The statue 4/15

‘Two hundred years’! She’d expected to go forward for about twenty. Not only that, but if magic wasn’t working any more for some reason, then how on earth was she going to get back home this time?’

“Do your history books have the story of Artie 23 and his two thousandth spell?” She asked.

Most of the witches started laughing again, but the one who’d just told her she’d been dead for two hundred years suddenly stopped smiling.

“Be quiet you lot,” she said, “now then child, how do you know about Artie’s two thousandth spell? None of the rest of the people in this room have ever heard of it and I only know because I’m researching the period for my Dame’s thesis. Suppose you tell me how it was reversed and what happened to the spell afterwards.”

“I got Fundin to make a machine to reverse time, similar to one that I’d seen in an alternate world I once visited. The magician was inside while it was still running and so the twiddle was performed backwards. I was told the spell was to be put in a special book of forbidden spells.”

“Well now, unlikely as it may sound, I’m beginning to think you may be who you say you are. There is one way to find out for sure, do you know any of the dragons that live opposite the Home?”

“Of course, I know Tornak and Tasmin and they’ve adopted a baby dragon called Freda!”

“Come with me and you’d better prepare yourself for a bit of a surprise.”

Jennifer Jane did as she was asked and followed the witch along the corridors and out into the alternate world. Apart from the statue she’d noticed from the guardroom, the rest of the view was very different to the familiar scene she was used to.

Most of the trees opposite the Home had been cut down, while all traces of Esmerelda’s shop had vanished. However she was being lead towards the cave where Tasmin had lived in her day and was beginning to wonder what she was going to find when she got there.

As they got nearer she could hear snores and grunting noises, so she wasn’t too surprised when the witch put her head carefully round the entrance and called out, “anyone awake in there?”

The noises stopped. “Who is it?” asked a grumpy sounding old dragon.

“Matilda from the Gate, I’ve brought you a visitor and I wonder if you’ll be able to recognise her?”

Jennifer Jane followed Matilda into the cave and then stopped in amazement. Two old dragons were stretching and shaking their heads in an effort to wake themselves up.

One of them looked round, “It’s really too bad you know when we’re not allowed to finish our beauty sleep. So who’s the mystery visit...? Oh my goodness gracious me! Wake up Angharad and have a good look at this, Jennifer Jane’s come to visit us and she looks just as she did when we were babies!”

The other dragon looked round blearily then her eyes opened wide as she recognised their guest. “BOO!” She said with a huge dragon grin, “I frighted Jeffer Jay.”