Chapter 1

Sir Gnome of the House of Kurgan

Life Story

Precastle Era

On the far side of the world lived many small people, all existing untouched by all other races. They were short and chubby, with big rosy cheeks, and white beards. They wore earthy colored clothing and coned hats on their head. These hats were of different colors and each color signified the person�s rank in society. This race of little people called themselves, well, they didn�t have a name for themselves.

Melvin, as I was called, was one of the youngest of the little men on our island. I was the son of a great inventor and our family was famous for it. My brother Ben was struck by lightning when he strung his key to his kite and flew the kite in a rainstorm. So he discovered electricity. My other brother Thomas discovered the light bulb when he took a coiled copper wire and attached it to the kite of Ben�s and flew it in another rainstorm. My brother Columbus built a ship and decided to prove that the world was round. He set of to prove her idea, and she hasn�t returned. My brother Henry built a gas-powered engine and a moving cart that he called and automobile.

I went way off the deep end! I took the idea of the gas-powered engine from my brother and attached it to my invention. Mine was just a billow hooked up to a trumpet. Through all of my testing with different speed, I found that the sounds created by the invention could break glass, and most of all, shatter stone.

One day, Henry made a new engine. It had more power than any engine before it. It had 30 pony power! That�s a whole a lot of power. I hooked up the engine as usual and turned it on. I watched in awe as the ground around me began to shake. I lost my balance and I fell onto my invention, which fell to the ground. The invention stared to shatter the ground beneath me and I stared to fall through the world!

I awoke in a place that I had never seen before in my life. A larger mountain stood just a few miles away from where I landed. It was odd looking at the mountain; it stood out like a sore thumb right in the middle of an open meadow. So I picked up my little self and headed over to the mountain. At the foot of the mountain I noticed a series of caves entrances. So, I climbed up to the first cave that I could reach. I squeezed myself into it, and to my surprise I found that the entire mountain was hollowed out. Then an idea hit me like a fallen rock. The gigantic cave would make a great home for me.

I left the gigantic cave and headed of to the meadow. There I found a bunch of dead trees and I found the perfect branches to build a tent with. I remembered from what my father had taught me about weaving, so I weaved myself some twine. I tried many times to get the knots to stay and hold enough so that my little tent would stand, but it never did. So I just took the only side that would stay and leaned it up against the wall. That will be good enough for now I thought.

Grunts, I heard grunts from outside the castle. In shear terror I ran out to the mouth of the cave to see was what was going on. I saw, coming around the mountain, a group of about 50 little men. I stared at them for quite some time and I noticed that they were a lot like me! They were the same size and had the same build as I did. These little men had darker skin than I, and were much stronger than I was. The group of them was pulling a huge boulder that seem to be as big as my mountain itself. Just a few minutes later I saw another group of them pulling another boulder that was at least as big as the other.

After the movers had gone I hurried myself to the other side of the mountain. There I saw an entire city built right into the side of a cliff. This was a thriving city with every luxury of home. They built stairs than were carved right into the stone face wall of the cliff. They had huge ladders that ran up from was seemed to the clouds. The entrances to their dwellings were elaborately decorated with carvings, jewels, silver, and gold. All of the members of the city worked constantly all day to build the marvels that lay before me.

I slid myself down and walked into their city. I walked the only street and found that everyone who was busy at work stopped to say hello and give me a handshake. I saw all sorts of places, from the market to the blacksmiths shop. It took me many hours to walk the entire distance of the street, but when I came to the end I saw a gigantic building, almost as big as the mountain, and many soldiers guarded it. One of the guards came to me and lead me up the narrow path of stairs to the elder�s chambers. The old being came out and introduced himself to me, but what shocked me most was that he spoke the same language that I did. He asked me to tell about myself and so I did. He laughed about my story and affectionately called me "gnome," which in his language means silly dwarf. And the name stuck. I now had a home, in a cliff, with a race known as dwarfs.

The elder informed me of why they were hollowing out the mountain. They were going to build a giant university inside of the mountain. I told him that I have, and know how to, make plans to build a building. He kindly let me draw up the blueprints. He led me off to my new house, or cave, and gave me all the materials I would need to make the blueprints. After weeks of design I finally found the design that was the best. It was like a cylindrical pyramid. Many years passed and the construction was almost finished. The only thing that was needed was some way to get up the levels of the pyramid. I, being the genius that I am, forgot to put in a flight of stairs.

On the day that I began to work on the plans for a way to get onto the pyramid. I decided on a type of device that my great-great-great-great-great-grandfather designed called the CATAPULT. My friends called it a "gnome flinger." I didn�t think it was too funny. Anyway, later that day I heard the sound of thunder brewing. I paid no attention to it so I kept on working. The sound got louder to the point where I couldn�t concentrate anymore. I looked the entrance to my cave and saw a see of black rising over the horizon to the setting sun. The sea grew bigger and bigger till the point where it had engulfed the horizon. The alarms were sound and all the men ran to the barracks and the woman and children ran to the pyramid. The men took up arms and formed ranks to fight against this sea of oppression. The black sea covered our cliff dwelling city and destroyed every bit of it. I heard shouts and screaming. The sounds of flesh burning and bones breaking. All was happening at a slow pace and at a deafening loudness. I cowered into my little cave and waited. All was silent.

The door burst open to have many of these beings rush in. As I looked closer at them I noticed that they looked just like me. What could have been the general of there army, drew his sword and walked over to me. He raised it above his head and was ready to cleave me when he noticed that I looked a lot like him. He stopped, and without saying a word left, and they all left me, they left me alone in the dark and in the silence.