October 06th, 2012

"Beenie, you made him mad. Why'd you do that?" Troy asked. "We could get in trouble."

"How could we get in trouble?" Beenie asked. "It was just laying there. I wasn't going to take it. I just wanted to see what was inside."

"Beenie, do you know what hedgehogs do?" Troy asked, peeking over the tree root at her.

"No."

"They work for the gnomes in the mountain," Troy said. "And the gnomes are mean and nasty."

"Gnomes?" said Beenie. "Mountain?"

"Yes!" said Troy. "They live in the mountain, and sometimes come out at night. They scare the other animals sometimes."

"But what's a gnome?" Beenie asked.

"You don't know what a gnome is?" Troy asked, his voice squeaky and incredulous.

"No," Beenie replied.

"A gnome is big. Well, bigger than us, anyway. They're really skinny, and Francis the toad told me that they're really strong, too. Nobody knows what they do in the mountain, but whenever someone disappears, they always blame the gnomes."

"Why would asking questions get us in trouble?" Beenie asked. "It's only questions."

"The hedgehogs work for the gnomes. And the gnomes don't like anyone asking questions," Troy said. "Why do you think my mom wanted us to leave it alone? That hedgehog is probably going to tell the gnomes about us!"