Basket of Cupcakes
Tricks And Tribulations

“Uhl!

Those little piggies are a botheration.”

Hilda huffed as she whisked this side and that dropping thing as she searched for something.

Uhl, not the brightest pea in the pod, tried repeating the word botheration. “Bath raaaaa shin”

“Yes yes Uhl, aha! The fattening potion. Gritta will lose her head if it wasn’t attached to her neck one day!”

Just then a short, stumpy little witch hobbled in on her broomstick.

“Oh, there you go speaking ‘sweet’ words behind my back again.” She said sarcastically adjusting her moon-shaped glasses on her stumpy nose and trying to blow the mess of red curls out of her face.

“You’re such an orderly witch, I just can’t help but compliment your orderly nature.”

Hilda said with equal sarcasm.

“Well breakfast is out in the yard. It’s a wonderfully chilly morning. Dark and gloomy. Let’s eat.”

Gritta said wooshing back out.

Outside, on a rickety, wooden table sat bowls of deep-fried worms and locusts. Sparrow blood served as a saucy dip and some wilted carrots lay lifelessly on the table.

Upon the weeping willow sat the fairies. One was gagging while another punched its back at the sight of their breakfast.

It probably would have been a delight to Yori, or Kaida as his dragon avatar is known.

Uhl, being the biggest and easiest target had his massive back turned to them which made their attack that much easier.

Ben’s blue fairy began the attack. He flew stealthily closer to the giant and chanted fizzle fart as he flicked some of his fairy dust over the giant.

Almost immediately Uhl let out a long fart. It sounded more like a growl. Hilda and Gritta looked at him in horror and then grabbed their noses and started running about like headless chickens trying to rid themselves of the awful odour.

“You hideous creature!” Screamed Hilda between gags.

Now that the witches were on their feet, another fairy yelled soapy sud and immediately the ground turned into a slippery slide sending Hilda and Gritta’s legs up into the air as they hit the ground with a huge thud. The fairies were beside themselves with laughter as the witches tried standing up but just wobbled and slipped and fell all about.

The commotion gave Ben the perfect opening to slip into the shack. Victoria was asked to watch the kids to their annoyance.

The woodlands witches’ home was even darker than he hoped and it took Ben a while for his eyes to adjust. He tiptoed past bottled newts and frog legs. Some dried herbs hung from the ceiling that gave the place a grassy smell mixed with rot. He noticed a flicker of light. It seemed a candle was lit in a backroom but as he got nearer, he realized it was a rather messy kitchen. He looked about and then caught sight of a cage hanging from the ceiling. There he saw sat Ethan and Claire. He ran towards them but didn’t see a bucket on the floor and stepped right on it, sending him flying back into the darkroom as he smashed into the shelf that held the grotesque jars.

The noise alerted Uhl who had managed to crawl back into the house. He saw Ben and let out a loud howl, between farts of course, and smashed his fist onto the wall sending all the shelves onto Ben, trapping him underneath.

In the meantime, Victoria was searching frantically for Kiki, Ada and Geordie who had slipped away from her as she tried to make a makeshift comb to straighten up her hair with twigs. It was useless; the kids were already hiding behind the door at the entrance of the witch’s home.

Geordie saw that Uhl was about to smash his first once more on the pile that trapped Ben and instinctively, pulled out his slingshot that he kept on him at all times.

He grabbed a rock and shot it straight at Uhl’s bottom. He let out a scream and turned to see the three children standing there.

Ada shouted “Kiki, you run this way and I’ll run that way. Confuse him and Geordie can slip thru.”

The kids started to run this way and that. And Uhl’s attention was pulled in all directions giving Geordie the perfect opening to run to Ben. The shelves were too heavy for his spindly arms. The Jars rolled over and Uhl’s attention went back to Geordie and Ben.

He grabbed Geordie with one swoop in his massive palms. Just then he saw Kiki and Ada run towards him and they were soon swooped up in the other palm. He rushed into the kitchen and threw all three of them into the cage with Claire and Ethan.

“Kiki!

Ada, Geordie! What are you doing here? They got you too?” Claire exclaimed thru a teary, messy face.

“No, we came to save you, but we got caught and Kiki’s dad is trapped down there.” Said Geordie as he watched Kiki sit down and burst into tears.

“You guys came to save us! Really? What about Kiki’s mum.” Said Claire in astonishment.

“She was given a choice, to go save her mum or come and save you guys. She chose you guys on the condition that we do it ourselves.”

Ada said in admiration.

Ethan grabbed Geordie in his arms and picked him up into a bear hug.

“I’m so happy to see you guys.” He said and planted a big kiss on his head.

Claire ran to Kiki and Ada and gave them both the biggest, sincerest hug and they sat they together, sniffing and crying together.

Ben was trapped, the kids were trapped, the fairies and Kaida had no idea. It seemed all were lost. Their thoughts were broken by Uhl’s musical bottom that let out another long, trumpet sound.