The Last Camp before the City........

The little group of gnomes had stopped for a rest before the ascent into the city. The expedition had been going very well, they had had to made a few detours where new human developments had blocked the old pathways, but overall they had made very good progress indeed. As usual when nearing human settlements, they had tried to find a welcome garden in which to rest and pitch camp. Though they still found humans' perception of what they were supposed to look like more than a bit disturbing, they were cheered up by how frequently they found welcoming statues of themselves in the humans' gardens.

' Perhaps it is partially because of our decision not to be seen any more. After all no human has caught sight of one of us for a very long time, well that is, except for The  Old Lady and her son of course, so how are they supposed to know what we look like? 'Stephanotis was gazing at a brightly coloured statue of a garden gnome with a huge belly and floppy hat, 'it's the noses that are so disturbing, where did they get the idea that we are so ugly, or so badly dressed?' Archibold snorted, ''you could go mad trying to work out how a human thinks, anything they can't understand they tend to destroy or make fun of.' He had never quite recovered his sense of humour about the staues after his work experience at The Blue Bell Garden Centre, where he had found watching humans making fun and laughing at the gnome statues so distressing that he had become overwhelmingly homesick and grumpy for rather a long time.

' Well at least we know that we are welcome and that's enough for me, lets have a slice of boiled fruit cake and some peppermint tea and then we can chose a spot to make camp and put up our hammocks!' Isabel was ever practical and knew that Hector was feeling the pressure of introducing the Forest Gnomes to his city life. Of course he had made lists of topics and useful tips to discuss of an evening after their tea, but he couldn't help wondering if he had been irresponsible to bring his friends to such a strange environment. ' Right you are Isabel, what a good idea, let's finish the fruit cake.' He had an ulterior reason as he had been carrying the cake since they had left the Forest and as everyone knows, boiled fruitcake is delicious, but very, very heavy. ' This evening we will go through  

the way traffic lights work and how to avoid surveillance cameras again.' Some of the gnomes groaned inwardly, Hector was always thorough and a lecture with question and answers could make the delights of bed time seem a long way off.

Soon however, hammocks were swinging from the lower branches of bushes and the gnomes gathered around a small fire for their supper of cheese on toast and barley broth. ' Bed, oh lovely bed' thought Isabel, and with that she clambered in, tucked her blanket firmly around her and settled down for a gentle night of sweet slumbers.