The smell of freshly baked bread wafted through the air as Rosie entered the quaint little bakery on the corner.

"Good morning Aunty Marge!" Rosie said with an exuberant wave towards Marge, the bakery owner.

"Good morning Rosie. How's your ma' doing?" Marge asked as she wiped the flour away from her hands on her apron.

"She's much better now Aunty," Rosie grinned. "But she needs more rest and asked me to buy some bread for dinner."

"I hope she will be well soon," Marge said sincerely. "What do ya' want?"

Rosie looked around the small but cozy bakery. The shelves on the left had baskets filled with loaves of various shapes and sizes wrapped in paper. Display cases containing different sweet and savoury buns, flaky pastries and glistening tarts occupied the centre of the store. On the right side of the store was a chilled display section with cakes and cold desserts inside, and next to it was the counter where Marge was sitting.

Marge was just as interesting as the store. While her stocky physique gravitated a sturdy, no-nonsense aura commonly associated with dwarves, Marge always sported a kind and calming smile. Despite having some grey streaks in her hair, her nimbleness and smooth skin made people unsure of how old she really was. No one dared to ask, nor did Marge care to explain.

Rosie darted around the store with a wooden tray, her two pigtails trailing after her. After a few minutes, she went to the counter with two perfectly round loaves of bread, six spicy curry buns and three fruit tarts. Marge offered to help Rosie carry the tray, but Rosie adamantly declined and huffed as she gingerly laid the tray on the counter.

"That will be 20 Pinz," Marge said as she wrapped the buns and tarts. "Did your ma' give you enough?"

Rosie carefully counted the right amount of money three times before handing it over to Marge. As Rosie was paying, she noticed some colourful candies in a glass jar but held the urge to buy them.

"Do ya' want some?" Marge grinned after noticing Rosie's intense stares directed towards the candies.

Rosie turned to look at Marge, her bright blue eyes sparkling in desire. While she wanted to say yes, she stopped as she remembered her mummy did not say she can spend money on other things.

"Open your hands," Marge said as she placed two wrapped candies in Rosie's hands. "This is for free, okay?"

"Thank you Aunty Marge!" Rosie exclaimed in delight.

Marge smiled and placed the other items into a rectangular box embossed with Marge's bakery logo on the cover.

Rosie widened her eyes as she saw the loaves, which were wider than the box's width, resized themselves to fit neatly inside. While the buns and tarts didn't really shrink that much, she still thought that the box should not be able to hold all of them.

"What box is this Aunty? Why did all my bread became so small? Won't everything be squished?" Rosie asked worriedly.

"Don't worry dear," Marge chuckled. "This is something new I made. Your bread will be the same size once ya' take it out later."

"Try shaking it," Marge shut the lid and handed it to Rosie.

Hesitant at first, Rosie gently rocked the box at first but starting shaking it harder when she couldn't feel anything moving inside. The box was deceptively lightweight as well.

Skeptical, Rosie tried shaking it a few more times before returning it to Marge. "Is there really anything inside?" Rosie asked.

"O'course. Open it."

Rosie opened the lid and heaved in relief as all the loaves and buns and tarts were still there and un-squished. She tried taking out a loaf, but hastily stuffed it back in as it started to grow back to its original size.

"Anything in this box won't be broken, just be careful to close the lid or things will fall out," Marge said. "Bring this box next time ya' come, and don't show it to anyone else asides from your mum!"

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"Okay!" Rosie said and waved goodbye. "Bye bye Aunty Marge!" "Bye Rosie."

Rosie hummed merrily as she strolled back, shaking the box from time to time.

* * *

"I am baaack!" Rosie announced as she reached home. "Mummmmmmy!"

Eleanor looked up at her daughter's lively greeting as she washed her hands in the kitchen sink. "Welcome back Rosie. Did you buy the bread?"

"Yes! Aunty Marge put it inside here!" Rosie lifted up a box proudly to Eleanor's puzzlement.

"All of it? What box is this?" Eleanor took the box and inspected it curiously.

"Aunty Marge put all the bread inside this box. It can fit all the large and small bread inside," Rosie answered. "Gimme, I'll show you."

Eleanor handed the box back to Rosie. She watched in surprise as Rosie excitedly emptied the box's contents.

"I see Marge is up to her tricks again," Eleanor said as Rosie munched on one of the tarts. "This box seems to be using spatial principles to resize and store objects. Or is she using dimensional magic as the box's weight doesn't seem to change? There might be time-dilation involved as well, or maybe she might have enchanted the box with a temperature control function which keeps whatever stored inside fresh..."

Eleanor laughed after noticing Rosie's blank stare.

"Oops, I forgot you are here," Eleanor chuckled as she tousled Rosie's hair. "Mum was just interested in Aunty Marge's new invention. Go finish the tart and I will get dinner ready."

Rosie smiled and nodded. "Can I play with this box?"

"Mum needs to look a bit more at it," Eleanor said as she resumed cooking. "Can you please put it in my office, Ros?"

"Okay..." Rosie replied, albeit slightly reluctant.

Huffing, Rosie walked upstairs with the box. She opened the room to her mum's office and went in.

* * *

Rosie thinks that Eleanor's office was the most magical place in the world. While the office door is just made out of normal wood, its interior is definitely anything but normal.

To Rosie's left and right were bookshelves filled with thick, heavy tomes. Looking up, Rosie saw even more bookshelves floating vertically, stretching higher and higher into infinity. Each shelf was unique, some were made from wood, others from metal, there was even a shelf formed out of fire and another one formed out of water. Rosie once asked her mum why the books on the 'fire shelf' won't burn, but decided to give up after Eleanor used too many big words she couldn't understand.

Books of all shapes, sizes, and colours fluttered from one shelf to another, occasionally bumping into one another as they flew around. One heavier volume simply barged through a flock? of thin pamphlets and ignored their repeated attempts to knock it away.

Rosie walked pass the bookshelves and scooted around a giant glowing astrolabe. After being briefly mesmerised by some flashing lights inside the astrolabe, she continued on, passing by several boiling vials and large glass containers with curious objects inside.

Rosie soon reached a grand mahogany desk and placed the box on its surface. Rosie went to the chair behind the desk and hopped onto the seat, shifting around before she felt comfortably seated.

Rosie leaned back and tried imagining how it was like for her mum to work here. She watched the books flying about, some of the thinner books produced chirping noises while the heavier ones grunted. She watched the rings of the astrolabe spinning around in various speeds and the occasional flashing lights. She watched the vials and glass containers bubble, each one filled with different colours of liquid and some extra large containers having weird things swimming inside.

Mum's work must be fun, Rosie thought.

Rosie's observations were interrupted by the sudden shaking of the box. Startled, she noticed that something seemed to be forcing open the lid from the inside. She gingerly opened the lid's flap.

Suddenly, black tentacles of smoke gushed out from the box and wrapped themselves around Rosie's body. Before she could react, the tentacles pulled her into the box and the lid closed by itself with a resounding click.

* * *

"The portal is nearly done," Lee said as he wiped the sweat off his brows. "Increase the output by twenty percent."

Tabby pushed the lever up. Meanwhile, Lee watched anxiously at the circular metal contraption he constructed earlier. A smoky black substance swirled in the centre of the frame with occasional flashes of electricity.

"Still stable. Increase by another fifteen percent," Lee said.

"Are you sure? Those electric flashes don't seem exactly safe," Tabby asked. Sparky, wrapped around a floating broom, nodded in agreement.

"It's okay. The shed is strong enough to contain any backlash. The metal frame is also draining the excess energy away properly, as intended," Lee replied confidently.

Tabby shrugged and pushed the lever a bit higher. However, the black substances swirled more faster and violently than expected. Unlike their previous trials, smoky eldritch tentacles seemed to be pushing out from the circular frame.

"Push the lever down," Lee said urgently. The dark red lightning flashed about violently and the tentacles started flailing around.

"It's not working," Tabby replied in alarm. "Use your energy to stabilise it while I keep trying!"

Lee raised both palms towards the machine, blasting blue bolts of arcane energy towards the metal contraption. While several arcane bolts were blocked by the smoky tentacles, his efforts seemed to be working as the swirling started slowing down. A few minutes later, everyone sighed as the contraption started to stabilise.

"Next time," Tabby said sarcastically, "I suggest we find out exactly which dimension we are blasting through before we punch holes in our plane of existence."

Before Lee could retort, the portal started emitted a gargling sound. The three of them immediately turned towards the portal, prepared to blast whatever is exiting to oblivion.

Suddenly, a little girl with red pigtails was flung out. The portal made a sound suspiciously similar to a burp.

The three of them looked at Rosie, who looked back at them, dazed.

Tabby exhaled.

"F*ck."