A week with Peter 16/17

The witch snarled and threw a bolt of lightning at Abigail, which she deflected with a twiddle of her fingers. The lightening crackled off among the trees, as Abigail responded with a very local downpour of rain followed immediately by an icy blast of wind which should have had her opponent frozen solid.

However most of the rain had been held off as the other witch hastily conjured up an umbrella. Her response was to make her horse grew a horn from its forehead and charge Abigail, who stood firm until the last second and then moved a tree so that his horn stuck in the trunk.

Jennifer Jane and Peter watched the two witches battling it out in fascination. The witch who had accompanied Abigail came over and stood beside them.

“Abigail’s quite good at this sort of thing,” said Rebecca, “but it would seem that they’re pretty evenly matched.”

To Jennifer Jane’s horror, the other witch had raised a small dust storm. Abigail had got some of the dust in her eyes and was unable to see. Before she could recover, a dragon was produced and immediately began taking a deep breath before scorching his opponent.

Jennifer Jane completely forgot the rules of engagement and her own common sense. Everyone stood still in amazement, except for Abigail who was trying to get the dust out of her eyes, as she ran towards the dragon, shouting at the top of her voice.

“Don’t you dare. My name is Jennifer Jane and I’m the person who made Tornak the Terrible eat coal instead of peasants.”

The dragon hesitated. “Did you kill Lurgin the troll as well?”

“Yes I did,” said Jennifer Jane rather untruthfully, “so just you stop it at once.”

“Oh,” said the dragon and looked over to the witch who had conjured him up to see what she wanted him to do next.

He was too late to receive any more instructions. Abigail had recovered and wound a long coil of rope round the other witch’s arms, binding her hands to her body as well, so that she couldn’t twiddle her fingers.

“That’s not fair,” said the wicked witch, “you had outside help.”

“What sort of help do you call trying to use a dragon?” asked Abigail. The other witch had no reply to that.

Jennifer Jane explained the reasons why she’d been kidnapped again.

“We’ll take her back to the Witches’ Home. I expect she’ll have to lose her magic powers like her brother and maybe she can work in the kitchen or somewhere useful. She’ll be able to see her brother, so it won’t be too bad for her.”

Mother came over and gave Jennifer Jane a cuddle, while Rebecca congratulated Jennifer Jane on her help in defeating the dragon.

Abigail magically removed the horse’s horn from the tree and told him to go over to the village, where she was sure someone would be able to find him shelter and employment.

“Can I go as well please,” asked the dragon, “just think, I’ll be able to tell my friends that I’ve been defeated by the great Jennifer Jane.”

The whole party split up. The dragon flew off to his home. The horse disappeared among the trees, heading in the direction of the village by Lurgin’s bridge, while Abigail and her companions returned to the Witches’ Home.

That evening, Jennifer Jane told her parents the full story.

“It sounds as if you’ve had another lucky escape from one of your typical adventures,” said Dave. “Lucky for you that young Peter was with you, or you might still be stuck in that room in the cottage.”

“Well I don’t wish to appear rude,” said Peter, “but to be quite honest I’m jolly glad I’m going home tomorrow. If that was a typical adventure I don’t think I want to be involved in anything out of the ordinary.”

Mary laughed, “You just have a good nights rest and then tomorrow you’ll be able to go home and tell your dad all about it. You’ve only got to go to the wood and wait for him to open the ‘door’. What can possibly go wrong?”