The trees gave way to a clearing with knee high grass. The Mistress of Spells had already landed there, she had the net in one hand and placed a finger to her lips when she saw the others.
They looked from their teacher to the grass and saw two beady eyes peering just above it. The Mistress of Spells took a few cautious steps towards the dragon before she threw out the net. The dragon lurched into the air before the net had covered it, the grass rustled and six more baby dragons in varying colours flew up alongside it.
The dragon they'd all been chasing stuck out its tongue at them before it flew off, followed by the other dragons.
The Mistress of the Spells watched disappointedly as they disappeared into the Dark Forest.
'So many dragons and they are so hard to catch,' she looked flustered. 'Miss Moffat will not be pleased when I tell her about this.'
'So we don't have to go after them?' Stef asked.
'I think it's time we went back to the Academy,' she sighed, before she clicked her fingers and a brown speckled owl flew past the trees and landed on a branch in front of her. 'Please inform all of the principals that there is to be an immediate meeting at Alexander's College, please express its urgency.'
The owl gave a knowing nod before it flew off out of sight.
'At least this morning has been interesting,' Maggie said.
'Yeah, you could call it that,' Stef snorted.
'I'm shattered,' Gerty plonked herself down next to the tall grass. She pulled off a blade of grass and began to fiddle with it. 'But I did get to see some baby dragons, which was amazing.'
'About that,' the Mistress of Spells gave a knowing look, before she held up her wand.
'Obliviscatur draco,' she flicked her wand.
Just like that all memories of the dragons vanished from their minds.
Chapter Three
'Well girls, it is clear that there are no dragons in this forest so I think it's about time we flew back to the Academy,' the Mistress of the Spells addressed the girls.
'Finally! It's ridiculous making us traipse around in this heat, my parents don’t pay the school fees for me to fix other people’s problems,' Alice huffed.
'Well maybe if you took off that stupid coat then you wouldn't be so hot?' Stef sniggered.
'Being made to walk miles and miles through this dangerous forest in this heat is preposterous. What if a monster had kidnapped me?'
'Then, I would have personally thanked it,' Stef muttered.
'I demand first turn in the bathroom.'
'No chance,' Stef grinned.
'Quickly girls,' the Mistress of Spells got onto her broom. 'The quicker we fly back to the Academy, then the quicker we can go and get lunch.'
'I really wanted to see a dragon,' Gerty said to Charlotte, as they both got onto their broomsticks.
'I know Gerty, but it's probably better that we didn't, it could have been dangerous,' Charlotte replied.
'I know, I can't wait to get back, today's been so hot and boring.'
'At least we got to see the forest and we got to see, erm, what did we see?' Charlotte tried to think, but it was like her memories wouldn't come into focus.
'Trees and lots of them,' Gerty chuckled.
'You can never see too many trees,' Charlotte smiled.
They flew up into the air and followed the Mistress of the Spells as she glided up above the trees. As she looked down at the Dark Forest she hoped that she'd done the right thing. The situation was far worse than they'd imagined and she didn't want to put her students in danger.
The principals were some of the greatest witches and wizard in the world, surely they could handle some baby dragons, right? She tried to shake the doubt from her head as she swooped through the air.
***
Miss Moffat and the Mistress of Spells walked up the long corridor of Alexander's College.
'So we don't mention Flame at all?' the Mistress of Spells whispered.
Miss Moffat gave her a perplexed look.
'The baby dragon that's currently receding in our dungeon.'
'Oh, yes. Under no circumstances, do you utter a word of its existence, you know Alexander's views on such matters.'
'My lips are sealed,' the Mistress of Spells moved a finger across her closed lips like a zip.
'Good, now, let's get this over with.'
'Indeed,' the Mistress of Spells smiled.
They arrived at Alexander's office and were led in by a weird looking, suit-wearing goblin.
'Ah, ladies,' Alexander stood up from behind his desk and bowed at them.
He gestured for them to take a seat next to Mistress Ravenwolf, who was sipping her liquorice coffee.
'Can we hurry this up? I have a school to get back to,' Mistress Ravenwolf moaned.
'By all means, go, no ones making you stay,' Miss Moffat replied.
'Ladies, ladies, please,' Alexander held up his hands. 'We're all friends here,' he grinned.
'That's a matter of opinion,' Miss Moffat said under her breath.
'May I ask what has caused the urgency of this meeting?' Alexander said.
'Dragons,' the Mistress of Spells blurted out.
'We're well aware of our little dragon problem, which may I remind you, was the result of negligence at your Academy,' Mistress Ravenwolf smirked.
'Baby dragons, my girls and I found them in the Dark Forest. We saw seven but for all we know there may be more.'
'I trust that they were destroyed?' Alexander asked.
'No,' the Mistress of Spells shook her head. 'There were too many, they flew away.'
'Typical,' Mistress Ravenwolf snorted.
'May I advise you that unless you have something constructive to say, not to say it at all,' Miss Moffat gave her a stern look.
'I am not a child, so I advise you not to talk to me like one of your little students,' she rose to her feet, her wand aimed at Miss Moffat.
'My girls will always have more class and decorum than you and your vile students,' Miss Moffat abruptly stood up and aimed her wand back at Mistress Ravenwolf.
'Supernatet auferetur,' Alexander flicked his wand, both Miss Moffat and Mistress Ravenwolf's wands immediately flew out of their hands and floated out of reach.
'Now, now ladies, let's play nicely.'
Miss Moffat’s face was stern. 'I have no time for pettiness, I suggest that we each take it in turns to patrol the forest with members of our staff. We'll do tonight, you can do tomorrow,' she glared at Alexander. 'And you,' she took a step towards Mistress Ravenwolf as she looked directly at her. 'You can do the day after that.'
She clicked her fingers and her wand flew into her hand. She looked at the Mistress of Spells before she began to walk towards the door, she gave a knowing nod and followed her.
Miss Moffat swung open the door, sending the goblin who'd been listening at the door flying across the corridor.
'What a surprise,' she muttered, before she rolled her eyes and swung out her cape as she strode past the goblin.
The Mistress of Spells gave the goblin who was rubbing his knee a sympathetic smile before she hurried after Miss Moffat.
***
From sundown to sunset the patrols continued, as staff from each school took their turn in the Dark Forest equipped with powerful spells.
Days turned to weeks, and weeks turned to months.
No dragons were spotted, not even a flap of a wing.
There were no singed leaves.
No glistening eggs.
No sign that the dragons had ever set foot in the Dark Forest.
And so it was declared that the baby dragons must have died out in the forest, unable to fend for themselves. As for the adult dragon, rumor spread amongst the staff that this dragon would have been foolish to stay so close to its former confines. Therefore, it was presumed that the adult dragon had long since flown away.
Warnings had been sent out to all of the witch and wizard schools but none of them had reported so much as a sighting.
/> The dragons had gone, the patrols were no longer needed and life could go back to normal.
For Professor Alexander and Mistress Ravenwolf, the belief was that the dragons had gone.
There were only three witches in the world who knew the truth.
Miss Moffat, the Mistress of Spells and Molly might not have known what had happened to the other dragons, but they knew the truth about one.
Flame wasn't living in the Dark Forest, instead he was happily living in the dungeon.
This was a secret that they didn't want to get out. Alexander and Mistress Ravenwolf would have been furious at their betrayal. Their beliefs on the matter were strong, they believed that the dragons were cruel beasts who couldn’t be tamed and they needed to be destroyed.
If either of them found out the truth, then Miss Moffat knew that it would cause friction between the three principals and a possible shift of allegiance.
Still, Miss Moffat couldn't bring herself to kill the baby dragon. It was just a baby, an innocent beast, one that had been abandoned in a forest. She couldn't have destroyed it, unless it had given her good reason to do so.
As long as the three witches could keep Flame a secret, then nothing bad would happen. Until it was old enough to put into the Book of Dragons…it would have to reside in the dungeon.
It couldn't be hard for three powerful witches to keep one tiny little secret, could it?
Chapter Four
With a rucksack full of food and water slung over her shoulder, Molly quietly walked up the corridor. The statue of a witch wearing sunnies, snored softly as she tip-toed past her.
It was early, ridiculously so. No one else in the Academy was awake yet. Her days adventure had already begun whereas everyone else was still lost in slumber.
She brought her hand to her mouth as she yawned. No matter how many early mornings she arose, she never grew accustomed to them, her eyes felt heavy and her body yearned for the comfort of her bed.
She looked over her shoulder before she came to a stop in front of the cupboard door. She glanced around one more time, before she stepped into the cupboard and cautiously closed the door behind her.
She opened the trapdoor and made her way down the spiral steps, she rubbed her eyes and let out another yawn.
As she stepped onto the stone floor a scaled shape flew across the room and bundled itself into her arms.
'Morning Flame,' Molly chuckled.
Flame stuck out its tongue and licked her face causing her to laugh more.
'You're too heavy,' she lowered Flame and carefully placed him on the ground. You’re like holding an enormous lump of treacle rock.'
Flame looked up at her with curious eyes, before he flew up alongside her and knocked his head against her rucksack.
'Hold on,' she gently pushed Flame away.
He moved back towards her rucksack and tried to head-butt it again.
'Flame, sit,' her tone was stern.
Flame reluctantly flew away from the rucksack and sat down next to Molly's feet.
'Good boy,' she crouched down and patted his head.
'Wait,' she held a finger out in front of him, before she took the rucksack off her shoulder and opened it up.
She pulled out a foil covered package and unwrapped it in front of an eager looking Flame. She held the piece of raw meat up in front of him and he licked his lips.
'Wait,' she said, 'wait.'
Flame perched eagerly as he kept his eyes on the meat.
'Fire,' she said, as she threw the piece of meat into the air and quickly stepped to the side.
Flame leapt up into the air and blew out a ball of fire. It hit the meat and instantly caused it to sizzle before he opened his mouth as wide as it would go and gulped it down.
'Good boy,' she chuckled, as she walked across the room.
She stopped in front of a round bowl and rummaged through her rucksack, taking out a bottle of water and pouring it into the bowl.
Flame rushed over to her and gave her a toothy smile before he lapped up the water. Molly sat down on the ground and watched Flame drink.
She never thought that being head girl would entail looking after a dragon. She'd been apprehensive at first, but now she'd grown fond of Flame, she knew that behind his menacing red eyes and bony wings was a creature that just wanted to be loved.
As a little girl, Molly had been intrigued by her grandmother Verity. She had made the best floating strawberry jam cake she'd ever tasted, she'd always worn a fur trimmed coat whatever the weather and she'd seldom uttered a sentence without including a saying in it.
One rainy afternoon, she had instructed Molly to choose a book from her vast array of bookshelves. Molly had picked up a ruby red, hard covered book with a picture of a beautiful woman on it, surrounded by colorful swallows. Her grandmother had given her a slight smile, before she told her never to judge a book by its cover as it might just surprise her, before she passed her a worn looking leather bound book that had an odd smell to it. Reluctantly Molly had put the ruby red book aside and opened up the old looking book. Soon she had grown lost to the words within the pages that told of unicorns, magic and a daring princess.
Molly hadn't thought much of her grandmother's words...until now. It turned out that her grandmother had made a lot of sense. When she'd first set eyes on Flame she'd looked upon him as an ugly creature, just as she had with the worn looking book, all those years ago. She'd let its appearance influence her opinion of it and because of this she'd misunderstood it. The worn looking book hadn't been boring, just as Flame wasn't a dangerous, unloving monster.
In fact, Flame was far from being a monster, instead Molly found herself more fond of the scaly creature than she ever thought was possible.
She stroked Flame as he snuggled up in the crook of her arm.
'You're a good boy, Flame,' she said.
Just then her stomach gurgled and Flame looked at it questioningly.
'It looks like I'm hungry,' she muttered, as she peered inside of her rucksack and pulled out a piece of bread. 'Fire,' she shouted as she threw it into the air.
Flame immediately flew up and blew a ball of fire at the bread, instantly toasting it.
'Perfect!' Molly said, as she grabbed the toast.
She pulled a small tub of butter and a knife out of her rucksack and began to butter her toast.
'You're great Flame,' she smiled at him, as she bit into her toast.
Flame cocked his head up towards her and stuck out his tongue. Molly chuckled to herself, as she wiped the crumbs from her face onto the back of her hand.
'I have to go, but I'll be back later,' she patted Flame's head before she jumped to her feet.
As she walked across the room Flame ran in-between her feet, she held out her arms to maintain her balance as she came to a halt.
'Stop that,' she tried to hide her smirk as she looked down at him. 'I have to get ready for my classes, I'll be back later.'
Flame looked up at her with sad eyes. He didn't like watching her leave as he was never quite sure if she'd return.
'Stay,' she said firmly to him, as she held out a finger.
He looked from her face to her pointed finger and reluctantly remained where he was, his head leaned forwards. She slowly walked backwards until she reached the steps and then she gripped onto the banister.
'Good boy Flame,' she smiled.
She hurried up the stairs and back up into the cupboard, careful to close the trapdoor behind her. She felt an ache in her gut at the thought of leaving him alone for the entire day...she didn't like the thought of him being locked away down there. Molly was sure that he felt lonely and she was concerned that he may also feel scared.
Shaking her worries from her head, Molly opened the door of the cupboard and stepped back into the corridor and into Academy life. She held her head up high and swizzled her wand between her fingers. Her appearance showed no signs of fault but her mind could only focus on one thing...Flame.
***
/>
It was a placid night, the air was still and the sky a grey shade with the moon rising above the horizon. Molly was on her broomstick soaring through the air, only she wasn't alone. Attached to her broom by a thick piece of rope that was tied around his neck (that she'd put a spell on, so that it was now burn proof) was Flame. His wings were fully spanned out so that they were now the length of Molly’s arm span and every-now-and-then he closed his eyes so that he could feel the full force of the air sweep across his face.
Books for Girls - WITCH SCHOOL - Books 2-6: Book 1 is FREE! Page 27