#debukefarmhold

"Honey no, not the toilet paper it's not a ribbon I..."

The door opens, and the bedraggled woman peeks out and gasps

"You have called. I answer."

"My grandmother was right?" startled

A nod. "She shall not be harmed. But she shall be taught."

"Either I've gone mad, or I'm having a dream...either way I'm.. at my wit's end. " She bites her lip then "I .. I'm supposed to say 'In honor of the old trust, take what is yours, return to me that which is mine, and may the wheel move on'?"

Zara bows to the woman, then a nod to the lumbering giant behind her. Magic swells into the house with them, like a wave...

And the mother steps aside

A beleaguered looking cat, whose tail has been shaved sees them coming and watches with keen eyes, then looks up the stairs as if to give a clue

Zara slinks and slithers, leading the way for the giant.

The little girl is cutting up some currtains becaus she deserves a new scarf "This will look SO pretty on me"

"...feeeeeee, fiiiieeeee, fooooeeeeee, fum..."

Darkness encroaches, reaching long withered fingers around the girl...

"What? go away" She slaps at the..shadows, nad she looks surprised as she hits nothing, "No uh, you're not real" oh, they are needed here. This girl could easily become an Autumn person, not from want, but from entitlement ,she cannot conceive of a world where she is not queen

"there are more things on heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your imagination, girl."

Zara is... hard to spot... circling the brat, skittering on four limbs like some alien spider...

"I'll tell my MOOOM" She says

"you will not..." A deep rumbling voice as Earl hides behind the edge of the door frame

"Oh, do scream! That will delight me so..."

A gasp and she inhales to let loose a truly big scream

Zara twists her hands, a gesture... that the scream may come out a frog's croak.

"Reerrruupp.." The girl says loudly then covers her mouth in horror

A savage, toothless grin.

"Finsih it love," Earl says in that exagerated deep whisper "Finish the change. No prince will love such a mean little girl"

"Skin slick with slime, the color of lime... bald is her head, with warts in hair's stead..."

"Noo."She grabs at her head... and Earl?

Earl takes that time to say "Hipitiy hoppity into the basket"

and hopscoptchs her into the wicker monstrosity

"Ungrateful Little Toad." The name has Weight.

It does indeed...

"Ribbit.. I mean.. stop it!" the voice in the basket says

"Stop what? Treating you as you behave? Come, we have a delightful little pond for you to dwell in, full of algae and delicious slugs and creeping moss...."

Earl looks at Zara "To the dark?"a whisper meaning the grotto

A nod.

And off they whisk away, whisk away, whisk away all...

The girl cries out about her mom ,and the police, and the army!

but not once does she say please

"Now, little toad..." Oh, the grotto is dark and damp, with rocky walls and an ice-cold pool...

She is unleashed in the grotto, and Earl closes up with a rock no child could lift... and Ashley look about in the rock, and the wet.

Then comes the tapping...

here...

then there..

Zara reaches to stroke the child's hair.. and it seems to come off in clumps with each pet. A fuddle, yes, but it feels real to Ashley. With it, she enchants... allowing her to drop the wyrd.

"I can't see.. but my hair... stop..."

1122 keeps tapping along... the messages meant to scare, not that the girl knows what they mean.

"You don't need to see anymore, Beastie... why, you have all you need here..."

"You had a warm house and many toys and a gentle mother... why, what does a little toad need with that?"

"Here, oh, you can have all the slugs and flies you can catch! Don't you feel your tongue growing? Feel how sticky the end is? Worry not, when your teeth fall out you will have more room in your mouth..."

"She'll be a better toad than a daughter, I think" earl says

The white-hair wraith pops up and bares her own black gums, a horrible parody of a smile.