It was a typical morning in Luminvale. Birds chirped, the sky was a brilliant shade of blue, and the smell of fresh pastries wafted through the air like a warm hug. Milo, however, was stuck in a particularly sticky situation.
Literally.
As the sun streamed through the open window of his apothecary, Milo wiped the last traces of bubble soap from his hands and sighed in defeat. He had just spent the last ten minutes trying to get rid of an enormous bubble that had somehow attached itself to the ceiling, hanging there like a shimmery, translucent jellyfish.
"Okay, Milo," he muttered to himself, "you've done weirder things. You've... literally made an invisibility potion that turned a whole cow invisible."
He glanced up at the bubble again.
"Okay, maybe not literally weirder, but still."
It was at that moment that the door swung open with its usual creak-and-bell-jingle combo, and in stepped Luca, Milo's best friend, and eternal critic of all things Milo-related. Luca was holding an oversized smoothie the size of a small boulder, and as he entered, a pastry flew out of his pocket and landed perfectly on Milo's head.
"Milo, buddy," Luca said with a grin, "you've got a bubble problem, but it looks like you're already poppin' off in the wrong direction." He pointed at the ceiling, where the enormous bubble shimmered.
Milo stared at him blankly. "It's... a bubble, Luca. I'm not popping off. I'm freaking out. Do you see this thing? It's alive!"
"Not alive," Luca replied, taking a swig from his smoothie. "Just really, really stubborn. It's like your plants when you yell at them. Maybe if you tell it you love it, it'll float away."
Milo groaned. "Plants don't yell at me, Luca, and they don't ignore me when I tell them I love them either."
Alma, who had been perusing an ancient potion book at the counter, looked up and added helpfully, "You're not supposed to yell at plants. Grandma Willow says that plants like to be spoken to kindly, especially the Whisperbloom flowers."
"Right. Whisperbloom. Of course." Milo pinched the bridge of his nose.
"That's a lovely thought, Alma, but I'm about five seconds away from throwing this bubble out the window, and if that doesn't work, I'm going to scream." Milo groaned, rubbing his temples.
Before anyone could say anything else, the door jingled again, and in stepped Liliana Poofwell, Luminvale's most infamous self-proclaimed "bubble enthusiast." She bounced into the shop, her high-pitched voice ringing out like a kazoo.
"Oh, goodie! It's you!" she squealed, clapping her hands. "I was hoping you'd be open today! I need your expert skills, Milo!"
Milo blinked. "Uh... sure, Liliana. You're the, um, bubble person, right?"
"Exactly!" Liliana clasped her hands together with a sparkle in her eye. "I need something special for my next bubble-blowing competition! My bubbles just keep popping too soon! I need a potion that will make them last longer. But it can't be too thick, or they'll get all gooey, you know? It has to be perfect!"
Milo rubbed his eyes. "Sure, I think I've got something for that. But... um, just a heads-up, Liliana. The last time you asked for 'long-lasting' anything, you turned a whole batch of soap into... well, I don't even know what that was, but it stuck to the side of the bakery for three days."
Liliana giggled, completely unfazed. "Oh, I know—that was such a fun accident! But this time, I'm positive you can make it work! You are the best potion-maker in town!"
Milo winced. He wasn't technically the best, but he did have a knack for fixing weird problems, and Luminvale did tend to have a lot of them.
"Okay, fine," he said, shaking his head, "one potion for un-poppable bubbles coming right up."
As Milo mixed the ingredients, Luca leaned over, still juggling pastries and sipping his smoothie. "So, uh, what's the plan here? Are we using the same potion that turned my laundry into a sentient sock last time?"
"No," Milo said, trying to focus. "That was a misfire. This time, I'm being... careful. I promise."
He added a little bit of Wispweed Essence, followed by Moonpetal Petals for an extra bit of sheen. The mixture bubbled gently, and Milo smiled, feeling confident for the first time that morning.
"This is going to be perfect," he said. "Trust me, guys, there's no way this could go wrong."
As if on cue, The Frog Stool, which had been quietly observing in the corner, gave a little croak. It had been sitting there for weeks ever since a potion mishap turned it into a frog-like creature. The stool waved at Milo, as if encouraging him to carry on. "Ribbit?"
Milo stared at the frog. "Right. That's... not weird at all."
He finished the potion and handed it to Liliana, who was practically vibrating with excitement. "Here you go," he said. "Just a drop or two, and your bubbles should last a lot longer without popping. You'll have the shiniest bubbles on the block."
Liliana squealed and took the vial eagerly. "Oh, Milo, I knew you were the one! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
"No problem," Milo said, trying to smile despite the feeling in his gut. "Just be careful not to overdo it. A little goes a long way with magical bubbles."
But before Milo could finish his warning, Liliana had already dashed out the door, clutching the vial like it was a winning lottery ticket.
It wasn't until later that afternoon that Milo started to realize just how wrong things were going.
It started with the sounds.
A faint popping noise in the distance.
Then louder.
Then... a lot louder.
By the time Milo was out the door and standing in the middle of Luminvale Square, he was greeted by a truly ridiculous sight: Liliana, standing in the middle of a huge crowd, blowing bubbles. But not just any bubbles.
They were enormous. Gigantic. And they didn't pop.
They floated lazily in the air, shimmering in the sunlight like soap-covered moons. And the crowd? The crowd was completely mesmerized.
But there was one small problem.
Each bubble was too big.
And each one was floating higher and higher, as if they were escaping the bonds of gravity itself.
"I can't get them down!" Liliana cried, waving her arms helplessly. "Help, Milo!"
Milo stared up at the sky. The bubbles were everywhere now, floating like a pastel-colored army, drifting toward the horizon.
"Okay, I think I made a mistake," Milo muttered to himself. "I definitely should've tested that potion more..."
Then, the worst part happened.
The bubbles started to merge.
One bubble slowly began to encompass another, and soon, there was a massive, glowing bubble the size of a house hovering above Luminvale. The townsfolk below were looking up, mouths agape, unsure whether to be amazed or terrified.
"Oh, no, no, no," Milo muttered. "This is not good."
Just then, a particularly large bubble—possibly a sentient one—decided to roll across the town square, knocking over a cart of apples and sending a confused chicken flying through the air.
"Oops!" Liliana said sheepishly, but it was too late. The giant bubble, now filled with an absurd number of smaller bubbles, was careening down the street, picking up speed as it bounced off the cobblestones. It hit a bakery's window, sending flour and frosting everywhere in a glorious explosion of sticky chaos.
The townspeople were running now, some trying to outrun the giant bubbles, while others were trying to catch them with fishing nets, which... wasn't going well.
"Milo!" Liliana wailed. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean for this to happen! What do we do?"
Milo stared at the mess, then at the giant bubble slowly approaching him, as if daring him to try and stop it. He sighed. "Okay, plan time."
After a moment of thinking—okay, fine, maybe not much thinking—he grabbed his emergency "random" potion kit, which, in hindsight, might have been too random for this situation.
"You're going to help me clean this up, right?" Milo said, as he began brewing a potion to de-bubble the situation. "You know, because this... is all your fault."
"I'm so sorry!" Liliana wailed, hugging the giant bubble as it gently bobbed next to her. "I'll make it up to you!"
"Just... stop creating bubbles! For the love of Luminvale!"
Milo grabbed a few Crushing Herbs and combined them with some Bubbleleaf Sap. If he could make the potion strong enough, maybe he could at least pop the bubbles... without accidentally creating a bubble apocalypse.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity (and after he had to dodge three more wayward bubbles), Milo threw the potion at the giant floating mass.
The result was not as expected.
Rather than deflating the bubbles, the potion caused them to start growing even bigger—bigger than Milo had ever imagined possible.
But... this time, they were solid bubbles. Like, super solid.
"Uh, Liliana, I think I may have just made an... unpopable bubble fortress."
Liliana blinked. "You mean like a bubble house?"
"No, more like a bubble giant," Milo said, pointing at the rapidly expanding orb above them.
And just when it seemed like the situation couldn't get worse, one of the bubbles—thankfully not the giant one—landed right in the middle of the bakery's entrance. Out popped a very flustered Mayor Flanagan, who had apparently gotten trapped inside one of the bubbles.
"I—" Mayor Flanagan gasped for air. "I was trying to sample the new cherry pie, and then—"
"No time for pie, Mayor!" Milo shouted. "We need to fix this before every last bubble in Luminvale floats away!"
"Don't worry," Mayor Flanagan said, dusting himself off and stepping out of the bubble with a strange grace. "Leave it to me! I've got this—for justice! And pie!"
Milo facepalmed. "Great. Now there's a pie army involved."
In the end, the bubbles were eventually corralled using a combination of magic, rope, and a very large net made of old fishing gear. Liliana's bubble-blowing dreams had turned into a circus of unexpected proportions, but at least they didn't end up being entirely catastrophic.
Liliana, covered in soap bubbles and sporting an unshakable grin, turned to Milo. "Okay, maybe the potion wasn't perfect. But we definitely made some memories!"
Milo sighed, wiping his brow. "I'll make sure next time that the potion doesn't turn the whole town into a giant bubble bath. Promise."
"Next time?" Liliana asked with a wide grin. "So, you're saying you're already planning next time?"
Milo rubbed his face. "No... I think I'm done with bubbles for the next century."
"Well, if you change your mind, I'll be here!" Liliana giggled.
Milo let out a long, exhausted sigh. And then, after a beat, he added, "Right. But no more giant bubbles. Deal?"
"Deal!" she said cheerfully.
As the sun set over the town, Milo knew he'd need a nice, quiet evening... with no bubbles involved. Just a little peace and maybe a warm cup of chamomile tea.
And maybe a nap.
Definitely a nap.