Everyone knows fairies can't fly 5/9

The two families drove into town and after parking in the supermarket car park, walked out into the countryside along the lane which Eve assured them led to George’s door. The Bells were a bit surprised when they walked into a dead end.

“It’s all right,” said Eve, “this was an old charcoal burner’s pitstead, I must have walked past the door holes without spotting them.”

They walked slowly back; looking more carefully at the sides of the path, until eventually Jennifer Jane’s younger eyes saw the carefully marked postholes partially hidden in the long grass.

“Our own post holes must be nearby,” said Adam, “by accident we found a much more direct way of getting there. Eve told me that the regular way means a long walk, or if you’re lucky a ride on a cart if one happens to be passing.”

Adam poked around in the earth for a moment or two, before he finally found what he claimed were the holes marking the posts he and Eve had used to get directly to Lurbridge. He also found the longish branches that they’d used.

“We know where the regular poles are hidden now, but we didn’t like to use them in case we caused trouble with the owners.”

Jennifer Jane watched in amazement as Eve twiddled quite a respectable door activating spell. She also correctly demonstrated how to have a careful look to make sure everything was safe, before they all trooped through in single file to find themselves on the hills overlooking Lurbridge.

“George and Dragon’s next,” said Dave, “the drinks are on me! Now we’re here, it shouldn’t be too long before we can find out what’s happened.”

While they were enjoying their refreshments, Jennifer Jane asked the barman if the party could have one of the riddles from Lurgin’s old book.

“I didn’t expect to be coming here and hadn’t thought of a riddle to get us across his bridge.”

The barman laughed and produced a huge volume from below the counter. There was a marker in between the pages about halfway through the book.

“Take the next one that hasn’t been used and then cross it through so that we can keep track. This is still only the first volume and there’s several more. I don’t expect we’ll run out of riddles for years and years yet!”

Jennifer Jane made a note of the riddle, then followed her dad and the others as they went outside. A rather strange sight met their eyes.

A boat full of sailors from the ships moored at the timber yard, had rowed upstream and then turned into the tributary to the main river which passed under Gordon’s bridge. They had just landed on the right bank and were heading off towards the Witches’ Home as they watched.

“That’s strange,” said Jennifer Jane, “I wonder if Gordon has any idea about what’s going on?”

She gave Gordon his riddle and then asked if he knew why the sailors were walking the same way as themselves.

“They sometimes do that just to avoid giving me a riddle. I don’t mind too much because I have plenty most of the time and I’m not really allowed to chase them for avoiding me, because they haven’t tried to cross my bridge and that’s against the rules.”

The Bells and the Gardeners followed the sailors but were unable to catch them up. They seemed to be in a great hurry and were making rather a lot of angry sounding noises. Although Dave shouted at them as loudly as he could, none of them could hear him, so he couldn’t stop them to ask what was going on.

It was Dave who guessed that both groups were going to see the witches for the same reason.