Once again, I must warn you that my world - and its characters - may not align perfectly with what you've known from before. Please do me the kindness of allowing me to introduce everything to you without too much prejudice. I've also taken a little 'poetic license' with the geography of our world - which is where this story takes place. I do hope you enjoy my tale.
~~~
I opened my left eye - the only one I had LEFT (har har!) and assessed my current state of well-being. Honestly, my being wasn't well - and I was fairly certain the "being" part was rapidly coming to a close.
The dusty, grimy bricks that made up the pavement of the corner of the dark alley in which I had come to rest were liberally bathed in blood that should have been inside of my body. There was a lot of it - more than I thought I might have started the day with.
I was weak and my brain was growing fuzzy - and not just from the intense, throbbing pain that seemed to be coming from the majority of my battered body.
It was Saturday night and I had just wanted to play a game or two of poker. The proprietor of the establishment, however, took exception to me showing up at his door with money in hand. The main reason for this was that I owed him a bit of it already - quite a bit, in point of fact.
Seeing that I had arrived with no intention of paying my debt, he had directed his goons to relieve me of my money - and then collect the rest of his coin from my body - as painfully as they could.
His men were not scientist or doctors. They made their living by hitting or crushing, slicing, stabbing, or shooting. And that's what they did. The two biggest fuckers on the man's payroll dragged me down the alley - to this dark corner - and took from me what I owed their employer.
They took my right eye - mashing it into jelly with a massive grubby thumb - as they grinned sadistically into the one that still worked. They took both legs - at the knees. The pain - from them breaking the knees themselves - hurt far worse than whatever they had done to my feet and legs. To be honest, at the time, I had thought THAT was pretty, fucking, painful.
The two of them had stomped, smashed, kicked, sliced, and chopped. I had blacked out a few times - but they waited for me to open my eye once again before they resumed their work. They might not be overly intelligent - but they were very patient - at least when it came to delivering pain. They wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything important - especially when something important came up missing.
My right arm went in much the same way that my legs had gone. I had used it to try to keep them away from my eye. That pissed them off. They made it so that I couldn't use the thing anymore. I could see a couple stray fingers lying a few feet away.
I couldn't lift whatever was left of that arm at all; trying to do so shot fire across my battered forehead. It didn't matter, I was sure there wasn't enough of it left to worry about. I was dying anyway, what the fuck did I need a right arm for?
I was lying on my side - well - partially anyway. My left cheek was mashed against the brick surface of the poorly-lit backstreet. I could feel bits of dirt and gravel dragging against the side of my face whenever my body convulsed or I tried to move.
I could feel my left arm. I was pretty sure it was somewhere behind my head. Considering the condition of the rest of my body, it felt fine. However, I had a feeling my brain was "grading on the curve" at this point.
I could smell blood and vomit - though all I could see with my half-open eye was dirt, grease, and blood. I had vomited as the two brutes punched and kicked my chest, stomach, and balls. I also seemed to remember someone kicking my left ear - but that part of my body may have just been tingling from being trapped between my head and the alley's filth-covered surface.
Overall, I figured I'd be dead before daylight. Honestly, I was a little surprised that I was even still alive. I was pretty sure it was the excruciating pain that was keeping me awake.
I heard something moving outside of my limited range of vision. A dog? It sounded too big to be a cat.
When the thing came around to where I could see it, I was convinced that the rest of my sanity had fled. It looked to be about the size of one of those bankers from the Harry Potter movies - but thicker. The ears and face were more like a dwarf, though. Those eyebrows were whack! He (I think it was male) had unkempt silver hair going every which direction. He was holding a pair of goggles in one hand. He looked like some kind of weird, midget mad scientist. Yeah, I was losing my mind. Whatever the hell it was, it looked me over for a bit before addressing me.
"I can save you," the voice (which also sounded male) said, "but you'll owe me four years of service."
I laughed. It wasn't much of a laugh. It hurt too much to laugh. To my ears (well, ear, I guess) it sounded like the mindless mirth of a mental patient.
"You don't have much time," he warned me.
"Hurts," I groaned, feeling the dirt rub against my lips as I forced out the word.
"Undoubtedly," he said, emotionlessly. "Do you accept my offer?"
"Yes," I murmured, willing to agree to anything he promised if he would just stop the pain.
He stepped forward, reached down, grabbed the middle finger of my ruined right hand, and bent it backwards in a way that shouldn't have been possible. So much for reducing my pain. I blacked out.
~~~
I woke up on a wooden table. I was naked. There were thin metal tubes entering my body in several places. A couple of those places aren't meant to be seen by anyone other than your spouse - or maybe your proctologist.
"Awake, are you?" the tiny man asked. "You're strapped down but try not to move too much. You're not quite fully stable yet."
"I, uh, need to pee," I told him.
"You can just go," he replied. "There's a tube for that - and for the other too - but I'm not sure you'll be up for that for a bit longer yet."
"What are you?" I asked him.
"An artificer."
"No, like ... are you human?"
"Gnome."
"Gnomes are real?" I asked incredulously.
"Apparently," he replied. The corner of his mouth curled upward slightly but he didn't quite smile.
He stepped over and held up an arm that looked like it came off of C-3PO - from the Star Wars movies.
"You'll need to bind yourself to this before it'll stick," he told me.
"Bind myself?"
"I'm going to put it into place. Reach out with your magic and make it part of you."
"Magic?" I asked. "I don't have magic."
"Yes, you do," he replied.
He stared at me like I was a toddler. I stared back - like a really confused toddler. He didn't quite roll his eyes.
"It's inside of you. I can sense it. I wouldn't have made my offer to you if you didn't have it. Most of my creations won't work without it - at least not the ones you need. I'll put the arm into place. I don't know how to explain it to you but - I don't know - you just WILL it to be a part of your body. The arm won't work until you do."
I looked over to see a stump where my right arm used to be - just short of the shoulder. The tiny man pressed the metal arm against the stump. I stared at the metal arm.
"Tell your brain that you want to be able to control the arm," he suggested. "Try to move your fingers."
I had started to say, "I can't." but - at that moment - in my mind - I pinched the thumb and middle fingers of my right hand together - and the robotic Star Wars arm he was holding up did exactly what I'd told it to do. The gnome let go of the metal prosthetic appendage and it stayed in place - like it was glued there.
"See? You did it."
"It's not glued on?"
He took hold of the arm and pulled. I swore it was like the thing was a real arm. I could feel his hands on me - on it. He teased his fingernails along the back of the thing. I could fucking feel it!
"What the fuck?!"
It was the first time I had ever seen a gnome smile. It was a little weird. But it was the smile of a father - full of joy - happy to see his work pay off - watching his child take their first steps.
He left to work on something else and I explored my new appendage.
A few minutes later, he returned with a thick leather strap and a short length of the same metal tubing that was connected to my body.
"Cut this," he said, holding the strap between his hands.
"How?"
"Switch your fingers out for the blade," he told me.
"What the actual fuck?!"
