Willowtree Grove - April 19th

A string of pranks have hit Willowtree Grove! The pranksters may have gone too far.

Transcript

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It's the end of the week here in Willow Tree Grove, and it's time for our weekly catch-up. It's been a fast week here in Willow Tree. Every day felt like a Friday, and then suddenly there it was, the real Friday. Spring has been a fickle mistress, showering us with a soft sunlight, only to then douse us in rain a moment later. Though I can never get my outfit correctly planned, I have been enjoying the brief glimpses of rainbow that I have been lucky enough to catch here and there. Say what you will about a rainbow, but it will always be a sight to behold for me. I must put forth an apology that this news report is a day late, but even though this week was rather uneventful to start with, there have been a string of events that came to a climax yesterday morning, and my help was requested to put an end to the mayhem that had ensued. But let me start from the beginning. It all began on Wednesday afternoon. Liam Lavinia was headed to work, at the corner shop, and as he placed his hand on the doorknob, the thing wriggled and shook until a metallic frog's croak emitted from the hinges of the door. He was startled, but the intent of the prank was taken for the lighthearted joke that it was, so he laughed and enjoyed the startled gasps from everyone else that came to the shop or post office that day. How was he to know that this was just the start of a string of pranks around town? On Thursday morning, Carter Calliope was walking through town when he saw a coin on the floor. Kneeling down to pick it up, he found that it was stuck to the floor, and when he gave it a sharp tug, it set off a small vocal spell that yelled out, Stop, thief, before cackling loudly. The poor man had to explain what had happened when people came running to stop said thief. The elders removed the trick coin before this would happen again, and thought nothing more of it. However, later that same day, people who were trying to use the post box on Hummingbird Lane found that when a letter was inserted, it was immediately spat straight back out into the sender's face with a resounding yuck from the box. At the same time, across town, at the greengrocer's stall of the old barn farm, the shopkeep, Rebecca, found herself in a constant fight with the carrots on her stall. Every time she walked past, she would find another one on the floor. For a while she was wondering which terrible client was mistreating the veg so, but then the delighted squeal of Adelaide brought her back over, and she was shown by the old witch that the carrots were hexed to jump away from the hands of anyone but Rebecca. She was most definitely not amused. As she was going to the elders to complain, she heard the chilling cry of someone calling for help. She rushed over to a grate and found Justin Weltrop in the process of trying to pry the grate face off to save whoever had fallen inside, only to have the grate suddenly spray a blast of water in his face. Both of them then banded together after that and rushed to complain to the elders. The search for the prankster started, but as it was quite late in the day, they set some tracker spells and proceeded to bed. Then, yesterday morning, I received the call from the frustrated elders that the tracker had been countered in the night, and on their way out to the grocer's again, they were shocked by the sight of an innocent civilian's hair suddenly turning bright blue right in front of them. Some investigation led to them discovering that the street lamp had been hexed to turn anyone's hair who passed underneath into an unearthly shade of blue. It is still unsure what would happen if you walked underneath it if you already had blue hair. Now this was when I was called in to better understand the mind of the prankster. I was a little reticent to stop a harmless array of pranks. The anonymity of a prankster is a sacred thing. But on my way to the lamppost I found Renna Blossom on the ground. She informs me while I helped her up that the pavestone under her foot felt like it had jumped to the side. After some fondling of the floor, the hex stone was found, and it was indeed Hex to do a little somersault when stood on. Now pranks I can get behind, but even a young and strong ware was knocked to the ground, so I don't even want to imagine what would have happened if someone more fragile had been standing on that stone. Unluckily for our prankster, or in this case pranksters, I am quite familiar with the style of their magic, after all the maze maze shenanigans, so it did not take long for me to lead the elders to the triplets. Conversations were had, but I was made aware by Sarah that she hexed the pavestone out of frustration for her pranks not being the ones that were creating the most ruckus, let us say. She apologized for letting her sister's mockery get the better of her, and apologized to Renna for knocking her over. I will say I was very impressed by the girls, and perhaps a little prank here and there isn't anything to get too upset about. As long, of course, as there is no actual harm done. Well, with that taken care of, here I am today. Now I will admit, I did wear green socks every day of the week, and yet I am not the winner of the most excellent baskets in the raffle. I thought for sure I had done enough. It was starting to feel like some sort of St. Patrick's Day prank with all the green I saw on everyone in town. But of course, I should have known. Our cottage core lover Lara Levinier was the top prize winner of a bread basket shaped like a dragon. I've never been so jealous. Other prizes were dispersed across a few colour loving witches who enjoy wearing a flashy pair of tights. So honestly, I don't think I was truly living the green sock life, so I did not truly count as a green sock wearer. Ah, well, I shall get my hands on one of those baskets yet. For the premonition for next week, we have the following Someone is going to lose their favorite item of clothing after seeing a deer. I worry for us all on this one. I'm ashamed to say I might even avoid Silas for the week. He might be a stag, but that's close enough to a deer, and you can never be too careful. Good luck out there, and keep your hands on your favorite items, for sure. Sorry again for the delay on this announcement. I do hope that you did not miss me. That's all for now, my dear listeners. As always, have a soft and safe week. See you next time, here in Willow Tree Grove.