Changing Homes

(Fantasy) Short Story (11pgs) about a Gnome who is forced to change homes.

Changing Homes


Lance was striding slowly along the tropical beach shore on the Island of Besaid, his hometown where he has spent most of his life. Lance Kalzack was a young Elven boy standing about five foot eight inches and with brown hair and eyes. Lance was born and raised into a thief’s guild where he learned most of his talents and skills. As Lance walks the warm, tiny particles of golden sand squish gently upwards between his toes. The ocean is lapping noisily like the sound of wizard’s experiments gone wrong. Lance peers out towards the ocean as if it is mesmerizing him and commanding him not to move. As he stares towards the ocean it is broken by black dots in the sky grow closer. As the figured reach the shore Lance is shocked by what he sees, “Black Dragons, Here!?” Lance notices the black dragons with smaller figures on their backs, without thinking he runs towards Besaid. Running through the woods, Lance can see the dragons getting farther and farther ahead of him. As the dragons got atop of Besaid Lance sees something start falling from the dragons, “What could these things be?” Lance says to himself.

Thinking of the worst Lance pulls out his dagger and prepared for anything. As he reaches the town he encounters goblins awaiting him. They rush towards him with short swords in hand. They swing but Lance has enough time to jump back and not get hit. Lance then retaliates and swings his dagger; one goblin falls to the ground and starts

bleeding from the throat. The second goblin looks at his buddy then back at Lance, with a nasty look on his face, then starts his attack again. He swings the sword and cuts Lance on the side. Lance grabs his side and does a moon flip over the goblin, time seems to go slowly as he flips in the air. When he lands Lance stabs the goblin in the neck, twists the dagger, and then pulls it out. After pulling out his dagger Lance gets hit in the back of the head by another goblin, Lance lays unconscious in the street. The goblins run about the town slaying any one and anything they can get their hands onto. Finally after burning all the buildings and killing every soul in Besaid the goblins march to the shore and leave on the Black Dragons that dropped them off.

As Lance arose from the bloody street he felt his head. It was bleeding and swollen. Lance stumbled to his house and when he arrived shock filled his body from head to toe. He saw his mother and father lying outside the house. They lay next to tree stumps with their heads decapitated, arms and legs ripped off, and their internal organs gone. They were still moving around and attempting to do something but couldn’t. Lance couldn’t bear the site of this and started crying and letting out loud screams. He was beating up everything in site that he could break. After his rage Lance decided that revenge was going to have to be taken so his parents souls could rest in peace. Lance went into the burnt house and looked for anything he could take. Sitting on what was once the kitchen table was a locked box, a scroll case, and a set of lock picks. Lance opened the scroll case and pulled out a note, the note read:

My Son if you are getting this then the inevitable has happened. Here I leave you some lock picks ad my special box. Use the lock picks to open the box for it is the only way. If you succeed in this then you shall complete your thief training and be ready to leave the guild, or what ever is left of it. Inside the box are items to aid you if you so decide to leave the island of Besaid. North of here is a town called Chocoboville; it is about a two-day journey. There they have a beast called a Chocobo, it is sort of like a horse except it is a yellow bird. Once there you should be able to get off the island and head to the kingdom of Jindark. The King of Jindark is a man named Sygon, he will help you if you tell him what happened and mention my name. Lance, I wish you lucky and may the gods smile upon you.

Sincerely Your Father,
Sir. Lenge Kalzack


Legs shaking and unable to stand Lance falls to the ground and cries even more. After minute of shaking and crying Lance is interrupted by a sound coming from outside his house. He slowly gets up and makes his way towards the door. Lance peers out the door and sees several hobbits gathering around and collecting bodies, items, and anything else they can get grubby hands on. "Mister Far? Is that you?" Lance says while stumbling out of his house. "Young man what happened here?" Mr. Far said. Lance tried to tell him but nothing came out of his mouth. Just then he saw his parents standing there, looking at him, then they disappeared. Lance fell to the ground and into a state of unconsciousness once again. Lance had awakened and was looking at the ceiling and not wanting or caring about anything else. Lance was in the hobbit town of Vany and had been there for several hours. One of the hobbit’s came over to him, “Glad you could wake up and be with us again.”

Time passed and Lance was watched by the hobbits while he trained for his travel to Chocoboville. He learned many things from then and one such this was how to ride a horse. Finally the day had come, Lance was ready to begin his journey to Chocoboville. Lance had all the items his father had given him which consisted of a long sword, leather armor, lock picks, a black cloak, an almoner with 50 gold pieces, and finally a dirt covered, cracked, and worn gem. Lance set off on his horse, Lea, and made his way to
Chocoboville. Lance thought to himself, “I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on one of those Chocobo’s!” As he traveled he saw many new beast and wild animals he had never seen before. Riding the whole day, the sun was starting to set in the sky that meant it would be nighttime soon and the big animals would finally come out. Lance found a suitable place setup camp and started dinner. Being born an Elf, Lance had an advantage at night, he had infravision. All Elves’ are born with infravision, which is the ability to detect body heat up to 60 feet away. After eating his dinner Lance put out the fire and scanned the horizon for signs of anything. He saw nothing so Lance laid down in his tent and stuck his head out and looked in the sky.

Lance was awakening and heard the sound of birds and other animals singing. Stretching, he made his way to his horse to get his stuff for breakfast. When he was fully awake and looking he saw his horse was gone and saw a trail leading to the northwest. Lance packed everything he could, strapped it to his back, and started following the tracks. After two or three miles Lance was amazed at what he saw. There on top on the next will was a gnome walking Lea into a cave. Lance took off running after the gnome wanting his horse back. Arriving at the cave it was filled with other gnomes, horses, food, and various tools. “You dare steal from a thief?” Lance yelled to them. The gnomes stopped what they were doing and ran into the back of the cave, all but one. Lance saw a short stubby gnome with a big nose, about 3 feet tall, a sword in hand, and holding the reigns to his horse. “I’m not afraid of you!” said the gnome. Lance thought to himself for a sec then grabbed his dagger and threw it at the gnome. The dagger was
purposely thrown at the gnome’s feet into the ground. The gnome didn’t even blink an eye when Lance did that.

“Your brave my friend, what is your name?” Lance said to the gnome. The gnome looked up at Lance and replied, “My name is Darius Van McDuneflus from the gnome tribe Aldega.” Lance thinking of the help he could get said, “Would you like to go with me on a journey, Darius?” ”What is the journey all about?” said Darius. Lance took several minutes and told Darius the story of what happened and why he is requesting help. Darius amazed at what he hears, “Yes I will go it would be fun to kill a couple goblins or two!” Lance and Darius departed from the cave and made there way towards Chocobville. Lance and Darius talk as they rode towards their destination and found out some interesting things about each other. Darius found out that Lance’s father knew King Sygon of Jindark, while Lance found out that Darius was one of the best gnome swordsman’s in the land.

Lance and Darius arrived at Chocobville and were amazed at what they saw. There were a variety of races and many yellow birds. Lance figured they were Chocobo’s from his dad’s letter. Everyone seemed to be getting along and no one minded strangers cause Lance and Darius were accepted with open arms. Lance and Darius headed for the pub so they could relax before going to the inn. When they arrived at the pub they saw people drinking at the counters and at tables, as well as people standing up against the walls. Lance and Darius walked up to the counter and ordered some drinks for them selves. “I think I’ll go upstairs and see what’s going on,” Darius said as he grabbed a gnomish bar maid and ran upstairs. Lance shook his head, “Glad one of us is going to have a good night.” Lance left the pub and started walking around to see what interest him. While walking Lance walked up to a man and bumped into him. Lance walked into an alley and opened his hand, inside was an almoner full of money, Lance’s teaching finally paid off. Lance left the alley and headed towards the dock to see about getting a boat for leaving the island.

Darius walked up the steps and saw Lance leaving, “Oh well he must still be weary from his fight.” Darius walked into a room dragging behind him a pretty female gnome. “Who are you to disturb me!?” yelled a man as Darius walked in the room. Getting up a big dwarf and he walked straight to Darius. Darius looked up at him in amazement, “Sorry I didn’t know anyone was in here.” The dwarf looked at him in reply, “Too bad you just signed your death paper, you better hope there’s a mage in town!” At that the dwarf picked Darius up and threw him over the upstairs railing. Darius landed on top of an empty table and broke it and the chairs around it. Darius looked up and saw the dwarf running down the steps so Darius decided it was time to go, so he got up and run out the pub.

Lance was walking past the pub on his way to the docks and saw someone come running out the pub towards him. Lance saw Darius and he was running really fast towards him. “What did you do this time?” Lance asked Darius. Darius replied, “Well, don’t worry about it.” Lance rolled his eyes, “Ok.” Darius and Lance started walking towards the docks. When they arrived at the docks they saw lots of ships with sailors moving about loading and unloading ships. Lance looked for the captain of one of the ships so he could see if they could take him to Jindark. “Are you the captain of this ships?” Lance asked. A lady who looks Elven answered, “Yeah, this here is the Blood Ruby the finest ship in these parts.” “Well my friend and I are looking for a way off this island so we can go to Jindark,” Lance said to the women. “Well it will cost you…” the elf tried to say but was interrupted by Lance throwing the almoner he stole from the man. Lance looked at the Elven women, “My name is Lance Kalzack and this here is Darius Van McDunflus, may I ask your name?” “My name is Jannys Silversgleaming, come aboard my ship and we will leave tonight, this way you wont have to spend money at the inn.” Jannys said as she walked onto her ship and Lance and Darius followed.

2 days had past and Lance and Darius were accepted and treated as part of the crew. They would help with the sailing, raising of sails, and sitting up in the crow’s nest to watch for signs of any enemy ships. Today was Darius day to sit up in the crow nest; he had looked forward to it for a long time. Darius climbed up to the crow’s nest and set himself in place to start his patrol. Darius looked around, “Well this is fun, I hope I can find someone today.” Hours had gone by and no sign of anyone or anything. Darius was given his lunch so he could eat and watch guard as well. While eating some fish and wine Darius saw some strange figures appearing on the horizon, Darius looked through his spyglass and saw that there were 5 dragons. Darius yelled as loud as he could, “Dragons at 1 o’clock!” Everyone on deck ran down the hull and brought up-bow and arrows, pikes, cannon balls, and they even brought up a mage. Lance was eating in his room and heard Darius yelling. Lance quickly dropped his food, grabbed his sword and ran up to the deck. Lance could see the dragons now and there where heading straight for them. The sailors were loading cannons and getting their bows while the mage was getting his spells ready.

“Ready…Aim…Fire!” said Jannys as she ordered the sailors to fire upon the dragons. Cannons and arrows went flying at the dragons; one dragon fell into the water but the other four pushed on. Lance readied his sword and Darius stayed in the crow’s nest with a bow and arrow he was given. “Hit the deck!” someone yelled, and without warning the dragons flew overhead and spit fireballs over the ship. Everyone got up and fired again on the dragons, but Lance didn’t move. He saw the crow’s nest on fire and thought of Darius. “No, this cant be.” Lance went running towards the crow’s nest hoping to find Darius. The dragons had turned back to attack again and the mage fired a fireball at one. Another dragon was down but that left three more. One of the dragons flew over the burning crows nest, kicked at it, and it began to fall over. Jannys yelled out, “Shoot at anything that doesn’t belong on this ship!” Lance threw his sword down and grabbed bow and arrow from one of the sailors and aimed on one of the dragons. Time seemed to stop as Lance aimed the arrow, he had all the time in the world, and then he let the arrow fly. It flew up in the air and then the dragons fell into the water, the arrow must have hit the dragon in the head.

The dragons flew away after there was two left but they cause enough damage. Everyone was busy putting out the fires and healing the crew. After the fires were out they found Darius, he was dead due to fire. He looked like a black stick and he was as stiff as one too. “Don’t worry Lance,” said Jannys, “we know a witch who can bring him back. “Are you serious, do they really exist?” Lance said but with out any feeling. Jannys replied, “Yes they do but let’s hope our ship can make it.” Everyone agreed to go to the witch house on the way to Jindark. The sailors made sure the ship would last and that no more attacks would damage the ship. Later that night they arrived at the island that Jindark was on. “Well if we travel all night then we should be there by morning, any one want to stop?” Jannys asked. No one said a word, “Well good then lets move out.” As Jannys said that she turned and started walking. They walked all night and kept guard to make sure they weren’t being followed. They got tired and many people had to stop and rest but Jannys pushed on and didn’t stop, either did Lance.

It was morning and the had arrived at the witch house safe and sound. Jannys turned around and grabbed Darius’s body, “You all will have to stay out here.” Jannys walked in and everyone waited outside. About ten minutes later Jannys came back out and with her was Darius up and moving like nothing was wrong. Lance ran up to him and gave him a big hug while throwing him through the air. “I’m glad you back!” Lance said to Darius but he was quiet. Jannys looked at Lance, “It will be a while for him to talk cause of the shock plus he needs rest, Jindark is only an hour away.” Everyone got up and made there way to Jindark but no one was tired cause they all knew they could sleep in an hour. They all ran to Jindark in excitement and arrived in half the time. Lance ran to the castle and found the king, “Your majesty I am Lance Kalzack, son of Sir. Lenge Kalzack and I have come to seek your help. Goblin attacked out town and I am the only survivor.” Lance and the King talked for hours on end. Lance found out that his family was working for the king and that his father was a knight. Now it was Lance’s turn to be the family knight. The knighting took place the next night along with a festival. “Lance can you come outside with me?” Darius asked Lance during the party. Once outside they walked around the courtyard and talked. Darius looked at Lance, “I have to leave here Lance, but I want to stay.” “It’s ok I’ll always be here if you need me, regardless.” Lance told Darius. “I can’t say why but it’s something I must do for my people but I assure you that I will be back, someday.” After saying that Darius turn and ran into the night. Lance looked at the moons, “Well, I guess this is one place that I’ll train to get my revenge on those stupid goblins!”