A couple days later, Garrett gathered the Enchanted royal family members in their classroom for another lesson. Everyone sat at their desks, ready to get learning.

Garrett was famous in the teaching industry for a reason. How many teachers do you know who actually make students not want to be late for class because they make learning exciting?

"Good morning, Professor Heartwood," said everyone.

"Good morning, everyone." Garrett said. "Can anyone guess what we'll be learning about today?"

"Are we going to learn to make a new potion?" Lamenta asked, raising her hand.

"Nope."

"Are we going to learn how to turn rocks into butterflies?" Gabby asked.

"Not quite."

"Are we gonna do another battle simulation?" Boba asked.

"Not today."

"I know!" Omega said. "We're learning about more magical creatures, right?"

"That's right, Omega. As all of you know, we've been studying magical creatures of the deep, and during our last lesson, we discussed how to differentiate between sirens and mermaids."
"Which we probably could've used when Whirlia attacked Mon Cala." Anakin said, crossing his arms.

Garrett pulled out a magic wand and waved it to place a picture on the board. A picture of what looked like a green mer-pony made out of kelp.

"Can anyone tell me what creature this is?" Garrett said. "Carmine?"

"Uh… a seapony?" Carmine blurted out.

"Not quite." Garrett spotted someone else raise her hand. "Kara."

"That would be a kelpie, a shapeshifting creature most famously known for taking the form of a horse which appears to be made of seaweed, or kelp, hence their name."

"Excellent, Kara. Can anyone else tell me what a kelpie eats?"

"Children?" Gabby said with a gulp.

"Unfortunately, that is correct. But, that is not always the case."

Garrett put up his lecture, where he talked all about how kelpies were infamously tricky creatures similar to sirens. Like Kara said, kelpies were shapeshifters, so they were not always so easy to spot, and most of them were carnivores, and they typically targeted children, an easy prey for them. One of their most famous methods of capturing their prey was by pretending to be land ponies and offering a ride.

"I'll need a volunteer for this demonstration." Garrett said. "Who would like to help out?"

Anakin raised his hand, being the bravest. Then he had Teatra join them. She was wearing what looked like velcro, some sticky kind of cloth around her neck, and she had a saddle covered in it on her back.

Boba raised his hand and asked,

"What's that stuff Teatra's wearing?"

"You know those Pillow Plushies you all got from your grandparents?" Garrett pointed out. The kids nodded. "That hook and loop strap that holds them in place when you fold them is called velcro, which we're using to demonstrate how kelpies capture their prey."

"Now Anakin. I'll need you to put these on."

Garrett gave Anakin some gloves and a pair of what looked like snow pants with suspenders on them, all of them with material like the velcro on Teatra attached. Anakin wasn't sure how they helped, but he put them on.

"Okay, everyone. Listen up. Imagine this. Anakin is a child just innocently playing in the forest one day, when he's approached, but then a pretty green horse comes along and says…"

Teatra stepped up to Anakin, assuming a theatrical persona.

"Hello there, young one. May I offer you a pony ride?" Teatra said, motioning for Anakin to climb onto her back.

"Go on, Anakin. Get on her back."

Shrugging, Anakin climbed onto Teatra and placed his hands on her neck once he was sitting on the saddle.

"Okay, Anakin. Now get off her back."

Anakin was confused at first, but he started to get off anyway… or he tried to, but he found his hands were stuck. He pulled harder, but he was still stuck, so he just slipped out of his gloves, but he could barely move his legs as he tried to climb off!

"I'm stuck!" Anakin grunted as he tried to get off.

"You see? This is how kelpies capture their prey. Once you get on their backs, you stick to them as though you were on a saddle covered with glue.

"Like when my feet get stuck to the floor at the movie theater?"

"Yes, very similar to that. Except, when a kelpie gets you stuck, it's nearly impossible to get unstuck, and once you're stuck, they drag you down into the water to drown!"

That had the younger kids screaming and running to their grandpa.

"Garrett, must you frighten the children?" Qui-Gon scolded, amid his granddaughters climbing on him.

"Now, don't worry, girls. No kelpy will make a meal out of you, as long as you remember all the ways to spot a kelpy in disguise."

According to Garrett, there were five surefire ways to tell if a kelpy was near:

1: kelpies most often meet their targets close to water.

2: kelpies snort like horses no matter what form they're in.

3: kelpies often lick their mouths when they spot children.

4: kelpies smell kind of like sushi

And 5, kelpies never stand in one place for very long, because if they do, water appears beneath their feet.

Lamenta raised her hand then. Garrett called on her.

"Yes, Lamenta?"

"How long can kelpies survive out of the water?"

"Well, it depends on what kind of water the kelpy thrives in. There are saltwater kelpies and freshwater kelpies. And there is the rarer breed known as Waterbody, which means they can swim and survive in any body of water, salt or fresh, as long as it doesn't have chlorine."

Gabby also had a question.

"Have you ever met a kelpy, Garret?"

"As a matter of fact, I have come across a kelpy once or twice."

"Did it try to eat you?"

"One did, yes. But another happens to be a good friend of mine, and a skilled swim teacher at one of the aquatic enchanted schools."

"If we did make friends with a kelpy, is there a way to ride them without getting stuck?"

"Yes, there is. To ride a kelpy without getting stuck requires a specially made saddle you can strap onto the kelpy's back and easily take off without hurting them."

Meanwhile, Citrus woke up with a big yawn after sleeping pretty late. He stretched out his legs and his back and started to pick himself up, only to find he could barely do so.

"Whoo! Man, I must've been more tired than I thought." Citrus said.

Citrus tried walking, but found himself feeling pretty sluggish and weak as he picked himself up.

"Hope I didn't miss breakfast at home."

But when Citrus tried to walk through the door, he found himself barely able to make it through. Citrus became confused, so he pulled himself as hard as he could and managed to get through, but broke the side of the door frame in the process.

"Oops."

Not wanting to get in trouble, Citrus immediately ran off as quickly as he could, which was a little slower than usual at this moment.

"Yeesh! Maybe the others were right about me eating too much." Citrus grimaced, a bit nauseated.

But he wasn't the only one feeling strange.

Wrecker finally woke up and started to get up, only to feel weird in his stomach, but strangely he started to feel hungry. He picked himself up and started to walk to the kitchen, when he noticed his clothes felt pretty tight on him, and when he felt his stomach, he felt… rounder.

"Huh? That's weird." Wrecker said.

Wrecker left the room, only to run into Caroline.

"Oh! Wrecker…" Caroline caught a glimpse of Wrecker's condition. "Wrecker, what happened to you?"

"I don't know. I woke up like this." Wrecker said. "Am I pregnant like you?"

"No, Wrecker. You're a boy."

Caroline knew Wrecker had been getting out of control with his eating habits lately, but she knew for a fact that Wrecker's stomach shouldn't have grown as much as it did until months after eating the way he had been.

"Wrecker, are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah, but I'm also starving!"

Wrecker made his way to the kitchen to eat something, where he also ran into Hunter as he was grabbing a snack.

"Wrecker! What happened?" Hunter said.

"I'm starving!"

"You're not eating anything until we take you to see a doctor." Caroline grabbed Wrecker's ear and made him head for a speeder, Wrecker whining, "Ow, ow, ow!" the whole way.

Hunter couldn't believe Wrecker could be defeated so easily by a pregnant woman with no magic of her own. To be fair though, Caroline was a tough woman.

When Citrus got home, though, his family immediately took him to the vet. Citrus couldn't even get his saddle on, and he felt too weak to carry anyone.

"Is this really necessary?" Citrus asked as he sat in the waiting room with his family.

"Yes, Citrus." Ahsoka said. "Clearly you need professional help. Look, we love you, and we don't want to see you hurt yourself."

"It's true, Citrus." Sunheart said. "Enjoying food you like is one thing, engorging yourself is another. Although, this sudden weight gain is a little strange."

Sure enough, the vet checked Citrus out and found he'd gained over forty pounds! But she also checked Citrus' bloodstream and his vitals. By all accounts, Citrus was healthy as… well, a horse. The vet might not have been a doctor for bipeds, but she knew quite a few people considered plus sized or overweight who were nonetheless healthy. However, Citrus's sudden weight gain raised some concerns, given how rapidly it occurred.

"How is that possible?" Plo Koon asked, looking at the vet's notes.

"Based on the information you gave on Citrus' recent eating habits, he should not gain this much weight for years while eating the same diet. Even the amount Citrus has apparently been eating couldn't make a human gain so much weight so quickly."

"Can anything be done?" Plo asked.

"I've never seen a case like this. I'll need to run a few more tests just to be sure this isn't the result of a virus."

Wrecker got home from the doctor's with Caroline just as the enchanted family members were finishing their lessons.

"Wrecker!" Omega gasped. "What happened?"

"Someone's eating habits finally caught up with him." Caroline said not so subtly.

"The doctor said nothing was wrong." Wrecker defended, amid his pants tearing when he tried to walk away. That had Wrecker freezing with embarrassment.

"Something tells me that's not true."

"What's going on, Babe?" Carmine asked.

Caroline told her husband about how she discovered Wrecker appeared to have gained weight very suddenly, and she decided if he wasn't going to listen to his family, he would have to listen to a doctor. Plus, the weight gain seemed to happen overnight, which Caroline was pretty sure couldn't happen with any amount of junk food. At least, not the same way it happened to Wrecker.

"I'm not a medical professional," said Garrett. "But I know it takes more than one day to gain this much weight, even with as much junk as Wrecker's been eating."

Garrett took Wrecker's wrist and took him away.

"Where are you taking him?" Omega asked.

"To run some tests." Garrett said.

However, Citrus and/or Wrecker gaining weight wasn't the only strange thing going on.

Three days later…

BREAKING NEWS!

Famous reporter Shera Nova appeared on the screen with an urgent report.

"Shera Nova here with an urgent report. We have intel that several orphans have mysteriously vanished from Bespin Orphanage, and celebrity chef Gina Dean-Lorraine has been reported missing for the last two days. Reporting with the victim's husband is our field reporter Dani DiCapria."

A human female reporter was on the scene with Gina Dean-Lorraine's husband Alister Lorraine.

"Thank you, Shera. I'm here on the scene with Chef Gina's husband Alister Lorraine. Mr. Lorraine, I understand your wife was scheduled to return from a charity event but never returned, is that correct?"

Mr. Lorraine was, as expected, worried about his wife. He was holding his one-year-old son in his arms, trying to keep the baby calm with a set of toy keys.

"Yes. Gina was supposed to return after the charity event, but she never did. I called her three times and no answer. All my kids kept coming up to me saying 'When's Mommy coming home?' Do you have any idea how hard it is to tell them I don't know the answer?"

"I understand Mr. Lorraine. And may I ask why you didn't join your wife for the event?"

"I'm a father of fifteen adopted children, including Junior here."

Junior babbled loudly in response.

Dani chuckled in response to the baby's cuteness.

"Such an adorable sight, children."

"Yes, many of which came from that same orphanage. The police say they're doing all they can, but all they've managed to find is her phone. I'm trying not to worry for the kids' sake, but…"

Dani could see Mr. Lorraine was about to hyperventilate, and decided it was time to cut from this report.

"Back to you, Shera."

"Police have informed us that at this moment no ransom has been demanded for Mrs. Dean-Lorraine's return. If anyone has any information in regards to her whereabouts, please call the number on screen. In other news, fellow celebrity chef Jordan Lindsay has announced plans to launch charity brunch at a homeless shelter on Mandalore in honor of the peaceful workings of Duchess Satine Kryze-Kenobi tomorrow afternoon, Mandalore time. And now, Jensen with the weather forecast."

Back on Bespin, the caretakers at the orphanage were also noticing something alarming in the works. After the charity lunch, many of the children were found to have outgrown their clothes by the very next day, and that wasn't the strangest thing to happen either.

The nurses checked all the kids and found they were still healthy, but none of them felt full at all even after eating as much as they had at the charity lunch. In fact, they actually felt hungrier and all kept raiding the cafeteria.

But then, as night hit, the kids received a visit from one of the caretakers.

"Wake up, children." said the caretaker. "Does anyone want a late night snack?"

"What kind of snack?" asked one boy.

"I think you'll all like it. Ice cream for everyone who comes outside right now."

That definitely had the kids awake, and all of them eagerly got out as quickly as they could.

Sure enough, the kids went outside and found a trail of ice cream sandwiches ripe for the taking, and they all grabbed as many as they could, following the trail and enjoying the tasty sweetness of all the many flavors of ice cream.

The trail went on and on until they reached the jackpot! An entire hill of ice cream treats, cookies, cakes, and donuts! All the kids rushed right to it and dug in, not realizing all of them were quickly gaining even more weight within seconds! But even worse, what none of them realized was that something not so sweet was right underneath them.

The kids suddenly heard a sound that sounded like a whinny mixed with a howl. And then all of a sudden, the kids screamed as they spotted what looked like walls of kelp rising up and lifting them into what appeared to be a giant net made of sticky seaweed!

"I hit the smorgasbord," hissed a voice of someone, male judging by the voice, the kids couldn't see.

The kids screamed for help as loudly as they could, but no one seemed able to hear them because they wandered off so far from the orphanage.

"Not to worry, children. You'll have more sweets soon enough."

It wasn't until the next morning that the caretakers realized several of the children were missing. They immediately called the police, but they found no leads. Except, they found several wrappers along the same path the kids had taken, along with several child-sized footprints, drips of melted ice cream, and finally a big portion of all those things with traces of seaweed. And to the investigators' great surprise, the area smelled strangely of sushi.

When the police checked the orphanage's security footage, they found evidence of a caretaker exiting the orphanage, leaving a trail of ice cream treats across the path and then disappearing into the forest. And in the rooms where children had vanished from as well as some of the hallways, the police found puddles of water, but not just any water. Saltwater.

"I've seen some strange cases since this Mariverde character entered the picture," said one officer. "But this… I don't know what to make of it."