by Angela Timms
The voice boomed out again. “Sorry, slipped. Come up the stairs.”
They walked up the stairs, through the floor of the room above.
The staircase went on but there was someone in the room so they stepped off of the staircase onto the landing and entered the circular room.
There was nothing in the room other than a sofa and two chairs, a fire which was suspended in the air with no fireplace or flue, a coffee table was set with a pot of tea and cups.
Sitting in one of the armchairs was a thin man. He was unremarkable in his looks. His hair was short. His nose slightly pointed. His round glasses fell down onto the tip of his nose as he moved and he pushed them back into place. He didn’t look much like a wizard in Abigail’s opinion. He looked like the boy down the road that she knew. He had a hand knitted jumper on and chino trousers. He looked up. “Hello Abigail, So you want to go home?”
Abigail was stunned. “Well, yes. I have crystals, two for you, two to work your device.”
The man shrugged. “Very good, put them down on the table and do you want a cup of tea? I’ve been told that visitors like cups of tea. I don’t get many visitors. I’ve got sugar and milk, do you like those?”
The mage made them a cup of tea and Abigail sat on the sofa. The little goat sat down beside her on the floor and the bear crouched down and sat beside the goat.
The man looked uncomfortable. “I am not used to this sort of a situation as I expect you are not used to it either. You want to go home. I got a message from my friend the witch so I know this. You have the payment. So I can send you home now. We will finish our tea and I will arrange it.” He seemed distracted. He was hardly looking at them and he seemed bored by the situation.
Abigail drank her tea slowly. Her head was full of thoughts and she was glad of the silence. The man drank his tea and seemed to be half looking at the book that was open on the arm of his chair. She recognized it. It was a school science book she had seen her neighbour with. It seemed odd to her but she didn’t want to ask.
She looked at the little goat at her side. She looked at the big bear who sat looking around the room and she thought. I won’t see them again! If I go home I will never see them again. Her hand reached out and she stroked the little goat who looked up at her with his big brown eyes. “I don’t know if I want to go home. I like it here.”
The mage looked up. “Of course you want to go home. It is why you took your journey and you do not belong here.”
Abigail looked sad. “Can I visit?”
The mage laughed. “Of course you cannot visit. You don’t belong here. So I’m going to send you home. You have drunk the tea. You will now go to sleep here and wake up back at home. Say goodbye to your friends.”
Abigail looked horrified. She grabbed little goat up onto her lap and cuddled him. He licked her face. She hugged bear but as she was hugging him she felt her arms go through him. He was no longer there.
She was laying in her own bed in her own room. She could see her wallpaper covered with pictures of animals and trees. She could see her toys. Her little brown fluffy goat was in its basket. Her grey Tatty Ted was on its shelf. Her picture of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was on the wall over her shelf. She was home.
Her mother and father were sitting beside her. As her eyes opened they looked at each other and smiled at her. “Welcome back little one. We were very worried about you.”
Abigail cried. She cried more than she had ever cried in her life. She didn’t want to be home. She wanted to be in the world of magic where everything was different. She didn’t want to go to school after the Christmas Holidays. She didn’t want to sit at tea. She didn’t want her presents. She just wanted to go back to a world where everything was magical.
THE END
Wagner’s Tale Wind swirled mercilessly around the goat house driving rain against the stony sentinel. Between the heavens and earth there was a feeling of trepidation, nothing earth shattering, but important in this one tiny part of this big ball rotating in space.
Oblivious to the wind, in that lonely stable, high on a hillside, far from anywhere important, stood the wether goat called Wagner. Three legs firmly placed on the ground, his fourth in a cast where it had been since he had broken it all those weeks ago.
He had no idea that tears had been shed and those who cared about him worried about him. He had no idea how important the next few moments would be. He just knew that he could hear his keepers coming and soon there would be fuss and food and the day would begin.
Gentle hands caught him and held him. Careful hands and sharp scissors cut through the bandage and the cast was gone. The weight was gone and there was his leg, just as it had been before he had broken it. It was weaker now but straight and furry as he looked down with his gentle brown eyes.
One moment in time where happiness filled the goat shed, one moment in time that somehow balances some of the bad things that happen. One moment in time that Wagner’s place was secured as Widget’s faithful steed.
AND BEYOND What I said will still stand though. I don’t feel that he will be strong enough to pull the cart even though it is light and designed for one dog to pull it. He also is a bit more feisty than Victor, which is odd as Victor had the feisty mum and grandmother. So he will be my steed. That isn’t a joke or a casual comment. When Wagner broke and we were worried he wouldn’t come out straight Angel asked her good friend Andy Rimmer to make my new body more rigid so that I can ride him on a saddle. I am cloth you see, the body is floppy and I get dirty. It takes a lot of my magic to keep me clean and with what we have planned, well there may also be sticky children’s fingers coming my way. So I need a stunt body. Not just that, we need someone who can physically make Frixians and his kindness has made him the perfect person. So we have invited him to advertise here and in our other books so that other people can own Frixians too. It is all very exciting.
I love this piece, Angel wrote it for Facebook and Goaty Friends. It does sum it up though. Poor Wagner, he looked so funny hopping about with his leg in plaster but it didn’t stop him at all. He still had fun. Of course Victor, his fellow would be harness goat, didn’t give him any quarter for being slightly broken. He’s regretting it now as Wagner can get him back. Hopefully he’ll be back to full speed soon.
The thunderous skies hung pendulously pensive over the valley this morning. It was a time for reflection as once the valley had been deepest green with the forests that stood like silent soldiers, protecting us from the wind. They are gone now and what was once an elven scene of mystic majesty now looks more like a nuclear fallout zone. Even the old willows that circled our field are now gone, ripped out to make it easier for the tractor to get closer to the fence. From mystic to dark future in eight years. The skyline that once was broken up by the points of trees is now a bald expanse. Even close by tractors and a container sit on the ridge line. Then that is the way of things I suppose. The plantations may be tastefully planted with broadleaf but that will take nearly fifty years to come to fruition. In that time the once beautiful valley now is windswept and feels more like we are being hit by a nuclear storm when the wind blows harshly across the open land. I cry for the trees and for how it was, how beautiful it was.
I can’t help my eyes being drawn to the East, looking past the abandoned vehicles and waiting materials of the neighbour to the Cambrian Mountains beyond. There is something in the wind, in the way it is blasting us in that direction, almost blowing us away. The barn and goat shed of course stand firm but there is something here that is ripping at the spirit, causing it to look beyond the valley. What lies out there I do not know. The Goblian threat around here has been alleviated, the Barrow Mound Guardian is caring for the valley. He likes us and is happy with what we are doing. There are big changes afoot, I can feel it in the wind. What it will bring, well that is in the hands of fate.
It may be the way of the world that is upsetting me this morning. There is such darkness out there that man will fight against
man on this tiny speck of dust in the vastness of space. That I suppose is the importance that mankind places on itself. It was said very well in The Matrix ™ Film, mankind is a virus and it will spread. Now greedy eyes are looking at Mars and it is amusing to think what they will find there if they actually want to live there. The reach out into space is starting again, that will bring other players into this “game” of ours. Perhaps we will have more to fear than just Goblians in the years to come. Who can tell but I’m sure we’ll find out.
COMING SOON NEW WIDGET PUPPET