Thirty minutes later...
"How in the hell did you get caught by this thing?" Asked Grim as he gestured his head at the smashed-up meat pile he made.
"How do ya think?" asked Brim sarcastically
"Ya sent me flyin' n the bloody thing caught me as I was fallin' from the sky..."
As Grim examined the blood on his blue hat, he hummed, "Hmm, well, you got lucky it was a baby beast, otherwise I might not have been able to save you."
Brim shook his head with a scoff, "Save me? Ya the reason I even ended up in between its claws!"
"So what? I coulda just left you to be eaten." Grim shrugged, "Just be glad you aren't being digested right now."
Brim opened his amber and emerald green eyes in surprise at his brother's evil heart.
Just as Brim was about to retort, Grim quickly moved to continue their trip, leaving Brim behind.
Brim stared at the place his brother once was for a couple of moments before silently cursing him and turning into a streak of green as he followed after him... His brother was the only one with a map after all, so if he didn't, he would be lost in this giant forest they were in.
---
Roughly two days after the twin gnomes continued on their journey to the Toushnie Kingdom, they happened across a dirt road.
Looking down the long road surrounded by tall trees on both sides, Grim said, " It seems we're gettin' close."
With a hand carressing his long bushy white brows, Brim nodded, "Ya can feel all the different mana around the place."
Grim hummed," It's like drowning in a sewer-
-ya don't know what ya drownin n'." finished Brim.
Grim nodded, "Exactly."
Then, with a smile, the two said in perfect unison, "It's wonderful!"
And in that exact same moment, almost as if it were planned... a black, heavy net fell over them...
Thud!
"Hm?"
"Huh?"
...And just like that... the two were captured by a nearby group of humans.
"Hell yeah! Nice job, new kid! We just got ourselves some extra gold!" exclaimed a rather robust and tall man as he gave a good pat on the back to some random child that looked no older than fourteen.
"Th-thank you!" said the young boy as he watched the robust man walk over to the two gnomes.
Ignoring the boy's thanks for the compliment, the man lifted the rope connected to the net and pulled it over his shoulder.
"Alright, let's take this back to the caravan!" he yelled back to the other three children, who hid a little further behind the first young child. These children looked roughly the same age as the first and seemed to be just as well fed, however...
Among them, there was a girl with a collar around her neck. She had dirty blonde hair and hazel eyes with a small mole underneath both of them. This girl was squished between the two other children before the man called out for them to move.
This little girl was hyper-focused on the two gnomes the whole time they moved closer to the caravan.
Perhaps knowing what she was wondering, one of the other kids spoke up.
"Those are gnome, Mel."
The girl, Mel, turned her eyes over her shoulder and, with a raised brow, asked, "Gnomes?"
"Yes, Gnomes." The boy affirmed, "Gnomes are creatures that are said to be really rare, spotting one is said to bring good luck, but..." he paused and pointed at the captured gnomes, who at some point had become unconscious, and said,"... capturing one is said to bring good luck for five whole generations."
The girl hummed at the new information before going back to staring at the sleeping gnomes. After a couple of moments, she then asked, "Are gnomes supposed to be so easy to catch?"
The same boy shrugged, "I don't know, all I know is that gnomes are supposed to be really tricky and agile... so, I guess you could say that they are supposed to be?"
It was right after the boy finished speaking that the robust man spoke up, "You're right, they are supposed to be hard to catch." He paused and then readjusted the black net before continuing. "But, not just because they're tricky and agile, apparently they're also incredibly strong and durable."
At his words, the girl grew more confused, "Then what made it so easy for us to catch them?"
The robust man thought for a moment, staying quiet as he hopped up and over a large log, the net bouncing with his movement.
After a little longer, he then spoke,
"A long time ago, my grandfather told me he tried to catch a gnome he saw when he was young. He said that he spent two whole years watching it before trying to catch it and failing. During the time that he watched, though, he said that he learned that gnomes don't have the ability to sense evil intent. So, as long as you stay quiet enough, you can sneak up on them and catch them."
The children oh'd at the new information on gnomes before one of them, the same one that told Mel about gnomes, spoke up.
"The book I read said that gnomes are 'spiritual beings', so now that I'm thinking about it, shouldn't the net have failed?"
The man paused his steps and turned his body.
"Do you know what spiritualbeings are?" he asked the child.
The child thought for a moment and eventually shook his head.
The man let his gaze sweep over the other children waiting to see if any of them could form an answer, and after a bit of silence, he spoke up," Spiritual-Beings or 'SB's' are creatures that are mostly, or entirely made up of mana. Creatures like these," he said, shaking the net lightly, "are capable controling mana with more efficency and with more power than us humans and demi-humans.
Some examples of SB's would be elemental spirits, the most obvious and the one most instantly thought of when people hear "SB". Spirits are capable of handling certain elements to a terrifying degree, but this is less so with other Spiritual Beings, like gnomes. Gnomes are said to have elemental control over earth, but I can't really remember if that's the only element. Anyway, they can use the earth, but most aren't that good at it."
The children listened quietly but were still a little confused," That... didn't really answer the question, sir..." said Mel.
The man looked at her, confused for a second before realizing his mistake.
"Ah, right, the question was how we caught them with a net, right? well the simple answer is because of the net itself. The net is an anti-mana net; it absorbs all forms of mana, well, the expensive ones anyway. We just got lucky; ours absorbs Earth mana."
"What happens if their mana is drained? Do they die?" asked Mel.
The man looked at her like she was stupid, "Die? If I wanted them to die, I wouldn't have caught them. No at most they go unconscious like this," he said bouncing the net with the two gnomes inside.
The children oh'd again, and then a child said, "It's really cool how lucky we have been, we found two gnomes today, and five days ago we even found a fairy."
Another child acknowledged it as well and asked, "Right, I wonder how much money we're going to make out of the auction?"
The robust shook his head and said," Don't put all our eggs in a basket just yet; we still need to make it back," and with that, he started once again with the children, quickly moving after him.