Chapter 172 The Tram

"I am King Aella, of the demons and gargoyles. I am in search of a stone tablet with carvings from my people that I was told your people might be holding in safekeeping for me from several thousand years ago," said Aella, hoping to get through to someone. If not, she was going to get tired of repeating herself.

"Demons? From the kingdom north of the mountains?" he asked.

"Yes, except my kingdom is no longer north of the mountains," said Aella, wondering if she should have just agreed and not said anything.

"What do you mean?" he asked, surprised.

Turning to look at the mountains behind her, the magical storm was clearly still raging where her palace had once been, throwing off intense light, even from this distance.

"Oh, my! What happened?" the gnome asked, gaping to the north.

Aella turned to look at him and with a straight face said, "I got angry."

"Oh," he whispered, making a perfect circle with his tiny lips, before nervously smoothing his jacket down again. "Well, I shall be the first to welcome you to our wonderful kingdom. I'm sure we can accommodate you in whichever way you need. Have you traveled long? Are you tired? Hungry? Thirsty?"

She watched the gnome fidget and signal the gnomes above him to lower the rope, and sighed. This was visit was going to be longer than she wanted if this kind of thing continued. Touching Alfred and the gnome's shoulder, she teleported them to the top of the wall, allowing Frederik to catch up on his own.

The gnome Manyur, stumbled back to get away from her reaching grasp and gasped when he found himself surrounded by the gnomes from the wall. The gnomes on the wall were too busy gawking to react immediately. Once they did, Aella just stood there with an eyebrow raised as they raised their tubes to point at her again.

"Fools! Don't point a weapon at her! You'll kill us all!" raged Manyur, hitting the tubes closest to him to knock them down.

"What do you plan to do with her?" asked the purple haired gnome, lowering her tube and jutting her jaw at them.

"I'm going to take her to the museum," said Manyur, holding the edges of his leather coat as if he were more comfortable with fancy clothing than the piece of armor. "She's looking for an ancient relic she claims her people gave to us for safekeeping."

The gnomes all started laughing. "Gave to us for safekeeping?!"

"Does she even know who we are?"

"That's rich!"

"Good luck!"

"Yes, well," said Manyur, glaring at the other gnomes. "Shall I show you the way?"

Aella turned her attention to the other side of the wall, and saw a vast city, heavily crowded with buildings of every shape and size. It reminded her strongly of the chicken city, with the small windows and doors. Gnomes were scurrying around, busy on whatever errands they had. None seemed to be paying attention to the wall, despite all of the noise and commotion that had been going on. Did that mean this was a common occurrence, of them shooting at something?

"How far is it?" asked Aella. She wondered if it might not be best to just teleport where they needed to go, to get this over with quicker.

"I'm afraid it's on the other side of the kingdom. We'll take the underground tram. I'll show the way."

Aella frowned as she followed behind the little gnome, with Alfred and Frederik right on her tail. What exactly did he mean by an underground tram?

They followed him down a flight of stairs that were far too small for any of their feet, but they made due, managing to keep up with the surprisingly quick gnome. The turned away from the wall and followed a main street for a block before coming to another set of stairs leading down into the ground.

Aella was expecting gnomes to stop in the streets to stare and gawk at them, but the gnomes mostly ignored them, mumbling to themselves about things and carrying around little trinkets that seemed to hold their attentions completely. She even saw one gnome walk into the wall of a building because he was so engrossed in the item in his hands.

Making their way down into the ground, Aella was barely able to stand without brushing her head on the ceiling. Alfred was somewhat comfortable, while Frederik had to duck painfully. Maybe she should have left him outside? It wasn't too late, she supposed, to send him back up, but before she could say anything, a noise came from down the dark tunnel they were standing beside; hooting and carrying on with a very mechanical sound.

A long carriage, not pulled by any horses or animals that she could see, streamed into the room and came to a loud screeching halt, slammed its doors open, and gnomes began pouring out.

"Quick, before the doors shut," said Manyur, darting onto the carriage.

Aella didn't bother to glance at her companions, trying to jump through the doors that were determined to shut before she had gotten into the cramped space. Alfred made it, but Frederik was fighting to get his wings in before they were crushed. Aella grabbed his shoulder and jerked him in just before the doors slammed shut.

"Thanks," he panted, curling himself into the cramped space carefully, smiling awkwardly at the gnomes around him.

They only seemed to have noticed him, because he was bumping into them and distracting them from their weird mechanical devices.

"What are those things, they are all staring at?" asked Aella, craning her neck to see over the shoulder of one.

"Those are personal communication devices. They allow us to talk back and forth with our loved ones and close friends, though I believe the circle of those we actually communicate has expanded to those we've met in passing and even strangers that have close interests with us," explained Manyur.

"That sounds complicated and annoying," said Aella. "Why do you feel a need to constantly be talking to someone? There are so many other things to do."

"Oh, it helps us work on our projects with others and to get immediate feedback on what we are working on."

"What could you possibly be working on while walking down the street?" asked Alfred.

"We might be in the middle of a conversation and need to get somewhere else. With our communication devices we can continue the conversations and get to where we need to be, without having to remember where we were in the conversation later."

"Seems bothersome," grumbled Frederik, holding his knees up to his chest and wrapping his wings around him.

"How far before we reach our destination?" asked Aella, wondering if she could fit on the tiny seats situated on either side of the small carriage. Probably not.

"Three stops," said Manyur, glancing up at a sign with colored squiggly lines.

Aella studied the sign, figuring out that the squiggly lines must be the path the carriage was taking, but why so many colors? Did they have more than one of these horrible metal monstrosities?

"How long will that be?" asked Frederik sounding strained.

"Umm, maybe thirty minutes? It's far faster than walking or riding a street carriage," said Manyur, starting to look uncomfortable.

"No," said Aella, shaking her head. "We get off at the next stop. This is far too uncomfortable for us. We are not gnomes."

"Alright," the gnome agreed, glancing at her in concern. "I apologize, I didn't think."

The moment the doors opened, Frederik moved to escape the tiny moving cage, but the other gnomes, who were far too engrossed in their communication devices, prevented him from being able to move. Aella glanced outside the doors, not bothering to try and push past the crowd. Alfred didn't hesitate, zooming past them and stopping in a quiet corner where he could stand up straight.

When the doors shut, Frederik groaned in frustration. He had been too cramped to escape.

"Don't worry," said Aella, reaching out to grab his hand, then grabbing Manyur's leather coat, she teleported them next to Alfred, pushing several gnomes out of the way, who looked up to complain, but ended up slinking away when they saw Aella's uncaring angry face.

"Everyone's rude here," she growled down at Manyur. "Do your people have a king?"

"No, we have a set of rules to follow, and a council that oversees the needs of our kingdom," said Manyur, shaking his head in fear.

"Perhaps you need one," she said, trying to decide if she really wanted to rule over such a horrible group of beings. It might be easier to just kill them, but if she could get the technology they had and size it up for her people, it would make traveling much easier.

"Why do you travel underground?" asked Alfred. "It must have been very annoying to have to dig the tunnels for the carriages."

"Oh, well, we tried having them in the air, over the buildings, but the storms kept wearing away at the supports, and the people wouldn't put up with all of the crashes we kept having. It became much easier to control the death toll when we put them underground."