Chapter One
If you were to ask Jasper the Truffle Pog, he’d tell you Baking Day is his favourite day of the week. On Baking Day, the Meadow’s haze is awash with rose petal pie and pine nut crust. And on Baking Day, the air tastes of roasted vines and sweet red cherries.
Jasper loves food. But he can’t cook. There’s only one person in the Meadow who can do that. This person is called Daisy. Daisy hails from the Land of Summer. She comes from a family well-known for its extraordinary cooking skills, and it’s her job to prepare the food for the Wise One and his Masters when they meet at the Table of Trigons. That’s where they discuss matters of New and Old World alike. Such important business is very hungry work, and without Daisy, it would be impossible.
Now on the morning of this tale, Daisy was baking truffle pies. Jasper had delivered one of his finest hauls from the Old World Copse the day before, and everyone was looking forward to tasting them. There was a lot to be discussed that day, and the Masters would be much hungrier than they usually were. Not least of all Jasper. He alone needed a pie for tasting, a pie for snacking, and a pre-pie pie.
Daisy really had her work cut out for her. All she had to do was get the Pog out of her kitchen. Then, she could get on. Jasper had been hovering around as he always did on Baking Day, and now she’d had enough.
“I can barely get the taste of truffle in just one pie,” Jasper pleaded.
“It takes much more than that to appreciate all your hard work, Daisy. So if you don’t mind, I’ll help you with the tasting, and then we can be sure.”
Daisy could say very little to this. Her job was to keep the Meadow Masters happy – no matter what. But fortunately for her, Jeremiah was on the case.
“Ha! Surprise, surprise, a Pog in the kitchen on Baking Day!” he smiled, as he burst in. “Well, who’d have thunk it?!”
Jasper smiled back. He liked Jeremiah, even though he could get away with nothing when the Bunyip was around.
“Not me!”
He tugged absentmindedly at the buckles holding up his old dungarees. Beneath their blueberry stains and patches of dirt lay a round belly and a short coat the colour of warm gingerbread. As newly appointed Master-in-Training, Jasper was still working out how to control his sense of smell and taste. But even with all the guidance from the Wise One and his fellow Masters, he found it very difficult to ignore the one thing that drove everything he thought and did.
“Be off with ya now!” said Jeremiah as he stepped aside to reveal the wide blue yonder. “And don’t forget to be back in time for the meetin‟!”
So Jasper did just that.
Meanwhile, Daisy sat down on her cushion to think.
Strapped to her back, it looked like an eighteenth- century bustle from the Old World. But Daisy had no need of extra bustle. This cushion gave her legs and hindquarters a well-deserved rest in those rare moments between mealtimes.
She was excited at the prospect of the berries Jasper would find. There was no nose finer than the Truffle Pog‟s. That was for sure.
“He’ll be off foragin’ for most the morning, I expect,” said Jeremiah as he dusted the flour from her countertop. “And you lil’ lady can get on with what you do best.”
At this, Daisy stood up quickly. The Bunyip had just winked at her. Again! The last thing she wanted was for him to see her blush.
Chapter Two
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