“He’s taking his time getting back, isn’t he?” In her harness on White Rose’s front, Electroblade waited with the mages and furniture in the closet. They’d all been chatting for a bit, the newcomers getting to know the residents and all, but now they were tired, and most of the mages rested in the big bed. All except for one witch, whose feet were moving towards Electroblade almost as soon as the words had escaped her.

  “I’m getting hungry” Meti said to the duo, her eyes looking tired. “So are the others. The travel rations are all gone.”

  “You’re not the only ones” Electroblade admitted, sensing a bit of water entering her own mouth just at the mere thought of food.

  “When will he be back, you think? We’re starting to wonder where he is.”

  Electroblade shrugged. Meti lingering on the gnome, sighing after a bit. She turned, and went back slowly to the bed. She lay down there, and Electroblade imagined the woman trying to quiet down hunger by resting. It wouldn’t work, of course, but at least it didn’t make things worse.

  “She has a point” Electroblade stated quietly, White Rose being the only one hearing. “I’m not just hungry” she yawned, “aaawh... I’m starting to get tired also.” The gnome looked over the great dark space of the closet, weary from travel. “The whole day must’ve passed by since he was here. Where is he?” She turned her head up at White Rose. The skeleton looked down. Ze shrugged. “Okay” Electroblade lowered her gaze and looked about conspiratorially, “maybe we need to deal with this. Maybe... we should sneak out for a bit? Bring back some food?” Her salivary glands started up again. “Doubt the wizard would want us all to starve back here.” Electroblade pointed at the mages gathered on the bed and White Rose walked over. “You there” she eyed them all, “we’ll just head out for a bit. Going to try and find some food for you all. The wizard is later than he should be.”

  “Oh, finally!” Larkoff exclaimed.

  “I’m starving” Bun stated.

  “We will try and get back soon” Electroblade assured them.

  The duo walked out of the building through the back door, into the alley. “It’s dark” the gnome glanced up at the sky, its thousands of stars twinkling back at her. “We’ll have to buy our dinner at an inn then, probably. No Belly Filler is going to be open at this hour. Zombie poop! That’s going to be expensive!”

  White Rose walked down the streets with Electroblade, the latter occassionally gesturing directions.

  For zes part, the skeleton as a matter of fact, liked the night. It was like looking at the world when it was naked – as in, when no people were there to noise up the art, the plants, the wild animals, all that was hidden under the curtain of a bustling civilization. No self-important people walking about and distracting White Rose from zes surroundings. Of course, Electroblade was there, but the gnome alone didn’t make much sound nor fill up the view, like the masses would. The world had undressed, stripped down to that stuff which remained when industry, trade, housework, and general buzyness died down. From zes aesthetic point of view – and despite being a skeleton, White Rose did very much have zes own peculiar sense of aesthetics – from this view, it was like the world had lost all its owners, all its possessiveness and relationship to people. The city around them opened up under the blue-black twinkling sky like a fresh, cooling remnant of some tremendous, great complex of energies. In an analogous way to how ze had become skeleton in undeath, the city had become a city skeleton – a deathscape – a huge, unending, urban undeath. Not dead, like a ruin of broken buildings. But not filled with life, either. Like ze, born from life, it had died and gained a new unlife. It was the strange turn that was night life.

  Some people were still wandering about though. The occassional drunkard, on their way home to their own house – or to somebody else’s, probably equally drunk. As they descended down the streets to The Minotaur’s Feast, the density of such people was at beginning vanishingly small and only heard in the distance, but as they got closer, the sounds of merryment and yelling grew louder. As White Rose turned a corner, Electroblade said: “There!”, and pointed to a building with a wide open door, whose lights lit up a muddy puddle in front. In front of that entrance though and partially blocking its lights, stood a big burly man. Currently, said man was focused on someone else. A stern face met a swaying mud-covered man who tried but failed to shamble passed him.

  “Juuust lemme have anodder ohn... just, ohn more.” The man briefly looked to be falling sideways, only to turn the fall into a shambling sidestep, and then try to walk around the big other. An arm reached out and blocked the path.

  “You’ve had enough for tonight, Bauld. Go back home. Get some water and sleep it off.”

  “Nooo” came the whining reply. “Don’t you sheee, am...” he swayed unsteadily, “am hopeless. Hooless. I tell’ya. Hooless. Shoo be dead. Dead, dead, dead” he bobbed his head to the rhythm of his own words. “Hooless.” Finally the man slid on a piece of mud, his butt going straight into a puddle. He sat there, apparently incapable of getting himself up.

  The bouncer shook his head in exasperation. Stepping forward, he pulled the drunkard up. “Bauld, Bauld... You got to go home. That way!” The bouncer pointed. When the man didn’t respond, except with a burp, the bouncer forcibly turned him on his axis, and pointed. “Go home” and gently shoved the man. Like an aimless zombie, the drunkard began shambling forward.

  “Ah” the bouncer noticed White Rose and Electroblade arriving. “Haven’t seen you before. Or have I?” The man studied Electroblade in her harness, then looked up at White Rose, who puzzled him. He looked down again. “I think I’ve seen you, gnome, though not like this. You’re an adventurer, am I right? Who’s your friend?”

  “My assistant” Electroblade replied, giving White Rose’s hip bone a couple of friendly taps.

  “It’s late for new arrivals” the bouncer commented.

  “But surely not too late” Electroblade smiled.

  “Hmm” he produced. “You don’t look to have been drinking, so I suppose not. What brings you this late?”

  “We forgot to eat today. And most places are closed” Electroblade gestured to the dark streets with her only hand.

  “Food? Alright, go on in then.” White Rose took the reply as an invitation to do just so. “Everyone’s gotta eat” added the bouncer behind them.

  The merryment inside was noisy, the thought struck White Rose immediately in the face. Ze already missed the outdoors, it had been much better there. Electroblade nudged ze onwards though, and they passed diverse groups talking, drinking, and shouting. Electroblade paid little attention to the crowd, but White Rose looked around widely as ze stepped over. There were humans and urban elves mostly, as well as a lonely green elf surrounded by some humans. Seven dwarves total were also here, five in a group, and a couple of others spread about the room in conversation with elves. A lonely gnome man sat in a corner. He immediately spotted and then purposefully ignored Electroblade, though White Rose saw that. Lastly, the skeleton noticed among the crowd a buffed up goblin man. This caused ze to halt, making Electroblade nudge ze to resume walking. For a brief moment though, ze didn’t, as the goblin caught all of zes attention, and all of zes curiousity, because ze had never seen such a person before. The goblin was embracing some other soft-looking beardless man from behind, a human by the look of his ears, which White Rose had learned was the most telling sign among less conspicuous clues. With the human a little below average, the duo were about the same height. As Electroblade’s nudges became more insistent, White Rose’s legs slowly began walking again. Zes head was still focused on them though. They seemed to be doing some intense salivery exchanges, the human seemingly enjoying it very much, all with him moaning loudly to the cheers of a crowd of human onlookers. Ze wondered how it must be like having a tongue. Being able to taste, and whether mouths tasted good. They sure looked tasty, if those two were any indication. Except it didn’t seem like you were supposed to eat the tongues, considering no blood or missing tongue was apparent in-between exchanges. Instead, tongues seemed to be a bit like those candies ze had seen out in the market, where one person would lick and lick the candy, but it never quite disappeared.

  “Hi” Electroblade interrupted, breaking White Rose’s train of thought. The skeleton turned zes head, and saw her friend speaking to the bartender. “I need food, and lots of it. Like dinner, but for half a dozen people. And also I need to bring it with me.”

  The bartender, a man whose stature and girth loomed exceptionally over the counter, raised an eyebrow. “Bring it with you?”

  “Me and my friends haven’t eaten all day, and, well... we kinda have to get something to eat. I can pay! But I got to bring it with me, my friends can’t come here.”

  The bartender looked up into the air, thinking. “That could be extra. We’d have to give you something to carry the food with. For dinner we serve stew tonight, but how do you plan to carry that across the streets?”

  “I don’t know” Electroblade shrugged from below the counter. “Don’t you have a pot?”

  “We need our pots here.”

  “What if I pay for the pot?” she suggested.

  “You wish to buy a pot?” The bartender raised an eyebrow again. “Just for a meal? Sure you have the money for that? We can’t sell it at regular store prices, it’s too valuable for us here.”

  “What if I could bring it back. Like, a deposit?”

  The bartender touched his cheek in thought. White Rose zoned out from the conversation. It wasn’t at all interesting, ze didn’t even eat and had no skin in the game. Instead ze leaned in on the counter with one bony arm, giving ze the right angle to glance back towards the largely filled floor. The goblin and man were done kissing now, instead they swayed gently back and forth together in a slow dance, goblin still holding his friend from behind. Others around them had stopped paying attention, and so, they looked alone together. Peaceful. The soft man’s eyes had closed, and he looked as if submerged within some pleasant dream.

  An angry-looking man with a sword burst forth unto the scene, waving angrily with his blade. He shouted at the goblin. “I lost my friend to you greenskins! Why are you here!? Who let you inside!?”

  The goblin’s friend opened his eyes. An annoyed expression emerged over his face. Raising a hand, he pointed at the angry man. White Rose saw lips parting, and through them, inaudible words spoke.

  BZZZT!

  A bolt of lightning snapped between them. The angry man jolted massively, his sword falling out of his hands and to the floor in a CLUNK!-CLUNK! Meanwhile, violent convulsions erupted over the man’s body, and his knees gave under. He collapsed onto the floor. Down there his body bent and twisted and – to the surprised hearing of White Rose – farted loudly and wetly.

  The goblin friend closed his eyes again, and what had been a moment of stiffened expression on the goblin’s face, slowly relaxed, as they resumed swaying back and forth together in their little hugging dance.

  Gasps and minor cries of surprise summoned the bouncer, who trod inside, onto the bar floor where he found the man lying, making several little spurt of convulsions.

  “What happened here!?” he demanded. Among the crowd a few pointed over at the goblin and his friend, to which the friend opened his eyes again. “Did you do this?”

  “He got what he deserved!” said a nearby woman, one of the previous salivary-exchange cheerers. “The idiot drew a sword on ‘em!”

  “A sword?” The bouncer looked down, seeing the blade. He looked around to everyone nearby, and drew in a big breath. “NO FIGHTING IN THE BAR!” he proclaimed, and leaned down to pull up the man, steadying him on the way up. He also picked up the sword, sheating it in the man’s scabbard. He held and led the shambling would-be attacker outside, to the nose-grabbing disgusted faces of half the people they passed. White Rose had heard that farts were supposed to be terrible for the nose, so ze guessed the farting sounds must’ve produced some lingering foul odor. As ze looked back at the couple, peaceful in their swaying amongst the noisy chattering bodies, ze thought about how ze liked what had happened. Somehow, the events spoke to ze. In a vague sense, ze saw zeself in what had transpired. Though ze had never hugged zes wizard daddy, nor him ze, ze imagined him doing something similar, silencing those awful noises with a flash from his fingers. Him defending ze from the noises of the world, so that the world would be quiet again. Calm. Dead. Like the dark streets at night.

  Electroblade concluded the transaction at the bar by handing over coin in exchange for leftover bread and a large pot of warm stew. She nudged White Rose, who turned zes skull back. The skeleton was met by a large pot of iron, together with some wooden plates and -spoons. Ze grabbed it.

  Electroblade, ravenous to her core, almost choked on her own saliva while she verbally urged White Rose to speed up on their way back home. The gnome’s stomach roared all the way for a bite, urging her to devour while the food was still technically warm.

  “FOOD!” Decried Larkoff. “Oh, how I have missed food.”

  White Rose watched the group erupt in a frenzy, quickly getting a couple of the sentient furniture to join in as dining tables. The whole affair was fascinating for about two minutes, in a sort of anthropological manner, if White Rose had known what anthroplogy was. When they were all done, the mages quickly dosed off, and Electroblade took the opportunity with Rum completely gone to sleep in his ginormous bed outside in the bedroom proper. As was routine, White Rose had nothing much to do the whole night.

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  Next morning Electroblade went with White Rose to fetch some breakfast, as well as enough grocies to last them lunch and evening. They also returned the pot, the plates, and the spoons, before going to The Belly Filler to arrange a similar take-away situation there. Ensuring them all dinner in a timely manner. When night came, Rum still hadn’t returned, yet everyone stayed put, trusting that the great wizard who’d brought them here would return soon.

  Everyone that is, except for a skeleton. As soon as Electroblade had started snoring in Rum’s bed, White Rose thought maybe ze could do a little sneaking out all by zeself. To check out the wonderful deadness of the night, now that nobody needed ze, at least not for many hours yet. Quietly, White Rose pushed down the handle on the backdoor and stepped outside, gently closing the door behind.

  What’s this... feeling? White Rose hadn’t learned the word, but if zes vocabulary had been somewhat greater ze might had settled for: freedom. It wasn’t that thrill of freedom you might expect though. The skeleton didn’t go about dancing in the dark streets in some kind of ecstasy. No, it was a relaxed, uncertain, but curious kind of freedom. Now that White Rose had broken the expectations put on ze by secretly defying them, it was as if anything could happen. Anything at all really. And that, to the inexperienced young mind of White Rose, produced as much anxiety as excitement. What should ze do with this strange feeling ze had no word for.

  Ze began to wander. Ze had walked these streets many times before, so they weren’t all that unfamiliar. Even in the dark, ze had walked them with Electroblade just the night before. I am fine, ze told zeself.

  Zes mind wandered, away from vague uncertainties, and over to the concreteness of zes environment. It was autumn, and so to people, particularly elves and humans, the weather would’ve felt slightly chilly. Of course White Rose had no idea this was the case. Ze enjoyed the colors of the season though. Ze walked passed a couple of small trees along the sides of a wide street with wooden unpainted buildings, and saw their orange leaves, darkened by night, peaceful. Some where up in the tree, and some down on the ground where they’d been mixed with mud. Ze looked at one that appeared to have come down recently, and picked it up. It still looked vibrant. Ze continued down the street with it in hand, looking it over, and paying attention to its branching veins. People have veins like that, ze thought. Memories surfaced of seeing veins pop up from under skin. Things which everyone besides ze seemed to have. Though as ze recalled, the veins of humanoids tended to be less orderly than this leaf, whose branches were simple and predictable. If this leaf has veins like people. Does that make it a special kind of person? The thought inspired further thinking. Of course ze knew that ze was a skeleton – or more precisely, ze possessed a skeleton, as people said about themselves. A skeleton was among the properties of the body. It was just that in White Rose’s case, there was little other propeties to speak of. While others were rich in skin, and flesh, and eyeballs, ze was none of that. But given that all people had skeletons like ze, does that mean that, in order to be people, leafs must have skeletons? But I’m a person, and I have no veins. The fact, ze thought, didn’t make ze less of a person though, ze was pretty sure about that. Rum had always treated ze like a person, and not like an object, so naturally, ze could only be a person. Wizard Daddy couldn’t be wrong about such things. So if I don’t need veins and skin and eyeballs to be a person, why should leafs need skeletons to be people?

  White Rose pondered the questions. After a while ze decided that indeed, leafs were people. This particular leaf probably wasn’t an alive person though, not like those still on the tree. It wasn’t exactly dead either, so in a way, it was like ze. Between life and death. An undead sort-of leaf.

  In the midst of a muddy street in Ermos City’s Southwall district, a skeleton hidden under black clothes and a black veil, nodded to zeself. The logic was rock solid.

  “WHEEE!”

  The sound spread throughout the night like a distant alarmbell. White Rose’s mind snapped out of ponderance, and zes skull rotated to look over to the parallell street, but buildings blocked seeing anything. The sound, ze was sure, had come from beyond there.

  “WHEEEEEE!”

  It didn’t sound human-like. However after the second scream, there followed an unintelligible shout, and it did sound very human-like. Zes curiosity flourished.

  White Rose looked down the street and saw a tiny gap which, as ze recalled, should take ze through an alley to the other side. Boots hiding bony feet sprung into action, reaching the gap in no time. As ze arrived, ze saw a narrow space full of damp soil, and a broken wheelbarrow leaning against the right wall. Along the left wall, a long box lay open on the ground. Stepping through the space, ze glanced inside the box. A mother cat rested in a pile of old wet hay. Several tiny kittens suckled at her belly, but for reasons which White Rose was completely ignorant. Had ze not been in a hurry to figure out the noise, ze would’ve stopped to study them, but today ze just pressed onwards.

  The alley opened out to a slightly smaller street. The buildings there were fewer in number, but larger. On the opposite side ze saw a long building adjoined by multiple waist-high enclosures. An older man was trying to kick a little pink creature into motion, urging it to get out of one of enclosures. Anyone but White Rose would’ve known it as a pig. It screamed in protest, being not at all happy about being forced to leave. White Rose hurried over to them, and in time to see the man step in front of it, grab its front legs roughly, lift them up in the air, and then forcibly drag the pig across the wet ground towards the long building. The building, as ze glanced at it, had an open door, waiting for them with light eminating. Ze arrived right behind the man as he pulled. A fingerbone tapped his shoulder. He jumped a little at the touch, and glanced hurriedly over his shoulder.

  “What?”

  White Rose pointed down at the pig, and made the universal sign of repeatedly crossing zes forearms in a downward motion, signalling don’t.

  “What’s your problem?”

  The man didn’t wait for a response, but instead continued pulling at the screaming pig.

  The skeleton, hearing the very close and distressing “WHEEE!” from below, tapped him harder for attention.

  “Hey! Just go away! If you can’t tell me what you want, then step off my premises and let me work!” The man resumed pulling. The pig resumed screaming.

  Now White Rose was fed up. This man wasn’t cooperating, and it was clear that the pig was not liking this. Not at all. No living being made that kind of sound unless it was severely unhappy. Even when White Rose hadn’t learned this as matter of common fact, somehow ze still knew that this was true. Furthermore, it was clear to White Rose that the source of said unhappiness was this man, and him only.

  With the two approaching the open door, White Rose made a decision. Ze stepped up to the older man, tapped him on the head, to which he exasperatedly looked up – CRACK! White Rose’s bony fist shot forward like a torpedo, smashing into the man’s shoulders at incredible speed and force, loosening his grip and sending him flying backwards.

  BONK! The man slumped hard on the wall.

  OINK-OINK! The little pig trotted off, back to its enclosure.

  White Rose glanced after it, then turned back to stare at the man. For a moment he appeared to be asleep, then his neck turned to the side, and he very slowly, with what seemed like great effort, looked back up at the disguised skeleton, his expression hazy.

  “Auh” his expression turned into a pained grimace as his body remembered the shoulder. “Ah-ah” his tune changed as he looked down at it with growing horror. It wasn’t protruding through his clothes or anything, so to White Rose it looked fine. He seemed to disagree with this though, guessing by his repeating “auh” and “ah-ah” moans.

  “Pssst!”

  White Rose looked up from the man and quickly glanced to the sides.

  “Pssst!”

  Ze turned around, scanning the surroundings behind ze carefully. Zes magic sight found nothing, and the source this new sound remained a mystery. Zes sight wandered to every corner of the street and beyond the enclosures, were was another building wrapped in darkness. Nothing. Ze saw absolutely nothing. Confused, ze let zes sight linger, rather by chance, on the nearest enclosure. THERE! Behind a little pig. Ze stepped over to it, ignoring the self-pitying noises of the man.

  Approaching ze saw a figure, half-hidden. It was – a gnome? Yes, it was. Just slightly smaller than what White Rose were used to. A child? Ze stepped even closer and stared at it for a second, the gnome’s eyes meeting zes magic eye sockets. Children don’t have wrinkled skin, White Rose thought, although it was etnirely possible ze just hadn’t come across any wrinkled children thus far. There was also something else that made this look like an adult, though ze couldn’t quite name it. It might’ve been a number of little things, because whatever it was, the more zes mind lingered on the idea that this was a child, the more sure ze felt that it wasn’t. Either way, ze had no idea if it was a man or a woman, so ze ended up just thinking of the gnome as another ze.

  “I saw what you did” the gnome said quietly, giving White Rose a little friendly smile. After a moment of mutual staring, ze, the other ze that is, waved for ze, the first ze being White Rose, to follow. However before the skeleton could properly formulate a response, the gnome had in equal stealth and speed snuck out into the dark beyond the enclosure. A movable plank fell back into place, with the gnome gone from sight. White Rose, having zero stealth of zes own, tried to run after.

  Tall as ze was, the skeleton decided that stepping over the fence was much faster. It was dark over on the other side. Truly dark. The enclosure ended right next to the back of another building, and here there was no street, not even a proper alley. Mainly this looked like a long patch of dirt and grass stretching behind a bunch of buildings parallell to the streets themselves. Barrels, boxes, rusted hoes and shovels, and other tools leaned against the buildings’ backs. Beds of flower and tiny urban garden plots had been made here in places. A couple of fruit trees, lonely and far apart, were also visible through the dark.

  The gnome, while moving stealthily and fast, hadn’t been quite dressed for blending in. White Rose saw a soft pointed red hat, with a red string at the end, attached in turn to a red pom-pom. It dangled behind a bed of tall flowers. Ze walked over to it, and turned the corner of the flowerbed. Ze found a smiling gnome looking up.

  “You caught me” the gnome stated. “Not bad. But you’re terrible at not being noticed. Come!” The gnome waved again, and this time White Rose didn’t think before zes legs began following. The gnome ran up to the next building and lifted a patch of grass up. On the underside of it, White Rose could see what looked like a thick blanket. A blanket of grass? But why would the ground need a blanket? That’s for people and animals! Under the blanket was a horizontal door of sorts. Except when the gnome grabbed the handle, it slid sideways.

  “Come!” waved the gnome, and White Rose followed.

  It was a hole in the ground. Yes, a hole. At first it looked too narrow for White Rose, but as ze was what one might call exceptionally skinny, ze discovered that ze could fit inside – barely. At the bottom, down a ladder, it was mostly earth surrounding them, with some planks of wood acting as poles and simple floors. When they’d both gotten properly down and the gnome had climbed up and pulled back the grass-blanket over them, as well as closed the sliding door, the gnome got back in front and led White Rose through a tunnel. Here while the gnome walked upright, the skeleton found ze had to crawl.

  “So you know we did have plans to get to him” the gnome began talking. “The neighbour’s kid had complained to us about how he treated those pigs, and I was out there to provide an account of it all, when you suddenly showed up.” White Rose said nothing. The gnome glanced behind zeself. “Are you mute or something? Haven’t said a word since I saw you.” White Rose nodded. “Okay then” the gnome turned zes head back to the tunnel. “That’s fine.” They walked in silence for a minute. “You know, you might have been a bit too harsh. We usually just prank them or scare them a bit, don’t usually use force like that, shattering an abuser’s shoulders or whatever that was. You’ve got some serious strength in you! And one wouldn’t believe it looking at you.” White Rose said nothing, though ze did consider it for a moment. After a while ze tapped the gnome’s shoulders. The gnome stopped and turned. White Rose, reaching for some nearby dirt that’d accumulated on the floor planks, drew shapes with zes fingerbone.

  “How” the gnome read. “How we prank them?”

  White Rose nodded.

  The gnome put zes hand to zes chin, trying to think about a response. “Well, you know. Haven’t you heard the stories? Most people know what happens when you anger the wild gnomes. Of course, some of them forget, and then we have to remind them!” The gnome paused to think some more. “I suppose, for that man, a fitting punishment would’ve been to stab him with a sleeping needle, hang him up by his hands while he’s unconscious, similar to how he was pulling the pig – you see punishment should be symbolic like that – after that we’d throw acorns at him until he promised to be nicer to the pigs. If he was particularly stubborn about it we might stab him to sleep again. The next day he’ll find himself in the middle of nowhere outside the city, with only his underwear. Sometimes you can’t quite make them say they’ll change, or mean it, but you can make it very convenient to choose, on their own free will, not to repeat it. The ones who end up in the middle of nowhere typically have a change of habit like that.”

  White Rose absorbed it all, and thought about it. I don’t have a sleeping needle. The rest sounds easy, but how would I put them to sleep? The gnome was looking at ze. Ze broke out of thought and made the universal gesture of sleeping – two folded hands with zes skull leaning on them. Then ze pointed at zeself, before repeating the gestures.

  “How you can make them sleep?” The gnome raised an eyebrow.

  White Rose nodded.

  “Hmm...” The gnome put zes fingers on zes chin again, thinking loudly. “I suppose... I could help you? But what am I saying. You haven’t even met the others yet!” The gnome spun around. “Come along! Let’s move!”

  The tunnel continued for a short time, branching off at one point, before they exited out near the western end of Southwall. Their route from there involved darting between buildings, down into another shorter tunnel, out and up, moving between fences, around houses, and sometimes through stranger’s basements or even in through their house proper, sliding through loose floor planks or through hidden passages between the walls that the house’s owners likely already knew about, but had no idea who else was using. They came to a moderately large tree at some point, which turned out to have a magically concealed door at its base. After a quick look around for onlookers, they both entered it, and descended narrow stairs down into an earthen room. There a few other gnomes huddled over a rough-cut wooden table, actively chatting. White Rose looked across to them, and when they noticed zes gaze, they looked back. But the guide to the skeleton didn’t miss a step, and only pressed onwards with explanation, into another tunnel. This one was the longest yet, and when they exited it, they did so through a thick bush. White Rose glanced around and saw the tall city wall behind them, only a few houses away. Ze didn’t have a strong grasp of local geography, but even ze could guess that they’d just crossed it underground. Had zes understanding been slightly more advanced, ze might’ve also guessed that they were now in Cowtown, which was on the north-eastern side of the southern highway, and the mirror opposite district of Southwall along the city wall.

  Time was not sufficient to allow ze to process their new surroundings though, because the gnome pulled ze along by the hand, and another round of running around and with ze failing to be sneaky ensued. They crossed the southern highway at some point through yet another tunnel. When they got out, they ran through a few houses on the other side and suddenly – White Rose stood in front of The City Forest.

  “Come on!” The wild gnome said, and ran inside, disappearing within seconds behind foliage.

  Through bushes, trees, and barely visible trails, they sped across the forest, a world colored in autumn night shades. Dark yellow, dark orange, dark red. Fallen leaves everywhere. Decomposing fruits on the ground. Rodents making noise as they rustled through the leaves. Nocturnal birds jumping between branches at their sight. At last, they came upon a clearing, where stood a giant of a giant tree. A great tree, of whose wooden body a stairway lead up into its interior. All over the ginormous tree’s branches were little rounded homes. At least they looked like homes, because some of them had windows, with faint lights inside. Though it was difficult to tell really, as some of the homes were higher than high up in the air along the staggering tallness of the tree.

  “This way!” The gnome pulled White Rose out of mesmery. They ran passed the gigantic being and back in to the forest on the opposite side. After following another new, barely visible trail for a bit, they reached another tree. Though large, it was not gigantic like the great one. Still, at its base, the gnome pushed aside a bush to reveal a small door. Large enough for the gnome, but too small for White Rose to get through standing. The gnome swung the door open, and left it that way as ze went inside. White Rose, having no other instructions, went down to zes knees, and crawled after. Into the home of a gnome.

  “Hey everybody, you wouldn’t believe what this one did!”