Emperor's Past

Gnome of the Undergrove

Shrub was a little over eleven when her mom, her sister and herself had run away with a few others from their home world. Her dad stayed to help fight the demon that had corrupted her home, while many others tried, and failed to escaped through a portal that would lead to a place called the Overworld. Only Shrub and six other gnomes made it through, one of which was her sister, Grace, and her neighbors child, Ben. The rest she did not know. But they were all very similar in age, the oldest being fourteen and the youngest nine. They all just stood there in shock, as the portal closed, not knowing what to do without any adult to help. The one thing that they did know was that there was no chance of the others escaping their former home, and all those who weren't so lucky in their escape, had already or will soon die.
After a few hours of just aimlessly wondering around, experimenting with the environment, they came to an agreement that they would split up in two pairs and one group of three, and go explore and gather resources, and meet back there, they carved a symbol into the dirt to make sure they all knew where to go at dusk. Grace, Ben and Shrub all went together, they found two cows, a sheep and twenty-seven mushrooms. They made some leashes using they vines on the trees, and headed back.
The other four, who Shrub soon found them out to be know as, James and his twin Lily, Willow and Jake, had started to build the walls for a shelter and made a small fenced off area for the animals. After a few more hours of working on a comfortable little house, and collecting wool from the sheep to make enough beds for the two siblings to share and for the rest to each have their own.
By the eighth day, they had a few different crops growing near a stream, and now fourteen cows, eight pigs, three chickens and six sheep.
Each day they explorered more and of the forest, trying to find something, but what that something was, they were not sure.
One morning though,  Grace and Jake went out exploring, Shrub began to worry when it  turned noon, and the still weren't back, but Lily told her not to worry as they probably got carried away with their exploration and would be back soon. But when nightfall fell, they still had not returned, Ben and Willow went to bed while Shrub and Lily stayed outside the door on watch for their siblings. With a sleepless night for the two, they decided that Lily would go with Ben to try and find any traces of Jake and Grace while Shrub and Willow check food stocks.
Later that evening, Ben came running back with deep scratches across his face and chest, taking heavy breaths, and when he came into the clearing and saw the two girls, he collapsed. Willow, who over the few months learned a bit about bandaging and cleaning wounds, rushed immediately over towards him. Asking for help when she finished up, picked him up, with the help of Shrub, onto his bed so he could be more comfortable when waking up.
It took a few days for him to wake up and have enough strength to speak a few words before passing out again. By this time though, judging by Ben and how he returned from his search and rescue, Shrub and Willow guessed that the worst had happened, and the others would not be coming back. They agreed that neither of them would travel beyond the tree border, and that they are to remain in the clearing.
Sadly though, without the proper first aid equipment, Ben had ended up with an infection in one of the deeper cuts in his chest and died late one morning, a week after his return from the search for Grace and Jake.
Willow soon became scared of what was lurking out in the forest, and barely left the little shelter. She did go out to help Shrub to build a few more shacks for the food storage and an inside pen for the animals as the days were getting shorter and colder.
The years went by, quite fast, despite the unknown losses of their friends and family. Shrub was 19 and Willow 17 when a big change was made. Over the years spirits of the forest came and went by, some just passed by, but some stayed and made houses for themselves, and expanded, making  a small little empire.
But that was not the only change, the forest also changed. It became denser, but also created a magical feeling around, what the spirits began to call the Undergrove. Whenever there was a problem that needed sorting, or a new house that needed to be built, the spirits all went to Shrub for her answer.
One day, a spirit came with news that there were other empires, and that a meeting would be held for all of the rulers to meet. With Willow by her side, Shrub went to this meeting, and introduced herself as the Gnome of the Undergrove.