The Garden – Where Gnomes Live in Peace.

      Derrick stood at the top of stairs, with Jack barking frantically at the bloodied man. Then, the man started muttering something, but Derrick couldn’t hear his exact words. So, very slowly, he inched his way towards the man. However, as soon as he reached the bottom of the stairs, he started getting dizzy. His vision was getting blurry, so he couldn’t see very well at all. He looked up at the man and all he saw was a blur. However, the blur started growing. Eventually, the blur started engulfing the whole shop. Jack started whimpering, barking weakly. Derrick’s head began throbbing, and his ears began ringing. Derrick collapsed at the foot of the stairs, and his vision slowly faded until all he saw was blackness.
     Derrick woke up with a jolt. He sat up, and found himself in his bed. He jumped out of bed, in a state of…well; it was more of a mix. He was in a state of confusion/terror.
      “Ok, what happened after I came home yesterday?” He said, muttering to himself “Let’s see…I went upstairs, and when I came down, I was in dream world. I never remember going to bed…Was all of yesterday just a dream? No, it can’t be, that’s crazy! I’ll go talk with Reginald, to make sure. Come, Jack!”
      Derrick went downstairs, and was rather shocked when he saw someone standing in the front room again! This person, however, was just your average traveler, and he showed no signs of bleeding whatsoever. Phew, ok, that had me scared for a minute, Derrick thought. He asked the man, “How’d you get in?”
      “Why, the front door was left wide open! How else could I have gotten in? Through the window?” The man had a kind of rustic accent, as his voice was very deep and guttural. And his build matched his voice, as he was really tall, and rather strong looking.
      Ok, I could’ve sworn I locked that door. Thank the gods nobody stole anything. “Yes, well, anyway, um, how can I help you, sir?”
      “I have this jacket here that I’ve been wanting to sell.” The man held up an old rustic looking leather jacket. It had an odd looking emblem on the shoulder. It looked too small to fit the big man anymore, “It ain’t worth much, but at this point, any money would do me good.”
      “Well, let me take a look at it, and then we’ll decide a price, ok?”
      “Alright, that sounds fair to me.”
      Derrick bargained with the man for some time, and they eventually came to a consensus of 2 gold, as it was a very nice jacket. Plus, Derrick figured he could use it when the winter months came around. He gave the man his money, and then tried on the new jacket. “This is very nice, sir, where did you get…” He looked up, and was greeted by silence. The man had apparently been in a rush. Derrick shrugged, “Oh well, I’ll have to keep this.” He went to fold it up when he felt something in on of the pockets. He reached in, and took out an old, rusty key. “Hm. Don’t look like it’s seen much use.” He put the key into his pocket, and he continued to fold up the jacket. He set down under the counter, locked up the store, and went to go see Reginald, to see if all of yesterday truly was a dream.