The Girl with Six Fingers

We met a gnome named Gnom on a mysterious island. He saved us from an unknown peril, and we became friends. Gnom could transfer between an infinite number of parallel worlds, like gnomes have done for thousands of years.

He refused to tell us anything about how he did it. We wouldn’t understand, he said. Human beings are locked in their three dimensions, he said.

Instead, he took us on a trip to a nearby town. It was our town, but in another dimension. We saw our counterparts in that world, which lead the French witch to warn us about Gnom:

“He’s a risk taker,” she said.

The gnome didn’t seem to take any risk, when he transferred us to a arid world where people lived in a iron age society. The shepherd Borshj looked after a herd of snake like livestock and everything was peacefully.

The peace was broken when the large predator entered the scene. Piotr was a little slow, and one of the beast’s razor sharp teeth cut his leg open. To Piotr’s defence might be said, he was at that time busy cutting the predator’s throat with his sword.

But it was worse to come. The shaman Tafn brought us news about the brand new gods who had occupied the top of Mount Emperor. Rumours said, the new gods wanted fungi, the type the locals used for their light bladders.

The god’s servants were gruesome. They killed three people, to make sure that the remaining villagers delivered enough fungi in the future.

But we found out, there was no divine interference. The so called gods weren’t, what they wanted the villagers to believe.

How to take on a bunch of ruthless colonialists with powerful weapons and a demon driven cart?

What we had, was modern technology, Gnom’s special ability, and Tafn’s ingenuity. She used to travel to other villages as their shaman and doctor, and was always updated on the latest about the fungi seeking gods.

She complained, Gnom and Piotr didn’t include her when they had fun. Tafn wanted to join them climbing the slopes of Mount Emperor in the rainy season to scare and confuse the bandits, and to eliminate one of their scary guard dogs.

But that wasn’t enough to convince the false gods to leave. We had to come up with a better plan. If we had a plan at all.

Gnom made me a great magician and sorcerer, Piotr was cut by a spear, and Tafn had to stitch him together again. It was first when the French witch intervened, we got the freedom of action we needed.