Page 69 of Did It Have To Be Gnomes?!
That… didn’t make me feel better at all, and from the sour look on Miles's face, he didn’t feel better about it either.
Before I could respond to that, Lyric came running back, huffing and a puffing. “Oh my god, there are a lot of pixies in that garden. Phew.”
“Are you okay?” Miles asked them, immediately concerned.
“Yeah, I’m good.” Lyric waved a bunch of sticks around. “Got our weapons. Here.”
They handed the long sticks out to everyone. Most of them were around three feet long, which seemed like a good size to me. Hopefully, they’d help keep the little critters off of us.
“Alright, let’s do this thing,” I said, offering a smile to each of them. “Ready?”
Everyone gave me affirmatives, so I gripped my gate in one hand and my stick in the other, then laughed when I saw what everyone else looked like. We looked like a group of B-moviestars who’d run out of money for props. Like we were a group of knights about to fight off a dragon with sticks for swords and baby gates for shields. It was ridiculous, and I wished I could take a picture, but I had a feeling Chaos and Miles would both get annoyed if I did that.
To Aeson, I said, “If you open the door quickly, I’ll go in first to try and get the first wave back. Come in right behind me.”
“Got it.” He held the doorknob. “One. Two. Three. Go!” He yanked the door open, and I pushed my way inside.
Meep, meep, meep, meeeeeeeep!
The gnomes were so loud, I winced as I stepped through the threshold. I could feel the oppressive magic surrounding me, and I swore it felt even heavier than it had earlier.
I hated that the others were going to be affected by it, but there was little I could do about it besides grab them if they got especially murdery.
Meep, meep, meep, meep, meep, meep, meep, meeeeep!!!!
With my baby gate low to the ground, I pushed the little buggers back, and they started screaming. I winced because I didn’t want to hurt them, but they really needed to get the hell away from us. I wasn’t going to let them hurt anyone else, so I kept pushing them back.
Aeson joined me a few seconds later, using his own baby gate to push the critters back. I put the end of mine against his so we didn’t miss any of them, and the two of us slowly made our way into the basement.
Miles stepped up behind me a moment later, and I checked over my shoulder. He was standing sideways with his gate brushing the ground, and his stick pointed out over the top of it. He looked worried and handsome and completely ridiculous, and I couldn’t help but smile as I turned back to focus on moving forward.
It was slow going, but we made our way across the room with only the occasional arguing between my companions. I had a feeling I was going to be quite busy in a few minutes because the tension between them all was so high I could practically feel it.
“Would you move your damn feet already, Miles? Geez. You’re so slow,” Lyric snarled from the back.
“I can’t go any faster, asshat.” Miles was just as snarly back.Sigh.
Lyric growled, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard them make that noise before. “Fuck. Do you think you could move any slower, Win?”
“Going as fast as I can.” I tried to keep my voice as calm as possible.
In a mocking voice, Lyric repeated,“Going as fast as I can.”
They were too far away from me to reach, so I was stuck with their attitude until we got Chaos to the seal.
“Stop being mean to him, Lyric,” Miles said, also in a nasty tone.
I sighed and muttered, “Not this again.”
“What did you just say?” Aeson asked, sounding pissed.
“Nothing. Just talking to myself. Let’s try to speed up a little. We’re close.”
Aeson grunted in agreement, although it sounded more like a growl.
I winced. Everyone was so angry, and I only had two hands. How the hell I was going to keep them all from going for each other’s throats, I didn’t know.
Finally, we reached the seal, and Miles, Lyric, Aeson, and I all formed a circle around Chaos so he—and Clucky—could stand directly in front of the cursed object.
