As soon as the boat landed on the shores of the island, the terrified Moomins quickly clamoured ashore and stood shivering in the moonlight.  

“We’re trapped here now, aren’t we?” whimpered Peep.

“Yippee!” cried the two Mymbles in unison and jumped off Imy’s shoulder and into the damp, grey sand.

“There’s nothing to be so pleased about!” hissed Imony.  These Mymbles, Little Me and Little Min, paid no attention to the other Moomins.  It would not have mattered to them if the others were deliriously happy or frantically frightened.  They only ever thought of themselves, and now, they wanted to build sandcastles.

“What are we going to do now Moominpapa?” asked Sparrow who was peering intently into the forest of dead trees before him, certain he could make out Grokes hiding behind every silvery tree trunk.

“We must leave the island,” decided Moominpapa.  He said this, staring off thoughtfully into the distance, as if it was something very profound that he had given a lot of thought to, even though to the rest of the group, it was the obvious course of action.  

“How are we going to leave when the currents are going in the wrong direction?”  inquired Sneep.

“Hmmmm …..” pondered Moominpapa as he gazed intently at the forest as if this would provide him with the inspiration he required.  

“Oh!” cried Moominmama who had not been paying that much attention to the conversation but had been staring in horrified silence at the Grokes.  These sinister, shadowy beings were ambling slowly towards the party of vulnerable Moomins, not from the forest, but from around the small rocky headland less than fifty metres away!

“Run!” cried Sparrow, and at once they all took to their heels, hurtling into the forest that had before seemed very frightening but was now a place to hide!  Peep and Imy quickly snatched up the Mymbles who had not noticed anything that had been going on for they had been totally engrossed in there sandcastles which had been just about finished when Peep and Imy stepped on them.

The Grokes too began running, but for them running was not very quick at all.  They’re just not fast creatures although sometimes they think they are.

Both Moomins and Grokes raced through the skeleton-like trees, across dried up creek beds and across rocky, uneven terrain as Little Min and Little Me squealed with delight at the chase.  Moominmama dropped her handbag, causing the whole party to pause in order that she could retrieve it.  Peep’s copy of Great Expectations slipped from her grasp.  When she knelt down to pick it up, she was horrified to notice that it had a few smudges of dirt on the cover and therefore proceeded to throw a silent temper tantrum as she caught up to the others.  Imy had a magpie swoop down and steal her pink feather hair decorations and she was just about to say that she wasn’t going to go any further until her feathers were returned when a Groke, that had managed to catch up to them amidst all of the commotion, suddenly grabbed her ankle.

Imy screamed and her brother was just about to pick up a large branch with which to hit the Groke when Little Me leapt from Peep’s shoulder onto the Groke’s arm and sank her sharp little teeth into it. With a grunt of pain the Groke relinquished its grasp on Imy’s ankle and she was yanked to her feet by Imony as Little Me scrambled hurriedly back onto Peep’s shoulder and the party continued to flee the terrifying Grokes which were still hot on the Moomin’s heels. As soon as the Moomins were in the safe confines of one of the few living shrubs on the island they silently crept back down towards they’d landed their boat but to the Moomin’s dismay they could see no sign of their boat, only a smallish speck on the horizon that just might of been a boat. There was a long silence.

“That’s our boat,” remarked Sparrow.

“Of coarse it’s our boat, nitwit!” snapped Sneep.

“Oh!” said Sparrow.

“Oh,” said Sneep.

“What shall we do?” asked Peep in a terrified whispered.

“We must build a shelter,” answered Moominpapa at once. “A storm is coming and we must prepared for it!”

Everyone quickly gathered up enough sticks to build a temperamental house, except the mymbles, who only brought enough for their own little teepee, which was placed inside the larger one. Just as everyone crammed inside, the storm Moominpapa had predicted, hit.