The Catchers

by Stuart J. Kent

  “Look, he’s definitely heading for Magictasium,” Trixie said pointing up ahead to a large dark shape on the horizon. “Oh, we’ll lose him for sure if he makes it to there.”

  “Then you’ll have to slow him down,” Colin replied.

  “Yes, of course!” Trixie cried before pointing her wand upwards at the dark wizard. “Firework!” she then said and a magical colourful firework shot out of her wand and up into the air before exploding near the fleeing wizard.

  The dark wizard glanced back menacingly at his pursuers and then very skilfully dodged to the left, then weaved to the right, as Trixie fired more fireworks into the sky around him.

  “Wow, he’s good!” muttered Marty watching the chase unfold from the comfort of Colin’s pocket.

  “Keep it up, it’s working, he’s slowing down!” encouraged Colin as they drew closer to the flying wizard.

  Jamie quickly raised his wand to help Trixie, and soon the wizard was being bombarded from either side with fireworks.

  “Rocket!” cried Trixie shooting a pretty blue one upwards.

  “Flare!” cried Jamie following her lead as a big red one shot up from his wand.

  “Cannon!” shouted Trixie again before a huge explosion of purple filled the sky near the wizard.

  “Catherine wheel!” shouted Jamie excitedly, before a spinning, sparkling wheel shot out of his wand and then spun off uncontrollably over a hedge and into an innocent passer-by’s swimming pool, making the poor bathers scream in terror as it exploded near them.

  “Sorry!” shouted Jamie to the very surprised and slightly singed bathers.

  A few seconds later and they were almost on the edge of the city.

  “Oh no, we’re slowing!” Colin groaned in despair as Streak was magically forced to slow down once again for the Magictasium speed limit, and once more the dark wizard began to pull away from them.

  “Just break the spell, we can’t let him get away,” Trixie replied angrily.

  “I can’t, it’s the law and laws must be upheld,” replied Colin acting as the responsible adult he was.

  “But this an emergency, a matter of doing good, before darkness has a chance to do its damage, it’s our responsibility as loyal and law-abiding citizens to stop this dark wizard no matter what, and whatever it takes no matter the consequences,” Trixie said passionately and dramatically.

  “Yes darn it, you’re right!” agreed Colin before flicking Streak’s reins. “Come on Streak, let’s do our duty!” and quickly they raced off again in hot pursuit.

  “She had me at break the law!” Marty sobbed wiping a tear from his eye.

  The cart thundered through the streets of the city, racing past hundreds of stunned onlookers, annoyingly slow bicycles, and other road clutter.

  “Why are these people getting in our way!” cried Trixie angrily.

  “Cart, carriage, bus, bike, MONSTER TRUCK!” cried Marty in horror trying to help Colin steer, by pointing out all the oncoming traffic in the way.

  “You’re not helping!” snapped Colin in reply as Streak weaved through the heavy city traffic at high speed.

  As they raced on into the heart of the city, Trixie was forced to stand up on her tiptoes to see the dark wizard beyond the towering buildings surrounding them.

  “I’m losing him behind the buildings,” she cried straining to see him.

  “Use the ladder,” replied Colin.

  “Of course!” Trixie exclaimed before bending down and pulling an old dirty sheet off the top of an old wooden box that sat in the back of the cart. Then she lifted the wooden lid off and inside Jamie could see the top rung of a wooden ladder sitting up waiting to be pulled out.

  “Hold on!” she said to Jamie, making him take hold of the ladder, before grabbing hold herself.

  “Wait! What…?” said Jamie slightly confused as to what was about to happen.

  “Up,” she then commanded and immediately the ladder shot skywards carrying her and Jamie up with it. Jamie screamed in terror as the ladder rose with tremendous speed high above the cart and after a good twenty or so feet up in the air it stopped suddenly and Jamie clung on petrified, as it began swaying around with the movement of the cart.

  “I don’t like this!” he cried out as Trixie looked skywards.

  “I can see him,” she shouted excitedly spying the dark wizard again just above the buildings.

  “Which way?” asked Colin still steering Streak through the endless slow moving traffic.

  “Left!” she called out in reply.

  The cart immediately shot to the left, straight into a side street, and the ladder unfortunately swung outwards and poor Jamie suddenly found himself dangling from it, just inches above the old cast-iron street lights.

  “OH NO!” he cried as he spotted the first lamp post approaching rapidly.

  “Afternoon!” said Trixie politely greeting two old wizards who were staring out at her in disbelief from an upper floor window, as she calmly shot past.

  Colin glanced up and immediately saw the young lad’s predicament.

  “Hold on Jamie!” he called out before giving the reins a flick, which jerked the cart back to the right and swung the ladder back into the upright position just in time. Jamie then gave a big sigh of relief as he continued to cling onto the ladder; below, Colin called out to Trixie as they approached another junction rapidly.

  “Which way?” he asked urgently.

  “Right!” cried Trixie spotting the dark wizard flying over some roof tops just ahead. “He went right!”

  The cart then shot to the right and once again unfortunately the ladder swung out, but this time Jamie was ready and he held on tight to the ladder with both arms and legs so only his bottom was hanging slightly down, and for a moment he hung, happy knowing he was clear of any danger, and then he saw the oncoming shop signs.

  “Oh no!” he cried again. Then, one after another, the old wooden shop signs whacked him hard on the buttocks, as he quickly passed each one, and he cried out in pain over and over.

  Colin flicked the reins again and Streak shot to the left and the ladder once again returned to its upright position.

  “Sorry!” he called out afterwards.

  “Ahhh! My bum!” groaned Jamie in pain as he clung to the ladder with one hand while rubbing his bruised bottom with the other.

  “That’ll leave a mark,” chuckled Marty, then he heard a siren behind them, a very loud fast approaching emergency siren.

  “Oh no!” he cried looking over Colin’s shoulder and back down the road. “It’s the Police!”

  Jamie glanced back and sure enough two large, serious-looking wizards, wearing dark blue uniforms with flashing blue lights on their matching helmets, were quickly gaining on the cart.

  “It is, it’s the wizard police!” exclaimed Trixie in horror also looking back. “They must be chasing us because we’re speeding.”

  “Oh this is bad, this is bad, this is really bad,” muttered Marty nervously. “I can’t go back to jail, I’m too young and too pretty to survive in there,” he cried.

  “We don’t have time for this,” Colin grumbled before swerving around an old-fashioned wooden delivery truck. The wizard police quickly caught up and were soon flying on either side of them, matching the speed of the dashing cart.

  “Slow down and pull over!” ordered one of the police wizards in a stern voice.

  “Of course, officer,” replied Colin before jerking the reins to the right making Streak suddenly swerve and accidently bump into the other police wizard, who was then unfortunately sent flying into Mrs McGuggar’s Laundry emporium, shirts washed in fifty seconds or your money back.

  “Whoops! Oh my!” exclaimed Colin innocently as the poor old law officer ploughed into piles of freshly cleaned laundry and then crashed to
the floor in a big heap of linen.

  “Oy! I just folded them!” grumbled a very annoyed Mrs McGuggar.

  “That’s it! Pull over now mister!” ordered the now very angry other officer.

  “Balloon!” Colin replied pointing ahead, but before the officer could react he crashed straight into a low-flying, big green dragon hot air balloon as the catchers shot past and on after the dark wizard.

  “Now, where were we?” Colin muttered happily.

  “He’s heading right!” cried Trixie still up the ladder with Jamie. “I think…” but before she could finish her sentence, Colin had already worked out where they were heading.

  “He’s heading for the Ministry building,” he said interrupting her.

  “I was about to say that,” Trixie replied, slightly annoyed. “But yes, you’re right, I can see the building and he’s heading right for it.”

  “I thought so!” Colin muttered, then with another flick of the reins urging Streak on, the cart once again raced forwards in hot pursuit. They shot through more crowded streets and past more slow-moving traffic, until finally the buildings peeled away to reveal the large open pedestrian area that surrounded the Ministry building, and to where all the tourists flocked to take pictures.

  “Watch him closely,” said Colin as they approached the huge Ministerial building. “Watch where he goes.”

  Trixie fixed her eyes on him continuously, not blinking or looking away for a second, as he flew straight towards the upper half of the building.

  “He’s flying towards the top, to one of the upper floors,” she said excitedly as the dark wizard on his broom flew straight for a big, lead-lined bay window at the top of the building.

  “He’s not…?” exclaimed Colin, in astonishment. “The cheeky scoundrel!”

  “What? What is it?” asked Jamie wanting to know why Colin was so flabbergasted at the dark wizard’s choice of entrance.

  “The upper floors are for the highest ranking Ministry officials, the high council members of the Ministry all have their offices up there,” Trixie replied, still watching as the dark wizard continued towards the window. “He must be a Council member!”

  “No!” gasped Colin in horror. “He can’t be.”

  “That’s bad isn’t it?” Jamie asked already knowing the answer.

  “Yes, very bad indeed,” replied Trixie.

  Then they watched the dark wizard enter the open bay window and he was finally gone out of sight. The cart shot past the big front visitors’ entrance, the one they had used the day before, and continued on towards the end of the building.

  “We’ll use the employees’ entrance, it’ll get us up there quicker!” said Colin before steering Streak to do a tight left turn around the corner of the building, and race on towards a pair of large dark green double doors marked ‘employees’ entrance’.

  “STOP!” shouted Colin urgently pulling Streak’s reins to halt him. The old wooden cart came to a screeching halt right outside the old doors, and inches from a middle-aged witch, who had just stepped outside right at that moment. She screamed in terror as Streak’s face stopped just millimetres from hers and for a moment they stood eyeball to eyeball.

  “OOOH! Horse breath,” she exclaimed in disgust trying to waft the smell away as she stepped back.

  “Sorry!” called out Colin, jumping from the cart. “This is an emergency.”

  Trixie then ordered the ladder down and it immediately shot back down into the box, and sent Jamie crashing onto the cart’s wooden floorboards with a heavy thud.

  “My bottom!” he cried once more in pain as he sat at Trixie’s feet.

  “Come on we haven’t got time to worry about your bruised behind,” said Trixie excitedly as she pulled him up to his feet.

  They clambered out of the cart and quickly followed Colin to the double green doors where he pushed one of the big doors open, and they stepped into a very large room with a dark blue tiled floor and light green walls, and running all the way around the walls was a continuous row of doors, all in different colours and styles.

  “This is the employees’ entrance,” Colin said marching across the room closely followed by Jamie and Trixie.

  “Where are we going?” asked Jamie curiously.

  “To the top floor, where the dark wizard went,” replied Trixie.

  “Well, which one’s the elevator then?” asked Jamie looking around at all the doors.

  “Elevator?” Trixie said, confused, as she had never heard of the word before.

  “Yeah, the lift, the thing that will get us up there,” continued Jamie.

  “There are no elevators here,” replied Colin. “Or stairs, just doors which take you straight to whichever room or floor you require.”

  “Well, that’s actually more convenient,” said Jamie, a little surprised, but now slowly getting used to the magic world. “But how do you know which door is for which floor then?” he asked seeing no signs or notices to indicate where each door went.

  “You learn,” replied Marty who was now sitting on Jamie’s shoulder having jumped there earlier. “Or just guess.”

  Colin marched straight to a dark brown polished door that had a big brass handle on it.

  “This is it,” he said, grabbing hold of the handle firmly. “I used to use this one all the time when I was on the council, never forget it.” Then he gave it a firm, hard tug and pulled it open and came face to face with a mature witch who screamed in horror at him.

  “Close the door!”

  “Sorry!” cried Colin in disbelief before quickly shutting the door. “That wasn’t it.”

  “No, that was the witches’ changing room,” sighed Trixie.

  “Yes, they err… must have moved it,” Colin muttered before quickly moving away from the door.

  “So which one is it?” asked Jamie looking around at all the doors and all the wizards and witches coming and going about their business.

  Trixie sighed and then moved to the next door, which was a similar dark wood but with a large green emerald doorknob. Giving it a pull, she opened it and peered inside.

  The room inside was a rather plush, official-looking corridor, with a fancy patterned carpeted floor and polished brown oak-panelled walls and very official-looking portraits hanging on them.

  “In here!” she said stepping inside.

  The others followed her in and stepped onto the colourful soft carpet that ran along the floor, and then cautiously they began to walk along the corridor passing the dark wooden panelling on the left and the big bay windows on the right.

  “This is definitely the offices of the council members, he must be here somewhere, watch everything carefully!” Colin whispered as he led the way.

  They strolled along the corridor, and Jamie stared at all the old portraits of previous council members, and all the scary-looking suits of armour that stood to attention between the bay windows but he could not see anywhere a dark wizard might be hiding.

  “These are the old knights of the Magic Ministry,” Trixie whispered, looking at one of the big metal suits. “Back a few hundred years ago, they had a big problem with dragons, so they used to wear this armour to defend the city, they were the first official catchers.”

  “Really?” said Jamie in amazement.

  “Yep, do you see the bite marks?” Trixie said pointing to the next suit they passed, that had a giant indentation of pointy teeth marks across its shoulder.

  “Yeah,” replied Jamie gazing at the dents.

  “That’s dragon teeth marks,” she grinned excitedly.

  “What!” exclaimed Jamie in disbelief, realising the dragon that did that damage must have been as big as a house. “So where are all the dragons now?” he asked inquisitively.

  “They were moved to a dark, barren place, where n
obody in their right mind would want to go, and where they would be left well alone,” replied Trixie.

  “Where’s that?” inquired Jamie curiously.

  “Wales,” replied Marty.

  Colin then stopped outside of a large wooden polished door that sat directly opposite a bay window that just happened to be open.

  “This must be it,” he whispered, then he placed his hand on the blue glass doorknob and gave it a gentle turn.

  “Ready!” he whispered, raising his wand in his other hand.

  Jamie and Trixie both raised their wands and nodded in reply.

  Colin then swiftly pushed the door open and stepped into the room ready to catch the dark wizard unexpectedly. “Well, hello there!” he said loudly with a big triumphant smile.

  “What are you doing, man?” replied a voice back as the catchers now stood facing the eleven high council members of the Ministry, as they sat having a meeting.

  “Oh my!” said Colin in surprise and horror. “I am so sorry, this is the wrong room, I do apologise,” he added, very embarrassed.

  “Colin Caterwhich, is that you barging in here making all that noise and disturbing our meeting?” asked Lord Teathorpe, standing up at the end of the large conference table the council were all sat around.

  “Eh yes, yes it is your lordship, and of course I apologise most sincerely for the intrusion and will leave you all to continue your meeting immediately, so sorry,” replied Colin, trying to back out of the room but only managing to bump into his fellow companions who were standing behind him looking just as surprised and embarrassed as he was.

  “Hello Colin, come in, come in dear boy,” said an old wizard in purple robes standing up next to Lord Teathorpe. “Haven’t seen you in ages, how are you old chap?”

  “Yes, hello Timothy, would love to catch up but really must get back to what I was doing,” replied Colin nervously, still trying to back out of the room.

  “Mr Caterwhich you are disturbing this meeting, would you please kindly leave,” said a very stern-looking witch, who was wearing a pair of black rectangular glasses and a sharp, tall black witch’s hat.