We come into the wonderful world of Tá laistigh. A great yet weird world, one in which creatures like leprechauns and banshees roam widely and freely. A young leprechaun, young Finnegan O'Lachlan III was running through the woods one day, not wanting to get caught by the nearby humans. For you see, if he was caught by a human, he had to give them three wishes. Though, humans were often greedy and couldn't think about how their wishes could affect them negatively. Nearby to his home in the local leprechaun village there was a colony of expelled dwarves from a nearby mountain, and they were often spoiling for a fight. He walked into his cottage after a very swift sprint through the forest. Finnegan had a beautiful dwarven wife, Bonnie. Bonnie had been exiled by her dwarven family, but she'd been accepted into the leprechauns' small town.
"Ach aye, my dear love!" Bonnie says with a large smile and pulling a bubbling cauldron off the fire, inside was her famous rabbit and veggie stew. The small leprechaun smiles tiredly towards her. He pulls out his pipe, putting some tobacco in the bowl and lighting a small flame on his thumb to light the smoking tobacco within.
"I be well me dear Bon, just tired after a long day of work out in the fields" he said, taking his emerald green jacket and hanging it by the door.
"Well come on then, have yerself a seat and I'll get ye a glass of ale" the young and energetic gal said with a greater exuberance than before. She has an excitable smile, one that was very contagious to all who'd see it. She grabs the pitcher of fresh ale from their cupboard, one which had just been installed by the villager carpenter earlier in the day.
"You're really a doll, me dear Bon" the young Finnegan reports as sat on his chair, lighting the tobacco in his pipe and smoking it. As she put the glass next to his hand she plants a kiss on his cheek and messed his hair up.
"If I dinnae treated ye well, ye wouldn't have put a ring on my finger would've yeh?" she says with a teasing smile and walks to the cauldron. She picks up the handle and dishes up the delicious stew in one of the wooden bowls the two had. He didn't respond, merely giving a small smile and appreciative nod. After this hearty meal they decide the best course of action, is to merely spend time with each other. "Did yer mother get my care package? With the wheaten bread and salt?"
"Aye she did dear, and she wanted me to thank you for goin through the trouble" He says in response, taking a large swig of his ale, and looking again at her face. "Did you hear about the dwarves getting rowdy again?" the young housewife scoffed and rolled her eyes.
"If those dobbers don't be gettin rowdy it's a good hour" She said plainly and went back to her stew, that had killed the mood for her.
The next day however, a great fear of the village elders was realized. A group of five dwarf men had attacked a local leprechaun militia barracks with a variety of weapons of war. This was an act of war, and the village elders were not going to let that go without a fight. Finnegan was in the nearby market to the town square, when he heard drums rolling. He ran over looking confused, seeing the elders walk into the area.
"Hear ye Hear ye!" the head elder yelled as they all walked into the square of the village. "The dwarves have attacked our kind unprovoked, and under the banner of their exiled village. This is an act of war, and we shant stand for it!" he boomed, and the crowd around them started cheering along. "We will end them!"
"Send them to ifreann!" cried one of the onlookers, ifreann being their version of the underworld.
"Paint their streets red with their blood!" cried another.
"Lets make heads roll!" cried a third. Finnegan was horrified by this.
What do I do? He thought, his eyes going all over the place as he started hearing the cries of the men of the village.
"Óró 'Sé do bheatha 'bhaile, Óró 'Sé do bheatha 'bhaile, Óró 'Sé do bheatha 'bhaile, Anois ar theacht an tsamhraidh!" they sang as they readied for war. The young Finnegan felt the spur of anger towards the dwarves like other men of the area, but he was also unsure if he could help. He did the best thing he could think to do, he tried running to his home.
"Where do ye think yer going, O'Lachlan?!" a gruff voice came and grabbed around his collar. "You heard the elder, we're off to war!" the voice continued gripping the collar firmly
"Let me go! Let me go ya eejit!" the leprechaun yelled, beating the fist which was gripping his collar. "I'm going home, I cant just not let me wife know where im goin and what Im doin!" he said in a panic. The gruff voice didn't respond properly, just giving a huff and letting go of his emerald collar. With that, he ran, faster than he every ran before.
He ran down the road, a war banner raised high on a hut as he sprinted past. The glimmering golden harp on a blue background shining brightly. He ran up to the door of his home and beat on the door, a lot harder than he thought he was. Nerves and adrenaline have a big effect on a man. "Bonnie! Bonnie are you here!?" he shouted in and booted the door in. Bonnie was just standing behind the counter and looking at the door, still half asleep with a cup of coffee in her hand.
"Huh?" she said confused, the look on her face showed she was obviously not fully awake nor ready for the day. It was early in the day after all, perhaps she'd be awake more fully later. "Whatre ye on aboot Fin? Why are yeh so worried?"
Finnegan took off his hat and wiped his brow as he went to his weapon rack on the wall. "It's war Bonnie, those dwarves struck first and the elders are shippin us off to fight." he said darkly. He'd managed to calm himself down as he grabbed a sword off the weapon rack, putting it on his belt. "I don't want to fight, but I gotta, I don't think I get much choice in the matter." he said, also grabbing the crossbow on the rack, adjusting the sights on it and slinging it over his shoulder.
"Woah woah woah Finny, are ye sure you got too? War is a bad thing yeh know, you cant be subject to that, again" she said putting down her cup and running over to him.
"I have too" he said, and turned to her. "And, if i dont make it back, I love you" he said and put his head to her's. The female companion didnt want to believe it, and she started tearing up.
"No, no you can't go, we have so much life left to live together!" she said with a mix of shock, confusion, and with some anger.
"Do you think I want be goin? Do you think I want to go kill people and risk gettin killed meself? No! I dont have a choice, when the elders say we go to war, all men of age go." he said in a rant, it was obvious he wasn't into the thought of fighting against the very group his wife came from. The dwarven wife started tearing up looking into the eyes of her husband, and just hugged him close to herself, he started tearing up as well. He never as much as teared up around others.They shared a tearful goodbye and he started off towards the front.
The scene was already a hellscape. Buildings were ablaze, and blood was running down the cobblestones of the dwarven street. War drums boomed and the war bugles rang their sharp cry, and the little leprechaun Finnegan was running up the street trying to avoid all manner of projectiles. Whether that be arrows, rocks, stones, or heck, bits of high velocity shrapnel from building explosions. The screams for help from the wounded rang out.
"Heeeeeelp meeee!"
"Get me out of here!"
"I want to go home!"
The sounds were ringing in his ears as he ducked from house to house with a loaded crossbow, making sure to purposely avoid the women and children. They were innocent, why should they be killed? He thought, but unfortunately he was interrupted from his musings by something hitting the wall right beside his head. He ducked andaimed towards the location to which it came from. There stood a dwarven soldier, fiddling and trying to reload his weapon. He was horrified. Obviously he wanted to avoid killing the man, but he had to continue his own life so he took aim, put his finger on the trigger, and click.
Some say brave yet timid Finnegan O'Lachlan was lost in the fray, not what I say. I say he lived, but was too scarred by what he saw to live life normally, but in all actuality, nobody actually knows except those who are there. The battle droned on for two more weeks, all the men hardened and made dark by what they saw and did. Burned buildings, dead men, women, and children, blood running with the quantity of water in the cobblestones, and much much more. The leprechauns were eventually victorious, but can one really say a moral victory was won?
