A Weasel with a Ladder

Once Susan had found her way out of the woods, she saw a little white cottage with a red-shingled roof, a white brick chimney, blue window shutters, and a small blue front door. In front of the house was a gate that matched the window shutters and door, which was accompanied by a small white brick wall and a long white fence that surrounded the house.

"I wonder who lives here?" she said, as she walked over to the gate. She stood there as she then heard a familiar voice calling out from above an open window.

"Brandy-Lynn! Where is that girl? Where did she put them? Brandy-Lynn! Brandy-Lynn!"

"The dragon!" Susan exclaimed, her face lightening up as she saw Spike from the window. Just as she opened the gate and headed toward the front porch, Spike closed the window shutters and opened the front door a moment later.

"No use! Can't wait! I'm terribly late! Oh, me! Oh, my! Oh, me! Oh, my!" he exclaimed, as he darted out of the house, holding a gold trumpet in his hand and wearing a white tunic that had a red heart printed on it and a pale blue court ruff.

"Excuse me, Mr. Dragon," Susan said to Spike, "I've been trying to—"

Spike turned around and ran over to Susan, though he had thought she was this "Brandy-Lynn" person he was calling out earlier.

"Why, Brandy-Lynn! What are you doing out here?" Spike asked her, frowning at her.

"Brandy-Lynn?" Susan repeated, a puzzled expression forming on her face.

"Don’t just stand there, do something! No, no! Go get my gloves! I'm late!" Spike barked, hopping in front of Susan and holding up his large pocket watch.

"But late for what?" Susan asked him, "That's just—"

"My gloves," Spike shouted, blaring his trumpet vociferously, forcing Susan to go inside the cottage. "At once! Do you hear?"

"Goodness," Susan said to herself, as she headed up the blue staircase. "I suppose I should be taking orders from Oliver next."

Once she made her way up the stairs to Spike‘s bedroom, Susan started her search for Spike's missing gloves.

"If I were a dragon," she said, looking through a white wooden dresser, "where would I keep my gloves?"

When she opened a porcelain vase-like jar that was on the dresser, there were cookies in various shapes and colored frostings, and each of them had messages, such as "TAKE ONE" and "TRY ME". These were the same cookies she saw back when she was struggling to get the key onto the table at only ten inches tall.

"Oh, thank you." Susan said, as she picked out a pink flower-shaped cookie with the words "EAT ME" written in brown frosting and took a bite of it, "Don’t mind if I do." As she looked through a chest full of clothes while humming, however, Susan started to grow at an alarming rate, and her head hit the ceiling. The cookie had caused her to grow again—just like last time!

"Oh! Oh, no, no! Not again!" she exclaimed.

Spike tapped his foot rapidly and looked at his watch with an impatient frown on his face. He jolted in shock and rushed back inside the house, with a fear of being very, very tardy.

"Brandy-Lynn!" he called out.

Susan was still growing very rapidly as her arms emerged from the windows, and her right foot was toppling over furniture in Spike's room, just as Spike had darted up the staircase to the door of his bedroom.

"Now, you see here, Brandy-Lynn!" Spike started to say as he opened the door, only to see Susan's colossal right foot struggling to get through. "HEEEELLLLP!"

The purple dragon gasped in shock and tried to escape, but he was pushed down the stairs by her foot, which had finally found its way through the door, and blared his trumpet again. He then headed for the front door and opened it, only to be pushed through some of his broken possessions by Susan's now fully huge foot. As he got out from underneath the destruction, the frenzied dragon cried out in horror as he saw what was happening to his house. Susan's arms had sprouted out of the windows, and her feet had emerged from the doorways.

"NOOOO! HELP! MONSTER!!" Spike shouted in a panic, running away from his house and blaring his trumpet again, "Help! Assistance!!"

Susan was struggling to get up, but it was no use. Spike's house was too snug for her to break free, and therefore, she was completely stuck like a fly attached to flypaper.

"Oh, dear!" she complained, placing her left hand on the rooftop. Just then, she heard Spike's voice, as he had come back with someone to help him.

"A monster! A monster, Roger! In my house, Roger!"

"Roger." Susan repeated in an unamused tone of voice, as she recalled seeing him in the ocean and him ignoring her desperate call for help while rolling her eyes.

Spike was hopping around Roger, who was walking with him down the dirt path back to his house.

"Settle down, old chap," Roger calmly said to Spike, as he twirled his cane with his right hand. "Can't be as bad as all that, you know."

"My poor house..." Spike said to Roger, still worried about his precious home. "Ohhh, my beautiful roof and rafters...all my walls, and—there it is!"

Roger stopped in front of the house as his eyes widened in shock, and he almost dropped his cane in the process.

"By Jove!" he exclaimed, raising his eyebrows and his shocked expression changing into a smile, "Jolly well is."

Susan's giant hands opened the shutters, and she peeked through the open window to see Spike and Roger, her eyes blinking with curiosity.

"Well, do your thing, Roger!" Spike exclaimed, pushing Roger through the open gate and hiding behind it.

Roger approached the gigantic Susan and examined her carefully, before replying as he tapped her shoe with his cane: "Yes, indeed. An extraordinary situation, but..."

"But-but-but-but what?!" Spike exclaimed, finally coming out from behind the gate.

Roger blew his nose on his light blue handkerchief and put it away before placing a hand on Susan's foot and crossed his right leg over his left.

"But I have a very simple solution!" he said, delighting the giant Susan.

"Thank goodness!" Susan said in response to Roger's announcement.

"W-W-W-What is it?" stuttered Spike.

"Simply pull it out the chimney."

"Yes! G-G-Go on, go on! Pull it out!" Spike exclaimed, running over and trying to push Roger, who was simply immovable.

"Who, me?" Roger questioned him, "Don’t be ridiculous! What we need is a...Er...Hmmm..."

A whistling noise was heard once Roger started thinking, and he turned to see a slender weasel with brown fur, a dark brown nose, and red eyes, wearing a white sleeveless shirt, black shorts with red-and-white stripes, and a black English cap. He was also holding a broom in his right hand and a long ladder in his left as he was walking by Spike's house.

"A weasel with a ladder!" Roger exclaimed.

"Hmmm? Oh, Duke Weaselton!" Spike called out to the weasel, grabbing his attention, "Weaselton!"

Duke Weaselton lifted his cap up as a part of greeting the two, but he then felt himself being pulled through the gate by Spike.

"We need a lassel with a weader...A weader..." the dragon said to Weaselton, "Can you help us?"

"At your service, governor!" Weaselton replied kindly to the dragon, saluting to him. He suddenly dropped his broom when he felt Roger's hand on his shoulder.

“Weaselton, my lad," Roger said to him. "Have you ever been down a chimney?"

"Why, governor," Weaselton said. "I've been down more chimneys!"

"Excellent, excellent!" Roger said with a smile, "You just pop down the chimney and haul that monster out of there."

Susan was confused by Roger's choice to have Weaselton pull her out of the chimney, for she was simply too big to fit right through it. *Why would they have a small weasel pull me out of such a tiny chimney?* she wondered, *I don’t think this will help me out at all...*

"Right-o, governor!" Weaselton said, climbing past by Susan. Just then, he moved back down to see Susan through the window and cried out in alarm, "Monster?!"

He let out a frightened scream and scurried down the ladder, only to be pulled on the tail by Spike and Roger. The two were trying to calm him down and get him back up the ladder so he would do his job, but Weaselton was too frightened by the horrific vision of the gigantic Susan to do so. Weaselton scurried back down the ladder again, only to be carried up by Roger.

"Settle down now. That's better," Roger said to the frightened weasel in an enthusiastic voice. "Weaselton, lad. You're passing up a golden opportunity."

"I am?" Weaselton repeated, a smile of delight lightening up on his face.

"You can be famous," Roger added, as he was still taking Weaselton up the ladder. That added the fuel to Weaselton's budding excitement.

"I can?"

"Of course!" Roger chirped. Once they reached to the top of the roof, Roger placed Weaselton into the chimney.

"There's a brave lad! In you go now," he continued to say to Weaselton. "Nothing to it, ol' boy. Simply tie your tail around the monster's neck and drag it out."

"Bu-But-But, governor!" Weaselton started to reply, only to be shoved down the chimney by Roger.

"Good luck, Weaselton."

Just as Weaselton was completely pushed down the chimney, smoke came out from the fireplace, shrouded the room, flew up in the air, and tickled Susan's nose. She felt her head lifting itself up. The poor, giant middle schooler was about to sneeze!

"Ah...ah...ah...ah...ah..."

Roger wobbled on the roof once he felt Susan's head bouncing him around, and he jumped onto the ladder as fast as he could.

"Ah...ah...ah...ah...ahh...ah...ah...ah...ah...ah..."

Spike took refuge behind Susan's giant foot as the smoke emerged from the open window.

Suddenly, Susan sneezed loudly.

"Ah-ah-ah...AH-AH-AHH-CHOO!"

Weaselton swiftly flew out of the chimney and into the sky like a rocket launching into outer space. It was quite a surprise to Spike and Roger as they watched him flying into the clouds above them and disappearing out of the view.

“Well, there goes Weaselton!" said Roger, as he shrugged his shoulders.

"Poor Duke Weaselton!" Susan said as her eyes gazed from the open window, and her hand was in front of the window.

Now that Weaselton was no use for the monstrous problem, Roger had something else in mind. So he took out a match and used it to light up a pipe that had been in his mouth the whole time he was present. "Uhh...perhaps we should try a more energetic remedy!"

"Yes!" Spike replied to Roger, pointing to his pocket watch, "Anything! Anything, but hurry!"

"I propose that we, uh..."

"Yes! Go on! Yes!"

"I propose that we...YOW!!!" Roger cried, as he had felt the flame of the lit match burn his fingers.

"By Jove, that's it!" exclaimed the toon rabbit, "We'll burn the house down!"

"Yes!" Spike replied, chuckling and nodding in response to his suggestion, "Burn the house—WHAT?!" But his eyes widened in shock because he knew that would mean he would lose his house to the burning flames if they would choose to go with it.

"Oh, no!" Susan said, also alarmed by Roger's new plan.

Roger started gathering any of Spike's valuables that would be used as firewood as he started to sing a joyous tune of his. The first item he picked out was a chair, much to the poor dragon's worries.

Roger: (spoken, laughing) Ho, ho, ho!
(singing) *Oh, we'll smoke the blighter out*
*We'll put the beast to rout*
*Some kindling, just a stick or two*
*This bit of rubbish ought to do*

Roger picked up a pale pink-colored grandfather clock with disinclined help from Spike. The clock was tossed into the wall and smashed into thousands of pieces, shocking Spike. "Oh, dear!" he said fearfully, as Roger gathered more items with a pink wheelbarrow that belonged to the dragon.

Roger: *We'll smoke the blighter out*
*We'll smoke the monster out*

Susan was watching the entire scene with her bright blue eyes as Spike scurried over toward Roger.

"No, no, no! Not my beautiful birdhouse!" he exclaimed, but it was already too late for the anxious dragon to stop him. Roger had already taken a white birdhouse and split it in half, scaring a small group of bluebirds away. He then tossed it into the pile of the destroyed furniture as Spike bonked his head onto the broken gate.

Roger: *Oh, we'll roast the blighter's toes*
*We'll toast the bounder's nose*
*Just fetch that gate*
*We'll make it clear that monsters aren't welcome here*

"Oh, me, oh, my!" Spike said with a nervous look on his face, as he carried the gate over to the pile and placed it there. Roger placed a hand out in front of him, indicating that he needed something from him.

"Match," he said to him.

"Match?" Spike repeated, as he handed a matchstick to Roger. Then Roger used Spike to light up the match and placed it on the stack of roof shingles and the obliterated furniture.

Roger: *Without a single doubt*
*We'll smoke the monster out*

Then Spike sang along, as well.

Spike: *We'll smoke the monster out*

"Nooo! No! My poor house and furniture!" he exclaimed, as his worries had only heightened due to Roger's recent action.

White smoke started to rise up from the pile of the furniture, making Susan feel sorry for the poor dragon.

"Oh, dear! This is serious," she said. "I simply must—"

Susan suddenly let out a short gasp of shock, and her eyes focused on a small garden of carrots located on the left side of the house.

"A garden!" she gasped, as she reached her gigantic hand for a carrot, not noticing Spike running over to the carrot and grabbing hold of it.

"Perhaps if I eat something, it would make me grow small." Susan strained.

It was a brief struggle, but soon, Susan lifted the carrot and Spike from the garden and up toward her face. Spike was struggling to break free from her grip as he swung around in a panic.

"NO!!! Let go! HELP!!!" he cried fearfully, thinking that he would be eaten by her.

"I'm sorry, but I must eat something." Susan said to Spike.

"Not me, you...you...you barbarian!" Spike shouted, aiming the carrot at Susan as if it were a sword. Susan took a big bite of the carrot and the tip fell off, surprising Spike. Spike fell off, free from the female's grip.

"Ahh! Monster!" Spike yelled.

Susan was shrinking at a very rapid pace, thanks to the carrot she found in Spike's garden. Roger was still blowing the smoke in an attempt to make a fire, whereas Spike was scurrying away from Susan and tripped over her shrinking foot.

Susan had shrunken down to the size of a small figure again, just like when she drank the bottle of the multi-flavored liquid.

"Ahh! I’m late!" Spike exclaimed, as he had taken yet another look at his pocket watch. "Oh, dear! I'm here! I should be there! I'm late! I'm late!"

"I say, do you have a match?" Roger asked Spike. However, he was given a rapid handshake by the dragon instead.

"Must go! Goodbye! Hello! I'm late! I'm late! I'm late!" Spike exclaimed, as he then hurried off on the dirt path and disappeared once again.

Susan had made her way from underneath the front door, yet she still had to go after Spike.

"Wait! Please wait!" she exclaimed, running over to the front porch and jumping up and down.

"Ahh, young lady," Roger said to the miniature middle schooler. "Do you have a match?"

"I'm sorry, but...Mr. Dragon!' was all Susan had to say to Roger before hurrying off.

Roger shook his head and raised an eyebrow as his hands were placed on his hips. "No cooperation," he said of Susan and Spike. "No cooperation at all. Well, can't have monsters about. Very well have to carry on by myself."

Then Roger took the broken legs of Spike's furniture and used them to make a fire, and he blew some smoke once a small flame formed inside the hole of the broken piece.