I Didn't Mean To! (Open)

Susan kicked her feet as she waited for her mother. It was getting close to the time that her mum was to get off work and Sue was getting a little antsy. She'd spent the entire day in this shop, mostly sitting in this chair, and she was bored! She wanted to get up and move around, but she'd promised that she would behave. He mum hadn't wanted her to go around the shops today, and since she was the mother, Susan had just nodded and sat in the chair.

She sighed, wondering if she was allowed to get up to find something to read. She stood, stretching lightly and tiptoed over to where her mummy was ringing up another order, tapping her on the shoulder. She whispered what she wanted, and a moment later was starting to browse the shelves for something that she would be interested in reading while she was waiting.

Susan had to drag over a ladder when she saw a brightly colored book on the top shelf of a book case, but after climbing it, she found that it was more for a teacher than a nine-year-old. She climbed back down, disappointed, and continued her search. She looked along shelves at her level and below for a few moments, then sighed. Nothing.

She moved on to another area of the shop to look. This seemed a bit more her area of the shop and she found a few thin books that she might be interested in, carrying them back to the front of the shop.

Susan heard a noise around the first case that she'd been searching and went around the front of it again. All the books that she'd examined were on the floor, including the one from the top shelf! She looked around and saw that someone had come around the corner at the other end.

"Please don't tell my mum!" she whispered frantically. "It was an accident!"

Becca giggled a little bit from behind the bookshelf. She was playing hide-and-seek with Mummy while she waited for Mummy to finish her shopping. The only problem was that Mummy didn't seem to have noticed that Becca was hiding yet. She was starting to feel antsy. She looked around, wishing there were something to do, when she saw a big kid looking at books. Becca wondered if she'd want to play. She followed the big girl to a bookshelf and watched her look at books. She watched closely, wondering if she could remember which books the big girl had touched.

That could be a fun game! See how long she could follow the big girl and touch everything the big girl touched without the big girl noticing. Maybe the big girl was a princess and Becca was a tiger under an evil spell and if the princess was trying to send her a secret message to let her know which books had the counter-curse. She looked up at Mummy and the lady at the check-out counter. They were the evil witches who put poor Becca under the spell, and they couldn't be allowed to see, or they'd know the princess was trying to help Becca. She had to keep the princess safe!

Becca dropped to the floor and crawled to the bookshelf the second the big girl left. She climbed up on her haunches and pulled out the books one by one, dropping them carefully and silently on the floor. Her heart was hammering in her chest. Any moment now, she could be caught! This was so exciting! If she were a real tiger she'd be pulling them out with her mouth, but she used her fingers and pretended it was her mouth. Soon, there was only one book left - the one on the very top.

Becca climbed to the top of the bookshelf and paused. She could see the whole kingdom from here! No, Becca reminded herself. She had a job to do. She couldn't be caught here, or the princess would be in danger. She climbed down slowly, but she dropped the book! Oh no! This was a disaster! The evil witches would come! They would know! Becca ran to hide and watch from around the corner, but the witches never came. Only the princess. Becca smiled and stepped out.

"Shh!" Becca whispered, grabbing the princess' hand. "Don't worry, princess. I'll protect you. I'm a ferocious tiger, but we have to hide before the evil witches find us! Come on!"

Susan was the tiniest bit surprised when a little girl had come out from the bookshelves and called her 'Princess', then told her that she was a tiger. What in the world? Susan went with the girl, wondering what she was doing, and thought that it looked like fun. She hadn't seen her twin sister for a few days and missed playing with her, Matthew, Max and Ashton were at Hogwarts with Oliver and mummy was working as long as she was able until the baby was born.

Susan hadn't thought until that moment that she was lonely. But now that she had someone to play with, she was more than willing to have fun, as long as she didn't get into trouble with her mummy. She led the girl claiming to be a tiger to an open corner of the shop where people sometimes sat to read. There was no one there at the moment and they would be able to play there. She looked around and saw that there were more than enough chairs to make a fort, so she started moving them around to stand them back to back in a square, then crawled through the legs of one and stood up in the middle of the contraption.

"I'm Princess Susan. Please protect me from the evil witches, ferocious tiger!"

Susan giggled when she thought of the girl as a tiger.

"I can't keep calling you tiger all the time. What's your name?" She tilted her head to the side in curiosity.

"I'm Becca. Pleased to meet you," Becca said with a perfect princess curtsy. Being a tiger was no excuse to forget her manners, after all. "I'm not really a tiger. I used to be a beautiful princess before the evil witches put me under this spell. You have to help me. I saw you showing me the right books to find the counter-curse. Now we just have to find them and get them into the castle, except we can't let the witches see, and they're guarded by an evil chimera. It will eat us if we get too close, and the witches will be happy. So we have to be careful."

Becca peeked out of the beautiful, shining castle she and Princess Susan had built. The witches were busy, talking to one another, plotting. "The witches are busy," Becca whispered. "We should go now and gather all the ingredients for the potion that will put me right. It's going to be a nasty potion, and I'll be so sad I have to drink it, but then I'll be a beautiful princess again, so it'll be worth it. We have to get the right book first, though." One of the witches looked her way and Becca ducked back inside. "We have to be careful. They have spies everywhere." Becca peeked out again. The witches were gone. Probably searching for more princesses to curse. Maybe even Princess Susan. Becca had to protect her! "Come on. I think it's safe. Stay close."

Becca crept quietly out of the safety of the castle, crawling on all fours because she was a tiger. She looked around to make sure the witches really were gone and motioned to Princess Susan to follow. She made a little noise of excitement in her throat. This was so much fun!

Susan scurried out from the 'castle' to follow Becca the tiger. She didn't know what she'd meant about the right books for the counter-curse, but she wanted to find out. She crawled on her hands and knees looking for the evil witches that Becca had mentioned, but she was sure that her mummy would find them and kick them out of the shop. She felt vaguely ridiculous being on all fours when she was able to walk, but it seemed that Becca thought that this would be safer. Then she remembered that Becca was supposed to be on all fours since she was a tiger.

"What book are we looking for, and where are the potion ingredients?" she asked in a whisper as they made their way around the floor. She had no idea what they were doing, or where they were going, but this was fun! The only thing that worried her were the evil witches, since they should have been in Knockturn Alley, and not in this book shop.

She looked around for her mother, ready to call for help if they needed her, but she was nowhere to be seen. Susan hoped that the evil witches hadn't gotten to her. She would be so sad to have to explain to Oliver that her mummy had been kidnapped, or was it Mummynapped by dark witches.

She crawled to the edge of the first aisle of books and saw her mummy putting the books away on the shelves. She just had the book that went at the top. Her mummy couldn't climb the ladder to put it away, she was going to have a baby. Her tummy wouldn't let her go up there.

"I have to help her," Susan said, standing up.

Becca watched in horror as Princess Susan said she was going to help the witch and stood. For one small, terrifying moment, Becca was afraid that it was all a trick and that Princess Susan was working with the witches after all, but then she thought maybe Princess Susan just didn't know. Maybe the evil witch had tricked her into thinking she was nice. Becca had to save her! She was going to walk right into danger! She was going to give them away!

"NO!" she whispered. She grabbed Princess Susan's wrist and pulled her back down again. "You can't let the evil witch see you!" She looked around the bookshelf and watched the evil witch. She was stealing all the books Becca and Princess Susan had worked so hard to find and hiding them again. "She's right there," Becca whispered softly, pointing at the witch as she hid the books. "She's hiding all the books again!" Becca shook her head sadly. "All our hard work, down the drain. We have to be careful. The witches are even sneakier than I thought. We have to wait for her to leave before we can go find the books again. Watch and try to see where she hides them. We have to get those books! We need them!"

Susan was surprised. Her mother was one of the witches? She'd thought that there had been evil witches in the shop all this time and Becca had meant their mothers! Now she understood! She bit her lip, wanting to help her mum like she normally would have, but the next time she looked, she saw that one of the other shop workers had come to help her. They left the aisle a second later and Susan snuck out from behind the stacks, tip-toeing over to where she'd been looking at the books.

She remembered what books she'd been looking at, there hadn't been many, just the one on the top shelf would be the problem since the ladder had been moved away from the shelf once more. She looked around and saw that it had only been taken to the next aisle and retrieved it, going to collect all the books so that she and Becca could continue their game.

She managed to retrieve them all, but she heard someone coming and ran for the end of the stack, shooing Becca the tiger back to their 'castle'.

"Quick!" she hissed. "Before they catch us! We have to break the curse!"

She crawled back through the legs of the chairs and huddled in the middle, giggling maddly with her new friend.

"I don't think they saw us," she said, peeking up over the seat of the chair next to her and seeing no one.

"You did it!" Becca cried, but then she just as quickly clamped a hand over her mouth. It wouldn't do for the evil witches to hear. She stuck her head out of the castle to look, but there was no one around.

"Okay," Becca said, "Now we have to brew the potion." She pulled her toy wand out of her pocket - she never went anywhere without it - and waved it in the air. Butterflies shot out the end, but she pretended she'd just conjured a cauldron. She used some of the books to build a little pit on the ground. That could be their cauldron. She pretended to shoot water out of her toy wand, making a whooshing sound as she did.

"I conjured a cauldron, so now we can make the potion. We just have to get the ingredients." Becca opened the book from the top shelf. It was the most important one! It had the hardest ingredients to find. She read a little of the book, but it wasn't about anything fun. Becca wasn't even sure what it was about. She pointed to a spot on the page.

"This is a very complicated potion," she said gravely, "but we're such good witches, I know we can do it. It says here that we need a piece of a dragon's toenail and an alligator's teardrop and a little of my fur. Everything else we can find right here in the castle." Becca reached up and pulled out one strand of hair. She dropped it into the bubbling cauldron and stirred it with her wand.

"Look!" she whispered. "It turned pink! That means it's working! We just need the rest of the ingredients. Are there any alligators around here?"

Alligators? Susan looked around to see what could be used as an alligator. She saw the person that had helped her mummy and smiled. He'd be perfect! She poked Becca the Tiger gently and pointed to him.

"He's an alligator! He'd have a tear to give us!" She scrambled through the legs of one of the chairs and beckoned her new friend to follow. "We have to be very careful. There are a lot of traps that might keep us from getting to him. The witches have been keeping him prisoner! We'll have to do a few tasks to free him."

Susan pulled one of the books that hadn't been used for the cauldron and opened it to the middle, running her finger along the page, stopping in the middle. She ticked off a few fingers of the rother hand and nodded.

"We have to find a green book that has gold writing on the cover! This says that if we hand it to him that he'll be able to talk to us, then we'll have to do another task to free him. But we have to watch for the witches, since they will use every chance to keep him captive."

She crawled along to where she'd seen him standing, putting books on the shelf, turning and holding a finger to her lips when she saw her mummy not far away.

"You're going to have to talk to him, since I don't speak alligator." She moved forward and tapped him on his knee.

(OOC: It's Liam that Susan is tapping. )

Becca crawled on her belly through the forest of chairs, following behind Princess Susan. She stopped when Princess Susan stopped and studied the alligator. Getting a tear from the alligator was going to be very dangerous, even if he was an alligator under a spell. Becca was lucky; even though she was a tiger now, she remembered what it was like to be a little girl and wear dresses and eat chocolate cake. What if the alligator's spell was different? What if the alligator didn't remember being a person? Alligators sometimes ate little girls. It was okay for Becca. She was a tiger. If he tried to eat her, she would eat him right back! But what about Princess Susan? Becca had to protect her!

"You stay here and hide," Becca whispered. "If the witches come, run."

Becca crawled out from under the chair - she meant bush - and sat on her haunches. She looked around for the evil witches. They were close, but their backs were turned. They would have to be very, very quiet. Becca looked around for the green book with gold writing, but she didn't see one. She had to have that book! Without it, she and the alligator wouldn't be able to understand one another. All they'd be able to do was roar! Well, Becca would roar. The alligator would make whatever sound alligators made. What sound did alligators make anyway? Becca would have to ask Mummy later. Mummy knew everything!

And then Becca saw it! The book! The magic book! Green with gold writing! Becca snatched it off the shelf and handed it to the alligator. Now they'd be able to talk! She stood and beckoned for him to lean down so she could whisper in his ear. "I'm Becca," she said. "The evil witches are after us, too. We came to set you free!"

Becca giggled a little and decided she better explain. Grown-ups usually needed kids to explain things to them, Becca had learned. They were only lucky so many kids were around. When Becca grew up, she wasn't going to be that kind of grown-up. She was always going to love to play and have fun. "It's only make-believe. I'm a tiger under a spell, and I'm trying to protect Princess Susan, and you're an alligator. We need your tear for our potion to turn me back to a princess, and then we'll turn you back into a man. But first we have to rescue you from the witches' prison."

Becca grabbed Mr. Alligator's hand. "Come on, Mr. Alligator! Come play with us!"