Hi, guys! I have a silly little photostory for you today that I had a lot of fun making. Oh, and the camera shown in the photostory is my sister’s, but I (erm, the gnomes) took all of the pictures with my camera.

(To see more detailed photos of some of the “stars of the story,” click here.)

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One morning bright and early, just as the sun was sleepily climbing out of his bed, Mr. and Mrs. Gnome yawned and rolled over in their beds. It was too early to be getting up just yet, but… hold everything! Was that footsteps? Human footsteps! The Gnomes were used to waking up to the sound of birds and bees and butterflies (gnomes have very good hearing – they can even hear butterflies) but it had been years since they had heard or seen any trace of a human!

The two gnomes lived deep in the woods, you see, where everything was safe and snug, and all animals, gnomes, fairies, and other creatures lived in harmony. If a human should discover them, all the fairies and gnomes and other creatures would have to move, for of course they could never feel safe knowing that a human could come and eat them up at any moment. So, although it was early, Mr. and Mrs. Gnome jumped out of bed, shivering with fear, and peeked cautiously out of their doorway.

They didn’t see or hear anything suspicious, so they ventured out a little bit. They did not at first see the very fearsome Thing directly behind them.

When they turned around they were shocked! Astonished! Fearful! Scared out of their wits! What sort of bomb or trap or malicious evil creature had the human left to snare them?

 

Mrs. Gnome was all for fleeing to another forest immediately, but Mr. Gnome collected a handful of bravery from the place where he kept it handy (under his hat), and boldly went to check the Thing out. He had rather a hard climb to get up to the top of it, but Mr. Gnome was an experienced Thing-climber. (At least that’s what he told Mrs. Gnome.)

Once up, Mr. Gnome scratched his head, looked around, and prepared to get down. (The wisest thing to do when you aren’t feeling very wise is to leave – that’s what Mr. Gnome’s motto was.) But before he did that, he gave a perfunctory stomp on the Thing for the reason, as he said later… well, he supposed he didn’t have a reason, but he did it just the same.

After Mr. Gnome stomped, he realized what he had stomped on: a little metal circle with strange human runes under it. The runes looked something like this: ON/OFF. But before Mr. Gnome could begin puzzling them out, he heard a shriek from Mrs. Gnome. He looked down from the Thing to see a horrifying sight – it was actually chasing Mrs. Gnome by stretching out a long black trunk to grab her with!

Now this was too much! Mr. Gnome stepped up onto the edge of the Thing and prepared to jump to Mrs. Gnome’s rescue, but before he could, he heard a strange, “CLICK!”

The thought flashed through his mind that the Thing had dispatched Mrs. Gnome forever with that “CLICK,” but when he peeped out from between his fingers, he saw Mrs. Gnome shivering in a heap on the ground. She seemed to be perfectly fine, although quite shaken.

Mr. Gnome slipped over the back of the Thing, but once again he was stopped – this time by a strange image on the back of the Thing. It looked sort of like… blurry nothingness. Mr. Gnome could not explain this strange occurrence unless… perhaps it had happened when he jumped on the button on the edge of the Thing! After all, something had happened when he stomped on the strange ON/OFF circle. Mr. Gnome was beginning to be curious (gnomes are very prone to curious-ness), so he laboriously climbed back up the Thing and stomped on the bigger metal button at the edge again. Once more he heard a click, and once more he saw a blurry image on the back of the Thing.

Mr. Gnome was beginning to have a theory, which had something to do with a piece of information a deer had once told him about concerning something which in human language sounded like, “CA-MER-A.” (This particular deer was very good at impersonating human language, and everyone begged him to do his “human accent” at every woodland party.)

So with much pleading, Mr. Gnome convinced Mrs. Gnome to stand right next to the black trunk of the Thing while he made it “CLICK.” This is the image he saw on the back of the Thing:

Down at the very corner of the image, he saw what appeared to be a blurry Mrs.-Gnome-face. Excited, Mr. Gnome helped his wife up to the edge of the black trunk and she hung down from it while he “CLICKED” it.

Hmmm. An even blurrier Mrs.-Gnome-face-and-part-of-her-body. He asked Mrs. Gnome to be a good little wife and trot farther away from the Thing.

Ahh! Much clearer, but Mrs. Gnome was only a speck! They brought a willow basket and overturned it in front of the black trunk, and Mrs. Gnome sat on top of it.

Bingo! Mr. Gnome was so excited, he nearly fell over the deep abyss of the Thing while dancing his victory dance. Now the Gnomes honed their “CLICKING” skills.

Although they didn’t become experts all at once: (In the first picture below Mr. Gnome was trying to do a hat-stand.)

Pretty soon, their neighbors the fairy sisters popped over for a visit. At first, of course, they were quite shocked (fairies being very timid), but as soon as Mr. Gnome explained, their fears were relieved, and they even asked Mr. Gnome to “CLICK” them. Of course he did.

A snail by the name of Bob also came along and wish to be “CLICKED,” but Mr. Gnome had to take a string of pictures because Bob turned out to be a little slow in mounting the basket.

The Gnomes were thinking of calling it a day when one last customer (or rather two) arrived. It was a strange living thing that could only be described as… an “other creature.” But, after one look at it’s pleading glance,

the gnomes gave in and “CLICKED” it too. It turned out to be a tad mischievous – that second picture gave Mrs. Gnome a fright – but it turned out alright.

Now the Gnomes really were ready to stop, but the “other creature” pleaded with them to “CLICK” his girlfriend too. So, with a sigh, they gave in. It turned out that the “other creature” must have been a bit off in the head, as well as mischievous, because his “girlfriend” turned out to be a strangely colored blob. With no eyes. Or ears. Or anything. But to please the “other creature,” the Gnomes “CLICKED” them anyway.

At last the Gnomes had pleased all of their customers and they “closed up shop” so to speak for the rest of the day. Mr. Gnome was thinking a lot that night about the Thing and he thought that perhaps he would like to become a professional “CLICKER.” But unfortunately, that was not to be.

The next day the Gnomes got out of bed and went to wish the Thing a good morning, but – it had disappeared! After they got over their initial sadness at the departure of a beloved friend, Mr. Gnome concluded that the human creature must have come back for it’s missing Thing. And he was right. Those were the pictures from my camera to prove it.

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I hope you enjoyed it!

***Allison***