Madeleine's Treats

     Maybe, just maybe, that Weewoo was still somewhere in this room. Maybe the open cage didn't mean anything. Maybe the chocolate matted into Tessie's fur did not used to be that Weewoo.

     And then Tessie spat up a cherry (that most definitely used to be that Weewoo), her mother Lady Luxington gasped and swooned, and Ed removed his beanie. It was only right to show respect in a place of death. Both of the Weewoo and his very cushy babysitting job on the Luxington estate.

     Thirty minutes later, he was in Lord Luxington's study.

     Light streamed in from the large bay windows, and bounced off the white marble. It was a ridiculously beautiful room, with tasteful landscapes on the wall and not a single wooden surface left uncarved. In better circumstances, Ed would probably have been admiring the work on the mahogany desk.

     But right now, all he could focus on was that cherry sitting on top of it, strikingly red.

     Ed sighed and shuffled his feet. This was a mistake of colossal proportions — unattached chocolate Weewoos were a rarity, and the one Tessie had eaten (on his watch) was supposed to be part of the display at the Chocolate Ball. The Luxingtons were going to leave for Neopia Central tomorrow, and if they didn't have the promised Petpet, their reputation would take a hit. And everyone knew how much these nobles valued their reputations.

     They certainly valued it more than his education — if he got fired, he really didn't know how he would scrape together enough neopoints to pay for his next semester at Brightvale University.

     In the middle of Ed's fretting, Lord Luxington swept in like a gust of wind.

     The stately Orange Kougra ignored Ed's nervous greeting, and took a seat behind the desk; then spent a minute — an agonizingly long minute — contemplating the cherry.

     "Edward," he began, "are you aware of the gravity of what has happened? Aware of how wonderful, and magical that Petpet was? How much I had to pay the witch Madeleine to create it?"

     Ed swallowed. "Yes, sir. And I am so sorry it did, but please, I need this job and—"

     Lord Luxington held up a paw. Ed fell silent.

     "I have no intention of letting you go, Edward. What good would that do?" He sighed, and withdrew an envelope from his breast pocket, and slid it across the table towards Ed. "Miss Madeleine has graciously agreed to give us another Weewoo upon payment, but she requires help. You will provide her with this help."

     Ed nervously picked up the envelope, and shook out the letter inside. The short message was written in a loopy, messy handwriting, with blotchy punctuation.

     Hey Lord Luxy!

     Wowie, thank you for the generous advance payment. I can totally get you another Weewoo. Could you please send me some help though? I have a lot to do before the Chocolate Ball. If you send them along with this letter they should be able to pass right through my wards.

     Also send me any pieces of the Weewoo that you have left. Even if it's oh, I don't know, just the cherry?

     Smooches,

     Maddie.

     "Well?" Lord Luxington asked. "What are you waiting for?"

     When Ed finally got to the cottage in the woods between Brightvale and Meridell, and saw Madeleine for the first time, all he could think was, sparkly.

     Because Madeleine was a very sparkly Kau. Her gown was iridescent silk and her horns were inlaid with gemstones. Rubies, emeralds, and sapphires shimmered and caught the light every time she moved.

     In contrast, the sitting room she had ushered him into had almost none of this flamboyance, and was just a plain, cozy space, even if a little cluttered; full of plaid, throw pillows, and a plush rug. All kinds of knick-knacks were strewn about on the shelves and side tables — Ed saw an astrolabe, a few plushies, an assortment of tiny mirrors, and an absurd amount of novelty lamps. A dowdy brown dress form stood in the middle of the room. It didn't seem the least bit out of place among the cacophony of objects.

     A fire crackled merrily in the fireplace, though it was a perfectly nice day out. Strangely enough, Ed didn't feel the least bit of heat coming off it, and he suspected it was more for the aesthetic than any warmth.

     Madeleine herself, despite her sparkliness, somehow seemed to belong in there. The flour-stained apron she had on certainly helped. It grounded her.

     "Hello, there!" she said, shaking his hand vigorously. "Edwin, is it?"

     "Edward," Ed corrected her. "But Ed is fine."

     "Okay, Eddie! What do you have for me?"

     Ed took the cherry — wrapped carefully in one of Lady Luxington's delicate handkerchiefs — out of his pocket, and presented it to Madeleine.

     She giggled. "Oh, this will do very nicely. Now then, you're here to help me, yes?" Her eyes sparkled almost as much as the gems in her horns. "Weewoo spells are hard work, I'll have you know! There's all kinds of uhm, ingredients. And such."

     Ed nodded nervously. Being a witch's or wizard's assistant (apprentice?) was a risky endeavour. There were countless stories floating around the university of how things could go wrong. An accidental Mortog transformation here, a stray balding curse there… but he really needed this job.

     "Yes, miss. Just let me know what I need to do."

     "Excellent, excellent. Let's see then, there's the yard… ah yes, I require a moonroot!"

     Ed paled. They'd read about this in botany just last semester. "Moonroot? As it only grows during the full moon, moonroot? But the Weewoo has to go to Neopia Central by tomorrow and—"

     "Oh hush, honey," Madeleine laughed. "It grows during the full moon, but then it stays there, doesn't it?"

     Ed tried to recall his book. He didn't remember reading that. But he did remember something else. "And doesn't it only grow on mountain tops?"

     Madeleine blinked at him. "Who's the witch here?"

     The Ogrin blushed in embarrassment. "I'll get right on it, miss. Whereabout in the yard?"

     "Why don't you just go pull up every odd looking thing you see on my lawn, and then bring it all over to me? I'll know it when I see it."

     And then she grabbed him by the shoulders and ushered him towards the door, pushing him outside with a firm shove between the shoulders. Ed surveyed her considerably sized front yard, and sighed for about the tenth time that day. Time to get to work.

     An hour later, Ed was drenched in sweat and his clothes were grass-stained. But he had a wheelbarrow full of things that may or may not have been moonroot. None of them looked like the diagrams in his textbook, but Madeleine — her apron now stained with even more flour — certainly seemed please when she answered the door.

     The smell of apple pie, tinged with cinnamon, wafted in from behind her, floating through the open door of the kitchen in the back of the cottage. Over her shoulder, Ed could see that a voluminous tulle dress now occupied the dress form.

     "Wonderful job, Eddie! Why don't you just leave that there, and get on with the next ingredient?" She pointed towards the corner of her property. "You see that well there?"

     Ed turned to look, though he had seen the stone well earlier. "Yeah."

     "I need you to go down it. And get me… the mud."

     He'd seen that well when he was scrabbling around in the dirt near it. It was deep. And dark. And it was a well, so it would be damp. Three things he didn't like being together.

     "I have to go down it? Why can't we just put a bucket on a rope and scrape it around or something—"

     "Again, Eddie," Madeleine said, blinking at him. "Who's the witch here?"

     He couldn't argue with that. "Can I get a rope, please?" he asked, shoulders sagging.

     Madeleine did some funny things with her hands, and a rope flopped out of the cottage window, seemingly of its own accord. Ed picked it up, and began to trudge towards the well.

     "And if you happen to see a crystal ball down there," Madeleine called from behind him, "make sure to pick that up too!"

      After slipping back down to the bottom of the well twice when he was almost to the top, Ed finally clambered back out. The crystal ball Madeleine had asked about was safely tucked into his left pocket, along with a pocket knife he'd found down there too. In his right, was a glob of clayey mud.

     He wearily knocked on the cottage door. Madeleine answered, this time accompanied by the sweet scent of blueberry cheesecake. The dress behind her had shiny jewels sewn into its collar now.

     "Crystal ball?" she asked immediately.

     Ed handed it to her, along with the pocket knife.

     "Oh, so that's where that knife was! And the mud?"

     Ed awkwardly held out the glob of mud in his bare hands. Madeleine hesitated, then gingerly accepted it. "Thank you. Now for the third—"

     "There's more?" Ed cried.

     "Rule of threes, kiddo. Haven't you read any faerie tales? Now, for number three, I require you to fix my wards. So no untoward spirits get in the way when I craft that Weewoo's soul."

     Ed panicked. "Look miss, I don't know what Lord Luxington told you, but I'm not licensed to perform any spells—"

     "You don't need a license to use a hammer and nails!" Madeleine laughed. "Just the physical warding will do, Eddie. I just need you to fix my gate. It's crooked. I've already left you the tools near there. Go on, then!"

     She stepped back and closed the door before he could say anything else.

     Ed returned to the cottage for the third time with a throbbing thumb, and a fixed gate behind him. When Madeleine opened the door this time, a warm, spicy scent accompanied her. Plum cake, maybe? Ed didn't know, but was relieved that he was finally done — rule of threes, like Madeleine said.

     So he was shocked when the first thing Madeleine did was dump the dress she had been wearing earlier into his arms, and ask him to take it down to the nearby creek and wash it.

     "But— but the rule of threes!" he cried. "This is four!"

     "Do you want me performing intricate petpet spells in a magic-stained dress? What if something happens to that poor Weewoo?"

     The only stains Ed could see on the dress were of flour, but he couldn't argue with that.

     Madeleine grinned in triumph. She reached into the pocket of her new dress, and pulled out a bottle of white powder. "Use this, please. Purification thing."

     As she closed the door, he caught a glimpse of the dress in the room behind her. She had added another layer of skirts.

     Really, he should have been suspicious long before. Whoever heard of a witch that gave out four tasks? You either had three, or some nice sounding, round number like five or ten. Never four. But Ed only realised that when he was ankle-deep in the creek, and the runic label on the bottle peeled off to reveal the original one underneath.

     It was plain detergent.

     The exact kind he used for his own clothes.

     I should have realised, he thought. It smells just like laundry day.

     And that thought made him realise something else — he hadn't smelled a whiff of chocolate all day. Madeleine hadn't been crafting a chocolate Weewoo at all.

     Madeleine had tricked him.

     Ed aggressively dunked the dress into the water a few more times to wash the suds off, and then marched towards the cottage.

     He didn't bother to knock. He burst into the sitting room. The dress form was no longer there. He could hear pots clanking in the kitchen, so he didn't stop, and continued his march towards the back of the building.

     "You tricked me!" he yelled. "I've just been doing your chores all day!"

     Madeleine didn't even flinch, and continued to stir the pot she was in front of. "The garden needed weeding, and I need to take that crystal ball and that dress with me to Neopia Central. And a crooked gate is just ugly. I couldn't do all of that, and get you your Weewoo."

     Ed couldn't believe this. "Do you understand what's at stake here? If I don't pay my tuition they'll—"

     "Calm down, Eddie." Madeleine said pleasantly, using her spoon to point at the countertop. "You have the cherry!"

     This strange declaration suddenly made Ed aware of the chocolatey aroma in the kitchen. He swallowed, and looked closer at what Madeleine was doing. The whole pot was melted chocolate.

     "The cherry?" he asked, weakly.

     "The cherry!" Madeleine picked it up by the stem, and delicately held it to the surface of the bubbling chocolate. Barely brushing the surface, she swished it around a few times, and then yanked it back.

     A fully-grown chocolate Weewoo blinked at Ed, newly attached to the cherry.

     "A chocolate petpet's spirit lives in their cherry!" Madeleine laughed. "We just need to get chocolate heated up, like a warm bath, so it feels comfy enough to coalesce. It was never a problem."

     Ed accepted the Weewoo without a word. It snuggled up against him. It seemed he was forgiven for the earlier incident.

     Madeleine nodded approvingly. "Now then, Eddie. Will I see you at the Chocolate Ball?"

     The End.