A Helping Hand

A HELPING HAND

Quince’s new dish was going smoothly, and as always, it looked exquisite! I was a unique pumpkin dish made right for the season and had all the materials to get it into completion. That was, except… she was out of gas. And it was essential to finish the most important part, the baking!

First, she thought of asking someone she knew to do it, maybe Dan or Hutch, but then thought otherwise. They’ll all be preparing something themselves, and it was better not to disturb them; also, her new recipe was kind of a surprise, so it would have been better if no one knew exactly what was until the end!

She was preparing to do it herself, when her stroodle, Mademoiselle, came to her, asking for food. Right, it was time to feed her, and Peach, too! She had been so enraptured in her cooking that she forgot.

“Don’t worry, don’t think I’ve forgotten about you!”, said to her pet with an apologetic smile while going to her designated feeding space, where Peach was already waiting, too. “And I didn’t forget about you, either! C’mon, time to eat!”, said while feeding her two pets and watching them eat contently.

While watching both of them, she suddenly had an idea. What if…? No. Wait. Her pets were already transformed by food, she couldn’t possibly give them more, who knows what could happen. Before even thinking about testing one of her new mixtures with her pets, she must try and see what happens to another pet. After Quince discovered the ability of some pets to change form after being given some food to eat, she found out many never-before-seen interesting traits and abilities in the new pets’ forms. This made her curiouser and curiouser, willing to try even crazy stuff just to test the effects.

She approached the group of animal pens and looked at them one by one. Phloofs, Inkaps, Corvats, Ribbows, Impups, among others. “Who would be the best choice…?”, thought Quince when her eyes landed on a quiet Pampki, a recently acquired seasonal pet that was right for the occasion. Yes… It was perfect to try something new!

The Pampki approached Quince when they noticed her calling. She usually gave them the usual food for their kind and was nice to them. She took care of all her pets and, sometimes, gave the pets special treats that made them change their appearance in unusual and beautiful ways; and by the looks of it, this was one of those times, since she came to him with a strange colored food that they had never seen before.

“Hello, little Pampki, wanna try my new recipe~?”, asked Quince while bending over and offering them her new recipe. This, according to her, would give this sturdy Pampki a little more size and intelligence, and with a little cart, he would be able to come and go for gas, no problem! “You eat that, and I’ll bring the cart here. You’re a good Pampki!”, said Quince with a smile and a pat, and went for the cart.

The Pampki ate the food with gusto, and they weren’t even half finished with it when the effects began to manifest. First, the food made them bigger, about double its size, and its mouth became unusually big. Second, it DID make it more intelligent, just not in the way Quince had intended. It made him more conscious of the taste of the food, and aware of HOW to get more.

Without batting an eye, and while every other pet looked, the Pampki jumped the fence that circled the animal pens and ran straight for the delicious food he knew Quince had in her home. They were about to ransack the cupboard, when they smelled something MORE delicious than any other food around: the dish Quince had prepared, and almost finished!

The Pampki ran straight for it and began to eat it ravenously. It was finished with it in a matter of seconds, and amazed at the quality of the food, so different from their usual. Time to do a little taste testing around!!

Quince returned with the cart and noticed the Pampki was gone, while the other animals looked towards her kitchen with a curious face. Why would they…?

As soon as she asked herself this, Mademoiselle came running to her, barking in urgency, and urging her to follow. She did so and ran towards the kitchen as fast as she could.

“Oh no, no, please don’t tell me that… NOOOO!!”

The kitchen was a mess, and the dish was completely gone. She heard sounds coming from the cupboards and found the culprit: A big Pampki, eating everything they could find!

“Mademoiselle, Pouf, round him up!”, yelled while running for her leash. Her two pets did as they were told and cornered the Pampki, which knew immediately what they were up to. The big pumpkin pet growled at them and threw some bites, while looking for an opportunity to run. Mademoiselle growled back and barked at the creature, who responded by lunging at them, hitting her in the sides and escaping.

“Oh, you’re not going anywhere, pumpkin king!”. Luckily Quince was already there, and lunged back at the creature, tying the lasso around it as solidly as she could. The Pampki fought and tried to bite her, but it was useless.

Without wasting another second, Quince gave the creature a green cupcake, which made the creature shake for a couple seconds before changing their size again and making the big mouth disappear. The rope loosened and the creature was free, but innocence had returned to their eyes, and now they looked a little sick.

“Now we need to cure that stomachache, don’t we? Sigh… I´ll get the medicine on my trip for the gas… and more materials for the dish”, said Quince with resignation while petting everyone with a sigh. “I´ll clean everything when I come back”.

And won’t try THAT again… at least for a while, thought Quince while preparing for her trip. Yes, she would have to do everything again (and cure a small Pampki). But, at the end of the day, like cooking, if she didn’t try anything new, how could she improve and evolve her work?!