Page 12 of Soaring into the Midlife

"Ugh, my beautiful bag is ruined," Kendra said as she dug through her purse, pulling out potions covered in gelatin-like goo. "I swear, if we make it out of this alive, I'm treating myself to a new designer handbag."

"Priorities, Kendra." I chuckled as I darted between the oversized flowers and the gnomes' relentless assault.

"Hey, a girl's got needs." She finally found a usable potion. With a flick of her wrist and a muttered incantation, she threw the potion at a group of gnomes, causing them to freeze mid-attack, their eyes wide with surprise.

"Nice one." I used the momentary reprieve to take stock of our situation. The gnomes were relentless, but they also seemed to grow more disorganized and frantic as time went on. "Okay, I think I see a pattern here. We just need to keep pushing them back and?—"

"Watch your six, Hailey," Zara said. I turned just in time to see another gnome swinging a hedge trimmer at me like a maniac. I ducked, the metal blades grazing my hair.

Zara pushed forward with fierce determination, shoving the tiny warriors back and giving us some much-needed breathing room.

"Kendra, anything useful in that bag of yours?" she yelled, holding off a particularly persistent gnome with an overzealous leaf blower.

"Working on it," Kendra frantically searched through her goo-covered potions. "Ugh, why did they have to ruin my bag?"

I ducked under the swing of a gnome's rake. "If we don't figure something out soon, we're going to be gnome chow."

Kendra pulled out a potion bottle with a triumphant grin. "Got it! Stand back, ladies."

As she hurled the potion into the fray, I noticed the oversized flowers surrounding us, their petals swaying menacingly as if sensing our distress. They towered above us like the walls of a labyrinth, adding another layer of danger to the already absurd situation.

"Watch out," Zara shouted, tackling me away from the path of a gnome mounted on a large bird just in time. The bird crashed into a gigantic rose, its rider tumbling into the thorny bush with a high-pitched shriek.

"Thanks," I said. "These flowers are getting on my nerves."

"Tell me about it." Zara hoisted herself up to her feet. "We need a plan. Something better than 'keep pushing them back.'"

"Okay, okay." My mind raced as I scanned the bizarre landscape. "Kendra, any more potions we can use?"

"Maybe." She hesitated, digging around in her bag. "But there's no guarantee they'll all work exactly how we want them to with all this gelatin gunk everywhere."

"Great," I said sarcastically. "Just what we needed, more unpredictability."

"Hey, it's better than nothing," Kendra said defensively. "I'm doing my best here."

"All right, you two," Zara said. "Let's focus on getting out of this mess in one piece, shall we?"

An oversized sunflower towered above me, its massive petals casting a dappled shade upon the whimsical battlefield. A fleeting grin crossed my face as an idea took root. "Hey, Zara, Kendra, watch this," I said before grabbing onto a sturdy vine and swinging forward.

"Hailey, what are you doing?" Kendra shouted.

"Trust me, it's gonna be great," I said with a cheeky wink. As I swung through the air, I spotted my target, a particularly aggressive gnome wielding a comically large pair of hedge clippers.

"Take that, you little menace." With a well-timed kick, I sent the gnome flying into a patch of oversized dandelions, which burst into a cloud of fluff upon impact.

Zara cheered, clearly impressed. I could practically hear her brain ticking away, scheming up her own creative retaliation. Not wanting to be outdone by my acrobatics, she scanned the area and zeroed in on a giant flowerpot nearby.

"Watch this," Zara said with a determined grin, heaving the hefty flowerpot off the ground. In a display of vampiric strength, Zara raised the makeshift shield just in time to deflect a barrage of incoming projectiles from the gnomes, a hailstorm of tiny garden trowels and spades raining down upon us.

"Ha, take that, you little twerps," Zara taunted. "You'll have to do better than that to get past us!"

The gnomes regrouped, their beady eyes narrowing as they sized us up. We'd gained some ground, but there was no telling how long our luck would hold.

And then one gnome pushed through the throng to the front.

The moment I set my eyes on the gnome leader, I knew we were in for a challenge. This formidable gnome wore a crown made of twigs and wielded a massive watering can like a weapon of mass destruction. He rallied his fellow warriors with a high-pitched shriek that could shatter glass, momentarily overwhelming us.

We dodged the powerful spray of water from the gnome king's watering can.