This story was created with Twee and is powered by TiddlyWiki.

You repack your bags and walk back out the door. You signed up do to magic, not deal with ghosts! Lady gives you a big slobber and Alfie waves as you leave.\n\nAs you walk back through the city to the gate, you turn around to look at the Wizard Tower one last time. You think you see a glint of light coming from a window at the very top. You go home and every once in a while think about what might have been if you had stayed and learned from the Great Googolplex.\n\nTHE END

You offer the wizard a cookie from your bag.\n\n"Oh my wonderful Apprentice, you may call me Googley," says the Great Googleplex between bites. He licks the last crumbs off his fingers and exclaims, "but we have work to do! We must start now for it all begins soon!"\n\n[[Get settled into your room]]

You stumble down to the kitchen, and mumble a 'Good morning' to Alfie. He's making bread for the day, and has spilled some flour on the floor. You can see his footprints where he's walked through the flour.\n\n[[Ask to borrow some flour]]\n[[Sit down and eat]]

You collect the necessary ingredients and set up the banishing spell in your room. You pull out a long scroll and begin reading the ancient spell off of it, but you're unfamiliar with the words and mispronounce some of them. Strange lights behin to dance around your room, them zoom towards your bed and light it on fire!\n\n[[Put out the fire]]

You poke your head around the bedroom door and see tracks left in the powder! There are so many of them you can't count, and they are all over your bed. You spot a few sets of tracks that lead out of the room.\n\n[[Follow the tracks down the hallway]]

You arrive in the Capital, the largest city in the Counting Kingdom. Carefully holding on to your spellbooks and wand you walk up the hill to the tallest building - the Wizard's Tower. Before you can knock on the door it blasts open and a big furry creature barrels down at you.\n\n<<choice 'Draw your wand'>>\n<<choice 'Dive out of the way'>>

You slowly walk inside the door, and marvel at the inside of the tower. You can see spellbooks piled on top of every surface, bottles filled with rare potion ingredients, and a plant that you think might have winked at you.\n\n"Well, what are you waiting for?" asks Alfie, "Go up and see him!"\n\nYou look up the twisting staircases and grab your bags.\n\n[[Climb up to the top of the tower]]

You pour yourself some orange juice and sit down to a plate piled high with eggs and toast. Alfie starts telling you a story about the time he cooked dragon eggs and as he talks he waves his arms, scattering more flour everywhere. You notice something different in the flour on the floor.\n\n[[Look more closely at the floor]]\n[[Go to class]]

You turn a corner and a big dark blur hits you and knocks you off your feet. You look up from the floor to see Lady above you, pawing at the food in your pockets. Before you know it you have puppies crawling all over you, sniffing inside your pockets and leaving little flour pawprints all over your cloak. \n\nYou've solved the Mystery of the Midnight Ghost - it was puppies all along!\n\nTHE END

You slam the door closed and slide the bolt. You're safely locked inside. You huddle under your blankets and sleep fitfully for the rest of the night, waking up tired.\n\n[[Go to breakfast]]

You trek all the way back up the stairs and find the Great Googolplex conversing with hundreds of different birds. There are great big purple birds, little yellow birds, and birds with blue feet.\n\n"Ah yes, come in, come in! We were all expecting you." The Great Googolplex and all of the birds turn towards you. You ask whether he's ever seen a ghost in the tower.\n\n"Oh my apprentice, ghosts aren't real!" He waves his hand and turns back to the birds, "Well, except for the ones who are real, of course. Goodness knows they can be a nuisance."\n\nThe Great Googolplex turns back to the birds, and starts whistling while waving his arms, then laughs. You're not quite sure what to make of all of it. \n\n<<choice 'Research spells for banishing ghosts'>>\n<<choice 'Stay up all night to catch the ghost'>>

You work hard all day, practicing your magic spells and potions with the Great Googolplex. You collapse into bed, but resolve to stay up for as long as you can. You need to get to the bottom of this!\n\nHours pass, and the flame on the candle by your bedside is about to go out when you hear a loud crash from just outside your door. You jump out of bed and grab your wand.\n\n<<choice 'Go investigate the noise'>>\n<<choice 'Lock the door'>>

You walk back down all 99 flights of stairs and drop, exhausted, into your bed. As you drift off to sleep you think about how different life is going to be in the Wizard Tower.\n\nThe next morning you start unpacking your bags. You search for the lemon cookies but they are missing! You know you had a bag of them last night.\n\n<<choice 'Go talk to the Great Googolplex'>>\n<<choice 'Go talk to Alfie'>>

The wizard draws himself up and brushes some fluttering moths out of his hair. "I am, of course, the Great Googolplex, inventor of the whoosidinger and master of the high arts of shenangigans. But wait.. do I smell lemon cookies?" He peers down closer with a grin and claps his hands together.\n\n<<choice "Say you don't have any cookies">>\n<<choice 'Offer him some cookies'>>

You tumble into the dirt and the beast veers straight for you, only to start licking your face and wagging its tail. It's a dog! "I see you've met Lady" says a tall man standing in the doorway with a grin. "I'm Alfie, the cook, and you must be the new apprentice! Come on in before Lady decides you need another bath."\n\n[[Go inside]]

You ask the wizard what he has been reading.\n\n"Why, the scrolls of Decimal the Second, the first high duke of The Counting Kingdom! He made a mean pumpkin pie and I've had a hankering recently.." He starts muttering about cinnamon and ginger roots and sketching charts of different oven configurations.\n\n[[Ask the wizard who he is]]

A shrill alarm pierces the night and buckets of water appear above the bed, dousing the fire and putting it out. You see the Great Googolplex standing in your doorway, looking displeased. "Perhaps you are not as ready for these responsibilities as I thought you might be. Playing with dangerous magic is no laughing matter. It would be best if you left now."\n\nAs the sun comes up you walk through the city with your bags once again packed, heading home.\n\nTHE END

You walk down to the kitchens where Alfie is making biscuits for breakfast. Lady walks up and licks your fingers. You tell him about the cookies and his eyes widen.\n\n"Oh no," he says, "It's real!"\n\nYou ask him what he's talking about.\n\n"The ghost! Some of my friends claimed they saw it on the stairs, but I thought they were making up stories. This proves it must be true! Who else could have taken your cookies?"\n\nA ghost in the tower would be frightening. You think about what to do next.\n\n<<choice 'Research spells for banishing ghosts'>>\n<<choice 'Stay up all night to catch the ghost'>>\n<<choice 'Go home - this is getting too scary!'>>

You light a candle and peer out into the hallway again to see a huge, looming, furry creature. It's Lady - and she's had puppies! You can see crumbs all over the floor - one of the puppies has dragged bread up from the kitchen and is gnawing on it while others tumble into your room and start nosing through your bags - probably to look for more cookies! Lady looks up at you and licks your hand.\n\nYou've solved the Mystery of the Midnight Ghost - it was puppies all along!\n\nTHE END

You gather some ingredients and set up an alarm spell in your room. It's a pretty simple spell and you're able to easily set it up. Now it's time to get some rest.\n\n[[Go to sleep]]

You borrow a small bag of flour from Alfie and run out of the kitchen. You sprinkle the flour on the floor all around your room and carefully back out of the doorway, being careful not to disturb any. You run off to your morning potions practice, and return a few hours later.\n\n[[Open the bedroom door]]

"Whoa there!" calls a friendly voice, "He won't hurt you, careful where you point that thing." The beast turns out to be a huge dog, who promptly starts slobbering all over your face.\n\n"I'm Alfie, the cook", says the tall man in the door, "and that's Lady the dog. You must be the new apprentice. You're in the city now, you'll have to get used to loud noises! Come on in."\n\n[[Go inside]]

You slowly open the door and peek out into the hallway. You see huge gleaming eyes and you pull the door closed again. Through the wall you can hear heavy footsteps.\n\n<<choice 'Lock the door'>>\n<<choice 'Light a candle so you can see the hallway better'>>

You peer more closely at the flour on the floor, and notice that there are two sets of footprints. Wait, more than that! And they're not footprints, they're paw prints! You follow the trail of pawprints out of the kitchen, finding cookie crumbs every few feet.\n\n[[Follow the tracks down the hallway]]

You sit down at your workbench in the great hallway and start gathering ingredients for a new potion. The Great Googolplex walks in with a jar of spiders in each arm.\n\n"Ah! Did you figure out who your midnight visitor was?" he asks as he bustles by.\n\nYou have to admit you haven't figured it out yet, and you're out of leads.\n\n"Well perhaps next time, my Apprentice! We have time to make a proper wizard of you yet!"\n\nTHE END

The Mystery of the Midnight Ghost

"Hmm.." the wizard frowns at your bags disapprovingly. "Well, if you say so. We have work to do so it's time you get on your way downstairs."\n\n[[Get settled into your room]]

You climb up all ninety-nine flights of stairs, though you're not sure if the staircases were playing tricks on your because you think you walked up some of them twice.\n\n"Oh my!" comes a voice from behind a stack of books. "You're hear already? Is it a Tuesday? I thought we were still in a Blue moon!" An old man with ink-stained fingers appears and inspects you closely.\n\n<<choice 'Ask the wizard who he is'>>\n<<choice 'Ask what the wizard is reading'>>\n<<choice 'Say hello'>>

You go down into the depths of the Wizard Tower, where you find the biggest library you have ever seen. After paging through the scrolls for hours, you find two spells the might help you. \n\nThe first is a basic spell, which would make a loud noise if anyone - or anything - entered your room. \n\nThe second is an advanced spell, which banishes ghosts. The advanced spell is much harder than anything you've tried before, and it could be dangerous if you didn't get it quite right.\n\n<<choice 'Try the basic spell'>>\n<<choice 'Try the advanced spell'>>

A few hours later a high-pitched noise wakes you up, and you fight to get yourself untangled from your blankets. You can hear something skittering around your floor, then it runs out of the room.\n\n<<choice 'Lock the door'>>\n<<choice 'Go investigate the noise'>>

You walk down to the kitchens where Alfie is making biscuits for breakfast. Lady walks up and licks your fingers. You tell him about the cookies and his eyes widen.\n\n"Oh no," he says, "It's real!" You ask him what he's talking about.\n\n"The ghost! Some of my friends claimed they saw it on the stairs, but I thought they were making up stories. This proves it must be true! Who else could have taken your cookies?"\n\nA ghost in the tower would be frightening. You think about what to do next.\n\n<<choice 'Talk to the Great Googolplex'>>\n<<choice 'Research spells for banishing ghosts'>>\n<<choice 'Go home - this is getting too scary!'>>

"Umm.. hello?" you say while his bushy eyebrows draw closer to your face.\n\n"AHA!" he exclaims, "I knew it! Yes, the winds said we would need math magic, and so you have shown up on my door. You will be very handy against those pesky monsters."\n\n[[Ask the wizard who he is]]

An Apprentice's Adventure

You trek all the way back up the stairs and find the Great Googolplex conversing with hundreds of different birds. There are great big purple birds, little yellow birds, and birds with blue feet.\n\n"Ah yes, come in, come in! We were all expecting you." The Great Googolplex and all of the birds turn towards you. You ask whether he might have any ideas about the cookies.\n\nHe waves his hand and turns back to the birds, "Ah yes, that is to be expected now isn't it? Hmm, hmm, can't keep an eye on them all of the time!"\n\nThe Great Googolplex turns back to the birds, and starts whistling while waving his arms, then laughs. You're not quite sure what to make of all of it.\n\n[[Talk to Alfie the Cook]]