"There has to be something we can do come on!" Lily still frustrated continued. "There is however something that could help him," the gnome interrupted. " The shell was just a one way ticket, there is something I sense might work," the gnome continued eying Lily's pendant. Leo realizing what was just happening, stared with horror as he made sense of what he was witnessing.
"No! No this can't be right," Leo wondered, still very confused about the turn of events. "Lily don't listen to him! I'm okay," Leo attempted communicating with Lily once more but he still noticed that she did not switch her attention towards him.
At this point Leo was begining to sense that something was a bit off. Trying to brainstorm as quick as he could, he as well paid attention to everything that was happening with Lily and the gnome that he was now sensing could be a danger to Lily.
"We have to be quick if we want to save him Miss," the gnome spoke again ensuring he did not give Lily enough room to think everything through. "The pendant around your neck," the gnome pointed towards the pendant with greed is his eyes.
"What is it, that pendant of yours?" The gnome asked with impatience. Lily reached her fingers and touched the pendant holding it in place for a little while, "it is a family heirloom...it is very important to me."
The gnome studied Lily's face keenly as she responded to his question, his cunning character beginning to take control of him. "You know Miss, we are in a magical place and it is very possible for your pendant to be triggered if at all your ancestry lane ever had any old magic in it. Perhaps this very moment was why you had that pendant, so that it could serve it's purpose," the gnome whispered hoarsely with impatience.
Lily did not take more than a minute to quickly realize that the gnome had sensed her pendant. She knew that was not a good thing. Even though Lily was not in the best condition, she was still strong enough to sense bits of impure intentions from the gnome.
Lily had the dark element in her and anything that felt strange would suddenly trigger it and that is how she had a feeling that something was off with the gnomes request. She wanted so bad to find another solution because she was never going to dream about taking off her pendant before completing her mission, let alone remove it in Leo's presence.
"I can't give you my pendant, there has to be another way," Lily answered the gnome. The gnome realizing this was getting harder than he was expecting, he spoke with a little irritation, " I'm not sure if you get the urgency of the matter here Miss, your friend might die or even worse, sink into the abyss."
Sure enough that he had gotten to Lily with his words, he held out his hand towards Lily waiting for her to hand him the pendant. The gnome had found himself drawn to the pendant that was around Lily's neck and it made him think of nothing else. He himself could not wrap his head around it.
Deciding that he had to get the pendant in whichever way possible, he decided to trick Lily into giving it to him. He wanted so much to study and look into it properly since he had a twisted feeling that he so bad wanted to unwound and tap into whatever energy that surrounded the pendant.
He was excited about it since he was convinced that even Lily did not realize or know anything about the possible potential that her pendant could be carrying. She was only human after all, the gnome thought to himself as he schemed.
"Leo on the other hand finally made sense of what was happening. And once again his nightmares had been confirmed. ' Of course it was a vision, this can't be real, I can't let this happen!' Leo thought to himself.
He recalled everything about the nightmare he had and had now realized that it was a vision, except it wasn't fully as it was supposed to happen. A lot of things were out of place. He recalled not seeing any other face except that of Lily.
Deciding not to wait for the worst, he shouted, " Lily! Get away from him! Now!" Leo knew that as much as he would have explained the vision to Lily, she still would not be able to understand it.
One reason was because Lily mentioned not being able to hear anything that they were talking about, and two, the gnome would sense the disadvantage and maybe decide to do something that would put Lily's life in danger or harm her. And knowing Lily's condition at the moment, she was obviously too weak to even try defending herself.
Leo began moving forward again, making very careful steady steps. The distance was still quite far that it was impossible for him to attempt jumping across. There was no normal thing that Leo could try doing that would aid him in getting across the bridge faster.
Thinking of how he once got from the top of the tower to the ground without a single scratch, he got optimistic but quickly forgot about it after recalling how faulty it was. The last time he tried using it he couldn't control it. It was almost like it only occured momentarily.
Lily on the other side was still reluctant and determined not to give away her pendant. She was waiting so bad for Leo to do something since she had witnessed the kind of power that he possessed. She then looked at the bridge and decided to walk towards it.
The gnome looked at her as she made her way towards the bridge. The gnome however did not expect her to step into it the moment he saw her do it. As if the gnome had control of the bridge, he twisted his fingers slightly and the bridge suddenly swayed rapidly, leaning on one side.
Lily not realizing that it was the gnome's action that made the bridge sway, she did not look back and just steadied herself to take another step. Lily could see Leo moving slowly towards her but he was still far off.
Where Leo was, he was wishing so much that Lily could stop moving and just wait for him. The gnome looking at all this happening, spat on the ground and spoke in low tone that neither of the could hear, "alright that's it, enough of this game."
The gnome then opened his little palm and blew on it as he looked at the bridge. Immediately there were loud creaks and sounds of wood breaking. Lily gasped and immediately stopped her movements as she just about to take another step.
She realized that the next step she was about to take had no wood beneath it. She looked at the huge chunks of wood fall off the bridge and sinking deep beneath then without even hearing an echo of them hitting anything. She slowly raised her head towards Leo's direction and saw that the bridge had fallen off just in between them and it was a long distance.
She did not know what to do at this point. Looking back at the distance she had already covered, it was more than ten steps. "Leo" Lily called out looking at Leo. "Say something damn it!" She was beyond worried at this point.
Leo was sure responding and trying to talk to her all this while but the thing was that Lily could not hear him and Leo had already noticed that was happening. He just did not understand why.
"You cannot hear him," the gnome spoke to Lily. The distance between Lily and him was much closer compared to that between Lily and Leo. "It is the bridge, this is the world of the witches and they have their spells to protect their side of the world."
Seeing Lily looking at him as though he was not making any sense, he continued, " whoever is on the other side of the bridge as long as they are not from the witches world, can never be heard from this other end. However, they can hear you and whatever you say.
You on the other hand, will not be able to hear anything until you cross to that side to the witches or wait until whoever you are communicating with gets close enough to you. Right now the young man can hear us clearly but you can not hear him."
Lily looked at the gnome with irritation, " the bridge is collapsing! And what do you mean I cannot hear him? So you can hear him?" Lily spoke with anger clear in her voice. The gnome smiled, "yess Miss, I can hear him perfectly. I am the keeper and it's quite evident that I am a magical creature."
The gnome watched Lily and immediately warned her, "crossing back here is not a good idea, the moment you make any single step, the ropes you are holding will snap and both you and that gentleman will...well..die."
"Can't you just help us and renegotiate your price later, maybe bring back another she'll," Lily gambled for their lives knowing pretty well that there wasn't any other she'll and that if by chance the gnome agreed to her request, she would come back alone and end him in a finger snap.
"Hand me the pendant and I will fix the bridge. It would be sad if I let you fall beneath with that pendant," the gnome said angrily. Lily then realized that the gnome was behind the bridge collapsing.
Infuriated, she decided that she was going to use her pendant to destroy the gnome for trying to kill Leo yet he was her greatest asset at the moment. Leo watched Lily turn around slowly and sensed a strange energy around her.
At this point Leo felt that Lily was in danger and without even realizing what he was doing, he was holding Lily flying with her toward the ground where he landed on his feet just like he did at the tower.
The gnome was perplexed and so was Lily and before Leo could get a chance to turn on the gnome, the gnome started disappearing in a static form, "what have you done..." The gnome struggled to speak.
The gnome then completely disappeared as Leo and Lily looked at the bridge that had collapsed behind them leaving the vast darkness spread like a wild black ocean. "I got it, let's get you home," Leo showed Lily the flower as he helped her walk.