Trouble in the Garden

The water cascaded over his frontside, not the damn water again, he thought, and torture is what it is. She’ll be getting hers soon enough. Immobile, he and his kind had been subject to vulgarities and humiliation since the Great Wizard Merlin had cast a dark spell over his entire race.

Frozen in time for 1500 years the Gnomes were nearing the end of the horrible curse. Merlin had come to believe that Stripes, leader of the Gnomes, had taken sides with Mordred and had been feeding him information on King Arthur’s knights. Even if that were true the Gnomes felt that punishing the whole race had been vindictive and malevolent.

Griff’s white flowing beard was now dry from the day’s sun hitting it. He had been in this particular garden for ten years now and none too happy about it. The matronly lady who tended the garden owned a beagle who thought it great sport to relieve himself on Griff. Gnomes could communicate telepathically with other Gnomes and animals. Most of the animals respected, or feared, the Gnomes but dogs just didn’t care. An oak leaf blew up against Griff’s eye and stuck there. Great, I get my eye poked tonight when we reanimate, why not?

The Gnomes had come to abhor humans almost from the start of the curse. Ten thousand strong in 511 there were now less than three hundred left. After the imposition of the curse Gnomes were believed to bring good luck to humans; however as time passed the humans forgot the Gnomes were real and they were banished to the gardens and not properly taken care of. The Gnomes thought it genocide.

At the stroke of midnight Griff and the others stretched, screamed and let 1500 years of frustration loose on their oppressors.

Word count=300