Daisy Meadows - Amelia Sparklepaw’s Party Problem

Gobbler swallowed the rest of the bush, and his fluffy blue body grew so he was as tall as the girls! Amelia gripped on to Lily’s leg, trembling.

“Oh, no!” said Goldie as Gobbler chomped a whole tree branch.

Gobbler stretched up on his hind legs to start eating a holly tree. His tail waved and twirled, swishing around like a gigantic feather boa.

“There has to be a way to stop him!” cried Lily.

The witch danced in delight. “Oh, no, there isn’t!” she crowed. “Gobbler will gobble everything—trees, smelly flowers, the animals’ homes, and their awful belongings. They’ll all leave. In a few hours, Friendship Forest will be mine, all mine!”

Jess clenched her fists. “You won’t win, Grizelda!” she yelled. “We’ve beaten you before and we’ll do it again!”

Grizelda ignored her. “Eat up, Gobbler,” she screeched. “I’m going to my tower to get my things ready to move here.”

She snapped her fingers, and vanished in a smelly burst of sparks.

Gobbler gobbled on. “Eep, eep,” he squeaked, licking his lips with his long red tongue.

Jess groaned with despair. “We’ll never stop him. He loves eating too much!”

Amelia and Goldie hugged each other miserably as Gobbler ate everything around him.

“We must do something,” said Goldie. “Think hard, everyone!”

Lily had a thought. “What if we got Gobbler to eat Grizelda’s workshop?” she said. “Those tough branches would keep him busy, and it would give us time to think of a way to break the spell.”

“Perfect!” said Jess. “Amelia, Gobbler likes you. Could you persuade him to come with us?”

“I’ll try,” Amelia said nervously.

She padded forward and called, “Gobbler?”

The creature was twice the size of the girls now. He looked down at Amelia and blinked his big blue-green eyes.

“Come with me, Gobbler!” Amelia called, setting off in the direction of the workshop. “We know where there’s lots of delicious food!”

“EEP!” said Gobbler, his voice now loud and booming. “EEEEEEEP!”

He followed after Amelia, his huge paws thumping on the ground. Lily, Jess, and Goldie hurried after them.

“Are you all right, Amelia?” Lily called.

“I think so,” the kitten replied over her shoulder. “He’s actually really friendly, even though he’s so big!”

As soon as they reached the workshop, Gobbler started gnawing through the tough branches. With each mouthful, he swelled up more, and more, and more, until he towered over the workshop itself.

Goldie sighed with despair. “We’ll never be able to feed him enough to stop him from ruining Friendship Forest.”

Lily nodded. “I wish we could make him smaller, like we did with the snapdragons.”

Amelia tugged on Lily’s hand, quivering with excitement. “We can! Let’s give him shrinking violets!”

“There aren’t any,” said Jess. “We used the last ones on the snapdragons.”

“I know where we can get some more!” cried Amelia, her blue eyes shining. “Garland Green, where I got the flowers to make Goldie’s birthday perfume! We can ask my mom and my brothers to help... This way!”

They left Gobbler munching on the workshop and followed Amelia to a buttercup-yellow cottage. Outside the front door was a slender plant with a golden flower at its tip. As the group hurried up the path, Amelia jangled one of the plant’s leaves and the flower tinkled like a doorbell.

The door opened and there stood Amelia’s mom with Tommy and Timmy. Amelia quickly explained what they were doing.

“Goodness, you’ll need lots of violets to shrink a creature that size,” said Mrs. Sparklepaw, wringing her paws. “Of course we’ll come and help!”

The girls and Goldie ran after the Sparklepaws to Garland Green. It was covered in grass and dotted all over with colorful flowers. On one side was a huge patch of shrinking violets, their purple petals quivering in the breeze.

“There they are!” cried Jess. She and Lily ran to pick some. But as they reached down to pick the flowers, the petals shut tight and the flowers disappeared into the ground.

The girls gave cries of dismay.

“Oh, no!” said Lily. “If we can’t pick them, then we can’t stop Gobbler!”

“I don’t understand,” said Jess, shaking her head. “Hermia managed to pick lots of shrinking violets.”

“That’s because butterflies are small enough to creep up on them,” Amelia explained. “Shrinking violets are really shy. So we’ll all need hiding hollyhocks!”

Tommy darted across Garland Green, and came back with a pawful of blue flowers, exactly like the hollyhocks the kittens were wearing. He handed them to his mom, Goldie, and the girls.

“Now jangle them!” said Amelia.

They giggled as they watched one another disappear. When the tip of Goldie’s tail had vanished, they tiptoed toward the shrinking violets.

“Sorry, Mom! Sorry, Amelia!” whispered Timmy. “I keep bumping into everyone!”

This time, the flowers stayed up so they could pick them. They worked quickly, and the sight of handfuls of flowers floating in the air made Jess smile. “I think we’ve got enough,” she said after a while. “Now let’s just hope they work as well on Gobbler as they did on the snapdragons!”

Gobbler had just finished eating the thorny workshop when they got back.

“Wow!” said Jess. “He’s almost as big as the Treasure Tree now!”

Amelia tiptoed as near as she dared, calling, “Gobbler! Yummy treat! Come and get it!”

He thudded toward her.

“Hold out the violets!” said Goldie.

Gobbler sniffed the flowers. But then he jerked away. “YUCK!” he spluttered.

He looked over the girls’ shoulders, and his eyes widened.

“EEP,” he boomed, his tail thudding on the ground, “EEP, EEP...”

Everyone turned to see what he was looking at. In the distance was a tall tree laden with fruit of all kinds.

“The Treasure Tree!” cried Lily. “We have to stop him from eating it. If only he’d eat the shrinking violets...”

As Gobbler set off for the Treasure Tree, Jess yelled, “I’ve got an idea! I just need one of the butterflies to deliver a note...”

She pulled out her sketchbook and pencil and scribbled a message. Then she made a butterfly shape with her hands, just as Goldie had once shown them, and fluttered them like wings.

Moments later, Hermia fluttered down.

Jess gave her the note. “Please take this to Mr. Cleverfeather, as quickly as possible,” she said.