The Adventures of Pupu The Bubble Witch

Chapter 9: The Wakening

With the voices of Arywn and Kala no longer discernible, and the doors of the Atheneum now closed to the outside world, Punkin's focus turns to the wolves in front of her. The doggies are hungry. I know they are. Big doggies are always hungry.

While trying to rip the bread into smaller pieces, Punkin stands grinning before the wolves and offers bread to the wolves, "Hey doggies, do you want some snack? It's really yummy."

Smelling the bread, Cazem nudges the bread back to Punkin and offers low humming purrs, encouraging Punkin to eat.

Ordair nudges his nose towards the cup of rose water and gives off a low hum of a purr beckoning Punkin to drink.

Hearing the wolves purr, Punkin giggles as she returns a response by trying to speak wolf with a high pitched howl and kiddish barking "AWOOOOOOO RUFF RUFF AWOOO WOO WOO RUFF RUFF GRRRR."

Laughing at their response, Punkin notices as the wolves bury their heads under their paws from the dinning noise.

Feeling a rush of excitement from seeing the wolves hide their faces, an idea pops into Punkin's head as she jumps up and squeals, "You want to play hide and seek? YAY. I hide good!! Come find me. And No tricks!!!"

Scrambling to climb over the two wolves as they both rise from their positions, Punkin prepares a plan to run and hide in the one of the corridors.

Looking around earnestly, both wolves begin to panic at the thought of losing Punkin in any of the corridors of the Atheneum.

"Come find me!!!" Punkin screams with laughter, as she darts for a random corridor she feels would be a good hiding spot.

Sensing Punkin's intention, Cazem and Ordair quickly dart forward and pounce in front of Punkin, intercepting and cutting her path off before she can reach the edge of the atrium and the intersection of corridor eight. Cazem howls as Ordair signals the cloaks with his barking. "AWOOOOO."

At the barking commands, several cloaks suddenly line up to block off the corridor entrances, leaving Punkin feeling trapped in the atrium.

"Awww not fair. I said no tricks. You didn't count!! And you can't do that. Move outta my way, GHOSTS!!! Go back. Bad dogs. Go! Do it again! GO BACK AND COUNT OR YOU EACH GET TIME OUT!!!"

Concerned with Punkin's presumptuous game and safety, the wolves purr while nudging Punkin towards Punkin's unfinished meal, hoping Punkin could be redirected away from the corridors.

As the wolves nudge Punkin to turn back towards the food in the atrium, Punkin feels a familiar sensation reaching out to her. Punkin pauses and turns back towards corridor eight, scanning for the source of the feeling and sniffing the air for any familiar scents.

Wanting answers, Punkin points to corridor eight, hidden behind the floating cloaks blocking her way, and asks the ghosts, "What's in there? I want to go! Move please! Be good ghosts and let me in."

Responding to the request, the floating cloaks decline Punkin entrance to corridor eight by shaking their hoods in unison.

Unsatisfied with their response, Punkin tries standing on her tippie-toes to look over the cloaks into the corridor. Again, without success, Punkin tries peering through the small visual spaces between cloaks.

Noticing a shiny glint of light glimmering from the spine of a book, Punkin screams in excitement "That! I want that! It's saying my name! I want it! GIMME IT!"