Writer A

Peony zoomed like a streak of yellow into the basket and landed hard at the very bottom, surrounded by plastic grass. Breathing hard, she climbed the basket edge and peered over the top.

Oh, what am I doing, what am I doing? She panted nervously.

She could see the party of humans, their talking and laughter just a murmur from this distance. Safe from Eyes, at least. For the moment.

“Pepin!” She hissed. She had seen him fly into this basket, had watched, from up in a tree branch, his orange hat bobbing around between plastic eggs.

“Pepin!” She didn’t dare fly. She pushed aside strands of plastic grass, trying to find him.

A human voice was coming closer. Peony’s heart drummed in her chest. There was Pepin—she could see his orange hat. She scrambled to him desperately.

He was concentrating on a toy, the same size as himself, one of his palms pressed firmly on top of it, his hand glowing. He stared at it fiercely. The toy glowed for a moment. Pepin lifted his hand and scurried to another plastic egg, turning it sideways and pushing down to pop it open.

Peony glanced up and saw the human figure who had wandered closer. It held a Device. She could see the Device beam sweeping to and fro. She shouted Pepin’s name and lunged at him, just as the gray beam swept over the basket. The two fairies knocked against the side of the basket. Out of harm’s way.

After a moment, Pepin peeked over the edge.

“It wouldn’t have got me,” he said. “Too far away.”

“Are you sure?” Peony asked, peeking over too.

“What are you doing here?”

“I came after you! It isn’t safe! Too many Eyes, too many Devices!”

“Then go back to the forest and hide.”

“But I’m worried about you! Pepin, all of my brothers have been struck.”

Pepin paused in his work and looked at Peony. “I’m sorry, Peony, but I’m not leaving. Look.” He held out his arm, which trembled. “I’m vibrating with stored up magic. I used to come play in the woods with kids every day! Now—almost never! I can’t stay away at Easter. There’s too much to be done!”

He turned back to a toy. “My spell faded,” he said with disappointment. “It’s so hard to get magic to stick these days.”

He performed it again, laying his palm on the toy until it glowed.

“It didn’t come alive,” Peony remarked.

“That doesn’t happen until a child picks it up,” Pepin replied. “Haven’t you done Easter magic before?”

“My parents won’t let me.”

“You should probably leave, then.”

Voices. Peony saw a small crowd of humans coming close. “We have to leave!” she shouted at Pepin.

“I don’t care if I’m struck,” he said, working quickly. “Oberon will come back and wake up all the fairies who—“

Device beams swept over them. Peony cowered against the edge of the basket and covered her head with her arms.

Pepin never finished his sentence. When Peony looked up, he was gone. In his place, a beautiful orange flower leaned over the plastic eggs in the basket.

Peony looked at the toy beneath the flower, and saw Pepin’s last spell fade from it.

Writer D

“Help! I can’t breath under all this stuff! I can’t see anymore. What is going on? I am too little. No one will ever find me under all this…what is this stuff supposed to be anyway?”

“Calm down, little guy. It’s just paper grass.”

“Who are you?”

“I’m the chocolate bunny.”

“Oh, my goodness, you mean THE Chocolate Bunny! And YOU are talking to ME!”

“Mmmm-huh.”

“But I’m just a little bitty soft felt duck. I was born in a poor country, where they separated me from my brothers and sisters in these plastic bubbles. Oh those horrid bubbles! Their lids are so hard to open! Then they shipped us on a dark truck. We thought we were going to get to see little kids. But we could only see them through the glass, IF we were lucky, of our quarter machine jail! Oh how we longed to be chosen each time a child appeared. Everyone in the front would rejoice and call out what the would be deliverer looked like. But, alas, when my day finally came, I was chosen by a grown up! A big, tired looking person, who could at least pop my lid! After all of this I am buried in this awful, smelly stuff where no one will ever find me.”

“Calm down, the kid will probably find you.”

“Do you really think so? How is it that I came to be in here with YOU? I have heard people at my store talk about chocolate bunnies for weeks.”

“We’re hidden for the kid—here they come.”

[Squeals of joy, paper grass flying] “Look at the cute little soft ducky! I always wanted one just like this!”

“What about the chocolate bunny, honey?”

“I don’t really like chocolate all that much.”

 

Writer B

The bacon-flavored jelly beans began to awaken, and they looked around in confusion, trying to make sense of the darkly-lit orb they found themselves in. They looked to one another for answers but, all of them being identical, none had more insight on their present condition than another.

Finally, in their consternation, they began to cry out, and their cries were quickly answered by a deep voice, both brusque and soothing.

“Now, now, little beans, you must stop that crying. What is the meaning of it?”

“Oh, who are you?” they wailed. “And where are we?”

“Don’t you know?” replied the brusque but soothing voice. “You’re in an Easter basket, of course.”

The yammering of the bacon-flavored jelly beans began to calm a bit, for this rang some kind of bell to them. Still, they felt confused. Before they could put words to their confusion, another voice piped in.

“Hi there, Chocolate Bunny, don’t be hard on the bacon-flavored jelly beans. They’re new!”

“Oi, Cadbury Egg, is that you?” replied the first voice, apparently that of the Chocolate Bunny.

“Yes it is, and I’ve heard about these guys. Everything this year is bacon-flavored, you know. Bacon-flavored ice cream, bacon-flavored cake, bacon-flavored jam. Of course there must be Easter candy that’s bacon-flavored, but it’s not their fall that they’re new to this game. Not like you, Chocolate Bunny. You’ve been around for AGES.”

“Well, yes, of course,” he replied, apparently considering this reference to his age a compliment.

“Ages!” “Ages, yes ages!” “So old! So wise!” chimed in a quartet of high-pitched and excited sounding voices.

“Oh delightful,” said Chocolate Bunny dryly, “the Peeps are awake.”

“Peeps are awake!” “Hello, Chocolate Bunny!” “Hello, Cadbury Egg!” “Welcome, welcome, welcome, bacon-flavored jelly beans!” chirped the voices of the Peeps. Their enthusiasm seemed to border on hysteria.

There was a muffled murmur of “thank you’s” from the bacon-flavored jelly beans, who were still trying to process all of this.

“Good gracious, it’s hot,” commented Chocolate Bunny. “I do believe I’m beginning to glisten. Where are on earth are we this year?” He directed this question towards Cadbury Egg, who seemed the most in-the-know of anyone in the basket.

“A place called Pahonix, I believe,” she replied. “I only saw it spelled. Yes, it’s quite hot. Of course, I was in another place like this last year, somewhere called Nevada. I was actually all misshapen by the time I was found last year. They had to pop me right in the fridge before they ate me!” And she chuckled nostalgically.

“ATE YOU??!?” screamed the bacon-flavored jelly beans.

“Yes, yes, never mind that,” responded Chocolate Bunny gruffly. “It amounts to nothing. You’ll be back at it again next year.” The bacon-flavored jelly beans pondered this thought in wonder as he continued. “Well, I was in a place called Wisconsin last year, and I tell you, it SNOWED on us. That’s right, SNOW. That was none too pleasant, but I’d take that over melting. There’s nothing worse than being simply licked off the foil by an over-eager and greedy young child.”

The bacon-flavored jelly beans were becoming seriously alarmed at this point, but their fearful thoughts were interrupted by the excited cheeps of the Peeps.

“We don’t melt! We don’t melt!” “The best is when they bite off our heads!” “Oh, this is so exciting!” “We love being in Easter baskets!!!”

At this point, the bacon-flavored jelly beans suddenly heard some other noises, noises that turned out to be the excited shrieks of children who were nearing the end of their Easter egg scavenger hunts and had spied the location of their baskets.

As the bacon-flavored jelly beans felt the basket being lifted into the air, they gave each other one final look of dismay and resignation, and then waited for the worst. And it truly was the worst for them, because no one likes bacon-flavored jelly beans, and they had no opportunity to come back in future years and tell their tales to the other new candies.

 

Writer A…again…at her daughter’s request 🙂

Once upon a time, an Easter basket sat under a piano. Inside the basket were three plastic eggs: a purple one, a blue one, and a peachy pink one. In the gray light of early morning, the purple egg started to shake.

   It wiggled, and shook, and flipped onto its side—then pop! The top came off, and out hopped a little bunny. It was a fuzzy toy bunny that came from a store, but the Easter sunrise had made it come alive.

   The fuzzy bunny hopped to the blue egg and tapped on it. “Hi! Duck! Are you in there?” asked the fuzzy bunny.

   “Is it morning already?” came a voice from inside the blue egg.

   The fuzzy bunny looked around. It was barely light, and the house was very quiet.

   “Yep!” said the fuzzy bunny happily. “Come out!”

   The blue egg wiggled and shook, while the fuzzy bunny waited.

   The top of the blue egg popped off, and out tumbled a little toy duck. The toy duck sat up  and rubbed its plastic eye with a little furry wing. “Are you sure it’s morning? It’s still dark!”

   “No it isn’t!” said fuzzy bunny happily. Fuzzy bunny hopped to the peachy pink egg, and tapped on it. “Hi! Sheep! Are you in there?” he asked.

   “It isn’t time yet!” came a muffled voice from inside the peachy pink egg. “I’m staying in here!”

   “Suit yourself,” said the fuzzy bunny. He turned to duck. “What do you think? How’s our hiding spot? Will the kid have any trouble finding us?”

   Duck looked around carefully, at the underside of the piano, and the part of the living room they could see. “She’ll have to come all the way to the bookshelf before she has a line of sight to the basket,” he replied thoughtfully.

   “Right. I’ll let her know,” said fuzzy bunny. He hopped out of the basket. Duck peered over the edge and watched him hop away. For a moment he could hear fuzzy bunny’s soft steps pattering across the wood floor, not very fast. Patter, patter, pause. Duck imagined fuzzy bunny moving cautiously, looking out for any parents or pets who might be up, while trying to figure out the way to the child’s room.

   Next to duck, the peachy pink egg wiggled and shook and the pop topped off. Sheep rolled out. “Did fuzzy bunny leave the basket?” Sheep asked crossly.

   Duck nodded.

   Sheep heaved a big sigh. “You should have stopped him,” Sheep snapped. “It’s already morning. A human could get up at any moment and see him. Not to mention a dog.”

   “Does this family have a dog? I only heard them mention the little girl.”

   “How should I know,” Sheep answered grouchily. He looked up at the underside of the piano and out at the bit of living room. “She’ll have to come all the way to the bookshelf,” he observed.

   “That’s what fuzzy bunny is going to tell her.”

   Sheep nodded. “Right. Well I hope he hurries.” He crawled back into his egg and reached for the top half. He was about to pull it over his head when he paused. “Did you hear them say the girl is five years old?”

   Duck nodded.

   Sheep smiled. “That’s my favorite age.” He pulled the egg back together, with him tucked inside.

   Duck smiled too, and leaned over the basket edge again, craning his neck for the first sign of fuzzy bunny coming back.

   Duck waited for what felt like a very long time. He began to get nervous. It was getting lighter every minute!

   Suddenly he heard a noise—not the soft pitter patter of fuzzy bunny’s feet, but something much louder. It was human footsteps in the kitchen! The clank of dishes, and water running!

   Duck jumped back into the blue egg, and was about to pull the top over himself, when fuzzy bunny dropped back into the basket.

   “Fuzzy bunny!” Duck cried in relief.

   “Back in our eggs, Duck!” Fuzzy bunny said cheerfully. “The parents are up!”

   “Did you give her the message?”

   “Yep!” Fuzzy bunny hopped inside the purple egg and snatched up the top half. “She’ll think it was a dream if she remembers it at all. ‘In the living room,’ I told her, ‘walk all the way to the bookshelf and look under the piano.’ She giggled and kissed my head. Then I kissed her nose and hopped away, and she was back asleep by the time I left the room.”

   “She sounds nice!”

   “Lovely. See you in a bit, Duck!” Fuzzy bunny closed his egg, and Duck did the same.

This was our prompt:

Write a story that takes place inside an Easter basket – 20 minute challenge