The apprentices had been short on just about every ingredient, but every substitution had been sensible and innocuous.
"Maybe we baked it too long," suggested the youngest.
"I doubt that's what happened," said the eldest, trying not to look at the clumpy mass.
The twins kept feeding it pieces of dry fruit.
"Can we keep it?" they pleaded.
"Yeah, can you keep me," it asked, unnervingly eloquent and polite.
They had to at that point.