They walked and talked, and she explained that she was not involved with anyone else, having gotten past a brief near encounter with Jack, who had disappeared some time ago. She had wondered if there had been any connection between Jack’s disappearance and her brother Hansel’s. However, Gretel did not know that Hansel had been cooked in the shrinking radiation of Dinella Lawson’s oven and eaten by her.

Before that day was out, Bruno and Gretel enjoyed their first intersized kiss, and Bruno was elated that he had trusted and obeyed God. Now he could enjoy all of Gretel’s heart, not just the stolen portion that he might otherwise have had from Pottiffera. He and Gretel would be together forever, and live a life of happiness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Well,” said Miss Yoop, “What excuse have you to offer?”

“I didn’t know if anyone lived here, Madam,” explained Woot, “So, being a wanderer in these parts, and wishing to find a place to sleep, I ventured to enter your castle.”

“You knew it was private property, I suppose?” said she.

“I didn’t know if it was still used in these times,” said Woot.

“Well my name is Miss Yoop, and  I frequently make use of it for cooking and eating, which are the two things I enjoy most in life,” said the giantess.

Woot the Wanderer was silent for a time, uneasily considering this statement and the effect it might have on his future. No doubt the giantess had wilfully made him her prisoner. Yet she spoke so cheerfully in her big voice, that until now he had not been alarmed in the least.

“Am I to consider you my friend, Miss Yoop, or do you intend to be my enemy?” asked Woot, who was both wary of the beautiful giantess and strongly amorous of her.

“I never have friends,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone, “because friends get too familiar and always forget to mind their own business. But I am not your enemy, not yet anyhow. Indeed, I’m glad you’ve come, for my life here is without an abundance of special treats. I haven’t seen anyone else since I captured the flying boy from Neverland called Peter Pan.”

“How did you manage to do that?” asked Woot the Wanderer in amazement, “A flying boy could have flown higher than your height.”

“He could,” said the giantess, “but now he is my pet and my prisoner. One day I looked out my castle window and saw Peter Pan flying over the Land of Oz, on his way somewhere. I quickly concealed a bag on my person, went up to the castle roof, stood at my full height, swung the bag over Peter Pan and snared him. Knowing that he could fly, I took him back down inside, carefully removed him from the bag and put him straight into my mouth. After a few minutes, I was ready to swallow him. I gulped several times, until he had fallen down my throat, but he was a most annoying little boy and kept flying back up my throat. Though he could not force his way out of my mouth, I found I had to keep gulping him down again and again, which, as you might understand, did not give me the final satisfaction of having eaten him. I soon came to realise that I would have no peace from having him in there. So I put my mouth to the cage door, let Peter Pan fly up my throat once more and out into the cage. He flew out of my mouth so fast, that he was in the cage before he knew it, and there he has remained ever since. I have kept him as a pet to amuse me.”