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Griham's Tale
Author unknown (2005)
As he looked upon a land of snow and sleet, it was surprising, even to himself that the smallest piece of scenery caught his eye. The man was named Harold, but he was also know to the people as Harry the manipulator of fire an user of holy magic, his abilities as a mage was growing in popularity in his little town, he even got discounts at the vendors shops, but for his concerns now he just wished he could run faster to reach the mound in the snow between two trees up ahead.
Harry reached the mound and realized it wasn’t a dying animal or a snow covered shrub, but rather an infant to his surprise that was still alive, it had dark green hair sticking strait up in the front. The child looked normal enough its eyes were blue it had large ears, but they weren’t all that noticeable, everything was normal, except that he was about half the size of a normal child one year of age.
The mage bent down to pick up the small child. The infant was garbed in heavy brown and gray robes with his head held neatly and comfortably in a hood.
"He must have fallen off a wagon coming by" thought Harold "No one, but traders come by here, probably some ones son. I’ll keep him with me until they return to get him"
Harold turned and began walking up a snowy rock covered path until he came to a small town were he lived in a cave disguised as a hut on the outside.
"Harry!" the people greeted him as he walked in
"What’s that?"
"Is it a cub?"
"Is it a shrub?"
"I know it’s a football!"
"Your all wrong it’s not a football or animal" Harry barked back at them "it’s a child now were is Katrina I need to talk to her"
"She’s in her hut west of the lake, you know she never leaves"
Harold just kept walking ignoring the distractions, the town which was primarily made up of shops run by elves. Elves were interesting characters: standing about five or six inches above humans, they had purple-blue tinted skin and blue hair with green eyes, usually, elves were very picky about individuality and descriptions, if you said an elf looked like his friend you would soon have the sharpest rustiest thing in reach of the elves long arms. The elves had arms out of proportion to the rest of their body they also had a tendency to snatch what they could reach and sell it for more than it was worth.
Harry went his usual path to Katrina’s hut and as usually got quite a few offers on his way.
"By it today, dynamite! Whether blowing some thing up or dueling with a friend dynamite always takes them by surprise."
"Now why would I need dynamite?" Harold asked "the gods lend me their flame when I ask it"
Finally Harold came to the dwelling of his friend, he walked in to a usual array of steam and beads, in the corner he saw Katrina sitting and sipping on some tea. She was the most knowledgeable person Harold knew, but sometimes he was confused by what she does.
"Ah Harold, are you here to have tea with me"
"No I have a question for you"
"Is it about that football"
"It’s a child and I found him in the snow, judging by the size I would say he’s only a few months old and I was wondering what you knew about trade caravans that have come by recently"
"First" Katrina said standing up she was a few inches shorter than Harold "That is not the son of a merchant, and Were he human my guess would be a few months old too"
"What do you mean" Harold inquired
"That’s a gnome, a one year old gnome" Katrina answered
"That can’t be" Harold objected "Gnome caravans haven’t come by here for more than a century, how could one land in the snow?"
"He could have fallen off a dragon. I’ve been seeing more of those in the sky recently and gnomes were the only ones that could control them."
"Do you think they might come back for him?"
"No" Katrina said rather bluntly "They went into hiding about... 172 years ago they won’t blow it for a single child, looks like your stuck with him"
"Then I will call him, Griham" Griham was the Elvin word for small one
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! How many years ago did I find you in the snow and you still can't make a Holy explosion!?" Harold yelled.
"It's a very advanced technique and I'll never need it" Griham remarked his hair still stood up on end in the front, but he was much larger, about 3 feet tall.
"If you were surrounded by bears, or wolves there's no way you could fight them off with that sword you have, you should just get rid of it, you would have to hit all enemies and kill them all at once, Watch!" Harold walked over to a circle of pots he stomped his foot and from himself came fire and light rendering all of the pots not just broken, but in ash"
"I could summon a ring of fire" Griham said smartly and unimpressed
"And you could also exhaust your mana doing useless attacks"
"In that case I would use an ice nova and freeze them so I could run away"
Harold just rolled his eyes and said "Ice novas don't give mages good names if you run from a bear and a common hunter kills it people will think you are to weak to defend yourself"
"I don't care, I don't wish to be strong, I want to ride dragons, I want to be able to fly"
"That's preposterous" Harold said shooting down Griham's dream "only gnome can fly and they can't be found, except of course you and who would teach you?"
"But I feel like I can already do it" Griham said half dreaming
Suddenly as though from nowhere crashes came from out of Harold's cave. The two ran to see what the matter was, half of the town was nearly burnt to the ground, roots of trees were torn out of the ground and in the distance a purple tail was whipping in the clouds.
"There he is!" a townsperson yelled "It was his kind that attacked us"
"Hold on a minute" Harold said next to a very scared gnome "What happened?"
"You didn't see?" A vendor said confused Harold shook his head "Gnomes! Gnome came riding in on dragons yelling Somagis, Somagis grim hera somagis"
"How is that my fault?" Griham objected, "They might not have been talking about me, and it's pronounced Somaglis. You understand that?" Harold asked
"Of course, it's gnomish I don't get how, but I guess it's like an instinct, they were saying Small one Small one were is the small one"
The mob stood in disbelief "All I know" a woman said breaking the silence "Is its that its been almost two centuries since the gnomes were last seen and the only difference is that now we have one of them"
Shouts of agreement rang from the crowd
"The gnome is who they want"
"I never did like mages"
"He's not even a decent mage"
An important looking man came walking out from the crowd "It looks like we have a decision; we can't have you staying here You must go, leave us in peace now maybe you can go live with your own wretched kind if you can find them"
They were all against him no one wanted him around they looked at him like he was an overgrown germ, hate was in there eyes.
"Wait, Wait" a familiar voice rang Griham had never been so happy to here Katrina's voice "according to this scroll from the cave of maha hine it looks like now is the time Griham must climb Mt. Kingyo and make peace with the gnomes, and he is the only one with a slight chance of living he'll either find the gnomes, or, well...expire"
The townspeople didn't say anything Griham understood and walked out of the town.
Only at the base of the mountain he ran into his first problem, a ten-foot bear came running at the three-foot gnome. Griham acted quickly he drew his sword and with all his might swung at the bear's leg. The bear only stopped to scratch his leg and hit Griham painfully in the shoulder. Griham realized the uselessness of his sword and decided to use magic he rolled out of the way of a claw and thrust his palm out sending a small inferno at the best toppling it over.
"Wow!" Griham thought "Only at the base and I'm having trouble, this is going to be harder than I thought" Griham had to accept that this was what had to be done and there was no way out of it, so looking at the peak he began his accent.
The mountain area was like nothing he had ever seen, partway up the snow ended and the sun was beaming down on the trees and grass, dew was dripping from leaves in a rhythmic pattern into a stream running uphill as though pulled by an unseen force and all the animals almost made him faint all Griham had ever seen were birds and thick furred mammals these were scaly, some had two legs and walked like humans some had 4 or 10, some were the size of his foot, some were his height, and some were double including his hair.
"I'm glad those are friendly." Griham thought looking at a lizard man. Griham was walking cheerily considering the bear he killed, maybe Harold was right he couldn't kill a bear or anything bigger, not even with a free stab.
Back in the village the only person worried was Harold he argued with everyone about Griham's safety until he had few friends left.
Back on the mountain Griham searched the ground until he found what he was looking for he picked up the rock focused on his grip sending his energy to his fingertips he could almost feel his mana draining "This had better work" he thought and he threw the rock at the two giant caterpillars cornering him as he uttered a few words the rock exploded temporarily blinding his foe giving him time to climb the ledge behind him.
"Maybe the holy explosion is more useful than I thought, I am tired and I didn’t even kill those things, maybe the nature of existence is all related to the-" His thought was cut short by a trapdoor causing him to fall and fall unconscious. When Griham came to he was being observed by elves.
"Do you suppose he fell from the peak"
"He may not be a gnome, just a small man I bet"
"Humans don't have eleven toes"
"Maybe just a freak"
"Why would he be climbing a mountain if he was human anyway?"
"Hold on a sec." Griham shouted, Repeated shushes quieted him "I'm not human, they hate me, I'm a gnome and I'm trying to climb this mountain and make peace with the other gnomes"
"He talks"
"He speaks the common tongue gnomes only speak gnomish"
"Not if they're raised by humans"
"Good point but then why would he climb the mountain, couldn't he fly a dragon"
"Humans don't have dragons"
"But he's a gnome"
"Raised by humans"
"So I see"
It was unusual to see elves argue they usually just sell and steal, but he watched their transaction wondering if they even herd him. Griham stood up and started walking "I need to find the gnomes so if you can't help I'll just..."
"Top of the mountain 1200 furlongs south of the rock shaped like a fish two hops up 3 steps forward and you should be there"
Griham was interested now "You know were they are!? Can you help me get there faster?"
"We could, but you would have to prove your good intentions"
"How do I do that" Griham Queried
"The feather, we will weigh you against a feather if your intentions are evil you will be heavier if not you will be lighter"
Griham was unsure, but followed into a room with a large golden scale that had a goose feather on one side and at the end of the room was a large wooden door.
"Sit on the scale" the first elf said.
Griham slowly walked over to the scale and sat wondering how anyone could not weigh more than a feather, but sure enough the scale did not move he stood and jumped, but the scale did not budge.
"What do we do?" one elf asked "The scale didn't move he is the same as the feather do we let him pass?"
"Well he is a gnome and it's about time that, hey! You wouldn't happen to have a mark on your shoulder"
"Only a bear scratch" Griham said calmly
"Let me see it"
Griham moved his cape he used to cover up the hole in his robe
"That's it" an elderly elf said "let him through"
Without another word the door opened and Griham was shoved out, He turned quickly, but only saw grass, however about 100 yards up he saw a village. Griham started running until out of a river three amphibious creatures, scared Griham figured it wasn't to far and ran 10 yards until the creatures caught up, Griham had no other choice he stomped his foot and focused his energy until from himself came fire and light the force threw him back at a rock breaking many bones and leaving him cut and the creatures continued to advance unharmed and about to attack when from behind the large rock a red scaly head appeared its eyes glistened in the sun scaring off the three creatures unfortunately, Griham was already knocked out.
Griham woke to see he was surrounded by many small men and even a few dragons.
"Finally he came"
"Now get to argue some more"
"Do you have anything to say" one said directing at Griham they were all speaking gnomish but Griham understood them perfectly
"Th-the humans want you to come back or at least not attack again"
"We only attacked because we knew you would come soon and we didn’t want to have to deal with an army, just you, as for returning, no"
"Why not? I went through a lot to get here" Griham said very angry
"And you never found us" a female gnome said "You came up took a nasty fall and went back down, that's what they will hear"
"Why can't I say where you are and that you don't want to go down?" Griham argued.
"Then we are revealed and people will come, so just leave, or we could make them think you are dead" A large gnome said
"That's what they would like" Griham mumbled "They all hate me if I can't win them over I'll be up here again.
The gnomes all sat around Thinking of what to do Griham was at crossroads, but came to a conclusion faster than expected
"I want to be dead, I want to stay here, but how do I get them to think I'm dead?"
A gnome with a tall hat and fancy shoes took Griham to a cliff and kicked him, Griham started falling to his death. It took a wile, but he realized it wasn't him just a doppelganger.
At the town all the people were waiting for Griham's return they just didn't expect to see his mangled body hit the ground Katrina shocked ran into her hut and came out with an abundance of herbs as she sprinkled them over the corpse, She stood up and said "He's dead"
"We al knew that" the important looking person said "We just don't know how happy to be"
"That's a horrible thing to say" Harold said walking out of his cave
"This foible cost us more than his weight in gold and now he died trying to give us a reason not to kill him"
Harold cast a spell throwing the man back into a store as he walked to his former student he murmured a few words and picked him up, he walked out of town as spectators watched but dare not confront him. Harold was clearly upset by the sight of his student he found and raised, and now, broken and bloody. Harold continued to walk out to a place covered in snow between two trees using fire he dug a hole and placed his friend in as he replaced the dirt the stoic mage couldn’t help but shed a tear and wonder how he would live without him as he did before the gnome was found in the snow.
Many years passed and Harry the manipulator of fire and user of holy magic died, He was buried by Katrina (who never seemed to age in her tent) next to Griham’s doppelganger. Ever since Griham’s death was faked the next gnome to set foot near the town was an old one with white hair sticking strait up in front he walked to the grave of his mentor and his mentors only student, only to realize he had nothing to tribute and nothing to say, he realized he could not make his teacher proud so he just walked back to his dragon noticing his scar he got trying and failing to fight off the amphibious creatures. As he walked he was attacked by 3 bears without even thinking or faltering a step he hit the ground with his foot causing an explosion of fire and light rendering the bears in ashes. He jumped on his dragon and started flying.
"I guess I'll never make him proud, I'm just a bad student and not much of a mage"
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