Gnomic Relations

Veedi Limstrood opened another container of king worms to make a worm hole for her customer. She emptied the worms into a bowl and prepared the meal within the space of a minute. She was well-trained for cooking, and so she should be, because Veedi Limstrood ran a gnome restaurant; a failing gnome restaurant. Carrying the food to her customer, she looked noticably sad.

"You look down," the customer said.

"So would you if your business was failing," Veedi replied.

"You are not alone there, I know plenty of other companies up here in the Grand Tree going bankrupt."

"Well I'm not going down without a fight," Veedi said slamming the worm hole down.

"Determined?"

"Very. My father told me to accept nothing but brilliance, and that is what I shall aim for; brilliance."

"I think getting even one customer is an achievment these days. I mean the other restaurants I've been to have all been as quiet. One said it hadn't seen business for three days."

"That is terrible."

"Well it's this money shortage, isn't it?"

"It seems to be affecting everyone so badly."

"Yes, so badly they can't afford to eat out in gnome restaurants, a lot of people I know have tried growing their own foodstock. The problem is the weather, all that cold air coming from the Baxtorian Falls, it kills plants, well most. The flax still grows."

"Yes, so humans can march in and uproot it, and from what I know they have their own flax fields to the east of here."

"Well that's humans for you, quantity not quality. Take a look at our technology - and the dwarven technology - it's much more complex and imaginative, but the humans create simple, boring contraptions, but they do a much better job than ours and the dwarves'."

"Maybe that's just gnomekind all over, we can't adapt to a changing world, we can't keep up with competition."

"The humans are in financial difficulty too I hear, I heard a group of men passing by here who catch kebbits and sell their meat from up near Eagle's Peak. They said about not getting much business and a decline in trade."

"Most unfortunate, but they have a very extensive empire, we are few in number though, we have nowhere to turn in times of need."

"You are right, we do not," the customer said grimly, finishing his worm hole with one last mouthful. "You may have financial problems, but you really do know how to cook."