Captain Blizzard to the rescue 3/7

“If we’re going to the rescue we may as well be on our way,” explained Blizzard, “although this cloud is very fast, it still takes us an hour to get to Scotland.”

“However did Frosty get lost?”

“We were part of a large fleet of clouds sent to the Cairngorm Mountains to produce a heavy snowfall for a nearby human ski resort. Six of us went altogether and all was going well, until Frosty got over excited at the amount of snow we were dropping and leaned over a bit too far to watch where it was going. He fell near the top of the mountains, started an avalanche as he landed and then rolled somewhere down hill underneath it all.”

“I think I’ve got an idea to try and get him out,” said Jennifer Jane, “I’ll use the same lightening spell on the snow that I just demonstrated to you. It should all float up in the air again and Frosty ought to be uncovered without taking any harm.”

The cloud was still gaining height and beginning to move forward, while the temperature dropped rapidly. Thankfully Jennifer Jane found her coat kept her warm enough, so long as she kept her hands in her pockets.

The cloud rapidly gathered speed. The crew of snowmen all thought the cold was wonderful and she saw one or two of them nudge each other and have a quiet laugh at her expense. Fortunately the cloud was so fast that it didn’t seem too long before it began to slow down and approach the ground again. When they came to a stop, the captain invited her to go down the ladder to test her idea for removing snow.

“We’ve landed at the lower end of the avalanche,” he said, “he ought to be here in the approximate neighbourhood.”

Once she was on the ground, Jennifer Jane studied the avalanche with amazement. There must be thousands of tons of snow piled up in a huge heap halfway down one of the mountainsides. If Frosty was underneath that lot then no wonder he couldn’t get out by himself.

Fortunately a plateau had stopped the snow falling further and becoming any larger but even so the area and amount of snow was tremendous.

Oh well there was only one way to try out her idea. She patted the snow and twiddled her thumb vigorously. A few of the uppermost flakes floated into the air but no quantity of any significance. She thought for a moment and then tried pacing out a boundary spell, before trying again.

This time nothing happened at all. It seemed that only the top few flakes would move and that her spell wasn’t powerful enough to cover much more than the area of her hand.

Blizzard watched her efforts with growing disappointment. “It does not appear that your magic is having much effect.”

“It seems that I only lighten the snow that I can touch. I’ll have to try and think of another way to get rid of it.”

She went back through all her previous adventures to see if she could remember anything that might help, but couldn’t think of any other way. The only thing that she could think of, was to go back to the Witches’ Home and ask Abigail to come and sort the problem out for her.

Then suddenly she remembered once meeting the North Wind. He’d seemed a friendly enough gentleman; surely he could blow the snow away until Frosty was uncovered sufficiently to get out by himself. All the other winds would probably be too warm and melt the snow as well, but the north wind was nearly always cold and seemed just right.