"Is she asleep?" A ceramic eye peeped open and looked around.

A voiced whispered from across the yard. "She just turned the bedroom light off!"

"Yay!" yelled a playful Kougra gnome, uprooting himself from the grass so he could jump up and down.

"Shhh!" hissed the first one, a blue Wocky gnome. "All's clear, let's go!" He turned to a purple Kiko gnome. "Merlin, bring the shovel."

"Meeting time! Meeting time!" Merlin squealed as he bounced through the garden, gripping a clay spade in his hand.

All around the yard, garden gnomes began to move, heading towards their secret hiding place. Merlin cleared away the bit of concealing dirt they had packed around the entrance, and then, in a long line, they entered the the hole they had dug into the long-forgotten cellar of the Neohome.

"Order, order," called the blue Wocky, standing behind a podium. He banged a small gavel to get the attention of the other gnomes. "Tonight's meeting of the Lawn Gnome Brigade has begun..."

"Can I start?" asked the playful Kougra gnome, waving his paw frantically. Without waiting for a response, he continued. "Yes, it seems that that Petpet has developed a taste for our owner's yolkalias."

They heard some violent scratching coming from the entrance and, suddenly, each promptly assumed their usual frozen stance. All of a sudden an Ixi gnome, who was in a fluster, came crashing in.

"Goodness, Fergus!" the chairman said, "I thought you were that Kadaotie! You have to watch your timekeeping in future."

Fergus tried to speak, but could not utter one word. The gathering waited in amusement as he gained his breath.

"He's gone! Moerty's gone... I can't find him anywhere!" the Ixi gnome said between deep breaths. "We were coming to this meeting together, but then he got distracted and went to look at some flowers... that's when he just vanished."

"Did you try and look for him?" the blue Wocky gnome asked. "He probably just spotted something else that caught his amusement and went after it. You know what a curious Moehog gnome he is," the blue Wocky explained, obviously annoyed at the ill-timed disruption.

"Yes, but Arthur... I couldn't find him! I called out for a while, but was afraid that someone would hear me." Fergus said desperately.

"We should go and look for him. It's a dangerous world out there." Merlin advised.

"Right! Let's split up into two groups," Arthur said, taking charge of the situation. "Fergus, Merlin, and Kougri, you'll come with me; we'll explore the garden's right wing and near the house. The rest of you search the left wing, and over by the shed. When either group finds him, return to headquarters and send a messenger to alert the other party. It's all settled then, right? Let's go!"...

...The group began to disperse into smaller factions and climb through the hole. Fergus, Merlin, Kougri, and Arthur waited for all of them to leave before they ascended into the yard themselves. When everyone was steady on the ground, Arthur turned to Fergus, "Where was the last place you saw him before he vanished?"

"Over here," replied Fergus, pointing the way through the darkness. They all kept close to the house and moved as silently as possible. Kougri stepped on a twig and held his breath, but the echo went unnoticed into the night. They all breathed a sigh of relief.

Together the party moved toward the flowers, and Fergus whispered, "This is it." Merlin, still toting his shovel, stepped forward first to examine the scene.

"There are indeed some tracks here, but they seem to simply... disappear right before they reach the flower bed." Arthur stepped up beside his companion and looked for himself.

"Ho, what's this?" the blue Wocky gnome cried out, putting his hand over his mouth in surprise at how loud he had been. All four of them looked in the direction of Arthur's gaze. Sure enough, there was a second set of footprints, much larger in scale than the missing Moehog's, that crossed near the flowerbed as well.

"The Kadaotie!" Fergus squeaked...

"So, what do we do now?" Merlin asked, gripping his shovel with worry.

Arthur thought for a moment, then said, "Well, we've still got to rescue Moerty, and that means we've got to get to him!"

"You mean we're going Inside?" Merlin said, horrified.

"Yes." Arthur said, nodding.

"B-but none of us have ever gone Inside!" Kougri protested. "We have no idea what might be in there!"

"We can't just abandon Moerty!" Fergus said. "We have to at least try to save him!" The Kiko and Kougra gnomes looked down in shame for even considering giving up on their friend.

"Well, then... what are we waiting for?" Arthur said. "Let's go save Moerty."

A few minutes later, the four gnomes were making their way into the Neohome via a small vent. At the end, Arthur lifted up the grate at the base of a wall, allowing the four to crawl out of the passage and into the strangest place they had ever seen...

..."What in the world?'

"Where are we?"

"I think..."

"Yeah?"

"It's a bathroom!"

The four gnomes looked around and noticed that they were indeed in a Neopian bathroom, a place filled with white porcelain and lots of things called "brushes".

Suddenly, Merlin heard footsteps from outside the closed door. "Everyone, hide!"

The gnomes started climbing in the shower. The door opened and a small pink Kacheek came toddling in. She'd left her purple Quiggle plushie in the bathroom while brushing her teeth and forgotten it. As she picked the plushie up off the floor, the Kacheek noticed mumbling from inside the shower. She opened up the shower curtain, then giggled.

"Quiggy find new friends? Whee!" she exclaimed, grasping Kougri and Arthur. Kougri's normally playful-looking face now bore a look of sheer horror.

"I thought she was asleep!" he whispered under his breath to Arthur. Arthur shrugged as the Kacheek scooped up Fergus and Merlin, then carried them to her bedroom.

When she opened the door, they were not surprised to see Moerty, just where they had expected him to be... lying beneath the sleeping Kadoatie's body. The toddler climbed into her bed with the gnomes on a pillow at her feet, and said,"Nighty-night, gnomies, sweep tight! Don't wet da Mootix bite!"

She soon was sound asleep, her Quiggle plushie at her side. The gnomes saw their chance and leapt up, all of them staring at the fat Kadoatie and their friend, who was in dire need of rescue...

Arthur walked over and reached out a hand. Obediantly, Moerty stuck out a hoof, which Arthur grabbed.

Merlin walked to the other side of the Kadoatie and stuck his hands under the belly, finding the back of Moerty. He carefully positioned his hands, just right, on the base of his ceramic back.

Kougri then walked over with Merlin and cautiously lifted the other end of the fat, which had enclosed poor Moerty.

"Ready?" Fergus whispered as he lifted up some extra fat.

"Ready," they all whispered back.

"Go!" Fergus said. Arthur pulled on Moerty's hoof, while Merlin pushed on his back, allowing the gnome to come sliding out. The three gnomes holding the fat carefully set it down, then began tiptoeing out the door. Just as they'd almost reached the door, the gnomes heard an unfamiliar sound.

Doonnnngggggg!

The grandfather clock had struck midnight...

...The Kadoatie stirred. "Quick, scram!" Fergus whispered urgently. The Ixi gnome dove behind a couch. Merlin, Moerty, and Arthur soon joined their fellow gnome in his hiding place. The four held their breath.

Fergus slowly peeked out after a minute or so. The Petpet was daintily strutting around the room. The ceramic Ixi wrinkled his nose in disgust.

Merlin tapped Fergus on the shoulder, but Fergus wasn't paying attention. Merlin tapped harder. "What?" Fergus hissed, exasperated.

Merlin pointed to a spot beside Arthur. Fergus just raised an eyebrow. "It's Kougri... he's not here!" Fergus's eyes widened. The ceramic gnome glanced back around the arm of the couch, groaning inwardly.

Kougri's yellow tail was visible, sticking out from under the window curtains, twitching slightly from nervousness. That wouldn't have been so bad if the gnomes were the only ones who knew about the ceramic Kougra's hiding place. However, a certain Petpet had noticed, too...

"We just might have to," sighed Moerty, slumping down against the couch.

"We can't leave him there! He'll be smashed to pieces!" cried Arthur, still staring at Kougri's tail, which was more visible now than ever as it twitched and waved frantically.

The Kadoatie was now very suspicious. An investigative little creature, he sniffed the air and pawed the ground about the bed, sensing that something was wrong in the little pink Kacheek's bedroom. Indeed, something was wrong, but the Kadoatie did not know that he was the problem. While strolling around the room, he gradually moved closer to the curtains, Kougri's hiding place. He was not that far away, and Kougri's tail was now straight as a ruler: each individual hair stood up as he awaiting his doom.

Fergus was now practically out of his hiding spot -- he couldn't sit and watch his friend meet an untimely fate. He knew he had to do something, and ignoring the warnings from his fellow gnomes, he sprinted from behind the couch and towards the Kadoatie. As he neared it...

...The Kacheek moaned in her sleep, and Fergus froze in his tracks. However, seeing that the Kadoatie was temporarily distracted by the Quiggle plushie which the Kacheek had dropped to the floor, Fergus sprinted towards the curtains and retrieved Kougri. To the amazement of his friends, they galloped through the open door into the hallway, certain that they'd meet Merlin, Moerty, and Arthur outside.

"That Ixi..." Arthur sighed. "Anyway, I have a plan. Listen up: I'll distract the Kadoatie, while you all sprint towards the door. We've got Kougri -- now we get out."

"But that's crazy!" Moerty cried.

"That's why my name is Arthur!" replied Arthur, to the absolute confusion of the others. "Okay, quickly now!"

By now, the Kadoatie seemed to be sleeping, seemingly having given up on the plushie. Upon seeing this, Arthur halted his emergence at once.

"Is it asleep?" he whispered.

"It looks asleep," Merlin answered, "Moerty, you know about Kadoaties now... is it asleep?"

"It was hard to tell from underneath, but I think so," Moerty replied.

"Good," Arthur said, "Now we can just head out that door... easy as pie!"

However, as the gnomes emerged from their safe spot, they'd forgotten how hard it was to walk and keep quiet with their small ceramic shoes constantly thudding.

Hearing the noise, the Kadoatie suddenly sprung into action and bounded towards the walking gnomes, who quickly began to run.

The three gnomes sprinted towards the door, when Merlin suddenly turned towards the running Kadoatie. He threw a yellow object in its direction, which he'd withdrawn from his pocket. At once, the Kadoatie began to play with the strange object, and the gnomes happily (and confusedly) ran out of the door and into the garden.

"Well, I'm glad that's over," Moerty said, waving to Fergus and Kougri, who were patiently waiting in the grass.

"Say Merlin, what was that thing you threw?" Arthur asked.

"A Yolkalia," Merlin said with a smile, taking a seat in a bed of about four hundred of them. "Also known as Kadoatie nip."

The End