Chapter 7

Five seconds passed, there was neither Lillian's scream nor the hiss of hot iron hitting her body. Phillip peeked, it turned out that the hot iron was dropped by something shining, the glowing creature also pushed the big Gnome until its grip was released from Lillian.

Phillip opened his eyes to find the Gnomes running around screaming for help, sometimes screaming in pain. Each Gnome is being chased by hordes of glowing insects. Phillip thought the insect colony was fireflies that were taking revenge for being used as a light, but he immediately realized that fireflies don't bite.

The Big Body gnome was hit the most, he ran frantically while occasionally fighting the insects, but the Gnome was no match for the insects. Only the Wide Hat was not attacked. He was still standing on the pulpit, full of horror watching his people run around. Phillip wondered what was going on until a large flap of wings could be heard in the sky.

As soon as he looked up, his eyelids rounded, a boy drew closer to the group of Gnomes. He was just an ordinary teenager with curly blond hair, wearing a green long-sleeved shirt layered with a shabby vest in a darker color, and brown trousers. It's just that a pair of large butterfly wings attached to its back makes it all the more amazing. He landed casually in front of the Gnome with the wide hat.

"What is all this?" The youth's blue bead walked around casually. As if in front of him there was no chaos at all.

"Sir Wiggy!" The wide hat gnome exclaimed in panic, hurriedly removing the hat. His dignified face became nervous. "We, uh, I - err. They…. ”

The young man named Wiggy stamped his feet impatiently.

"Err, w - we ... we brought you an empress," said the Big Hat finally, pointing at Lillian.

Wiggy turned his head quickly, and as the sapphire eye collided with Lillian's, his thick eyebrows raised, staring at the girl for a moment, but then turned back to the Gnome in the broad hat with a fierce face.

"You think I'm happy?"

"Um, maybe ...."

"Do I look happy right now, Oogy?" The young man suppressed the words, pointing at his angry face.

Finally, the Wide Hat gave up, lowering his head deeply. "No, sir ...."

“How many times have I told you not to bother anyone in the forest without my permission. You are all deaf or something?”

Oogy took cover behind his wide hat. "B — but they're intruders, sir."

"How dare you argue with me!" Wiggy snapped, making the Gnome jump, shutting his mouth tight. "You Gnomes will be exiled forever, you know that, right?"

The creature nodded languidly. "We apologize, Sir Wiggy."

“Enough, I don't want to hear another word from your dirty mouths. Now, before my anger gets even higher, all of you get out of here!”

"But, Mr. Wiggy. We want to come back…. ”

"I SAID GO!"

Wiggy's insects stepped in to herd all the Gnomes trotting through the bush and trees. They kept running screaming in despair until finally their voices and figures disappear being swallowed by the thick darkness of the forest. Wiggy burst out laughing at all of that. When his laughter went down he turned around, then walked casually over to Phillip and Lillian.

"Who are you?" asked Phillip, who at once made Wiggy glare.

"I should be the one asking that."

"Oh really? Why?"

"Why?" Wiggy flapped his wings once to bring his face closer to Phillip's. “First, you guys entered my territory like intruders. Second, you burn wood carelessly to pollute the air and destroy my land. Third, you are leaning on my precious tree. Now you are still asking why! "

"Why do we have to ask permission from you, who the hell even are you?" snapped Phillip not to be outdone.

"Come on, Phillip," said Lillian in the most gentle tone as possible, "thank you so much for helping us. Can you please untie these too?”

Wiggy's arms are dismissive. "And why should I do it?"

"Please, we can't be here all night, we have to go immediately to find our way back home."

Wiggy stared at Lillian for a moment, then turned to the insects that had been circling him, talking to them as if in a discussion. Furthermore, the insects immediately buzzed as if answering. They wrapped around the rope that tied Lillian's hand until it loosened and finally broke, Wiggy caught Lillian to help her down.

"Hey — hey, wait, I'm not ready yet — aww!" Phillip fell to the ground. The young man got up while rubbing his head. It hurts, but it's not as bad as the abdominal pain that goes awry. He clutched his stomach with a grimace, while Wiggy's Bugs made a small hum like a mocking laugh. "You stupid bug!"

Lillian immediately approached her brother and lifted her face. "Are you all right, Phill? Geez, they made you bleed."

"I'm fine, Lill ...."

"Drink this!" Lillian thrust a bottle into Phillip's mouth, making him forcefully swallow the liquid until it runs out.

"All right, I'm getting better now ...."

"Geez, look at your hand!" The girl interrupted again, checking her brother's red wrist, showing some peeling skin. "Don't worry, I'll handle it!" Lillian said, rubbing another bottle of medicinal ointment on Phillip's wrist.

"Lill, your wrists are scratched too ...."

“Shh - don't talk while I'm healing. How's your stomach?"

"Not that bad actually."

"You're telling the truth, right? Count how many fingers I have!" Lillian held up three fingers, but Phillip just kept a flat face with one eyebrow raised, indicating that he meant it. The girl stroked her chest. "Oh, thank goodness."

"Looks like you guys had a great night," said the voice that came from the strange young man. “Thank the Gnomes. They are experts at making human nights full of exciting challenges. "

The Grace siblings turned around and got up together. Seeing that the interlocutor was older, but looking a little ridiculous, Phillip cleared his throat and looked up a little, trying to appear more charismatic.

"What creature are you?"

Wiggy's face scrunched up. "I'm not a creature, I'm a person!"

"Then, what's your name?" continued Lillian so that her brother would not continue with his cynical words.

"Introducing, my name is Wiggy. Leader of the Falsies in the North Tomer Forest. "

Lillian squealed excitedly. "So the myth of the Falsies is real?"

Wiggy shrugged. "You have met three kinds of them, even almost got hurt, now that you meet their leader, are we less real to you?"

"A leader, huh?" Phillip crouched, his tone disparaging, "Where is your palace then?"

"Oh, I don't call it a palace, because the whole Northern Tomer Forest is my territory!" replied Wiggy, spreading his hands apart, and turning briefly on his heels.

"What Falsies are under your command, Wiggy?"

Phillip looked at his sister in amazement. The enthusiastic tone of the question made it clear that Lillian was attracted to this winged youth.

"I lead the Elves, Pixies, Fauns, Dwarves, and Gnomes," replied Wiggy proudly.

Phillip immediately squealed. "If you are the leader of the Gnomes, that means you ordered them to capture us!"

"Ah no, no ..." The winged youth waved his hand. "They are in exile because I think they are disobedient."

"Disobedient?" Lillian arched her brows, asking for an explanation.

“The Gnomes were used to be my most loyal followers, that's why I gave them the privilege of tricking forest destroyers so they would prevent them. With a note of asking my opinion first. But, over time, the ugly Gnome tricking people as they like. Many people died, not only forest destroyers but also people who intended to take care of the forest. I have been warned them many times, but they don't want to listen. Finally, I gave them punishment."

Lillian just nodded her head, didn't know how to react, but the smile on her face hadn't faded. Meanwhile, Phillip immediately imagined how many people had been the victims of Wiggy's Gnome. There must have been a pile of human corpses somewhere, with burnt wounds marked "G" on their bodies.

"Wiggy, can you help us out of this forest?" pleaded Lillian, who almost broke Phillip's neck from turning too fast. The young man was shocked to hear the brilliant idea of ​​his sister who didn't even ask for an opinion first.

"Too bad, Kiddo, I'm not a helper. I may be a leader, but I'm making a reputation as an evil leader."

"Why want to be evil? You've been kind enough to help us from the Gnomes .... "

Seeing the potential for tongue martial arts as usually done by his sister. Phillip snatched up quickly. "Good news, because we absolutely do not want a 'Sir' of the arrogant ugly crowd to join the party."

With that sentence, he dragged his sister, walked quickly, and grabbed roughly the bush and tendrils of trees. Phillip was still holding his sister's hand, leaving Wiggy who was silent as they watched they're walking away. Lillian glanced at her brother, then turned to Wiggy and sighed. A moment of silence swept over them, until Lilian took a breath, daring to speak.

"You know, Phill, we might need that Wiggy guy's help."

“Come on, Lill, a leader of those weird midget creatures? His personality must be awful, we should not easily believe him," replied Phillip without turning his head.

"But he has wings, we'll just ask him to fly past the big trees, then guide us out of the forest."

“No, Lill, we don't need his help! He admits himself to be evil."

"He saved us from the Gnomes earlier."

"To be more precise, he was teasing his ugly suspect. He doesn't care about us, trust me," said Phillip who was starting to growl.

"At least he didn't hurt us, even though if he wanted to he could do it because we had violated our entry into his territory!"

“Lillian, no strange creature with raggy wings will come with us. Understand!," said Phillip.

"Hey, that's a harsh sentence for a person who helped you!" said a familiar voice. When the two children looked up, Wiggy was perched in the tree, supporting his head with both hands. The youth landed slowly before them.

"Wiggy!" cheered Lillian.

"You followed us!" continued Phillip, annoyed.

Wiggy frowned. "Hey, this is my forest, I'm free to go anywhere."

"Hey, your forest is huge, go with your flying cockroaches to another place, and leave us!"

"Phillip!" scolds Lillian.

"Look, I know a safe place for you to spend the night. Tomer Forest is very dangerous at night. To be honest, I don't care at all about forest destroyers like you two, but seeing how young you are, I'm sure you can fix that bad attitude. Meanwhile, if you die, nothing can be fixed. So, you guys come?" The young man was chattering regardless of the arguments of the Grace brothers.

Lillian turned to Phillip, gesturing to accept it immediately, but her brother chuckled.

“Remember this, strange creature! What my sister and I did was not damaging the forest, neither a bad temper, we were just trying to survive. I even took dry twigs from the ground, not chopping wood that was still healthy! ”

Lillian patted the forehead. However, Phillip was not finished with his sentence. “I won't accept that offer anyway! You are a show-off guy, when you say dangerous, in the end, you will say that yourself caused the danger. You also trapped us, then took us to your place, and kept us, and made us slaves, and tortured us, and so on."

Wiggy was stunned for a few seconds. “Wow, that sounds a little too much, I never even thought about doing such things. But, it's serious! You don't understand! It's not me that you have to afraid of. Well, maybe a little… but I'm not the real problem here!”

"Are there robbers? Bandits? Or Rumplestilskin or ... ” Lillian guessed.

"Come on, Lill ...."

"You guys have to watch out for Mundy," Wiggy continued seriously towards Lillian, who was more talkable so far, "He likes to spread a lot of spies at night and he is 30 times worse than me!"

"Sorry, sir, we have a house to go to, we can take care of ourselves. We don't want help from a naughty teenager with flying cockroaches, and his nonsense about Lumpy, or anything like that." Phillip spat out.

"You may not want it, but you need it, you can't even untie the ropes that tie your body, you think you can protect your sister alone?" replied Wiggy equally stubborn.

“My sister is my responsibility, I looked after her for my life, and did all of that without anyone's help! Even I can guide the two of us to this point!”

"Oh, excuse me ... you forgot that an hour ago your life might have ended, and you wouldn't have made it to this point without my help!"

Lillian could only take turns staring at the two young men arguing. Their eyes stared at each other full of anger as if there were lightning striking each other. Phillip finally relented, he grabbed Lillian's hand and dragged her away again.

"Let's go, Lill!"

Again, Wiggy watched them leave in disappointment, then bit the inside of his cheek to think. Soon he snapped his fingers. "According to the myth, Mundy has eyes on young girls to be his wives," said Wiggy, who suddenly made Phillip stop. "He would kidnap and take the girl he was looking for to the Southern Palace, then lock her up, make her a slave, then so on, and so on ...."

Wiggy knew his bluff worked when Phillip turned toward him, though his face was scowled in annoyance. "You don't need to repeat my sentence to such an extent!"

Phillip glanced at his sister, considering options. Obviously, this weird teenager just wants to scare him, but the fact that Tomer's forest is dangerous at night is indisputable. The raid of the Gnomes was proof enough, and Phillip vowed he would never forgive himself if something bad happened to Lillian.

Finally, with a heavy heart, he answered. "Show me the direction."

Wiggy smiled happily, spreading his wings. "Over here, fellas."

They started the journey in relaxed steps. Phillip watched Wiggy float in front of him, grumbling. For some reason, his behavior irritated the young man so much. The way he felt the tendrils of the tree along the way, changed the height of the flight, even made sudden somersaults, or swoops around.

"That filthy show-off guy, I swear I'll throw a big punch on those tapered jaws!"

Lillian elbowed her brother in the ribs. "Don't say that, He was kind enough to help us. In fact, we should thank him."

“Come on, Lillian, look at him! I mean, can we trust him? Look at his curl hair, maybe he never washed them! "

"I heard that!" said Wiggy, which made Phillip give an awkward snort.

“Come on, Phillip, just for one night. Early in the morning, we will go straight to find our way home,” Lillian coaxed, embracing her brother's arm. "The forest is too dangerous at night, right?"

When her brother looked back doubtfully, Lillian added, "we need sleep anyway, you look hideous when tired."

Phillip finally smiled. Lillian's opinion is rarely wrong, she can know someone's character even with one glance so that she is not easily deceived. Very much different from Phillip who was first filled with suspicion.

Once a wise man said never look at a book from its cover, but unfortunately, the vision of Phillip's eyes and heart was only limited to seeing the outward appearance, so it was difficult for him to know which was good and which was evil. Except maybe Miranda, everyone could guess he was a bad person even at one glance.

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