A tale in three acts

The Garden, the House and the Hospital

Prologue: The Glade

In a quiet patch of forest, a small gnome with a tall pointed hat wakes by the campfire in his home glade. The forest is full of mushrooms, the currency of gnome life. Just up the path, Morel, a round, big-eyed mushroom shopkeeper, runs the ShroomShop. He loves mushrooms more than anything, and will trade gear and companions for them.

Act 1: The Garden

The garden beyond the glade belongs to a grumpy Gardener, and everything he owns seems determined to stop a gnome from foraging on his lawn: a prowling Cat, a mushroom-chewing Lawn Mower, a thieving Crow, a tunnelling Mole and a spraying Garden Hose.

One by one the gnome beats them, and Morel tames many of them into pets: a kitten, a mini mower, a crow chick, a baby mole and a hose pup. A pet mouse and a swarm of honey bees join him too.

At last the gnome faces the Gardener himself, a giant with a leaf blower, a rake and a stomp that shakes the ground. When he topples into his own flower bed, an ambulance races in and carries him away to the east. The garden is safe, and Morel hands over the key the Gardener dropped: the key to his house.

Act 2: The House

Inside, the house is quiet and strange. A mouse hole leads to a kitchen, where the pet mouse finds a wedge of cheese. The gnome eats it, lets out a mighty fart, and drops a crumb, waking a Robot Vacuum that devours everything in its path.

Back outside, a blight has begun. Purple poison mushrooms are spreading, and without the Gardener nothing can stop them. Morel is frantic: there must be a cure in the house. Carried by his bees, the gnome finds a key on the table, unlocks the kitchen, and discovers a glowing green potion in the fridge.

Morel, wanting to make sure it is safe, drinks the whole thing. He grows five times his size, his eyes burning red. When the gnome finally brings Mega Morel down, Morel sneezes a great green cloud of cure across the garden, and the blight is gone.

But the cure will not last. Someone must tend the garden again, and that someone is the Gardener. In the garage the gnome calms Biscuit, the Gardener's loyal guard dog, who sniffs out a letter: an appointment at St. Petal's Hospital.

Visitors need an appointment, but flowers always get in. Hidden in a Get Well Soon bouquet, still as a garden ornament, the gnome rides east in the florist's van...

Act 3: The Hospital

Visiting hours are over. Somewhere inside St. Petal's is the Gardener, who once chased the gnome off his lawn and is now the only one who can save it.

This is the tale of a tiny forager who keeps proving he is bigger than he looks, and of the odd little family he gathers along the way...