World Of Beauty (Arula: Four)

Chapter 8

The deeper they ventured into gnome territory, the duller it became. Instead of lushes' trees growing in the area, mushrooms as tall trees grew. Brown ones, skinny and tall, fat, and stocky ones. Red ones with the little white pooka dots, dome tops and triangular tops. There were even mushrooms that were shaped like umbrellas.
Even the tiny regular ones grew, litter the ground like grass. As dull as the place may have seemed, it actually something to behold. Karma smiled, knowing this how she had always pictured the gnome's territory to look like. She had always found it fitting for the gnomes to have mushrooms for their habitat.

"Wow." Jason said, mesmerized by his surroundings. "You created this?" Karma blushed and nodded. Smiling, Jason nodded his approval. He might not have seen all of Arula and have only been there for a short time, but so far, he liked the Gnome Clan. He stole a glance down at Karma's satchel that she had swung around her shoulder.

He closed his eyes tightly and shook his head. It felt wrong to even think about taking something so special from Karma. But then, what if this were the only way he could get back home? Was this cloaked man telling the truth? Or was he just pulling Jason's leg? Jason couldn't be sure, and the conflict that was battling in his head was hurting his mind. He didn't want to betray Karma, after all, it was his fault for going into the woods in the first place and going through that portal, not Karma's. Then again, Jason did want to go home, badly.

Straying from those thoughts, Jason looked ahead of him. There was a more pressing matter at the moment. Finding a cure of the sick elves. "Look." Mika said pointing in front of them. A tall brown mushroom stood in front of them, and in front of the mushroom was small leather bag hanging on a wooden stake that was nailed to the mushroom. They slowed the horses to a stop. "Be cautious." Mika warned and swung off her horse in one swift move.

"Aye." Agreed Dagner, who had a little trouble getting off his pony. "Darn creatures." He muttered to himself. "A dwarf should never have the humiliation as I am." Everyone smirked but didn't say anything. They all stepped closer to the small leather bag.

"Now why would someone leave a bag?" Mika wondered out loud and stepped over to the bag. She picked it off the wooden stake and opened the pouch. She took out what looked to be green dust. Bringing it to her nose, she gave a sniff. Her eyes then grew wide. "Stop!" She shouted to everyone, and they stopped.

"What is it?" Karma asked stopping in a weird walking position.

"This is an animal trap," she said slowly. Showing them dust, Mika continued, "this stuff is strong enough to draw in any animal and trap it." Karma gave Mika and Dagner an uneasy look.

"Then where is the trap?" Karma asked. Mika shrugged.

"Don't know." Jason who froze in mid-step was starting to lose his balance. He knew he was never good at gymnastics at school, in fact, he got a big fat D in the class, which seems impossible for just a gym class, but it was true. He started to wobble and lean. Jason had to move his arms in circles just to keep his balance. A small gust of wind came through and it was just enough to make Jason finally lose his balance and topple over. Everyone gasped as he fell. Jason closed his eyes waiting for the sound of a trap going off. But nothing happened.

Everyone, including Jason, took a breath. Jason slowly got up and gave a cheeky grin. "Sorry," he said. Karma smiled and shook her head as Mika gave a small smile and Dagner chuckled. As Jason begin to dust himself off, he took on small step forward and tripped once more, but by this time, over a vine rope. There was click and the sound of a trap going off.

"Run!" Karma yelled; it was too late by then. There was bong! sound and four wooden walls with bars came up and trapping the friends together. It took a while for the shock to wear off for the four companions. Jason was the first to speak. "Whoops." Karma scowled down at him.

"Well, Lass," Dagner said. "I found your trap."

----

Karma sawed at the wooden cage with her dagger for several minutes with no anvil. She blew out a frustrated growl as she continued to saw. When she removed her dagger to catch her breath, she noticed that the dagger hardly left any dent in the wood. "It's hard to believe that the gnomes would build such a sophisticated trap like this one." Dagner said marveling at the cage that they were trapped in.

"You know what, you can tell them that when they come by to check on their trap, mm?" Karma said angrily. She kicked the cage walls, which made her feel little better. Mika, who was sitting crisscrossed on the floor with Shari in her lap, gave Karma a sympathetic look. "I rather not deal with a whole tribe of gnomes when they do come. They'll laugh in our faces and triumph over the fact that they trapped us."

"Are the gnomes here really that bad?" Jason asked. If he remembered correctly, gnomes were cute little men with red hats and white beards.

"The gnomes here aren't your typical garden gnome, Jason," Karma said. "I didn't make them that way. I had always hated the look that people made gnomes into, so I created my own vision of what I wanted them to be when I was first adding Clans to Arula."

"Oh." Jason said. Now he was a little scared. The couple of months of knowing Karma, he realized that she had a very active imagination. This could be bad... or so he thought. After an hour passed by, with not a single gnome showing up, or any luck of escaping, the four companions began to get bored. The sat down on the ground of trap, to the best they could because the cage was super small, so they were all squished together. The hour turned into more hours and before they knew it, dusk was upon him. The forest around them lit up with fireflies and the sounds of the nightly animals began to rise. And without a campfire, the winter winds started to pick up, making the travelers shiver.

Jason, who was leaning against the cage walls, was close to falling asleep when he saw movement in the bushes nearby. He nudged Karma and pointed. "Look," he said. "I saw something." Karma and the others looked in the direction Jason pointed in. At first, they didn't see anything, then the bushes cracked and moved as something did make its way through. A little man, no more than twelve inches found his way through the bushes and looked up at his trap. The little man was paled skin and he wore leather clothing and shoes that looked more like socks than they did shoes. He had a big round nose that stuck out and round solid black eyes. White fuzz hair covered the top of his hair and instead of a long white beard, he had white stubs that covered both his jaw and chin. They resemble more of cat whiskers than they did an actual beard.

Around his shoulder he carried a small leather satchel. At his waist was a small dagger and in his right hand he carried a wooden staff with strange carvings on it. The gnome looked curiously at the trap. He smiled widely which revealed rows of sharp pointed teeth. After he smiled, he let out a small laugh. "And here," he said in a deep craggily voice. "I thought I caught myself a rabbit, or an owril, or even a deer! Ha! It looks like I caught myself two humans, a she-elf, and a dwarf... a very odd group, wouldn't you think?" The gnome leaned on his staff and looked at the companions with amusement.

"Yeah," Karma said, annoyed. "Can you let us out now? We need to head to your tribe leader." The gnome cocked his head at Karma.

"Why?" He asked.

"Because it's important." Karma said through clenched teeth. The gnome snorted in laughter.

"Trust me, missy, the only thing the tribe leaders care about is themselves and money. He doesn't care about another clans' distress. You're better off leaving this place and dealing with your matters elsewhere."

"But we can't." Mika spoke next. "If we don't get help from your people, my people will die and who knows who will be next. We just need a cure." The gnome looked up at the elf with curious eyes.

"A cure for what, exactly?" The gnome asked Mika.

"A disease that could very much effect you and your people since we are neighboring clans." Mika said with pleading eyes. The gnome walked slowly over and past the trap. He went to a nearby rock which was wrapped in vine rope. Taking his dagger out, he cut the rope and the cages walls fell, releasing its prisoners.

"I'll tell you this," the gnome said. "You won't have any luck talking to any of the tribe leaders that are spread throughout the clan, but maybe I could be of assistance. For a small price, that is." He smiled, showing off his row of sharp pointed teeth.