Witch Wars

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Witch Wars Page 11

by Sibéal Pounder

The door to the dining room flew open.

  ‘YES! IT’S PEGGY, NOT PIGGY!!’

  Peggy held up a shrivelled head and smashed it on the ground.

  Felicity Bat’s mouth fell open. ‘What? How did you –? You were upstairs!’

  ‘The nice but nosey witch let me borrow her ladder and I climbed down and sneaked back in through the dining room window. I’m not that stupid,’ Peggy said with a smile.

  Smoke swirled around Felicity Bat’s legs.

  ‘Wha–? I don’t … This wasn’t meant TO HAPPEN!’ She bellowed the words as she spun into the dining room, clutching Tiga’s shrivelled head.

  Tiga and Peggy raced after her.

  Felicity Bat screamed and hurled the head across the room. Tiga gasped, but it floated gently back into her hand.

  ‘She’s out,’ Peggy said with a smile. ‘So she can’t destroy your shrivelled head any more.’

  ‘Aaaaaaargh!’ Felicity Bat roared as black smoke engulfed her.

  Tiga hugged Peggy so tightly that Peggy’s voice was more of a squeak when she said, ‘We should go to the map.’

  They walked arm in arm to the little flowery sofa. Tiga looked back and smiled just as Felicity Bat disappeared.

  With a pop.

  FELICITY BAT

  IS OUT!

  The relative of Ritzy City’s most evil ruling witches – and the witch deemed most likely to win Witch Wars – is finally out! Our reporter tracked her down at the Gull and Chip Tavern and asked her a few questions.

  Reporter: Did you think the hat thing was clever? Because it was at first and then it seemed, well, a bit stupid.

  Felicity Bat: This isn’t the end. That girl from above the pipes can’t win. She doesn’t deserve it.

  Reporter: So you’d like Peggy Pigwiggle to win?

  Felicity Bat: Don’t be ridiculous!

  Reporter: Well, it’s her or the girl from above the pipes …

  Felicity Bat: Well, for now …

  Reporter: What does that mean?

  NOTE FROM THE RITZY CITY POST EDITOR: OUR REPORTER FORGOT TO WRITE DOWN THE LAST PART OF THIS INTERVIEW. SORRY.

  And so, a final word from Felicity Bat’s fairy, Crispy.

  Crispy: FREEEEEEEEDOOOOOM!

  Reporter: You make a lot of noise for such a little thing …

  ‘Well, it looks like whoever thought I could win Witch Wars was right!’ Tiga said, waving the anonymous letter in the air. It slipped out of her fingers and fell to the floor. Peggy picked it up.

  ‘And this must be the answer to the final clue,’ Tiga said, prodding the wall with her finger.

  ‘This letter smells funny,’ said Peggy, sniffing it.

  ‘We just need to figure out what we have to do with the map …’ Tiga mumbled.

  ‘It smells very faintly of rotten socks,’ said Peggy.

  Without looking away from the map, Tiga grabbed the letter out of Peggy’s hand and smelled it. ‘It’s cheese,’ she said. ‘Maybe we need to touch the right bit of the painting or something …’

  ‘Cheese?’ Peggy asked. ‘What’s that?’

  ‘You know,’ Tiga said. ‘Cheese.’

  ‘I’ve never heard of it. It must be an above the pipes thing.’

  Very slowly, Tiga turned to face Peggy. She had a flashback to her conversation with Fran in the shed.

  What? You’re not coming with me to Ritzy City, a place of wonder and absolutely no cheese?

  … a place of wonder and absolutely no cheese …

  … absolutely no cheese …

  ‘Are you OK?’ Peggy asked.

  In that moment it felt like all of Sinkville had fallen on Tiga’s head. Her knees buckled and she collapsed on the floor.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Peggy cried.

  Tiga held the letter as far away from her as she could and turned it from one side to the other. ‘Miss Heks,’ she said in amazement. ‘It was Miss Heks.’

  ‘What? Miss Heks wrote the letter of nomination?’ Peggy asked. ‘How do you know?’

  Tiga slowly got to her feet. ‘The cheese, Peggy, the cheese … Her cheese water. Of course, it makes sense. Miss Heks does look a lot like a witch who has been in the pipes. And the houses in the Docks – remember I said they were just like the one I live in with Miss Heks? Maybe she was one of the witches who left during that Big Exit Fran was talking about. She nominated me!’

  Tiga grinned a victorious grin.

  ‘But why?’ Peggy asked.

  Tiga stopped grinning. ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘Tiga,’ Peggy said, suddenly distracted. ‘Does Linden House look like it’s lit up on the map to you?’

  Tiga moved closer to the wall. Sure enough, there was a tiny light coming from Linden House. Tiga touched it and moved her finger slightly. A thin line of light appeared where her finger had been. She dragged her finger to the Towers and it lit up too!

  ‘Maybe we have to trace the route of all the clues!’ she said. ‘If we trace it together, at exactly the same time, maybe we’ll both win!’

  Peggy moved her finger across the map too.

  ‘From Linden House,’ they said together, ‘to the Towers! Down to Desperate Dolls in the Docks! To the Coves! Then the Underwater World, oh no, we weren’t meant to go there, it was then to Pearl Peak! And from Pearl Peak BACK TO LINDEN HOUSE!’

  The lines of light glowed on the map.

  Nothing happened.

  ‘Was something meant to happen?’ Tiga asked just as there was a massive BANG and everything went black.

  ‘Congratulations,’ Julie Jumbo Wings said flatly. ‘You’ve both got to the end now, at the same time, but only one can win, so now you need to fight until one of your shrivelled heads is crushed.’

  Tiga and Peggy had landed back on the steps of Linden House. The huge crowd roared and cheered and whooped and one person said ‘ROCKETS!’ which made no sense, so everyone ignored it.

  ‘Where’s Fran?’ Tiga asked. ‘Isn’t this her job?’

  ‘Hurt her wing on the roller coaster,’ Julie Jumbo Wings said. ‘She’s walking back from Pearl Peak. She’s almost back, but it’s taking a while, what with her little legs and everything.’

  Tiga suddenly felt awful. Poor Fran, she thought. I didn’t notice her hurt wing. She seemed fine after the roller coaster …

  ‘OK, let’s do this!’ Peggy said, ripping the shrivelled head off the rim of her hat and holding it high in the air. ‘You are one shrivelled head away from living in Ritzy City forever! As the RULER OF SINKVILLE!’

  The crowd cheered.

  ‘Oh, before I forget!’ Peggy said, rummaging in her pocket.

  She handed Tiga her notebook.

  ‘Just some ideas,’ she said with a smile. ‘And some people you should help.’

  Tiga stared down at the tattered notebook in her hands. She wiped away a bit of hair gunk that was stuck to the corner and smiled.

  Peggy raised her shrivelled head in the air and squeezed her eyes shut. ‘One … two …’

  ‘Wait!’ Tiga cried, grabbing Peggy’s arm. ‘Don’t smash that yet.’

  ‘What? But I have to.’

  Tiga smiled. ‘Peggy, you are the kindest person in all of Sinkville.’ She took off her hat. ‘And that’s why you should win Witch Wars.’

  The crowd gasped.

  ‘But that makes no sense. You’d have to go back above the pipes and live with horrible Miss Heks!’

  ‘But, Peggy, Sinkville needs you. I have no idea how to run this city. I can’t even do any spells. Anyway, I have unfinished business with Miss Heks. I want to know why she nominated me.’

  ‘You’re just saying that so I don’t feel bad about winning! But I do feel bad! I want to help you,’ Peggy said. ‘And, anyway, I’m not smart enough to rule Sinkville.’

  ‘You are,’ Tiga said. ‘You solved most of the clues.’

  ‘I didn’t –’

  ‘And you taught me some spells.’

  ‘Hardly any.’

  ‘And you beat Fel
icity Bat, winner of many GAS awards.’

  Peggy grinned. ‘I did beat Felicity Bat.’

  ‘This place needs you, Peggy. It needs someone good with lots of brilliant ideas.’ She handed the notebook back to Peggy. ‘Witch Wars has always been your battle.’

  ‘For a while it looked like it was going to be Felicity Bat’s battle!’ a witch yelled from the crowd.

  ‘But the old witch said the elegant witch would win. That can’t be me …’ Peggy mumbled.

  Tiga rolled her eyes. ‘Oh, what has being elegant got to do with being good at ruling Sinkville? That witch was talking nonsense.’

  ‘GO, PEGGY! YOU CAN DO IT!’ shouted someone from the crowd. It was Lily Cranberry from the Coves. She’d obviously left the Coves for the first time in thousands of years to watch the end of Witch Wars. And she’d brought hundreds of her fellow party witches with her.

  ‘PE-GGY, PE-GGY, PE-GGY!’ they all chanted.

  Patty Pigeon and Lizzie Beast joined in. ‘PE-GGY! PE-GGY!’

  ‘Pe-ggy, Pe-ggy, Pe-ggy!’ shouted the bald witch from the tower, in her big wig.

  ‘PE-GGY! PE-GGY!’ shouted the little witch from Pearl Peak bookshop, waving a tattered doll in the air.

  Peggy stared at the crowd in amazement.

  ‘See,’ said Tiga. ‘They want you to win!’

  ‘Pe-ggy, Pe-ggy, Pe-ggy!’ shouted Mrs Clutterbuck, clapping her hands.

  ‘PE-GGY, PE-GGY, PE-GGY!’

  The shouts got louder, and witches started stomping their feet.

  Peggy spun round, taking it all in.

  The witch with the ladder waved and shouted, ‘PE-GGY!’ and Peggy’s mum chanted too and wiped away the streams of tears rolling down her face. She was standing next to Mrs Brew and Fluffanora who were smiling sad smiles. A bunch of Brew’s witches stood next to her, leaping up and down squealing, ‘Pe-ggy, Pe-ggy, Pe-ggy!’

  Tiga took a deep breath and dropped her shrivelled head to the ground.

  CRUNCH.

  She could feel cold smoke swirling around her feet almost instantly.

  ‘Peggy, well done. You are Top Witch of Ritzy City and all that lies beyond,’ Julie Jumbo Wings said flatly.

  ‘OH, THAT’S NOT HOW IT’S DONE!’ Fran scoffed, pushing Julie Jumbo Wings out of the way and shooting glittery dust everywhere (mostly in Peggy’s mouth again).

  ‘I thought your wing was broken,’ Julie Jumbo Wings said suspiciously.

  ‘Well, I did too, Julie Jumbo Wings, but then it started working again, so there.’ She turned to Tiga and winked.

  Tiga smiled. But then she stared down at her feet and realised that this was it. She would never see Fran again.

  ‘Can’t she stay in Linden House with me?’ Peggy asked. ‘I’ll look after her!’

  Fran shook her head. ‘Oh no, you’re just children! You can’t look after each other.’

  ‘But …’ Peggy said, ‘you’re letting me rule all of Ritzy City and beyond.’

  Fran spluttered, ‘That’s completely different. It is one thing to trust someone to make laws. It is quite another to trust them to brush their teeth and go to bed on time.’

  Tiga nodded as the smoke moved further up her legs. ‘That does make sense.’

  ‘DOES IT?’ Peggy wailed.

  ‘And Miss Heks is Tiga’s guardian,’ Fran said. ‘We can’t just steal her away now, can we?’

  Tiga knew Fran was right, although she wished she wasn’t.

  Fran turned to Tiga. ‘Tiga, I’m so sorry. There is nothing I can do.’

  Tiga nodded. She glanced around at the place in all its black, grey and white glory. She wished she didn’t have to leave. The smoke was now all the way up to her neck.

  ‘I’ll find a way of getting you back!’ Peggy cried as Tiga’s vision began to blur.

  And then, with an annoying little pop, she was gone.

  Tiga slid slowly up the pipe, tears running down her face, along with a lot of sludge and slime. She could feel her hat being smooshed and the beautiful black lace of her dress tearing around her legs.

  She emerged in the shed, all tattered and torn and covered in gunk.

  Her hat, now pointy, was sitting at a jaunty angle on top of her head. She stood hunched in the shed and exhaled.

  She was home.

  Well, sort of. The shed looked incredibly different. Instead of the old mouldy wooden walls, they were sleek and painted with multi-coloured stripes, with lots of shelves. Shelves filled with cheese.

  Miss Heks threw the door open and stomped in, her arms full of cheese. When she saw Tiga, she froze. The lumps of cheese in her hands fell to the floor.

  ‘Tiga Whicabim,’ she seethed.

  PEGGY

  PIGWIGGLE

  WINS WITCH

  WARS!

  The clumsy little thing whom everyone thought would be the first one out has won Witch Wars and is now Top Witch of Sinkville! Our reporter sat down with her in her grand new home, Linden House, and asked her some questions …

  Reporter: Why do you look so sad? You’re rich and powerful now!

  Peggy: My only friend is gone and I need to figure out how to get her back.

  Reporter: But you won. Aren’t you just a little bit like: ‘YES, I WON! I WON! I WOOOOOOOOON!’

  Peggy: No.

  Reporter: Ah.

  Peggy: Anything else?

  Reporter: Yes! What will be your first rule change?

  Peggy: No more riding on cleaners. All cleaners once travelled on can ride on their witches for one week.

  NOTE FROM THE RITZY CITY POST EDITOR: WAIT, I THINK OUR REPORTER JUST DID AN ENTIRE INTERVIEW WITHOUT MESSING IT UP.

  And now a final word from Peggy’s fairy, Bow.

  Bow: I’m so glad Peggy won! I like to think I played a big part in her success.

  Reporter: Bow, we all know you weren’t there.

  ‘I can’t believe you didn’t win,’ Miss Heks bellowed.

  ‘I knew it was you!’ Tiga said, pointing her finger at the witch.

  ‘You are NEVER to set foot in this shed again! I want you in the kitchen stirring the cheese water. AND THAT IS ALL YOU WILL DO FROM NOW ON.’

  Tiga stood tall and took a step forward. ‘You’re one of the Big Exit witches, aren’t you?’

  Miss Heks bowed. ‘Well, aren’t you clever?’ she said sarcastically.

  ‘Why did you nominate me?’

  ‘Wanted to get rid of you, let that vile place down there deal with you.’

  ‘It’s not a vile place!’ Tiga yelled.

  If Tiga hadn’t been yelling quite so loudly, she would’ve heard the scratching noise in the sink behind her.

  ‘IT’S THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACE, FULL OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE! And a couple of evil ones. BUT MOSTLY BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE!’

  Miss Heks grunted and pointed past Tiga to the sink, where three disgustingly tattered witches and a fairy now stood.

  ‘Peggy?’ Tiga said.

  ‘My nose feels funny,’ said Peggy, rubbing a slightly flattened nose. Next to her stood what looked like Mrs Brew and Fluffanora. Mrs Brew’s hat tapered to a long spindly point and then flopped over at the end. Her dress was in tatters. Fluffanora was ninety per cent slime.

  ‘They weren’t lying about pipe travel,’ she grumbled.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ Tiga cried. She wanted to hug them, but she thought it best to stand squarely in the middle of the room, creating a barrier between her Ritzy City friends and evil Miss Heks.

  ‘We are here to take you back home to Ritzy City,’ Fluffanora said as she turned towards Miss Heks. ‘We want to adopt Tiga. She belongs with us.’

  Miss Heks cackled. ‘Adopt.’

  ‘My mum here, Mrs Brew, said she would,’ Fluffanora went on, pushing Mrs Brew forward.

  ‘I would love to,’ said Mrs Brew. ‘That’s if you’d like me to, Tiga?’

  ‘YES!’ Tiga screamed, so loudly and so close to Miss Heks’s ear that she winced and growled as Tiga ran, arms outstretch
ed, towards her three favourite witches, knocking them clean over.

  They all slowly turned to Miss Heks to see her reaction.

  The old bat stood frozen to the spot. The stench of cheese combined with the length of time it was taking her to respond made the whole thing excruciating.

  Finally, she puffed out her cheeks, put her hands on her hips and yelled, ‘TAKE THE BRAT! I’ll be glad to be rid of her.’

  Tiga stared up at her in disbelief. ‘Really?’

  ‘I’ve been trying to find a way to get rid of her for years,’ said Miss Heks. ‘Useless thing couldn’t even win Witch Wars!’

  ‘She could’ve won, but she let me win,’ Peggy said.

  Miss Heks narrowed her eyes at Tiga. ‘Weak.’

  ‘Well, if that’s everything,’ Mrs Brew said, grabbing on to the sink and pulling herself upright again, ‘I think we’ll be off.’

  Tiga scooped up the little slug on the sink and put it in her pocket, and the four of them linked arms.

  ‘Bye, Miss Heks,’ she said.

  Miss Heks grunted.

  And then they were gone.

  ‘IT’S JUST AS BAD GOING IN THIS DIRECTION!’ Fluffanora shouted.

  ‘Miss Heks,’ came a voice from the rocking chair. ‘Have you ever thought of storing something less pungent than cheese in here? Flowers perhaps? Or bicycles?’

  ‘OUT,’ Miss Heks said without even looking where the voice was coming from.

  ‘All right, all right,’ Fran grumbled as she soared towards the sink. ‘Wait for me!’

  All up and down the street in Ritzy City, people were dancing. The sound of music filled the air, and little lanterns bobbed about above the heads of all the happy witches.

  ‘Clutterbucks?’ said a witch holding a tray of drinks.

  Mrs Brew squeezed Tiga. ‘Ritzy City is now exactly how it should be.’

  ‘You’re back! FOREVER!’ squealed Peggy, skipping on the spot.

  Fluffanora dived into the crowd of dancers and started pushing people out of the way to make room for her twirling.

  Tiga spotted Felicity Bat standing in the shadows, her arms folded. She glared at Tiga. Aggie Hoof was next to her, on her hands and knees, and sitting on top of her was Karen, who was grinning madly. She gave Tiga the thumbs up.

 

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