Broken Chains

Surrounded by great and dark clouds of smoke from her pipe, the oldest-looking Gremlin Puck had ever seen sat. While walking closer, Puck couldn’t stop himself from coughing again as he smelled what she was smoking.

It was one of the poisonous mushrooms Puck often had been tasked to remove from the fields in the past. It was greatly hallucinogenic, and anybody smoking it through the archaic pipes of the Gremlins was doomed to die early. Though, even if she died right now, Puck would never say she had died early.

The lower half of her body was hidden below Puck's old comforter that went up to her waist. Her face had more skin wrinkles than even the domesticated truffle pigs that the Gremlins held. And that was saying something as these pigs were the most hideous and wrinkly things Puck knew.

The saddest thing about her appearance though, at least to any Gremlin that gave something about himself, were her ears. The ears were the most important aspect of beauty for their race, and to have them look straight and domineering was priority one. The ears of the Gremlin before Puck, though, instead lay flat and like wet pieces of leather.

Finally, Puck focused on her eyes, and a little cringe ran through his body. Her eyes were milky and unfocused, but something about them seemed to tell Puck about an aspect of her age that her outwardly appearance nearly completely masked. When looking into those eyes, Puck thought he could feel a touch of what it meant to live for that long, to experience so much...

Finally, it was the old Gremlin woman who spoke up again. Her voice seemed even weaker and raspier than before, and in between, she did have to stop now and then.

“So, you were the one who lived here before me. I was wondering who owned this wretched place before me. No matter though, you don’t seem like you have returned to stay, and my time will come soon anyway.”

Puck, wanting to get out of there as fast as possible, was already slowly moving to where he hid Zephyrian, but as he heard the next sentence from the old relic of a Gremlin, he froze mid-step.

“You don’t need to start looking for your strange friend, I’ve moved him somewhere else.”

Slowly turning around, Puck asked threateningly, “What do you mean?”

Laughing dryly, the old Gremlin spoke up again.

“Why so upset? No need to worry, I’ll tell you where you can find him soon. Before that, I just want to hear one last story from you. A last wish from someone dying, you could say. For my whole life, I stayed in this cavern with our small tribe, or if the leaders are to be believed, the whole sad rest of our race. I always wondered if perhaps I would ever see something else, if I ever found the courage to go against convention and try something new. But I never found my courage, and as such, I’m now lying here old and nearly dead, dreaming of something that never was.”

Puck, still unwilling to give in: “What did Zephyrian tell you? He shouldn’t have…”

Shaking her head nearly unnoticeably, the old Gremlin smiled grimly.

“So, Zephyrian is it, yes? You know, for weeks now I tried to get one single story out of that stupid thing, or even just its name, but it was completely unwilling to give in. Only once did it betray itself to even be able to talk. So no, you need not worry about it having told me something it shouldn’t have. For whatever reason, it remained completely unwilling to talk to me. But as you know that strange creature, you must have come in touch with things outside of this village. So, will you tell me a story of something outside of the scope of my life before I die? Please?”

After asking that last pleading “please,” Puck both felt and saw how the old Gremlin sunk back into her resting place. Both her body and mind seemed at their limit. Sighing, Puck finally gave in. Of course, there wasn’t all that much he could tell, but he thought the story of the last week should suffice.

At the start, Puck talked slowly and with many pauses, but with time he felt himself back in those moments he talked about, and as he came to the leaf and its magic, he thought he could feel those same things again he felt at that very moment.

When Puck finally was finished, only about half an hour later, the breaths of the old Gremlin came low and much less regular. Her eyes also had closed somewhere in the middle of the story. But now, as he was finished, she opened them one last time to look at him. Her voice had gotten even weaker, and Puck suddenly realized he would witness her death in the next few minutes, making him sober up.

“Thank you, your story was more than I could have asked for, but it isn’t the end of the story, it is the beginning. So let this old one just give you one small recommendation for your life. It seems you have already set out to a life where you don’t make the same mistakes as me, but don’t grow complacent, always seek new things, always expect the unexpected, never letting something chain you down. Else…”

The Gremlin took a deep shuddering breath and seemed to look right through Puck.

“Else you will only end like me.”

Having gotten into the whole thing, Puck stepped forward to take one of her death-cold hands.

“Your companion is still in his old hiding place… I didn’t manage to move it anymore.”

Seemingly having lost her last strength, she went nearly completely limp, and Puck thought he couldn’t even see her breath anymore. Already thinking that was it, Puck was surprised to hear one last whispered sentence from her lips.

Not understanding it, he leaned closer, and as she repeated it, Puck finally understood.

“My name was Thalea. Please take the lucky charm around my neck and bring it somewhere where it finally can witness something worth witnessing because in my own life it never did.”

Not knowing what to say, Puck simply said he would.

Then, her body and mind finally giving in, Thalea died.