He took the long way around, crouching low to hide himself in the bushes. The garden was a mess after Nean unleashed her last spell. It was hard to tell what was what anymore. It was mostly just rubble.
The pebbles hurt his knees every time he crouched or tried to hide a bit better. He did not know exactly where he was going, but there were only so many places still standing.
Along this painful journey, he remembered an incredibly useful clue. He was certain he had recorded it in one of his paranoid videos. Looking through his phone, all the while keeping one eye over the hedges, he began searching for it.
Keeping his phone to his ear so as to not alert anyone, he stumbled onto the right moment. The bad news was he was too far away at that time to see where it was, but he could assume the direction from where it came and It was enough for him.
The distance was short, and yet every step he made could have led him straight to the enemies. He could not tell where they were, or where they came from but as long as the others kept standing, he had a chance.
Time was of the essence. There was no telling what would come next.
He crept up the last of the bridges, as the big tree appeared before him. A soft sound of chiming came from under it, as the wind made the rope under the bell gently swing side to side.
Bingo! Three times three. Ring ring ring.
It was incredibly simple. All he had to do was tug that rope and wait for something to happen. The logic was there, though he did not recall when exactly he became so trusting of that horrible place.
I got this.
He did not. The swarm was back at his feet the moment he thought he was safe, and this time they were not going to let him go. They had pitchforks, sickles, fireworks rockets, pliers, ropes and every tool one would imagine. They were going to get creative in torturing him. He felt it in his bones.
Shit.
The crowd swarmed in from all sides like an angry mob about to burn the witch. The central place was taken by a family draped in black, carrying a coffin and a framed painting of a gnome that Dot thought he'd seen before. It had a bell at the end of its hat, just like the gnome that died at the gazebo.
As they wept, Dot slowly put some loose pieces together and realized why they were so angry at them. After all, he'd killed their friend when he fought the goose, and then the cousin who came for vengeance. If he were to check what was inside the coffin, he'd probably be welcomed by a headless little man.
"Sorry."
He sprinted towards the tree faster than he thought possible, and like a squirrel pumped up on ketamine, he climbed it until he reached the branch closest to the bell. The thin paper ribbons fluttered in the light breeze as he watched the gnomes gather underneath like a ring of fire.
They cursed at him and raised their weapons in protest but they did not dare climb after him. Instead, they began some form of prayer, like the tree itself was a sacred place he'd just defiled.
Wrapping his hands and legs around the branch, Dot let himself hang upside down, just far enough for the bell to be within his reach.
Ding.
Ding.
Ding.
"How much longer," Kama said nervously, as more and more monsters came from seemingly nowhere. They were an army, that despite its size could easily topple a city. They just kept coming with no intention of ever stopping.
"Nean?" Kama called out. His hammer could only flatten so many, and he swung it around rabidly. "Any time now."
"Great magic requires great precision, and I would prefer not to kill you all before we leave."
"Magic people always say stuff like that," screamed Flarion as his blade was soaked in gnome blood, and his revolver smoking to the point it could melt in his hand.
"On my mark, stand as still as you can," Nean yelled as her hands began to exude a soft blue light, and a sound of scraping glass pinched their ears.
Ding.
Ding.
Ding.
"Now!"
As soon as the words left her lips, threads of light came from her, spreading all around like a ball of yarn being unravelled.
Each took a separate path and pierced the monsters like they were threading the needle. One by one they became a part of a string, gliding in the air, almost infinite.
The vibrations grew stronger the heavier the string got and eventually the resonance was powerful enough to blow them all to pieces in one spectacular explosion.
Then the strings faded into nothing.
Magic spells? Is this what it really looks like?
It all went quiet.
They needed some time to catch a breath and clean their faces of the pinkish ooze covering the entire garden. It took some time to process what they were looking at. Only the outer walls and Dot's tree survived the carnage.
Ding.
DIng.
Please. Please. Please work.
Ding.
"Vanilla milkshake?" Dot said after tasting the ooze that had gotten inside his mouth. The taste was impeccably attractive, even though an entire gnome family had been wiped out of existence. Sadly, only one of those things seemed to matter to him at that moment.
"Don't eat it," Crow gave Flarion a look of disgust, as she tried to make her way out of the foamy puddle and towards the other side of the garden, where a door had appeared. Curiously enough, it had an awful resemblance to an elevator. "What's wrong with people?" she mumbled flinging the axe over her shoulder.
Nean held her position as long as he could, but her own body began to fail her, limb by limb. Bending over, she breathed in deep raspy bursts, as if trying to silence something inside her. Her hood had fallen back after the blast, revealing the scar across the side of her face that disappeared behind the ears. It did not look like any blade made it.
"What's wrong?" Flarion said lifting her to her feet. Her bright eyes had gone murky and dark, wandering without focus.
"I am fine," she said in a flat voice. "It'll pass quickly. We should move on now."
"You don't look fine," he insisted. "You should-"
"Just do as I say," she pushed him off and as if using all the strength she had left in the body, walked on.
"Do I need to carry you again?" Kama joked seeing the lost look on Dot's face.
"Uhh..."
"Wait, It just came to me. I don't think you ever told us your name?"
Hanging on to the branch, with holes on his sleeves, and a fear of toughing the ground, Dot had real doubts if he even had a name at that point. The flashing lights had gotten engraved to the back of his eyes and squadrons of tiny people exploding into tasty mush.
What are names anyway?
"Do you?" Kama repeated waving from below. "Or should I just call you-" he stopped to think, with his paw on his chin, like it was very important to find the right name.
"It's Dot. You can call me Dot," he said before he was given a label he did not ask for.
"Good." Kama returned. "Very good. Dot means soup in my language. And here we are, swimming in it."
Ha… ha… oh dear god.
"Come on people, let's move before these bastards turn into some kind of mushy creeps," yelled Crow, pointing at the exit. "But look on the bright side, we just won the great opportunity to die elsewhere."
"Dot?" asked Nean after Kama pried him off the branch, and placed him back on the path. It took a moment before got used to the sound his feet made on the pavement.
"Yes?"
"How did you know?" She sounded a bit better now but the cloak was once again hiding her face. "About the bell."
"Oh, the bell? I.. uh… I saw the clue at the bottom of the teacup. I guess we were supposed to see it when we finished the tea."
"What?" Bax cried. "Tea. So what was all of this for if we could have just rang the bloody bell? I… I rang the bell first. By the light of Windgalath…"
"I knew it," said Nean in a dark tone. "We were never supposed to fight here. This was probably just a…" she coughed and took another deep breath as they entered the elevator.
A tutorial? Is that what she meant?
Dot remained silent as the door closed. He feared telling them anything at all.