Chapter 4

The winter has arrived, once bright rays of sunshine are hidden behind dense heaps of clouds and the cold and harsh winds have blown away most of the castle’s visitors. Thus our trusty seven gnomes embarked on a quest of fulfilling five marvelous deeds in order to banish the cold, free the sun from the shackles of winter and regain the magic that once reigned the kingdom.

First they needed to become one with the winter to understand how to fight it so they split up and departed to lands far far away, mountains higher than high, where abundance of snow made the adventures of the gnomes into ventures. Despite frozen fingertips the flame of their hearts melted the walls of ice and illuminated the path to spring.

However, that was only the first step to success.

Secondly they had to delve deeper into the local culture in order to gain a better insight into the society around them. With this in mind they put on their most extravagant costumes, trying to blend in the fancily dressed crowd, and watched a bunch of local creatures performing a dramatic reenactment of a possibly true tale filled with lots and lots of singing. In simple words – they went to an opera.

In scope of the third deed they had to gain more wisdom about the behaviour of various creatures on this planet, as well as the technicalities of their minds and passions. To complete this task the gnomes spent hours and hours together in front of a huge screen watching lots of different multimedia creations. This research was not of the easiest but the gnomes kept the good work up fueled by motivation to do their best (and a table full of snacks).

Fourth was a trial of the skills collected during the deeds before to see if they are ready for the last one, a challenging one to add – a day with the little ones. Were they testing the gnomelings or actually themselves? That answer is held by the Wizard of Oz himself. With strategies in multitude of tones they painted the path to victories and achievements, both for gnomelings and themselves.

Fifth and last deed was a full circle moment, returning to where they started. They had to fight the winter and see that there can be fun even in the cold. They stepped on razor-sharp blades, completed most difficult jumps and pirouettes while balancing on ice and helped each other up in times of need.

The marvelous deeds are done, casualties are none, return of the sun, the spring has begun.

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