Chapter 11 - Gnomes!

Rubbing the sleep from her eyes and having a good stretch Kali rolled out of her nice warm bed.  
Startled, she fell back against the bed frame, "Oh my gosh, you scared me!!"  Kali said to the happy looking blue gnome that appeared beside her bed.

Kali had heard about magical gnomes that appeared during Harvestfest, they were said to give wonderful rewards if your bestowed small gift offerings to the tiny beings.  Kali rushed to the kitchen, made a quick cup of instant coffee and bending down to the blue gnome, offered it the cup.  He instantly vanished with a happy giggle and in its place was a small packet with a snowflake stamped on it!  Picking up the packet, Kali read the back, "Seasonal Winter Plants Packet!"  Excitedly she ripped into the packet and was happy to find four Spinach seeds!  Kali rushed to get dressed so she could head outside to plant her new seeds and get a garden started.  She was just tying her shoes when she heard a rustling in the living room.  

The happy blue gnome was there, and he was joined with three others!  While she was rummaging through the cupboards looking for a small snack to offer another of the gnomes, there was a crackle and they vanished, reappearing again a short distance away.  Near the happy blue gnome was another packet, this time with a sunshine stamped on it front!  "Seasonal Summer Plants Packet," read Kali, and she tore into the wrapper...four Basil seeds, she'd hold onto these!  Selecting a small slice of what looked like fruitcake, Kali bent to the happy looking gnome in a brown coat and offered the pastry.  It vanished with a giggle leaving another Seasonal Summer Plants Packet in its wake!  When Kali pulled back the wrapper, she saw four lemon tree seeds and three green been pods...how exciting!  It seemed as though the gnomes knew exactly what her interests were!  Not wanting to spend ALL day "chasing" gnomes, Kali scooped up the spinach seeds and headed outdoors. 

Kali dug four holes, plopped a small seed in each, and covered them, making for small mounds in her front yard.  Hopefully soon, there would be little green shoots poking up through the mounds, and if she tended them well, there would be fresh spinach to harvest in the future!  Her first garden was started!  Now that she was out here, there were things to be done, the banana tree needed weeding and hundreds of leaves were strewn about her property.  Today wasn't just for working though, so Kali made sure to have some fun playing in the leaves while she was at it!  It seemed like every time she thought that she had gotten all the leaves piled up, more had fallen from the trees or had been blown into the yard, so eventually she decided enough was enough and headed back inside to check on those silly, generous gnomes!  

 ----♥----♥----♥----

They had more seed packets waiting for her, and by the time she'd opened all of them, Kali had enough different types of seeds to really get a nice garden going!  Kali made herself a garden salad for lunch and set aside a small amount to offer to the last two gnomes in the group.  So far, the little gnomes had all been pleased with her gifts, she hoped that they would appreciate the greens she had to offer.  Kali searched the house, but couldn't find any of the gnomes, but when she peered out the dining room window she saw they were clumped together in the bushes.  Kali headed out front, approached the group of shorties and offered both the winking and ghost looking gnomes a small salad, and...they were pleased with her offerings...more seed packets!  Every so often they would vanish and reappear somewhere else on the property, leaving a trail of seed packets wherever they went!  

        ----♥----♥----♥----

*Sounds Of A Ringtone*

"Hello?!"

"Zoey!  How's your Harvestfest going?"

"Did you see gnomes today too?"

"Oh my gosh I've made them all happy and they keep spouting seed packets all over the place!"

"Yeah, totally!  It's crazy!"

"I would love to, I'll see you in a few minutes!"

Kali bounded out the front door shouting "Thank-You!!" to the gnomes as she left to meet up with Zoey.