Once upon a time long, long ago, in a world far, far from ours, in a kingdom called ryawberstr, lived Princess Beriee. While most of you might think that princesses are always happy and jovial, this princess was living in agony. She was experiencing a major toothache. You might think that her problem is a minor one since it has an obvious solution of going to the dentist. She already did. The castle has innumerable healthcare workers including a doctor, a nurse, a physical therapist, a dentist, annnnd yeah that’s it. But the point is that there is a dentist on hand, but she couldn’t find anything wrong with her teeth. And so this is where our story begins…

“Well I’m afraid to inform you, your highness, but her teeth are perfectly fine” the dentist said with total irony. 

“WHAT?! That can’t be true. Doctor, her teeth are in agony” Queen Meliee shrieked.

“Yep, no cavities, no new teeth coming in, no harmful bacteria, nothing, her teeth are as healthy as a horse!” the dentist replied with much enthusiasm.

“Well, what are we going to do about her toothache?! Beriee is going to cry if she learns that she’s going to have to live with a toothache for the rest of her life!” Queen Meliee shrieked even louder than before and almost came to tears thinking about her poor daughter.

“I’m sure there’s something that can be done”, King apriee nervously stated trying to reassure his wife, “Is there anything more we can do?” The King turned to the dentist and asked. 

“I don’t know if this is true, but I’ve heard of this witch that lives in the Forest of the Rangoe that can supposedly cure any illness. Now I know the princess doesn’t have an illness, but maybe this witch can help, '' the dentist said with much uncertainty. 

The king and queen looked at each other with sparkles of hope in their eyes. 

“I know where that is! Come on, call the guards and have a carriage ready for us to head there right away! Thank you so much!” King Apriee  exclaimed excitedly.

“We will be waiting for your safe arrival and good luck” the dentist replied to the king and queen who were already out the door.

The whole palace was in an emergency state, maids running around with food, water, and other necessities in their hands, horse neighing, stablemen carrying out food for the horses, and coachmen rapidly putting on their uniform. Now where was I amongst all this chaos you ask? Well as the butler, I was monitoring the whole process and oh boy was that a headache. Because I didn’t think I was going on this journey with them. I was surprised when King Apriee asked me, 

“Fredrick, we would be honored to have you accompany us on this journey, would you like to join us?” 

“I would be delighted and honored, your highness,” I replied happily. 

How could I say “no” to the king? His highness gave me some time to pack up my necessities and then we were off on our journey.

Amongst all this chaos and sudden journey Princess Berrie seemed oblivious to everything. 

“Ow, mommy my tooth hurts! Where are we going anyway?” the princess whined. 

“The dentist found nothing wrong with your teeth, but she told us of the witch that lives in the Forest of the rangoe that cures illnesses, so that’s where we’re headed”, the queen enthusiastically stated.

“Wait, what? I thought that was just a ow! myth. Also having a toothache means I’m sick?!” the princess cried.

“No, honey, but we’re hoping that the witch can ease your toothache,” the king answered her daughter.

“Your highnesses, we have arrived at the forest” I recalled saying. 

I think we traveled perhaps a couple miles, I'm not sure since one of the requirements for this job didn't include knowing the distance we traveled. I escorted them out onto the fluffy grass and had them follow me to an antique door. 

“Is that safe?” The queen inquired.

“I'm sure it is,” I calmly answered. 

I gently knocked on the door and a couple seconds later the door swung open on its own. Their Highnesses seemed scared and hesitant, but I pretended not to notice and walked inside. We walked through a long hallway with humongous twisted vines along the walls. Once we got to the end of the hallway we entered a huge circular room lined with a soft grass like purple colored carpeting and shelves of books alongside multiple kinds of potion bottles lined together. Leaning on the shelves were super long moveable ladders that shot up to the top of the house. At the very top was a circular window which exhibited a view of nature. There were about 5 other levels which I assumed were a bathroom, bedroom, and so on. The interior gave off a woody, magical feel with multiple huge vines from the hallway spewing into the room and candles floating in uniform along the shelves and other rooms. The smell of lavender, pine and a lingering burn smell penetrated the whole house. 

“Excuse me? Is anybody here?” I asked.

Suddenly a puff of purple smoke erupted and a lavender colored glitter showered down in front of us.

“Sorry, it was just a little something I was working on,” a high pitched sing-song-like voice said while she slapped her hands at the smoke. 

Out from the smoke appeared a young lady with curly hazel colored hair held by two pins near each ear. The young lady wore a royal blue colored simple dress with short sleeves and a flowy, wavy skirt. Half of her legs were covered by the charcoal black boots she had on which had a good amount of heel to them, they also had laces which were tied nicely in a perfect bow. 

“Ooof!”, she exclaims while waving away the excess smoke, “well what do we have here!” she says excitedly putting her hands on her hips.

I bowed to this jovial lady and spoke,

“Good afternoon ma’am I am the butler to King Apriee and Queen Meliee of ryawberstr. We have been given the privilege of taking this long journey from the kingdom to your house to fix a toothache of Princess Beriee.”

“Um.. did you go to a dentist?” she asked with much concern with a finger to her mouth. 

“Well, we-” I started to say. 

“Yes we did, but you see the doctor found nothing wrong! Nothing wrong! Can you believe it?! I mean look at my child, she is in the absolute pinnacle of agony and the doctor finds NOTHING wrong?! I mean how does that make any sense. You, young lady, you have some common sense, right? Don’t–

Okay, this is where I had to stop her. Once the queen starts she never stops. I know she is my highness but right now she looks and sounds like an insane erratic person and because it is my job to make her look presentable, I forced myself to intervene. Another aspect to note, the poor young lady looked even more concerned, especially knowing that a queen isn’t supposed to act out of uniform. 

“If I may your highness, well ma’am we did, but to no avail. The dentist found nothing wrong with the Princess and advised that we visit you because she heard of your ability to cure any illness. So not to put too much pressure, but you’re basically our only hope” I smiled, my gloved hands nicely folded, the right one over the left.

“Oh dear,” was all that came out of this witch’s mouth.

She put her hands on her head and walked around her room as if waiting for the right potion to float down into her hands.

“Well you see, people who are aware of my existence came from all over the world. I have healed chronic diseases and grew back limbs, but never have I been tasked with curing a toothache… Maybe the only thing left to do is pull the injured tooth out?” she nervously suggested sensing how the king and queen would react.

“PULL IT OUT?!” the queen almost screamed and rushed to her daughter standing right next to her, who was staring at the floating candles above her. The queen tightly put her arms around her as a child would to their mother when getting dropped off on their first day at nursery school. She must’ve been in a detrimental state because she proceeded to bawl her eyes out and tried to gracefully caress her hair. However it looked more like she was slapping her head. may I remind the audience that the queen is the one acting this way, not the princess…the queen. 

Ooh boy. Do you remember when I referred to her as an insane erratic person? Okay, so scratch that, NOW she is acting like an insane erratic person. I apologize for the confusing inconvenience. 

“Well there seems to be no other solution….your highness?” she responded with obvious confusion. I guess she also realized what an insane erratic person the queen truly is. 

“There has to be SOMETHING about a tooth in one of your spell books! Please little lady, my daughter is suffering everyday! The first thing she thinks about when she wakes up is her toothache. Not the warm soothing sun or the fluffy comfort of her silky bed or her own mother! Her own-”

“Well, now that you mention it, if I combine certain types of potions like the swishmish and the dippodoudoo. Maybe it’ll do something to alleviate her pain. Oh! And if it works I can add it to my spell book, how exciting!” the young lady said, cutting the queen off (May the heavens bless her for doing that) and began to ramble on about the different combinations of potions while entering into a room, the door automatically opening inviting her in. 

“Mr. Millbrook, are you certain that we are at the correct place? She seems a bit… how shall I put it… unstable…no?” the king asked with much irony.

“I assure you your highness, I have brought you to the place the dentist suggested we visit.” I replied.

“Millbrook, do I have to get my teeth pulled out?” The princess looked at me with puppy-like eyes. She continued with tears mounting in her eyes, “I don’t want to”. 

I didn’t know what to say, but from my perspective it seems like that may have to happen, but I couldn’t tell her that, especially since the witch hasn’t even tried anything. 

A translucent purple bottle with a glittery liquid rolls to my feet. I pick it up and look towards the direction of where it came from. Across the room, an open door stood. A few puffs of smoke flew out of the door. A minute ago, a blaring wave of red smoke blew out that same door and oddly enough it smelt like cotton candy. We all looked at each other with worrisome eyes as these strange occurrences came out from the room who will be put in charge of the Princess' teeth. 

“Ohhhhh boy! Okay! Are you ready?” she beamed looking at the timid Princess. 

She violently shook her head “no” but the witch didn’t notice. Or at least she pretended not to. 

“I prepared two potions for you to try, don’t worry I followed my instincts, which by the way are the most accurate set of instructions you can follow, and I was thinking about making a third one, but why not just try these two first?” the witch beamed excitedly when a cloud filled with an assortment of colored sprinkles.

“You’re following your instincts?? Are your spell books not enough?! One time I followed my instincts when I accidentally added a whole egg, including the shell int-” the queen started to yap, but once again and thankfully couldn’t speak another word, because of good ol wonderful me!

“WHAT she means miss, is that although she is hesitant towards your unusual but magical ways, she is more than thrilled to have someone like you who is willing to help your dear daughter in misery”  I smiled.

“Well then let’s get started! If you behave I’ll give you an eternal gum drop machine!” the witch stated incentively.

“Ohh yay!” the princess exclaimed as she scurried towards the witch who motioned for her to sit on a small hot pink fluffy chair. 

The princess jumped right into the arms of the chair and opened her mouth as wide as she could for the witch to work her magic. The witch grabbed the first bottle which looked like those beakers the science kids use except the tube part of it was round instead of straight. The beaker contained a sky blue dense liquid? with small pearls decorating it, I’m not even certain that one would even call it a liquid, because it moves when she tilting it for a long time, but when she was moving it back and forth really fast, it didn’t look like it budged. While it appeared very hazardous for a child to put in their mouth, I trusted that she knew what she was doing. After the witch finished her potion shaking performance, she instructed the princess, 

“So I’m going to give you a medium sized piece and I want you to put it in your mouth. BUT! The texture is going to feel like a hundred bugs wiggling in your mouth, BUT! There are no bugs I promise, I can do it before you do, to prove that. When you feel it DON’T! Spit it out, swish the substance around in your mouth until the wiggliness goes away, it will be gone in a second, so DON’T waste your time squirming around acting disgusted, okay?” the witch explained? Was it an explanation? If I was the kid I would’ve felt petrified because it sounded like a threat. 

Out of the corner of my eye, I even saw the queen jump out everytime the witch emphasized one of the words. The princess masked on an expression of slight fear but an overwhelming amount of confusion. However I believe she kept the incentive in mind because her hand was extended even though the witch didn’t demonstrate. She handed a piece to the princess and she looked at it, inspecting for anything in particular. Once she felt satisfied with her search, she popped it into her mouth and immediately she looked like she was going to throw up. 

“NO! Remember what i said, swish it around, don’t throw it up, you’ll ruin it!” the witch cried, demonstrating how it should be done by blowing her cheeks up into a bubble and moving her skinny arms in a circular motion to emphasize the swish. 

The princess flailed her arms around, but managed to successfully swish it around and deeply sighed. 

“Good job, Princess! How do you feel? Do you still feel any tooth pain?” the witch asked

“Um, I don't know?” the Princess answered confusingly. 

She moved her lips from side to side to determine the status of the tooth. Although she seemed healed, when she pressed her hand to the side of her cheek that the toothache was located, she yelped in pain. 

“OWW! No, it’s still there” the princess whined.

“That’s alright, that’s why I made two! Here’s the other one” the optimistic witch reassured and whipped out the other potion which was contained in a translucent ball- like container.

 inside, a liquid (now this one, you can actually call a liquid) colored deep blue sat waiting to be drunk. The witch once more switched the liquid around and when she finished, the liquid became bubbly and a gold glitter scattered throughout the liquid. 

The witch handed the princess the new drink and instructed her to do the same thing she did as last time and down the drink went into the princess’ throat. 

“Hmm that one’s good!” the princess exclaimed after she finished taking the drink.

“Ow! My mouth still hurts! Am I going to be stuck like this forever?” the princess whined. 

The king and queen exchanged worried glances wondering the same thing. I looked back at the witch who seemed confuzzled and stressed then she suddenly left the room scratching her head. 

“Wait, where is she going? My daughter is still in pain!” the king directed at both the witch and I.

“I’m sure she’s just getting another potion or something” I stated nervously hoping it was true. 

A few minutes of awkward, eerie silence went by when the witch came back with a bottle of toothpaste. Not even like fancy magical toothpaste, just good ol fashioned toothpaste. 

“Well, I think this is the only thing that can cure it,” the witch said while walking towards the princess with the tube in her hand. She continued, 

“I made it myself! It’s a special candy toothpaste that I transferred into a normal tube to make sure no one steals it. It tastes super good and I haven’t gotten a cavity since I started using it! It’s brilliant, it really is, now I’m hoping that this can do something for your toothache”

“How would you get a cavity if you’re a witch? Can’t you make it go away with your magic?” the king inquired. 

“Nope, it’s witch code. Rule no. 326, if a witch ever gets a cavity they must visit the dentist, I can do whatever I want to prevent it, but if I get one I have to visit the dentist” the witch replied in a nonchalant tone. 

The witch held out her hand like holding a tray and a toothbrush popped out from nowhere. She squeezed a tiny amount of the candy toothpaste onto the toothbrush and motioned for Princess Beriee to open her mouth. She happily compiled and the witch started brushing away. The king and queen once again exchanged a worried glance probably trying to fathom how candy toothpaste will make a toothache go away. I mean it’s VERY unusual, but that just might be the trick. 

“Okay, now this is safe toothpaste, so you can just swallow it!” the witch happily stated. 

After a big gulp the princess started smashing her hand against her cheek to check for her toothache. 

“Mommy, it’s gone!” the princess announced with her eyes lit up.

The king and queen were stunned, absolutely speechless, they couldn’t move. Princess Beriee ran toward them, seeing as they weren’t going to run toward her and she showed them her teeth. They looked into her mouth and the queen asked, 

“Are you sure it doesn’t hurt, how do you know?”

“When I smash my hand against my cheek it would normally sting, but just now when I did it didn’t sting!” the princess excitedly replied.

The king and queen looked at each other with relief and the king stepped forward to the witch. 

“Wow, thank you so much for healing our daughter’s toothache, we really appreciate it. I do, however, must apologize for doubting your magical abilities, it was just something new and we were scared of it I guess. Is there anything we can do to repay you?” the king asked calmly at the witch. 

“Yea, one thing, don’t ever tell anyone where I am or what I did for your daughter, I won’t be able to stand the amount of people that will come, oh my the thought is making me faint” the witch expressed. 

As she started falling a sky blue cloud from above sped down and swooped right underneath the witch, just in time to catch her fall.

“Ta-ta”' the witch waved goodbye at us and disappeared into the other clouds above. 

“Well, your highnesses now that we are back on track we should probably head home, we wouldn’t want to keep everyone worried” I announced, “after you all” my hands directing them towards the tunnel that led us here. 

“Awww, I’m going to miss her. BYE NICE WITCH!” Princess Beriee yelled with her hands cupped. 

The king and Queen smiled at each other and took the hands of their daughter and started walking away from the witch’s house. I looked back one last time and bowed in thanks for her service and I too started to walk away from her house. 

The End