Sins of the Father

"You said your father was dead," Paula said, staring at the older of the two men.

"I know, I lied to you," Veedi said. "These two fled to the Tree Gnome Village after my mother threw them both out, they tried to steal her inheritance from the restaurant's earnings."

"Come on Veedi, I'm your brother," said the younger of the two.

"I don't want to hear it Stanley; excuses, excuses, excuses," Veedi snapped.

"Let me explain Veedi, King Boelryn's been kind enough to let us stay," said the older man.

"Thank you for your kind words Arthur, but I think I should intervene," King Boelryn said. "Veedi, Paula, Ronthin, during your absence I learned that. Excuse me."

Boelryn wiped his eyes with a handkerchief. Clearly saddened, he took a deep breath and tried to continue.

"I've learned that our cousins at the Tree Gnome Village have just suffered the most devastating of attacks. Your father and brother are among a dozen survivors. It was the humans, they managed to break into the maze," Boelryn continued, still horrified at the news.

"Your Majesty, if it would be okay I'd like to talk to my daughter about what happened," Arthur said.

"Yes, yes, of course. Take Ronthin with you as well, he'll need to record what happened, an official report will be required."

"Thank you Your Majesty, you have treated us like royalty, and we owe you our lives."

Veedi then went with her father and brother into a more secluded space, with Ronthin following, all still trying to take in the events of the day. They entered a dining space with a long mahogany table with comfortable smooth wooden chairs, all of it dominated over by a large throne which Boelryn would occupy. Paintings lined the walls showing long dead heroes, including King Narnode Shareen who in his old age had been taken ill, and had been in recluse away from all that was going on.

"Where do I start?" Arthur asked as he took a seat next to Stanley, opposite to Veedi and Ronthin.

"Dad, take your time, I didn't treat you fairly when I saw you. I was in doubt. I can understand what you've been through, so please, take your time," Veedi requested.

"King Boelryn told us what happened to you, my, that was awful, why didn't you come to us? We'd have looked after you."

"I'd no idea where you were, besides I wasn't up for travelling, I needed a lot of rest," Veedi quickly replied, warming to her father.

"Are you okay Stanley? You're a bit quiet," Ronthin said, turning himself to face Veedi's brother who had been noticeably quiet.

Ronthin's tone had the ghost of rudeness in it, as he observed the unusual individual who had come out of the blue. Why had Veedi never mentioned them? Could she really have disliked them that much? Ronthin had his doubts, because he could tell she was quickly warming to them judging by her tone in voice.

"I'm fine," Stanley replied breaking the awkward silence, "well now I am, it's just been a long day Ronthin, as I'm sure you'll understand."

"It's not his fault Stanley," Arthur said. "Now I'll try to cut out the nasty stuff, but I'll give you the gist of what happened to us today, because for all we know the Stronghold will be next."

"It was daybreak when me and Stanley were tending to our allotment..."

Arthur's voice trailed off as the group became immersed in what had happened.

It was a warmer morning, and the crops had been growing well, especially those which had been treated with compost. The vegetables stood proud as Stanley plucked them out the ground and off of plants while Arthur treated the cabbage patch for new seeds.

"I'm sure seeds are becoming rarer," Arthur began.

"There's not enough is there? Everyone's started growing their own stuff since that storm business," Stanley replied, biting into a juicy tomato.

"Stanley, don't do that, I'm making tomato soup for lunch."

"These are coming up well you know, I think we could start selling these on, make some money, buy a bigger tree and start tidying up the messes we've made in the past."

"I hope so. Now Stanley, go into the maze and collect some seeds, the birds are always dropping them there. If we want to make any money we'll have to start growing a lot more."

"Yes, yes, I know, longer hours, harder work, but we'd get to reap so much bigger rewards!"

"Well then, go fetch some seeds for your father!"

Stanley made his way into the maze, its towering hedges casting shadows over him. As he went to pick up a seed, he heard a crackling in the bushes. Looking through a gap he saw the edge of the maze, and a human carrying a burning torch which he was using to burn it down.

"What?" Stanley murmured to himself as he headed slowly back out of the maze, desperate not to draw attention to herself.

Arthur looked up from his patch to see Stanley who was pale in the face and trembling.

"What is it son?" Arthur asked.

"Humans, at the edge of the maze, they're going to burn it down," Stanley replied, barely able to speak.

"They burnt the maze down?" Veedi asked, interrupting the story.

"Well, yes, they did," Arthur replied, before thinking back to events; to what had actually happened then...

Stanley met Arthur at the bottom of their treehouse, carrying a newly sharpened knife.

"We'll need food," Stanley said.

"The allotments are fit to burst with tomatoes and cabbages, they'll have to suffice for the journey," Arthur replied.

The morning was cloudy, and the two gnomes made their way across the grass to the rows of herbs and vegetables growing in the allotments. Stanley quietly made his way over to the row that belonged to the elderly gnome Krutii who lived next to the gnomes, and sometimes she would take pity on them and provide them with enough food to eat. This is how they repaid her, stealing all the food she had taken months to grow so they could flee the Stronghold.

"Stanley, go see if those human friends of yours have arrived yet; remember, if we pull this off we'll be living off an endless pit of gold until the end of our days," Arthur ordered, grabbing his son by scruff of his neck.

"Father, get off, I know what I'm doing, now don't interfere. I'll get the money as soon as I've led them in here, now make yourself scarce, we don't want you being seen now do we?" Stanley asked.

"Consider me gone son, and I'll meet you at the Clocktower in two hours time. Don't be late."

The two made their separate ways as Stanley went to greet the humans who had gathered at the edge of the maze, standing next to a slayed wolf that had attacked them in the maze.

"You made it then?" asked Stanley.

"No thanks to you, now if you want this gold you'll lead us right into the Village," replied Augustus Theobald, wiping his bloodied sword with an old cloth.

"That wasn't the original deal, you said free up the maze, and I had the Moss Giants slain!"

"Not good enough anymore, things have escalated. Things will become easier once I start recruiting more people, I plan to travel the kingdom today. Oh yes, and I can expect you and Arthur to be joining us too, we might have more work for you."

"Fine, but I want my pay in full."

"That's agreed, now lead us in, this Village is bigger than first thought."

In the present, Stanley gazed out of the room vacantly as Arthur pretended to dry his eyes with a handkerchief, which was in fact the same one which Augustus had been cleaning his sword with earlier. Veedi looked startled as she observed the bloody cloth.

"How many. How many died?" Veedi asked through her shaking voice.

"I don't know. I didn't exactly count. We were running, me and Stanley, we tried to save some of the others, but we had to save ourselves in the end. Now, where was I? Ah yes, we saw trouble. We were the first to sense the impending danger," Arthur replied.

Arthur picked up the story from where he had left off. Arthur and Stanley ran into the centre of the Village, slamming their fists on tree trunks and calling out to their fellow gnomes.

"Humans are coming! They're armed!" yelled Arthur.

Gnomes began to spill out from their homes, terrified. Some tried to run straight out but were attacked by the few remaining monsters hiding within while others armed themselves with whatever they could find.

"It's no use fighting back," Stanley said, "they'll burn the whole village down, they have tinderboxes and plenty of logs!"

The sound of crackling could be heard as the calls of humans grew closer. Thy had started to burn the maze down, having reached a position where the gnomes would be trapped as far inwards as possible, for this would make them easier to pick off, one at a time.

As the group stormed into the village, screams could be heard as the defences and fighting gnomes were easily dispatched. Arthur and Stanley narrowly missed an arrow which hit the tree next to them.

"Dad! Up here! We can escape through the tree tops!" Stanley called out, as his father quickly pursued.

At the top of the trunk was the elderly Mr. Nickells who made a living from polished buttons. He stumbled outside to see what was happening, but as Arthur and Stanley tried to lead him inside to safety he was caught by an arrow pinning him to the floor of his treehouse through his trousers. As Stanley struggled to free him, the clothing tore and he quickly fell, hanging by a thread several foot above the ground.

"Mr. Nickells! Take my hand!" Stanley called out.

A human charged over and lit the gnome on fire using his torch, causing the poor old man to twist and turn in agony as he fell into the hands of the enemy, completely ablaze.

Stanley could not hear a sound, the world was spinning and he could not register his surroundings. He noticed his hand was bleeding, having leaned on the arrow. Arthur quickly snatched him from behind as a shower of arrows blasted the tree, piercing the space occupied mere seconds before by Stanley.

"That's how Stanley got his injury, and why his hand is wrapped in bandage," Arthur said.

Stanley indicated the injured hand, still sore from the 'accident' of sorts. Things were running smoothly, the story was convincing Veedi and her companions as they expressed horror at the sight of the injury, as it was 'indisputable' evidence of the 'struggle' they had faced. Not even slightly bothered, Arthur sat back, satisfied with the sympathy he was receiving.

"Then what? How on Gielinor did you escape unscathed?" Veedi asked, as if she couldn't believe her father and brother were in front of her until she heard what had happened.

"Well my hand is hardly unscathed," Stanley noted, observing the bloodied bandage.

"Well you're alive son, so with an injured hand, I think your sister's right, we did come out pretty unscathed," Arthur said, trying to convince Veedi he was on her side.

Arthur couldn't help but let his mind slip back to the actual events of that morning. Stanley had led the group through the twisting and confusing passages of the maze, as all gnomes knew the way off by heart. They slayed a few remaining goblins and a lone Moss Giant along the way. As they entered the main area of the village they were greeted by the sight of several startled gnomes. They shot down a female immediately as she cradled her newborn baby in her arms, having just been to collect a cabbage from her allotment.

Screams rang out as the gnomes dispersed, while the humans picked them off one by one. Other members of the human group had begun to set parts of the maze nearer the center ablaze, while some lured out wolves from the corners to pick off the gnomes that fled for the exits.

"You two, you did this!" called out a Gnome Councillor who eyed them, terrified through his monocle.

He too was shot down, but it was too late as everyone had heard him. Stanley and Arthur Limstrood were enemies to all. Augustus began to shoot at gnomes up trees, and ordered Arthur and Stanley up one to stop elderly Mr. Nickells escaping by his son's gnomeglider out the back.

The two quickly got up, and hit the old man, pushing him to the floor where an arrow was shot into his trousers, narrowly missing his vital organs which would have made things simpler. However it had left him dangling over the edge of his tree.

"Please, redeem yourselves," he said as he tried to get them to save him. "I'll tell the world you were heroes, I swear it."

He offered out his hand to Stanley, but he pushed the gnome downwards into the burning torch a human was carrying.

The dozen or so gnomes that remained were being picked off individually now; this was no longer war, it was a game.

"Look! Him there!" called out Augustus.

A single gnome had slipped away through the maze, and Arthur watched him from the top of the tree, standing next to the gnomeglider.

"The gold! Give us the gold!" ordered Stanley.

A younger human quickly clambered up the tree to the two of them on Augustus' orders, and presented them with a bag, heavy with the weight of several gold coins; a very tidy sum for the crime.

"We'll be going now," said Stanley.

"We'll be in contact!" called Augustus.

The two gnomes made their way to the gnomeglider, and soon it picked up off the ground and made its way up into the sky. The glider narrowly missed a shooting blast of flames from a burning tree, housing several charred corpses of unfortunate gnomes. Stanley had to swerve and narrowly missed another tree, causing him to divert high up into the sky, in order to avoid any other near misses. The humans soon became small dots, and Arthur surveyed the wreckage, and thought of all the things they could do with the money.

The wind had begun to pick up at a tremendous speed, no thanks to the height they had reached, well over five hundred foot above the ground. As Stanley shivered his hand slipped and the craft jolted, causing Arthur to drop the bag of coins.

"You bloody idiot!" Arthur yelled, thumping his son in the back with his clenched fist.

"The coins!" Stanley shrieked.

"Go down! DOWN! NOW!"

Stanley began to plummet down in order to try and grab the bag, but by now it was way out of view, with no chance of finding it, especially as they were directly above Khazard territory now, and despite their contacts they had no chance of getting in with the soldiers below.

A strong gust of wind suddenly hit the right hand side of the glider, causing it to spin further out of control as it was already heading downwards. The features below were becoming more recognizable, and now they were greeted with the ominous and looming shape directly of the Clock Tower. Stanley swerved but it was too late; the gnome glider slammed into the Clock Tower's wall and shattered the wings, causing the two gnomes to tumble down to the ground, still clinging on to their craft. Within seconds they were lying flat on the ground, their impact having been lessened thanks to the cushion that was the torn wing of the glider.

"Instant karma is laughing in our face today," Arthur grunted, hitting his son in the arm again as he rubbed his bleeding lip with his other arm.

"And after our escape from certain death, we ran here to safety," Arthur stated, finishing the story.

"Well thank goodness you didn't crash on the battlefield," Boelryn said.

"Can we go to our rooms, now? I'm ever so tired," Stanley said, with a false stretching of the arms and yawn.

"Yes, yes, of course. Though I'll have to keep you here with Veedi, you'd be better off with family; and to be honest, we simply don't have the room, gnomes from all over have flocked back here, and members of the Tree Gnome Village have been coming for the past few days; it's as if they saw this coming."

"Well thank you Your Majesty, it'll be good to catch up on old times," intercepted Arthur, smiling at Veedi.

"Right then, I'm going to call it a night, and I am truly sorry for what you've had to witness today. Veedi, Paula and Ronthin, we shall discuss the situation with the Seer in the morning. Good night," the King said as he exited the room.

"We'll see you in the morning," Arthur said, as he and Stanley retired to their quarters.

Arthur closed the door behind him. He turned to Stanley who sat on the bed which Veedi had occupied, and indicated for him to get up.

"Show manners, it'll make us look more trustworthy," Arthur said.

"I keep thinking about that gnome, Millovale, the one who got away," Stanley said.

"Millovale Pinshire's luck will run out soon, Augustus will track him down soon enough."

"And if he doesn't?"

"We will."

"He could tell others, tell people that we're traitors."

"Well then, as Augustus Theobald says, we'll keep on killing."