From inside the tent where I was laying out the water and urine proof LeekTek450 sleeping bag, I heard my girlfriend squeal, “Ooh, fireflies! How pretty.” I should have been worried, as it was 9 in the morning.

Then I heard her say, “Are you children lost?” That’s when I really started to worry. I scrambled out of the tent far too slowly to stop her from saying, “Why don’t you come by the fire,” and motioning them over my carefully arranged stones.

The three children stepped across the threshold, immediately changing appearance in a shimmering of magical light. The leader bore a wicked, toothy grin on his tiny mouth. The scrawny one to his left squinted about nervously. The shorter, pudgy one just hitched his ragged trousers up and snorted in apparent self-satisfaction.

My girlfriend, she wasn’t pleased. I think she wanted to scream but couldn’t. If she had peed her pants, I wouldn’t tell you. I’m a gentleman, you see.

“We’re here,” the stout fellow announced loudly, “for the Gnud!”