The Star Engine
by Somniums
R&R!

Chapter 6

Mawly sat atop a heavy wooden crate in the dim lighting of a storage room in the back areas of Tinker Town. She looked down at her hanging feet as they bounced idly against the crate.

I don't know why he thinks he was so great. It's because of him that our parents are gone.

She looked up, rubbing her wrist against her eyes and breathing in with a sniff. She could hear Mekkatorque speaking.

"All right, I know this is a trying time for all of us but we, of all people, will adapt! We will rebuild a home for ourselves and one day, Gnomeregan will be ours once more!"

So optimistic. I bet Mekrin is eating it up.

Mawly hopped from the crate and landed quietly on the cold floor of the storage chamber, she had come here after leaving the tram randomly, not knowing where anything was. It was the quietest place she could find.

Enough babbling.

She wiped her eyes once more left the room and back out into the main chamber of Tinker Town. She slipped unnoticed back into the crowd so as not to draw any awkward attention. A line had formed and now Mawly was at the back of it, she had been listening to the entire ordeal echoing throughout Tinker Town.

Time went by and Mawly remained quietly in the line, occasionally she looked about to see if she could spot Mekrin to no such luck. A heavy sigh passed her lips as the line stretched far into the distance, Mawly was practically back in the tram tunnel once more.

Hours passed and finally something happened, Mawly now roughly in the middle of the line noticed gnomes starting to leave and disperse throughout Tinker Town.

"All right, that's it for now! We'll process more tomorrow!" Came the shouting of Mekkatorque as his staff was gathering up arm fulls of papers and lead by an escort of guards to a private area of Tinker Town reserved for officials, Mekkatorque vanishing with them.

Mawly groaned, having waited in the line for nothing it seems. She gave another look around for Mekrin to no avail, she hadn't seen him since the tram.

Now what?

Mawly ran her fingers through her vibrant green hair and started to think when she heard a sound through the rumble of gnomes all around her. Someone was crying.

She looked around and spotted a gnome child, nigh lost in the crowd of gnomes curled up against a far wall. Mawly looked for any possible parents and saw no one tending to the child. She went over to the little boy.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Mawly asked, looking down at the child. The little gnome looked up at Mawly and wiped away a tear. He started to speak with a distressed look across his face, Mawly could only guess what had happened as he tried to explain himself through choked words and tears.

"Hey hey hey." Mawly said in a soothing, comforting tone.

"Calm down, it's all right. Let's find your parents." The little boy howled out with more weeping, Mawly looked around to see if this was drawing any more attention, holding her hands up in a desperate attempt to quiet the child. Finally he managed to get a word out, albeit just one.

"Trr...! Troo... Troggs!" Spoke the little boy, followed by more weeping. Mawly assumed his parents had been attacked by troggs in the escape.

She sat down next to him, wrapping an arm around his tiny shoulders and hugged him up against her with a less than confident look on her face, mostly feeling awkward by his noisy tears.

"Hey..." Mawly tried to think of something on the spot.

"Let's go find a game to play, how about that?"

The little gnome child sniffled and wiped away more tears on his sleeve, looking up to Mawly now. The faintest sparkle of interest breaking his distraught expression. He just nodded. Mawly stood up and took his hand, helping him up to his feet as she begun looking for anything that could possibly be considered a game.

"What's your name?" Mawly looked down at him, his eyes had dried up for the most part and now looked up at her brightly.

"Diggy."

"That's a good name!"

Diggy finally giggled behind his fingers which were currently being gnawed on nervously, blushing.

Mawly lead Diggy out of Tinker Town, which at the moment was nothing but sad faces and busy hands, there were no games to play there. Now in the other expanses of Ironforge Mawly and Diggy walked for quiet some time, their gnome sized legs not carrying them anywhere fast. They soon began to pass by a place filled with high archways and behind them were rooms filled with bookshelves stacked to the ceiling, a large skeleton of some flying beast hung suspended by wires in the air.

Diggy looked up at the pterrordax skeleton, his eyes going wide as he gasp lightly behind his soaking fingers. Mawly joined him in his awe, she had never seen anything of the sort either as they both wandered hand in hand into the Hall of Explorers.

They looked around at all the displays, giant skeletons, relics of ancient history, and more till they lost track of time. Mawly was just as interested, practically astonished by all the wonders in the Hall but more importantly she was glad she had managed to get her new companion to think about something else, it helped her think about something else as well.

"Grand, ain't it?" Came a gruff sounding voice from behind, a dwarf.

Mawly turned with Diggy to see that a dwarf had joined them as they gazed over all the exhibits.

"Oh! Sorry, I think we've gotten ourself lost and wandered too far from Tinker Town!"

"'Tis fine lassy, all are welcome here 's long as ya' don't get too touchy! The name's Muninn Magellas, Explorer's League." He looked up at the endless collections of written knowledge lining the walls, breathing out a heavy whistle.

"I never get tired'a seein' all the things we've dug up, found, 'n otherwise discovered about the history of our world." Muninn looked at Diggy, his eyes becoming playful and bright.

"Oi! And who's this lil' bruiser?" Muninn lowered himself, squatting to be closer to Diggy's eye level as Diggy started to hide behind Mawly shyly.

"Ah, whatchya runnin' from? Scared of an old dwarf?"

Diggy came back out from behind Mawly, chest puffed out as he swung shortly at Muninn with his open palm as if to defend his own honor, embarrassed. Muninn gasped and laughed boisterously.

"Looks like I was wrong! 'Bout took me beard off with that viscious swing!" Mawly smiled, Diggy laughed again while holding Mawly's hand in one hand with his other in his mouth once again.

"My name is Mawly, his name is Diggy from what he says." Mawly looking down at the gnome boy now, Muninn stood back on his feet.

"What, ya' sayin' you're not his sister er' mother?" Mawly blushed at the mother mention, shaking her head.

"Oh! No, shh! He got separated from his parents when Gnomeregan was invaded from what I gather." Diggy was now looking at the ground despondently.

"Ah, terrible news indeed. Sorry ta' hear it." Muninn's voice was empathetic.

"Well, we'd best be back off to Tinker Town, I think we've been gone long enough."

"Come back by any time, 'n bring this warrior with ye'! I'm always 'round." Muninn then nodded with a bearded smile and went off further into the Hall of Explorer's.

Mawly lead Diggy back to Tinker Town, things had calmed and quieted and several temporary domiciles had been set up. An infirmary had been established that housed many injured gnomes now, dwarven priests had come to assist with the injured as Diggy's eyes widened and he ran from Mawly's grasp.

"Hey!" Mawly chased after him.

"Don't go in there, it's not a place to pl-" but she was cut off as Diggy hopped up on a cot that had a heavily bandaged and splinted gnome on it.

"Papa!" Diggy shouted as he embraced the injured gnome, who looked up from his rest and grinned behind his wounds.

"Oh! Digol! There you are!" Said the gnome weakly as he pulled the younger one closer with his unrestrained arm. The bandaged gnome finally looked from his son to Mawly.

"Have you been taking care of Digol?" But before another word came out a dwarven priestess came over.

"Eye', yer' supposed ta' be restin'! No condition to be horsin' around!" She came over and pulled Diggy from him, brushing him back to Mawly and motioning for them to leave the infirmary. The bandaged gnome frowned, but then smiled once again and looked at Mawly he had only observed, surprised the entire time.

"Take care of Digol a little bit longer, please?" The gnome father then fell unconscious from exhaustion, his words all ready had begun to trail off weakly.

"Shoo! If ye' ain't hurt then ye' don't belong here!" The priestess encouraged them more forcefully this time to leave the infirmary, Mawly taking Diggy's hand and heading back out into Tinker Town proper once more.

Mawly looked down at Diggy, who was beginning to tear up once more. She got down to his level and looked him in the eye, her deep blue eyes meeting his own dark brown hues.

"Hey, we'll come back to see your dad soon all right?" She worked to finally convince Diggy to come with her to the other temporary domociles.

There weren't many, but there were a handful of temporary bedding areas left and Mawly lead Diggy to them and sat him down in one, taking one adjacent to his. It finally came back to her how tired she was, sitting in a bed finally bringing back all her own weariness.

Soon Diggy had fallen asleep, head against a wool pillow and covered in a linen blanket. Mawly lay awake a bit longer, if only recollecting on her own thoughts. She turned on her side and looked at the cold floor from her cot.

Where are you?