! Stop!" I interrupted. "I am sorry. Zeph, could you please translate?"

Zeph gave a heavy sigh. "He is saying we gnomes do not leave. You see, Princess, our ancestors and even their ancestors have tred this soil. Generations have taken their first steps on this ground and have died on it as well. EgdirBėhThtėaneb is our home and our history. And Stives, you can speak their tongue fine. And don't worry, the others present can at least understand what you say."

"Good... Not escape," Tallis amended addressing the gnomes. "Retreat. You must leave in order to claim it as yours once again. Right now, it's obvious who is calling the shots. And it's not gnomes."

"And go where, hmm?" The gnome called Stives challenged. "How do you expect us to protect our kin in the wilderness? Here with us are the only gnomes able to use Aislei's gift. The others are defenseless. We cannot hope to defeat the ogres, human."

Tallis looked at me. He is not the one to make this promise. It's my turn. I stepped forward and said, "You shall take refuge in the capital of Alderias to seek aid from my father, King Dominic. And I will plead on your behalf. With the Knights, we shall drive back these invaders and free your land."

Stives scoffed and the others shook their heads, grumbling, "When have the humans ever cared for any of us?"

"You've never--" I stopped myself from pointing out the gnomes always wanted to be left to their own devices. Arguing with them is not how I am going to win them over. And I am sure Tallis needs their cooperation for the plan to work. Only honesty will do. An honesty I have been shying away from. "Listen... I cannot promise my father will help... I want to believe he will. I want to believe he sees a noble cause and will do what is within his power to fulfill the First Promise... but I cannot promise it. But I can promise that I will do everything in my power to help you get back home. First, you need to listen to Tallis. We need to get you and your families out of EgdirBėhThtėaneb safely."

"Her bravery is admirable, and her words hold true," Zeph added. "She came to help us. And even after I deceived her, she still offers us aid. Eh dna Ehs skaeps h'guorht reh....The First King and Aislei herself speaks through her. It's time we follow him again as our ancestors did."

They looked at one another then Stives, who acted as the voice to the whole group, said, "Very well, Zeph. If you have faith in these humans, we shall too. It does not seem as if we have much choice. Tell us what to do."

There was much to be done and in such a short amount of time. The plan was to evacuate the gnomes to the cliffside then use a rope to get down across YromėmFoRėvir. Once everyone was safely across, we would cut the rope ensuring the ogres cannot pursue.

Everything had to be done quickly not to raise the ogres' alarms too early. Once they were across the river, the gnomes' teleportation magic would be all but depleted.

"How will we stop the ogres from using another rope to get across?" I asked Tallis as I prepared bags of wheats that will act as decoys the gnomes can trade out when they teleport their children out of the cages.

"Because we are using all of it... the gnomes are collecting supplies right now for the traps I will make to help cover our backs. I will need your help with the next part."

"Me?'

"Yes. You're the expert on fizzle herding after all."

"Fizzle herding? Now is not the time for games!" I cannot believe I'm the one who has to say this. "What happened to 'don't scare defenseless creatures for your own amusement'?"

"This is not for entertainment. We need the little guys to create a good distraction in the village to give us time to evacuate. I don't have the resources or time to make more than a few measly traps to cover our retreat."

"I see..." I whispered biting my lip. "Won't they be hurt?"

"More than likely most will get away. Trying to capture or even kill a fizzle is difficult without driving them towards an enclosure. The ogres are not smart enough to realize that."

I thought about this for a second then agreed. He's right. The ogres will try to kill them but will not have much success with the small, bouncing creatures. Tallis began sharpening pieces of wood for his traps. I studied his profile. We haven't had a chance to talk about what was said in the cave. Now did not seem to be the time but...

"Thank you," I said, placing my hand on his. "I'm sorry for putting you through this. For everything... It was selfish of me to ask you, but I'm really glad you agreed to help save them."

"No, don't be sorry. I shouldn't have... it doesn't matter. And you are not selfish. You feel obligated to fulfill some dead guy's promise. Must be an Alderiasi thing. What I'm trying to say is...if it is important to you, it's important to me."

I hugged him. He awkwardly patted my back. There were still so many things left unsaid. We both knew we didn't have time to get into it... we may not ever have the chance to if this plan didn't work. For now, I was just happy he was here with me.

The gnomes came back having teleported around the camp discreetly gathering ropes, nails, hooks, pyriostones and other useful items. Among the items were also a cache of arrows depriving the ogres of their long-range weapons.

Tallis split them up, assigning a few to go with me to create spring traps. A few were to help him set his own traps along the cliffside. Then he assigned one gnome to teleport around the village to have the other gnomes start to make their way up to the cliffside to await further orders.

"Zeph, after the spring traps are made and the fizzles are released, the priority is to get the children teleported to the cliffside. Leave that to the others. I'll send the gnomes in my group to help after we're done with our task. Your first action will be to teleport Sienna to safety," Tallis instructed.

"What about you?" I asked.

"I'll follow behind the group. I have to trigger the fire wall myself. Enough talking. Let's throw a blanket over the chief, in case someone comes in here. Take what supplies you need and teleport into the forest to get started."

~~♡~~

I never built traps so fast in my life. They were simple ones, but they did the trick. Inspecting the nets full of fizzles, I wondered if we had enough to cause the level of mayhem we needed for the distraction. I wish I had more time to set up a few more traps to increase our numbers. But this should be enough. It has to be.

"We need these fizzles more riled up if they are going to be destructive enough," I gestured.

"How do you propose we do that?" Zeph asked.

"I don't know! Hollering and singing and clapping were my usual tactics but we shouldn't be too loud. Make a scary face."

He looked at them and the fizzles shook in terror. I groaned. "That's too scary. They're not excited or leaping away. They're frozen in fear."

"I didn't make a face yet..."

I rolled my eyes then stomped on his foot hard. He yelped and jumped in place. The fizzles bounced erratically with him. "Perfect! Teleport them to the corners of the village and let them loose."

The gnomes blinked away with the fizzles and Zeph teleported me to the cliffside. A good number of gnomes were already gathered. I peered down the trail where others were scurrying up in the cover of night. The teleporters started blinking here and away, dropping off bundles in blankets. A sound of joy came from the throat of a mother as she was reunited with her small child. I began to help the children get strapped onto their mothers so that they may cross the river without falling in.

Zeph took his crossbow, tying one end of a rope to his hooked arrow. He instructed a gnome to teleport to a tree on the far side of the river. He shot the arrow across, hitting a tree. They both secured each end of the rope.

"We almost have everyone," Zeph said looking around, beads of sweat dotting his forehead. "Let's get you across now."

That's when a gnome shouted grabbing Zeph by the shirt. "Zeph! Ew deen pleh! Owt erom. T'nac tropelet."

Zeph looked around. I recognized the signs of fatigue. Teleporting from the cliffside down to the village took more than one blink... "They're all out of magic."

"Aye," Zeph answered, "and there is a couple of babes left."

"You go. No need for you to waste a teleport on me. I'll go down the rope."

"Thank you, Princess. Go now," he said blinking away.

I made ready to climb down the rope to safety praying for arm strength. I glanced back to see if Tallis had made it back yet.

The remainder of the clan continued up to join the group. I watched in horror as one gnome suddenly stopped wide eyed. They fell forward to the ground with a thud, an axe sticking out of their back. The ogres were finally in pursuit. Another one threw a weighed chain that split a retreating gnome right down the middle. Blood splattered on the grass. The gnomes gathered all gave cries of terror and wails of agony.

I backed away from the rope.

"What are you doing? Go, human!" Stives tried to push at my leg.

"None of our princesses would dare leave until all of their people were evacuated first," I said, remembering Sir Arthur's words.

"What?"

"Anyone with a child go first. Now! C'mon!" I shouted.

Stives beamed. "You heard the Princess!"

A whipping sound and groan filled the air. I swiveled my head to find some ogres fell back having set off a trap. On closer inspection, I saw waist-high shiny pieces of thread running across the path. They were high enough that the retreating gnomes could not trip them, but the towering ogres were a different story. Another wire was tripped, and a stalk whipped out stabbing a couple of ogres. The holes in the stalk were not hollow like at the menhir. Tallis had filled them with the sharpened pieces of wood. Unfortunately, the brilliant whips only took out a few. More came and a pit formed in my stomach.

We are not going to make it.

My eyes contacted a familiar set of beady obsidian eyes. Jaw roared and started charging right at me. Before he could reach me, a wall of flames erupted between us. Tallis grabbed my hand pulling me towards the rope, his hands stained black from handling the mercury powder used to ignite the fire wall. Zeph appeared in front of us, a child strapped to his back and another to his chest.

"Princess! What are you still doing here?" Zeph shouted.

"No time! They're coming. Go on across with the children," I urged. I looked at Tallis expecting him to protest, but he just pursed his lips and squeezed my hand that was still in his grip.

I climbed onto the rope with Tallis behind me. We made our way across. At first, adrenaline made me indifferent to the rope burn on my palms or the aching of my other injuries. But too soon, my arms were burning and I was out of breath.

"It's okay, Sienna. Just a little further." Tallis's voice was strained in my ear. I realized my slowing pace was making him have to stop completely.

We were halfway across and Zeph had just made it to the tree on the other side.

I can do it! Just a little more.

The hope I felt dropped back into the pit of my stomach as I felt the rope being yanked backwards nearly causing me to lose my grip. Both Tallis and I glanced back but I already knew what we would see. Jaw's smile was so wide it showed off his black-holed gums. He began cutting at the thick rope.

"Tallis..." Tears spilled from my eyes without warning.

He looked back at me. I could almost see his mind racing, looking around the great space for anything that could help us. But we were dangling midair over a deadly river.

He hollered over to Zeph. "Get ready to pull us out! Whatever happens, Sienna, do not let go of this rope."

I wanted to reach for him, but I was suddenly falling. I tightened my grip on the rope as my body hit the cold water. It froze my bones instantly. I curled up instinctively to conserve some heat, holding the rope close to my chest.

Sounds filled my ears. Voices, laughter, clapping, swords dancing, music and shouting... I kicked my legs to try to swim up to the surface still holding the rope. I swam and swam but could not find it. The temperature seemed to get colder.

Am I swimming down deeper?

Sienna! A familiar voice that I couldn't quite place shouted accompanied by the whinnying of a horse. The horse was about to trample me under its hooves...something wrapped around my body like snakes. I gasped.

It threw me into another vision where the vines held me prisoner. This vision was clearer than the last. They released me and I heard myself say, "What do you--- why would you cast such a spell on anyone?"

But I didn't say it. This is a memory of the night of the ball! Though some details seem a bit distorted.

Nazam stood in front of me as my memory recalled but he was huge and foggy shadows surrounded him. "Princesses have no place in the dark." His usual bored tone took on a sinister forewarning.

I looked down at myself. I was in the elegant blue ball gown. My porcelain skin was clean, smooth, spotless... but why wouldn't it be? I stared at my white gloves having the odd sensation I was missing something.

A roar erupted in my ears and the memories of the ogres and gnomes came crashing down.

"Tallis..."

"Whatever happens, Sienna, do not let go of the rope."

I let go. I'm sorry, Tallis.

Sienna is stuck in her own mind... like literally drowning in her memories. How will she escape ...🤔

Hope you enjoyed.

Vote if you want Sienna to live! Lol