The Magic Birthday Cake

It was Billys  5th Birthday, he had got lots of presents from his mum and dad and he was in his living room at home standing infront of a big cake with 5 little candles burning upon it.
"Blow out the candles, Billy", said his mum who was wearing a party hat, "And make a wish".
Leaning forwards, Billy blew with all his might, blowing all 5 of his birthday candles out and, as he did, he made a wish inside his head.
"I wish I could go on a magic adventure", he said.
Billy didn't really expect the wish to come true. He'd made lots of wishes in his life and they never ever seemed to come true.
Just then however, to Billys astonishment, the lightbulb in the ceiling began to flicker and the candles on the birthday cake that he had blown out relit themselves only this time their flames were all different colours, red, yellow, green, blue and orange
"Thats odd", said his mother, "They're not supposed to do that".
But then something even odder than that happened, for suddenly the birthday cake started to spin round and round as fast as a spinning top and, as it did, the flames of the birthday candles started to flash on and off just like christmas tree lights; then it started to rise up into the air and there was a flash so bright that it filled up the whole living room.
And when the flash faded, to Billys amazement, he realized that he wasn't standing infront of his living room table anymore but in a strange land of brightly coloured tinfoil trees with a rainbow coloured sky overhead and, infront of him, was a strange looking house like a birthday present wrapped up with a bow.
Then a door of the house opened and out came 12 little elves wearing pointed party hats and paper crowns.
"Welcome", said the tallest of the elves, "We have been expecting you".
"Expecting me", asked Billy, "But who are you and where is this place?".
"This is Happy Birthday land", replied the Elf, "Home of the Birthday bird".
"Birthday Bird?", asked Billy, "What's that?".
"Why the big bird who brings Birthday presents to all the children of the world on their Birthday", said the Elf.
"You mean like the Easter Bunny or Santa Clause?", asked Billy.
"Oh no. He works much harder than them", said the Elf, "You see Easter and Christmas are only once a year but children all around the world are having birthdays every day".
Billy looked round about to see if he could see a giant bird.
"Well where is he?", he asked.
"Well thats the reason why we granted your wish and brought you here", said the Elves, "You see the Birthday Bird has been kidnapped".
"Kidnapped by the most feared and terrible person in all Happy Birthday land", said another of the elves who was slightly shorter with much pointier ears, "Bertha the Bad. The witch who lives in Castle Sulk".
"Fortunately, you're here now to save us", said the taller Elf.
"Me? But what can I do?", asked Billy, "I'm just a little boy".
"Oh but that makes you a very powerful thing in Happy Birthday land", said the smaller elf, "If anyone can save the Birthday bird, you can".
"Well how do I get to the castle?", asked Billy.
The taller elf took a ballon out of his pocket and, blowing it up, he tied a knot in it.
Then he twisted it, making it into a giant baloon animal; a balloon horse and gave it a string for a tail.
"Climb upon the balloon horse", said the elf, "And it will take you there".
Then the elves helped Billy climb onto the horse and, upon it he floated up into the rainbow sky filled with clouds of every colour and, drifting through the sky and looking down he saw a land filled with little houses that, just like the elves house, looked like gift wrapped boxes.
But then, after he had floated for a very long time, Billy saw a big, black scary looking castle below.
"That must be Castle Sulk", said Billy to the inflatable horse, pointing to the castle.
And when he said this, the baloon horse galloped down through the air towards it.
Unfortunately, the castle guards, seeing the baloon horse above started to fire arrows up at it and though it managed to dodge one or two of the arrows, eventually an arrow hit the poor balloon animal and it exploded with a loud pop.
And when that happened Billy fell down out of the sky.
But then, just as he was about to fall into a catle moat full of sharks, crocodiles and man eating mermaids he was caught inside a large butterfly net carried by one of the catle guards and taken, along a dark winding coridoor, to the throne room the castles evil queen, Bertha the Bad.
And, when he had been tipped out of the net onto the floor with a bump he saw that beside Bertha there was a large cage and in the cage was a giant yellow bird in a brightly coloured waistcoat and bowtie.
"That must be the Birthday Bird", thought Billy.
But then Bertha the Bad started to speak.
"So those foolish elves think that a mere little boy can defeat a great and powerful witch like me, do they?", said Bertha, cackling wickedly.
And then, getting down off of her throne, Bertha the Bad seized hold of Billy with her bony hands and lifted him up into the air.
"I'll show them", she said, looking at him, "I'll turn you into a slimy toad and eat you for my supper".
Just then, however, looking down at the witches head, Billy noticed that she was wearing a funny kind of crown with five lit candles upon it.
"They look just like the candles on a birthday cake", he thought.
And so, leaning forwards and taking a deep breath Billy blew upon the crown of candles with all his might and when he did he blew out everyone.
"No!", shieked Bertha the bad, putting down Billy and taking off the crown to examine it, "My candle crown. The source of all my power".
And no sooner had she said that when the witch started to melt away just like a wax candle.
Opening the door of its cage, the Birthday bird leapt out.
"You've saved Happy Birthday land", said the Birthday bird, "And birthdays for every child in the world. I don't know how to thank you".
"Well", said Billy, "I would like to go home now and finish my birthday".
"Don't worry", said the Birthday bird, "No one flys faster than me. I'll have you home faster than you can say 'Happy Birthday'".
Then the birthday bird took Billy by the hand and, flapping its wings, they took off into the air and, flying out of a castle window they zoomed as fast as a cork from a bottle across the sky.
Infact they flew so fast that they even overtook jet aeroplanes and to the amazement of their passengers peering out of aeroplane windows, the Bird and Billy waved to them as the went by.
But then they flew so fast that Time itself even went backwards, all the clocks in the world went round the wrong way and, suddenly, Billy heard his mother speaking.
"Blow out the candles, Billy", she said, "And make a wish".
"Huh?", answered Billy, as if waking from a daydream and looking round he realized that he was back in his living room where the whole adventure had begun and infront of him was his birthday cake with all its candles lit.
Billy sighed, feeling, disappointed.
"So it was all just a dream", he said to himself, leaning forwards and blowing out the candles on his cake.
But then, just as his mother was about to cut the cake and give him and everyone a slice, suddenly, Billy noticed that, sitting on the table next to the cake was a birthday present he hadn't opened yet; a box tied up with ribbon and, untying the ribbon and opening the box, to his amazement, he saw that inside was a doll shaped just like the Birthday bird.
"Thats strange", said his mother, seeing the bird, "I wonder where that came from".
"From the Birthday bird, ofcourse", said Billy, "And its just what I always wanted"