Touslesnap and Pompominy
Kocian and Strange Chap trudged out of the throne chamber to the corner of the building, where a big stone was laying on the floor. Its original place was obviously not that one but in a huge hole in the wall. We have a reason to say apparently, because both the stone and the hole were apparent.
"Look," said the prince. "I think it's really no biggie for you to put that back."
"You're right!" Strange Chap nodded. "Is this the wish?"
"Of course it is. A castle should not have hole, after all!"
"No, it really shouldn't," the ghost stated with firm belief. "Your wish is coming true immediately!"
Kocian bent closer and observed the stone which had been accurately placed back to where it belonged with great pleasure. Then he looked a little bit farther up… and to the side… and then he said to Strange Chap with a much retained tension in his voice "I didn't tell you to make all windows and gates disappear, too!"
"Why?" the ghost defended his action. "Aren't those all holes? And you specifically said that your castle should have no more holes in it!"
"Now I wish that it was just like before, and then we should go see Hocus, he lives right there in that tower."
"Well, that is a pretty unreasonable request, because then why did you wish just the opposite a minute ago? But be that as you wish," the ghost shrugged his shoulders.
In the twinkling of an eye, they were standing at the doorstep of Hocus, the biggest and most entertaining magician of Cerbengocia. The magician was sitting in front of his eight microprofessored, funputer riddled with magic cards and 777 abracadabras and he was apparently absorbed with his work.
"At least you could have knocked!" he whispered into Strange Chap's ears. The ghost of the alarm-clock nodded and he knocked. From the inside, that is.
"Come in!" the magician shouted, not even turning his head.
"And once you're here to bother me, at least fetch me the golden magic disk from the shelf next to the door!"
He hardly finished uttering his wish, when Strange Chap jumped next to him with the disk in question in his hand.
"Interesting," said the magician "how quick you've become. And tell me, what brings you here?"
"It was not the wind," said Kocian, still standing in the doorway politely. "It was a ghost."
"I bet that if you look at this thing closely, you will find that these two are just the same," Hocus murmured. "But once you're here to give me the disk, then what are you still doing standing in the doorway?"
"I didn't give you the disk, the ghost did. This is precisely the thing I wanted to ask your advice about."
The magician shifted his attention from the monitor, directly facing Strange Chap.
"Ghost? Are you saying a ghost? Well, well, isn't it so! What's more… yes, yes, a third-breed miraculum-isotopic wish generator. Very interesting indeed, I've read a lot about them, but so far I've never believed they existed at all!"
"Who are you?” the ghost asked his usual question.
"I'm Hocus, the Cerbengese…"
"Okay, okay, leave it, you must all be relatives, judging by your names. The thing is, you just have to tell me your wish and I will make it come true!"
"Well this is what it's all about", Kocian sighed. "And you just have to wish something. But Hocus, please consider it thoroughly, otherwise…"
And he told Hocus about all the vicissitudes that had occurred so far. "What else could happen?" he added anxiously.
"Aha, I see it now!” said Hocus.
The magician jumped up and started to roam his room with long steps, his beard waving after him.
"What could happen? A wish!" Strange Chap added with mush emphasis.
"Let's see…" the magician pondered." What could I wish that I myself cannot solve? I don't think anything could be like that."
Then he suddenly stopped. "Maybe if…"
"Yes?" Strange Chap and Kocian asked at the same time.
Hocus shook his head.
"No, that's not right, on second thought." He kept on walking in circles. "But if I wished, let's say, for him to do something that he himself cannot do…"
Strange Chap conspicuously yawned.
"This theory was already rebutted by Doctor Ineverypie in the sixth year of Dewy Molehill's reign."
"What…what are you talking about?" Kocian said dumbfounded.
" I'm talking nonsense!" the magician snarled at them. "And our friend is right. Because a wish like that, according to the undisputable theory of Doctor Ineverypie doesn't exist. In other words, this isn't the wish itself, but the wish of the wish, and thus unwishable due to the lack of its precondition.”
"I don't understand but I guess it's right," Kocian shook his head.
"It is exactly so, but this does not solve our problem," said the magician. He stopped by the window and stared outside, stroking his beard. He caught glimpse of a little hut. He inadvertently popped out a sentence, when he absent-mindedly pointed at the house in the distance:
"I wish he had visited that naughty dwarf, he would surely have a thousand ideas as to all kinds of wishes."
A wish is a wish, so Strange Chap disappeared to make it come true, and Kocian and Hocus exchanged worried glances.
"Touslesnap and Pompominy, what now?" the magician clutched his head. "But all is not lost! I'll find some information about this rascal in the magic database! We already have a point of departure: how on earth does he know Doctor Ineverypie? What did he say exactly? Ah, I remember! The sixth year of the reign of Dewy Molehill…"
So he wobbled back into his chair in front of his funputer and buried himself in his research.