He stumbled, felt Sei do the same and in attempt to correct himself, caught his coat on something. Pulling it free, Jonathan cursed the five-year-old body he had forced into and the ridiculous amount of girl's clothing he was wearing. Tugging at his friend's hand, he whined, "Come on. Hurry. They're coming back," in a petulant tone.
Behind him, still in shock at what had happened, Sei allowed himself to be pulled off the path. The robe he had on catching on something, he had only a split second to pull it free before the little girl pulled him deeper into the garden. The uncomfortable feeling in his abdomen threatening to drop him again, he silently prayed that they could get wherever they were going before the pain over took him. Gasping out, "Where are we going? And how is it that you know my name?" he glanced back the way they had come when he had heard once again something moving, then looked forward in time to dodge a branch.
Jonathan, still struggling to get used to his younger body, and to overcome the pins and needles that tingled in his legs, shook his head and once more said, "No time for questions," then added, "At least not right now," as he tried to orientate himself so that he was heading toward the door he had seen before he had been transformed.
Ahead, something moved and to confirm what he thought it was, a number of small, gravely voices reached him. Violently altering his path, Jonathan felt Sei stumble as heard, "Stop her," "Don't let her get away," "We cannot have an incomplete statue," and, "Ready your blowguns."
The last bit caused him anxiety, as he remembered all too well what happened last time he'd been shot with one of the darts. Starting to weave slightly, Jonathan was suddenly grateful of the coat as he listened to the sound of the gnomes firing their dart-guns at them, sure that their aim was true, but the coat prevented anything from hitting their intended target. Concerned for Sei, Jonathan tried to shield his friend as best as possible.
Behind him, upset by how much they kept changing course, Sei struggled to follow after the little girl and stay standing up. The pain in his abdomen growing to the point it encompassed nearly all of his torso and a good portion of his upper legs, he knew that, once they stopped, he'd pay dearly for trying to keep the discomfort at bay. A whiffing noise distracting him, it took him a moment to come to terms with the fact that their pursuers, who he thought might also somehow be in front of them as well as behind them, were shooting something at them. Hearing their gravelly voices, he found it strange that they seemed to be more concerned with capturing the little girl instead of him, then wondered if maybe it might be because he was already suffering from something that had to do with whatever he'd been injected with.
Plants scratched at his exposed legs, things dug into his bare feet and as he found himself pulled along, Sei found he had no real way to tell if what he observed was accurate. Struggling to stay on his feet, thinking because of how unsteady on his feet he was that it was the reason the little girl was able to pull him through the foliage, he grimaced in pain as the discomfort that had begun in his abdomen now encompassed his torso, most of his legs and a good portion of his arms. Noises of things striking the trees, ripping through the plants and he found it a welcome distraction from his own problems as he listened as several gravelly voices barked out, "Watch the plants, boys," "The master will have our hides if we harm too much of the garden," and, "Mind were you're aiming, you hear," which left Sei wondering who it was that was chasing them.
In front of Sei, Jonathan clasped his friend's hand as tightly as he could in his own tiny, child hand. Hating he could only really grab Sei's fingers, he struggled to both ignore the voices of the gnomes, who he found even more frightening now than he had when he had been a teenager, which he chalked up to his being stuck in the body of a five year old, and to keep from falling over. Glad the pins and needles sensation had finally left, he pumped his short, young legs as hard as he could, annoyed to find it difficult to go as fast as he wanted and that the amount of clothes didn't help.
"Especially the boots," he thought as he changed direction, stumbled, righted himself, felt Sei do the same and just barely catch himself from falling over. Listening as his friend groaned, Jonathan wondered if there might be some the matter, but figured it could wait until they got out of the garden.
The gnomes becoming more and more insistent in their efforts to capture Jonathan, the sixteen-year-old-turned-five-year-old nearly began to scream in fright when he saw them whipping what looked like nets. Thinking, "We aren't going to make it," he found himself wanting to ask Sei what they should do. His breath coming in short, ragged gasps, he listened as his friend continued to make noises of extreme discomfort and decided that he couldn't, mostly because he was unable to catch his breath long enough to utter even the simplest word.
Ahead, the foliage appeared to open, but neither Jonathan nor Sei wished to get their hopes up that they had finally managed to escape. The two continuing to stumble on, one from a pain that was near to knocking him out, the other because of how much he was unused to doing what he was doing in his current form, they zig-zagged back and forth, sometimes doubling back, sometimes appearing to make no progress or abruptly change direction and start in the opposite way from where they wanted to go. Coming to a walkway, both briefly considered following it, but then, as the gnomes drew closer and appeared on the walkway, it was Sei who nudged Jonathan on. The two crossing across it, they continued on until, with a sharp gasp of relief from both of them, they found themselves rushing across a stone patio toward the manor.
"All, most, there," Jonathan gasped out as he listened to the patter of the gnomes' tiny feet coming after them and spotting a door, he angled toward it.
The instant they reached the door, the two scrabbled for a moment, each trying desperately to get it open, both fearing it would be locked or some other bad bit of luck would happen that would either prevent them from getting through or that something equally horrid waited for them on the other side. And as the gnomes slowed and began to draw closer, hemming the two in, and Sei was close to passing out, Jonathan finally managed to wrench the door open. The two crowding in through, they barely listened as a bunch of gravelly voices cried, "No," "Stop her," "She'd getting away," "Catch her, quick," and other oaths as the two friend pushed their way over the threshold. Finding themselves in a room with an Olympic-size swimming pool, the two wondered where they were and where they should go.
Jonathan, who found the something about the pool to set him on edge, was the one to spot what looked like a couple changing rooms. Figuring it would be a good place to hide and catch their breath for the moment, he whispered, "This way," and pulling on Sei's fingers, led his friend toward the nearest one.
Inside, he barely had time to shut the door when Sei, who was beyond his limit, took a couple tottering steps and then dropped to his knees. A deep, long groan of discomfort escaping him, he fell to his side and immediately curled up into a fetal position. Alarmed by this, Jonathan dropped to his knees, unconsciously adjusted the clothes he was wearing, swept off his hat, then reached out and began to shake his friend. As he did this, he whimpered, "Sei? Sei? What is it? What's wrong," as he saw, for the first time, that something about his friend appeared different, besides what he thought was the obvious in that his friend was wearing a girl's bathrobe.