Andrew Buckley - Stiltskin

The Gnomes had vanished up ahead not too long ago and Lily didn’t look like she was in the mood to talk. She walked, stern-faced, and was probably cold, wearing only her pants and nightdress.

As they rounded a sharp bend, they came upon the Gnomes who had built a fire in a more open area of the pathway and were cooking two small rat-like creatures on a spit.

“I thought we should stop and get a few more hours’ sleep before the sun comes up,” said General Gnarly. “It’s never a good idea to travel through forests at night.”

Lily simply nodded and sat down by the fire.

Robert dropped his clothes and placed the sleeping kitten near the fire. He couldn’t help but notice the fire no longer seemed afraid of the little cat. Robert picked up his change of clothes and looked around for somewhere semi-private to change.

“Just change, I promise I won’t look,” said Lily, without looking.

“What about them?” asked Robert looking at the Gnomes.

“Although we have no desire to see you naked, moron, you do smell funny and could use a change of clothes,” said Gnick.

Robert changed clothes as quickly as possible and sat on the opposite side of the fire to Lily, who looked like she was trying to extinguish the flames with her eyes. The clothes fitted him loosely and felt scratchy in places, but he imagined they were good for travelling and could stand up to a variety of elements.

“Will the Goatheads rebuild the halfway house?” asked Robert.

“Aye,” said General Gnarly. “The Goathead family have managed that halfway house for the better part of a century; they’ll want to continue the tradition.”

“Strange fire,” said Gnick as he launched into one of the rat creatures.

“Never seen anything like it,” agreed General Gnarly.

“How did it start?” asked Robert.

“I was downstairs when it started,” said General Gnarly, “looking for a nightcap. It just started from nowhere. One minute the room was quiet and dark, and the next it was ablaze. It doesn’t make any sense.”

Robert ran a hand over the sleeping kitten, who began to purr loudly.

“I wonder where this little guy came from?”

“Cats are a bad omen,” said Gnick.

“Why?”

“There are no cats in Thiside, Robert,” said Lily.

“But why?”

“Because the Emerald Guard was ordered to kill them all.”

Robert looked from Lily to the cat to the two Gnomes who were both tearing the dead cooked flesh from the rat creatures’ bones.

“I don’t understand.”

“You’ve heard of the Cheshire Cat?”

“From Alice in Wonderland ?”

Gnick snorted and almost dropped his creature.

“Yes,” said Lily. “I don’t know where the Cheshire part came from, must be a British thing. But the Cat was real. Probably still is real.”

“That’s ridiculous,” said General Gnarly, “he died.”

“He vanished,” argued Lily.

“Died.”

“Either way, he’s no longer in Thiside and hasn’t been in a long time.”

“What was so special about him?” asked Robert.

“He was powerful,” said Lily.

“Magically,” agreed Gnick.

“Yes, magically powerful. He was believed to be a great source of magic in Thiside. The Wizards of Oz consulted him from time to time. He was there in the beginning before the Emerald City fell to ruin, before the Gnome wars, before the Giants, maybe before Thiside itself. And then all of a sudden, he vanished.”

“Died.”

“Shut up, Gnick,” said Lily, and smiled for the first time since the fire. “He vanished because the Wizards of Oz decided they should control the Cat’s power and in doing so, they tried their best to bind and imprison him.”

“But it wasn’t enough,” said General Gnarly. “They failed, and the Cat vanished, taking a lot of the magic of this world with him. But just to be on the safe side, the Wizards ordered the Guard to hunt and kill all cats.”

“That’s horrible,” said Robert.

“It is what it is,” said Lily. “But what’s strange is that after there being no cats in Thiside for the last four centuries, we have a kitten sitting next to us right now.”

All four of them looked at the sleeping kitten, who looked adorable in a way that only sleeping kittens can.

“You’re not suggesting that this little thing is the Cat you’re talking about?”

“No not at all. It’s just weird.”

“You know what else is weird,” said Robert sounding more defensive than he meant to. “How about you lifting that huge beam over your head?”

There was a moment of silence as everyone stared at Lily, whose amber eyes reflected the flames that danced before them. The purring of the cat was all that could be heard for several long moments.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Lily matter-of-factly. “We should all get some sleep.” And with that she lay down, facing away from the fire.

“Nice one, moron,” said Gnick.

“Get some sleep,” commanded General Gnarly.

Robert lay down on the hard earth with his head next to the kitten and drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

The ink black trees of the Dark Forest rustled restlessly while the four travellers slumbered in a deep and uncomfortable sleep. Not all in the forest were sleeping, though. The forests of Thiside were well known for the amount of sleep that its inhabitants did not get during the night hours. One such creature, the Warzgurt, was one of those especially adept non-sleepers.

The Warzgurt was widely regarded as an unsociable creature, the sort that never got invited to a birthday party or afternoon tea. This was partially because the Warzgurt was the size of a compact vehicle, with two bright, orange, lemon-sized eyes, had six legs, was covered in shaggy hair, sported talons like kitchen knives, and had a large, melon-shaped head with a wide crescent-shaped mouth that housed hundreds of very sharp teeth. The other reason a Warzgurt would never be invited to a birthday party or for afternoon tea was because it loved the feeling of warm flesh, mostly in between its teeth.

It was a Warzgurt that now emerged from the forest onto the open path not far from where the group slept. A Warzgurt could be compared to a hundred-year-old ninja in that they could move with a stealth and conviction that almost made them seem invisible and yet they didn’t really have to move quietly at all, as they had the ability to kill a person before one had a chance to say, “Wait, don’t kill me.” Although tests on the subject matter didn’t exist, it was highly suspected that a victim probably wouldn’t even get to the word “wait,” let alone anything else.

The Warzgurt’s gaze penetrated the darkness and realized that this was his lucky day. Not only had he stumbled across four victims quite accidentally, he didn’t even need to stalk or hunt them; they were laid out like a buffet just asking to be eaten.

The large beast moved without a sound and took a closer look, sniffing each one as he examined the soon-to-be dinner. Two single-bite Gnomes, always tasty, and rare in the forests, a smelly human that he’d save for dessert, and another human with long hair, and… The Warzgurt froze solid in mid-sniff over Lily. Its hind legs began to tremble and although it was covered in hair, the skin beneath turned pale. It scrambled back as quietly as possible before losing control of its bladder, creating a nice-sized puddle of green fluid.

The Warzgurt, one of the most feared creatures of the Dark Forest, turned and fled into the trees like a little girl running from a spider.