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Gnorp the goblin was, by all accounts, a very grumpy fellow. He lived in a dark cave with mossy walls and a floor covered in damp, rotting leaves. He hated sunshine and cheerful birdsong. He liked the quiet of his cave and the smell of mold. His neighbor, a tiny, happy pixie named Poppy, kept trying to be his friend, but Gnorp would just growl and slam his cave door.

One morning, Poppy left a small, brown seed on Gnorp's doorstep. "It's a sunflower seed," she chirped. "I thought it might be nice to plant."

Gnorp looked at it with disdain. He was about to toss it into the bushes when he had a thought. What if he just... left it there? He’d forget about it, and the rain would probably wash it away. But the seed remained. After a week, he got tired of seeing it. He picked it up and, with a sigh, pushed it into the dirt just outside his cave. "There. Happy now?" he grumbled to himself.

He tried to forget about it, but every time he went outside, he'd glance at the patch of dirt. He was a goblin, after all, he liked to keep an eye on things. One day, a tiny green sprout emerged. Gnorp stared at it. It was so small and delicate. He had a strange urge to protect it. He went inside and got a cup of water, pouring a little bit onto the soil. "Don't tell anyone," he muttered to the sprout.

The sprout grew into a tall stalk. It turned and followed the sun. Gnorp started to feel a tiny bit of pride. He even started talking to it, telling it about the best rocks he’d found that day. Soon, a big, round flower head began to form. When the big yellow petals burst open and the sun hit the flower, Gnorp was amazed. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

Poppy came to visit and saw the sunflower. "Gnorp!" she squealed with delight. "It's beautiful! I knew you had a green thumb in there somewhere!" She gave him a tiny, shiny trowel. Gnorp held it and gave a small, wobbly smile. He looked at his beautiful sunflower and realized that maybe sunshine wasn't so bad after all. He was still a goblin, and he still loved his cave, but now he had a garden, too.