The wizard's revenge 11/11

'Very few things in this life are ever straightforward,' her parents had told her, on more than one occasion. The situation before her as she turned the corner proved the truth of this statement.

The tide was ebbing but the fog was well out over the water and there wasn't a boat in sight. It was all getting to be a bit too much for her. She'd been so sure that once she arrived at the fog all her problems would be over. She certainly couldn't swim that distance, even if the water had been warm enough. She still had to think of getting back onto dry land when she arrived in her home river. She looked round to see if she could find anything that would float, perhaps she could make a raft of sorts.

There was nothing that would float on the seaward side of the wall at all, not even any pieces of driftwood. There were a few sheep grazing in a nearby field and that gave her another idea. She couldn't swim or find a boat, the only option left was to walk out to the fog over the mud.

She hurried across the field where the sheep were grazing. She soon found the hurdles that the shepherds used to contain sick animals and carried two of them over the sea wall to the beach. The pieces of rope the wizard had used to tie her hands and feet when she was kidnapped were still in her pocket, so she tied a piece of rope to one end of each of the hurdles and waited for the tide to go down sufficiently for her to walk out to the fog.

As soon as the edge of the fog touched the mud she started. Placing one of the hurdles on the mud she carefully walked towards her goal. The hurdle bore her weight quite safely and she towed the free one behind her. When she reached the end of the first hurdle she pulled the second round to the front and continued on her way in this fashion. To make sure that she was well and truly in the fog she continued until her feet began to get wet. Then she wished for the Therdle where Barnacle Bill and the goblin boatyard were to be found.

She walked slowly back out of the fog but to her disappointment nothing had changed. She should have been able to see Pope's Yard if she was in her own world. Containing her feelings as well as she could, she turned and went back into the fog. Pope's Yard would not appear no matter how hard she wished and by now the tide was beginning to rise again. She struggled ashore for the last time, sat down on the sea wall and burst into tears.

She was so despondent that she never noticed a woman walking towards her along the sea wall. She was dressed in black and carrying a birch broom in one hand.

"Now now my dear, what's all this? Crying your heart out in the middle of nowhere and covered in mud, whatever is the matter?"

Jennifer Jane looked up and could see nothing out of the ordinary in the woman's appearance, she'd become so used to the dress and mannerisms of this world, that she just assumed that the stranger must be a farmer's wife.

"I'm trying to find my way home," she sobbed, "its taken me over a week to get here and now I can't get through the fog."

The strange woman offered Jennifer Jane her hand and helped to her feet. "Are you the witch Abigail's apprentice, Jennifer Jane?" she asked.

Jennifer Jane nodded, dumb with amazement.

"Well thank goodness for that. Witchcraft on all the known worlds has been in turmoil ever since you went missing. I'm in charge of the transport fogs on this world but I couldn't pass you through because you're not on our register. Then some one suggested that you might be the young girl from world fifty seven that everyone's been looking for."

"Whatever number is this world then?"

"This is number four hundred and fifty three and I think it's high time I took you on my broom to the transport office in our Wish Warehouse."

Still clutching her suitcase, Jennifer Jane climbed on the broom and was flown through the fog to a rather rickety looking wooden structure. Ten minutes later Abigail arrived in a cloud of dust, wearing a very relieved smile. It took rather longer for Jennifer Jane to tell the assembled witches of her kidnap and subsequent adventures.

"Want to come home the easy way?" asked Abigail with a giggle.

Jennifer Jane just nodded in relief and sat herself on Abigail's broom before you could say 'knife'. Abigail flew to the Therdle fog as Jennifer Jane had planned and continued on to the end of her garden.

"I think I'll let you meet your parents by yourself," she said and flew off back to the Witches' Home to spread the good news.