One Winter's Day

The sky was a moody grey that winter's day, but that meant little to the small person hidden beneath a canopy of snow-capped trees that had refused to shed their evergreen leaves. The wispy call of cold wind blowing past made for a hollow accompaniment to the happy humming of the man as the constant clatter of wheel against stone added a rhythm to his joyful tune.

He was dressed in a mishmash of clothing. At first glance, you would be forgiven for mistaking him for a raggamoffyn, if a bit too small to be a cloth golem. But if one were to look closely, they would find that his rags were in fact valuable fabrics from the many corners of the continent. The scarf that bounced on the wind was not for warmth, but to show his trading prowess with a nomadic desert people from the south. His boots were stiff and made of the leathery skin of a now extinct breed of adamantoise. But perhaps the item that spoke most loudly for his wealth was what was bouncing in the wooden wheelbarrow he pulled behind him. A fat pile of juicy red berries jostled about in the wagon, their positioning seeming precarious but they, in fact, were perfectly stacked to avoid even a single fruit popping out on the uneven road.

The man let out a hearty laugh, his reddened cheeks clearly tinted from mirth rather than from frostbite. "Those Smurfs have no idea how much humans will pay for a wagon of these babies!" He laughed on as he continued through the forest path, unaware that the grey sky was suddenly stung with a plethora of colors that would make an aurora same tame in comparison. All he could see above him was the white coat of winter, and the sudden tingling surge of energy that entered his body was attributed quickly to his high spirits.

It wasn't until he heard an unearthly snarl that he silenced his joyful laughter. He wasn't surprised that a creature in the woods would want to pilfer what seemed like easy prey, especially since no beast would take such an oddly dressed gnome seriously. However, this snarl was unlike any he had heard before. The sound seemed to twist his eardrums and distort how all the rest of the world entered his mind. He knew he would not be safe in the middle of the road, and he began to pull his cart to the side. A nearby burrow caught his attention, most likely the den of something that would be hibernating in the winter and thus would not bother him if he stayed quiet. But before he could pull of the road completely, he heard another noise.

A whimper, and the soft slap of bare feet against hard stone.

The gnome could hear the sobs and made out they were feminine, and his mind immediately raced to all the succcubi and dopplegangers he had been warned about by those who frequent the northern woods, but the Smurf Village he had just traded with was well out of their usual domain. The time he spent pondering this let the sound grow closer, and soon it became apparent that the sound was truly tinted with sadness rather than malice. A small girl ran into view, her feet red and cracked from running and her eyes matching them from the tears that were streaming down.

The gnome had never been one for children, but he could not ignore the girl as she began running closer, especially since another snarl came louder from the forest. He steps back on the road to try and approach the girl, but she is quick to make the first move. She slams her body into his side, despite the fact that the two were about the same size. Her tears begin staining the Bowmont wool shirt as she blubbered out a desperate plea between sniffles and sobs.

"Mah mother! Dey killed mah momma! Dey... Dey... Dey..." she tries to speak in between snorting up snot, but as the ear-twisting growl of the unknown creature grows closer, the gnome pulls her off the road and towards the den.

"We can worry about the specifics later, lassy. We gotta get off this road before whatever's making that awful sound comes to make a snack a us."

"Dey... Dey got a... beast. Like a dog, but meaner! Oh no.. oh no no no..."

"Keep it together little one, just help me get this cart in this cave."

The gnome grabs the handles of the wagon and starts slowly pulling it towards the den, but the young girl seems to be too lost in her own tears to help. That is, until a growl that traveled up her spine shot her into action. She begins to push from behind, helping the cart make it over the bumpy edge of the road and into the gutters where the den lie. However, as they moved into the darkness of the cave, the gnome smashes his foot into a jutting crystal, causing him to yelp in pain. The young girl panics, letting go of the cart and causing it to tip over on its side, spilling its contents all over the cave floor.

The soft squishes of broken berries are drowned out by the gnome trying to hold back his seething rage. His cheeks were red from mirth before, but now they were as dark as blood from his anger. The girl's sobbing grows louder, and she blubbers as she tries to scrape up any Smurf berries that seemed salvageable. The gnome fumes, clenching his fists and twisting his face to the point its features seemed lost in his beard and scarf, but the situation was too dire for him to blow his stack.

"Ah... Ah... Ah'm so sorry mister... Ah'll help... don't worry... it's fine..." Her voice quivered with even more fear now, for it seemed she had escaped one problem only to cause another. The gnome finally manages to calm down, closing his eyes and putting his arms rigidly to his side. When he speaks, it is with a flat tone that betrays no emotion.

"It's alright. Don't worry about it. Just stay quiet til that thing passes."

He sits down on the ground, scraping against another one of the crystals in the cave. The den seemed to be studded with them, making its likelihood as the winter home of a sleeping creature much less likely. The faint light pouring in from outside bounced around the cave's crystals, tinting it a dull purple that showed the worried face of the girl. She could not silence her weeps and sobs, and the anger he had suppressed was beginning to resurge. The snarls of the girl's pursuer suddenly become roars, and it was clear that whatever had been chasing her was now on the path outside. No footsteps could be heard, but the cave around them seemed to bend and undulate slightly, only enough to be noticed but not felt.

He realized he was dealing with something unusual, something not from this realm. The gnome reaches for one of the crystals and snaps it off with a hard kick-and-pull maneuver. The girl yelps from the sound, and a muted hush from the gnome causes her to leap back a little. Pulling a small silver implement from his pocket, the gnome begins etching symbols into the crystal.

"What are you doing?" The girl manages to gasp out, only for the gnome to shoot her an angry look for talking. Still, he responds.

"Carving runes. I don't know what you got chasing you, but it's gonna take crazy magic and a lot of luck to get it off our tails."

"Ah can help with that," the girl sputters, as she points her hand at the crystal and manages to briefly quiet herself. Small green sparks crackle off her fingertips, but no magic comes forth. Frustrated, she repeats the maneuver over and over. The gnome pushes her hands away to try and stop her from creating the easily seen green light, but the magic finally fires off, shooting into the gnome's hand and causing him to drop his tool. The tool clattering on the floor echoes throughout the cave, and suddenly a sound like a strong gust of wind mixed with the gasping of a choking man rushes into the ears of the two. The girl at first was happy she managed to perform the spell, but the sound and the sudden anger of the gnome caused her to begin her hysterics again.

The gnome pulls at his face in frustration. He had finished carving the runes, but whatever magic she did on him made him feel no different, except a bit angrier. He couldn't revel in the anger now though, as the creature outside could be heard breathing raspily. It wouldn't be hard for it to notice the cart trail into the cave, and the sobbing of the young girl would be a dead giveaway if it got any closer. Thinking quickly, he leans in close to the girl.

"Hey kid..."

"Kalisha... Mah name's Kalisha..." she manages to say defiantly, her sad face turning pouty after being called a child.

"Kalisha then... My name's Tallish. I'm a gnome, so I know all kinds of gnomish runes. Now..." he whispers, as he quietly pulls of his scarf, "I'm gonna write some runes on this that should make it so this beast can't see ya. If you can stay quiet, you'll be safe from it." Tallish pulls up one of the berry's rinds and begins smearing its juice on his scarf. He did not actually have any runes that could protect her from this ethereal beast, so he scrawled nonsense shapes on it, as indicated by the fact that the false runes ran instead of keeping their form. The juice began to seep into the fabric, dying most of the primarily yellow scarf a deep red. Kalisha seemed to be falling for it though, quieting down as she watched his hurried scrawling.

A wisp of green air flowed in through the cave entrance, dancing in the air like it had a mind of its own. It was right outside the cave, but it had not entered yet.

"Quick! Put it on." Tallish hands the cloth over to Kalisha, but rather than twisting it around her neck, she ties it around her head, hiding her hair beneath it.

"I guess that's one way ta do it..."

Given the false confidence of the runic headdress, Kalisha quiets down. The young girl's eyes dart from the cave entrance to Tallish anxiously. The gnome clutched the crystal he had carved into in one hand, watching the cave entrance exclusively.

"Ah'll pay ya back for those berries..." Kalisha says without thinking, her mind clear of the panic but not still not able to think clearly.

"Don't worry about it..." Tallish says, waving his free hand dismissively at her. A muzzle pokes in through the cave entrances, sniffing in the air and causing the space it was yanked from to twist and churn. The gnome's hands were sweating, but his grip on the crystal was tight enough to cut into his palm.

"Let's just hope this works..." Tallish mutters as he lunges towards the cave's entrance. Kalisha yelps as Tallish and the beast roar at each other. The gnome jams the crystal forward, his body glimmering green as the crystal meets the nose of the Hound...