Shrinkle-Dinkle pulled out his wand and right-sized everything within range as fast as he could mumble the spell and point his wand. As the pandemonium began to die down Oops and Whoops turned toward Shrinkle-Dinkle. The hearts filled with love that had tempered their mischievous side were now too small to overwhelm it. To make matters worse with each terrible, selfish act they had shrunk their own hearts even more. They cared only for their own amusement. All love for their cousin had been squeezed out.

They threw potion after potion at him. Shrinkle-Dinkle dodged and swerved, zagged and zigged, nearly missing every potion they threw at him until a bottle of Gro-Po™ shattered on the ground in front of him and splashed his feet. His feet suddenly swelled to ten times their original size and his legs could no longer move them. As he raised his wand to right-size his feet, Oops threw a shrinking potion, the last of the potions they stole, at Shrinkle-Dinkle.

The jar hit Shrinkle-Dinkle’s hand, knocking the wand away. Potion spilled over the rim and onto his hand and one of his rather large feet. Shrinkle-Dinkle’s hand shrunk to the size of a baby’s hand and his foot shrunk to just three times its natural size.

Oops and Whoops closed in, smiling at how they’d trapped their prey. “What should we do to him first?” Oops asked.

“Let’s shrink his teeth one by painful one,” Whoops said.

“Or we could giant size each of his organs individually.”

“Pretty painful either way.”

Oops raised his wand.

“Or,” Whoops said, raising his own wand, “We could do both at the same time.”

Oops and Whoops both laughed. All sense of remorse, pity, and empathy had been pushed out when their hearts shrank.

“I’m sorry!” Shrinkle-Dinkle shouted.

Oops and Whoops stopped. Oops looked at Whoops and shrugged. Whoops looked at Oops and shrugged.

“I didn’t mean to do it,” Shrinkle-Dinkle said. “I didn’t mean to change you. I just wanted you to stop exploding stink root in my face. I wanted you to know how much it hurt, how much it cost us. I hate when you play tricks on me.”

“We were just having fun,” Oops said. “We thought you liked it too,” Whoops said. They looked into his eyes and both of them finally understood the burden Shrinkle-Dinkle carried of providing for them while they played and exploded his potions and made messes for him. A tear rolled down each of their faces. “I’m sorry,” they said almost together. And right there, each of their hearts swelled to twice their original size.

Shrinkle-Dinkle looked from his cousins to the mayhem around them. “Let’s fix this,” he said.

For the first time Oops and Whoops looked beyond themselves and their cousin to the catastrophe they had brought on the human village.

“Oops,” said Whoops.

“Whoops,” said Oops.

“Let’s fix this,” Shrinkle-Dinkle said again, but this time he added, “together.”

Oops found Shrinkle-Dinkle’s wand and handed it to him so he could fix his hand, while Whoops found a bit left in the jar of the shrinking potion and restored Shrinkle-Dinkle’s feet. The three of them then set the village aright, while Shrinkle-Dinkle right-sized everything, Oops and Whoops repaired the damage caused by the fire, the goat eating the thatched roofs and chimneys, and any other damage caused by their mischief.

Once they finished setting the village aright and making what peace they could with the humans, Shrinkle-Dinkle taught his cousins about the herbs and leaves and roots that the forest held and how to gather the ingredients for his potions.

Together, they worked to rebuild the stock of potions and with Oops and Whoops help, fairies from far and wide learned of Gro-Po™ and Shrinky-Dinky™ and all three of them prospered.

Now Oops and Whoops are still known to play practical jokes quite often, but only ones that make Shrinkle-Dinkle laugh too. And Shrinkle-Dinkle never shrunk his cousins (or any part of them) again.