A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor-Chapter 2104: King of the Land - Part 9

"I was looking forward to a nice pie."

"But then, we didn’t die, did we? The pie can wait."

"Why don’t you sit down, Tempest?" One said, patting a rock.

"You can see us, that’s the strangest thing."

"Seems like we’re being told to talk to him. Even Dominus couldn’t see us."

"But he could feel us. We needed him like he needed us."

"Now you sit down, Tempest," they said, cooing. They patted a rock, and with a sigh, Oliver said down, facing the river, and the corpse of the Troll.

They clambered up onto the rocks next to him. With hands far larger than they ought to have been for his body, one gently tried to pry the sword away from him. "Why don’t you let us take a little look at this, eh, Tempest?"

"We won’t be long."

"I don’t know what you intend to do with it..." Oliver said reluctantly.

"Well, do we look strong enough to do anything against the likes of you?"

"We aren’t really fighters... we don’t like it so much. Our role is different."

"Everybody’s got a role, me thinks."

"Just a little look, pleassseeee?" One said, clasping his hands together.

Oliver let them. They carried it between them, to just in front of him.

"Hmm..."

"What’s your verdict, Doc?"

"We’ve got a heartbeat, but we might need the waters of the River Tigris."

"Well, it’s lucky that we’re right here then, ain’t it?"

They giggled together, and went sprinting off to the river to wash the sword. They held it under for the longest time, and then with gentle hands pawed the rest of the blood off. Then they came racing back, bounding off the rocks with little jumps, and they placed it down in front of him.

"Feels slightly better, doesn’t it?" They said, offering it to him.

Oliver took the sword with a frown. As far as he could tell, it was the same weapon. But when he held it upright, there was the strangest little tugging in his heart.

"You can tell, eh?" One of the little men said with a smile.

"It feels... lighter."

"It’s not. That’s not possible."

"What’s lighter is your heart when you hold it. You went sprinting off a little too far for such a young man, didn’t you Tempest?"

"We’ll do some more work on it. We’re going to need a lot more. Do we have your permission?"

Oliver nodded.

The two of them ran their hands along the place, as if massaging its cold steel. Then one nodded to the other, and then with that hammer bigger than either of them were, he began to strike it.

And when the two things came together, the metal of the hammer, and the metal of the blade, there came an unexpected sound. Not the sound of steel on steel, or the clanging of metal, but something that was far closer to a sigh. It was a sound like steam rushing through a pipe, or the wind going through cracks in a building.

"Oh dear, oh dear..."

"What a terrible day that was..."

"Ah, yes... no wonder..."

They muttered things as they worked. And at times, they would pause, and one would look terribly unwell, before the other patted him on the back. "It’s a lot of work to do by ourselves. There’s a lot to take in."

"Well, we can only do the best we can."

"We still need to get rid of the resentment of the Troll after this."

They worked, and worked, their frowns deepening, and at times, their tears flowing, until finally, one of them lost their patience. "Argh! I’m done!"

"If you’re angry, I suppose that’s all we can do for today."

"True enough... Apologies, Tempest. Wanted to see it through until the end."

They handed him the sword back. The two of them must have been at it for an hour. Oliver never felt the urge to leave. Watching them work was strangely therapeutic.

He held it loosely, as if grasping something foreign. The feeling of it was entirely different than he remembered. As were his impulses. The strongest desire to try a strike at the air around him. He did just that, with such a speed and commitment that it made the air whoosh. Then another came after that, and another.

The delight that he’d felt in swinging a stick as a child. Echoes of the delight that he’d had when he fought Tiberius.

"Hm."

"Hm."

"What do you reckon?" One said to the other, as they watched him.

"Well, that crown on his head begins to make a good bit more sense."

"Though that thing is full of malice as well."

"Gahhhh, we’ve got so much work to do."

"Yikes! Watch where you’re swinging that!"

"Sorry," Oliver said, coming to a halt, with a big smile on his face. "I got a bit carried away."

"I’ll bet you did."

"Well, I suppose that’s not a bad look, Tempest. You look a lot more like your age now."

"Do I?"

"That you do." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"You don’t have to be so sad, you know?"

"But I suppose that’s easier to say, than fix... Which is where we come in. We look after the forests for Claudia."

"Bit like worms, we are. Someone’s got to help things decay, break them down."

"That’s right, like worms... Wait, I don’t like that at all!? I’m not a worm."

"We’re Gnomes is what we are. We try and do our best for Claudia."

"We try and digest suffering, so the forest can be happy and healthy, see?"

"You’ve definitely done a good job here... This is the most magic place I’ve ever been," Oliver said honestly.

"Heheh. Well, it’s not only us. There’s lots and lots of us working together. Just so happened to be our turn today."

"And if we leave things, we get goblins and the like, see?"

"But the strange part is you being able to see us."

"You must be in a real bind, Tempest."

"To need us so badly that you can see us – that’s a strange thing. Even Dominus never got that far."

"We want to help you."

"We don’t reckon you’re a bad human."

"You’ve got Ingolsol in you, though..."

"But that’s nothing to do with us. Our Lady Claudia trusts you."

"We’ll trust you as well. You saved us after all."

"Just can’t help you any more tonight. We’re tired, see? It’ll take us a while to digest all this... We could bring you back to the others..."