The Baker and the Irregularly Sized Cakes

Once upon a time there lived a pumpkin with a top hat and a monocle, but the pumpkin has nothing to do with the story. We only mention him because he is awesome and lived next the house in which our story begins.

The house belonged to a baker who was known throughout the kingdom for his cakes and his incredible wits in tight situations. The story doesn't really being there either though. It begins in a dungeon where one the day the baker found himself in a facing a dragon.

The dragon said, “Raar! Raar! I’m a dragon! If you can’t tell.”

The baker just smiled and gave the dragon a cake. Then the baker moved on with his normal life, leaving a happy dragon behind him. This was not unusual for the baker, although it was odd for the dragon. The baker had a habit of taking a cake to give to odd things that wanted to kill him. He did this at least once a week in the hopes of teaching the murderous creatures that people were good and should not be eaten. If they became customers of his cake shop, all the better.

The king soon heard of the baker’s deeds and summoned him to the castle, where he said, “Hey, I need a big cake in the shape of my daughter!” It seemed a giant sea monster was insisting on eating the princess. His head was poking through the window and he agreed that it didn’t matter what he ate. As long as it was shaped like a princess, it was good enough.

The baker said that it was possible, but that he would need just a small amount of Bakeranium.

“Bakeranium?” asked the king.

“It’s a very rare element that is only found in very cold places,” the baker explained. “Such as the North Pole.”

“I’ll go get it,” said the princess, who did not wish to get eaten.

It took her several months, but eventually she returned with the Bakeranium only to find that the baker had apparently forgotten that he already had a stash. While she was gone, he had already prepared the big cake and the sea monster was long gone and very popular among sea monsters. (Eating a princess-shaped object was considered very cool in the sea monster community.)

The princess decided to ask the baker if he wanted to make a very big cake to feed the entire kingdom for her birthday. He said, “OK, but I’ll need a small amount of Cakanium.”

The princess said, “OK. But triple check your house to make sure you don’t have it already.”

He said he had just enough, but still needed all the flour. He was out because of the big princess cake.

So the princess went to the largest windmill or wherever you get flour from and got as much as she could. And went to the second largest one and got as much as she could. Et cetera.

When she gave it to the baker, he said that he had just enough.

One month later, the princess had a big birthday party with a cake the size and shape of the castle. Everyone enjoyed the cake and was very happy. The baker was named Royal Baker and given a much nicer kitchen than he had before. He lived the rest of his life in the house by the pumpkin patch making cakes for all the kingdom.

The end.

The People's Greed

Through the fire, through the flames.

Higher and higher, only fun and games.

The turtle suffers. The turtle feels pains.

The turtle buffers. The turtle wants rain.

The people's greed makes them dance and sing.

They ride their steed and care for nothing.

...But I know one day, the turtle will flee.

Exploring Time!

Once upon a planet, there was a brave explorer, and his name was not Bob. He traveled with a navigator, whose name was not George. Not-George didn't really do too much, leaving Not-Bob to do pretty much everything as they traveled the world for the fun of it. (Well, Not-Bob traveled for fun. Not-George just wanted money.)

On a trip through the Mayan Jungle, they found an old tunnel. They thought that maybe the Mayans had dug it to find the lost souls of their kings.

Not-George said, "I'll be rich for discovering this place! Yippee!" and ran in.

Not-Bob said, "He didn't discover it," and walked right in.

When Not-Bob found Not-George, he saw Not-George banging on a wall trying to get inside. "Let me in, you stupid temple!" he was screaming. "I'm going to get rich because of you!"

Not-Bob said, "No! This temple is very delicate! It might collapse at any moment!"

"Oh, relax," said Not-George as he stopped banging. "I can open this door easy-peasy without making the temple collapse."

And then... The door opened!

Inside was crystal-clear water. They couldn't see the bottom of it.

Not-George said, "See?" and then... The temple started to collapse.

Not-Bob said, "As you where saying?"

It occurred to Not-George that there might be treasure at the bottom of the water, so he put a vase on his head (for air) and then jumped into the water. He sank right to the bottom! But there was no treasure, just a whirlpool that grew and grew as Not-George swam for his life.

Eventually, Not-George returned to the surface, but he brought a guest. The whirlpool!

He turned and threw the vase from his head into the whirlpool, screaming, "Take this!"

It didn't do anything.

With mighty wind, the whirlpool sucked both Not-George and Not-Bob in. (Somehow, they were able to breathe normally. Which is good, because breathing is good.)

The whirlpool spat them out in a jungle pond beside a Chinese temple.

"Weird," said Not-Bob. "Another temple... And it doesn't like Mayan. Let's investigate!"

And so Not-Bob and Not-George went into the temple. All they saw were a blanket, a pile of sticks, and some big vases.

As they were about to investigate the vases, they heard a griffon call.

Not-Bob said, "Oh, a griffon. That explains the vases and the pile of sticks. The vases are eggs!"

Not-George didn't care what the vases were. He just yelled, "Run!!!"

Since Not-George was the navigator, Not-Bob ran with him.

They lost the griffon while running from the temple, then ran through the jungle to yet another temple. They stopped outside of it and Not-George said, "We are not going in that place!"

So they ran away from the temple along the shore of a lake.

Soon they found a beach with sand and giant seashells. One seashell was so big you could use it as a boat, and Not-George said, "Let's climb into that shell and escape this place!"

And so they used the shell as a boat and sailed to a desert filled with odd cacti that looked like tires. Not-George found a stick to chop down a cactus to get cactus juice (or whatever comes out of them), but as he tried to grab the stick, he found it was very hard to get it out of the sand.

The sand began to shake... And then... The stick was revealed to be... The tail of a sandworm!

Not-George and Not-Bob ran for their lives until they came across a huge rock. They climbed on the rock and the sandworm couldn't find them.

On the huge rock, which appeared to be a mountain, they made a campsite with sticks, leaves, acorns, and wood, and then settled in for the night. After their rough day, they needed sleep before trying to go home!

DRAGON TWO (OR SOME OTHER NUMBER)

(We changed the name so we won't get sued.)

Once upon a time... Wait a second. Didn't we run into this last story? Okay, instead let's say... Once upon a millennium, there was a small boy named Boy and one time he sailed across the seven seas – wait. No, wrong story... There was a boy named Boy with a frost dragon named Flames.

Our story begins sometime in summer, or on a hot Saturday some other time of year, after Boy got some books on what to do if you have a frost dragon named Flames.

As Boy was about to start reading, a crazy town crier came in screaming, or singing really loud, “Raaaaain, raiiiiin. There's going to be raaaaaaaaiiiiiin. Be prepared, be prepared, be prepaaaaaaared.”

His song over, the crier left and Boy said, “Well, that was weird. I mean, how did us medieval people know there was going to be rain? You don't get that technology for hundreds of years. Oh, well. Guess we have to board up our house as if it was being attacked by zombies.”

And so Boy found all the extra chairs, tables, and wood plaques he could and started nailing, taping, and gluing them to the windows, walls, and doors. But he accidentally barricaded him and Flames outside!

He thought about places to hide to get away from the rain. In a ditch, in a evil dragon's cave, or in a small well... He figured the well and the ditch would just flood, so he went to the evil dragon's cave. (It was the dragon that was evil, not the cave. If you were confused.)

While he was following the yellow brick road to the cave (I hope we don't get sued by the people who made The Wizard of Oz), Boy saw his friend the lost temple. (Not know who this guy is? Go to the last story. If you don't know who anyone in this story is, definitely go to the last story!)

The temple said, “Run! Evil fighter planes!”

Boy said, “But this is the medieval ages!” and thought to himself that maybe there was a time machine. Then he saw a squad of evil fighting planes dropping off a... a... I mean the... the angry horses from last story!

The original angry horse said, “Neigh! Neigh! N-n-neigh!”

Thanks to the horse's translator hat, Boy could understand him. What he'd said was, “Ha! Thanks to our warm winter coats your dragon cannot freeze us! We thought about snow pants, but... No, we didn't want them.”

Then the fighter planes' pilots ejected, but none of them had a parachutes. They were pretty angry when they remembered that although they were all birds, they couldn't fly on their own. So they became angry birds! But even angry, they didn't want to hurt Boy and his dragon, but decided to take their anger out on some nearby pigs. (Well, one pilot did remember to take a parachute. He didn't get angry, he just took a vacation.)

All of the fighter planes hit in one spot (coincidentally), and then... BOOM!

The could of ashes went to the pigs. And what happened to the planes, you may wonder. Well, the pieces went so far that they got to the non-angry bird and made him angry!

Since the pigs all died because of the ash, the birds decided to take their anger out on Boy and Flames after all. But while all this stuff was happening, Boy and Flames had run like heck to the cave.

The horse said, “Well, they're awfully rude!”

When Boy and Flames arrived at the cave, they saw two signs. One that said, “Beware!” and one that said, “Put your ad here.” They didn't put their ad there because they had nothing to advertise and they didn't beware because they didn't want to.

In the cave, they found a rock... And an evil fire-breathing dragon that said, “I'm going to kill you!!!”

But just as it was about to breathe fire on them, the fire dragon saw that Flames was a frost dragon. Then it squealed like a rat and ran off deeper into the cave.

Boy and Flames didn't want to stay in the cave. They wanted to go home. But they remembered the angry horses, angry birds, and that their house was boarded up. So they decided to build a new house in the cave.

It came out very well and was never bothered by the fire dragon, who was too scared of Flames to do anything evil ever again.

THE END

DRAGON

Once upon a time, there was – Wait a second! When is this? Once upon a time? Okay, let's improvise...

Somewhere in the medieval ages (I think), there was a boy called.. Um... What was his name again? Let's call him Boy.

So, somewhere in the medieval ages, there was a boy called Boy, and sometime in winter he decided to go on a journey. God only knows why he did that in winter.

After being chased by an angry horse, Boy found a lost temple. It asked him for directions, but the Boy didn't answer as he ran into the temple because the horse was still chasing him.

The temple said, “Violator! Get out of me!”

Boy ignored that because the horse was outside and stumbled up the temple stairs.

Upstairs, Boy could still see the horse through a window. It looked like the horse was calling other angry horses on his phone.

After going up to the top, Boy realized there was another set of stairs going down. He decided to go down, but changed his mind when he saw the scorpions at the bottom. He turned around and found another set of stairs.

Hoping there were no scorpions, he decided to go down the other other stairs. When he got to the bottom, he saw a wall that said two things. One was a cheat-code for horseshoes. (Dance around like a horse four times.) The second was a warning. “If you open this wall, or door, or whatever you call it, beware of something! I think it's dangerous. Maybe. Oh! And also, to open the door, just say, 'Blanket.'”

While Boy was wondering why it told him how to open something he wasn't supposed to open, he also wondered if he wanted to say, “Blanket.” But when he does stuff like that, he talks to himself, so he actually said, “Blanket,” without meaning to.

The door (or wall or whatever you call it) opened and inside was an egg the size (but not shape!) of a foot.

Boy decided to grab it and run upstairs to see if the angry horse was still there.

The angry horse was still there, playing poker with his friends. When they realized Boy was in the window, they all said, “Neigh!!!” and ran to get some bows and arrows.

When they had their bows and arrows, they launched them at the window. (Don't ask me how a hoofed mammal shot a bow and arrow!)

The only thing the arrows hit was the egg, which started glowing for some reason.

And then... (Play dramatic music here.) The egg opened!

And there was... A... A... ACHOO!

Sorry.

There was a dragon.

It was frost blue and hadn't grown its horns yet. (Duh! It's still a baby!)

But then it... A... A... ACHOO!

No, that wasn't me. The dragon sneezed.

And after the dragon sneezed, all of the horses were frozen.

Then the boy said, “I think I'll name you Flames.”

The Temple made a snorting sound. “Dude, why would you name it Flames? Name it Frosty.”

“But he's not a snowman!” Boy said.

Disgusted, the temple spat Boy and Flames out and walked away. (Don't ask me how a temple walked!)

Boy picked up Flames and went to to the library to look for books on taking care of frost dragons named Flames.

THE END

Little Red Astronaut

We are sorry for delaying our story PT. We cannot finish it due to brain malfunction. We now happily give you this...


Little Red Astronaut


Once upon a time, in space, there was a little red astronaut from Mars who travelled in a spaceship that looked like a basket. She was going to Planet Grandma to get plasma cookies to deliver to the rings of Saturn.

The astronaut, whose name was Ikea, was bored on her trip, because she did this all the time.

So she stopped at Planet Excitement, aka Earth's moon, to get excitement into her life.

All the excitement on Planet Excitement was underground, in huge mines. Ikea was about to go into one of the mines when she saw a sign. “Attention: If you are from Planet Earth, then walk away and forget this whole thing ever happened. If you cannot forget, we have a human DNA check system, so a guard will probably come out and kill you anyway.” Ikea was glad she wasn't from Earth.

Near the start of the mine was a gift shop. It had Planet Excitement snow globes, Planet Excitement t-shirts and w-shirts (all in xxxxxl), and lots of Planet Excitement post cards. Ikea decided to move on.

The next part of the mine had a very long, boring, kiddy ride that only went two miles per hour, a more exciting roller coaster with a warning that said, “Don't go on this or you will die. Seriously. We have creatures from other universes,” and an elevator.

Ikea decided to take the elevator.

She rode the elevator to the bottom, floor fifty-one. Floor fifty-one was much more exciting than the first floor. There were two areas to have excitement: a mystery day care for one-to-five-year-olds, and, for all other ages, a cave of possible death.

She didn't know why, but she decided to go with the possible death.

Inside the cave, was a giant dragon head. As Ikea came close to it, the jaws opened and she heard a very polite voice say, “Welcome to the bottom floor. Please go through the door.”
The door was down the dragon's throat. Ikea thought about not going in, but a bunch of people exiting made her decide to go.

She went down the stairs and came out back in the cave. Nothing happened inside the dragon. At all. She was starting to be disappointed in the excitement of Planet Excitement.

As she left the dragon, she heard laughing and suddenly, out of nowhere, a mutant winged wolf appeared. Ikea thought this might put the excitement rating up. The wolf tried to bite her and she said, “Finally, excitement!”

“No,” said the wolf. “Death!”

The wolf tried to hit her with his tail, but she pulled out her ray gun and zapped him.

“So much for excitement,” said Ikea. “This is more like Planet Lame.”

Then she went back to work.

THE END.

PT, Part One

Alex and Elizabeth were twins. They lived in a house on the edge of a forest and every weekend they went out to explore. All they brought was a few energy bars, water, a compass, a camera with a zoom lens, and a notebook for all the things they've seen.

One day, on a Saturday around lunchtime, they were trying to see some birds. They climbed a tree to get closer to the sky and Elizabeth ate an energy bar while Alex looked through the camera.

Alex took a picture whenever he saw movement on the camera. He got several good ones of things like eagles, sparrows, and robins. Then he got a really blurry picture. He had to ask his sister what she thought it was a picture of.

“Probably some kind of eagle,” Elizabeth said.

“Well, whatever it is,” said Alex, “I think it's coming back. I can get a better picture.”

So he aimed the camera and he saw the bird was flying directly toward him! He yelled at Elizabeth to duck.

The bird landed in a nest between the twins.

Elizabeth frowned at the nest and asked, “How did we miss that?”

Alex frowned at the bird and said, “Yes, that's a question too. But what kind of bird is that?”

It didn't look like any bird the twins had seen before. It had hair and strange-shaped wings.

“Do you think it's a pterodactyl?” Alex asked.

“Of course not!” his sister said. “They've been extinct for millions of years!”

“Then what is it?”

They stared at the creature, neither knowing what it was. Alex took several pictures, thinking he could get a lot of money for a dinosaur picture, and Elizabeth wrote notes in the notebook.

The creature looked at each twin and felt confused. What were they doing? And why were they in the tree? Why was he in the tree? This wasn't his nest!

The creature jumped up and flew away.

Hoping they could find out what the thing was, the twins went home and got on the internet. They had a program that could search by picture and put the images of the creature in it. The computer surprisingly showed only one result. Baby pterodactyl.

“Told you,” said Alex.

Elizabeth shook her head. “No, it must be a malfunction.”

There was a tap on the window behind them and they turned around to see the creature the computer said was a pterodactyl hovering there.

“Look,” said Alex, “it's the pterodactyl!”

“It's not a pterodactyl,” said Elizabeth, although she didn't know what else it was. She went to the window to get a better look at it.

It looked back at her for a second, but then flew off when the twins' parents came into the room and said, “Lunchtime!”

After lunch, their parents left for the supermarket and the twins saw the pterodactyl again. It was tapping on a different window on the other side of the house.

The twins looked at each other, then Alex went to open the window. Elizabeth tried to stop him, but waited too long.

The pterodactyl flew into the house and went into a model nest that was part of the twins' science project.

Elizabeth didn't seeing the pterodactyl fly in because she was distracted by yelling at Alex. “You shouldn't have done, you idiot! Close the window immediately!”

Then she turned around to go back to the computer and screamed.

The pterodactyl was scared by the screaming and flew off.

“That was not a pterodactyl,” Elizabeth said. It couldn't have been.

Alex laughed and said, “I told you it was a pterodactyl.”

“It wasn't.”

They were silent for a few minutes. First they looked at each other, then they looked at the pterodactyl as it flew back to the fake nest.

The pterodactyl, looking uncomfortable, flew off again.

“We should make it a nicer nest,” said Alex. “It's obviously looking for a new home.”

So Alex went outside and collected a pile of twigs and leaves that he quickly turned into a nest. Meanwhile, Elizabeth watched and smiled at his silliness.

“Oh, pterodactyl....” Alex called when he was done.

The pterodactyl came into the room, although this had nothing to do with the call. It went into the new nest and Alex said, “Let's call him PT.”

“One,” said Elizabeth, “it's not a pterodactyl. And two, why are we keeping it?”

Alex said, “You said we. That implies you're helping me.”

“Okay, fine, I'll help you keep that strange bird. But why are you calling it PT?”

“For Pet Terodactyl,” Alex responded with rolled eyes.

“Pterodactyl starts with a 'P', you moron.”

Alex shrugged. “Well, I don't want to call him PP.”

“Whatever,” said Elizabeth.

“Squawk,” said PT.

END OF PART ONE

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Air Vehicle

Once, once, once, once upon a time, there was a girl named Samantha who lived in a clock tower. She wasn't little, but she wasn't a giant either. She was a teenager.

Samantha lived with one brother, one sister, and her father. Her mother had died several years ago during one of the first bombings of the New War.

A new business called Strayberhagen opened across the street, and they decided to hold a race as part of their grand-opening. The prize was a mystery, but Samantha and her family wanted it anyway.

Since the rest of her family was pretty selfish, Samantha entered the race on her own. So did her family members and some other weird people and things. There was a robot named Robot, a team made up of an eagle and several ducks, an octopus, and a mailman, just to mention a few.

The head of Strayberhagen told everyone where the race started and where it ended. Then he explained that everyone would have to make their own vehicles. But not just any vehicles, air vehicles!

The mailman raised his hand and asked, “But what if we don't know how to make an air vehicle?”

“Then,” said the head of Strayberhagen, “try anyway!”

Everyone set to work, building different things because they had no idea what crazy things the other racers would build.

Samantha knew how to fly a stunt plane with lasers and shields. She'd learned it in dangerous plane weapons class at school, which was required before graduation due to the New War with the Enemies. Just in case, she'd also taken the extra credit course on how to build one, so she made one of those.

The mailman built a helicopter that delivered mail so that he could do his job while racing.

The octopus built a water-powered coral rocket. It was pretty, but Samantha wasn't sure how well it would fly.

Robot the Robot built a hovercraft, the eagles and the ducks made a zeppelin, Samantha's little sister put together a pink hot-air balloon, and her brother constructed an airplane shaped like a guitar. Samantha's father also made a hovercraft, like Robot, but his had blades that looked like the hands of a clock. There were a few other crazy entries, but Samantha didn't have time to look at them all.

Then there was the old man who misheard the type of race and thought it was supposed to be a bear race, not an air race. He showed up with a bear. Everyone laughed, but the head of Strayberhagen said he was allowed to be in the race if he could find a way to make his bear fly. So he hurried home to make a pair of metal wings to strap to the bear.

The race started just after lunch. It was a good beginning time because everyone was awake and had a chance to eat first.

Taking the lead, the octopus got right in front of the robot, and Robot, worried the water would short him out, turned on his shields. In the rear was the zeppelin with the birds in it and the old man with the bear. Everyone else was in the middle, though the mailman soon dropped to last because he was on a tight schedule and had to make a lot of stops.

The race course went right over water. Samantha shot one of her lasers into her little sister's air balloon and it sunk. Samantha wasn't worried though, because she knew her sister could swim.

The octopus also attacked. He shot bubbles of water behind him at anyone who got close. The robot was fine behind his shields, but the other people the octopus shot at were hit and went down. Samantha had shields, but decided to keep away from the octopus for now anyway.

The birds got ahead by shooting ducks at the people in front of them. After they hit, the ducks would fly back to the zeppelin to be launched again. Samantha decided to stay away from them too.

Eventually, it started to rain. Luckily, there was no lightening so they didn't have to stop the race. Robot the Robot put an umbrella over him in addition to his shields. It never hurts to be careful.

Then a sea monster showed up!

The monster had a trunk, which it used to blow contestants away.

Samantha zapped the monster with lasers until it swam down under water to get away from her.

Only a few racers were left. There was Samantha, the old man on the bear, the birds, the octopus, and the robot. All of Samantha's family members were gone and the mailman was still trying to finish his route.

Eventually, they saw the finish line. The mailman had taken a shortcut and got in the lead. He soon had a whole flock of ducks after him, but the blades of his helicopter scared them away and he stayed in the race to finish in a tie with the bird zeppelin, the old man on the bear, and the octopus.

Samantha was last of the all the people who finished. She was sad at the start of the awards, but then the head of Strayberhagen said, “In this race, there's a twist! The competitor that finished last, but did finish, is the winner! Congratulations, Samantha! You've won a free key chain!”

“What?” yelled the old man. “I taught a bear to fly just so a teenager could get a free key chain?”

“Well,” said the head of Strayberhagen, “you should have asked what the prize was.”

“It was a mystery prize!”

“Ah,” said the head of Strayberhagen, “but it wouldn't have been if you'd asked.”

The old man glared him, released the bear, and yelled, “Attack!”

The head of Strayberhagen and the rest of the Strayberhagen body ran for their lives.

Samantha didn't know why the old man had sent the bear after them, because the race was pretty fun even if the prize was lame.

All of the final competitors became really good friends and lived happily ever after.

THE END

Rumpelstiltskin and the Three Mermen

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Rumpelstiltskin. He bought some sunflower seeds from the local market and brought them home to plant.

Soon, there was a whole field of sunflowers. They were very pretty, but something was wrong. They just kept growing and growing. As they grew, they started to get tangled together. Eventually, they grew into a giant sunflower stalk.

Rumpel, as he was called for short, decided to climb it. He'd always wondered if he could stand on a cloud, so he brought a rock with him to test the idea. When he climbed up high enough, he used the rock. He'd hoped it would lay on the cloud, but it fell straight through. As it fell, he realized that it had been irresponsible of him to test the cloud with a rock. He hoped there was no one below.

He decided to keep climbing and find out what the top of the sunflower stalk looked like.

It was very hot at the top and there was a boat on an ocean. Rumpel was pretty sure it was real, so he got in. There were oars and a motor on the back. He decided to use the motor.

Things went well at first, but suddenly the boat sank in the middle of the ocean! Rumpel swam for his life.

Since he would probably die anyway, Rumpel decided to go underwater. He saw an exotic and wide selection of fish, but they were on a dinner table. The dinner table was in a pool, which was inside a house, which had a chain on it leading up to a buoy on the surface.

Thinking the house might have air in it, Rumpel went inside. He got a few drops of water in when he opened the door, but not much.

Inside, there was a fireplace and three beds. One bed was made of brick, another of straw, and the third of sticks.

Tired from swimming, he decided to take a nap on one of the beds. He tried to sleep on the hay one, but it fell into a big pile of hay, which wasn't really comfortable. He tried the sticks, but then he saw bugs and stuff that he didn't really want to sleep with. But the brick one had a mattress – a nice, normal mattress! - and a pillow. So he decided to sleep on that one, since it was most normal and comfortable looking.

He fell asleep quickly, but was soon awoken by an earthquake that dumped him onto the ground.

Three little mermen with feet walked in. One of them asked, “What's up with the little kid sleeping on our floor?”

“He's not sleeping,” one of the others said. “He's just lying down.”

And finally the third one said, “I think he's dead.”

Rumpel stood up, not dead at all. “Who are you?” he asked.

They cleared their throats and started to sing. “We are three mermen-”

“Please!” Rumpel said. “No singing!”

They frowned and one said, “Kill joy.”

“Why are we listening to a stranger?” another asked and his friends nodded in agreement.

They started to sing again, but since it's hard to write a song like that, we'll skip that part.

When they were done singing, they said, “And who are you?”

“I am Rumpel. Rumpelstiltskin.”

Before they could find any more information about each other, there was a knock on the door.

“Who could that be?” one merman said as he went to open the door.

A big wind blew through the room and the door closed.

Another merman tried to open the door, and got blown away just like the first.

The third one put on his anti-wind suit and opened the door. It turns out a scuba diving wolf was blowing at the house. He was wearing not only scuba gear, but a general's uniform.

“I'll eat you all!” the wolf said. “But first, I'll blow you around for a while. I love doing that.”

But before the wolf could enter the house, it began to rise. It shot up above the surface of the ocean, pushed by another giant sunflower stalk.

Eventually, the house hit a cloud.

Rumpel grabbed a chair and tossed it out. It broke when it hit the cloud and Rumpel cried out, “It's a solid cloud!”

One of the mermen looked sad. “That was my favorite chair,” he said.

They all jumped onto the cloud and walked toward a gingerbread house in the distance. As they got closer, the gingerbread house got bigger and bigger. Eventually they were so close that the doorknob was out of reach, even when they stood on each other!

Behind them, the wolf from before made it to the top of the sunflower stalk. He started following after them as the door creaked open, opened by by a giant witch.

The witch grabbed Rumpel and the Mermen, saying, “I'll bake you one, two, three, four! Four. I'll bake you four in my oven and eat you for dinner.”

“Can I have some?” the wolf asked, finally making it to the house.

The witch sighed, but said, “Okay.” She wasn't interested in eating him because she didn't like wolf meat, but she'd always wanted a pet wolf. She tossed him in a cage and went into the kitchen to make their dinner.

While the witch stood with the four in her hand and waited for the oven to heat up, Rumpel had an idea.

“Bite her!” he yelled. And they all sank their teeth into her hand.

The witch screamed in pain and dropped them onto the floor.

They ran out of the house, but fell when their feet hit the cloud. It wasn't solid anymore!

Luckily, they landed in a very deep lake. Which just happened to be the lake behind Rumpel's house.

They went inside, where Rumpel's mother gave them some soup and told her son he wasn't allowed to climb anymore sunflowers.

The mermen moved into the lake and they all lived happily ever after.

THE END.

The Snowman

There once was a kid named Nick. One time, he and his best friend built a snowman. It was a classic snowman with a top hat, a carrot nose, and sticks for arms. The only thing it lacked was a name. The boys tried to think of one, but Nick's mother called them inside for cocoa before they could and it remained nameless.

Soon snow began to fall on the nameless snowman. It was a special snow with strange blue snowflakes and a shimmer of magic. It fell all night.

In the morning, Nick looked out the window to see the snowman again and discovered it was gone. Thinking he must be confused, he looked out another window. And there was his snowman! But it was... Moving!

Nick got dressed for snow as quickly as he could and rushed into the yard where the snowman was hard at work building a snowhouse.

The snowman looked up and said, “Hello.”

Nick jumped in surprise, going higher than the treetops and landing in the middle of the snowhouse construction. All the snowman's hard work was ruined!

“Oh, dear,” said the snowman. And he started over.

Nick pitched in to help and the house was soon ready. The house only had one story, but it had twenty-five rooms, including a hockey rink and a bowling alley.

Weeks passed with no one else noticing the moving snowman, but then one day someone did.

Mrs. Bratterman jumped at the snowman's voice too, but when she landed she was not in as good a mood as Nick had been. She screamed, “Monster!” and ran through town telling everyone about the horrible ice creature she had seen.

Soon the whole town was at Nick's house. Some people wanted to light a fire and melt the snowman. Other people held signs talking about the rights of snow persons. They argued until it was nearly spring.

As it got warmer, the arguments slowed down. The snowman would melt soon anyway, wouldn't he? Soon the only people protesting the snowman were Mrs. Bratterman and her sister.

But then it got it cold again, a sudden freezing wind turning the town to ice.

Mrs. Bratterman and her sister were caught in the wind and turned into icicles.

Some of the townspeople cheered when they heard about this, but the snowman didn't. Instead, he went to them and wrapped his arms around them. The hug took the coldness from them and moved it into him, making him colder and thawing them out.

Mrs. Bratterman and her sister were immediately sorry for all the bad things they'd said about the snowman and bought him a tub of ice cream the size of a swimming pool to make up for it.

The cold didn't last and soon the snowman was in danger of melting.

The townsfolk gathered to find a way to keep him alive. It was Mrs Bratterman who had the idea to turn the old abandoned train house into a massive freezer. Not only was the snowman able to live there year-round, but the citizens of the town were able to visit and enjoy snowball fights even in the middle of summer!

THE END