Two belly-bloated Gnomish women, Marzipan and Petunia, both well regarded by all, held hands atop an ancient rock and looked into the swirling night sky. New life tumbled and readied to burst out from their stomachs. All two thousand seven hundred and eleven Gnomes had gathered to witness their bearing. Posts and watches had been left unattended as directed by their Girthdom, and each had brought what was required. A living thing to feed the Enchantment.

  “For thousands of years,” Petal Gravewhistle boomed from next to his wives, “people have come here, to this clearing, to meet. To gather. To practice their rituals.”

  Yellow light from the Soil Mind glinted off his reformed body as the The Steward of Sun and Shade looked over the crowd. Tripping their Gnomish asses off tea, eyes dilated, all holding a piece of life, his words and their unity braided them together. Magic crawled out from System and tickled together the beginning of the Enchantment.

  Petal stamped down on Thumb Rock, Dungeon metal weaved through him clanking and sparking on the ancient stone. “The people are now gone from this place. This wild. And tonight, tomorrow, and hereafter, the Gnomes of Allen Gardens will NEVER allow what was forgotten!”

  The Gnomes yelled into the night, stomping their feet and causing a great ruckus. Yet no bird nor critter flew off in fright. Secured on all sides by their allied Boss, who they called Great Moose, the Wild drank in their glory and returned to them a tighter blanket of Essence.

  It started to rain a trickle under the cloudless sky. The Gnomes circled Thumb Rock in a tight coil, budding up against one another but never tripping.

  Petal turned and smiled lovingly to his wives, booming again as he felt the prickles of raw, potent Gnomish magic flowing. “Tonight, we call upon Marzipan. We call upon Petunia. First of their name and first of the Equinox Wardens!”

  The three gnomes standing on the rock looked toward the sky as the chanting grew louder. Droplets of rain speckled their bodies, and twinge of electricity began to prickle the air.

  “Sun and Shade! Sun and Shade!” The Gnomes yelled, holding up their offerings as they marched.

  And on a makeshift bench, tripping hard, Alex gaped as the Gnomish Tea ransacked his simple mind and toyed with his Skills, Titles, and various Links.

  “Do you feel that?” He whispered, feeling Essence course through him, and feeling the unrelenting urge to activate [Burrow Sense]. “And where is Emilio?”

  His cat hadn’t made an appearance, and with the way he felt, he could use one of his massive tackles.

  Snu squeezed his arm tight, eyes locked on the circling brigade. “So strong. It’s so strong. I didn’t know they’d be able to…,”

  She too was under the heady influence of Gnomish tea. They all were. Though looking around at their swirling, dripping, over saturated faces, Alex could tell no one felt its effects as strongly as him.

  “Did we no bring nothing? They all bring something.” Nino whispered to Nina.

  Before Nina could shush him, Moose spoke. “No. This is their Enchantment. We simply bear witness. Watching is safe. Partake and you may find yourself wrapped in their ways.”

  Nino grunted seriously and shuffled closer to his wife, who extended a hand for him to hold.

  “It’s thick!” Aria moaned and rubbed at her temple. Connecting to the magic in a similar way to Alex, and without Gnomish tea, she still had a serious headache coming on. “It’s like it’s pulling me in.”

  “Shh,” Mary shushed, holding out her hand for Aria to grasp. With her own Skills, she could see the overwhelming Life Essence curling around the moshing Gnomes and splendored at it. “Just watch. This reminds me of when I made you all.”

  “Trippy, right?” Jemin snorted and patted the brother Drones on the back, having the time of his life and seeing nothing but wonder. He had so many strange Skills and so many interactions with the System that the Gnomish tea was only enjoyable. Powerful, the strongest psychedelic he’d ever experienced, but still fun.

  Beepy and Zippy, and Francesca too, were locked in. She hadn’t blinked in two minutes, and though she watched the Ritual, her quick metabolism digested the Gnomish tea the quickest and had thrown her right into its more severe stage.

  Magical psychedelics, a heavy helping of nootropics, a dash of amphetamines, and six variations of other, favored substances new since the System’s arrival mixed by the Gnome’s expert Poisoner crashed against their circuitry. The brothers connected their minds deeper, absorbed everything, and wondered about life, the universe, and everything. First question on the docket was: What is courage?

  Alex blanched as he digested more of the tea, and his stomach ached. “I don’t feel so good.”

  That made Snu tear her eyes away to look at him. They analyzed and then softened as she leaned in. “Hold on tight, I’m right here. Breathe through it, OK?”

  She looked like she was going to say more, almost continuing, but pulled back at the last moment. Due to her nature, the tea only made her feel giddy and overemotional.

  What was she about to say? Is something wrong? Alex thought as he tried to get a grip on himself. Looking sideways at her, anxiety began to mount in his heart. He would not activate [Burrow Sense] while under heavy drugs. Even if the urge was itching like a flaking scab.

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  “Gnomes!” Petal yelled out loud as the rain thickened. “Call out with your hearts!”

  His voice filled the entire clearing as he chanted the song, morphing and mingling with every Gnome present.

  “From dirt we come, From soil we rise.

  Unbound by chain, ruled by he in Sky.

  By Shade and Bloom, by Shadow and Sun,

  WE GIVE, WE LIVE, WE CREATE AS ONE!”

  Two thousand throats roared the final words back at him and stamped the ground. Off bark and stone, off root and bone, it sunk into the ground and rock.

  The sky split, and lightning screamed out of nowhere. Straight down from no cloud, it crashed down into Petal’s raised metal hand. His metal veins turned white-hot as he caught it and clamped down around it. It should have shattered him, should have melted him, except Petal Gravewhistle wasn’t just The Steward of Sun and Shade, Righteous One, The Eternal Gnome, and chosen husband of two legendary women, Petunia and Marzipan.

  Before Emilio, before the GnOpal, before it all, he had a very important role that he kept to this day. For all his battle prowess, Petal possessed very specific, non-violence related Skills. Honor, care, love for his people, the unrelenting desire to live possessed him from the moment the System awoke him. Had always possessed him. And for all his character, the System had first blessed him with a Skill for all Garden Gnomes.

  [Rite of Rootbound Chorus] allowed him to head their collective Rituals as Chief Ritualist.

  Finnicky things, Enchantments, no two answering the same call the same way. This one sped outward from Petal and swept upon the gathered whole. Inside and out, drawn from stamped earth and steadily flaming hearts, a shimmering wall blurred at the edge of the Ritual. Two seconds was what it took for the Equinox Birthing Ritual to become a living System process better known as a large-scale Enchantment. It was just of a potent Garden Gnomish variety.

  “RISE!” Petal called over the chanting while grasping the bolt, and his wives did.

  The Gnomes went mental as Marzipan and Petunia pushed their consciousness into the Enchantment and levitated from Thumb Rock. Flipped horizontally, their focused eyes turned white as their bodies stilled, the only calm Gnomes of the horde. Breathing deeply, their chests rose up and down as they willed themselves deep into the Enchantment. Both knew what they were getting into, and felt no fear, only excitement at the prospect.

  “Holy fucking shit.” Alex said first, seeing the cloud of the Enchantment encase the Gnomes. The rain columned only on the circling mass of Gnomes. Morphing shapes and oversaturation of colours, the initial phase of the tea, was about to pass for the second. Snu squeezed him tight, cheering beside him, as everyone else gaped at the Ritual.

  “GNOMES!” Petal convulsed as he screamed through his grip on the lightning, “HOLD UP YOUR OFFERINGS! SUN AND SHADE ARRIVES!”

  “Emilio!?” Alex brightened up, searching the woods for his cat.

  Thousands of hands reached for the sky with something living. Acorns, minnows, spiders, worms, even one butterfly was pulled up out of muddy grips to flow into a swirling mass of life above Marzipan and Petunia. Both women began to shake, clenching their jaws, and squeezed each other’s hands tight as their bodies fought against delivering. They’d held on for so long, prevented and held back belly cracks all to deliver on this special night under the moonless sky and with the full force of the Gnomes.

  It was time. They couldn’t hold back the cracking any longer. The children wanted out, and they wanted the Enchantment.

  Porcelain bellies cracked apart, and both women screamed. Small figurines tumbled in their hollows. Crying crested out, washing over Gnomish cheers, Petal’s roar, and mother’s cries. The swirling mass of life tightened above the women, but still no children leapt out.

  Petal screamed as spitting rain turned to storm. “BRING FORTH YOUR BLESSING, SUN AND SHADE! IMBUE THESE CHILDREN WITH THE MIGHT OF ALL!”

  And finally, Emilio answered their call.

  Glowing like a bulb, thirty pounds of grey cat blasted flying out from the dark woods. He would not touch soggy ground. Screams hit higher decibels as Petal gripped tight and the women held fast. Rain funneled around his form, and he swept in on air into the Enchantment for all to admire. Entrances were important to maintain his [Hidden Demigod of Feline] status, after all.

  “SUN AND SHADE, SUN AND SHADE!” They cried.

  Emilio looked upon the swirling mass of offered life, upon his Steward, and then on his followers. Finally, he looked upon the women. The strong women. With magic in the air, and mostly unaware of exactly how it all worked, he still felt the Enchantment calling to him. Beckoning his additional power. Vulnerable, the Gnomes were, with this. They welcomed him and asked as politely as Gnomes could for his power to imbue their newest additions to the clan. His clan.

  Of course he would. He’d chosen them. One simple word and a tilting of power activated his part.

  “Meow.”

  FATTOOOOOCRACK

  A tree trunk sized lightning rod broke from the sky, pulling with it unfathomable amounts of Essence, and shred towards the mass of offerings. Rather than explode, his beam condensed the matter and the life to sacrifice and concentrate it. In an instant it combined all together, only multiplying what was inside, and continued on to split into the waiting hollows of the brave women.

  They screamed as the split rod lanced into their bellies, not from pain, but from the raw power routing around as their children were born.

  And then like a doctor performing a C-section, Emilio used his lightning to aid their birth. He was a gentle doula. Only these children would be imbued and emboldened by the strength and sacrifice of the entire Gnomish number with a spot of feline prowess for good measure.

  Seven miniature glowing garden gnomes floated out of their bellies, crying at their disrupted slumber. His new disciples, lucky number seven for each woman, even if a cat didn’t understand the concept of luck. It came naturally. Somehow the children wore cute little shorts and t-shirts already on their porcelain bodies. Emilio ensured they felt no pain as the Enchantment took hold. Two beams of lightning infused by a demigod, the love of strong mothers, and the raw strength of a two thousand psychos forcing an Enchantment upon the world.

  Petal’s beam snapped off. The rain ceased. Petunia and Marzipan floated down, stomachs fusing back together like melted glass as their eyes fluttered open. The entire force of Gnomes cheered. Slowly the children floated down towards the first embrace by their mothers.

  The Ritual, or Enchantment, had worked. The women, the gnomes, and Emilio’s plan was a success. Since their formation, both cat and gnome had prepared for the Equinox. They’d needed to ally and met with Moose to branch out their hold deep into the north. The children, for their troubles, would bear the strongest Cores, and the strongest Skills, connected to Emilio and all of the Gnomish number. There was a moment of quiet as everyone seemed to hold their breath.

  What the burgeoning force did not plan for or anticipate was the effect of the Enchantment on everyone else in the vicinity. Unfiltered Essence and the remnants ripped out from the circular dome and blasted out in all directions, attempting to dissipate. Importantly, it flooded right for the location of their honored guests.

  Alex saw the flash of fear in Emilio’s face as their eyes finally met. He also received two notifications as the remnants from the Enchantment hit him a second later. Just in time for the second phase of Gnomish tea to finally digest fully.

  “Oh shit.” Alex slurred, feeling the urge to activate [Burrow Sense] overcome him.

  Emilio, in his excitement, had forgotten that since Alex was his [Companion], he too might be affected in unique ways.

  [DING!]

  [DING!]