"Bootsie! Bootsie, sweetie!" Kalari said as she opened the door and walked into her Neohome. A blue Kadoatie meowed and rubbed against the Uni’s legs as she walked over into the kitchen and set a bag on the table. Immediately, the Kadoatie jumped up onto the table to investigate. "Don't touch that!" Kalari shouted, picking the bag back up before the Kadoatie could knock it over. "Bad Bootsie! This potion isn't for you. It's for my tomato garden."

The Uni carefully removed the glass vial from her bag and held it out for the Kadoatie to sniff. "See? It's not food. I bought it from Kayla while I was in Meridell today. She said it was sure to enlarge any living thing, even vegetables. You’d better stay away from it; you're already fat enough!" The Kadoatie looked at Kalari and meowed. Kalari set the vial back in the bag and turned around to start dinner.

No sooner than she had turned her back, Kalari heard Bootsie leap into the paper bag. "Bootsie! Noooo!" the Uni yelled, rushing back to the table. As the Kadoatie sat up upon hearing her name, the vial slid out of the bag and began to roll off the side of the table. Kalari did a fantastic flying leap, catching the vial just before it hit the floor.

Unfortunately, Kalari's hooves weren't much softer than the floor, so the vial smashed against them, splattering the potion all over the Uni's legs and face. "Oh no! That cost a lot of Neopoin—" Her body lurched and bloated, and she suddenly realised that lost Neopoints were the least of her worries now. Panicking, Kalari stood up, slamming her head against her own ceiling in the process. "Ouch!" she cried while lowering her head. Tears soon began to well up when she saw the size of her feet.

Bootsie yowled and ran out of the room, terrified by the sight of the giant Uni that now loomed over the table. "Bootsie, come back! It's just me! I’m just... just gigantic." The Uni slumped onto her haunches and burst into tears. "Oh no, what am I going to do?" she cried aloud. "I have a test at school tomorrow morning that I can't miss." She was terrified of how her classmates would react when she lumbered in like a Skeith…

"What am I going to do?" Kalari sobbed into her hooves, still stained with the potion. She sat up and wiped her nose, trying to regain her composure.

I'm a Uni, she thought to herself. I can do this! She plodded through the kitchen, ducking under the door. Her now much broader shoulders caught in the frame. She struggled, but she could not seem to get loose.

"Great," the Uni mumbled. "I need to get to Kayla now, and I can't even get through my own door."

Kalari was traveling through one of Neopia Central's back alleys after finally freeing herself from her newest enemy: the door. She was keeping off the main streets in the hopes that no one she knew, or didn't know, would see her.

Her plan failed. Soon enough, a small Poogle came skipping down the alley, chasing after a bouncy ball.

"Wow!" he exlaimed, looking up at Kalari in wonder. "You're big!"

"Yeah, I know," the Uni replied. "I need to go see Kayla right now, so if you could just--"

"Aw, you don't need to to that," the Poogle cut her off. "I hear Edna's in town. You could just go see her..."

A small crack split in the decaying alley pavement.

In her defiance and frustration, she ignored the strength of her hoof, and her eyes narrowed on the little red Poogle as she stared straight at him, secretly wishing he would disappear so she could continue.

The Poogle's eyes widened, and his tail drooped; for a moment, the Uni's wish looked like it may have come true. To hurry it up a bit, Kalari quickly passed him by and continued down the path.

Just as she passed, however, his little red tail shot back up, his eyes took on their normal round black size, and he dashed up beside her.

Every three steps he took was one to poor Kalari.

"You know," he started up, glancing up undaunted at the gigantic annoyed Uni with a curious smile on his face, "Edna may not be Kayla, but she's sure good enough to shrink someone. That's a bit of easy magic."

"Easy magic?" This simple comment from the Poogle was enough to cause Kalari to pause again, stamping her hoof for a second time and thrashing her large tail about behind her. The second crack in the pavement and the wind of her tail toppled the Poogle off his feet. Kalari stood over him, snorting.

"You mean me diving against the hard floor because of my Kadoatie's annoyingly curious little nose, getting stuck in my doorframe and having to break through it, walking down the street at this horribly monstrous size and hiding in alleys to keep away from little bothers like you is all solved by easy magic?" Her nose was about two inches away from the Poogle's face, nostrils flaring. She stopped suddenly in her rant, sniffed, and stepped back. "I'm sure it's so easy even you could do it, hm?" She shook her head, flapping her great mane, and continued down the alley, grateful for the exit at the end.

"Well, I would," came the echoing sound of the Poogle's voice against the walls of the alley. "I would, you see, except Edna wouldn't let me. Apprentices can't do that..."

"I'm not! It's true!" the Poogle shouted, jumping up and down excitedly. "I know loads of magic, and I'm really good now!"

"Sure," the Uni said, pretending not to care, although she was actually rather curious. Why was Edna taking on apprentices? "So, er, how long have you been training with Edna?" she asked casually.

"Well, only a few months, but I’ve picked it up really fast! Edna knew I’d be good; that's why she chose me," he babbled.

"Uh huh," Kalari nodded. Maybe this Poogle has more to him than meets the eye, she thought. I mean, if Edna finds him useful... She took a step forward. "So how exactly would you go about reducing my size?"

"Oh, it's so simple, you just need a potion with--" he stopped abruptly. "Well, I can't tell you. Top secret, you see. But I could take you to Edna."

Kalari laughed sarcastically. "Yeah, I bet Edna would love to help me. What with her being such a kind soul and all."

The Poogle shrugged. "I didn't say she'd help you for free; that wouldn't be fair. But she will help you, I promise. She's been looking for er..." he paused "...someone to help."

Kalari thought for a moment. She hated the idea of getting help from this annoying Poogle, yet it would save her a long trip to Meridell. If she had to go all the way to see Kayla, she might not even get back in time for her exam.

"Okay," she said finally between gritted teeth. "Show me the way..."

"Oh, it's easy!" the Poogle smiled happily. "I can magic us there in seconds"

Uh oh, Kalari thought, suddenly having second thoughts. "Er... maybe this isn't such a good idea?"

Too late. The Poogle muttered three inaudible words under his breath, and the sky spun above them. They were twirling in the air at immense speeds; even Kalari's gigantic body felt as light as a feather. Then they plunged down down down. And the spinning stopped...

Kalari held her head between her hooves, trying to make the room stop spinning, and blinked to clear her vision. She was in a barren stone room, decorated with no furnishings save a brewing cauldron sitting prominently in the center, surrounded by a scattered littering of vials filled with liquids of all different shades and bags bumpy with their hidden contents. But where had that voice come from?

As if reading her mind, it crackled again. "Behind you."

Kalari mastered her dizziness enough to turn. Edna's great green orblike eyes peered at her from beneath a broad conical hat, and her skin was like green leather. As startling as the witch's appearance was, the Uni would not allow herself to be frightened. "Can you shrink me?" she asked bluntly. "I seem to have gotten myself into a bit of a mess."

Edna's eyes flashed, as if with satisfaction, but the look was gone before Kalari could be sure of what she'd seen. After assessing her for a silent moment, the witch nodded. "Certainly it can be undone, dear."

"But?" Kalari prompted. "You're Edna. I know there's going to be a 'but.'"

"Very wise, girl," Edna laughed in her crinkly tone. "You see, as much as I love concocting little potions, I cannot do it without the proper ingredients. If you want to shrink, you'll have to fetch them for me."

Bracing herself, Kalari asked, "What are they?"

"No big deal, really," assured Edna, but her crooked smile hinted otherwise. "I need the following:..."

"What's the rotten wormy apple for?" Kalari inquired.

"You'll see soon enough," Edna said with a cackle and her famous evil grin. "Now run along dear, I don't have all day. I need those ingredients, and like all customers, you have a time limit. It happens I like you, so you have 1 day and 6 hours left."

"But what if--"

"1 day, 5 hours, and 59 minutes, dear!"

That simple statement was enough to send Kalari pounding to the door. Suddenly realising that she could never fit through that door, she whirled around and asked, "How do I get out?"

"Why, the same way you came in, dear." Edna smiled her evin grin and cackled.

Kalari heard the hated noise and felt the dizziness. She was whisked upwards, through the air, and landed on the alley pavement where it all started, the red Poogle still cheerfully beside her.

"Here we go," Kalari sighed, looking resentfully at the pavement. She was not in a good mood. "Now, I have never heard of an undersize potion. Of course, I already have the apple, so I have a head start. Now, if I needed something obviously rare, and no one has seen it before, where would I go?"...

"Oh? And where would that be?" the Uni snapped, stamping one giant hoof so that the pavement rocked. The red Poogle steadied himself against a wall and looked sourly at Kalari.

"You didn’t have to stomp," the Poogle muttered huffily. "I was going to tell you anyway..."

"Tell me what?" Seeing that the Poogle was still sulking, Kalari put on her sweetest and most pleading face. "Can you please tell me where I can find the potion, please?"

The Poogle’s already red face turned a shade redder as he struggled to somehow stay mad at the Uni. "Fine, I’ll tell you. Just stop staring at me. It’s embarrassing," he said finally, caving in to the Uni’s large, imploring eyes. "Anyway, I was going to suggest you go to the Ice Caves and try to find the undersize potion among the Snowager’s treasure."

Kalari clapped two hooves together. "You’re right! The Snowager does have some rare potions." The Uni excitedly shook the Poogle by his shoulders. "Come on, let’s go! We don’t have much time!"

The Poogle collected himself from the shaking Kalari had given him, mumbling about the definition of "we" before speaking five strange-sounding syllables. They were immediately whisked off their feet, spinning in a dizzying jumble of sky and ground.

"It’s quite chilly in here."

"Shh, keep quiet and start looking."

The duo started moving as quietly as they could into the Snowager’s lair. The cave’s cavernous mouth, much like its inhabitant’s icy one, proved big enough for even Kalari to fit in. Luckily for them the beast was still fast asleep, and its rhythmic breathing rumbled through the cavern. Mounds upon mounds of every treasure imaginable stared back at Kalari, and she had to bite her lip to keep herself from taking anything.

Suddenly she felt a poke on her leg. Thinking she had bumped into a piece of treasure, she looked down to find the Poogle looking nervous and pointing discreetly somewhere to the left. Kalari’s gaze followed his paw, and she soon spotted the source of the Poogle’s concern. Directly beside the Snowager, in front of a large Tuskaninny plushie, was a strangely tiny potion bottle.

Is that it? Kalari mouthed quietly. The Poogle rubbed his chin for a moment before nodding. Kalari glanced again at the potion’s awkward position. How are we going to get it?...

With a loud, icy roar, the Snowager woke up, blasting the tiny Usul with cold air and snow. Kalari gasped and backed up against the wall of the cave, desperate to hide herself from the beast. If he saw her, there was no way she could get ahold of that potion.

Anxious as ever, the large Uni waited from the Snowager to fall into a deep slumber once again. As her eyes followed his every movement, she felt something else poke her leg. It was the Poogle yet again.

The Poogle began to point excitedly at the Snowager. "Look!" he mouthed quickly.

Kalari glanced over at the monster, looking for the undersize potion she so dearly wanted to take from him, only to find that it was rolling toward them!

"I'll grab it," the Poogle whispered to her as he began to slide slowly across the ice. Sure enough, he was able to reach it without the Snowager even seeing him out of the corner of his eye. When he returned to Kalari, he spoke again. "C'mon, let's get out of here before he notices us."

Kalari nodded, treading as quietly as she could on the cave floor. When she and the Poogle emerged into the light outside, she felt relieved to make it out of the cave unscathed.

"So what do you have left to get?" the Poogle said as the hiked down the mountain.

"Uni morphing potion," she replied absentmindedly. She was too busy staring at the undersize potion in the Poogle's paw. It was a bright green in color with several white clouds inside of it. The bottle itself appeared to shink then grow every few seconds.

The Poogle ignored Kalari's stares. "Uni morphing potion, eh?" he said with a smile. "Well, I think we'll have just have to drop in on my good friend Kauvara..."

Before long, Kalari felt herself slow to a stop. Cautiously, she opened one eye, then both. She and the Poogle were in a cozy little shop, with her enlarged head nearly touching the rafters.

Kauvara sat behind the counter, looking quite shocked at the two visitors who had just materialized inside her shop. She shook her head, trying to gather her thoughts, and adjusted her pointy hat.

"Er... hello," she said shakily. "It's, well, nice of you to--"

"Hey, Kauvara!" the Poogle interrupted, bounding up to her. "Don't you remember me?"

The potionmaker scrutinized the Poogle for a moment. Then suddenly a wave of recognition and understanding came over her face, and she said, "Oh, yes! Edna's assistant. So that's how you teleported in here. She's been teaching you well." The Kau smiled and added, "Does the old witch seek my advice?"

"No," the Poogle said. "She needs a potion from you for an ingredient. You see, she's trying to make a shrinking potion for my friend here." The young Neopet motioned toward Kalari, who blushed and nodded her head.

Kauvara silently stared at Kalari for a moment. "What happened to you?" she asked finally.

The Uni sighed. "It's a long story... let's just say I had a mishap with a growth potion, and now I need a way to shrink again."

Kauvara nodded. "I suppose Edna can make a decent shrinking potion." Turning to the Poogle, she asked, "What was it she needed?"

"A Uni morphing potion," answered both the Poogle and Kalari at the same time.

Kauvara's left ear twitched, and she gave the two pets an odd look. "A morphing potion? Hmm, I've never heard of a shrinking potion made with that ingredient. But Edna is strange like that."

With that, the Kau disappeared into the back of her shop. In a few minutes, she reappeared, clutching a small bottle between her hooves. "Here you go," she said. "And because your situation is so... well, serious, I'll let you have it for free."

Kalari and the Poogle both grinned gratefully.

"Thanks!" exclaimed the Uni.

"No problem," Kauvara said. "But I'm just curious... what else does Edna want you to get? We potion masters like to share recipes, you know, and I've never heard of this one."

"She wants an undersize potion, a Uni morphing potion, and a rotten wormy apple," Kalari recited.

Kauvara's eyes widened, and she very nearly dropped the bottle she was about to give to her visitors. "A rotten wormy apple?" she cried. "That witch! She's not making a shrinking potion at all..."

"What he is?" parroted the Uni, utterly confused. "What do you mean?"

"I was afraid of that." Kauvara let out a long sigh, and turned to the Poogle. "How old are you?"

The little red Poogle smiled and answered promptly, "It has been 763 days since I was initiated."

"Initiated?" repeated a stunned Kalari. "What is he talking about? Does he mean 'born'?"

Kauvara patted the Poogle's head, but her eyes were distant. "You don't know much about Edna, little Uni," she said eventually. "Edna is not well liked by most, and has trouble recruiting helpers. Sometimes she stirs up a potion to change a creature completely, making it her servant. However, there is little the rest of us can do about it, and she does it so rarely that there is not even much evidence against her. But even I know a simple potion like that when I hear one."

Kalari realized that her mouth was hanging open, and she shut it so quickly that she bit her tongue. "Ow! Kauvara, I don't want to be Edna's servant like the Poogle... I just want to shrink and go back home to Bootsie. Is there any way I can get out of Edna's bargain?"

Looking thoughtful, Kauvara nodded. "Yes. If you let me make your shrinking potion, you will have no reason to go back to Edna, right?"

"Oh, good idea!" Kalari cried, jubilant to have a way out of her mess. "Thank you!"

Selecting a delicate glass vial from the shelf, Kauvara inspected it with a practiced eye. "Here's the last one I have in stock," she said. "Perfect for Unis. Go ahead and drink it -- on the house."

"Oh, thank--" Kalari stopped, alarmed. The Poogle was running toward Kauvara, waving his red little arms. He sprung from the ground, muttering a flurry of words, snatched the vial from her grasp, and vanished.

"What in the name of Fyroa was that?" demanded Kalari. "Where'd he go with my potion?"

Kauvara glared. "Edna's. And that was my last one... but I'll not let him get in our way. Close your eyes!" She tossed a glass from her pocket, breaking it at the Uni's feet, and pressed another into the Uni's hoof. A thick, black smoke billowed out of where the glass had shattered, and Kalari obediently shut her eyes against its sting, though she couldn't help inhaling a few gasps of the foul air.

"Well, look who came back," said a strangely familiar voice, reminiscent of crunching paper.

Daring to open her eyes, Kalari saw the familiar stone room and heard the bubbling cauldron. Before her stood the green-skinned, robed form of the witch Edna, her prominent eyes glittered in triumph. "Come for your potion, my dear?" She extended a leathery hand, showing her Kauvara's vial. "Right here."

"Give me that back!" the Uni demanded. She had gone through enough; Edna's stubbornness was not about to stop her.

"Where are my ingredients?" countered the witch. "That was my promised price."

"It was the promised price to enslave me!" cried Kalari indignantly. "Here are your ingredients, witch!" She threw the cloudy vial at Edna's feet.

As the smoke rose in a choking cloud around the witch, Kalari threw herself toward the coughing Edna and snatched the potion from her hand. "Send her to the top of Terror Mountain!" she commanded, and when the smoke cleared, Edna was gone.

"Finally," breathed the Uni, and uncorked the bottle. Tipping her head back, she let the coolness of its contents slip down her throat, and felt her bones stiffen and shrink, her stretched muscles contract, and saw her hooves revert to their normal size.

"Normal again," she affirmed. "Time to get home to Bootsie." As she walked, an idea flowered inside her head. "And I have the perfect title for my essay test tomorrow: 'The Perils of Home Gardening.'"

The End