Authors: K.M. Shea
Kohath and I were forced to bend over and scoot down the narro
w and short hallway. Our g
nome guide knocked on a wood
en door and shouted. “Brother O
ne, there is
waiting two messengers are
from Azmaveth!”
“They haven
’t quite mastered languages yet,”
Kohath whispered.
“
You be then sending them in!” a
voice bellowed from inside.
“Affirmative.
”
The door opened up and Brother Thirty Four spoke one last time
before waddling away, “You can in go!”
I considered his speech as Kohath pulled me into the room.
This room had a high ceiling so Kohath and I were able to stretch and stand at our full h
eight. “Sit, sit, do please!” a portly g
nome s
aid. He was by far the tallest g
nome and
came just shy
of reaching
my waist. “I is being Brother One. Elder of gnome clan that I am,” h
e beamed.
“Uh, right,”
I said.
“Brother O
ne, I am Kohath,
steward of Azmaveth the dragon. I bring news of the war,”
Kohath said.
“Brother O
ne would like to hear news that I would.”
“We are gathering a large force of dragons, enchanted creatures, and all
magical humans. We need your leadership and your clan’s help.
We need you to go to our home
base where we are building our resistance group. It’s
near the
Forgotten
Mountains
. How many g
nomes, erm, soldiers
do you think you could send?”
Kohath asked.
“You be gathering energy? Ohhh! You is wanting
gnome coal! G
nomes mine coal good!”
“No, that’s not it,”
Kohath said massaging his forehead.
“Oh…Then you be building home? Knomes gladly help will!”
“No!” Kohath said appearing to be frustrated, and rightfully so.
“No? What that you say? You is needing g
nomes to be showing you where you has forgot your mountain?”
Kohath looked like he was about to
cry
so I offered my assistance.
“Let me s
ee if I can
make him understand,” I said b
efore turning to Brother O
ne. “Kohath is saying we gathering army big of dragons, enchanted creatures, and magical humans all. Need we Brother One’s help, and help of clan that
we do. We is wanting Brother O
ne and clan travel to base our,
where all friends be. Near is Mountains Forgotten. Many gnome soldiers you send?”
I asked.
“Ohhhh! Al
l clan g
n
ome will help, that we will!” h
e merrily said
.
I smirked at Kohath
,
who was stuttering.
“How did you do that?” he asked
.
“Well they aren’t the brightest creatures, so I just took a wild guess and changed some words and mixed up the rest.”
“Brilliant!” h
e told me, still
shell
shocked.
Dozing Dwarves
After a few
more minutes of Kohath speaking
and my translating
, we quickly exited the g
nome lair and walked back toward the den.
“Augh!
My head hurts from
forcing my intelligence to dim,”
I said as I covered my eyes with my free hand. (Kohath was holding on to the other one.)
“Which brings up the fact as to wh
y you spoke so fluently in the g
nome language.
I suspect it
’
s because most princesses have a similar intelligence factor?” he teased
.
I glared at him.
“If you is not
shutting up, I will be calling g
nome clan that I will!” I sneered, my eyes suddenly widened. “NOOOO now I’m talking like them!” I moaned. “
This isn’t
fair
!”
I bitterly
complained
as Kohath muffled a snicker.
“Don’t wo
rry,” h
e said with a grin as he tapped my n
ose. “You would be the cutest g
nome
around
!”
I scowled and opened my mouth to bless him with a vehement reply when the noise of frantically shaking silver bells cut in.
Kohath frowned and quickly flashed a golden bauble befo
re him before frowning deeper.
“I’m sorry Ahira, but
I have to go, it’s an emergency,” h
e glanc
ed around the harmless forest.
“Do you think you can find your way back?”
“I believe so!” I scoffed.
“What do you think I am? A Princess?”
“…Ahira…you
are
a princess.”
“
Well I me
ant that I’m not as dumb as one.
”
“…I see…
All right then.
I’
ll see you soon, I’m sure of it,” h
e called over his shoulder.
“Okay, ta, ta,
” I said waving to him, but he had already disappeared into the undergrowth.
I sh
rugged and started stumbling in the direction I vaguely believed home to be in
, whistling a tuneless song when Aaron popped out.
“Hello!” h
e cheerfully said
, materializing in front of me.
I screamed.
“Don’t do that!” I said
after my hysterics subsided
, calming myself.
“Do what?” he blinked
.
“Randomly jump
out
like that! You scared me!”
I scolded.
“Sorry,” h
e
insincerely apologized
.
“So, how are you?”
“I’m okay, I’ll be gl
ad when spring is here though,”
I sa
id, my teeth chattering as I kicked up a little snow
.
“Yeah.
I will too, it’s always a
little
harder for me to use my magic in t
he winter,” he grumbled.
“Mainly b
ecause my fingers get frozen.”
“H
as there been any trouble in the Endless Forest
?” I asked.
“No, not really.
Since the Keeper is
back it’s going pretty smooth.
Of course we do have the occasional breech of secu
rity, but that’s to be expected,” h
e explained, leading me back to the den.
We chatted the rest of the way back, and
in
five minutes we surfaced directly next to my den.
“Thanks Aaron!”
I said waving to him.
“No problem!” h
e said with a smile before disappearing into the woods.
He almost seemed like a hermit, scurrying around the woods all the time. He
conveniently
popped up whenever I was alone too…
Days crept by and the frozen winter turned into
a flowery spring.
As winter thawed
Aaron visited me often enough.
He was
a good friend and usually
showed me my way back home when
ever I got lost in the forest.
Kohath ambled around our den for at least a f
ew days out of the week. U
sually
it was when Azmaveth was gone.
I suspected it was because Azmav
eth didn’t want me home alone, and I also thought both of them were convinced that Aaron and I had a thing going on.
Azmaveth was gone a lot, mainly because he was preparing for the battle that would
take place sometime in summer.
When he was home
we had fun playing together
.
(And I use the term loosely. Cleaning his room was f
un for me but torturous for him. S
imilarly listening to his
cursed
book was fun for Azmaveth and hellish for me.)
I’ll pick up my story on a
n
interesting day in early spring.
I was standing
along side the dusty driveway.
Tuggles and I were playing at the edge of the forest, in the grassy area d
irectly next to it.
He had my creamy white apron clenched between his teeth
,
and I was tugging on it while ordering him to release the fabric.
“Come on Tuggles!” I grumbled.
“Let it go!” I
said
while pulling
as hard as I could on my apron.
Nickering wickedly, the miniature unicorn
complied
.
I lost
my balance and fell on my rump.
I glared darkly at
Tuggles,
who
was
contently chewing on a mouthful of grass with an innocent look pasted on his face.
I
grumbled under my breath and tossed the apron at Tuggles in a gesture of defeat. My mood worsened when I heard Kohath’s voice.
“Aiming for the auspicious title of mud princess are we? Oohh, or is it pig princess?” he laughed.
I
hastily stood up, brushing the dirt off my clothes before swinging around to darkly watch
Kohath, accompanied by another man,
stroll
down the driveway
.
Kohath was
in his standard black and purple clothes.
His black eyes glinted with silver spec
k
s as he grinned at me. I had the burning desire to throw mud at his perfect face and white smile.
The man beside
him
appea
red to be the same age, b
ut beyond that the two were
as different as night and day. This man had long silver-
blue hair
that fell as low as his waist.
Stormy grey eyes
stared at me from behind a fringe of bangs.
His features were equally fine and pronounced
as Kohath’s, but he struck
me
as being
a snob
.
He
wore
a silver overcoat, which was similar to Kohath’s, and
white breeches with black boots.
Judging from his appearance and hair color I’d have to say that he wa
s most likely Zerah’s steward.
“Ahira this is Le
vi, steward of the dragon Zerah,” Kohath introduced
as they drew near
.
“
What a surprise
,
” I dryly said before smiling at Levi. “I’m Ahira, nice to meet you.”