Explorers on Witch Mountain

by Alex Bell

  Together, they grabbed one of the overhanging hairy branches and started to pull it down. The tree groaned in protest, and they had to tug hard to get the branch beneath the surface, but the plan worked because Ethan grabbed hold of it at once, and when they let the branch go it flew back with a snap that yanked the magician from the water in an explosion of green slime. He landed on the bank covered in the horrible stuff, as well as, oddly, dozens of wonky squish-squish frogs that were hopping and crawling all over him. Once they realised they were on land, however, they jumped off the magician and headed straight back towards the swamp.

  ‘I didn’t know there were wonky-squish-squish frogs in there!’ Cadi said.

  ‘Those aren’t frogs!’ Beanie gasped. He pointed at the nearest one. ‘That one’s got teeth sticking out of its mouth. And that one over there has a dorsal fin on its back. I think they’re piranha. Ethan must have used a spell on them.’

  ‘Didn’t Ethan have Gideon in his pocket?’ Shay asked. The magician lay coughing on the bank.

  A panic followed as everyone scrabbled to collect the frogs before they could disappear. Some of them did have a piranha sort of look about them still – whether this was teeth, fins, a glow or just a general savageness – but others looked like perfectly ordinary frogs, and any one of those could easily be Gideon.

  Stella collected some up in her skirt, wrinkling her nose against the smell – for the frogs were, of course, all covered in swamp water as well. Cadi whipped off her hat to deposit some in; Shay stuffed some into his bag and Beanie used his pom-pom hat. By the time they tipped their amassed frogs into Shay’s backpack, they were all pretty covered in slimy swamp goo. But not as much as Ethan. He was drenched with the stuff and still lying in a gasping heap on the mossy grass.

  As Shay zipped up the bag of frogs, the magician staggered to his feet, looking rather like a swamp monster himself, and tried to wipe the green goop from his eyes. It was in his hair, and dripping from his fingers, and sliding down the back of his neck.

  ‘Oh my gods, that is the worst thing that’s ever happened to me!’ he gasped, almost crying in outrage. ‘I can’t believe you lot are messing around with frogs at a time like this!’

  ‘If you hadn’t been such a stubborn idiot then you wouldn’t have fallen in the swamp in the first place!’ Shay said. ‘I’ve never met anyone who’s their own worst enemy as much as you are!’

  ‘I was going to share them but, just for that, you can find your own magic bath bubbles!’ Ethan snapped.

  And, with that, he scooped the purple bubbles he’d stolen from Munch out of his pocket.

  ‘Oh, are those bath bubbles?’ Cadi said, peering at them.

  ‘They’re mine!’ Ethan snarled.

  ‘Okay, but I wouldn’t use ten of them together like that if I were—’

  ‘They’re mine!’ Ethan said again. ‘If you lot wanted some then you should have stolen them from Weenus’s Trading Post back when you had the chance.’ He glared at Shay fiercely and said, ‘You can accuse me of being my own worst enemy all you like, but it seems to me that I’m the only one of us who’s got any foresight.’

  ‘The thing is, though, that if you use more than one at a time then the results can be a bit—’ Cadi began, but Ethan cut her off.

  ‘You’re not tricking me into sharing! How stupid do you think I am?’

  And, with that, he lifted his hand and slapped all ten of the bubbles against his forehead at once.

  Stella remembered how Munch had used one of the bubbles on Nigel and the camel had been transformed into a sleek, glossy, immaculately groomed version of himself. But that had been one little bubble for an entire camel. The result of ten bubbles used on a boy was rather different. Stella expected Ethan to be himself, except cleaner, but, in fact, he disappeared altogether. They thought he had actually vanished at first, but then Beanie spotted the purple object lying on the grass and they all hurried over to inspect it.

  It was a soap – about the size of Stella’s palm – and it was fashioned in the shape of a magician, complete with pointed wizard’s hat, flowing robes, and even a wand and impressively bushy beard. For a moment, they all stared at it in silence, then Shay said, ‘He’s actually turned himself into a soap, hasn’t he? Using nothing more than his own stupidity.’

  ‘You can only be so clean without being soap, I guess,’ Cadi said. ‘I’ve never seen someone use ten bubbles together before. That was a daring move, for sure. A friend of mine used three of them once and they blew soap bubbles every time they spoke for an hour afterwards.’

  ‘It’s not permanent, though, is it?’ Beanie asked anxiously. ‘I mean, is he still alive in there?’ He reached out and prodded the magician soap cautiously. There must have been a bit of magic fizzing around it still, because the act of touching it instantly caused Beanie to become spotlessly clean – all traces of swamp gone from his clothes and skin.

  The others hurried to touch the magician soap too, and Stella was pleased to find that the yucky swamp disappeared from her cloak, leaving her coated in a pleasant gooseberry smell.

  ‘Hopefully it’ll wear off,’ Shay said, squinting at the magician soap. He reached up and put it on Nigel’s saddle, securing it there with one of the tassels. The jungle fairies all grouped around the soap in interest, but backed away pretty hurriedly when Humphrey touched it and found his blue hair instantly in ringlets, his nails free from dirt and his feet newly pedicured.

  ‘We’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed that he turns back eventually,’ Shay said. He glanced at the others. ‘For now, we really need to concentrate on getting out of this enchanted forest.’

  After the swamp incident, everyone was in agreement about this. Shay picked up the bag of frogs, and they continued on their way, keen to put as much distance between themselves and the swamp as possible.

  They followed the path and, soon enough, the swamp was behind them and the broomstick trees had gone back to being tall and straight once again. They carried on through the forest and, after a little while, Cadi said, ‘I think we might be coming towards the edge. I can see light up ahead. Goodness knows what’s become of my witch! I hope you lot are keeping an eye out for her.’

  Cadi was right about there being flickers of light on the path, but as they travelled further they saw that this wasn’t daylight, as they had hoped, but more jack-o’-lanterns. The pumpkins lined the edge of the path on both sides, gazing at them with their grinning, gaping faces.

  ‘It’s almost like they’re leading the way to something,’ Beanie whispered to Stella.

  ‘The way out, perhaps?’ she replied hopefully.

  It turned out, however, that the pumpkins weren’t leading the way from the forest, but straight into another clearing. The explorers turned a corner and came upon it quite suddenly. It was full of red and white spotted toadstools, moss, dozens of flickering jack-o’-lanterns and … teddy bears.

  There must have been a dozen teddy bears before them, all different shapes and sizes. Stella saw an enormous pink bear with long whiskers, a tiny white teddy with delicate jointed limbs, a black bear with bright blue eyes and even a fuzzy green bear with enormous paws. Every single teddy was wearing a pointed witch’s hat. They all were sitting round an orange blanket decorated with black cats. And on this blanket was spread one of the most lavish picnics Stella had ever seen.

  There were chocolate broomsticks, toffee cauldrons overflowing with boiled sweets, marzipan cats and liquorice bats, candy-floss frogs and sugar mice. Hollowed-out pumpkins served as cups filled with hot chocolate, finished off with broomstickshaped marshmallows.

  Stella remembered what she had thought on first entering the forest – about this not being the sort of place where teddy bears would come to have their picnics – but, of course, these were no ordinary bears. Normal teddy bears couldn’t move on their own, for a start, or blink, or stand up. But, suddenly, all the bears were on their feet, all had little wands in their paws, and all were pointing the
se towards the explorers in a distinctly threatening manner.

  ‘Sorry.’ Stella held up her hands. ‘Don’t mind us. We didn’t mean to disturb you. We’re just passing through. Please do go back to your picnic.’

  The bears said nothing, but there was something quite sinister in the way the light from the jack-o’-lanterns flickered in their staring glass eyes. And the fact that they all wore witch’s hats wasn’t very comforting either.

  ‘We’re just going to leave, okay?’ Stella said. ‘No need to hex us or anything.’

  She began to walk slowly around the edge of the clearing, and the others followed her lead. The bears kept their eyes trained on them, turning their heads to stare, but not making any move to stop them.

  Stella was just starting to think that it might be okay when, with a loud soapy pop, Ethan turned back into a real-life magician. He looked almost entirely like his usual self, except for the fact that his hair – which was usually brushed straight back and immaculately gelled – fell around his ears in tight little ringlets that did, unfortunately, make him look rather like a girl.

  The sudden transformation startled Nigel, who reared back in alarm, bleating loudly. This panicked one of the teddy bears, who threw a fire spell from the tip of its wand. Fortunately, it missed the camel, but the spell went sailing past him and hit a nearby tree, which smoked and smouldered.

  The next thing they knew, all the teddies were firing magic spells at them, lighting up the clearing like fireworks and filling the air with the smell of explosives. The explorers were forced to duck behind the broomstick trees for cover.

  ‘Great Scott!’ Ethan cried, pushing his hair out of his eyes. ‘What in the blazes is going on here? Why the devil is my hair curled up into ringlets? And are those teddy bears that are attacking us?’

  ‘Ferocious little things, aren’t they?’ Cadi replied. ‘I remember Drusilla told me once that they can get terribly upset if you interrupt one of their picnics.’

  The teddy bears were advancing towards them, so Beanie reached into his bag and grabbed the first thing he found, which happened to be the rubber duck from the genie. He hurled it on the ground, and a bathtub immediately appeared, steaming with jellybean-scented bubbles and a collection of floating narwhals.

  The teddy bears stopped and stared at this for a moment before hurling so many magic spells at it that the bath exploded into pieces, water and narwhals sloshing out onto the ground before them.

  ‘I’m going to have to freeze them,’ Stella said, reaching past Buster to dig her tiara out of her pocket. ‘We’re all going to get blown up otherwise.’

  She shoved the sparkling tiara on her head and stepped out from behind the tree to face the teddy bears, blue magic already sparking and glittering at her fingertips. Just as she was about to throw ice magic at the teddies, a girl came crashing into the clearing.

  ‘Sorry I’m late!’ she cried. ‘Sorry! But I brought gingerbread!’

  Everyone turned to stare at her. She was, quite obviously, a witch. Stella thought she must have been about ten years old. She wore a black dress, edged with lace, a pointed witch’s hat, black and orange striped stockings and black shoes with little block heels and shiny gold buckles. She had a broomstick in one hand and a tray of gingerbread men balanced in the other.

  All the teddy bears turned and fled from the explorers, rushing over to the girl and crowding around her feet, tugging at her skirt with their paws and, finally, speaking. At least, Stella thought they were speaking, but really it just sounded like gibberish – a strange mixture of growls and squeaks and snorts.

  ‘Drusilla!’ Cadi exclaimed.

  ‘Oh,’ the witch said, staring at the scene before her. ‘Hi, Cadi. Who are all these people?’ She hefted the tray and said, ‘Would they like some gingerbread? I made enough for guests.’

  ‘Are you friends with a witch?’ Stella looked at Cadi, aghast.

  The witch hunter shrugged. ‘Sure, we’re friends,’ she said. ‘How about I introduce you? Drusilla, this is Stella Starflake Pearl. She’s an ice princess and—’

  ‘But witches are evil!’ Stella exclaimed, cutting her off. ‘How can you possibly be friends with one?’

  ‘I say, that’s rather mean,’ Drusilla said. She marched across the clearing and stared up at Stella with a fierce look. The top of her pointed hat barely came up to Stella’s shoulder. ‘And rude too. Princesses aren’t meant to be rude, they’re meant to be lovely.’ She jabbed at Stella with her broomstick. ‘Why aren’t you lovely?’

  ‘Stella is extremely lovely,’ Beanie said loyally. ‘She’s the loveliest person I know.’

  ‘Well, it doesn’t sound much like it to me,’ Drusilla said. She gestured behind her. ‘The teddies say you interrupted their picnic and then threatened them with ice magic. Totally unprovoked too.’

  The tiara glittered in Stella’s hair and her hand was still outstretched, blue sparks of magic fizzing around her fingertips.

  ‘I wouldn’t exactly call it unprovoked,’ Shay said reasonably.

  ‘They attacked us,’ Stella said. She jerked her head over her shoulder and said, ‘Look at the trees.’

  Drusilla glanced at the broomstick trees, which were singed and still smoking a little.

  ‘Well, you can’t blame them for that,’ she said. ‘You frightened them.’

  ‘We didn’t mean to,’ Shay said. ‘Look, I think this is all a bit of a misunderstanding.’ He reached up, gently took hold of Stella’s wrist and drew her hand back down to her side. ‘But there’s no real harm done, is there? And I’m sure no one wants to magically attack anyone else without good reason.’

  ‘Why are your fairies being sick?’ Drusilla asked, narrowing her eyes suspiciously. ‘Have they been eating my house? They better not have been eating my house.’

  Stella turned and saw that the jungle fairies were, indeed, being frightfully ill – clutching onto Nigel’s humps and vomiting over his side.

  ‘Oh dear,’ she said. ‘Well, at least it means they’ll leave the picnic alone.’

  Drusilla set the tray of gingerbread men down on the floor and the little man-shaped biscuits instantly got up from the baking sheet and started running around. The teddies raced after them, scooping them up before they could escape into the forest (although one or two of them did manage to climb up into the safety of a broomstick tree) and taking them back to the picnic spread.

  ‘Everyone, this is Drusilla,’ Cadi said in a firm voice. ‘She’s a witch but she’s also a friend, and I’m sure you’ll all like her very much if you give her half a chance.’

  ‘But if she’s your friend then how come you’re capturing her to prove yourself as a hunter?’ Stella asked.

  ‘Dru’s just doing me a favour,’ Cadi said. ‘Besides, I already told you I’d rather be an explorer than a hunter.’

  ‘I’ve just remembered – don’t ice princesses have frozen hearts?’ Drusilla asked, looking at Stella warily.

  ‘This one doesn’t,’ Cadi said. She glanced at Stella and said, ‘Not all ice princesses are villains, are they? Well, guess what? Not all witches are evil either.’ She patted Drusilla on the shoulder and said, ‘Most witches are just people who like cats and magic. This one can be a bit of a cheeky monkey sometimes, but she’s definitely not evil.’

  Stella looked down at the little witch in front of her. She had to admit that she certainly didn’t look evil. Her eyes were bright green and shining with curiosity – there was a smattering of freckles over her nose, which turned up a bit at the end, and her hair was a bright, bold red and frizzed out in all directions beneath her pointed hat.

  Stella reached up and removed the tiara from her hair, tucking it back into her cloak. She could practically hear Felix’s voice in her head, chastising her for believing that all witches were evil. Hadn’t she herself suffered the exact same prejudice from people who thought all ice princesses were wicked, and who had judged her before they had even laid eyes on her?

  Suddenl
y, Stella felt rather ashamed of herself. ‘Oh dear, I am sorry,’ she said. ‘I had a bad experience with a witch when I was little, but that doesn’t excuse being beastly to every witch I meet. I hope you can forgive me?’

  Drusilla beamed up at her. ‘Think nothing of it,’ she said. ‘I’ve forgotten it already. The bears say you can stay and share the picnic with them if you like.’

  ‘They were trying to blow our heads off five seconds ago!’ Ethan exclaimed.

  ‘Bears don’t hold grudges,’ the witch replied.

  ‘Magicians do,’ Ethan grunted.

  ‘Thank you,’ Stella said. ‘Normally we’d be delighted, but I’m afraid we can’t stop. My father has gone after a very dangerous witch who lives here and we’ve got to catch him up before he reaches her.’

  ‘That’s terribly brave of you,’ Drusilla replied. ‘We may not all be evil but there are still plenty of fiendishly dangerous witches living on Witch Mountain. Not to mention the witch wolves.’

  Stella noticed that, at the mention of the witch wolves, Shay shuddered beside her. She reached over and gave his hand a squeeze.

  ‘It’s a shame you can’t come too, Dru,’ Cadi said.

  ‘Why can’t she?’ Beanie asked.

  ‘Infant witches aren’t allowed past the Forest of Enchanted Broomsticks,’ Cadi said. ‘We think it’s because the witches who live at the top of the mountain are all pretty dangerous so they don’t want kids wandering around up there.’

  ‘That’s right. Except I’m not an infant witch any more,’ Drusilla said, beaming. ‘Haven’t you noticed anything different about me?’

  Cadi looked at her for a moment, then gasped, her hands flying to her mouth. ‘You’ve got your witch’s hat!’

  Drusilla nodded. ‘The spells goblin visited me last night. I’m a witch in training now!’

  ‘How marvellous!’ Cadi replied. She glanced at the others and said, ‘When infant witches become witches in training they get a visit from the spells goblin who bestows them with several gifts.’ She counted them off on her fingers. ‘One pointy witch’s hat, one pair of magic shoes, one flying broomstick and a familiar egg.’