It was a still night when the ornate clock in the middle of the square chimed three times...the witching hour.
A brown winged creature grand in stature and with thick scales flew through the air. It lit up the sky with shades of crimson and orange. The colors crawled up the old watchtower like enchanted ivy. It sizzled as its structure began to collapse in on itself.
The alarm was sounded and the villagers awoke from their slumber. They wrapped themselves up in their night robes and stepped out into the chill of the night. They gathered around the old watchtower and looked on in despair as it crumbled in on itself.
The villagers cast extinguishing spells, they all failed. They collected buckets of water and stood in a line, passing the buckets from one person to the next. The last person in line threw the water at the flames but it bounced back and rained down on the villagers.
They had no choice but to watch on as the old watchtower burnt to ash. When the building was no more, the flames didn’t spread to any of the nearby thatched cottages, instead, they vanished.
The villagers sobbed into each other’s arms and took in the dreadful happenings of the early morning. One boy turned his gaze to the nearby trees that lay on the border of their village. There, he could make out the figure of a woman, she wore a long black cape that dragged on the ground. He squinted his eyes for a closer look and saw her face through the bushes.
Shocked, he pulled on the sleeve of his older sister and pointed to the trees. His sister followed his gaze and glimpsed a woman with green scales on her face.
The girl let out one long, loud shriek.
The villagers searched the trees and the surrounded areas but found no sign of the scaled woman.
The village of Clearbrooms that had lived in harmony for centuries, felt safe no more. The mysterious woman with scales on her face remained out there somewhere, her motives unknown.
***
Miss Moffat sat in her office sipping at her fizzing sherbet tea and using her wand to flip through the pages of her annual reports. Suddenly the large, oval window flung open and a scurry of bats flapped their way into the room.
Taken by surprise, Miss Moffat spilled tea down her cape as she quickly stood up. With a flick of her wand she quickly fixed the stain and composed herself as she looked up at the bats. A wise old owl followed the bats into her room.
‘The old watchtower in Clearbrooms has been burnt down,’ pronounced the owl.
‘A winged creature was spotted,’ one of the bats said.
‘And a woman, with green scales on her face. No spells or charms would put out the fire. Strong magic is afoot,’ the owl bowed his head.
‘I see,’ Miss Moffat sighed.
She flicked out her hand to signal for the bats and owl to leave. The bats squeaked as they flew back outside.
The owl turned once again to her, ‘They saw her during the witching hour.’ Then he flew out the window, closing it behind him.
To her this news was troubling. The attack in Clearbrooms wasn’t the first of its kind; instead it was the third this week. Two villages and one town had lost their tallest building to this sorcery. Each had claimed to have seen glimpses of winged creatures and a flash of a woman with green scales on her face.
Miss Moffat was about to sip at her sherbet tea when once again the windows flung open. This time she dropped the teacup onto her desk and it shattered in half, the tea spilled onto her reports. With a flick of her wand and a muttered spell she quickly repaired the damage and looked up at the bats in front of her.
‘Yes?’ she forced a smile.
‘Professor Alexander and Mistress Ravenshawk request a meeting with you at Witchery College at noon today,’ one bat said.
‘Mistress Ravenshawk says don’t be late,’ another squeaked out.
‘Delightful,’ Miss Moffat smirked.
The bats flew off and Miss Moffat let out a long sigh. If the news of dragon attacks on neighboring towns and villages weren’t bad enough, now she faced a meeting with the not-at-all amusing Alex-no-charm-ander and the utterly detestable, smug, Mistress Ravenbore.
When she found out who was behind these attacks she was going to personally see to it that they were appropriately punished. Locking them away in a room with Professor Alexander and Mistress Ravenshawk for a couple of centuries-or-so, seemed a fitting punishment.
***
Witchery College was a large black-bricked castle on top of an even larger mountain, thirty-miles west of Miss Moffat’s Academy. Two turrets were set on either side of the main building, the narrow base of the turrets led up to a larger top base, much like the shape of a tulip.
Ravens sat on the leafless trees and squawked as Miss Moffat passed them. There was something about this place that always made her shudder. Being here always gave her an overwhelming sense of dread. This place was dark and lifeless and made her feel as if her spirit was being sucked straight out of her body.
She let herself into the castle and flew along the long, slim corridors. There were no students or staff around...yet she felt like she was being watched. Suddenly a small and rather ugly woman with large eyes and a slightly crooked nose and long chin, popped up in front of her.
‘Can I help you?’ she enquired, as she peered up at Miss Moffat.
‘No, I don’t need your help. I know exactly where I am going.’
‘All visitors must proceed to reception,’ she pointed to the opposite direction to where Miss Moffat was going.
‘I don’t have time for such menial tasks,’ Miss Moffat kept on flying.
‘I insist you follow protocol,’ the woman floated after her.
‘Torquent auferetur,’ Miss Moffat flicked her wand and the woman twirled up the corridor at hurricane speed.
She dismounted her broom and walked up the claustrophobically narrow staircase that led up to the turret on the right side of the castle.
When she reached the high arched, black door at the top of the stairs, she paused to straighten out her cape before she pushed open the door without knocking.
Mistress Ravenshawk and Professor Alexander were sitting around a circular black table in the cluttered room.
‘Nice of you to finally grace us with your presence,’ Mistress Ravenshawk glared up at her.
‘I came as soon as I received the message,’ Miss Moffat pulled out a chair and sat up straight on it.
‘No doubt you had to confide with Miss Scarlet before you came here. And here I was thinking that childish gossiping stopped when we reached adulthood, it appears as though this doesn’t apply for some.’
‘Indeed,’ Miss Moffat remarked. ‘It appears as though immaturity is truly embedded in some of us,’ she muttered.
‘Ladies, shall we address the grave situation that has fallen upon our local residents?’ Professor Alexander grinned.
‘Well, we both know whose fault that is? I can assure you that if The Book of Dragons had been left in my care then none of this would have happened,’ Mistress Ravenshawk said.
‘I agree. If I’d had the book as I suggested then it would still be locked away, untouched. But no, you insisted that your Academy was the safest place for it and now we have dragons whizzing around the place, setting fire to any building they see fit,’ Alexander added.
‘Well, aren’t you two just perfect. Of course, you’ve both never made any mistakes or judged a situation wrongly,’ Miss Moffat scowled.
‘The past has little relevance here. It is indeed the present that matters and currently we are being targeted by dragons,’ Alexander said.
‘I think that there is more to this than just mindless dragon attacks.’
‘You would say that,’ Mistress Ravenshawk rolled her eyes.
‘They have set fire to the largest building in each area and no spell or charms will extinguish it.’
‘They are powerful creatures. They are also practical, surely the highest building is the easiest for them to target?’
‘Why just the one building pe
r place? Why not let the entire village burn to the ground? And the scaled-faced woman, she was seen at every attack. Surely that is far more than a mere coincidence?’
‘Shock can make people imagine all sorts of things,’ Alexander leaned his arms on the table. ‘Perhaps one person imagined this mysterious woman and then the image of her spread from one fickle mind to another.’
‘So, these traumatized people are fickle now, are they?’
‘May I remind you who it was that allowed the dragon to escape in the first place!’
‘That book was locked away safely for years.’
‘Until one of your disgruntled staff saw fit to open it,’ Mistress Ravenshawk snorted.
Miss Moffat scraped back her chair as she got up onto her feet.
‘I will not stay here to be insulted. So, I shall bid you both goodbye,’ she marched towards the door.
‘The truth hurts,’ Mistress Ravenshawk snidely remarked.
‘Indeed,’ Alexander smirked.
As Miss Moffat hurried out of that horrid castle, she found herself thinking about the dragon that resided in her Academy grounds. If Professor Alexander or Mistress Ravenshawk ever found out about it then the consequences would be horrendous.
She decided that once she arrived back at the Academy she’d tell Molly that the dragon needed to be promptly destroyed.
***
Molly was ignoring the ‘no run’ rule, as she hurried up the corridor. A statue of a Grecian woman wearing a golden crown of leaves tutted and shook her finger at her as she passed. She came to an abrupt halt as Miss Zara stepped out of her classroom.
‘What are you doing? You should be setting an example, Molly, not charging around like a crazed rhino.’
‘Sorry,’ Molly flushed.
She walked quickly up the corridor, knowing that she was about to arrive late for a meeting with Miss Moffat. She had a free lesson before her meeting so she thought that she’d have plenty of time to go and see Flame. She gave him some food and played games with him but then Ethan turned up and they got talking and now she was late.
Molly veered around the corner, caught her breath and then gave two hard knocks on the large oak door.
The door creaked open and Molly stepped into the room. Miss Moffat was sitting behind her desk, her attention on the book in front of her.
‘Molly, so good of you to finally join me,’ she said, without looking up.
‘Sorry.’
‘Take a seat,’ she gestured to the chair in front of her desk.
Molly nodded before she hurried over to the chair and sat down.
‘Molly,’ Miss Moffat looked up from her book. ‘There are dragons flying around setting fire to buildings in the nearby towns and villages. Clearbrooms lost their watchtower last night. People are wary and naturally, there are certain people that feel the need to push the blame in my direction. So, given this situation, I have come to the decision that the creature currently residing in the dungeon needs to be dealt with.’
‘Dealt with?’ Molly looked horrified.
‘Yes. There are two options; I’m yet to decide on which one is best. The dragon will either be placed into The Book of Dragons or it will be destroyed.’
‘You can’t!’ Molly jumped to her feet.
‘I understand that you’ve grown fond of the creature, but I have to do what’s best for my Academy. You can have one last night with it and then tomorrow a decision will be made and it will be final.’
Molly wanted to scream out that he wasn’t an ‘it’...that he was called Flame. Instead, she just gave a nod of her head as she hurried out of the office. She needed to stay calm and figure out what she was going to do next. If she'd screamed and shouted at Miss Moffat then she would have raised suspicion and lost time. Also, any odd behavior could have resulted in Miss Moffat placing a truth spell on her, then she would discover that she'd moved Flame and that Charlotte had helped her.
Molly was desperate to keep Flame safe, but she also didn’t want to get Charlotte into trouble. She had valued her help and now saw her as a good friend, so the last thing she wanted to do was to get Charlotte into trouble.
Soon Miss Moffat was going to go down to the dungeon and discover that Flame wasn’t there. She could be expelled out of the Academy, and Flame...he would either be stuck in a stuffy old book or worse, destroyed!
***
All of the first-year students were in the library for their study period. Gerty and Stef were flipping through a book about trolls, Alice and Margaret were looking through the bookshelves and Charlotte was doodling hearts in her notebook and thinking about Charlie.
Since the Mistress of the Books had left the Academy, the library had become a far less terrifying place for Charlotte. The new librarian, a short, green-eyed woman called Miss Blossom, went bright red and looked frightened every time a student went up to her desk to ask her something. She seemed to hide behind her books. In fact, her personality was almost the opposite of the previous librarian!
A flustered looking Molly entered the library and scanned the room for Charlotte. She wanted to get her attention but Charlotte was still focused on her notepad, watching her heart doodles whizz around her notepad.
Molly checked that Miss Blossom wasn’t looking before she flicked her wand and caused the trolley with the used books on it to zoom forward, knock into an empty table, causing all the books to go flying across the room.
As everyone stared at the trolley, Molly crept around the side of the library and tried again to get Charlotte’s attention.
Miss Blossom looked even more flustered than normal as she tried to think up a spell to fix the issue. She cast a spell but in her nervous state she pronounced the spell wrong and instead of magically moving all the books back onto the trolley she caused all of the books on the nearest bookshelf to her to fall down like dominoes.
‘Charlotte,’ Molly hissed from the side of the room. ‘Charlotte.’
Just then Charlotte’s notebook flicked shut and a startled Charlotte looked around to see who’d done it. That was when she saw Molly standing behind her, her wand in hand and a worried look on her face. She tapped her hand against her temple and it took Charlotte a few seconds to realize what she meant.
Charlotte gave Molly a look to say ‘are you sure?’ and Molly nodded.
Charlotte wasn't sure what to do. She'd told Molly that she wouldn't read her mind again, yet here she was about to do it. Then again, Molly had asked her to, hadn't she?
Charlotte closed her eyes and cleared her mind. She focused in on Molly’s thoughts and hers alone.
‘Flame’s in trouble, meet me in my room as soon as the others are asleep. Blink three times at me so I know you’ve got this message.’
Charlotte blinked three times at Molly and then swiftly looked away.
Molly snuck past Miss Blossom, who was now trying to fix the books that she’d knocked over. She fled the library, hoping that Charlotte had blinked at her because she’d received her message and not because she’d had something in her eye.
***
Typically, Alice took ages to go to sleep. She went to the bathroom three times in a row, which woke Stef up. Stef wound her up by accusing her of having a tummy upset, which caused Alice to rant on about how she had no such thing; she’d just drunk too many glasses of strawberry juice.
Eventually, Alice's soft snores echoed in the otherwise quiet room. Charlotte managed to sneak out of her room and crept along the corridor to Molly's room. She let herself in and found Molly perched on the edge of her bed, she was dressed in dark clothing and the end of her wand was shining like a torch.
Charlotte looked from Molly to the pale blue rucksack that was by her on the bed.
‘Are you going somewhere?’
‘I don’t have a choice,’ she sighed. ‘Miss Moffat is either going to put Flame in The Book of Dragons or worse.’
‘She might destroy him Charlotte. I can’t let her do that!’
Charlotte ga
sped in shock.
‘Why would she do such a thing?’ she walked over to Molly’s bed and sat down next to her.
‘Because there have been dragon attacks on neighboring towns and villages. She can’t risk Professor Alexander or Mistress Ravenshawk finding out about Flame, as they are already blaming her for the dragon escaping in the first place.’
‘But Flame isn’t dangerous.’
‘We know that, but other people aren’t as understanding as you and me,’ Molly sighed.
‘That sucks.’
‘Yeah, it does.’
‘Where are you going to go?’
‘I don't know but I need to go tonight, otherwise, when Miss Moffat goes down to the dungeon tomorrow and finds out that Flame has gone, she won't hesitate in using a truth spell on me. I can't stick around for that to happen. I have to keep Flame safe.’
‘I know Molly, but you’re head girl, what about your education?’
‘Flame’s safety is more important.’
‘You can’t run away forever.’
Charlotte, are you implying that I should just let her kill Flame?’ Molly jumped to her feet, tears dripping down her cheeks.
‘No. Of course not! I love Flame, but I care about you too, Molly. It’s dangerous out there, even for a talented witch like you.’
‘I’ll be fine. Besides, I’ll have Flame.’
‘What if we get Ethan to move Flame? That way Miss Moffat wouldn’t be able to find him.’
‘Yes, she would. Under a truth spell I’d tell her about Ethan and then she’d find him and ask him where Flame was. I don’t want to drag him into my mess any more than I already have, it’s not fair.’
You and Ethan have both been fantastic but Flame is my dragon, therefore he’s my responsibility. I have to take him away from here. I’d never forgive myself...if something happened to him.’
‘But I’ll miss you both,’ Charlotte tried to force back her tears.
Books for Girls - WITCH SCHOOL - Books 2-6: Book 1 is FREE! Page 37