Down below.

Sofia walked with her mother through the forest. Although it was still summer a few weeks ago, and autumn had only just begun, it was cold. The yellow leaves on the trees seemed to shiver.

Luckily, she had a coat on, which she pulled close to herself. When she got home later, she would immediately make herself a mug of chocolate milk, she decided. She could already taste the sweet but warm goodness in her mouth.

"Wait a minute!" her mother suddenly called, diving to the ground and starting to tie her laces.

Sofia sighed. Her mother had never taught her to tie her shoelaces properly, so it happened more than once that she had to wait for her. She often complained about it, but secretly she thought it was funny.

She started to look around a bit more. The forest had all the colours of the rainbow. Most of the leaves had turned red or yellow by now, but a few stayed behind and were still green.

A few metres away was a huge tree with a hole in the bottom of its trunk so big that she might just fit into it. When she came a little closer, she saw that the inside was full of beautiful mushrooms. She decided not to touch them, as she had once become extremely ill from mushrooms. Instead, she looked at them closely.

"Are you coming?" she heard her mother say. She wanted to call something back, but then it happened.

As she turned around, she stepped on a piece of wood. It had broken through, and with it, the whole ground fell away. She started screaming.

She slid down a long way before everything went black. Later it became clear to her that she had fainted because when it became light again before her eyes, she was still sliding.

To her surprise, she slid down a slide made of beautiful oak wood. She wasn't going very fast, she could look around her without the surroundings flashing by, but it was going just too fast so she couldn't slow herself down.

For a moment she lay there in shock, not knowing what happened, but then she began to try to outline her situation.

It was clear that she was on a slide, and that this had been the intention of the maker. It was a little too small, but it had exactly the right shape for it. It was also clear to her that she was under the ground, for although the corridor was almost entirely covered with wood, she could sometimes see some earth in uncovered places, and twigs were poking through the roof and walls in some places.

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The strangest thing was that several paintings were hanging on the walls. She saw little faces of men and women with red hats flying past, most of them already elderly, but there were also several portraits depicting young people, although they were not from where she came from.

After what seemed like an eternity, she suddenly saw a point of light in the distance. She didn't feel like sliding very fast, but the point of light came dangerously close and moments later she was already at the end.

Before her eyes had even gotten used to the light, she suddenly fell into a room. It was not very big - for her, at least - for her body just fitted in. She looked up and came to the conclusion that she was lucky she wasn't taller because her head just barely touched the roof.

She looked around, and only then did she notice hundreds of little faces staring at her, just as she had seen in the portraits on the wall of the slide. Attached to the faces were bodies that couldn't have been much longer than her hands.

She did not know what to say. What was this? But before she could do anything, some of the little people were already moving on. Gnomes, she thought now, this exactly matched the description of a gnome. They were small, all wore pointed hats, and a large number even wore a white beard. By now, almost all gnomes had continued with what they were doing, only some small - and young - gnomes still stared open-mouthed. She stared back with an open mouth.

At one point, she felt something tapping against her thigh. She looked down and saw that it was a fairly young gnome girl. She was not as young as the children who had just been staring at her, but she was not yet an adult.

"What?" she asked. Immediately a whole section of the gnomes put their hands on their ears. She was talking too loudly.

The girl who tapped her called out something to her, but she didn't understand; it was far too soft. She shook her head to indicate that she didn't understand. The girl thought for a moment, then pointed her finger over her shoulder before running off in that direction. She had to come with them.

She crawled on her hands and knees through a corridor that was not made for her size.

At one point, the girl impatiently pointed to the left, which for Sofia was the right. She went in the direction the girl had pointed out to her and stood still in front of a door. She bent forward and tried to open it, but she could not.

"Let me," someone said very softly. She realised that it was the girl, because with her ears so close she could understand her. She decided not to say anything back, otherwise, it would sound so loud again.

She did something complicated with the door - perhaps some sort of magic spell? - and a little later the small door opened. At first, Sofia thought that the girl had not realised that she was just a tad taller than she was, but then a very large door opened in front of her, which she had not seen before.

A strange, old woman looked at her. She was taller than the rest of the gnomes but still smaller than Sofia.

"Good day," the woman said, chuckling. Sofia was startled because she was talking louder than she had expected.