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The Flower That Wouldn't Grow (10/23/2007)

released: Oct 23, 2007

description: In the middle of a lush Dutch farmland sits a ramshackle house surrounded by dead fields. The house is inhabited by a little girl named Ilka and her unkind mother, Olga. Olga is the midst of berating her daughter when Joseph, her husband, returns home with a sack of mushrooms for dinner. He greets his daughter warmly and asks his wife to be gentler with her -- but as he does, his heart suddenly stops beating. The mushrooms spill onto the floor as he collapses, dead.

Ilka buries her father in the woods. As she wanders, she encounters Flim Flam Stan, who can tell something is wrong. When she confesses that she just buried her father, he offers her one of his potions to help make her happy. Ilka accepts, and a wild hallucination ensues, which results in her waking further in the woods. Glowing eyes watch her from deep in the trees.

Ilka finds a form in the road that splits it into three possible paths. As she ventures down one, a crow advises her that she might want to take another route, as there is a giant spider at the end. However, brambles have grown behind her, blocking her path. Jimmy the Crow tells her that her journey will be difficult and flies off. As he does, she hears her mother calling her, and Ilka promises to make her way back home to care for her.

As she makes her way through the bramble, Ilka finds herself at another fork. Groitus emerges from the bushes and introduces himself -- he is a centaur who has lost his back half thanks to a flim flam man. Groitus warns Ilka that she is in the Stone Queen's territory, and she eats children, so she should be careful, and that she should not listen to any centaurs. The red eyes continue to glow behind them.

Ilka chooses a path and tries to make her way back to her mother, while the Stone Queen watches from her castle. The Queen's advisor, Josephine, warns that the little girl is capable of more than expected, but the Stone Queen silences her. The Queen orders one of her centaurs, Cloitus, to expedite the girl's progress to the castle. Cloitus gathers a team and sets out immediately.

Cloitus and the centaurs find Ilka and trick her into climbing on Cloitus' back. They race back to the Stone Queen, victorious. Meanwhile, Jimmy the Crow has found Olga and explained what has happened to her daughter. Olga isn't surprised -- she was next in line for the Stone throne, but was usurped when she fell in love. The Stone Queen cursed her so that nothing could ever grow on her land. Olga and Jimmy set off for the castle.

In the dungeons, Ilka is reunited with Flim Flam Stan, who has been taken in for his crimes. He cheerfully informs her that he has managed to sneak one last potion in the back of his throat. Meanwhile, the Stone Queen thanks Cloitus for successfully completing his mission with a knife in the stomach. She orders Josephine to fatten the child up, as she is hungry.

Olga and Jimmy the Crow land on one of the castle's towers and sneak into the Queen's chambers. The Queen immediately hears a noise within and orders her centaurs to investigate. They do so, and are defeated by Olga, who has drunk a potion to restore her to her former youth and health. Olga sets out to find her daughter.

The Stone Queen goes directly to the dungeons, where she informs Ilka that she knows exactly who she is and that will make her enjoy eating Ilka that much more. She is stopped by Olga and Jimmy the Crow, who also has a history with the Stone Queen -- he was a humble shopkeeper who spurned her, so she turned him into a crow. Olga says that this can only be settled by a knife fight. The Stone Queen agrees, and immediately thrusts her knife into Ilka. Olga is enraged, and fights until the Queen's cockiness gives her the perfect opening to stab her through the heart. The Stone Queen falls, and Olga kneels over her dead daughter. As she does, Flim Flam Stan begins to shake and contort. His body opens up, and from his middle emerges Ilka, safe and sound -- Flim Flam Stan's last potion successfully tricked the Stone Queen.

Olga takes her rightful place as Stone Queen and turns Jimmy back into a human. Together, she, Jimmy, and Ilka rule over the restored land.

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