Back in Brobdingnag, Alice had so far spared Robert as she was only that keen on eating him when she was hungry. For the moment at least, their love affair continued.

Miss Yoop soon made friends with her neighbours: Alice and White Robert; Red Jean and Michael, Mrs Grimble and Jack, Serena and the Pied Pipe Eddy. She learned all that had recently happened in the giant kingdom and went back to talk to her captive pet Peter Pan, who was still caged in her bedroom.

“Oh well,” she said, “I can think of far less suitable places for a giantess and her castle to be relocated, than in a Valley of other Giantesses. I’ve learned what happened to your Lost Boys too. They have all been eaten by the local giantesses, at a banquet held by a giantess named Mrs Grimble … all except for one boy named Michael, that is. He’s now in love with the Red Jean.”

“Then my entire trip to save them has been fruitless,” said Peter, “To think that circumstance has brought me to their location, only so that I can discover that I have been too late, and the very woman who organised the banquet has a daughter who is now in love with the Pied Pipe Eddy who brought the Lost Boys here.”

“I don’t think it’s been fruitless that you came with me,” said Miss Yoop, “I think you’re quite a dashing little young man.”

“I’ve always thought you were very beautiful too,” said Peter.

 “Why didn’t you say so before?” asked Miss Yoop, “I’ve been fascinated with you ever since keeping you eaten became such a challenge.”

“I was preoccupied with saving the Lost Boys, but now that they’ve become the lost cause, I’d much rather be with you than return to Neverland.”

“Am I the only girl you’ve ever loved?” asked Miss Yoop.

“Well there was this girl called Wen-“

“You’re not supposed to tell a lady such things!” said Miss Yoop.

“I was going to say that she was the only other one, but that I didn’t love her a fraction as much as I love you.”

“Well I should hope not,” said Miss Yoop.

“Come to think of it, the amount of her that there was to love was only a fraction of the amount of you that there is to love. She was my size.”

“If you give me your word not to fly away, I’d love to let you out and be with you,” said Miss Yoop.

“I will,” said Peter, “And if you give me your word not to keep gulping me down repeatedly, I’d love to let you eat me again once a night before your real meals.”

And so began a love affair between Miss Yoop and Peter Pan.

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

Button Bright watched Cuisinella’s elegant feminine hands gently breaking the mushrooms into small pieces on the plate.

Then he watched her preparing and stirring the sauce in another saucepan on the stove. It was a yellowy pale brown colour. She let it cool down, while she lifted the plate and used her hand to brush the mushroom pieces into the saucepan. Button Bright watched them falling into the saucepan. She turned down the stove, stirred the mixture a few times and let it cool down until it was safe to put her finger in and taste the mixture.

“And that looks,” she began, and smiled at Button Bright, noting his pleasure at seeing her tongue come out and lick the spoon, “absolutely mouth watering. How are you enjoying the lesson so far, young man?”

“I can see why you reduced my size,” he said, “The view of you licking that spoon and your finger is even more fantastic from this perspective.”

“Thank you for saying so,” said Cuisinella, “Do you have any questions at this stage?”

“Is it going to be a vegetarian dish?” asked Button Bright.

“No, I don’t think so,” said Cuisinella, drinking from a glass of water she’d poured earlier, to wash the sauce down, “Why?”

“I was just waiting for you to add the meat, so I could find out what’s going into it,” he said.

“I’ll do that now,” said Cuisinella, smiling.

Button Bright looked around to see what type of meat she was going to reach, but couldn’t lay his eyes on anything on the bench. Then he saw her hand reaching down across the bench for him. She lifted him off the bench, put out her freshly cleaned tongue and licked the tiny Button Bright, before lowering him gently into the warm creamy mushroom sauce.

“It’s going to be me!” he said.