Tapio had read Javier's notices with great sympathy and concern. As a herbologist, he was only too familiar with the havoc gnomes could wreak on a garden. So he had not hesitated to answer his colleagues request for help. Besides, if there was one thing the large Herbology professor was good at, it was getting rid of gnomes. Once Javier had finished his speech and instructions, Tapio bent down, seized a gnome in each of his large hands, and began twirling them around while standing in place, rather like a very strange baton twirling exhibition.
Hope Archard was not entirely unfamiliar with gnome infestations--though the small creatures weren't native to America, at least not in their European form, enough of them had managed to emigrate along with their human families to make them a problem across the pond as well. But though she had helped her father with the task at home, she had never done it on her own, having been deemed "too small." But now was her chance. Though, as she approached her first gnome, Hope began to worry that perhaps she was too small after all. Unwilling to give up without trying, though, she reached out with her dragonhide gloves and tentatively attempted to grasp the smallest gnome she could see by the ankles. |