Sly Squirrel's Speedy Search

The air in the clearing buzzed with a frantic energy that even Barnaby, usually unflappable, could feel prickling his plush fur. Professor Hoot, perched precariously on a toadstool, ruffled his feathers, a worried cluck escaping his beak. Lily, her brow furrowed in concentration, wrung her hands. The magical sugar cubes, the very essence of their time-traveling teapot’s sparkle, were gone. Vanished. Poof! Like a whisper in the wind.

“Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear,” Professor Hoot murmured, tapping a claw against his chin. “This is most inconvenient. Most inconvenient indeed. Without the sugar cubes, the teapot… well, it’s just a teapot. A rather fetching one, I might add, but still, just a teapot.”

Lily sighed, her gaze sweeping over the anxious faces of the assembled animals. Reginald Rabbit wrung his paws, Beatrice Bear chewed her lip, and Bartholomew Badger paced a small, agitated circle. They were all so worried, and it was all her fault. Well, not *her* fault, exactly, but she had brewed the tea. She’d brought them here. And now their magic was gone.