Half of the Kingdom(ft. commentary)

~Mar 10

I wrote for three days in a row because I liked pain. I don't like this whole sequence at all; I think I wrote and presented it poorly and not with the care I should have for how heavy it gets, but here it is.

Iphnis kept a steady pace all that day, and the next. Where it would take most humans to reach the mountains in a week, he did it in three days. Gnome's had special shortcuts that no human was allowed to know of. Soon enough, the Sergai mountains loomed up before him, larger than life. He climbed as quickly as he could, and made it to his destination by the time the sun had set. He stood before the doors to his family's house, hidden from human eyes. Special spells were laid upon them to prevent any humans or unwelcome visitors from the outside world. He placed his hand upon a marking on the rock, then disappeared through a slim crevice that appeared. To any human watching, it would appear that he'd just vanished into the side of the mountain itself.

fun fact, gnomes don't have physics

He wound his way through the stone mazes, till he reached the center; his father's hall. He pushed open the great, heavy, stone doors and stood before a long, high ceilinged hall. Lined with burning torches and decorated sparsely, but well. Iphnis strode to the front of the hall and bowed before his father, who sat in a great chair at its head.

alright so now we're in the gnomes center. I'm sure you've all been wanting to know more about them, I know I have. I think i tried basing gnomes sort of off like early medieval or something. Norse comes to mind but that was far far in the background. There's a sort of formality in the way they do things. I wanted them to be different from humans. Humans are different from each other and I wanted gnomes to be different from humans in general.

"Greetings, Father," Iphnis said as he stood upright again. He directed a smile at his mother, who stood by her lord's side. But she didn't return the smile. His mother always returned smiles.

and now I'm really curious about Iphnis' family and growing up and stuff

Cold silence was the response.

The worry that had plagued him for so long returned. He glanced to the side of the hall where his brothers stood. His two older brothers, Paladin and Mochni, eyed him icily, but his younger one, Asofa, looked almost scared. Now Iphnis was scared too. He turned his gaze back to his Father.

alright so i really don't like these next few scenes so I'm going to interrupt them a lot because i can

"My lord?"

"Late, Iphnis," His father said.

Iphnis swallowed hard. "What?"

"Too long have you mingled with the humans, our sworn enemy, and treated them as friends. This is unacceptable." His Father said. His tone cold, and his gaze stern.

Oh dear

"Father--" Iphnis started, but was cut off.

His father silenced him by raising his hand, "Do not try to get out of this. You should have known better."

i mean... cut him some slack, you should know your own kid better

"But Father, I was helping them with something and I couldn't just leave..." He knew it was the wrong thing to say at once.

His Father's eyes flared with anger and disappointment. "You went so far as to help them? How many times have I told you cease your dabbling in the human's affairs?"

dabbling? before this he was stalking them from between tree branches he's only been legit helping them for the past....... few months and given that gnomes are longer lived, a few months to us is like a few weeks to them so i really don't think that's a legit enough claim.