With Grumbonk rushing towards them Gabriel and Arabelle started running away as fast as they could, but Grumbonk was proficient in magic and wizardry so not only was he himself under a spell that increased his speed, but his clothes were also enchanted in a way that made them more aerodynamic and weighed less.

Grum was quickly gaining ground on them, so Gabriel started throwing everything he had in his bag towards the rushing elf, trying to hinder its progress. It didn’t really seem have an effect and soon Gabriel only had his bag and mini-David left. He wouldn’t throw him behind, so he was out of resources and Grum was just a few meters behind.

Grumbonk started decelerating as he was going to catch up to them and the children were tired already, so they wouldn’t have the energy to escape even if he went slower. And this way he could instill fear slowly into them, creeping in, so that they’d pay for what they’d done this day.

Not that they would remember, as Grum would brainwash them as soon as he could, this was the last straw, and he wouldn’t try it the nice way anymore; instead, he’d coerce them into it and turn them into nice little well-behaved lab rats. Rakshnurians. That’s what he meant, yes.

When he got close enough to them for his own taste he started talking.

- You know, I’m actually only worried about your well-being; I want you to turn into real Rakshnurians. – Grumbonk stated and he wasn’t lying but he also wasn’t saying the whole truth.

The way pure Rakshnurians form is by drinking the blood of a pure Rakshnurian and one of Grumbonk’s projects was to test if they could fuse with other lifeforms or if this process could be transmitted into other species, to make halflings into purebreds. It’d revolutionize society as they knew it. Maybe you could even change species!

But when Grum commented this idea with his fellow scientist his ideas were ostracized once again, as with many revolutionary projects of his. Even if they all thought of Rakshnurians as humanoid monsters and were OK with experimenting on rats and slimes, they couldn’t accept doing it with smart monsters. Why? What was the difference?

Grum couldn’t really see it, his fellow scientist had a limited mindset that would make him the best inventor in the world while they remained unknown for most of the population.

And when two Rakshnurians came right to his doorstep, he couldn’t hold his desire to find the truth about this problem, but as he could communicate with the monsters, he wanted to have their approval of this experiment first, not to extend his punishment. But they had to run away and ruin everything.

Gabriel, in his last efforts, took a fallen branch of a tree and attacked the incoming elf, to which he retorted.

- Do you really think you can damage me like that? Hah! Don’t make me laugh! – and he let himself get hit, as Gabriel barely had any strength in him, and he enjoyed watching him give his last efforts and let more and more fear get to his head.

But this was a mistake made by Grum, as during one of these attacks Gabriel actually managed to hurt him. On his ear.

- Auughhhh!!! – Grumbonk screamed in pain, putting his hands towards the place where his left ear had been, as it had been cut off. - YOU!!!! You will pay! – And Grumbonk quickly shot a quick ice spear towards Gabriel, but it steered too far off to the right.

Elves, as mentioned before, have a special organ that helps them control mana better than other races. It works similar to a heart, pumping mana instead of blood in the mana systems of the body. But the control of mana didn’t only come from this organ, instead they also used their pointy ears to manage the mana better as it left their bodies.

Now most elven ears are pretty firm and well connected to the cranium, but Grumbonk had been born flawed and his ears were weaker than most but being in the heat of the moment made him loose his cool and make this mistake, which cost him dearly.

But Grumbonk’s problems didn’t end with the pain and the difficulty controlling his mana, the mana of his body was also rushing out of him, making him feel weaker and weaker, an opportunity which the siblings found and used, as they started running away into the forest as fast as possible.

Five hours later, in the middle of the forest.

Gabriel and Arabelle kept running or trotting away as long as they could, but they had finally reached their end point. They were panting and sweating buckets, but Gabriel still didn’t feel safe and felt like he was being watched.

Now he didn’t have the physical or mental energy to really care about that very much but seeing that his instincts had improved did make him feel better. Not that he felt good. He was in pain, his muscles sore, his mind racing and scared and the only thing he wanted was to drink and rest.

Luckily a water stream was flowing nearby, one which they reached by following the sounds of a small waterfall. As a bonus they found some berries on the way there, but without knowing what type of fruit it was they decided to leave them for later.

Having drunk enough to be satiated the family foraged for a while, ate the safe foods they found and quickly fell asleep. Only after waking up did, they realize the mistake they had done, but at that point it was too late.

The next day Gabriel and Arabelle woke up tied to a pole, hanging about a meter above the ground, with their eyes covered and possessions taken. Not that they had much left, only a bag, mini-David and the few things they had foraged.

Gabriel heard some noises which sounded like a language, but not one he was taught, loosing hopes on a “diplomatic” solution to their situation. Now he could either try to escape by force or find an opportunity by learning what they wanted to do with them.

Luckily for the brother and sister these unknown beings that captured them were quite curious and going thoroughly through his possessions, especially a plant.

- Why would someone carry a plant? – They thought, not finding an easy answer, so they asked their captured, but they didn’t seem to understand the question. Not even that they were being talked to.

One of them tried smelling the plant and… David started with his magic. Now, had this been his bigger body inside Grumbonk’s “mansion”, he would’ve been able to hypnotize such simple creatures, but being limited with his size, he could only communicate with them and trick them into liberating the siblings.

He did so by making the group believe that he was a holy plant and that these two beings were carrying him towards his holy land where he’d bless everyone that had helped him in his travels. But it seemed like it worked too well, as the group wanted to carry him themselves, to which David replied that only those two children knew how to plant him.

This made the captors think for a while and then they decided to “free” Gabriel and Arabelle by keeping them tied and carrying them towards their objective. Now when this happened the family was more lost than ever, not knowing what caused this sudden behavior in their captors.

But it didn’t take long to find out, as Grumbonk made an excuse to be able to communicate with the siblings and so he explained everything to them. Not only that, but he convinced the humanoid-cat captors to let him stay with them for the whole trip, as only they wouldn’t taint his “holiness”.

Although they were captured, this situation was a lot better than what they expected it to be. First of all, they didn’t have to hunt, cook or worry in any way about their daily needs, as these would be given to them.

Secondly, they could communicate at any moment with David, with whom they were communicating every day and finally, travelling in a group made the other tribes to prevent making contact with them, as groups their size were much harder to defeat in comparison to only a pair of adventurers.

Or at least that’s how they thought, as no one in the vicinity was strong enough to change their beliefs and if they were, they weren’t interested in fighting them, such as Grumbonk. This meant that their mentality wouldn’t change until they experienced one of those two situations.

Unknown location, around the same time

- So, Grum failed, huh. – said a shadowy figure connected to tons of cables. – send Prum or Yrum to take care of things in that zone.

Someone inside the same lightless room nodded his head, made some calls and informed that it was done.

Where Grumbonk had once stood only dust and an antler’s heart remained.