There's no place like home 5/9

The next day Jennifer Jane was kept busy at home and wasn’t able to visit the giant until the early afternoon. As she approached the pool she was expecting to hear him crying contentedly. Strangely she couldn’t hear any crying at all. Instead there was an unusual rumbling that she couldn’t identify.

It was nothing like any of the usual forest noises. Then, when she rounded the last corner all became clear. The giant was wrapped up in his cloak, there was an empty plate at his feet and he was fast asleep.

This would never do. The water level in the pool was already looking a bit low. To try and wake him up, she picked up the nearest stick and started hitting him as high up his leg as she could reach. The giant just grunted sleepily and continued snoring.

She decided to hurry off to the goblin village and ask for some help to try and wake him up before the pool ran dry.

The goblins were only too well aware of the problem and didn’t have to have the situation explained to them. Twenty of them were excused from their daily duties and ran after Jennifer Jane back to the pool.

Even their combined efforts were useless. The giant swatted sleepily at the irritation round his legs and went on snoring.

“It must be because he’s just had his first really good meal since he went to your party, but we’ve got to keep the pool running, or goodness only knows what will happen.”

The goblin chief fireman was one of those who had volunteered to try and wake the giant. He suggested that the fire pump could be used to keep the pool topped up for a limited time and they could also add salt to the water.

“There is a limit to the amount of water we can put in. We rely on a spring for our water but in the past when we’ve had to take a lot out, it starts to dry up. The rate of flow isn’t great enough for a constant supply.”

Jennifer Jane asked the goblins to do the best they could, while she went off to see Fundin to ask if he could think of a more permanent solution.

The dwarf was only too pleased to be able to help. “The answer to your problem is simple enough. I’ve been testing those solar panel gadgets that your friend told me about. We use them now for all our electrical needs. The witches can supply as much salt as we want and I’m sure we can find a local source of water. I’ll have to ask the witches to let me come through to your world though, so that I can set up all the equipment.”

Jennifer Jane flew him back to the Witches’ Home and asked Abigail if he would be allowed to help. Abigail had to go and ask one of the senior witches for permission, but soon came running back.

“She thought it was very important to keep the flow going and wants you to arrange things as quickly as possible.”

Fundin returned to the castle to make his arrangements, while Abigail went to organise a supply of salt and find a witch who was able to dowse for water. When Jennifer Jane returned, one of the apprentices told her that Abigail had already gone to the giant’s pool and would meet her there.

Sure enough when she arrived, there was a strange witch walking slowly backwards and forwards holding a hazel twig.

“Can’t you just produce the salt water by magic?”

“In the alternate world it would be simple enough,” replied Abigail, “but it’s a bit more difficult in this world. It took an awful lot of effort to raise that cliff for you when you wanted to stop the motorway. This is more difficult in some ways because it has to be in continuous operation. We’ll do it by magic if we have to but if Carmel can find a natural spring it would make things a lot easier.”