The problem with cats 7/8

At last she was ready, so after lessons at the Witches’ Home she flew off towards Woodside. As she got nearer she flew higher, so that she was unlikely to be spotted from the ground. She wanted to get directly over the wood before she came down lower, because she needed to see if there really was a village or settlement of some sort where the witches might be living.

Eventually she came down and flew backwards and forwards just a few feet above the treetops looking for signs of life. There was nobody living there as far as she could see, so she went back to the point where the road entered the wood and drove slowly along the ground hoping to meet the old witch. She wasn’t disappointed!

Two hundred yards along the road the witch stepped out from behind a tree. “Well I’m blessed another new one! That’s a strange looking contraption young lady, but I’m afraid it’s going to cost you... oh it’s you again, didn’t you learn your lesson last time?”

“I challenge you to a contest of magic according to the rules of combat,” said Jennifer Jane in her most formal tone of voice.

“Oh you do, do you? And what pray are the terms of this particular contest?”

“If I win you must stop charging the carriers more than a reasonable amount to use your road, if you win then I’ll promise not to come here and bother you again.”

“Very well then, terms agreed, it’ll be worth it just to stop you becoming a nuisance every couple of weeks or so. Just to give you a bit of a chance you can cast the first spell.”

Jennifer Jane was banking on the fact that her opponent would perform exactly the same sequence of spells as before, so to start her own attack she in turn used the same spell as before and hurled a huge Swiss roll.

As she expected the witch grinned at her. “Not very imaginative.” she laughed as her replies came back thick and fast.

This time Jennifer Jane was able to block the spells as quickly as they were thrown at her, without too much trouble. She’d found an accelerator spell in the library that enabled her to recognise spells and twiddle her fingers twice as quickly as normal.

The other witch looked a bit surprised, but grinned again in triumph, as Jennifer Jane became invisible. The cloud of dust duly arrived but this time there was no one to be seen.

The ‘badly trained first year apprentice,’ had remembered tricking her teacher during her lessons in invisibility and had immediately made her self lighter and gone to float over the witch’s head.

A split second later a huge chocolate Swiss roll landed on the old lady, which rendered her helpless. Jennifer Jane landed, made herself visible again and went to stand by her extremely messy victim.

She half completed the next twiddle, then pointed her finger at the old lady. “Well?” she asked.

“All right then I give in, but I’d love to know where you went when you were invisible.”

“That’s my secret; perhaps you’ll work it out for yourself one day. By the way, I’ll have you know that I’m a second year human apprentice from the Gate near Lurbridge and my name is Jennifer Jane!”

“Oh,” said the old lady, “I’ve heard of you, but I thought you were supposed to be a lot taller?”

“All rumours! Now then, I flew over the forest before I came to meet you and I couldn’t see any sign of any one else living here. Are there any others?”

“No not now. There used to be a few of us at one time, but now I’m the only one left. I just let people think that they’re still here, in case any one wants to try and kill me. Then they’ll think I have friends who will come and take their revenge.”
All the time that the witch was talking, she was licking the sticky cake from her fingers. Jennifer Jane wasn’t too worried because under the rules of combat, once the opponent had given in they were not allowed to make any further attacks. The witch saw her looking as she began licking the other hand.

“What do you call this stuff?” she asked, “it’s very nice.”

Jennifer Jane told her and then showed her how to make it. “I don’t expect you have the chance to eat a lot of fancy cake out here. Now you’ll be able to enjoy one whenever you want.”

The witch grinned as she licked her last finger clean. “Just let me see if I’ve got this right,” she said.

Then she twiddled her fingers and dumped a huge Swiss roll on top of Jennifer Jane, before she could do anything about it.

As Jennifer Jane began to wipe her eyes free from cake mixture, the witch began another twiddle that she recognised. “Now wait a moment,” she said, “you’re not allowed to do that now that you’ve formally given in!”

“No I’m not am I, but then I’m a very bad loser and I tell lies. Not only that but no one else will know will they? Good bye kid!”