To fully immerse yourself in the story, please refer to the first two chapters. Gnomeville's Mystery ~ Part One by @snook and Nerffin and the Troll Baby, Gnomeville's Mystery ~ Part 2. Surely, you will enjoy them as they bring smiles and maybe even some happy tears or giggle worm infestations. I dare say though, you are about to discover the darker side of Gnomes. One which is not for the faint of heart. You are warned.

It's just not. It's not all cupcakes and rainbows. Steven often told people this in the Underground, but they never listened. They were always ignorant and more concerned with dying trees and living out their punishments. These same kinds of gnomes would even discard their own child because it looked a little differently. Spoke a little differently. Most notably - thought differently.

Steven Fa'Koon. Often referred to by his last name first and well, you get the idea. He wasn't exactly a Fred. Nor, was he a happy-go-lucky Nerffin. No. He was the bastard son of a former Gnome King (who will be left unmentioned, due to his precarious and prolific nature) that was abandoned by the stork delivery. He sat at the waiting house for months, crying, starving and trying to make his way into the world.

He ultimately did, by hijacking a delivery basket and forcing the stork to drop him off at the Oak Palace. Unannounced. There was no happy tears to be had and his first act as a gnome ended up dreadfully being the deathly fright of his own father. Yes, the sight of him literally scared his father to death and ended the reign of the Fa'Koon's since the only heir - was now a murderer.

The Underground

Barely able to walk and talk and do all the things he was hoping to do in the pursuit of happiness, he was forced to be exiled to the Underground. Nobody ever made it long in the Underground. It was a comfortable hell designed as a hospice for unwanted and undesirable gnomes. Gnomes that liked green beans or ate cats.

Steven never ate a cat. He'd never even tasted or seen a green bean. He had previously survived on bird seed and some kind of goop they rammed in the mouths of the 'unborn'. A nasty nutritional mix that you aren't supposed to eat beyond a couple of days. It was kind of like nature's immunity shot. That he kept getting. For months.

This made him surprisingly resilient to things like one of the gnome weaknesses - the need for sunlight. He may as well have been a literal troll as his pigment was more of a greenish grey - much like that of Gwen...

But, he thrived below the surface for years and mocked the other hospice patients for their lack of a will to live. He often took it upon himself to 'liberate' many of them in their demise and gained favor with the sentries as there seemed to be more food to go around for everyone. Not that they had any need of want, but, gluttony - can be a valuable tool. Much like greed and envy. Used properly, it can turn the tides for things.

Things like discovery of secret tunnels in and out of the Underground. Tunnels that wound for miles and ultimately led to groves of untouched and uninhabited giant trees and orchards that no gnome may have even ever seen or was aware of. A place that he adopted and liked to call home. A borderline swamp with frog choruses and cricket choirs. Nobody else lived there. Nobody but your usual mycelium and insects.

Mycelium that had grown fond of his attitude to not carve out a space and instead, they grew one for him. If only he could convince people that life wasn't always cupcakes and rainbows. Bad shit happens. Sometimes it's on purpose. Sometimes it's a mistake - like he was thought to be. If only he could find a way to communicate effectively with the rest of the populace.

Maybe, just maybe, he could show them a different way.