Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2002 - 7:34 p.m.

The gnomes awoke in a completely new place. Solid ground, breathable air, and it wasn't that damned room either. Pink walls indeed. The person who painted that room, Beardy had decided in one of his long staring-at-wall sessions, needed to have something done to their brain, to make it choose better colours. The sky was pink, though. The ground was an interesting shade of blue-green-orange, and protested if you stamped too hard on it, but it was somewhere to live. The gnomes quite liked it, even if it did smell suspiciously of apples(also known as anti-gnome, able to turn a gnome into a jar of pickled strawberries in a single bite). Everything felt alive here, from the protesting floor, to the trees, and plants, who would talk to them as they walked past. Even the air seemed sentient, and in every breath you could imagine thousands of little particles screaming in terror, and then being silenced.

"So, this our new home, then?" asked Paperclip. "Didn't have much time to pick one out, but this place sounded alright to me."

"I think it'll do, for now at least." sad Beardy. "It's not like anything's trying to kill us, is it?"

Ceiling winced. Beardy had some kind of anti-psychic energy about him, if he thought that they weren't going to die, if he truly believed it, then chances are they were at least partially doomed. "You sure about that, Beardy?" He asked. "Because... this entire planet could be against us, you know. We could all be killed by rebellious air particles in our lungs, or be turned inside out by angry flying goldfish."

"Goldfish?!" Screamed Beardy, who was deathly afraid of goldfish after hearing tales of fellow gnomes getting a little too close to the edge of the pond. "Flying goldfish?! There aren't any flying goldfish. There can't be. There can't be! No flying goldfish!"

"There might be. We need to send someone to explore the area fully." said Ceiling, smiling at his newfound ability to terrify the biggest gnome. "I suggest you do it, you're bigger and braver than me. Take some of the others too, Paperclip, Socket. They know what they're doing."

Paperclip and Plug Socket nodded, they both loved exploring, and neither worried about goldfish at all. Hairdryer volunteered to go forage for food, gnomes liked to eat, and Hairdryer was easily the oldest, and was more aware of his hunger than the others. That left Ceiling to set up camp, and then guard it, from whatever might hang around in this plane of existance.

"So, let's go!" shouted Paperclip, before screaming and running off over a hill. The other two explorers followed, with less screaming and speed. Hairdryer simply nodded at Ceiling, and walked in the opposite direction, while staring at the sky, and singing a little song.

"Right then. Camp.. set up a camp..." said Ceiling, to himself.

"Aaaaand gnomes like food when they're hungreeeee, and gnomes like fooood when they're noooooot, gnomes like foood when they're hungreeeeeeeee... gnomes like fooooood a lot!" Hairdryer's voice floated through the air, or, more accurately, beat it's way through the air, killing a few particles who didn't like the sound of it and refused to vibrate. Hairdryer wasn't talented, but he sang anyway.

Ceiling walked over to what looked like a tree, and, after checking to see if anything was living in it, pulled off a few of the lower branches for a fire. He used what limited magical ability he had to make a nice warm fire, and sat down to rest.

Then he heard it. Shlob. Something was shlobbing near him. It was slowly getting louder, and faster, until it became a steady Shlobshhlob! Shlobshhlob! Ceiling was scared, he was very scared. Damn that Paperclip for not checking what lived here first, and damn that Beardy for destroying their old home. Damn them all!

Ceiling turned around, to face whatever it was that was making the sound, and was faced with a huge, airborne, goldfish. It was floating, somehow, and its gills were flapping in the air. It wasn't gold, either, more greensilver, a colour known to gnomes for its ability to terrify them. Ceiling screamed, and backed up against the tree. The tree screamed, also, picked up the gnome, and threw him towards the goldfish.

He hit the ground running, then tripped over a newly surfaced root, then fell flat on his face. He couldn't get away, and he knew that. He tried running anyway. The goldfish chased, and after a few seconds had caught up to Ceiling, and nudged him over. Ceiling didn't find the whole goldfish thing particularly funny, but then he wouldn't, it was swallowing him.