Happy Valley 2/8

The spell turned out to be one of the simplest that Jennifer Jane had ever seen.

“First touch the object you wish to lighten, then hold your right hand over it palm down. Rotate your thumb anticlockwise to make it lighter. The same again, only rotate the thumb clockwise to restore the weight to normal. The number of thumb rotations will keep adding or subtracting weight.”

Jennifer Jane managed the spell perfectly first time. Dave’s fingers weren’t quite so supple.

He found it easy enough to make things heavier but took some time before he was able to move his thumb in a circular motion, rather than straight up and down, to make things lighter.

“It’s nice to know how,” he said, “but I think Jennifer Jane will be doing most of the magic, I find it a bit too fiddly.”

It was some time before Jennifer Jane could be persuaded to take off her new finery, but at last she agreed that it would be nearly as nice to go and try out the new spell.

Misty Magic sailed back through the fog to Wilfred’s pool. The giant was sleeping after his dinner, so they all hurried off quietly to the place where they’d left the grindstone.

Mary watched while Jennifer Jane carefully made the stone lighter, then left them, to go home and make a cup of tea for ‘the workers’.

Dave picked up the grindstone as soon as it was light enough to carry. Jennifer Jane experimented, making it even lighter, so that in the end it was actually floating in the air without any support at all.

Dave pushed it gently and the stone wobbled off in more or less the right direction. They soon found that controlling the direction was rather difficult, so Dave walked in front with his hands behind him holding it gently and making sure that they went the right way.

Jennifer Jane gave it a push every now and again to keep it away from overhanging branches. All went well until they were nearly half way home.

“Someone’s coming along the path,” said Dave.