This short story was inspired by some artwork (and a friend's PC) on
http://www.worldsofink.com/ and was featured as part of it's revisited Manic Monday section on March 17th! Let me know what you think...
Brekke lived in a fairly remote area, on a small mountaintop in the middle of the Eastern Vale Woods, whose Valley floor was covered in a thick variegated forest. It was autumn and the view from his year round mini-fortress was spectacular. He had originally chosen this spot, not only because it already had a structure in place, but it would allow his inventions to not be hampered by the regulations (and tariffs) he would encounter within the city. He was also worried for the safety of others; after all, being an inventor was dangerous work.
Brekke had made many “alterations” to the structure, adding designs of his own that were not only to keep his inventive mind constantly working, but also to protect himself from would be marauders. The place was covered in cranes and pulleys, gears and gadgets, and every type of tool you could imagine. See, Brekke wasn’t your typical gnome. Yes, he was an inventor and YES, most gnomes WERE inventors, but he had one thing going for him that other gnomes rarely possessed.....Good Luck. For some reason, all his inventions ALWAYS worked. There was never a second design....never a revision, a fix or a flop. It was strange and Brekke often wondered when he would have to “pay the piper” for all his luck, (as his human friends used to say) but he took it as a blessing...just like when he met an elf named Nar.
Nar was a wood elf who came to him almost exactly 7 months ago. He was intelligent, kind and whimsical, which could be best verified by the bright blue, pointy hat he wore over his bright red hair. Brekke had gone out scouting for supplies one day, a little farther out than usual, when he had come across the lone elf fighting off a small patrol of goblins. Brekke always carried one of his invention weapons with him and couldn’t let the elf fight the goblins alone, so he jumped into the fray! He pulled out a hand crossbow and loaded it with an especially large bolt of his design. He fired the bolt and in mid air, the bolt split into 8 individual bolts, peppering and downing the entire group of goblins in one shot! The look of astonishment on Nar’s face could only be matched by the big smile Brekke wore. After the skirmish, the two became good friends and Nar visited him on a fairly regular basis.
After seeing the dazzling display of weaponry that he had created, Nar had persuaded him to make more, telling Brekke that he could sell them in one of the nearby towns and use the money to fund all his other inventions. Brekke thought this seemed like a good idea, so he started constructing more of the hand crossbows with the special splitting bolts. It would probably take him a couple weeks to construct enough of the bolts to make it worthwhile for the trip, so he decided to get started right away.
So, a couple weeks went by and most of the bolts were finished; Brekke figured he would complete the last of them by the following morning. He had been working hard, with Nar pushing him to work longer and harder, using the promise of a hefty profit as encouragement. Brekke and Nar were down in the lower sections of the fortress, in one of his workshops, Nar keeping him company or helping as necessary. It was getting late though and even Nar was getting tired. He told Brekke that he was going to retire for the evening (or early morning actually) and headed to his room.
Nar made his slow and tired journey upstairs to the lone tower which held the guest room. The gnome sized stairs were especially short and narrow, even for an elf, and made him feel claustrophobic...he wasn’t used to such tight quarters. When he opened the door to his room, which it was for all intended purposes since he had been staying here more frequently of late, he immediately went over to the small vanity in the corner of the room, but not before closing and locking the door. He was tired of this charade and slumped down into the small chair in front of the mirror. He pulled off his bright blue hat and placed it on the vanity. He looked in the mirror and smiled at his flowing white hair, deep purple eyes and ebony skin. He was disgusted that he had to pretend to be a wood elf, frolicking about like the fairies they were... but nobody would trust a Drow...not even him.
It was unfortunate for the gnome that he was going to be dragged into the Underdark to become a slave, working for the rest of his life for Nar’s matron mother and the House of Azzerinth. The gnome was intelligent; he would give him that, though obviously not intelligent enough to see Nar for what he was. Nar would be rewarded well too, (only as well as a male Drow could be), but nonetheless, he would probably be made Patrol leader, which had its benefits.
Tonight, he was going to open the portal that would allow his drow raiding party to pillage all of the gnome’s inventions, including all the weapons the gnome had constructed and his other “gadgets”. It was going to be a long and prosperous night....
Brekke watched through the two way vanity mirror as the drow, across the room now, was finishing his spell, opening the portal that lead from the Underdark. The drow raiding party was apparently waiting patiently, as they deftly scurried through the portal and into the room within seconds of the portal opening. Once they were all in, seven drow in all, including Nar, Brekke smiled as he pulled down the large lever next to his vanity mirror.
The drow only had a second or two to realize that their lives were over, as the walls quickly arched outward, while the ceiling and floor slammed together with a sickening splat. After a couple seconds, the Venus Fly Room Trap began to reset itself, the well oiled gears quietly revolving the floor, ceiling and walls back to their original positions. Brekke made his way up to the trap room, bending over to pick up the enchanted hat of disguise Nar had worn, which Brekke had created some time ago. He popped out the top of the flat, bright blue, pointy hat and headed back down to his room, where he placed it on a hooked rack, with some of his other gear he created. Brekke was happy knowing that the hat he had lost in the woods some time ago, was finally back home where it belonged. He lay down in his bed; completely exhausted, he didn’t bother to remove his own hat, which allowed him to read others thoughts...
