Conversations with Gnomes

Daari wasn't there when I woke up; she must have run off to do who knows what. I wasn't content to wait around for her, though; now that I was fully rested, I could go and explore Stormwind. She could find me if she needed to.

It was already mid-afternoon, but considering how late we'd stayed up last night, that wasn't surprising. The city was certainly much more active now than when we'd arrived, and I was happy to just wander around with no particular purpose in mind, taking in the sights.

The city itself had a rather interesting layout. The whole thing was surrounded by a wall, but that wall surrounded a series of islands, separated by artificially-constructed rivers. Bridges connected the islands, allowing everyone to move easily between the sections, although I noticed at least one tower without a bridge to it that would require swimming, or perhaps a small boat, to reach it.

The buildings seemed to be mostly constructed of wood and stone; not quite as intricate as the elven buildings I'd seen, nor as sturdy-looking as the structures in the dwarven towns I'd been through, but they served their purpose. The vast majority of them were crowded up so close next to each other that there was no room to pass between them, so that from a distance, they almost looked like singular large structures rather than the individual buildings they were. As a result, it almost felt like there was a second level of river above the water's surface — in this case, a river of people, channeled by the artificial valley walls the buildings created.

And a river was an apt description for the hordes of people walking about everywhere. I don't think I'd ever seen so many people in one place! It was a human city, so the majority of the population were humans, but I saw a large number of dwarves as well, and there were not insignificant numbers of gnomes, elves, and even other Draenei!

Not many people seemed very interested in conversation, though — some would answer simple questions, but not much beyond that — so I continued to explore the city mostly silently.

After a little while, I came upon the island labeled "Cathedral Square." Presumably, the large, public-looking building that towered over it was the cathedral the island was named after; a quick question to a city guard confirmed this. It was certainly one of the taller buildings, if not the tallest; I had been able to see its spires from other sections of the city. With such an impressive structure, how could I avoid seeing the inside of it?

I wandered up the front steps and into the entryway, which was empty save for some female of a species I did not recognize was standing guard. She had a body and ears not dissimilar from elves, but she also had wings, horns, and hooves. She was acting in a manner consistent with someone standing guard; before I could approach her to inspect her closer, though, I heard a voice from inside the cathedral itself, and caught some motion out of the corner of my eye. I turned and stepped out of the entryway into the cathedral proper.

The source of both the motion and the voice turned out to be barely past my knees. I recognized it as a gnome who had been sweeping the floor; holding a small broom, she'd welcomed me to the cathedral. I returned the greeting, kneeling down both so that I could get a better view of her and so that she didn't have to look up so far to see me.

Gnomes weren't exactly common visitors to the Exodar, but I'd seen a few before. But what immediately interested me about her was that she was the first person in this city to speak directly to me, unprompted. Maybe she'd actually want to talk?

So I introduced myself, and found out in return that her name was Reias, and her job was to keep the cathedral clean. What surprised me is that it turned out that she was a child; certainly, she was small, but I knew that was simply a feature of gnomes and had assumed she was an adult. As best I could tell from querying her, she wasn't an especially young child. She seemed mostly self-sufficient, and was able to maintain a conversation at least at my level — perhaps above my level, as she spoke Common much more naturally than I!

The other thing that surprised me was that the strange woman I'd seen in the entrance could be best described as her pet; apparently the woman was actually a demon, and Reias was able to convince them to obey her!

I normally would not have dealings with demons; they are evil, and had I known that it was a demon I saw in the cathedral entrance, I probably would have turned around right then and left! But Reias was good, and she was controlling the demons... didn't that make the demons willing to listen to her good as well? It was an extremely odd concept that didn't quite sit right with me for some reason, but I could see no evidence that her pet was behaving in any way evil, so it must be good... right?

I was very glad to have made Reias's acquaintance, though. My intuition was right — she did seem very interested in chatting with me, and I learned a great deal about her and her race through our conversation. I had a basic academic knowledge of gnomes going into the conversation, but that information was so bland compared to talking to someone with firsthand experience.

Well, we talked for what must have been a few hours, and eventually, she had to leave to attend to some sort of obligation she had — I think she said it was a meeting — and I wasn't going to get in her way as she'd already offered me more than enough of her time! But before she left, she gave me a gnomish device she called a "buzzbox," which apparently would enable me to contact others with such a box from nearly anywhere. She showed me how to use it to contact her, and I tried it as she left... it wasn't exactly the same as talking to her in person, and it made her voice sound a little different, but I could see it being very useful, and tucked it into my pack.

With Reias gone, I had nothing to do but continue to wander the city.

Not far from the cathedral, at the point where one of the artificial rivers met the city wall, I could see a crew of dwarves and humans setting up explosives, apparently intending to knock that section of wall down — I suppose they were planning on expanding the city? That many barrels of explosives in one place made me instantly think of Daari, and how much she'd be excited to see this. I could only assume she hadn't seen it already because if she had, I probably would have found her there, still staring at it... well, until something else distracted her. I smiled; perhaps she had already seen it.

The next place I ended up was a park in the city; there were some trees and what must have been a moonwell in a green, open area. I took a seat on a ledge, looking around; I must have ended up in a trance from watching everyone move to and fro, because I barely remember the next few hours. I only came to attention when Kisha started complaining about wanting food; I fed my cat, and then decided that I'd been in the park for long enough.

I wondered what Daari had been doing all day, and realized the best way to find her would be to go back to where the construction crew was planning on removing the wall; if she had seen it, she'd probably stop back frequently to look at it, and I'd see her. I wandered back over there, and found myself a place to sit with a nice vista of the construction crew working.

When Daari failed to show up for a while, though, I realized that I really was feeling like I needed to talk to someone again. Remembering the buzzbox in my pack, I decided to see if perhaps Reias was done with whatever she'd been doing. Surely enough, she agreed to come meet me, and a few minutes later, the gnome approached me again.

We continued to talk, and I found out more about her; hopefully, she found out some about me as well! She apparently has a sister of the same age, and both she and her sister have had practice with battle. I wondered aloud if that was a normal gnomish custom for older children to be fighting, and she assured me that it was not usual; it was just something she and her sister felt they had to do.

After we talked for a bit longer, I discovered my guess had been correct; Daari showed up, and her eyes absolutely lit up as she took in what the construction crew was doing. I couldn't tell if she'd already seen it, but it'd done its job by attracting her!

Well, I introduced Daari and Reias, although the conversation started taking a bit longer, as Daari's Common wasn't especially good. Reias could speak Eredar, but it was just easier tor me to act as a translator between Draenei and Common, even if my Common wasn't perfect.

I think the two of them got along well, and eventually Daari let loose that she'd been hoping to find some new clothes somewhere in the city; Reias offered to show us around to the places she knew of, and we agreed and followed her.

We visited the city's auction house, and a few shops, but Daari failed to find what she was looking for, at which point Reias mentioned that her sister was a good tailor, and might be able to help us. I told this to Daari, and after chatting back and forth a bit, she agreed to meet Reias's sister, and Reias dashed off to find her.

She must have been close, as not but a few minutes later, a gnome that looked very similar to Reias in everything but hair color, introducing herself as Farie and asking if we were the ones that Reias had sent her to.

I introduced myself and Daari — once again, I had to act as the translator — and gave Farie a description of what Daari wanted. She pulled out a small catalog of designs she could make, showing them to Daari until she excitedly pointed one out. She then asked if I wanted anything.

This caught me slightly off-guard, as I hadn't really been looking for new clothes, but Farie seemed insistent that she could create something for me, and so I eventually decided that I could use a new set of black pants that I could wear when the thick leather ones I was wearing now weren't necessary to protect me.

She nodded and got to work. I was impressed at the speed she worked; perhaps it's easier to work with cloth than leather, but I still think there must have been some magic involved in her sewing with how quickly she finished. She completed a dress that Daari seemed to absolutely love; for me, she'd created not only the pants I'd asked for, but a formal shirt and coat to go with them! Daari pulled the dress over the top of her existing clothes, and I went over to the corner of the room to try my new outfit on — the pants were slightly difficult to get on, as they were rather tight and it was hard to thread my tail out, but once I had them on, the entire outfit was extremely comfortable.

And much to my surprise, Farie refused any payment, which was amazing considering the quality of her craftsmanship! I suppose she must just really be a generous person.

I lathered her with thanks, and she gave me the information that would let me use the buzzbox I now owned to contact her. Our goodbyes were cut short, though, as Daari had to rush out to take care of something, and now that I'd found her, I intended to stay with her.

So, all in all, it was quite an interesting day. I hope every gnome I meet is as nice as Reias and Farie were to us. For now, though, it would be prudent to try to sleep; I've still got a great deal of the city to explore!