If wishes were fishes

Breeze, the ogre, loved to eat. When he wasn’t eating he was sitting on a sturdy branch dreaming of eating. The trouble was if he saw food, he ate it.

One day he was passing the witch’s house when he saw a cake sitting on their porch. Breeze, wondered why anyone would do this.”A pretty looking cake deserves to be eaten.” He said aloud.

No one shouted, “no it doesn’t, leave it alone, that is mine.”

So in his mind, finders were keepers or in this case – eaters. Breeze ate the cake in one neat mouthful and went off to find a sunny spot to have a snooze.

“You ate my cake. In fact, you are always eating things without asking. It is time I taught you a lesson.” Lovisma flew over him and sprinkled some horrid pink dust on his head before heading home.

Breeze noticed two odd things when he woke up. Number one was; he wasn’t in a tree. He was swimming in a salty pond. The second one was he was eating and his nose seemed to be protruding from his face much more than it normally did. “How odd,” he said between munches.  He looked down at his body and it too had changed. But it wasn’t for the better.

Because he was now a … seahorse.

 (Drawing courtesy of Template.net)

“I am very hungry and why can’t I stop eating? ”

Hours later he was exhausted from eating non stop, but still hungry.  He closed his eyes and thought about all that had happened since he ate the cake. It must have been Lovisma’s cake Breeze reasoned. Elegant witch would never turn me into a non stop eating seahorse but Lovisma would, perhaps I should ask her forgiveness.

The second he thought it, the tiny witch appeared before him. She smiled. “Do you give in?”

“What?” he asked between mouthfuls.

“Are you ready to apologise for eating my delectable cake?” She was standing with her arms folded.

Considering she didn’t look like she might explode with anger, Breeze nodded.

“I am really really sorry and will do anything to make up for it but just turn me back to the way I should be, chubby and green.”

Lovisma smiled. It wasn’t pleasant. Breeze held his breath he knew something nasty was about to happen.

“Okay so every Saturday for the next month you will bake cupcakes for me and you will wash up all of the baking equipment at….Tulips house, when she bakes.”

Breeze didn’t really listen, all he heard was cupcakes and Tulip bakes. He loved Cupcakes and there was no better baker than Tulip. “I agree”

She said, “If wishes were fishes and Ogres could bake cakes before dinner time let’s have Breeze back before the end of this rhyme.”

Breeze shivered and with a loud “pop” he leapt from the water onto the grass. Looking down at the ground he was delighted to see his nice chunky green toes.

Lovisma reminded him of where he was to be on Saturday morning and left him with a large smile on her face. Breeze was a little confused and decided the best thing to do was to go see Tulip and offer to do the washing up for her. “What a horrendous thought,” he shuddered and wondered what put such a task into his head.

 

Advertisement

A Rabbit named Flippity

Breeze was asleep until the wood was filled with a bouncing sound. “Booinnnggggg” On and on it went, echoing off the trees, sky and ground until the tree shook and Breeze was shaken from his branch.

Now this is not good, he muttered and went to investigate.

It didn’t take long for him to find the cause of the noise.

It was really two causes, Lovisma and her favorite furry friend: Flippity Rabbit.

He stood on the ground and watched them play. Other animals had gathered round and they were not smiling.

For the two had created a trampoline made from spiders webs and were bouncing on it so much they had shaken the clothes from washing lines, petals from wildflowers, babies from their beds and more importantly children were finding it hard to eat their dinners as the dishes kept bouncing about the wood.

Breeze wanted to tear the net down and stop them from doing more damage except for one slight thing. He wanted to try to bounce and tumble on it.

Trouble was the net didn’t look strong enough to take his weight.

He opened his mouth and roared; “Stop!”

They didn’t because they couldn’t so Breeze did the next best thing: “Elegant. Help.”

She arrived in a blink of an eye. Took one look at her younger sister and said, “I knew Lovisma would be in trouble again, she can’t stay away from mischief for long. ” She raised her wand and looked a little surprised when Breeze pleaded with her not to make it vanish.

“Why not?” She asked.

“Well I kind of like the idea of bouncing but it doesn’t look safe enough for me. And it is in the way of everybody here in the wood. Could you move it some where safer? Please?” He scuffled the grass at his feet as he waited for her answer.

“Very well, come on. We should do this sooner rather than later, I have dinner to make.”

Breeze wanted to ask, why she never simply zapped dinner instead of cooking it but he was a little afraid of witches. Even good witches have tempers. So he followed her to the edge of the wood where the river raced to the waterfall. They walked for a long distance before she stopped and turned to  him. “This will do nicely. The pool is close to the wood, the water doesn’t race along here and if the web breaks the water will break your fall. ”

She flicked her wand. The air sizzled and sparked for a moment. Then with a loud pop it appeared. A huge net high in the air, dangling above the water with Lovisma and Flippity still bouncing on it.

Breeze didn’t wait to be asked he climbed the nearest tree and took a dive onto the net.

However, he forgot about the others. With a squeal of delight Lovisma and Flippity shot high in the air and then with a loud splash they bounced straight off the net and into the water.

Much to everyone’s surprise the tiny witch loved it.

“Do it again Breeze do it again. ” Poor Breeze spent the rest of the evening bouncing on the net and sending those who wished to try it, shooting like rockets into the water.

“next time I get a good idea, I really should keep it to myself.” He muttered when he made his way home to bed very late that night.

 

The day when the forest played a trick on a tiny witch.

Every seven years a crazy day arrives in the wood. It is called Mayhem day. And as you would expect anything is possible on this day.

Breeze and the other Ogres keep records. This means, they know when to expect the madness to happen. Then they let everyone else know. This year it was delivered by the blackbirds. “Stay indoors, take care for today will be a crazy day.” They tweeted and sang.

Elegant witch received the message and told her sister. Lovisma laughed and said, “Last time the only thing that happened was we were stuck indoors and I had no fun.”

“But you were safe.” Elegant replied.

“Safe is boring.” Lovisma decided then and there, she would have some fun.

Though her notebook was full of fun ideas, for example:

1. Paint the clouds with colourful spots.
2.  Put crabs in the pond.
3.  Replace the Ogres sugar with salt.
4.  Make Mrs. Rabbits washing dance on the washing line so she cannot collect it.
5.  Put glue on the elves shoes. When they finish work they will have to go home in their bare feet.

And the ideas went on filling the entire notebook. The problem was, she had tried them all.

“I need to think of a different way of making fun.”  She began by finding things to use. She found pots of paint and stacked them in Elegant’s gardening wheelbarrow, then she found some cobweb rope, a mound of mermaids slimy scales left by a visiting witch, and she chucked them into the barrow.

Just when she thought the barrow should be full to the brim she turned to look at it and frowned. Her collection was on the ground and her barrow was full of …

dog. “I didn’t put you in it, shoooo…go away.”

The dog sat and stared at her.  It blinked, blinked again and then…. vanished!

“Cute” Lovisma said and felt sad. She would have loved to be the first witch with a magical dog. When she told Elegant, her sister said, “I told you stay indoors – today is a crazy day. That dog wasn’t magical ..it wasn’t really here at all.”

Lovisma ignored her. She had decided on a plan. She crept to the center of the wood and began to chant,

“I wish for these dreams to come true,

let the sky and grass swop color so I am standing on blue.” She clicked her fingers and began to laugh. The grass was bright blue. She looked to the sky. It was bright green.

Then she heard it … a low throaty growl. Lovisma immediately thought of the crazy dog.  “Come out magical pup so I may thank you.”

Instead the sky darkened and clouds ran away as the green turned to purple.

“I preferred my colors” she calmly muttered.

The growling was louder and it was coming from the ground. Lovisma looked about her and noticed mushrooms. Hundreds and hundreds of mushrooms of all sizes.  She flicked her wand at them and said, “You look a little sad, I think spots of many colours would make you feel less bad.” With a click of her fingers a paintbrush appeared in her hand. She began to flick paint about her. Spots of paint landed on the mushrooms and they grew and grew. As they grew, the growling became louder.

Lovisma decided she didn’t want to stay in such a noisy spot and she tried to move, but the mushrooms had her caged in.  They stretched and grew until they blocked out the sky. She stood shivering wondering how she could make them stop. Every spell she tried made them grow faster. Finally she prodded one with her wand. There was a loud hissing sound and it shrank faster than it had grown. It didn’t stop until it was a puddle of gunk at her feet.

Then one by one the same thing happened the other mushrooms, the air was angry, filled with hissing sounds. The smell of rotting mushrooms was horrible. Lovisma screwed up her tiny nose and wailed. “I didn’t as for this to happen.” Her crying stopped only when she realised the pool of gunk was rising higher by the second.

Her next shriek was loud. “Help.”

Elegant heard her and appeared on her broomstick high above her troublesome sister.

“Serves you right, what did I tell you to do?” Then the kind hearted witch relented. With a flick of her wand she sent the gunk where it belonged  in the middle of nowhere.  Next she swooped low and hovered close to Lovisma.

“Would you like a lift home? I made chocolate fudge cake and vanilla ice cream?”

Lovisma didn’t need to think about it. She hopped on Elegants broom, promising she would never step outside of the house on Mayhem day, ever again.

Do you think she kept her promise?

Izzy’s Problem

Note: A first draft of a chapter book, remarks, comments will be chewed on with delight.

Chapter 1

A problem to solve.

Pots and pans were zipping through the air.  The kitchen was a large airport without an airport controller.  With a loud squeal Esmeralda,  Izzy’s cat,  was whisked upwards in the playful current of air. She landed in a  huge saucepan.  Crouching low with her tail tightly curled about her,  Esmeralda’s huge paws covered her eyes.

Izzy didn’t notice her poor cat.  She was sitting eating toast. It was oozing with warm runny butter and strawberry jam.

Those saucepans look grotty Izzy , she thought.  Her friends couldn’t understand why  Izzy preferred saucepans to cauldrons. “Easier to clean” she explained to them. That is they would be easier to clean if she remembered to get cleaner.

Izzy began to write on the back of an envelope.  The note said,  get some more cleaner,  it was scrawled in her untidy hand writing with cartoon spiders dancing about it.   She scowled at it, it reminded her of something she didn’t like doing – shopping.

“Surf and stuff it” Izzy  stamped her foot and every flying object including Esmerelda lost its invisible wings, landing with a huge wallop in an untidy heap on the kitchen floor.

Izzy knew why everything was turning upside down and roundabout on her.  She was fed up.  It was ages since she had any fun with her other witch friends.

“Perhaps they’ve grown out of having fun!”  Izzy whispered.  “What a terrible thought!  I mean, what sort of witch is a witch who doesn’t have any fun or silliness in her life. It’s what we’re supposed to do, create mayhem for humans.  They say people can die from boredom.” Izzy told a dizzy looking Esmerelda  who was stumbling out of the upturned pot.

Izzy had a terrible thought. What if it isn’t only people who could be seriously affected by the lack of fun and newness in their lives?  “Witches couldn’t die from boredom, could they?”  Izzy spoke very carefully and slowly hoping that it would help to get rid of such a stupid thought.

But no, it lingered, repeating itself over and over. It didn’t help her bad mood.  She gave a giant hiccup and flew straight out of the window into the huge beech tree.

It was her favorite place to sit and think.

In fact some of her most earth shattering decisions had been made while sitting quietly in this tree. High above with only the odd wayward bee for company she was free from all the usual noises of life.

Her great decisions may seem simple to you or me but to a neat methodical witch they were very important indeed.

For example:  She once spent a whole afternoon sitting wondering, if it would be better to file all of her recipes  (Jamie and Delia’s) by color code or by the order in which Izzy ate her meals.  That was her problem.

The order in which she ate depended on what she was having.  If it was tomato soup it always came first and last, Izzy loved tomato soup.

High in this tree the solution appeared suddenly. It was simple. A recipe book for witches by a champion cooking witch! The recipes would appear as she made them up.  If she liked the new recipe it would stay but if she didn’t then it would topple off the page.

Today she was so tired she curled up and fell asleep.

When she woke she was not only hungry but full of energy.

“I think a little walk before dinner would do this talented witch a world of good,” she decided as she licked her lips.  “A couple of meringues from the bakers shop could be just the medicine that I need.”

 

Spring in September

There is a mischievious witch living on the outskirts of the wood. Her name is Lovisma. She is unpredictable and full of trouble making ideas.

However, most of the occupants of the wood know this and avoid meeting her.

So, when every tree in the wood was rattled by the sound of her angry roar,  all of those living in the wood hid except for one family. They were having too much fun.

“Who stole my cherry pie?” Lovisma bellowed as she raced through the wood on her broomstick. She was angry. The broomstick was spinning around which meant, most of the time this dizzy witch was flying upside down. When her head met a very solid fallen branch, she tumbled from her broomstick. Lovisma sat on the ground and rubbed the bump.  Then she let out a piercing whistle and her broomstick returned.

She stared around her and sniffed, (witches have a great sense of smell). “Funny but I can’t smell cherries anywhere in the wood.” She considered the possiblities. There were not many. “This means the villain is still near my house.”

She was sneaky. She flew slowly and silently back to the edge of the wood. Then she stopped and listened. She could hear laughter. She sniffed. She could smell her cherry pie. Lovisma crept forward ready to pounce but she was so surprised at what she was watching she forgot about pouncing.

“Who are you and what are you doing that for?” She demanded as she watched the family of elves bouncing high above the ground from cobweb to cobweb.

“Cos it is fun. I am Dot, or Dorothy. Wheeee”  Dorothy tumbled head over heels and landed beside Lovisma.

“Can I try?” Lovisma asked.

Dorothy frowned. She looked from Lovisma to the cobwebs and back to Lovisma. “You could….but… they are small and you are ……” Doroth scrunched up her tiny nose and wiggled it. She knew witches could be crotchety so she carefully said,  “Much bigger and stronger than we are, I wouldn’t like you to get hurt.”

Lovisma giggled. “No problem. Watch.” With a flick of her wrist she created a huge cobweb that stretched from one tree to another. Then she ran to her creation.

Lovisma discovered she loved the freedom of tumbling and dancing on the webs. When she finally grew tired of it she sat beside the group of elves to catch her breath. “It is stupendous fun. But, it does make you hungry.”

Dorothy nodded her head. “I am sorry about your pie, but it was sitting on the porch of the house and we thought it was left there for anyone to take.”

Hisilicon K3

Lovisma stared at Dorothy. The elf got to her feet and started to run away. “Stop, I was just going to ask how you feel about apple pies cos I know a spell to create some delicious pies.”

As Dorothy and Lovisma sat with the other elves eating pies and drinking elderflower cordial they failed to notice the large audience at the edge of the wood.

“This is a day to remember, the day when Lovisma reverted to the child she should have been, fun and friendly.” An elderly rabbit declared. Everyone agreed as they crept away.

Lovisma gets a letter.

Letter’s were unusual for a witch to receive.  Lovisma knew this letter meant someone was in trouble. She hoped it wasn’t trouble for Lovisma.

She sat on the softest cushion she could find and prepared to hear bad news.

She pointed her wand at the letter and said “Unzip.”

The letter zipped open and a dandelion popped out.  Odd, she thought it isn’t my birthday.”

Then she read the letter. It was from Connie, her cousin who had sent a video diary to Lovisma.  The letter continued on: To hear and see my diary say shredded sheep really fast four times.

Lovisma did as requested and to her surprise four tiny sheep ran about her kitchen in a circle four times. Then they vanished and a fuzzy picture began to grow before Lovisma. She clutched her wand to her and waited to see what would happen.

Pots and pans were zipping through the air.  The kitchen was a large airport without an airport controller.  Esmerelda,  Connie’s cat,  was whisked upwards in the playful current of air. She landed in a  huge saucepan.  Crouching low with her tail tightly curled about her,  Esmerelda’s huge paws covered her eyes.

Connie sat eating toast. It was oozing with warm runny butter and strawberry jam. A blob of jam landed on Connie’s nose.

Connie  stamped her foot and every flying object including Esmerelda lost its invisible wings, landing with a huge wallop in an untidy heap on the kitchen floor.

She knew everything was turning upside down and roundabout on her.  She was fed up.  It was ages since she had any fun with her other witch friends.

“Perhaps they’ve grown out of having fun!” Connie said.“What a terrible thought!  I mean, what sort of witch is a witch who doesn’t have any fun or silliness in her life. It’s what we’re supposed to do, create mayhem for humans.  They say people can die from boredom.”

Esmerelda , Lovisma saw, was stumbling out of the upturned pot.

Connie had a terrible thought.   “Witches couldn’t die from boredom, could they?”

She gave a giant hiccup and flew straight out of the window into the huge beech tree.

It was her favorite place to sit and think.

In fact some of her most earth shattering decisions had been made while sitting quietly in this tree. High above with only the odd wayward bee for company she was free from all the usual noises of life.

Her great decisions may seem simple to you or me but to a neat methodical witch they were very important indeed.

Connie curled up and fell asleep.

When she woke she was not only hungry but full of energy.

“I think a little walk before dinner would do this talented witch a world of good,” she decided as she licked her lips.  “ I might find some fun along the way. Besides a couple of meringues from the bakers shop could be just the medicine that I need.”

Then the picture faded.  “Spoil sport,” Lovisma said and hoped another diary would appear tomorrow.

 

Lovisma plays a birthday trick on Breeze

Birthday’s were special to Breeze but he kept his birthdays a secret. He always treated himself on his birthday. Last year it had been an extra 6 fairy cakes.

A few days before his birthday he woke to find Tulip staring at him.

“You were talking in your sleep.” She said.

“Well I hope I was polite.” Breeze watched a very large bumble bee fly overhead. It reminded him of Lovisma. He decided it was his imagination.

“You were muttering something about a birthday. Whose birthday is it?”

Breeze scratched his head. “I have no idea.”

******************************************************

On the morning of his birthday Breeze woke to discover Spike his pet frog was missing. Most mornings he woke to the sound of Spike darting around collecting his breakfast of flies and insects. This morning there was no happy “ribbit” sounds. He walked to the entrance of the cave and stubbed his toe off a chunky sized box. On top of the box was a bow and a card.

He read the card:  “Happy birthday, Mr. Breeze.”

Breeze looked at the box. He nudged it with his toe. It jumped three inches into the air and landed on the same spot. He bent down and carefully lifted the lid. There was a loud angry “Ribbit…ribbit” and a frog jumped out. The frog looked sad and odd.

It jumped onto Breezes knee and jumped once more landing on his hand. Breeze raised the frog close to his face.

The frog said “ribbbiiiiitt..”  He looked ill to Breeze.

“Oh Spike, what happened? Are you ill? Why are you yellow with smarties on your skin?” Breeze suspected it was a trick played by one of the goblins.

To cheer Spike up, Breeze took him to the Hiccuping pond close to Mudpile Wood. Within minutes of arriving Spike was happily catching flies.  Breeze however wasn’t happy because he made another discovery. Each time Spike hopped his skin color changed. One moment he was a smarty covered frog and the next he looked like a pair of pajama’s all stripes. The flashing colorful frog was attracting a lot of attention. Spike hid in Breeze’s pocket.

Breeze concentrated on solving the problem of poor Spikes skin of many moving colors. Tulip was not impressed either. “Why would someone do such a thing?” She demanded with red poofs of angry smoke shooting from her wand.

Breeze moved away from the wand and showed her the card. “It’s your birthday!” She shook her head. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I celebrate it quietly in the way I want to.”

Tulip put her hands on her hips. “That sounds like a load of rubbish to me, but it is your day. However I will bake you a special cake. ” She looked at Spike. ” First we will ask Elegant to fix this.”

“But don’t tell her about my birthday.” Breeze hissed.

“You are very peculiar for an Ogre. Most stand on the mountain tops and shout it out. But don’t worry I won’t.”

They found Elegant hanging out her washing.

“I thought Witches just zap things and they get done.” Breeze said.

“That is the lazy Lovisma way of doing it.” Elegant said. She looked at Breeze. “What has my little sister done now.”

“Why would you think she has done anything?” Tulip asked.

“Because she was so happy today and she was up before the sun, which is most odd for her.”

Breeze whispered, “Please Elegant. It’s poor Spike, please fix him.”

When the kind hearted witch saw Spike she took him in her hands and whispered to him, “Oh Spike you poor fella. Don’t worry, close your eyes I will have you back to normal.”

Spike and Breeze closed their eyes. When they opened them Spike was back to green. He was so happy he did a happy frog dance tumbling and hopping around Breeze.

Breeze looked at Elegant. “What about Lovisma? Who will punish her?”

Elegant tapped the side of her nose and said, “already done, you won’t see her for a day or two.”

Suddenly they heard a terrible screech. Breeze hid behind a bed sheet on the clothes line.

Lovisma appeared before them.”Who did this to me? I look like Goldilocks. Help me Elegant…” Her hair was golden, her skin like milk and her lips a soft cherry red. She was dressed in a pale pink dress. Her hat and shoes matched perfectly.

When she spotted Tulip, Lovisma screamed and vanished.

Tulip said, “Come to tea Elegant, about five o clock, I am baking a special cake for Breeze.”

“Will it have cherries?” Elegant asked.

“It will.”

Though Breeze felt sad for Spike he was delighted to hear about his special cake and decided that next year he might remind Tulip about his birthday and leave creating the surprise up to her.