The Gnook

By Ash Butler

Amanita GreenBark poked her nose out of the tree hole. It was going to be a wet one. A rain drop hit the top of her head, melting into her mossy hair, and dripping down her face. The forest was lively, despite the weather. Birds chittered and soared overhead, unaware that a meal was down below. A lizard slithered up a nearby tree and into a hole. That would be something to be wary of. Lizards didn’t eat gnomes per se, but there were terrible neighbours, always bringing back stinking carcasses and playing music at all hours. Although they did eat a lot of the bugs that often plagued Gnome houses…

Amanita looked around for a convenient door. Most of the leaves had already rotted away into mush, which meant the traditional yellow-orange-red ones were out of the question. Perhaps a strip of bark… although Amanita grimaced at the thought. There really was nothing quite like a traditional door, covered and sealed with sticky tree sap. Amanita had been missing a good solid door.

The cave she had been living in, with one Beryl GoldQuartz of the local caves had been… serviceable. Although too dark, too echoey for Amanita’s taste. The soft loam Beryl GoldQuartz had liked to serve as dessert had been far to dry to really serve as dessert. Dessert wasn’t loam! Fucking dust from the ground! Dessert was crushed berries and maybe some lichen if you were lucky enough to find some where you could reach.

No, she was glad to be rid of that cave. It smelt like dirt and wet, but not in the nice way. Like there was something mouldering a few layers down. And you could never be quite sure that the noises that bounced off the cave walls were those of your families, or something worse.

Besides, Amanita liked seeing the sky. Sometimes she envied the lizards and squirrels who scampered easily up trees and over logs like they were nothing. They could see far over the tall grasses, see incoming danger, see the great expanses of sky that Amanita had only snippets of. A blue sky through the trees, a sparkle of the Great Blanket at night, even a glimpse of the burning sun sometimes. If she were in the right place, at the right time, and the world was smiling on her.

She’d heard stories of lands beyond the forest, lands where the sun beat down upon you endlessly. Lands where brilliant white sands gave way to roaring, crashing, salty waters, battering against the shore like a storm.

Sometimes she missed her home. Missed her family, missed her younger siblings. But she was of age now. She could find those lands of endless sun if she wanted. Most likely she’d pick an unlucky home and be a meal for a bird. But until then she had this nook.

Amanita looked around again, and was just getting her gloves ready to weave a door when her face caught another raindrop. This time, the bubble of water covered her face from thick bushy eyebrow to nut brown chin. She relished in it, letting the cool water cool her face. She was probably due for a bath anyway. If she could find one.

She opened her mouth and sucked the majority of the bubble of water into her mouth, enjoying the taste of clean fresh water, until the rest dribbled off her face pathetically. “What are you doing here?” The voice was gravelly and high pitched. She surveyed her surroundings until she saw a dormouse crouched in the grass in front of her, their fur bristling angrily. Amanita wiped the last of the water off her face and wished desperately for her stick. (Left tragically by the rivers edge two days ago) Dormice weren’t terribly aggressive, but if you were to come across one who was things didn’t usually end well for you.

“I’m awfully sorry! I was only taking shelter from the storm last night! It didn’t look like anyone lived here!” She said. It wasn’t exactly a lie. She had taken shelter from the storm, but she was hoping to stay. Either way, she kicked her cap and bag from the nook.

“Just because I don’t have thumbs and can’t wallpaper a house in under 90 seconds, doesn’t mean my house is any less mine! Now, see this wise tree, so big and strong?” Amanita nodded her big eyes at them, “imitate it, and leaf me the fuck alone!” The dormouse rushed past her, their soft fur swiping across her face and they ran. They did a few circles, scratching up her meticulously made bed.

“I didn’t mean it like that!” Amanita tried. But she didn’t know what else to

“FUCK OFF!” The dormouse said finally, turning around so their fluffy backside was just sticking out of the hole. She resisted the urge to bury her face into their fur. But she had nowhere to go.

“I have no where else to go!” Amanita tried. They spun around again suddenly.

“If I had a door, I’d be slamming it!” They said, bristling their fur and returning to their previous position. Amanita got the idea. She placed her cap (lovingly sewn by her mother) on her head, and her bag on her shoulder and set off, hoping that perhaps a few trees over there would be a nice, dry nook that she could reach. This time unused.