The smell of the brew was almost overwhelming, rising up into the air and swirling around her tiny shack. Sophie wrinkled her nose and prodded at the mixture with her ladle. The potion bubbled half-heartedly and simmered down.

The Ixi stared at the worn book next to her, then shook her head. "I've done everything accurately," she said crankily to the pot. "Why won't you work?" Frustrated, she grabbed two ghost marshmallows from her working table and threw them at the cauldron. One fell in the dark purple potion with a decisive plop, while the other bounced off the edge and landed on the floor, where her Meowclops immediately gobbled it up.

"Meow," the Petpet responded, looking up and hoping for more.

"That's the twentieth one you've had today," Sophie scolded, picking up her staff and raising it at the mixture, which was now turning a vague lavender. "Perhaps a blast of magic at this thing..."

Suddenly, an urgent knock sounded at the door. "Sophie, are you in there?" cried a voice from outside.

"What now?" the Swamp Witch muttered, throwing the door open...

"What are you doing back here again?" asked Sophie in an exasperated tone. A small Usul stood panting on her front step. Sophie was tempted to slam the door in her face, but she held it open briefly. "I said goodbye to you months ago."

"There's a problem," said Gilly. "A big problem. A ginormous problem!"

"I'm sure," said Sophie, closing the door slightly so that Gilly had to step to the side to maintain eye contact.

"It's true!" said Gilly. "There's a problem in Neovia, and we need your help!"

Sophie became instantly on guard, but not for fear of danger. "So what's all this really about?" she asked. "My family is missing me and they want me back? The townspeople want some magic potion? Forget it. I'm not moving back to Neovia."

"We don't want you to come back to Neovia," said Gilly. Sophie became suspicious once more.

"So what do you want me to do?" she asked, glancing back at her Petpet, which was trying to steal more marshmallows out of the cupboard. "And why do you think I'm going to do what you want anyway?"

"Because if you don't," said Gilly, rising to her full height. "Dancing ghost Meepits are going to take over the Haunted Woods..."

Though she opted to think differently when she fixed her gaze on the window.

There those troublesome Petpets were, racing through a maze of fallen tree branches in one plasma flash. It was impossible to make out a single nose, foot, or even eye. Silver was the ruler of all other colors.

Aghast by such an extraordinary sight, Sophie turned to face Gilly. "T-that's terrible!" Sophie said, pointing an uneasy finger toward the window. Gilly nodded in agreement.

"Those mischievous creatures are probably already devising their plan," the Usul said, watching as the sea of ivory glow flowed frantically across the land. "Now do you see why we need your help?"

Feeling somewhat guilty for almost declining the Usul's plea for help, Sophie said, "What do they want with us, Gilly?"

Gilly shrugged. "Meepits will always be Meepits," she said. "They believe they can rule everything, and we've become somewhat used to it. But now they're taking it too far, and only you, the greatest witch of the Haunted Woods, can save us."

Sophie watched the Meepits as they hurriedly ran. They were in the far distance now, but the radiant shaft of their figures were still visible with the help of the moon.

"Silver. Why are they so silver?" Sophie said seemingly to herself. "Aren't they usually an unappealing shade of gray."

"Yes. Yes, they are," Gilly said, "but silver is the color of triumph."

"Meow!" came a new voice from the corner of the room. There the witch's Meowclops was, savoring a bag of ghost marshmallows he had just found.

"Oh, you bad boy!" the Ixi said, running toward her Petpet and scooping him up. He let out a faint meow of apology, but the triumph of finding the treats was still glinting wildly in his eyes.

"You're clever," Sophie said to the Meowclops, placing him back on the ground and gathering the scattered marshmallows off the floor. "Too clever." She threw him a marshmallow, and he wolfed it down in a matter of seconds.

"Here, let me help you," Gilly said.

"It's all right," Sophie said with an apparent smirk worked into her lips. "It's all right."

Scooping up the last few candies, the Ixi couldn't help noticing that they wore brilliant halo of light.

"Silver," she said, smiling at her Meowclops. "The color of triumph."

However, she found her smile melting away like a puddle under thirty rays of sun at the sound of a fierce knock the door.

"That's them," Gilly said. "They know you're the one..."

Even so, her fingers tightened on her wand (proudly dubbed Wand of the Swamp Witch, and only 'cause it sounded more threatening). She beckoned to her Meowclops, and waited patiently for him to drop a bag of marshmallows into her waiting hand.

But they weren't regular ghost marshmallows, mind you. They were magic ghost marshmallows, infused with just a hint of Juppie Juice. Juppie Juice by itself was already very enticing and delicious to Meepits, but when mixed with her marshmallows and her magic, they'd be to the Meepits like catnip to cats.

But that was with real live Meepits. As for these ghosts... well, that was what the extra magic was for.

Her Meowclops clawed his way up via her dress until he could comfortably wrap himself around her shoulders. It was almost like he was preparing for something. Yes, too clever by far.

"I hope you're ready," Sophie murmured. This was directed to Gilly, who'd stayed curiously silent while Sophie made her way to the door. The knocking had long since stopped, but it seemed like the frenzy dancing of the silver conglomeration had quickened.

"Ready for what?" Gilly squeaked.

Sophie smiled a grim smile. "For whatever's coming. For whatever you have to do." As she said this, she wrenched open the door, and with her free hand, hurtled the bag of marshmallows towards the Meepits' dubious mercy...

The Ixi made her way to the window, followed by Gilly. Sophie peered anxiously out the window, hoping that the marshmallows would be more successful than the potion bubbling away in her cauldron.

The frenzied leaping of pure silver stopped. The Swamp Witch could see each individual Meepit now. That wasn't reassuring. There had to be hundreds, no, thousands of ghost Meepits, all shining bright silver. And every pair of those large, staring red eyes were fixated on the bag of marshmallows.

"Meep?" inquired one particularly luminescent Ghost Meepit.

"Meep!" responded the rest loudly, in unison. They all dove for the bag as one, becoming entities of glowing molten silver once more.

Gilly watched the silver mass swarm over the bag of Sophie's magic ghost marshmallows. "Is it working?" she asked.

Sophie's Meowclops attempted to crawl inside of her hat, and the Ixi pried him off her head. She turned to Gilly ignoring the Petpet's indignant mews. "I think-"

Her confident statement was cut off by a sudden rumble. She swiveled toward the window again.

The Meepits were still only a mass of bright silver, but they were no longer jumping over Sophie's bag. They appeared to be doing an almost ritualistic dance around Sophie's house, gracefully leaping as one, creating an endless ring of silver.

Gilly let out a muffled cry of surprise as Sophie's shack began to shake. Neatly stacked vials of potion rolled off her shelves and shattered as they hit the floor. The Meowclops clawed his way up Sophie's robe and started wailing. A bright silver light began to shine through the cracks in the door; dim at first, but getting steadily brighter.

"-not," finished Sophie lamely, as...

Sophie and Gilly threw themselves out of the way of the hurtling oak slab, ducking under a table and covering their faces. After a moment Sophie recovered sufficiently to lift the tablecloth an inch or two and look at what was happening in the room.

It was not a pretty sight. Her house was overflowing with the tumbling, silvery mist of Meepits. At first she was nonplussed, at a loss for words and utterly unable to discern what they might be doing. Then it occurred to her that they were looking for something -- opening cupboards, rifling through stacks of papers, even lifting the rug to make sure there was nothing underneath. Which there wasn't -- nothing but dusty floor, anyway.

"I think- " she began uncertainly, then cleared her throat and tried again in a more authoritative tone of voice. "I think they liked those marshmallows just a little too much."

"What?" whispered Gilly. "You mean they're looking for more?"

"Meow," answered the Meowclops, climbing into her lap. Evidently their position in the corner, squatting under the table, was fairly attractive from his point of view. He began to purr.

"So what do we do now?" the Usul asked urgently.

"Well... wait," said Sophie rather wryly. "There's an extra ingredient in those marshmallows, and it should make them turn into regular solid Meepits, which will make them easier to deal with. Until then it's just a matter of them ravaging my house. They probably should have completed the transformation right now -- let me look."

She peeked out from under the tablecloth once again, and was for several seconds transfixed with what she saw.

Gilly pulled her gently back after a while. "What is it? Have they finished?"

Sophie swallowed. "Well, there's just something -- you see -- well, you know all those potions that got spilled when the house was shaking?" She did not wait for Gilly's nod, and continued weakly. "I think they may have... have absorbed some of them..."

Gilly looked under the tablecloth herself to see...

It was as if someone grew tired of all the Meepits, and with great big hands, squashed them together into one giant entity. Arms and legs and short, stubby tails flailed in every direction. Their frantic meeps filled the ramshackle hut, and Gilly couldn't help but feel sorry for them. No Petpet deserved this.

Gilly crawled out from under the table and stood up. "We've got to help them."

Sophie followed suit, nonchalantly brushing glass shards off her dress as if she did it on a regular basis. "Yes, we do. But how?"

"I don't know. I just know that we have to." Gilly's voice quivered. "It's our fault this happened in the first place."

The Swamp Witch nodded gamely. She approached the pulsating blob slowly. Her Meowclops detached himself from Gilly and followed her. It was a test of will to put one foot in front of the other until she was a hair's breadth away from the nearest Meepit. Its unblinking red eyes were fixated on her, and she could tell that it was terrified to death.

"Shh," she cooed, moving her fingers and yet afraid to actually touch the glowing conglomeration. She awkwardly stroked the air in front of its dusky pink nose. "Don't be afraid. I'm going to help you."

"Meeeeep," it moaned.

"Meow," answered the Meowclops, and before Sophie could do anything, catapulted headfirst into the Meepits.

"No!" Sophie cried, but it was too late. The Meowclops was already tumbling headfirst into the mass and...

To Gilly and Sophie's surprise, the Meowclops re-emerged unharmed. "How did it.." the Usul trailed, too shocked to finish her sentence.

"It found a hole in the Meepit... blob. Apparently, they aren't compacted, only attached every which way. That narrows things down a good bit and makes things easier on all of us," the witch answered nonchalantly, as though she never had been frightened.

"That isn't what I meant," said Gilly, shaking her head slightly. "I mean, how did your Petpet not get absorbed by... this... this thing?"

Sophie studied the mass carefully. "Hmmm, you may be on to something. Maybe my Meowclops has developed some sort of magical resistance to my potions? Or maybe there's a counter spell, or an immunity brew that I've fed it at some point. I should look into this. It could be the key for a cure! Or something like that."

The two girls busied themselves trying to straighten out the shack and determine what ingredients and equipment they had left to work with. Almost every prepared mixture and glass container was broken. The only thing the Meepits hadn't knocked over in their frenzied sugar rush was the lavender brew Sophie had been making earlier.

"What's this do?" asked Gilly, lifting the resting ladle.

"Oh, that? That's... uh... well... everyone needs to clean themselves up, it's only good sanitation, and so I..." the Ixi sheepishly trailed off.

"You mean it's a soap? You were making a magical soap?" Sophie cringed as a slight tone of childish triumph crept into the Usul's voice. Gilly faced her with a large smirk. "So is this how you use it?"

Sophie spun away to her inventory, trying to spare her dignity. "Hey, it's not just any soap! It's- it's shampoo. And it isn't finished!" she snapped peevishly. The sound of hundreds of chuckling Meepits permeated the room. It seemed Gilly wasn't the only one having a good time with the idea of the Swamp Witch brewing beauty products.

The sound quickly sapped all the mirth out of Gilly, though. It was like a hundred nails screeching on a chalkboard, like the breath of the North Wind sapping out your life by its very coldness, like the cackling of the dark faeries, like... she jerked herself back to reality. It was just some Meepits, and their laughter didn't last long...

The Meepits fell silent, apparently valuing their freedom much more than a good joke.

"Thank you." Sophie turned back to her shampoo. "Well," she began, assessing the purple goop. "Unless my Meowclops decided to eat some of my potion -- which, by the way, I've trained him never to do -- then all of this is useless."

"So..." Gilly's eyebrow was poised in a position that clearly said she was clueless.

Sophie sighed, wondering why she never chose to make friends with those who knew the art of potion brewing. "So," she said impatiently, "we have to figure out what it was that my Meowclops ate that allowed him to pass through the Meepits." She frowned thoughtfully and picked up the Petpet in question.

"But what if he ate -- drank -- your shampoo?"

"Have you even been listening?" Sophie said in exasperation. "I've told you already -- my Meowclops has been strictly trained to avoid eating any type of potion. No... it has to be something else. And not the ghost marshmallows, because then the Meepits wouldn't be stuck in this mess, would they?"

Gilly shook her head slowly. "No..."

"That's right. Listen to the Swamp Witch. So, either my Meowclops has been a bad boy and has been secretly eating ingredients, or the Petpet food I feed him is contaminated in some way. But then..." Sophie wandered off in her musings.

The Meowclops gave an urgent, "Meow!" and clawed it way down Sophie's dress.

"He sounds like he's choking," Gilly remarked.

Sophie shook her head and pushed Gilly back against the wall. "He's got a hairball," she said. "I think he's about to cough up our missing ingredient -- literally."

With a final shudder and ragged gasp, the Meowclops let fly a wet, furry projectile that smacked Sophie right in the face.

"Eeew..." she said, about to wipe it off. But then she crossed her eyes and squinted at it. "Gilly, look! My Meowclops ate a..."

Sophie frowned and crossed her arms. “It’s not a ghost marshmallow, kid.”

“Looks like one to me.”

“It looks like one, but it’s not,” Sophie replied haughtily. “As you may have realized, my Meowclops has been somewhat... obsessed with the tasty treats recently and has taken every chance to steal the treat as much as to fill his greedy stomach as to annoy me.”

“I don’t need the details, Sophie,” Gilly prompted, not bothering to hide her impatience, “If it’s not a ghost marshmallow what is it?”

“It’s my own special mix of ingredients,” the Swamp Witch stated proudly. “I can’t exactly remember what I put in it...”

“Sophie!” cried an exasperated Usul mixed with the indignant cries of the Meowclops and a few groaning Meepits that sounded like sick Kaus.

“All right, all right,” Sophie grumbled, “I created it specifically to reverse any of my experiments if they had gone wrong. Even though I hadn’t caused this mess, it still happened with my potions so I should be able to reverse this spell, not without a few side effects though.”

“So we just get the Meepits to eat this?”

“Uh, yes, but this is only enough for one Meepit. If we fed this to only one Meepit I’m pretty sure that only that particular Meepit will be freed from the blob.”

“So we need thousands of these?”

“I suppose so.”

“You don’t even remember what you put inside that cauldron of yours to make this!” Gilly started panicking.

“But I might be able to duplicate it.”

“By the thousands?”

“It’s worth a shot.” Sophie shrugged, appearing calm on the outside; on the inside she felt just as panicky as Gilly. “I’ll just need a few items since most of mine seem to be destroyed. Meowclops, go with Gilly will you?”

“Meow.”

“Good boy.”

“I should really learn to speak Meowclops so I can follow up with your conversations,” Gilly grumbled as she ran out the door, Sophie’s Meowclops perched on her shoulder.

Sophie rubbed her hands together and surveyed her shack. The blob of Meepits filled most of the space. But there was just enough room to make it to the cauldron. She gazed at the unfinished potion and sighed. Another time she’d get to complete it. With a flick of her hand, the potion swirled around like a whirlpool as if it were being sucked down a drain. With careful expertise, Sophie collected the items she needed and tossed them in the pot, muttering and making complicated gestures with her hands while twirling the ladle. The sound of the groaning Meepits was blotted out as she ventured deep into her normal trance.

If she noticed Gilly and the Meowclops burst in, completely out of breath, she took no notice. Silently, she held out a hand and beckoned for one of the needed items. Her Meowclops dutifully brought her the object since Gilly had no clue as to what item she needed at what time.

“I hope your Meowclops knows what he’s doing,” muttered Gilly.

“He does,” Sophie replied curtly. This continued on for what seemed like ages to Gilly until Sophie finally announced it was done. Gilly watched, transfixed, as she dropped the ghost marshmallow look-alike into the cauldron. There was an awkward silence as they waited for what was to come. Even the Meepits were silent, knowing that this would be their fate: they would either be stuck as a deformed blob, or evil individuals once more.

“I can’t believe I failed!” Sophie cried just as a popping noise sounded. It was exactly the same noise popcorn makes when it’s in the oven. The liquid potion slowly popped into little ghost marshmallows that overflowed quite quickly.

“Meep! Meep! Meeeeeeep!” the Meepits cried cheerfully as the silver blob bounced up and down. Tiny mouths appeared and began munching on their feast. Satisfied burps were heard as many Meepits became themselves once more. Only this time, the room exploded in splashes of colour as they took on solid shapes. It was quite a spectacular sight. Gilly giggled as she watched the transformation.

When Sophie was positive the spell would have the right effect, she turned to Gilly. “I think it’s time for you to head off, kid.”

“So you’re not coming to visit your family? Or me?”

Sophie chuckled. “No,” the Swamp Witch said with an amused glitter in her eyes. “I’ve had quite enough of annoying little Usuls for one day -- especially you. It seems everywhere you go, disaster follows.”

“I wouldn’t call it a disaster,” Gilly retorted with a childish grin. “I’d call it an adventure.”

“Whatever you call it, it’s time to go.” Sophie ushered Gilly out the door and shut it gently behind her. She rubbed her temple gently, trying to prevent a headache before it happened.

“Now what do I do with these Meepits?”

The End