Georgina 7/8

Jennifer Jane had obtained permission from her parents to sleep at the Witches’ Home for as long as was necessary, so that she could to hear the alarm given when one of the pigeons returned.

It was very early in the morning when Abigail told her that one of the birds had just come back. Jennifer Jane dashed out of her room in one of the castle turrets, ran a few steps along the battlement where she’d parked her scooter, jumped on it and was away.

She turned herself invisible and landed just inside the village, then waited rather sleepily for the goblins to return. Out of the corner of her eye, she just managed to spot one suddenly arrive, apparently out of nowhere and run into one of the cottages. Well that was one problem solved; someone had given them the use of the instantaneous travel spell.

She saw nobody else for some time, then just as she was going to give up, another one arrived. By now there was enough daylight to see that he was covered in smears of paint, he almost looked as if he’d been rolling in it. She ran after him and followed him into his cottage.

“What on earth have you been up to you silly little squirt?” asked another goblin who was eating his breakfast.

“Ever since we escaped from the Valley, I’ve wanted to play a trick on the troll at Lurbridge with that paint he uses to decorate the underside of his bridge. He woke up just as I was leaving, but I used my red box and got away long before he could catch me.”

“Well thanks to that Georgina, it looks as if you might have got away with it. After all it’ll be long past midday before any one seen at Lurbridge could be expected to get back here, you’ll probably even have enough time to clean yourself up before anyone thinks of coming here.”

“Couldn’t have been me sir, honest. I’ve been here all night!” said the small goblin, practising his excuse.

“Wrong,” said Jennifer Jane making herself visible, “who may I ask is Georgina and how did you get out of the Valley in the first place?”

“It was nothing to do with me,” said both goblins at the same time.

“I got pushed through that door by accident I didn’t really want to come here anyway,” said the smaller of the two.

“Georgina is a witch who forces us to do terrible things to annoy people. None of us really enjoys it but we have to or else she’s going to turn us all into toads,” said the larger one. “Hey wait a minute you’re only a little kid. Just wait there a moment and I’ll come and thump you!”

Jennifer Jane laughed and turned herself invisible again. She went out through the open door and flew back to the Witches’ Home.

“I’m not really sure who that was,” said the smaller goblin, “but I’ve got a horrible feeling we’re all in trouble.”

The bigger one went over and began boxing the smaller one’s ears as hard as he could. The noise brought the other Valley goblins round to see what was going on and in a few minutes they were all fighting each other. Then the ordinary villagers came in and began cursing the valley goblins, for causing the trouble in the first place.

By the time Abigail, Jennifer Jane and half a dozen other witches turned up, the whole village looked like a battlefield. It was just hopeless to try and sort them all out.

Jennifer Jane and the witches went back to the relative peace and quiet of the woods on the other side of the road.

“May I suggest that we get Arthur to come here with his carrying box, said Jennifer Jane. “Then if we can sort out the goblins who escaped from Happy Valley it’ll only take him a few minutes to carry them back and drop them inside. What are you all laughing at?”