Amelia Sparklepaw’s Party Problem

Chapter One Mr. Cleverfeather’s Inventing Shed

Lily and Jess woke up in a nest of blankets and cushions in Goldie’s grotto. Morning sunshine streamed through the G-shaped window in the door and shone on the sleeping animals curled up all around them.

Jess stretched her arms and sat up. “I’m so glad we found Goldie,” she said, whispering so she wouldn’t wake the others.

“But we still have to stop Grizelda,” Lily said seriously.

The witch had kidnapped Goldie from her own birthday party. The girls and Amelia Sparklepaw, their kitten friend, had rescued her, but Grizelda was now planning to make a potion. Lily and Jess didn’t know what the potion was for, but they knew it would be something horrible!

Goldie and Amelia stretched and yawned. Then they curled up again, so close that their whiskers were touching.

“Wakey wakey!” said Jess, gently shaking them. “We have to stop Grizelda from finding a shower flower and completing her potion, remember?”

Amelia’s blue eyes flew open. “Ooh, yes,” she said eagerly.

Goldie got up. “Don’t worry. We’ve beaten Grizelda before. We’ll do it again.”

As all of the animals started to wake up, Goldie opened the door and sunlight flooded in. The girls looked outside.

“Oh, dear. It won’t rain today,” said Lily.

“It might,” said Jess. She pointed up at some gray clouds floating high above the trees. “Hopefully a shower flower will grow somewhere!”

Goldie made everyone a breakfast of toasted sunflower seed buns and whipped up banana and honey smoothies in the blender Mr. Cleverfeather had given her for her birthday. While they ate, Goldie said, “If a shower flower does grow today, how can we find it before Grizelda does?”

“I know!” said Lily, looking at the blender. “Let’s ask Mr. Cleverfeather if he has an invention that can help.”

Mr. Cleverfeather the owl hadn’t stayed for the sleepover, so after saying good-bye to everyone, the girls, Goldie, and Amelia set off to his tree. Lily and Jess watched the sky anxiously.

Goldie pressed the trunk of Mr. Cleverfeather’s tree with her paw. The rough surface rippled and twisted, and a winding staircase appeared.

Amelia’s eyes widened. “Wow!”

Lily and Jess grinned. The girls had seen Mr. Cleverfeather’s home before, but they still found it amazing!

Amelia scampered up the stairs and the girls and Goldie followed. At the top was a shed, with Mr. Cleverfeather standing in the open doorway. He was wearing his usual waistcoat and monocle and hooted happily when he saw them.

“Come in!” he said. “How can I help you?”

Once he’d heard what the problem was, he rummaged through his inventions. Soon he tossed out an object with a propeller and a basket hanging underneath.

“Hovering Apple-Picker—that never worked,” he muttered. “What’s this?”

A set of wheels with a board fixed on top rolled out. “Hmm, that surfboard was supposed to work on sand and lea,” he said. “I mean, land and sea. But it sinks.”

Then, hooting with glee, he produced a contraption kind of like a watering can. He pressed a button and a red-and-blue-striped umbrella shot out of the top.

“My Dropper Spotter!” said Mr. Cleverfeather. “It detects drainrops—I mean, raindrops. It’s useful when you’re planning a picnic.”

Goldie, Amelia, and the girls cheered.

“Hooray!” said Lily. “Now we can find the exact place where the shower flower will grow.”

Jess picked up the Dropper Spotter. “I just hope we find it before Grizelda does. If she manages to make her potion, I’m sure something terrible will happen to Friendship Forest...”

Chapter Two The Dropper Spotter

“You just bess that prutton,” Mr. Cleverfeather explained to Jess. “I mean, press that button. Then off you go!”

“Thanks, Mr. Cleverfeather!” said Jess.

They waved good-bye to the owl and went back down the magical staircase. Jess put the Dropper Spotter on the ground and pressed the start button.

The umbrella began to turn. Soon it was spinning so fast that the red and blue stripes became a blur of purple. The Dropper Spotter rose until it was level with Jess’s head, and took off through the forest, zooming around the trees.

Lily picked Amelia up, and they all hurried after it.

As they pushed through the bushes, the kitten’s ears twitched and she gave a sudden cry. “Stop! There’s someone calling nearby!”

They waited a moment, watching the Dropper Spotter anxiously in case it flew out of sight.

“Oh! I can’t hear anything now...” said Amelia.

“Maybe it was the wind blowing in the bushes,” Lily suggested.

“Yes,” said Amelia. “Maybe.”

They hurried on. When the Dropper Spotter whizzed around a group of nut trees, Amelia stopped and put a paw to her ear.

“There it is again!” she said. “I can definitely hear a voice—it came from behind those jellyberry bushes!”

Jess and Goldie followed her to investigate. Lily jumped up and grabbed the Dropper Spotter so it wouldn’t get too far ahead, then joined them.

But there was no one behind the bushes.

“That’s funny.” Amelia scratched her head in surprise.

“Help!” a voice cried. “Please help me!”

“I heard it, too!” cried Jess. “It’s coming from that bush with orange flowers...”

As Lily, Jess, and Amelia ran over to the bush, Goldie shouted after them, her tail twitching with worry.

“No, wait!” the cat yelled. “That’s how Grizelda kidnapped me, remember—she used a spell so I thought an animal was in trouble! It’s a trap!”

But it was too late. There was a sudden explosion of stinky sparks in front of the girls and Amelia. Standing with Gobbler tucked under her arm was Grizelda!

Chapter Three Shower Flower

With a triumphant cry, Grizelda snatched the Dropper Spotter from Lily. “Ha haaa!” she cackled. “I knew you’d fall for it if I called for help. Serves you right! You just can’t keep your noses out, can you?”

She pressed the Dropper Spotter’s start button and the umbrella started to turn.

“Ha haa!” she crowed. “Now I’ll find the shower flower!”

“Eeeep!” squeaked Gobbler as the witch dashed after the Dropper Spotter.

The four friends set off at top speed behind her.

“Hurry!” Goldie cried as she ran. “She’s getting away.”

Grizelda looked around, laughing as sparks flashed from her high-heeled boots.

“She’s using magic to go faster,” Lily groaned. “We’ll never catch up.”

“Keep going,” yelled Jess. Amelia was panting for breath, so she scooped the kitten up. “Grizelda will stop if the Dropper Spotter does!”

“Run!” cried Goldie, glancing up at the gray clouds overhead. “The sky’s getting darker. It will rain soon.”

They raced on until they came to a large clearing near the parasol tree.

“Look!” Lily cried, pointing. “There’s Grizelda. And Gobbler! The Dropper Spotter’s stopped!”

“That must be where the first raindrop will land,” said Jess.

As she spoke, the sky darkened. A gray cloud loomed overhead, right above where Grizelda was standing.

Goldie, Amelia, and the girls watched in horror as a single raindrop fell from the cloud, glittering like a diamond. The drop fell lower and lower until it splashed onto the dry ground at Grizelda’s feet.

Instantly, a green shoot sprang up, glistening with the raindrop’s moisture.

The rain started falling harder and, as it did, the shoot began to grow. When it was as tall as Grizelda, a huge blue flower burst into bloom.

Lily gasped. “The shower flower!” she cried. “Quick, let’s get it!”

They raced toward the tall plant, but they were too late. Grizelda’s long, bony fingers reached out and plucked it.

Cackling with glee, she pulled a glass flask from inside her cloak. She crumpled the flower and stuffed it inside. Only then did she look at Goldie and the girls.

Grizelda smiled her cold smile and waved the flask. “You’re too late,” she said, gloating. “All the ingredients are in here. My potion is complete and there’s nothing you can do!”

She shook the flask from side to side.

“Oh, no!” Lily breathed.

Amelia buried her face in her paws. “What’s the potion going to do?”

Chapter Four Gobbler Grows

Goldie, Amelia, and the girls watched helplessly as Grizelda’s flask bubbled and fizzed. Dingy green smoke flowed over the top, leaving a thick liquid behind.

Grizelda poured the liquid onto a handful of leaves and put them on the ground in front of Gobbler.

“Eeeeeep!” he squeaked delightedly and began chomping on them. But after a moment, he had to stretch down to reach the rest of the leaves.

Jess gave a cry of alarm. “So that’s what the potion does—he’s getting bigger!”

They watched, horrified, as the furry blue creature grew larger. He bounded to a nearby bush and quickly munched his way through it, still growing. His shell-shaped ears grew as big as saucers, and his tail was twice as long as Goldie’s.

“He’s already much bigger than Amelia,” said Goldie, her green eyes wide with worry. “How big is he going to get?”

“Big enough to eat up the entire forest!” Grizelda cackled. “That’s right, my lovely, eat up!”

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!”

Chapter Five Not the Treasure Tree!

“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.

“On my way!” Hermia said in her tinkling voice, and flew off.

The four friends followed Gobbler, trying to slow him down with snacks of cones and leaves.

As they neared the Treasure Tree, Jess froze. “Oh, no! Look!”

A familiar yellow-green orb was floating toward them. It burst into sparks, revealing Grizelda with a wide grin on her bony face.

“My plan’s working,” she cackled. “Eat up, Gobbler!”

Goldie and Amelia began frantically searching for tasty things to tempt Gobbler away from the Treasure Tree. Jess whispered to Lily, “Gather up leaves and twigs for when Mr. Cleverfeather arrives.”

Just then, they heard a soft hoot, and Mr. Cleverfeather appeared overhead, wearing a harness with whirring blades fixed to the back.

“He’s turned himself into a helicopter!” said Jess.

Lily nodded. “And he’s brought the blender with him!”

“I asked him to get it from Goldie’s grotto,” explained Jess. “I just hope my idea works...”

Mr. Cleverfeather dropped the blender into her arms. Then he flew around Gobbler’s head, hooting. “Treave our lee alone!” he cried. “I mean, leave... Oh, you know what I mean!”

Jess stuffed the violets into the blender, and Lily added twigs and leaves. They blended them into a purple liquid, which trickled into the mug on the side of the blender.

Lily glanced over. Grizelda wasn’t watching Gobbler—she was meanly picking fruit off the tree and squashing it under her high-heeled shoes. “Now!” Lily whispered.

“Here, Gobbler!” Jess called. “I’ve got a delicious drink for you!”

The great furry creature bent his massive head down toward them and sniffed. “EEEEEEEEP,” he thundered, so loudly the girls flinched, and opened his mouth.

Jess poured the drink inside.

“SLUUURP,” went Gobbler. “SLUUUUUUUUURP!”

Instantly Gobbler started to change. He looked surprised as he shrank as quickly as a popped balloon. “EEEEEEP!” he squeaked.

The witch turned, staring in disbelief. “Nooooo!” she screeched, stamping her feet angrily.

Gobbler got smaller and smaller, until he was his normal size—even tinier than little Amelia. He sat under a fir tree, crunching cones and squeaking happily.

“He’ll never eat the forest now, Grizelda!” said Jess.

The witch loomed over the girls. “You’ve won this time!” she shrieked, “but mark my words. Friendship Forest will be mine. One day!” she screamed, shaking her fists. With a snap of her fingers she disappeared in a shower of sparks.

“Eeeeep!” Gobbler said, rolling over to show off his fluffy, round tummy.

“I think he’s full at last,” said Amelia with a laugh.

The girls and their friends joined hands and paws in a dance of joy.

Chapter Six One Last Surprise

When Lily, Jess, Goldie, Amelia, and Gobbler reached Toadstool Glade, it was eerily silent. Usually animals were bustling around, or sitting outside the café, but today there was no one in sight.

“What’s wrong?” said Goldie.

Suddenly, animals everywhere burst out of hiding, shouting, “Surprise!”

Lucy Longwhiskers ran over. “Mr. Cleverfeather told us what you all did. There’s a birthday tea waiting at the Toadstool Café, to make up for Goldie’s party being ruined!”

“And to celebrate defeating Grizelda!” said Mr. Longwhiskers.

Everyone rushed over as quickly as they could. There were cheese-and-walnut grilled cheeses, honey biscuits, and Dreamy Creamy Ice Cream in lots of flavors.

Gobbler’s appetite was back. He waved his tail as he ate a bowl of ice cream.

“He’s sweet, isn’t he?” Jess said.

“What will happen to him?” Lily asked.

“Mom says he can live with us!” said Amelia, stroking Gobbler’s fluffy head. “His job will be to eat all the weeds in Garland Green.”

The girls felt happy that Gobbler had someone to care for him. They hugged Amelia and stroked her soft fur.

“We have to go home now,” Jess said. “But we’ll come and visit you and Gobbler as soon as we can.”

“I’ll miss you,” Amelia said. “We had a scary adventure, but it was fun, too.”

When everyone had said good-bye, Goldie took the girls to the Friendship Tree. “Thank you for rescuing me and for saving our forest,” she said. “I’ll never forget my exciting birthday!”

Goldie touched a paw to the tree trunk and the door appeared.

The girls stepped through the doorway into golden light. When the shimmering glow faded, they found themselves back in Brightley Meadow.

“What an amazing adventure,” said Lily, as they ran back to Helping Paw. “I’m glad Friendship Forest is safe.”

“Wasn’t it a great party?” said Jess.

Lily nodded. “It was,” she said, “but I didn’t have any ice cream. I wonder if Mom has some?” She giggled. “I feel like I could eat as much as Gobbler!”

The End