Captain Blizzard to the rescue 2/7

She was quite right as well. Out of the greyness above her fell one end of a rope ladder, this began swaying as if someone was climbing down towards her. To her absolute surprise it was a strange snowman who arrived on the floor of her tree house. He was very different to her own snowman, Frosty.

He was the same height as a normal human and had been beautifully made in natural human proportions. Except for the fact that he’d been carved from snow, he looked just like a real person. His sculptor had given him an old fashioned uniform topped by a cocked hat, so that he looked like pictures that she’d seen of naval captains in the days of Admiral Nelson.

“Ah, little gel, I’m looking for a mighty witch who I am reliably informed lives hereabouts. I am given to understand that she has a dashed remarkable ability to solve other peoples problems, of which I am unfortunate enough to have more than my share at the moment.”

“Is she nine feet high and called Jennifer Jane?”

“Dash it all, that’s the name by Jove. Do you know where I can find her?”

“You’ve already found her, it’s me.”

The snowman looked at her for a moment then burst out laughing. “I don’t think you quite understood me, I’m looking for a real witch, who can use real magic to help me find a missing member of my crew.”

Jennifer Jane sighed, one day perhaps she would be believed when she told the fairy folk who she was, maybe Abigail could give her something to carry which would convince them.

“I will demonstrate my magic powers if I may be permitted to touch you.” ‘Oh dear,’ she thought, ‘I’m already beginning to talk the same way that he does!’

“Would you mind kneeling down please, so that I can reach the top of your head.”

The snowman did as he was asked and she patted him on the head and twiddled her thumb using her newly learned lightening spell. She kept twiddling until he began to float up in the air.

“That is truly amazing,” he said, “would you be so kind as to put me down again. I was told that you were nine feet high and so terrible that you could tame dragons and kill trolls!”

“The bit about dragons and trolls is nearly true but I’m afraid the rest has been rather exaggerated. Perhaps you could tell me your problem and then I’ll see if I can help you.”

The snowman asked if she would mind going up to his cloud first, as he was beginning to get warm. She knew how snowmen only felt comfortable when it was really cold, so she put on her nice warm coat before climbing up the ladder. He followed her up and then introduced himself.

“My name is Blizzard, Captain of this Climate Transport. We had trouble making up a complete crew for this commission and amongst others had to press your man Frosty into service.”

Captain Blizzard stopped for a moment to make sure Jennifer Jane was taking the news calmly.

“He’s fallen overboard,” he continued, “and we can neither find him, nor think of a way to recover him. We only know that he’s stuck somewhere under an avalanche. If we try to dig him out, we may cut right through him, while if we try to melt the snow round him, he may well be melted as well. So you can see our problem.”

He looked at Jennifer Jane expectantly. She had no ideas to offer at such short notice and spent a little while inspecting the cloud while she tried to think of something.

It was huge; she was used to the size of the cloud Frosty flew when he was delivering dragon food, or dropping snow but this was much much larger. She could count nine other snowmen besides the Captain, eight of them busily working away at strange looking machinery, while the ninth was standing at one end of the cloud beside a large steering wheel, similar to the one on the schooner Black Cat.

Then out of the corner of her eye she noticed a movement. She looked up, to find that the captain’s cloud was climbing and the rest of the clouds in the sky were rapidly disappearing beneath it.