The door slammed shut behind her, closing them away in the darkness. It was cramped in there and the stale air made Molly choke.
The dragon let out a nervous whine and dug its claws deeper into Molly's shoulder.
'Ouch,' she flinched, but the dragon didn't loosen its grip.
Miss Moffat swished out her wand and the end of it lit up.
'Step back,' she said.
Molly looked around the room, wondering where Miss Moffat expected her to go? She took small steps back until she was pressed against the wall. She had no idea why Miss Moffat had brought her here, maybe her advanced years were finally catching up with her and she had lost her mind.
'Revelare,' Miss Moffat aimed her wand at the ground.
There was a creaking sound as a trapdoor in the middle of the room jerked open. Miss Moffat began to disappear beneath it, gesturing for Molly to follow her.
Molly looked down at the trapdoor, a series of narrow rocky steps travelled downwards in a spiral. The dragon lowered its head as Molly began to walk down the stairs. Firelights flicked on as Miss Moffat passed them, illuminating the stone walls.
At the bottom of the stairs the narrowness changed into a low-ceilinged room. Standing up straight Molly's head was only an inch from the ceiling whereas Miss Moffat had to stoop over.
'Welcome to the Academy dungeon,' Miss Moffat smirked. 'I know it isn't particularly glamorous, but it's safe.'
Molly thought that she'd seen the majority of the rooms in the Academy, but until now she had no idea that dungeon existed. It stood to reason that somewhere as large as the Academy would at least have a basement, but she'd never stopped to think about it.
'Seeing as you and this creature seem to have bonded, I find it only fitting that you should be the one to look after it.'
'Look after it, how am I meant to do that?' Molly looked horrified.
'I suggest that feeding it, providing it with water and keeping it company would suffice. I would normally recommend reading a book to find out such information but I have currently lost faith in literature due to recent events. No doubt my faith will soon be restored...once justice has been received and order returns to my Academy.'
The dragon flew off Molly's shoulder and swooped around the room before it stopped by Molly's feet and sniffed at the ground.
'The most important thing is that you keep both this place and most importantly that dragon a secret, do you understand?' she glared at Molly.
'Yeah, yes, I understand. Just leave it to me,' Molly forced a smile.
'I'm glad to hear it. I may seem harsh sometimes Molly, but I have the greatest respect for you,' Miss Moffat said, before she proceeded to walk towards the staircase.
'Magic has to the ability to make so many things possible but unfortunately it can't make wrongs right themselves, those mediocre tasks have to be carried out by the likes of you and me,' she sighed.
Molly waited until Miss Moffat's footsteps had disappeared before she turned to the dragon.
'What am I meant to do with you?'
The dragon peered up at her and stuck out its tongue before it stretched out its red wings, yawned and then sat down close to Molly's feet.
'Fine,' she crouched down and gently patted the dragon's head. 'If this is going to work then you need a name.'
The dragon hiccupped and a small spark of fire shot from its mouth and landed on the stone ground.
'Flame,' Molly chuckled, as she gave the dragon another pat on the head. 'Yeah, Flame's a perfect name for you.'
Chapter Two
To Charlotte and the other girls, it felt as if they'd been searching through the Dark Forest for hours. Then again, it probably had been hours. When they'd first started their search the sun had only started to break through the darkness and the air carried with it a chill. Now the sun streaked through the trees and it was uncomfortably humid.
'Come on girls, keep those horns blowing and let’s try and find this dragon,' the Mistress of Spells said as she clutched tightly onto her wand.
Charlotte blew air up onto her face before she blew into the horn. She was hot, short of breath and exhausted. She found herself thinking about Charlie and wondered where in this forest he currently was?
Part of her wanted to walk into him right now, but the other part of her didn't want him to see her when she was so sweaty and smelly. He always managed to look so effortlessly cute and she doubted that he ever sweated.
'Come on daydreamer,' Stef tugged on her arm. 'I hope they don't make us stay out here much longer, my feet, arms, hands, nose and everything else is sweaty,' she smirked.
'Yeah same,' Charlotte chuckled.
'My feet are so sweaty my shoes are like swimming pools,' Gerty smiled.
'Stop talking about sweat, such a common word...if you would have been raised properly, you would know that horses sweat and boys perspire and girls glow,' Alice lectured.
'Says the girl in the stupid designer red coat, you must be steaming in that thing!' Stef snorted.
'At least I understand fashion,' Alice blew her horn in Stef's face before she strode off over to Maggie and Toyah.
'Girls, today would be preferable,' the Mistress of Spells huffed, as she looked back at
Charlotte, Stef and Gerty.
'What's up with her?' Stef whispered to Charlotte and Gerty.
'Beats me,' Gerty shrugged. 'Maybe she doesn't like being up so early in the morning?'
'She always seems fine when we have morning lessons with her,' Charlotte said.
'Maybe she has boyfriend problems?' Stef grinned and giggled.
'Girls, if I have to ask you again I won't hesitate in turning you into FROGS!' the Mistress of Spells snapped.
'Yep, definitely boyfriend problems,' Stef chuckled, before she trudged off through the forest.
Charlotte and Gerty walked alongside each other, occasionally blowing into their horns. Gerty started going on about dragons and how she wanted one as a pet, but Charlotte wasn't listening, instead she was looking over at the Mistress of Spells and wondering why she was in such a bad mood.
Before Charlotte could stop herself she found herself focusing hard on the Mistress of the Spells. 'How could I be so ridiculously careless? I am meant to be one of the most experienced witches at the Academy, but no, I couldn't even manage to keep my wand from being stolen by adolescents. I should have known better than to just leave it lying around. Too trusting Cordelia, that's what you are. Well not anymore and why did I trust and help the Mistress of the Books. All those hours helping her perfect her beautifying spell, while she was probably planning on betraying me and the Academy. I hope she wakes up grey and covered in spots, giant crimson spots,' the Mistress of Spells thought to herself.
Charlotte felt guilty for reading her mind, yet she found herself intrigued by her spells teacher. She looked upon her as being near perfect but she was a witch just like the rest of them and she faced her own set of challenges. No one was perfect, not even the Mistress of Spells.
'What if Bartholomew hears about this? What if he loses his interest in me and finds a new suitor, one that isn't so foolhardy and naive?' she thought.
Charlotte shook her head and cleared it of all thoughts. She felt sorry for the Mistress of Spells, as she was a good teacher. She'd made a mistake, Charlotte had made a few of those too and she knew how difficult it could be to deal with the aftermath.
She looked over at Gerty who was still talking away, she hadn't yet noticed that Charlotte was no longer by her side and was in fact several steps behind her.
'Charlotte, I have the toad spell at the ready,' the Mistress of Spells shouted.
'Sorry Miss,' she blushed, before she hurried forwards.
Time passed until the morning was almost over. Charlotte wondered how long they'd be made to search through the forest? She was eager to get back to her room, shower and then eat lunch.
'Over here,' Gerty shouted.
All of the girls rushed over to Gerty, hidden amongst the tall blades of gra
ss and color-changing flowers was a large oval object. It was as large as the last one but its color was more deep yellow than gold; it was another egg.
'Girls, get back,' the Mistress of Spells rushed in front of Gerty, almost pushing her over.
All of the girls did as she said, all except for Alice. Instead of moving away from the egg she moved closer to it and bent over it.
'Alice,' the Mistress of Spells hissed. 'I insist you move back right n-'
There was a loud cracking sound and the top of the egg shattered away and a head popped out, two large beady eyes looked straight at Alice.
'Aw, it's so cute,' Alice bent down further to get a closer look at it.
'Alice, step away,' the Mistress of Spells hissed.
'Come on Alice, move away,' Stef said.
The dragon fought its way out of the rest of the egg and then shuffled forwards.
'I'm quite alright, this dragon is clearly harmless,' she stretched her hand out to pat its head.
Before her hand touched its scaly green head, the baby dragon spat a small ball of fire at her.
She jolted backwards and patted her face. Her eyebrows were singed.
The Mistress of Spells flicked her wand and a shimmering white net appeared. She took a careful step forwards and then threw it over the dragon. The dragon let out a long, high-pitched screech that caused all of the girls to put their hands over their ears. It stretched out its wings and furiously flapped them.
The net began to slip to one side and before the Mistress of Spells could fix the issue...the dragon escaped and flew off into the forest.
'What happened?' Stef asked.
'Never mind that, what about my eyebrows?' Alice huffed.
'Surely, even to you, it's obvious that touching a dragon isn't a good idea, you're lucky that your coat didn't catch fire,' Stef rolled her eyes.
'Girls, it is of vital importance that we find that dragon,' the Mistress of Spells said as she hopped onto her broom and flew after the dragon.
'Try not to pat it this time,' Stef smirked as she looked at Alice.
'Whatever Stef,' Alice huffed, before she flew off after the Mistress of Spells.
'I'd rather not find the dragon, I don't want to end up without eyebrows, look at what happened to Alice, she looks ridiculous!' Gerty said, as she flew alongside Charlotte.
'Agreed,' she replied, as she wiped the sweat off her forehead. 'I wonder how many more eggs are out here?'
'I'm sure this is the last one and then we can go back to the Academy and eat crackling candy cake,' she smiled.
'Yeah, hopefully,' Charlotte forced a smile.
Charlotte didn't know much about dragons but she imagined that there were plenty more eggs hidden in the confines of this forest. She didn't want to think about what would happen if they all went by unnoticed, as an army of fire-breathing dragons was a daunting prospect.
The witches spotted the dragon up ahead. With inexperienced wings, it misjudged its swerve and bashed straight into a branch. It coughed up a fireball, shook its body and dodged out of the way of the Mistress of Spell's cast spell.
'Boiled bats,' the Mistress of Spells said under her breath, as she watched the dragon fly off deeper into the forest.
The further they flew the more entwined the trees became, until they could no longer fly and had to chase the dragon on foot. Charlotte found herself straightening her arms by her sides in order to squeeze through the gaps in the trees.
'Keep on going girls, it's not far ahead,' the Mistress of Spells shouted, as she forced her way through the gaps in the trees.
The dragon whizzed past Charlotte and perched itself on a branch. She slowed down coming to a halt and carefully pulled out her wand. Suddenly a long vine twirled its way from a branch and snapped at Charlotte's ankle. She let out a yelp and shook out her leg, whacking it straight into a branch.
More vines appeared and snapped at the girls. One wrapped itself around Stef's broom and shook her up and down, she clung onto it and screamed out. Gerty flew over to Stef to help her, but a vine entwined itself around her waist and pulled her off her broom, she tumbled her way onto the ground and landed with a thud.
The dragon stuck its long pale pink tongue out at Charlotte before it flew off. She shook herself free of the vines and was about to hurry after the dragon when she heard Stef's pleas for help. She fought off the vines as she flew over to her friend and got as close to her as possible and aimed her wand.
'Defluet,' she flicked her wand at the vine holding Stef's broomstick and it began to wither away.
Stef began to fall downwards, she reached out and grabbed onto a branch to stop her fall.
'Thanks,' she smiled at Charlotte.
The girls could see a that the vines weren’t as thick ahead and they hopped onto their broomsticks and took off.
They both flew after the dragon, using the singed leaves as their map. The trees continued to thin out and the burnt leaves led them to a cave’s entrance. They stopped by the entrance and watched as the Mistress of Spells sped past them into the cave.
They exchanged looks and Stef shrugged before she followed her teacher into the cave. Charlotte let out a sigh before she flew after her.
The cave brought with it a sudden drop in temperature, goosebumps formed on Charlotte’s skin and her teeth began to chatter. She put a torch spell on her wand and cautiously flew further into the cave.
'Hello,' she said and her voice echoed off the damp walls. 'Stef, Mistress of Spells?'
No one replied...she spun around on her broom trying to decide which of the several directions to take. It was then that she realized that she had no idea which direction she came from and no idea where she should be going next.
'Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, catch a tiger by the toe. If he hollers, let him go, eeny, meeny, miny, moe.' Charlotte pointed at the tunnels, her finger landed on the one that had black gunk dripping from its arched stone entrance.
'Okay,' she muttered, before she swooped towards it and ducked down.
It was narrow and gloomy and her lit-up wand didn't provide much assistance. It was quiet, too quiet.
'Hello, Stef, Gerty, anyone?' she said.
She was lost and she had no idea how to get out of here. In her Pokémon game she used an escape rope to get out of caves, but this wasn't a game, this was real and she didn't know any escape spells.
She forced herself to keep moving forward, telling herself that they'd come looking for her and that she'd be okay. A fluttering sound startled her and she held out her lit-up wand. A flash of black glided past her and she jerked her head to the side. Suddenly a cloud of black was surrounding her, flapping in her face and getting tangled in her hair. She flailed out her arms as she tried to swipe them away, she had seen enough of the small black creatures to know what they were, only these ones weren't as friendly as the ones from the Academy…bats.
They followed her as she flew forwards, the narrow passageway opened up into a larger area and as soon as she flew out into it, the bats stopped abruptly. She breathed a sigh of relief as she looked around her, it was lighter here, which meant that the exit had to be close by. Just then, Alice and Stef both appeared from different directions and flew straight into each other. They both tumbled to the ground, their brooms clattering down next to them.
'Watch it,' Stef grunted, as she inspected her broom.
'Excuse me, you're the one that was flying like a lunatic. This is what happens when witches of impeccable class like myself have to mix with scum like you,' Alice snapped.
'Guys come on, we need to find the exit,' Charlotte said. She could see that the tension between Stef and Alice was at breaking point. And to be honest, she could totally understand it if Stef hit stuffy pompous Alice over the head!
Stef jumped to her feet and brushed herself down, she gave Alice a death stare and then sat on her broomstick and flew up alongside Charlotte. They both hovered over Alice who was picking the dirt out of her coat.
'Hurry up
Alice!' Charlotte said.
'Fine,' she sighed, before she reluctantly stood up.
They all flew towards the light, relieved when the exit came into view. They flew outside and blinked their eyes as they were reacquainted with the light. They weren't alone, in front of them were the rest of their group who were swooping between the trees.
'This way,' Gerty signaled over to a singed branch.
All of the girls flew after the Mistress of Spells. They were all exhausted, but they all kept on going, even Alice.
Books for Girls - WITCH SCHOOL - Books 2-6: Book 1 is FREE! Page 26