The problem with cats 4/8

The witch was laughing extremely loudly and seemed to have grown a lot bigger. Jennifer Jane looked nervously at George, but he was just standing still with the most amazed look on his face. For some strange reason both he and the horse also appeared to have grown much larger as well.

She shook her head irritably; she couldn’t think properly and itched just behind her left ear where there was still a lot of dust remaining from the witch’s attack.

She lifted her left hind leg and had a good scratch. She couldn’t think of a spell at all and her fingers didn’t seem to want to work properly. She raised one paw and looked at it.

Well at least that explained why everything seemed so much bigger and also the look on George’s face. The last spell had turned her into a cat! However, as she hadn’t arrived back at the Witches’ Home guard house, she knew she was in no real danger.

She looked at the witch, ‘that was a rotten thing to do,’ she tried to say, but all that came out of her mouth was a most indignant “Miaouw.”

The witch laughed even louder. “I can understand you of course, but who won I ask you? In future don’t bring a girl to do a woman’s job,” she said to George, “in fact I’ve had so much fun that you can go back the way you came without any charge. But don’t try it again or it really will be the worse for you and your young friend there. As for you young lady, I daresay whoever was responsible for your training will turn you back to normal soon enough, but tell them they shouldn’t send out a rather poorly trained first year apprentice on jobs like this!”

George bent down, picked up Jennifer Jane and climbed back on his cart. He turned round and drove back the long way to Woodside. Whatever else happened he realised he’d been lucky, but even so he wasn’t going to lose his money by taking her straight back to the Witches’ Home.

Jennifer Jane was furiously miaouwing like mad, not only had the witch called her an incompetent first year apprentice, but the longer George took to complete his business, the longer it would be before she got back her normal shape.

She couldn’t make herself understood and she had a feeling that horrible things might happen to cats in this world and she didn’t want to find out the hard way.