part 11

A voice, deep and rumbly, but cosy, too,  "HERE'S YOUR WAND, REGN!", not loud, but it left no room for any other sound in Mary's head. She couldn't see who had spoken, as out of the cave walls mist was trickling, pulling away into sparkling grey clouds like seals. When one swam by, Mary reached out and touched it and her finger tingled, like the cloud was fizzy, and then she felt her finger being pulled, and knew that if she didn't take it out RIGHT NOW, it would go off with the little cloud and never be hers again.

The clouds began swirling together like a conductor's hands in an orchestra : slow then fast, curvy, then straight, joining and joining, getting taller and wider and thicker till Mary saw the shape of a lady growing, with a long shiny green dress growing on her, its  buttons each a different colour. Soon the last sparkles of mist smoothed into the smiling cheeks of a silvery face, big as the kitchen table at home.  Out of the top of its head sprouted long shiney brown hair, which swayed about the way seaweed does under water, and then lovely fresh pink flowers sprang up to make a crown. Last came two blue eyes the size of a car's headlights, blinking open and looking right at Mary. 

Something moved in her hand. Mary looked down - it was the stick-thing. Afraid of dropping it, she curled her fingers tighter - too late - it slipped out, but instead of falling, it flew towards the huge cloud lady, getting bigger and bigger so when it landed in her fingers it looked the same as it had in Mary's.

Till it began shimmering, all the colours of the rainbow. Mary thought of when dogs wag their tales because they are happy. Why didn't it do that with me? Perhaps it didn't like breaking through all those cobwebs? "I'm sorry" she whispered, hoping the cloud lady hadn't heard, but the huge face was tipped down, as if listening to the stick thing. Another voice came into Mary's head, this one so bright and ripply it made Mary think of a stream in the sunshine as it asked, "WHERE DID YOU WANDER, THIS DAY?"

The word "wander" sounded super important, Mary thought, then she understood -. That's what it is, a wand! She waited for the sti - the wand to point at her, but instead, and without knowing this was going to happen, she said loudly "It was with me and Wong!"  then put her hand over her mouth, but it was too late - the cloud. lady turned, with eyes so bright it was like being on stage for Mary, only no one was whispering from the side telling her what to do or say when the watery voice asked, "AND WHO ARE YOU?",

Mary's heart thumped  "lub dub, lub dub"  The cloud lady was still, but her brown hair was swirling and the wand she held was shimmering, and as Mary watched it, the sound in her chest felt like the shimmering in the wand, and she  was able to take a big breath and say,  "I'm Mary"

The first voice came into her head again, "A FAIRY?" 

The rock under her wobbled a little, and Mary held on tight as the deep voice sounded surprised "GROTTY EARWIG?"   That sounded like the sort of thing that might get squashed, she didn't want that! Mary shook her head, "No!"

The silvery face leaned towards her,  "SORRY ABOUT JORDI, HE IS A BIT DEAF"

"WHAT'S THAT?"

The cloud lady smiled. Her huge eyes were very bright and close, "HMM... ARE YOU AN ELF?" 

Mary shook her head again, and the cloud lady's laugh bounced off the rocky walls, like a waterfall."I GIVE UP!" Mary wasn't so scared anymore, and wished the cat was here, too.She still couldn't see him, though she kneeled up as tall as she could. Mary looked back up at the cloud lady's face, and feeling pleased she knew the right word, said, loud as she could, "I'm  Mary and I'm a Hoom!" 

The cloud lady's friendly smile changed into a scary face, with frost sparking on its cheeks, and a cold mist came out of her mouth. A finger big as a fence post pointed at her, "HOOMS BREAK!" Mary whimpered, then forgot about herself, because Wong had reached the lady's shoulder, and now he skidded down the long, green sleeve, his ears back, eyes wide, to the stone hand, right to the finger, where he hung on with all four paws, his tail waving like a furry orange flag as he was whooshed up and down. ​

Mary sat up, shouted "Stop, Please!" There was a FLASH! from the cloud lady's hand holding the wand.Mary shut her eyes, waiting for something bad to happen - it didn't, so she looked again. The finger which had been pointing at her, had turned sideways then stopped moving, and  the cat was pulling himself up with his front paws and scrambling up with his back paws, then he was on the top of the finger, panting. Mary whispered,   "Are you alright?"

Wong looked at her with his bright green eyes,  " I'm Wong!  Your memory is very bad, did you get hit on the head? How many tails am I holding up?"

"One!"

Wong turned round to count his tail, then turned back to Mary, "That's right, good!"  Mary was sure everything would be OK now the cat had come. Wong licked his paw and quickly washed his whiskers, then looked up at the huge, frosty face,  "Excuse me, large watery person, Mary isn't like them! "

Wong stood up straight, with his long white whiskers sticking out sideways, his orange fur glowing and his tail fluffy, (though a bit soggy at the tip, still) looking smart as if he was reading the news, "She saved a butterfly!"

That won't help! thought Mary, but the cloud lady's frown smoothed away, and the frost melted, and when she spoke, no freezing fog came out, " OH! I'VE ONLY KNOWN HOOMS  DO BAD THINGS  -  APART FROM THE MADGE. " 

Mary was thinking the Madge must be famous, when the other, deeper voice rumbled, "BUT WHY IS SHE HERE?"  and the rock she was sitting on swayed about. Mary held on tight, eyes shut, ready for another landslide. 

Instead, she heard Wong say, " It's lunch time so she's coming with me to see the Madge because peanut butter is yummy!"

What? That wasn't why! Mary opened her eyes. Everything was changed again! She looked round quickly - there he was, still on the huge finger but on Mary's other side now. The cloud lady lifted her hand up  to look at the cat, "YOU ARE FRIENDS WITH THE MADGE?" He nodded. "DOES SHE KNOW WHERE YOU ARE?"

Wong nodded again, but this time he had one white,fluffy paw over his mouth and said "No" at the same time.

Mary couldn't watch her friend getting in trouble for helping! Taking a deep breath, she said very fast "He was taking me to the Madge because she might know how I can go home then Babosa - "

"BABOSA?" the rock Mary sat on jerked and began to move like a fairground ride gone horribly wrong. The rabbit raced by with wide, scared eyes and Mary curled up putting her arms over her head. 

Something soft touched Mary's hand; she jumped, curling up tighter, till her neck was poked by a tickly warm toe, "Follow me!" 

She uncurled her legs but they were all pins and needly and she lost her balance, grabbing the nearest thing, which was Wong. There was an aweful WOBBLE, and they
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then landed, so soon it didn't hurt at all! Except there was a weight on Mary's chest. "That was not as bad as I thought it would be" said Wong climbing off.                        
They were on another rock ledge, this one had deep, soft sand. She sat up. Whooooffff,  that warm, earthy wind blew round her again and she had to push her hair out of her eyes. The wall was much closer again, with a little cave just across from them, Mary thought that was where the wind came from, and higher up there were two   openings in the pink stone, showing dark dark blue as night sky twinkling with stars. Then they were gone, then back again, which was strange, but Mary stopped thinking about that when she saw the rabbit again. It summersaulted out of an ear shaped stone and hopped over, looking up and saying out of the side of its mouth,  "Don't worry, he's upset, cos of my sisters and brother". It smiled and started nibbling some grass on a rock sticking out sideways like a shoulder. 

"Who is upset?" she whispered to Wong