Eve 8/8

Eve walked slowly back towards the village. She was beginning to enjoy herself, this would be a nice place to visit and explore further one day. So far as she could make out, the only people who didn’t want her here were the witches in the Gate or Witches’ Home as it was sometimes called. Fairly obviously they lived in the castle opposite the shop that she’d just left; everybody else she had met was very friendly. She was halfway over the bridge crossing the river at Lurbridge when her thoughts were interrupted by a loud voice.

“Oy, where’s me riddle?”

She recognised Gordon’s voice, the friendly little troll who decorated the underside of the bridge in the most horrible colour schemes.

“Can’t be bothered now Gordon, I’ve got to get home before night time, I don’t want to stay in that pub for another night!”

A most peculiar noise made her look round. The fat little man had come out from under his bridge and was suddenly looking not at all friendly. He’d gone bright red in the face and was blowing out his cheeks and starting to swell. It was just as if he was blowing himself up like a balloon.

Eve watched for a moment absolutely fascinated. Then she realised that he was also getting very much taller. He blew himself up to about ten or twelve feet high and then he took two lurching steps towards Eve, opened his mouth and let out a huge “ROOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAR.”

Eve screamed and ran for the other side of the bridge as quickly as she could. The troll didn’t look at all friendly now and all the stories she’d heard about Lurgin eating people came flooding back into her mind. The noise stopped fairly quickly and now she was safely on the village bank she risked a quick look back at the troll. He was back to his normal size and was leaning on the side of the bridge crying with laughter.

“Your face!” he said, “it was worth not having a riddle for once, just to see you run.”

He burst out laughing again and this time he missed the side of the bridge and fell over. He was rolling about on the ground absolutely helplessly. Eve felt like going back and giving him a piece of her mind, but so many things had turned out to be true on this unbelievable day, that she decided against it.

She went back into the George and Dragons and asked the landlord if there was a cart going back along the track past the squire’s house.

“Just missed one ma’am, if you run you might be able to catch him up. But if you like I’ll go out and see if I can whistle him to wait for you.”

He was as good as his word. He put two fingers in his mouth and blew a piercing whistle. A cart about a hundred and fifty yards up the road stopped for a moment while the driver looked back. Eve waved and started after him as quickly as she could. She couldn’t run very fast, after all she’d had a tiring day, but at least he waited patiently for her to climb up beside him on the foot board.

It was a different driver and she had to explain that she wanted to go through the ford and as far as the footpath which crossed the track shortly afterwards.

This time she was able to pay the fare and before long was trying to remember the spell to open the door. Fortunately all went well and she staggered into her house just as it was getting dark.

Adam was just finishing the dinner that she’d left for him in the fridge. He took one look at her and got her a cup of tea.

“Where on earth have you been these last two days?”

Eve smiled happily. “You’re not going to believe this, but I’ve been to an alternate world where magic really exists. Next door’s child seems to be one of the most important witches there and we’ve certainly no need to follow her around any more. By the way would you believe that the whole of the Bell family can fly! I’ve been taught to do real magic myself and in future we can go there anytime we want by opening a door and walking through. It really is as simple as that!”

Adam shook his head pityingly. “You look very tired dear, why don’t you have a nice hot bath and go to bed!”