Maddie Saves the Baby Kraken

Maddie twisted, whipping her sword up and down, just like she saw on the pirate movie, her skirt swooshing around her ankles. But she was pretty sure it didn’t look as cool as
it did on TV.

William sighed. “You did it wrong, Maddie. Again. Play right or I’m going to Austin’s house.”

“I’m trying. But my feet don’t want to play right. And this sword is too wobbly.” Maddie shook it. “See? It wobbles. It’s not supposed to do that.”

“That’s all Mommy will let me use.” He sighed again. “One more time, but make sure you don’t twist anymore. And move your feet back and forth, like this.” William showed her what he meant.

Maddie frowned. “How come it looks cool when you do it, but not when I do it?”

William shrugged. “Maybe it’s because you keep tripping on your dress. Pirates don’t wear dresses.”

“Well, they should.” She stomped her foot.

“But then they’d keep tripping like you.” He held his sword up and pointed at Maddie. “Like this. Remember? Megan showed me.”

Megan was Maddie’s older sister who got to do all kinds of cool things with swords. Thinking about her gave Maddie a sad twist in her tummy. She missed her sister.

Maddie sighed. “You’re right. I’ll go change. Don’t go anywhere.”

William dropped his sword on the ground and jogged over to the sand box. “Just hurry. Mommy’s going to call us for dinner soon.”

“Okay!” Maddie dashed into the house, holding her skirt up so she wouldn’t trip again. She was already going to have five bruises from falling. Five!

Mommy was on the phone, so Maddie ran past her and thundered up the stairs. She changed into shorts and a T-shirt that looked more like a pirate, then turned to run back downstairs. She paused and glanced over at the pirate hat she’d gotten at a birthday party. That was definitely a must. Then she could really make this move look cool.

She took the steps down two at a time and came to a halt at the backdoor. William wasn’t alone anymore. She threw the door open and almost fell down the steps as she ran to her friends, Eoin the leprechaun and Muffins the unicorn.

“You’re here! You’re here! I haven’t seen you since we saved the dragon! Is he okay? How are you? And how’s the queen?”

Eoin rolled his eyes. “I see you’re in a good mood as usual.”

Maddie pointed at William. “We were playing pirates. Except I couldn’t get the move down wearing a dress so I had to go change.”

Eoin
blinked, clearly confused. “Uh, okay. But it’s probably good that you’re
practicing because that’s what we’re here about. A pirate has taken a baby
kraken.”

“A pirate? We get to see a pirate? And help—wait. What’s a cracking? Is that like a cracker? Why are we saving a cracker?” Maddie scratched her head, super confused.

“No, a kraken. It’s like a giant—” Eoin stopped. “Never mind. It’s like an octopus, but uh, not very nice. But it’s really not very nice right now because it’s sad. We have to stop the pirate.”

Maddie clapped her hand to her mouth. “That’s terrible! We better save the baby cracker!”

“Kraken.” Eoin closed his eyes. “Never mind. We need to go.”

“Okay!”
Maddie ran to her little playhouse Mommy had bought for her birthday that year and found the magic wand from Megan. It was her new super-secret hiding spot so she wouldn’t have to go inside every time there was a new case.

Eoin
leaned against Muffins, staring over at William. “What are you going to do
about him? He looks sad.”

Maddie’s eyes went really big. “I know! He can come with us!”

“Wait, that doesn’t work. We can’t all fit.” Eoin pushed off Muffins and patted the unicorn’s back. “You’ll squish him.”

“Not if I make Muffins even bigger. Like a giant unicorn.” Maddie grinned. “We can do that!”

She turned and ran toward the sandbox. “William! You have to come with us! It’s urgent!”

“No.” William stacked his bucket onto the other to make his sandcastle bigger.

“But the cracker needs to be saved!” Maddie put her hands on her hips. “You don’t want the baby cracker to be sad, do you?”

William looked up from his castle with a very confused look. “Cracker?”

“Yeah, it’s like a giant octopus.” Maddie held her hands up like she was confused too.“ And the pirate was super naughty and took it!”

William stared at Maddie for a moment, then looked behind her at Eoin and Muffins. “There are pirates?”

Maddie nodded. “Yes. And we have to save the cracker.”

“Kraken, Maddie. It’s a kraken.” He picked up his sword. “Do you think your little wand thingie could help make this into a real sword?”

“Of course! It’s magic!” Maddie pointed her wand at the sword and squeezed her eyes tight, thinking about the sword that Megan used. Then she swished it and William’s toy sword glowed bright before turning into flowers. “Oops.”

William dropped the bouquet. “That’s not a sword.”

“I know. I’m working on it. I’ve never made one before.” Maddie picked up the flowers. “Let’s go see if Eoin can fix it.”

William sighed and put his pirate hat on. “Okay, I’ll go this time, but only because there are pirates. And because I want my sword to be fixed.”

Maddie threw her arms around her twin, accidentally hitting herself in the face with the flowers. “Ouch! These are sharp.”

William pushed her away because girls are gross and ran his finger along one of the pedals. “They’re little swords. You made a sword flower.”

“I did? I mean, of course I did. Where do you think swords come from?” Maddie skipped over to Eoin. “Here hold these. And can you find a sword for William? I kinda messed this one up.”

Eoin stared at his hand and looked over at Maddie. “Want me to make Muffins bigger this time?”

Maddie shook her head. “I got this.”

She closed her eyes and did all the same motions that she normally did to makenMuffins grow, but this time she thought of making him even bigger. There was a giant whoosh, and then Maddie got pushed backward by something.

She opened her eyes and gasped. Muffins was ginormous. As big as their house and maybe even bigger. Muffins’ whinny shook the neighborhood. Eoin snapped his
fingers and Muffins got smaller and smaller until he was just the right size
for two kids and a leprechaun to fit on.

“Sorry about that Muffins. We should probably go before Mommy wonders what that sound was.” Maddie climbed up, then helped William. Eoin snapped his fingers again and appeared right behind William.

Eoin tapped Maddie on the shoulder. “I know I usually let you do this, but I need to make sure that we land in the right place. The fairy world is really big and we’re in a hurry.”

Maddie stuck out her bottom lip, but nodded. “I still get to be the one to say it, though. Off to the fairy world!”

William grumbled into Maddie’s shoulder about magic and leprechauns, but the rest was
cut off as Eoin snapped his fingers and they disappeared.