Pictomo-whats?

The Sun was setting upon the rises of Thunder Bluff. Nihala leaned against her usual tree watching the changing sky in its daily display of colour. As she watched she thoughtlessly tugged at the hem of her new kilt, undoing part of the seam.

She gently closed her eyes and let her mind wander from the bustling of the town and her thoughts travel until she could hear the wind rustle in the grasslands of the plain.

“Hi Friend!”

The sharp shrill voice roused Nihala from her musing. She opened her eyes and realized who had spoken. A female goblin was stood before her with a strange box in one hand.

Nihala pushed herself gently to her feet.

“Is there something I may help you with green one?”

“Why it’s funny you should ask,” she replied in her high pitched squeak “I’ve been sent here to take pictomographs of the scenery and the locals to go on the notices about the new Zeppelin route, which I’m sure of course you’ve heard about.”

Nihala looked blankly at the goblin, wondering for a moment which of the questions she should ask first. She drew a breath and opened her mouth

“… “

“Anyway”, the goblin continued “I’ve been wandering around the town looking for someone to take a pict’ of and who should I find but you leaning against a tree in your delightfully….” She paused for a moment looking Nihala up and down, “…’Tribal’ outfit.”

Nihala took another breath, “What exactly is a pict?”

“Oh don’t be silly, it’s just like a painting only much faster and almost completely safe, in-fact if you follow me it won’t take anytime at all!” and with that the goblin bounded off out onto the bridge before the lift. She turned and beckoned for Nihala to follow while she put her strange box on a set of sticks obviously used for holding it up. “If you just stand there dearie, with your back to the scenery… that’s it now stay still, just like that…”

Nihala squinted against the setting sun as the goblin fumbled with her box.

Suddenly there was a small explosion from within the box and a rather large amount of smoke came out. Alarmed Nihala stepped back.

“Now now nothing to worry about that usually happens.” The goblin opened the lid of the box and pulled out what appeared to be a piece of parchment. “hmmmm not quite, let me adjust the angle a bit and try again, you just stay put, if you could take half a step backwards that might help but don’t go falling off, my boss would go mad if I started killing the locals before we’d even built the zeppelin.”

Nihala obediently took a step closer to the edge, trying not to look down and feeling slightly uneasy as the wind picked up and began to blow her kilt around her.

Another explosion from the box was followed by more muttering from the goblin and one final explosion.

This time the goblin pulled out the parchment and smiled, “Ah perfect. Right-o dearie I’d better be off, thank you for your time.” She began to walk away towards the lifts.

“Oh!” She exclaimed as she walked back to Nihala “My name is Trixie Goldkwick in case I forgot to mention it before,” She paused and handed Nihala a small piece of parchment, “Kalimdor’s premier Pictomogrophatist. Now I really must be going, Time is money friend.”

Nihala watched blankly as the Trixie lugged her boxes across the bridge and hopped onto the lift. When she looked down at the piece of parchment she realized it was a very small pict of the goblin herself with ‘Trixie Goldkwick, Ratchet. - Pictomograph Specialist’ scrawled across the bottom.

Nihala returned to her resting spot by the tree and tried to regain some peace as sunset turned to evening.

Several days later Nihala received a mail from the strange little goblin, She unfurled the parchment and read.

“Hello Friend,

I just wanted to thank you for your help regarding the picts taken for the new zeppelin route.

However we have since decided that we won’t be using the Thunder Bluff locals in the adverts as frankly you are so vast in size you make our spacious Zeppelin look cramped and over-packed.

As such please find enclosed your picts from the other day, and remember to Recommend Trixie Goldkwick Proffesional Pictomographs to all your friends!”