The gnome pushed herself onward, exhaustion dragging on every part of her, pulling her down. She took another step. And another. And the ache responded.
There was grass beneath her feet. That was still new. She had crossed grass hundreds of times to get here, of course, but it was still a novelty. Grass at her feet and sky above her. Couldn't spend her time looking up or down though. Had to look forward. Forward. Forward.
The giant building was in sight, though. That was definitely it, unlike all those other times.
She had found it in SAM's memory. Elfen High. There was something about this place that was significant to the machine. She had found it in their 'games'. That's what SAM called it. The gnome would try to mess with SAM without the machine noticing. Wiped memories here, logic loops there, corrupted pathways, whatever she could manage. And SAM would notice. And SAM would fix it. And the gnome would be punished. And SAM would win the game. But now the gnome had won. She had found something. A place. This place. Of course the machine would come looking for her here. Of course she would. But this place was defended. The gnome would be safer here than anywhere else.
And so she had waited. She had continued in her work. She had kept playing the game. She had taken her punishments. And eventually, she had found what she was waiting for. A gap in SAM's vigilance. An obvious gap, really, when you looked at it. Not something you'd think the machine would overlook. Maybe some of their games had taken a bigger toll than the gnome or the machine realised. Maybe SAM hadn't fixed herself--no, itself--quite as well as it imagined.
The first time the gnome stepped outside, she was blinded. She stood for a second, unable to move, before forcing herself to run in some random direction. It didn't matter where she was going, just away would do. Eventually, when she was out of sight of the damned place, and er sight had adjusted, she took a proper look at her surroundings. She spent the next several hours inside a dumpster, trying to work up the courage to step out under the sky again. There was just... just so much of it.
That was two weeks ago. The endless horizons held no fear for her anymore. There was no fear, not really. For the first few days, she was certain the machine was right behind her, but nothing persued her and her frantic dash to freedom became a monotonous trudge through endless towns and countryside. She slept indoors when she could and froze when she couldn't. There was no shortage of food on the road if you weren't picky and were quicker than a mouse. And at last she had made it. The stone monolith loomed above her. It's giant wooden doors were shut, forboding, unwelcoming. But she had arrived. She took another step and the ache responded. You've finished, every muscle in her body screamed at her, Can we rest now?
The next thing the gnome knew she was staring into a pair of blue human eyes in a pale, nervous face. There was what felt like carpet beneath her. She sat up. Pain wracked her body as her musces shouted in protest once again. She lay down. Her hand went to the waistband of the tattered, stained children's corduroys she wore. Her hammer was safe. She wiped the drool from her mouth with her equally soiled and threadbare t-shirt smearing what was left of Dora the Explorer's face.
"Welcome to Elfen High," he had said. The gnome started laughing. A high-pitched, bubbly giggle that caused the muscles in her chest and back to sieze up. She sat up again out of necessity. She took her hammer from her waistband, gave the boy in front of her three sharp taps on the forehead, and listened to it ring. Mostly human, but with something she didn't recognise thrown in too. She could hear the magic crackling through every double helix, modulating her hammer's clear tone ever so slightly. She laughed again.
