"Hup!"
Ssssccrraaaapppppe.
"Hngrhhhhah!"
Sssscccrraaaaaaaaappe.
"Rrrrrnnnnnrrraaaaagh!"
Ssssssccccrraaaaaaaaaaaappe.
"Ooof! Haaaah…. Haaaahhh…. Haaaah…" Lucinda flopped down next to the over-sized cauldron that she had painstakingly dragged to the middle of the room. She wiped a bit of sweat off her forehead before gazing up at the massive iron monstrosity and wondered how in the world she was going to be able to get it suspended from the hook in the ceiling.
"Ooooh! This would be so much easier if I could just use magic!" she whined. "Why did mom have to go and get the nullifying cauldron anyways?"
The little witch knew, of course, why her mother would prefer a cauldron unaffected by outside magic. Too many potions had been ruined by wayward spells in the past to not have one. But this thing was heavy, and complaining about it made her feel a little better. And besides… it had been her own fault for losing her own child-sized cauldron in the lake.
Dragging herself to her feet once more, Lucinda clambered up her step-stool and peered into her mother's cauldron. From her perch, the thing looked big enough to cook a whole person in!
"Ugh, and knowing my mom? She probably has!" she made a face and reached for the handle to hook it up. "I make'a bet mom has had naked butts in here and she didn't even tell anybody, just like gramma did that one time…Gross, gross, gross!"
Lucinda shimmied down off the cauldron, and ran over to the rope that was neatly tied to the wall by the window. She untied it, and pulled as hard as she could, straining to get the pot off the ground. But not even the help of the pulley would budge it. An idea flickered into her head.
"I might not be able to budge this thing by myself, but I could make something to move it for me! Why does it matter what moves the rope, so long as the rope gets moved, right?"
A wave of her wand, and a flurry of pink sparkles later, and Lucinda soon had an oversized frog sitting in her lap. It croaked once, and then hopped next to a small table near the cauldron, bumping into it, and sending a glass vial tumbling to the floor.
"Woah – oof!" Lucinda dove for the vial, and placed it carefully next to the others before dive-bombing the frog to make sure it couldn't cause any more trouble. She quickly tied the rope around the frog and then encouraged it to start hopping.
"C'mon you frog!" she ordered. "Start hopping."
She conjured an oversized fly and hovered it around the frog's head. The frog croaked lazily, and darted out his tongue, devouring the snack without any inclination of moving from his spot.
"Hmm… Maybe a frog wasn't exactly the best choice I could have made. But what else could I change it into that would move for me, and not just sit there like a frog on a log?"
"Rrrbbbit!"
Lucinda growled in disgust, and transformed the frog into a dog.
"Much better! Dogs listen when you tell them to do things. Plus, they're really strong. I make'a bet that frog wouldn't have been able to pull the cauldron up anyway. C'mon now, you dog! Let's go, start pulling!"
The dog wagged its tail and got up, straining against the rope tied around its waist. It lunged once, twice, and three times before managing to squeeze out of its makeshift yoke and dashing around the house.
"Augh! No, no, no! You stupid dog! Get back here! Stop that! Ahhhh!"
The dog frolicked about freely jumping on couches, knocking into tables, and tearing down three sets of curtains, all while nimbly dodging Lucinda's attempts to magic him back out of existence. It darted left, banging into an umbrella holder, then took a sharp left, skittering across the smooth stone floors and kicking up a carpet as it dashed into the kitchen and made a great leap out of the kitchen window.
"Oh no! Now what am I supposed to do?" Lucinda groaned, and looked at the state of the house. What was supposed to have been a simple task turned into a massive mess. She sighed, and got to work cleaning the disaster area the dog had left behind.
Poof! New drapes appeared on the windows. Bomf! The umbrella holder was standing again, full of fanciful umbrellas. Bzorch! The couch was no longer turned on its side, and the cushions were all in their proper places. Ka-rack! The cauldron, however, was still firmly on the floor. It hadn't budged a bit.
"Oh well… I tried…" Lucinda sighed. "Aw. And Mom's gonna be home any minute now! How am I supposed to explain to her what happened? She's gonna be so upset if she finds out I LOST my cauldron!"
The little witch flopped down on the couch and stared angrily at her mother's cauldron. "Stupid pot! This is all your fault! If you hadn't been so heavy I could have brewed the underwater breathing potion and have gotten my cauldron back by now!
She threw a pillow at the cauldron, and it hit with a soft PAF sound. Lucinda threw herself backwards onto the couch once more, her own body making a similar sound as she connected with the oversize cushions.
"Oh I am so, so, so screwed!"