The Stolen Heart

(<< Part 1: Graduation)


The Stolen Heart


Light and noise spilled across cobblestones as the door of The Blue Recluse swung open and a couple tumbled out, tangled in each other's arms.  The man looked young, yet burly, salt sweat and leather.  The girl was slight and slightly dressed in a sheer cobalt robe, but it was alcohol rather than the chill winter night that flushed her cheeks.  She staggered backwards, steadying herself against the back of a chair as her companion stole a clumsy kiss.

“Do you want me to walk you home?” he slurred, stroking her hair.  The girl laid a hand on his chest, composed herself, and smiled.

“It isn’t far.  You stay with your friends.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”  She kissed him again.  A parting kiss.  “This is your night.”

She watched him disappear back inside the tavern before turning to go.

“Oh!”  The girl had barely taken two steps when her foot caught on something.  She twisted, span, parted from her shoe and tumbled as gracefully as she could manage to the ground.  As she pushed herself back up onto her knees, she saw what it was that had caused her downfall.  Someone had left a bundle of rags half-hidden under a table.  She began muttering a curse upon them, but stopped as the rags shifted.  She squinted at them.  Was it an animal?  Two emerald green eyes glinted back at her.  A child.  No, she realized, inching closer.  A gnome.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t see you,” said the girl, kneeling in front of the gnome and tugging at the rags gently to reveal her face.  She looked young, the girl thought, though it was difficult to tell with gnomes.  “What’s your name?”

The gnomish girl studied her, her eyes hard but curious.  “What’s yours?”

“Emily.”  The girl smiled, offering her hand.  The gnome looked at it warily for a moment, then reached out and gave it the slightest of squeezes.

“Ruby.”

“Good to meet you Ruby,” said Emily.  She looked around and saw her missing shoe nearby, reached to snatch it up, then shuffled over next to Ruby.  “Drat,” she pouted, fingering the broken heel.  “Oh well, let’s see...”  She bit her lip in concentration, the tip of her finger began to glow, and in a few moments the shoe was as good as new.  Ruby’s eyes widened.  Emily noticed.  She grinned as she slipped the mended shoe back on.

“You’re a mage,” said Ruby quietly.

“Mhm!” Emily replied.  “Well, just an apprentice really.”

“What else can you do?”

“Nothing much more exciting than what you just saw, I’m afraid.” said Emily.  She looked sideways at the little gnome.  “What are you doing down here?”

Ruby shrugged.  Emily frowned.

“Do you need someplace to stay?”

Ruby shook her head, staring down at the ground.

“Ah, I see.  It’s a boy, isn’t it?”  Ruby didn’t answer.  Emily took that for acknowledgement.  “What did he do?”

“Changed.” said Ruby simply, without looking up.

“Mm.  Mhmm.” Emily nodded understandingly.  “They do that sometimes.”

“Why?”

Emily puffed out her pink cheeks as she exhaled slowly.  “Nobody knows really.  Hearts can change on the slightest whim.  There’s no logic to it.”

“How do you change them back?”  Ruby turned her head and blinked up at Emily, and the girl realised that she’d been crying.  She felt a pang of pity.

“It doesn’t work that way,” she replied sadly, reaching over and gently rubbing a smudge from Ruby’s cheek.  “Love is far stranger than any magic.”

Ruby sighed, then glanced around towards the tavern door.  “Was that your boyfriend?”

“Yes,” said Emily.  “Loran.  He got accepted into the City Guard today, so his friends are going to ensure that he gets very drunk and makes a fool of himself, to remind him of his place.  It’s not the worst idea in the world, to be honest,” she added, “but I don’t need to be around to see it.”

Ruby didn’t smile.  “How do you know his heart won’t change?” she asked.

Emily weighed the question for a moment.  “I suppose I don’t,” she said finally.  “But you just have to take the risk, don’t you?  It’s part and parcel of being in love.”

“I hate it.” Ruby snapped.  Emily couldn’t help but smile.

“You won’t always feel that way.”

A breeze rustled the trees and Emily shivered, the warming effect of the alcohol already beginning to wear off.  “Are you sure you don’t need a place to stay?” she nudged Ruby.  “We’ve plenty of room.  Well not plenty, but you’re only little aren’t you.  We’d manage.”

Ruby shook her head, pulling the rags tighter around her.

“Well alright then,” said Emily, getting to her feet, “but don’t stay out here all night, okay?”  She pointed at a spot on the ground nearby, and a small campfire burst into being.  She enjoyed the startled expression on the gnome’s face.  “Goodnight, Ruby.”



It was hours later when Loran stumbled out of the tavern for a second time, a different girl now hanging from his arm.  She was plainer than Emily, her hair dirty and her cloth ragged, but the young guardsman was thoroughly drunk and didn’t seem to care much.  The girl wrapped herself around him and pressed her lips to his.  Loran returned the kiss, his hands sliding over her curves.

“Come home with me tonight,” she whispered in his ear.  The invitation seemed to jar his senses and he pushed her away, gently but firmly.  For a moment the girl looked offended, but then she smiled coyly, tucking one leg behind the other and winding a strand of dirty brown hair around her finger.  “If you change your mind...”  Leaving the suggestion hanging in the air, she brushed deliberately against him as she made her way back inside.

Loran stared after her for a long moment.  Maybe he was considering it.  Maybe he wasn’t.  But as he struggled to order his muddled thoughts, one came rushing alarmingly to the surface of his mind.  He couldn’t breathe.

He gasped, scrabbling at his chest.  He could feel it rising and falling, feel the air entering his lungs, but still suffocation overtook him.  He tried to cry out, the world spinning around him as he collapsed onto the hard stone, but could manage nothing more than a croak.

Suspended in the still air above the flailing man, a heart glistened.  It had remained there when he fell, frozen in time and space.  Slowly it began to revolve, and shrink, before finally vanishing with a soft pop.  As Loran’s world faded to darkness, he thought of Emily.  The last thing he saw was a pair of emerald green eyes.

They were full of hatred.

I like this.

Well in fact, think I've only read two of your stories but your rather twisted gnome makes for smashing reading.. just enough words and not too many.

I think it's been awhile since you've been posting on the forums, so welcome back and please write more stories.

Thanks for reading, and for the kind words. I'll see what I can do.

twisted gnome

Is this tautological? I can't decide.

I liked. Was enjoyable to read and also....the fact it included Magic

Magic makes everything better.

It does