For a gnome, feet are really an extra sense or intelligence all of their own - a gnome can't tell you how their feet can know things - they just do. Hortensia spent a lot of time blending herbs and oils in her pestle and mortar to ease foot ache for her and her family. The problem was how to have super soft and sensitive feet that could pick up the tremor of a mouse's foot step from a long way off - and yet be able to stand still on them for hours at a time in all kinds of conditions and weather.
Of course shoes and boots were of great importance too, but with the added challenge of the curved toe tendency, Hortensia felt that massage and gentle nurture was the key to a gnome's foot health and equilibrium. She was an expert in knitting socks with an extra padded section to cushion a big toe and her socks were much in demand. Often as she opened the door of a morning, she would find a donation of the softest, carefully collected sheep's wool, rolled into a bundle and left as a thank you gift from a grateful gnome friend.
Hortensia herself was a little proud of her feet, for a gnome they were quite small and delicate. She liked the sight of her toes peeping out in their little scarlet slippers from under her skirt, and though she was not overly vain, she was proud that her feet as yet had showed no sign of developing any curved toes.
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