"Boys, are you alright?" Ed called. Rusty, Diego and Mr. Gizmo hid behind his legs, shivering. Only Bandit stood as tall as he could by his side.
The little fairy, the one that had not been hiding in the ears of the dogs, sat on his shoulders.
"Boys! Say something, Tatar, Buddy!" Ed called.
"I'm fine, I'm here," Tatar answered.
"I'm alright, it's just a little tight in here," Buddy answered.
Then a strange noise, like a whimper started from the pumpkins, getting louder and turning into a whining sound.
"Oh, oh no, stop it, stop it!" one of the pumpkins, the one that had swallowed Buddy pleaded and soon the pumpkin with Tatar fell in.
"Leave me, leave me, stop it!"
Ed grinned, Bandit, Rusty, Diego and Mr. Gizmo wagged their tails.
"Are you going to return our dogs, or do we have to send the other dogs too?" Ed called to the pumpkins.
With a loud splatter the Buddy-pumpkin spit out the dog. Laced in orange pumpkin juice, Buddy sat on the ground and shook himself, just like after taking a bath.
One after the other, the pumpkins spit out the dogs, with a wet, sucking sound, drenched in orange pumpkin juice.
While the pumpkins were trying to recover the very last fairy flew quickly over each one of them, sprinkling fairy dust into them, before they could close up all the way.
Happily the dogs greeted each other, licking each other and wagging their tails hard enough to break them off.
As they watched on, the pumpkins shriveled until they were no bigger than prunes.
"Quickly now, Ed!" Bandit warned and Ed jumped to his feet. He grabbed a large brown sack and one after the other, stuffed the pumpkins into the sack. When all of them had been gathered he took a piece of golden rope, which Kayla had given him together with the sack and tied it shut.
The fairies, which had been hiding in the dogs' ears quickly gathered and sealed Ed's knot with a sprinkle of dust and magic.
"Now back to the portal, fast, before the magic wears off!" Bandit ordered and they stormed off into the dark. Ed's car was still at Bandit's house, so they had to run as fast as they could. Across town, through the yard of Bandit's home, across the field to the old oak tree, where the three cats were still waiting.
"What? Where? How?" the cats asked surprised when they saw them coming.
"It is a long story, but it has a happy ending!" Buddy said and happily licked Brandy's face.
"Now, remember, when we open the portal, you toss the sack inside, don't step over the threshold, hold on to something on our side and don't let go!" Bandit warned Ed.
"Yes, I know. I'm ready!" Ed replied and grabbed a branch of the tree to hold on to. To be sure, just in case, Tatar grabbed hold of Ed's pants with his teeth.
Bandit mumbled a magic spell and the portal opened in front of them. This time however they were not greeted by sunshine, but by pitch black darkness.
As fast as he could and as hard as he could, Ed tossed the pumpkin filled sack into the darkness and then hauled himself backward. The portal closed and the tree appeared again to be nothing but a tree.
"We did it! We did it!" Buddy called and danced around Ed.
"Yes, we did it! We saved our world!" the other dogs agreed and together they kept on dancing around Ed and the cats. The five little fairies fluttered around Ed's head and giggled.
"But, how did you ever get the pumpkins to spit us out?" Brandy suddenly asked.
"Oh, when they swallowed Buddy and me, we had two fairies hidden in our ears. Evil pumpkins are highly allergic to the good magic of fairy dust. It causes them terrible stomach pain, might even cause them to burst. When the two pumpkins got so ill, the other pumpkins got scared. Rather simple, if you have fairies and their good magic at your hands," Tatar explained and grinned.
"Thank you all so much! But, if you don't mind, I really want to go home to my Mommy now," Brandy said and looked very sad. She had not seen her mom in a while now and missed her terribly.
"That is a wonderful idea. Why don't you all just hop into my car and I'll take you back to the park where they are searching for you," Ed suggested.
"Oh, that would be very nice, I am so tired, I don't think that I could walk that far," Mr. Gizmo admitted.
"But, wait a minute, how will the fairies get back home?" Ed asked and looked at the little magical creatures.
"Don't worry, I'll take them back in the morning, you all go on home now and get some rest!" Bandit promised, blinked his eye and where he had just been only a faint trace of smoke remained. The fairies, pop, pop, pop, disappeared too.
"Wow, he is a true magician!" Rusty said in awe.
"Thank you cats for your help! You have been wonderful. Without you we still would not have our friends back!" Buddy said and nuzzled Baby Keith gently.
"Yeah, well, don't tell everyone, we do have a reputation to keep," Baby Keith said and purred.
“It is great to have friends for life!” Brandy said, “and the more different they are the better!”
“Friends for life!” Baby Keith said and arched his back happily.
Ed drove the dogs and the cats back to the park, where their moms and dads where still searching for them.
No one was bothered too much by the disappearance of the pumpkins, everyone was way too happy to have the dogs back. After all, they are man's best friend!
© R&B. Pratcher, 2006
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