"Hms! What a days", Albie sighed, as he crawled up on his box in Stormwind trade district. Nesting himself comfortably on the top, he pulled out his coffee mug and gulped a huge mouthful of the strong brew. Pandy found his place on the ground below and soon fell asleep.

Perking up as the caffeine worked his system, Albie thought back on the events of the day. A routine mission inside the Deadmines to see if the pirate problem still festered the caves had gone almost horribly wrong. That should teach him not to trust over-enthusiastic engineers promising to fix his sword so that it would cleave the heads of even the most thick-skulled fellows. Well, the engineer had actually been right - the sword had been sharp enough to burrow deep inside the first pirate Albie saw. As for pulling the darn thing out afterwards, though... Fencing with a 120-pound pirate hanging on to the blade sort of cramped the Gilnean fighting style Albie'd been schooled in.

Good thing he had his trusty box to come back to. He loved this spot - it was perfect for a gnome who wanted to get away from the hazards of the street below. Stretching his legs and smiling for himself, he looked at the busy people running around between the auction house, the bank and the shops. Yep, he was glad he wasn't down there.

People began milling around Albie. Some wanted him to open a few lockboxes, which he gladly did. Others heaped praise upon Pandy and his cuteness, praise which didn't really register with the snoozing little cub. And then - the druids came.

Perhaps it's his generally kind expression. Perhaps there are familiar scents in the leather armor he wears. Or perhaps they are drawn by his radiant animal attraction. For one reason or another, though, Albie's always been a big hit with druids in animal form. Cats come up to nuzzle him, bears try to steal his hats and moonkins want to dance on the space he occupies.

This day, Albie found that three bears tried to crawl up on his box at the same time. "Shoos! This be gnome territories!" Albie tried waving off the intruders, but to no avail.

Soon the bears had clawed their way up and turned his box into a veritable furfest. They growled happily, pushed the increasingly unhappy gnome around so that he spilled his coffee and tried catching his hat with their teeth. Things were looking desperate, so Albie got up and looked for the nearest escape route. "Rottens druidses!", he exclaimed, trembling with anger.

Wait, wasn't things trembling a bit without the anger too? And what was that creaking and groaning noise?

With a thunderous "KER-CRUNCH", the box collapsed. Three bears, one gnome and a coffee mug soon followed on the way down. Where the once proud box had stood, a writhing mass of fur, claws, wails and growls now occupied the space.

A few minutes later, the bears had left the scene. A seriously unhappy gnome counted his wounds and tried to brush bear hairs away from his clothes, without success. He eyed his former favourite spot and sighed. Time to bring in some seriously skilled carpenters. The only thing reminding him of the good old days was Pandy, happily snoring in the heap of coffee-stained wooden splinters. The cub hadn't even stirred in his sleep from the noise.