The quiet acorn 9/9

“For goodness sake stop it,” said a squeaky little voice, “I give in. I’ve already been changed back, so I know I’ve failed!”

As her eyes became used to the light, she looked carefully at the place where the voice was coming from. There was a small shivering lump of something on the floor and at last she could see that it was a soaking wet rat.

It was shaking off as much of the water as it could and she almost began to feel sorry for it. She kept her final spell handy in her mind just in case it was needed, but somehow she didn’t feel it was going to be necessary.

“Hadn’t you better explain yourself,” she said in as stern a voice as she could manage.

“It’s not much fun being a rat,” explained the ex-dragon. Nobody likes you, not even most of the other rats. Humans either scream when they see you, or else throw heavy things at you to try and kill you. Sometimes they pretend to be friendly and then put down poisoned food, or if that doesn’t work they’ll lay traps.”

The rat shuddered at the thought “I’ve seen a lot of rats go that way, so when a human caught me and then asked if I’d like to do a little job for him I agreed. He said he’d turn me into a dragon that was so powerful that every body would treat me nicely. All I had to do was wait for a nasty little busy body called Jennifer Jane and then kill her. That’s you miss I’m afraid. Then when the job was done he’d let me stay in my dragon shape and live with all the other dragons in the world.”

Jennifer Jane stood quietly for a moment thinking. The rat sat there, wiping drops of water off its whiskers and looking at her hopefully every now and again.

“Do you know who it was that turned you into a dragon?”

“Not really, the trouble is all you humans look alike to me. All I can say is he was some little chap in a red coat, about your size he was. I do remember he had lovely pointy ears though.”

“I think I’d better take you back to the Witches’ Home to get dried out and give you something to eat. Then you can go and live in the woods if you want.

“I think I’d like that,” said the rat, “do you think you could come and visit me sometimes?”

Jennifer Jane had a quick word with Abigail while she was drying and feeding her new friend. Then she let him loose in the woods near Esmerelda’s new shop.

“From the rat’s description, it sounds as if one of the local goblins was given a spell to turn him into a dragon. I don’t think we’ll even find the goblin, let alone the person who gave him the spell! You’ll just have to be on your guard again, against further attacks or kidnapping attempts.”

Abigail looked worried, “I thought we’d stopped all this sort of thing when we sorted out Malcolm and his sister, but it looks as if there’s someone new out there who’s taken a dislike to you.”

Jennifer Jane went home that night and told her dad the rest of the story.

“Well I’m glad it all worked out well for you again, but it is a bit worrying to know that there’s someone still trying to get rid of you in that world. I wonder when the next acorn to affect you will drop,” he said with a grin, “anyway; at least we know that particular acorn isn’t working any more!”

Neither of them knew it then, but Jennifer Jane’s dad was soon to be proved wrong!