The Hunter's Tale

Veedi awoke, her head was throbbing with pain and her arm was stinging badly. She looked at her arm's injury, and saw a vicious gash where an arrow had pierced into the skin.

"Ouch," she muttered, touching the injury which caused it to sting.

"It's awake! That bloody gnome is awake!" Husband exclaimed as he marched into the small cramped room Veedi found herself in.

"How is it awake husband? We made sure it was dead when he brought it here," Gwendoline asked, following husband to the room.

"Why aren't you dead?" Husband snapped looking straight at Veedi with anger in his eyes.

"I was just passing-" Veedi was cut off.

"Shut it you stupid little creature! You will not speak unless told to!"

Veedi went completely silent; she was terrified. She edged back slightly but hit something round and solid. She turned around slightly, just to glimpse what was behind her. Her eyes stopped dead as she saw a skull, it was chipped and grimy, but from its shape Veedi could tell it was the skull of a gnome. She felt compassion and sadness upon seeing this, but also terror as she saw husband searching for something in the corner of the room outside of the one Veedi was in.

"Got it," husband said, clenching a sword of steel in his hands.

"Please, please don't hurt me, oh please don't hurt me" Veedi whispered, as husband advanced on her.

Husband stopped, and put the sword down.

"Well, this one's full of life and determination," husband smiled evilly looking at Veedi.

"Shall we kill her husband?" Gwendoline suggested.

"No, no Gwendoline. Not yet anyway; we'll let this one die slowly."

"As you wish husband, I shall stay and watch in case it tries to escape, we can't trust these gnomes!"

"Good idea Gwendoline, now get to it I need to hunt some bird for supper."

"Yes husband, I'll get to it straight away."

"Good, and how about you tell it a story?"

"What about?"

"Me of course you stupid woman! Tell her the tale of this hunter, and send chills down it's spine, if it has one."

"Yes husband, I'll tell her a story about you!"

"I'm leaving now, and I'll try and get some meat off of those red birds, are favorite," husband grinned.

Gwendoline grinned back, and then husband left with his ranging equipment to hunt. Gwendoline was excited, and she sneaked away into the same room Veedi was in.

"Gnome! Sit down at once! There are things I have to tell you, so husband says! I'm going to tell you all about the other gnomes we've killed," Gwendoline said.

"Why are you doing this to me? I didn't do anything to affect you!" Veedi shrieked.

Gwendoline picked up a dagger and walked up to Veedi, she then put the dagger to her throat.

"Shut it pipsqueak!" Gwendoline snapped. "Let's play a game, shall we?"

Gwendoline moved the knife over Veedi's throat, the tip stroking Veedi's skin. Veedi shook in terror, and Gwendoline looked straight at her, with an expression which showed she was enjoying what she was doing to Veedi.

"You're scared," Gwendoline said.

"Please stop," Veedi uttered, barely able to speak.

"Shall I show you what happened to your friend?"

"Please let me go, I'm begging you."

Gwendoline picked Veedi up by her hair and dragged her along the floor to another room, where a pile of bones laid, some slightly coated in blood.

"That's your friend, we fed on what we could, and now we will leave the bones to sit and rot. We're going to do the same to you gnome, except you won't have the pleasure of a quick death, because you'll be starved to death, that's what husband says!" Gwendoline exclaimed.

"Why don't you ever use his name?" Veedi asked.

"I do not know it! I am a woman, I have no right to ask his name. Now shut it at once!"

"Why do you want to kill me? we've never met each other."

"Oh but we have."

"When have I met you? When has Ithacer met you?"

"I've met you through the face of every gnome that I and husband have killed. You are all the same!"

"But why? How can I affect you? I can't hurt you, hunt you, torture you or change your life, yet you do all these things to me."

"I do it, because I can."

"What if I try to escape?"

"Then I will injure you in such a way that you'll never walk again."

"Did you kill the whole group of gnomes who came up into these mountains all those years ago?"

"Yes, each and every one of them. Now husband told me to tell you a story, and I think I know just the one."

"What is it about? The gnomes that came here?"

"No, it's about gnomes and why we hate them."

"Go on then, tell it."

"I won't be told what to do by a gnome!"

Gwendoline shot an arrow into Veedi's tattered hat, which was now pinned to the wall behind her. It was torn and damaged beyond repair.

"Now listen up you sniveling little gnome, me and husband do not like change very much, and we do not like differences. I don't mind humans strolling up and down these mountains, but when it's a gnome me and husband feel anger. Do you know why?" Gwendoline asked.

"No," Veedi replied.

"Because you're different."

"That's no excuse to kill!"

"Oh but it is. You gnomes think you are better than humanity, because you've existed longer, but it's not true!"

"We don't think we're bett-"

"Shut it! And you have all that technology, all that machinery, but you keep it all to yourself, because you gnomes think you can do better than humans! And I hate all you little idiots with your pockets full of money, feeding on toad's legs and living up in trees, you are part of an unethical race!"

"How are we unethical?"

"Because you are! It's not normal to live up in trees and flying in gliding contraptions!"

"And it's normal to live in homes made of rock and metal and glass?"

"Yes! Because it's human! And now let me tell you all about the time we met your precious family!"

"Please, I'm begging you to let me go."

"That's what your family said! They begged us but we watched them die! We made it happen! You should have heard the screams and shouts they made!"

Veedi sat in silence, she could feel tears forming in her eyes, and they trickled down her face.

"And that is my story," Gwendoline smiled, revealing her crooked yellow and black teeth.

Veedi thought of all that had happened in the hut, all the murder and bloodshed. She pictured Ithacer's skeleton, and how he had appeared in life, she thought of her own family and friends back at the Grand Tree, and of all the friends she'd made that were human, surely that was proof that humans and gnomes could live in harmony?

Gwendoline sat in her rocking chair, made from rotting wood which was splintering. Husband had been gone for many hours now, roaming the mountains for creatures to kill while greeting the humans he met. Gwendoline began to fall asleep, and Veedi could hear her snores from the other room. As Veedi rose to her feet, the floorboards beneath her feet creaked, and she flinched. She then made her way further forward and picked up a dagger from the table where a variety of weaponry was either laid out or hung from the wall. Veedi crept past Gwendoline, but as she passed her she felt hands grab her hair and leave her hanging above the ground.

"You pathetic creature," Gwendoline sneered.

Veedi swung round and stabbed the dagger into Gwendoline's finger causing her to cry out in pain, but Gwendoline managed to grab the dagger and used the handle of it to ram into Veedi's back knocking her over as she dashed for the door.

"Where do you think you're going?" Gwendoline asked, blood dripping from her damaged finger.

Veedi's world suddenly blacked out as she felt something hit her head.

Gwendoline leaned over Veedi who awoke from her unconscious state. Veedi could feel Gwendoline's breath on her face, and looked into her bloodshot eyes, full of anger and a lust for murder.

"I outsmarted you there, which goes to show humans are smarter than gnomes," Gwendoline grinned.

"I have friends who are humans you know," Veedi uttered.

"Well then they are not proper humans, are they?"

"It's not about who or what you are, it's about how you are."

"Shut it! What do you know about these matters?"

"I know one thing, your husband doesn't love you."

"Yes he does! He lets me cook him food and lets me use his name!"

"That's not how love works, if he really loved you he'd tell you his name."

"Stop it."

"He never tells you he loves you, he never kisses you and he never hugs you, he doesn't love you at all; he uses you."

"Leave me! Leave this home! I can't listen to this! And I can't listen to you!"

Gwendoline pulled Veedi by her hair and pulled the door open to throw her out, only to find husband standing directly in front of her.

"What are you doing Gwendoline?" Husband snapped, grabbing her arm.

"It's this gnome! It's told me, it's told me things I don't like!" Gwendoline exclaimed.

"Put it back, we're not letting it live!"

"I don't want to hear it's words!"

Gwendoline pushed Veedi away, but husband grabbed Gwendoline and cornered Veedi, looking right at her, and then he grabbed his sword and held it firmly in his hands.

"The problems you've caused," husband moaned.

Husband then lifted his sword up and slammed it down, and a scream of pain ran out as blood drenched the walls and a body fell to the floor; dead.