Fabulous Winifred and her Quest for the

Bubble Bath

Winifred turned around, but there wasn’t anyone else in the room another that herself. “Hello!” there it goes again. “Hi!” went the smooth, sweet voice, “Peek-a-boo! I’m here.”

Winifred spun around, but saw nobody near. Suddenly, a girl appeared right in front of her. Winifred jumped in surprise.

“Um…well, hi. I’m Winifred, pleased to meet you.” Winifred smiled at the girl, grabbed her hand, and shook it.

“My name is Snowdrop. And, what was that for?” the girl laughed, but she seemed shocked, “That was just so cold. In Water Town, where I live, we are very warm to each other. I don’t know your customs, but we show our welcome by a warm hug.”

“Well, I’ll try to go your ways then.” Winifred gave Snowdrop a warm hug and said curiously, “I didn’t see you at first, what were you doing? You were fast, I only blinked.”

“Oh, that? That’s only allusion. You only have to bend the light around you so you become invisible. I can even do magic now, allusions are for babies.” Snowdrop said, proudly highlighting the last sentence.

“What do you mean,” Winifred looked at Snowdrop, curiously, “that you can do magic?”

“Oh, your world’s quite different than ours. Do you have school? In school, we learn allusions and magic. Allusions are for kids from 4 to 9. I’m ten now, I get to learn magic until I’m a fully grown Water Folk, or 18.” Snowdrop said.

“Oh, we do have school.” Winifred quickly said. “It’s just that we don’t learn magic and allusions. We learn Math, English and all that. I love Music and Art.”

“We have Music and Art too, but what’s Ath and Inklish? It sounds weird!” Snowdrop breathed a sigh that sounded like a soft wave of water, “It sounds boring in your world. I didn’t need Inklish class; I picked it up from mom and dad. I also know Waterese.” And Snowdrop started talking a strange sound, like the ocean. You can hear the big waves and small waves, waterfalls and tinkling streams.

“Wow! That’s the most beautiful language I’ve ever heard!” Winifred said as she finished listening to one word pronounced like a seagull’s call and another of a splash of water as a whale slaps its tail on the ocean water.

“Yes, Winifred, it is beautiful. But I have come for help. I’ve been helping you since I saw you standing by the river. We both like water, I see.”

“Yes, I do love streams and other bodies of water. Why do you need my help? You have magic and I don’t know even the simplest allusion, as you call it.” Winifred laughed.

“What Bodies of water? What do you mean by that? Water doesn’t have bodies! Oh, but that isn’t important, though I’ve never seen the water’s body. Well, in Water Town, we lost a magic bubble bath. Well, it is one of the ingredients for two main spells: a good luck charm and a spell to make all the water in the world clean and add in the clean water to replace the used-up water. Without these two spells, Watertown is a mess, and only the bubble bath could help. But we don’t have to fear the bubble bath will run out, for it refills itself when the bubble bath is used even one drop.” Snowdrop said fast, then running out of breath, panting, “Guess we’ll as well start now, for time is getting a bit tight and we have to get the bath back before all the water in the world is used up or dirty.” By the time she finished, she was all out of breath, but she managed to say, softly, “When we find the bath, it’s your job to take it, for if a Water Folk directly touches its bubbly and soapy water, we will turn to water. But some of it drips out of its container, so I’d better not touch it.”

“Oh.” Winifred said slowly, “I guess I should go with you then, if it is like that. Well, let us hurry up, for time is sliding by.” And off the two went to find the bath.

There was a large cavern that loomed out in front at the girls, after Snowdrop did a quick transporting spell that moved them a day’s walk to the bath.

“I guess the bath’s in the cave. Something is pulling me towards the pit.” Snowdrop said, slowly looking if anything was pulling on her short, turquoise skirt.

“Yes, I guess you’re right. It looks like a place the bubble bath might be. Look, it’s topped with a thick layer ice and icicles! It looks like the bubble bath had purified it.” Winifred carefully examined a hanging, pointy icicle that looked solid and clear as a piece of glass with a light-blue tinge.

“Then, go in. I’ll go in first if you’re afraid.” Snowdrop boldly stepped out, and found that the ground was covered with ice, and pointy icicles stationed themselves only a few feet apart. If they tried to go in, they would probably fall and hit the sharp and hard icicles. And probably they would also break their neck on an icicle.

Winifred pondered on the question. “We can hang on the upper icicles, and swing ourselves around.” She suggested.

“But the icicles are as slippery as the floor, and if we loose our handing, we would have an even longer fall.” Snowdrop reasoned, “And we’ll probably break all our bones, including our neck.”

“Then what should we do? If I had magic, I would conjure up some wings and fly over.” Winifred sighed.

“Yes, Magic! I have magic, but I couldn’t Conjure up wings, but I could probably conjure up some ice skates. But I have only worked on conjuring only once, and I maybe will get it wrong. But I’ll try.” Snowdrop said happily. She held up her right hand in front of her and muttered something. A wisp of blue whirled into her hand, and as Winifred looked closer, she found that it was water, a huge drop of bright blue water. Snowdrop held out her left hand also, and she started doing a molding motion.

When finally the water was shaped, it looked like a bit like two pairs of skates. Snowdrop dropped the skates down and the water arranged itself slightly, became solid, and changed into two pretty pairs of brand new skates.

“That was wonderful. Isn’t this pair lovely?” Winifred picked up the pair closest to her and put it on, finding that it fit her perfectly.

“They arrange their sizes themselves, so one with a huge foot and one with a small foot can use the same skates. Now let’s go in. We now are running out of time.” Snowdrop laughed, grabbed Winifred’s hand, and pulled her in the cave.

“But I don’t even know how to skate!” Winifred gasped at Snowdrop, “I’ll fall even faster I would in my sneakers.”

“You’ll do fine. Now stop complaining about it. You said you would help out, didn’t you? Now you have to actually help.” Snowdrop quickly stroke out. Graceful as a swan, she smoothly skated; twisting through the winding trail the icicles left them to go through.

Winifred grasped Snowdrop’s hand tightly, leaning constantly on her shoulder, trying not to fall. Suddenly, Snowdrop turned an acute bend, and Winifred felt herself slip and fall through the air.

“No!” Snowdrop quickly grabbed Winifred’s dress, and pulled her up to her feet again.

“Thanks.” Winifred looked scared as she passed a hand through her hair.

“It was close, but at least I caught you.” Snowdrop smiled, “Let’s try the rest of the path steadier.”

At least there weren’t any other mistakes through the rest of the journey. They dodged through the icicles easily, and they soon arrived at the place where the bubble bath was stored.

They have traveled in total darkness through the entire journey, and as they broke out into the brightness, both girls had to shield their eyes from the light.

The light was light blue, glowing off the thick icicles and reflecting off the icy floor and roof. The bubble bath stood proudly at the middle of the cavern.

“I got it!” Winifred smiled triumphantly as she snatched up the bottle.

Usually, dear reader, this shall be the climax, and some terrible monster shall pop up and you know, they will fight and everything. But no, nothing happened, and they got back safely outside. The two of them took off their skates and headed for Water Town.

They soon, too, arrived at a beautiful golden gateway, cased with heavenly gems.

“This is the gate to Water Town.” Snowdrop announced proudly, and she whistled out an ocean breeze, and indeed, a breeze blew the gate open and Winifred gasped.

“It’s beautiful!” Winifred said in wonder. Indeed it was very beautiful. Bright green grass grew among the beautiful, multicolored flowers. Trees with bottle green leaves grew in the pastures. Butterflies and bees moved around collecting nectar. Willows with pale leaves that lined the flowing branches stood by almost totally clear light turquoise streams. Oceans and lochs and lakes of dark blue were seen in the distance.

“Yes, I think it’s beautiful too.” Snowdrop smiled, “Even though I live here.”

“Where do I put the bath?” Winifred asked.

“Hand it over to the leader. He’s there.” Snowdrop pointed at an old looking man with a long white beard.

Winifred shyly handed the bath over to the old man. She said, “Hello, my name’s Winfred. This is the magic bubble bath you may be looking for.”

“Hello, Winifred. I very welcome you to come here.” The man said, hugging her warmly, “Did you say you have the magic bath? If you do, open it and put it on this tray, please.”

And afterwards, Winifred was thought of as an Water Folk as well as a normal girl. She learned magic and allusions and she lived happily at Water Town and Earth. The End.

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