Broken Chains

It was such a chore.

Step after step Puck drugged onward cursing with all had while he did it.

Not only was he still sore everywhere, but he also had to take the terrible heavy and unwieldy sword with him.

At least the pommel, the place where one did hold a sword, as Zephyrian had told Puck, did fit in Puck's hands as Gremlin's had very big hands for their small body size.

But still, even for a Gremlin, Puck was skinny and weak and Zephyrian was big and terrible heavy.

Perhaps even worse, while Puck gave it his all caring Zephyrian through the caverns. Zephyrian went all in on the effort to tell Puck how inadequate he was.

More than once Puck nearly had left Zephyrian behind, but each time something stopped him from going through with it.

At least it hadn't taken very long for Puck to find a tunnel he knew. So that was nice.

After about three hours of slow shuffling and many breaks, Puck came near the Gremlin village again.

Puck had thought long and hard if he should show the sword to the other Gremlin's and perhaps trade it to them.

But in the end, it was clear the other Gremlin's simply would take away Zephyrian without giving anything back.

With that though came another problem, wouldn't Zephyrian call out to the other Gremlin's as to find an in his opinion more worthy wielder?

In expectation of that outcome, Puck had had a long talk with Zephyrian where he told it, that he would only take it back to the Gremlin village if it swore to not reveal itself to other Gremlin's and stay loyal to Puck.

To Puck's surprise though Zephyrian hadn't even protested or tried to worm itself around the deal. No, the sword simply said that it never betrayed someone.

Its honor was absolute.

And for some reason Puck believed it.

Fearing other Gremlin’s would see Zephyrian on Puck’s entrance into the city, Puck left Zephyrian behind for a moment to go scouting.

Even though the Gremlin's lived far away from the sun and didn't necessary needed light to see, their main village still had some sort of artificial night and day cycle. It was regulated by the Gremlin's, through covering up all the light sources when it was time to sleep.

Now, as Puck approached the great cavern where the village was placed in, it seemed as if the Gremlin's sleeping time had started just some moments ago.

Puck decided that he would wait another hour and then sneak in together with Zephyrian.

Still fearing Zephyrian would raise a ruckus, Puck used that hour to tell Zephyrian about how much more hideous and disgusting the other Gremlin's were than him.

Then it was time, taking all his strength together for one last act, in the expectation of a somewhat warm and clean Gremlin bed, Puck went onward.

It was not the first time Puck needed to come in and out of the village without alerting the guards and as such he had experience with it.

Of course, the three main entrances of the Gremlin village were always guarded, but there were other less important and as such also less guarded entrances.

It was one of these entrances Puck moved toward. In Puck’s experience, there would only be a patrol at this entrance every 30 minutes or so and Puck expected that to be more than enough time to sneak in.

The problem wouldn’t be direct sight contact. No, the problem would be noise.

In an attempt to mute sounds that Zephyrian made when it did hit something, Puck took off his already damaged shirt, filled it with moose and rolled it around the sharp end of Zephyrian.

At the start everything went perfectly.

Puck slowly pulled Zephyrian toward the opening into the village, and the sword thankfully stayed silent all the while.

Then, after one patrol went by, Puck took all his courage together and started sneaking the last five hundred meters towards his house.

After Puck had mastered the first two hundred or so meters it finally happened. His hands sweaty and his arms straining under Zephyrian’s wight, the sword suddenly slit out of Puck’s hands and hit the ground.

When the sound echoed out, it was clear that the guards must have heard it and as such Puck had three options.

One, simply meeting the guards and hoping they wouldn’t raise a ruckus. Two, hide. Three, run and hope nobody would be able to find out who had run from the guards.

Puck, after taking some valuable seconds to think, where he already heard the guards in the distance, decided on the last option.

Then, he was taking off, pulling Zephyrian behind him over the ground and raising a terrible ruckus. Just a few hundred meters behind Puck, the guards started running too.

Too Puck’s anger, Zephyrian used that time to start laughing and snickering hysterical, but there was no time to address that.

Puck though, had a few advantages. Afteral, even though his sprint was loud, it still wasn’t easy to follow someone only by ear and even though Gremlin’s could see in complete darkness, they couldn’t see more than about twenty feet and as such, seeing Puck across the village was impossable.

Puck’s breath raged across his lips when he finally reached his destination, but the flight was not yet a success. He needed to come into his house without the guards finding out which house it was that the offender had fled into.

Thankfully Zephyrian went silent again without a problem.

Suppressing his breath with all he had, Puck slowly sneaked around his house to his back door.

In a few well-known moves the door was open and Puck was in the house, the door silently closing behind him.

Only many hours later when the guards finally had given up their search, Puck could finally get some sleep.

He truly thought he had earned it.