The quiet acorn 7/9

By coincidence, one of her lessons at school the next day was about conservation and the damage caused by forest fires. Although fires occurred naturally and were often a good thing in moderation, some of them got so big and dangerous that firemen had to put them out. One of the methods used was to fill up water tanks in very large aeroplanes and then water bomb the fire.

Jennifer Jane left school that afternoon and without waiting for her tea, went straight to the Witches’ Home to talk to Abigail.

Abigail listened to her idea and thought deeply for a moment. “Good idea in principle and as it’s a matter of danger only to you; I don’t see why we can’t sort something out. There’s only one problem as I see it. In order to put out the fire you’ve got to get the whole dragon wet and that means getting him to come out of his cave. If you don’t, then he can just stay inside nice and dry and keep on flaming for ever. A good soaking should do the trick and I’ll teach you how to throw really large quantities of water.”

Abigail explained that it would be rather like the defensive exercises taught in her magic lessons, but with much greater power.

“I’ll have a word with the local Clerk of the Weather as well,” she continued, “as this dragon has some sort of magic behind him, it won’t hurt to have something in reserve up our sleeves.”

Jennifer Jane spent the next two days of her spare time, practising throwing large jets of water over long distances. It got to the point in the end that Esmerelda came over to the drawbridge and complained to the guard about the state of the road outside her new shop.

“Me customers won’t want to walk through all that mud, it’s about time you lot had a bit of thought for other people!”

After she’d gone, the witch on duty laughed, “I think that’s the first time she’s ever come over here and complained about us. It’s usually the other way round, although I must say we haven’t had to have a go at her about smoky fires since young Ermintrude joined them.”

She had a quick look in a reference book before twiddling her fingers, there was a small cloud of steam and the path became as dry as usual. Esmerelda waved her hand to say thank you as she went back into the shop.

“I think perhaps you’d better practice in another direction. Why not see if you can get the water over the castle and make it rain on the lawn at the front of the house.”

Jennifer Jane was pretty sure the witch was pulling her leg, but she had a go anyway. Sure enough the jet of water reached the dividing line between castle and house and then disappeared. Still, practice was practice and her technique was improving with every try.

Abigail had made her arrangements with the Clerk of the Weather in Jennifer Jane’s world and at last pronounced herself satisfied with her pupil’s progress.

“You won’t get much better than that,” she said, as she watched a huge jet of water disappearing as it reached the magic barrier between the two parts of the Witches’ Home, “I think if you’re going to do it at all, then you ought to go now. Come into the office with me and I’ll explain what I’ve arranged and tell you how I think you ought to go about it.”

A few minutes later, Jennifer Jane pushed her scooter over the drawbridge and took off towards the north. Abigail and the witch on duty watched her go.

“Well I wish her luck, but does she really stand much of a chance against a dragon that even Sir George couldn’t reach?”

“She can do it if anyone can,” replied Abigail, “she’s got the most amazing luck of any apprentice I’ve ever known and if she does fail, then you’ll soon see her back in the guard house. We’ll just have to try and think of another way of going about it if that happens.”