Once upon a time there was a brunette girl called Gemma Nolan. She was on the way to see her friend Rob Jones, when she decided to take a short cut through Greenton Woods.
It wasn't long before Gemma got lost. She looked around, but all she could see were trees. Nervously, she felt into her bag for her favourite toy, Rags, but Rags was nowhere to be found! Gemma began to panic. She felt sure she had packed Rags. To make matters worse, she was starting to feel hungry.
Unexpectedly, she saw a wicked puppy dressed in a pink coat disappearing into the trees.
"How odd!" thought Gemma.
For the want of anything better to do, she decided to follow the peculiarly dressed puppy. Perhaps it could tell him the way out of the forest.
Eventually, Gemma reached a clearing. She found herself surrounded by houses made from different sorts of food. There was a house made from sweet potatoes, a house made from biscuits, a house made from lollypops and a house made from cakes.
Gemma could feel her tummy rumbling. Looking at the houses did nothing to ease her hunger.
"Hello!" she called. "Is anybody there?"
Nobody replied.
Gemma 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 wholehouse, 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 Gemma a fright. A witch jumped into the space in front of the houses. She was carrying a cage. In that cage was Rags!
"Rags!" shouted Gemma. She turned to the witch. "That's my toy!"
The witch just shrugged.
"Give Rags back!" cried Gemma.
"Not on your nelly!" said the witch.
"At least let Rags out of that cage!"
Before she could reply, three wicked puppies rushed in from a footpath on the other side of the clearing. Gemma recognised the one in the pink coat that she'd seen earlier. The witch seemed to recognise him too.
"Hello Big Puppy," said the witch.
"Good morning." The puppy noticed Rags. "Who is this?"
"That's Rags," explained the witch.
"Ooh! Rags would look lovely in my house. Give it to me!" demanded the puppy.
The witch shook her head. "Rags is staying with me."
"Um... Excuse me..." Gemma interrupted. "Rags lives with me! And not in a cage!"
Big Puppy 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 Puppy looked at the house made from cakes and said, "No problem, I could eat an entire house made from cakes if I wanted to."
"That's nothing," said the next puppy. "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 Rags."
Gemma watched, feeling very worried. She didn't want the witch to give Rags to Big Puppy. She didn't think Rags would like living with a wicked puppy, away from her house and all her other toys.
