Once upon a time there was a ginger girl called Flora Slaughterhouse. She was on the way to see her Aunt Nadine Humble, when she decided to take a short cut through Greenwood Forest.
It wasn't long before Flora got lost. She looked around, but all she could see were trees. Nervously, she felt into her bag for her favorite toy, Dolly, but Dolly was nowhere to be found! Flora began to panic. She felt sure she had packed Dolly. To make matters worse, she was starting to feel hungry.
Unexpectedly, she saw a winged tortoise dressed in a green skirt disappearing into the trees.
"How odd!" thought Flora.
For the want of anything better to do, she decided to follow the peculiarly dressed tortoise. Perhaps it could tell him the way out of the forest.
Eventually, Flora reached a clearing. She found herself surrounded by houses made from different sorts of food. There was a house made from red cabbages, a house made from biscuits, a house made from muffins and a house made from humbugs.
Flora could feel her tummy rumbling. Looking at the houses did nothing to ease her hunger.
"Hello!" she called. "Is anybody there?"
Nobody replied.
Flora looked at the roof on the closest house and wondered if it would be rude to eat somebody else's chimney. Obviously it would be impolite to eat a whole house, but perhaps it would be considered acceptable to nibble the odd fixture or lick the odd fitting, in a time of need.
A cackle broke through the air, giving Flora a fright. A witch jumped into the space in front of the houses. She was carrying a cage. In that cage was Dolly!
"Dolly!" shouted Flora. She turned to the witch. "That's my toy!"
The witch just shrugged.
"Give Dolly back!" cried Flora.
"Not on your nelly!" said the witch.
"At least let Dolly out of that cage!"
Before she could reply, three winged tortoises rushed in from a footpath on the other side of the clearing. Flora recognised the one in the green skirt that she'd seen earlier. The witch seemed to recognise him too.
"Hello Big Tortoise," said the witch.
"Good morning." The tortoise noticed Dolly. "Who is this?"
"That's Dolly," explained the witch.
"Ooh! Dolly would look lovely in my house. Give it to me!" demanded the tortoise.
The witch shook her head. "Dolly is staying with me."
"Um... Excuse me..." Flora interrupted. "Dolly lives with me! And not in a cage!"
Big Tortoise ignored her. "Is there nothing you'll trade?" he asked the witch.
The witch thought for a moment, then said, "I do like to be entertained. I'll release him to anybody who can eat a whole front door."
Big Tortoise looked at the house made from humbugs and said, "No problem, I could eat an entire house made from humbugs if I wanted to."
"That's nothing," said the next tortoise. "I could eat two houses."
"There's no need to show off," said the witch. Just eat one front door and I'll let you have Dolly."
Flora watched, feeling very worried. She didn't want the witch to give Dolly to Big Tortoise. She didn't think Dolly would like living with a winged tortoise, away from her house and all her other toys.
