“WITCH” POTION WAS IT?

“No, Sniffs! You spit that out right now. Drop it.”

Oliver pointed his finger until the guilty dog opened his mouth. A mini slime dropped out.

Oinga, boing, oinga, boing …

As the tiny mob bounced toward the swamp, Sniffs licked at the slime oozing from his snout.

“Gross!” said Oliver. “No more kisses from you today. You can keep all that slimy goodness to yourself.”

Sniffs wagged his tail and took off toward Audrey, who was peering at something on the mushy, wet ground. “Here it is!” she called, waving Oliver over. “Gunpowder everywhere. There was a creeper battle here for sure.”

While she searched the edge of the oak grove for more mobs, Oliver examined the gunpowder. Something wet and glistening lay on the grass beside it. A mushroom?

Sniffs spotted it, too—he was a big fan of mushrooms. But as his jaws clamped down on the squishy something, Oliver sprang into action. “Drop it, Sniffs. Now!”

Sniffs did, and the gooey brown spider eye dropped to the ground.

“That’s no mushroom,” said Oliver. “That’ll make you sick.”

He used a stick to poke at the eyeball. Then a thought struck. “Audrey!” he cried, jumping up. “There wasn’t a creeper battle here. Someone battled a … hey, watch out!”

Audrey saw the witch at the same time Oliver did. She whirled around to face the purple-robed mob.

The witch was already downing a potion from her glass bottle.

Before she could finish the powerful liquid, Audrey attacked. She struck the witch with her sword, dodging splash potions as she backed the witch up toward the water.

Finally the witch fell, and her glass bottle did, too. It hit a rock and crashed into a million tiny shards.

“No!” cried Audrey, dropping to her knees. “I wanted that potion for myself!”

Oliver ran toward her and helped her up. “Would you settle for a spider eye?” he asked, pointing toward the fresh drop lying where the witch used to be.

Audrey shivered. “Uh, no thanks.” She kept her sword raised as she looked out over the swamp. “There must be a witch hut around here somewhere. There!”

The wooden house was built on stilts. A couple of loose boards dangled from the porch, and the front door hung crooked on its hinges.

“Did someone destroy the hut to get to the witch?” asked Oliver.

“Maybe. Or to get to the witch’s potions,” Audrey said, her eyes narrowed. “Let’s go check it out!”

Every inch of Oliver wanted to walk the other way. But somehow, he found himself standing beside Audrey inside the witch hut. It was empty, thank goodness. And there were a couple of empty spots on the shelf above the cauldron, too.

Audrey pointed. “Someone stole some potion ingredients. See?”

Before Oliver could jot down the missing ingredients in his notebook, Sniffs nosed at his hand.

“What, boy?”

The dogs’ ears perked up, as if to say, “Listen!”

Then Oliver heard it, too. Squish, slop, squish, slop, squish, slop … The sound grew louder.

“Audrey, I think we’re about to get slimed.”

Her eyes widened. She grabbed a book off the shelf and headed for the door. “Let’s go!”

There was nothing “mini” about the slimes at the base of the ladder. Audrey struck the first one with her sword, breaking it into a gazillion smaller slimes. “Run!” she shouted to Oliver.

She didn’t have to tell him twice. He sprinted down the mucky trail toward home, with Sniffs by his side.

An hour later, he and Audrey huddled under a torch looking at the book she had taken from the hut.

“Two ingredients were stolen,” she said. “One was awkward potion. Do you remember the other one?”

Do you remember the other stolen ingredient? Which potion is the thief trying to make? Take a guess, and then turn the page to solve the mystery.

Oliver scrunched his eyes shut, trying to remember. “I think it was Golden Carrot,” he finally said. “And if it was, then someone was trying to make …” He slid his finger along the chart in Audrey’s book.

“Potion of night vision!” she announced. “That means someone has plans to do something mysterious in the dark.”

“But who?” added Oliver. “And what?”

Sniffs, who was settled beside him, let out a low growl.

“Easy boy,” said Oliver. “We figured out which potion ingredients were stolen and why. We’ll figure out the next mystery, too.”