After a few hours, the train came to a stop in St. Louis, Missouri, and the performers, clowns, animals, and workers soon got to work. All of the men and workers greeted Sandy and her friends. The roustabouts were setting up tents to create the big top and resting quarters for everyone. Sandy, Paige, and Rosie entered Sandy's private car, where she had set up worktable for her herbs, incense, spices, and plants for when she performed her spells and rituals to connect with the Goddess and animals. She decided to teach her human friends more on Wicca, and they decided they wanted to learn to communicate with animals. Sandy communicated with the Goddess through a ritual, and the Goddess agreed, on the condition to only use it with close friends and family.

Paige and Rosie sat on the floor and watched Sandy preparing a spell for them.

"Are you sure this will work, Sandy?" Rosie asked with a raised brow. "Didn't you tell us before you used some other method to let you talk to animals?"

"And what if we're still not able to understand them if your potion fails?" added Paige

"Trust me, girls, once I'm finished fixing up this potion, you'll be able to understand animals as well as I can," Sandy replied. "I'm only using this method because you two ought to see what it's like."

The blonde reached for some ginger, peppermint, garlic, lavender, and a mix of birch leaves to crush them in a mixture. She poured it in warm water and mixed with witch hazel to make it suitable to taste. She poured the potion in each cup and placed them on a tray.

Sandy turned back to them and gave them a warm smile before taking their hands and holding them in her own.

"It will be okay. You're both going to feel so much closer to Dumbo and the other animals than ever before."

She got back to her feet and retrieved the tray. She got down to her knees, placing down the tray and handed each cup to the girls. Paige and Rosie took their cups and watched Sandy moving her hands in the air, performing her ritual. When they first discovered Sandy was a Wiccan and performed rituals, they were skeptical until they got a dose of her potion. Paige and Rosie sipped the mixture and listened to Sandy speaking out in a commanding voice and took their hands each and held each other.

"Mother of Wiccans, I hereby grant the power of speech to animals upon my friends. Allow them to understand all life around them, as I have. May the animals have the ability to communicate with them, and will they."

She dipped her fingers in a mixture of olive oil and balm. She slipped it gently on each of their foreheads. Rosie exhaled, feeling the balm on her flesh gently moving across. Paige shuddered at the cold mixture touching her skin. They felt their blood warming and a nature aura surrounded them, allowing them to become more aware of the natural world around them.

They smiled, feeling the potion running in their veins and nodded. The girls continued their ritual and the natural sunlight shone down on them from the window. The girls mediated for a moment and hummed to allow them to be taken in the world of Wicca. Paige and Rosie opened their eyes and stood up watching Sandy.

"Did it work?" Paige inquired.

"Only one way to find out," commented Rosie, "let's visit the animals," Rosie added.

"Okay then, let's go," said Sandy.

The girls exited from Sandy's private car and made their way over to the menagerie tent where all the animals were housed.


They entered the area and to see the many animals the circus owned. There were zebras, giraffes, bears, ostriches, horses, tigers, lions, hippos, and especially elephants, all gathered around to see Dumbo play with their children. Needless to say, the young pachyderm had been all too happy that he was no longer the laughingstock of the circus and was accepted by his community.

Mrs. Jumbo smiled down at her son and caressed him tenderly. Then she looked up and noticed Sandy and her friends entering the tent, making her smile even more.

"Oh look, everyone! Sandy and her friends have arrived!" Harriet announced.

The other animals looked back; glad to see the Wiccan they had become so well acquainted with entering the tent. Ever since Dumbo became the star of the circus and Sandy was deemed his personal trainer, they were all unsure of what to make of a human who could speak their language, but they came to accept her as a member of their community

They smiled and politely greeted her, not noticing the astonished expressions on the faces of her two human friends.

"Hello Mother," she said.

Sandy had come to call Harriet 'Mother' because she was a mother figure towards the girl the first day they met. The Wiccan had lost her birth mother to a poacher when she only a child but had grown to see Harriet as a loving substitute since joining the circus. In kind, Mrs. Jumbo adored Sandy as if she was her own daughter and accepted her into her family for protecting her son when she was imprisoned. The kind mother elephant pulled the girl into an embrace within her trunk.

"How are you today? Did you enjoy the ride here to Missouri?"

"I did, thanks for asking. And there's something I'd like to share with you about Paige and Rosie."

"Oh really?" Asked Harriet as she looked towards the two other humans. "What is it you have to say about them?"

The two girls were still gaping as they turned their attention to the mother of their circus's star. After a short pause, Rosie was able to mutter, "Oh my goodness, the potion does let us talk to animals."

Harriet and all the other animals observing this exchange donned a look of surprise. "They can...understand us as well?" Harriet inquired in befuddlement. "Since when?"

"Since I made a potion for them that let's them understand the animal language as well as I do," Sandy replied with a smile. "They said they were interested in how I'm able to talk to you all and I decided to share that gift with them."

"Hello Mrs. Jumbo," said Paige shyly as she held out one of her hands.

"Hi Harriet, hi Timothy," added Rosie as she noticed a familiar rodent scurry over towards them.

"Hello dears," Harriet said, smiling to the girl's human friends.

"Hiya Paige, hiya Rosie," Timothy said.

Paige stepped back, remembering the time she met the mouse, she took a deep breath, held her hand out to him and allowed Timothy to step onto her hand.

"Hello Timothy," she said.

The tent was filled with warm and happy greetings of the Wiccan, her friends, and the animals. A year ago, the circus animals lived separately among themselves and never bothered to interact with anyone outside their own species. However, following Dumbo's rise to fame and discovering Sandy's ability to speak to them, they grew curious about her gift and eventually the sense of community among the circus' animals grew stronger and led to them forming close friendships with each other

As for Dumbo, his newly-achieved stardom had earned him friends among the children of his community, including his next-door neighbors. Sandy looked over with a smile to see the calf surrounded by his new friends. There was Godfry the hippo calf, a zebra foal named Dot, a kangaroo Joey named Alice, twin bear cubs Claude and Lolly; five tiger cubs, consisting of the boys, Talish, Tamila, and Taksheel, and the girls, Talika and Tamanna; and the monkey siblings known as Joan, Camille, Peter, and Donnie. They were all interested in learning more about Dumbo and his ability to fly.

"So Dumbo, how does it feel to fly?" Godfry the hippo asked. "Is it good?"

"It's great! I can't tell you how amazing it felt when I first soared in the air," Dumbo replied.

"Why? How can you fly?" Dot asked.

"Because it makes me happy about myself. Sandy always told me that no matter how different I look, I ought to be myself and hold my head up high."

"Okay," the zebra foal replied.

Dot had a tendency to repeat 'why' many times, and no matter how hard someone tried to explain what, when, or who they really meant, she kept repeating until she finally understood.

"It must be amazin' to be able to fly, mate," Alice said with a grin. "A shame I can't do that, but at least I can do the next best thing!"

The joey crouched down and jumped up as high as she could, then started hopping around the play area giggling to herself. Unfortunately, she failed to notice a pile of hay and some barrels in front of her as she hopped.

"Alice, look out!" called Dumbo.

Alice gasped as she landed in the haystack and knocked over the barrels, making everyone gasp in worry for the Joey.

"Oh boy," Talish said.

"Danger Prone Alice did it again," snarked Penny.

"Penny!" her mother scolded. "You know it's not nice to ridicule someone when they have an accident."

Darwin and Sydney hopped over to the pile of hair where their daughter landed. They helped her out and gave a sigh of relief, and got her to stand up.

"Are you all right honey?" Darwin asked.

"Yes Papa, I'm okay."

"You need to be more careful where you're jumping," Sydney added.

"Yes, Mama."

As the kangaroo parents tended to their child, an eager grin formed on Dumbo's face as he saw his trainer and sister-figure and her friends approach where he and his friends were playing.

"Hi, Sandy! Hi Paige! Hi Rosie!" he greeted and trotted over to the girls.

"Hello Dumbo," the blonde said.

The girls greeted him and sat on a hay bale. The animal children came up to the humans, all eager to speak with the Wiccan who could speak their language. Paige hid behind Rosie, and the woman stood her ground.

"It feels weird that I can hear them, talking," Rosie said.

"Don't worry Rosie," the blonde said. "You'll get use to it."

"Hello children," Sandra said. "How are all of you today?"

"Good Sandy, good," they said.

"I'm ok, Sandy," Dumbo said, climbing up to the girl's lap. "I'm really excited that our summer tour has started! I can't wait to see all the places we're gonna be performing in!"

Sandy nodded in agreement and saw a giraffe calf walking up to Paige. Making the brunette back away nervously. The giraffe calf, known as Esther, was confused at the human's behavior.

" 'Cuse me, miss," Esther said. "How come you're backing away from me?"

Paige placed her hand to her forehead and nearly stumbled before Rosie caught her and helped her sit on a bale of hay.

"I feel faint," she mumbled and put a hand on her head.

"Take it easy, Paige," Rosie said, fanning her hand to give her friend some air.

"I can't believe that we can hear them speak."

Esther backed away, feeling nervous about the petite brunette almost fainting from understanding her. Sandy sighed, hoping that her human friends will get used to their new power. She noticed Godfry sitting in a tub large enough for him to bathe in.

"Oh, Godfry? Do you want me to grab your bath products for you since you're already in the tub?"

"Oh no, Sandy," the hippo calf insisted. "I can do it. I can do things myself, honest."

"Okay Godfry, if you insist."

Godfry hopped out of the tub and headed over to the car where he and his mother stayed in. The girl sighed placing her hands on her hips. Godfry was known for being stubborn when people offered to help him, always turning them down and insisting that he could do it himself.

As he fetched his bath products, he didn't notice Claude and Lolly rolling towards him as they playfully wrestled. They crashed into, Godfry making him yelp and fall into a nearby mud puddle.

"Claude! Lolly! What's the matter with you?" he glared at the two cubs.

"Wasn't our fault!" Claude protested.

"Sorry Godfry, it was an accident," Lolly added. "We didn't mean to get you all dirty."

"Thanks to you, I have to take another bath again."

"Now Godfry," his mother, Louise came up. "There's no need to be harsh. After all, it was an accident."

Godfry took a deep breath and listened to his mother's advice. "Yes, Mom." He turned to the cubs. "Sorry about that."

After Godfry finished cleaning up, the girls decided to play with the children.

Dot and Alice playfully chased after Paige, still shy and not entirely used to understanding animals. They laughed as they pursued the petite woman and made her jump into a hay bale to hide in.

Rosie got to her knees as Esther the giraffe calf and Claude and Lolly came up to her, and reached in to lick her face. The dark-haired woman giggled, and the cubs tackled her and rolled on the ground.

Sandy looked over to see the brunette hiding behind a pile of hay, and she came up to her.

"It's okay Paige," she said, smiling. "I promise, they won't harm you. They just want to get the chance to know you."

The blonde guided the petite's hand over towards the muzzle of the zebra foal. Paige slowly flinched from the touch, but she took a deep breath and allowed herself to pet Dot. The foal licked the palm, and made Paige giggle. Alice rubbed her head against the brunette's leg, the brunette landed on her knees and started to play with them. Dot licked her face, and Alice snuggled on her lap. Esther kept her distance away, and almost took a few steps closer, wanting to get used to her surroundings.

Smiling as she saw how well things were going between her human and animal friends, Sandy then turned her attention to a corner of the tent to see the only animal child in the tent not interacting with her peers. This animal was Penny, a young ostrich wearing a pink bow on top of her head and a resentful frown on her beak as she had her back turned from the activities. Unlike the rest of the circus animals, who were fascinated by Dumbo's ability to fly, Penny was nothing short of envious and bitter of how Dumbo could achieve what she felt only birds could do while she had to live her life in flightlessness.

"Oh Penny," Sandy asked as she approached the ostrich chick, "aren't you going to go and play with the others?"

"...Life's not fair, Sandy," she grumbled out loud. This made the girl's smile falter and her brows furrow in concern. "It's not fair that Dumbo gets to experience the greatest gift a bird can have while I'm stuck on the ground. If my mom says that ostriches aren't meant to fly, why do we even have feathers and wings?"

"Oh Penny," Sandy said, coming up to kneel beside her. "Sometimes we are all different, and it makes us special. There's no shame in having the inability to fly."

"Sandy's right dear," her mother, Miranda added. "Sometimes we have to accept ourselves for who we are and how the world made us."

"How can we be the same?" Penny asked. "We're all different."

"We may be, Penny," Sandy said. "But deep in our hearts and souls, we're so much alike. That's what the Goddess taught me, all because, we may not all get along, but we must keep in mind that everything is a balance."

"Mother Earth and Father Time"

(Sandy):

How very special are we

For just a moment to be

Part of life's eternal rhyme

How very special are we

To have on our family tree

Mother Earth and Father Time

They all looked outside as the summer breeze blew, and felt the Goddess giving them a new fresh outlook on the world.

He turns the seasons around

And so she changes her gown

But they always look in their prime

They go on dancing their dance

Of ever lasting romance

Mother Earth and Father Time

Outside, the birds flew gracefully above in the air, landing in the trees and sang in content. A mother bird reached her nest and nuzzled with her babies. Sandy continued to sing;

The summer larks return to sing

Oh what a gift they give

Then autumn days grow short and cold

Oh what a joy to live

How very special are

For just a moment to be

Part of life's eternal rhyme

How very special are we

To have on our family tree

Mother Earth and Father Time.

The animals all fell for Sandy's soothing voice and Dumbo curled up in her lap more. Paige and Rosie smiled and were feeling better with Sandy's presence. Penny gave a sigh, and though she preferred not to show her soft side, she decided to listen to Sandy's advice.


"Mother Earth and Father Time" belongs to Hanna-Barbera's/E.B. White's "Charlotte's Web"