Explorers on Witch Mountain

by Alex Bell

  The sun had set and it quickly went dark as the dirigible sailed on through the silent night sky. As soon as the sun had gone down, a bunch of fire pixies had woken up and started zooming about inside their lanterns, causing them to glow a bright, fiery red. Stella was rather concerned that they might have been captured and put in the lanterns against their will but, when she went over to see if they needed to be freed, she saw that the pixies all wore little waistcoats with the Jungle Cat Explorers’ Club crest stamped on the front.

  ‘The Jungle Cat Explorers’ Club is very progressive when it comes to fairies,’ Felix had told her once. ‘They’re the only club never to have had a pinned fairy display. They’ve established a good relationship with the jungle fairies and they even employ fire pixies, river sprites, tree goblins and temple elves as expedition guides. Handsomely paid, they all are too. One month’s service for the club can keep their family fed for an entire year.’

  So Stella said hello to the fire pixies and then left them to their own devices. It was extremely cold up on deck, especially since it had started snowing once again, and the dusky night sky was thick with falling flakes. Stella had assumed that there were cabins down below but, when Shay asked Gideon, he shook his head.

  ‘Then where are passengers supposed to sleep?’

  ‘The hammocks, of course.’ Gideon gestured behind him to his own hammock, and then realised that the jungle fairies were all busying about tying their tiny hammocks beside it. ‘Oh, do you have to tie them up there?’ he groaned. ‘How am I ever supposed to sleep with you lot drumming away next to me all night?’

  The fairy with the biggest hairdo – Mustafah – responded by producing a little red berry from the pocket of his leaf tunic and firing it straight at Gideon. It landed on the handsome boy’s cheek with a quiet splat. The smell was immediate and terrible. It was even worse than polar-bear poo, mouldy cheese and hairy troll feet, all wrapped up together.

  Gideon shrieked out, turned, and, in his haste, ripped down the fairy hammocks with his foot. As he fled across the deck, Mustafah loaded up his catapult to take a second shot.

  ‘You can put your hammocks next to mine if you like,’ Stella said hurriedly to the fairies. Really, the last thing they needed was stink-berries flying around. Hermina was thrashing about trying to get out from under the hammock that had landed on her, so Stella plucked it from her head, folded it carefully and gave it back to her. The fairy tucked it under her arm and gave Stella a big grin. ‘I’ll help you put them up later,’ Stella offered. ‘I’ve never slept in a hammock before but it sounds like marvellous fun.’

  ‘Oh, sure,’ Ethan said with a sigh. ‘Marvellous. And cold. And uncomfortable.’

  They left the fairies to their hammocks and walked across the deck to join Gideon, who was wiping his cheek with a picnic napkin. His eyes were watering from the smell and he’d gone quite red in the face.

  ‘Perhaps you should have taken your own advice about not offending the jungle fairies,’ Ethan remarked pleasantly, as Gideon took out his pocket mirror and started smoothing back his hair. ‘Oh, would you stop fussing over your appearance for five minutes?’ Ethan said. He glanced at the others and said, ‘I’m famished. Have we got enough to cobble together a meal between us?’

  ‘I brought some jellybeans,’ Beanie said. ‘And some cheese and bread.’

  ‘I’ve got a cold roast chicken,’ Shay said. ‘And a jar of barbecue sauce.’

  Ethan looked at Stella and said, ‘We’ve got some purple jellies and sugared marzipan left over from our journey, haven’t we?’

  ‘Not any more, you don’t,’ Gideon grunted.

  They all turned to look at him. ‘What are you talking about?’ Ethan asked. ‘If you’ve pinched the last of our sugared marzipan then I’m really going to—’

  ‘Not me,’ Gideon pointed over his shoulder. ‘Them.’

  Everyone stared at the four jungle fairies stretched out on the deck beside their hammocks, licking their lips, their bellies enormous. A few crumbs and the odd smear of barbecue sauce was all that was left of their supplies.

  ‘Jungle fairies will eat everything and anything that isn’t nailed down or locked away,’ Gideon said as the explorers frantically checked their bags and pockets. ‘They’ll even chew on stink-berries if there’s nothing else available. And they’re extremely sneaky thieves. Didn’t you know?’

  ‘I don’t believe it!’ Shay said, rooting through his bag. ‘There was an entire roast chicken in here! Four little fairies couldn’t possibly have eaten the whole thing.’

  ‘Never underestimate the appetite of a jungle fairy,’ Gideon said smugly.

  ‘You know, it might have been helpful if you’d told us that before they gobbled up all our supplies,’ Shay said with a sigh.

  Koa got up from where she’d been sitting by Shay’s side and wandered over to inspect the fairies. One of them picked up a nearby catapult and aimed it towards her in a lazy, half-hearted sort of way, then grunted and let the catapult fall to the ground, obviously deciding it was too much effort.

  ‘Is there anything to eat on board?’ The magician asked, peering towards the ladder that led below deck.

  ‘Of course,’ Gideon replied, stuffing the mirror back into his pocket and then ticking the rooms off on his fingers. ‘Aside from a well-stocked larder, we’ve got a champagne ice-room, a scone bakery, a jams and preserves cupboard, and a clotted cream creamery.’

  Ethan snorted. ‘What is a creamery anyway?’

  ‘It’s where we make the cream, of course!’ Gideon snapped. ‘For the scones. Why do you think Margaret is here?’

  He waved over towards the other side of the deck and the others noticed, for the first time, that a black and white spotted cow stood there, happily munching on some hay and gazing out at the passing clouds with a thoughtful expression on her face.

  ‘You couldn’t make it up, could you? You actually could not make it up,’ said Ethan incredulously.

  ‘I think you’ll find that our food supplies are extremely useful now that the jungle fairies have demolished the scraps you brought along,’ Gideon said. ‘I’ll get the picnic stuff. Then you can see how civilised explorers go about things.’

  He disappeared down the ladder and, after a moment’s hesitation, Stella followed him. Fire-pixie lamps lit the inside of the dirigible too, and Stella saw that the walls of the corridor were painted with a variety of jungle animals, from spotted leopards and watchful baboons, to flying panthers and fairy giraffes. There was even a river scene depicting an expedition boat under attack from an enraged hippopotamus, as well as a tiny jungle fairy boat that looked as if it were about to be swallowed whole by a particularly savage-looking piranha. It all appeared extremely dangerous and thrilling, and Stella made a mental note to put the jungle on the list of places she wanted to explore one day.

  She hurried off down the corridor and soon found Gideon in the kitchen – or the galley, as it was called on dirigibles.

  ‘Can I do anything to help?’ she asked.

  The Jungle Cat explorer jumped at her voice and almost dropped the enormous picnic hamper he’d just lifted down from the top shelf of a cupboard. He gave her a quick, nervous look. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I don’t need any help from an ice princess.’

  Stella sighed. ‘Look, I’m really quite a nice person,’ she said. ‘I know that snow queens have been pretty horrid in the past, but I’m not like them, I promise.’

  ‘Perhaps you aren’t now,’ Gideon replied. ‘But Father says that all ice princesses turn into evil snow queens eventually. It’s just a matter of time.’

  Stella decided to try another approach. ‘It’s jolly nice of you to put on a picnic for us,’ she said. ‘We really appreciate your—’

  ‘I’m not doing it to be nice!’ Gideon snapped. ‘I’m doing it because any Jungle Cat explorer worth his salt will produce a suitably excellent picnic for guests, even unwanted ones!’

  And, with that, he locked the cupboard, pick
ed up the wickerwork hamper and barged past Stella so roughly that she was forced to jump back against the wall in order to avoid getting knocked down. She sighed and wished, more than ever, that she was just an ordinary explorer and not an ice princess. Felix wouldn’t be in danger then, and an explorer she’d never met wouldn’t have decided she was a dangerous villain before he’d even set eyes on her. She made her way back up on deck feeling rather low, and wandered over to say hello to Margaret. The cow was extremely friendly, and her big brown eyes and soft nose made Stella feel a little better.

  ‘Hey, Sparky,’ Shay said, joining her. ‘Everything okay?’

  Stella shrugged and ran her hand along Margaret’s smooth coat.

  ‘You’re not paying any mind to that idiot, are you?’ Shay asked, jerking his thumb over his shoulder to where Gideon was clattering around with teacups and arranging napkins into rather complicated hippopotamus shapes.

  ‘He’s not the only one who thinks that way,’ Stella said in a quiet voice. ‘And the worst part of it is that he’s right. You saw what happened on the last expedition. If I use the tiara too much then it does make me cruel. I am dangerous.’

  Shay reached up to scratch Margaret behind her ear. ‘Anyone can be dangerous, given the right circumstances,’ he said. ‘Sometimes ordinary people are the most dangerous of all. Besides, people are always scared of what they don’t understand. Why do you think we had to leave our village in the end? There was trouble with the wild wolves there and – because I could talk to them – some of the villagers thought I must have something to do with the wolves attacking the village, that perhaps I was encouraging them to do it. I never did, of course – why on earth would I – but sometimes people can get so worked up and afraid that they just won’t listen to reason. Don’t let them get to you, Sparky.’ He reached out and pulled Stella into a tight hug, and she felt herself relax as she breathed in his familiar smell of wolves and earth and leather.

  She felt grateful to Shay for believing in her more than she’d been able to believe in herself recently. They both jumped then when the sound of a brass gong being rung broke through the frozen air. They turned and saw Gideon under an awning, the picnic laid out by his feet. ‘Dinner is served,’ he announced, striking the gong a second time.

  They wandered over to join the others. Beneath the canopy roof, several wooden monkeys held fire-pixie lamps that glowed softly and gave off quite a lot of warmth as well. There was a fantastic spread laid out on the green and white checked cloth. The plates and teacups were all stamped with the Jungle Cat Explorers’ Club crest, and Gideon had finally succeeded in folding the napkins into hippos. Just looking at the food was enough to make Stella’s stomach rumble. There were great piles of crumbly scones, shiny fairy jellies, tiny sandwiches, sausage rolls, scotch eggs and, most delightfully of all, little cakes perfectly shaped like elephants, right down to their white sugar tusks.

  ‘This looks marvellous!’ Stella exclaimed.

  ‘Aren’t you awful people going to change for dinner?’ Gideon demanded.

  For the first time, Stella noticed that the Jungle Cat explorer had changed into a green velvet waistcoat with a fancy brocade trim, and silver buttons stamped with his explorers’ club crest. He seemed very pleased with himself and kept checking his appearance in the glass of one of the nearby lanterns.

  ‘We didn’t bring any fancy clothes,’ Beanie said. ‘They’re not exactly practical for an expedition.’

  ‘Even the jungle fairies have made an effort.’ Gideon gestured towards them and the others saw that they had, indeed, all put on bow ties, and even had one rather bent and battered top hat, which they kept swapping between them.

  Stella turned to the fairies and said, ‘You all look lovely.’

  ‘Hermina!’ Gideon exclaimed. ‘Get out of that teacup!’

  The jungle fairy was reclining, quite majestically, in one of the teacups, but got out with some grumbling when Gideon shooed her away. The four jungle fairies settled cross-legged in a line at the edge of the picnic blanket instead. They’d obtained little wooden plates from somewhere and held these up to Gideon hopefully.

  But the explorer shook his head and said, ‘You know the rules. You can only join the picnic if you bring an offering.’

  The fairies put down their wooden plates with a clatter and fluttered off somewhere as the explorers settled themselves on the cushions. Stella put an elephant cake on her plate but thought it was so marvellous that she could hardly bear to eat it.

  ‘Why do you lot want to go to Witch Mountain anyway?’ Gideon asked. ‘It’s a bit extreme, even for the Polar Bear Explorers’ Club.’

  ‘My father is witch hunting there,’ Stella said. ‘We’re going to help him.’

  ‘Oh dear, I was afraid it was going to be something like that.’

  The jungle fairies returned just then, carrying a plate between them. They set this down on the picnic blanket and Stella saw that it was piled high with what appeared to be piranha cupcakes. They had pointed sugar teeth and dark chocolate fins.

  ‘Goodness!’ she said, peering at them. ‘How extraordinary.’

  ‘I don’t know where they’re hiding that stash,’ Gideon grumbled. ‘I’ve been all over the ship and I can’t find it anywhere. All right, sit down,’ he said to the fairies, who were holding their plates up expectantly. The Jungle Cat explorer put some food on each of them, and the jungle fairies fell upon it happily.

  They ate quietly, everyone busy with their own thoughts. As they were finishing, Mustafah marched right up to Stella and held out a cupcake decorated with a flower.

  ‘Oh, goodness,’ Stella exclaimed. ‘Thank you very much! How lovely!’

  The jungle fairy bowed once before flying back to join the others, who all blew noisy kisses at Stella.

  ‘Traitors,’ Gideon muttered.

  Stella ignored him, and blew a kiss back to the fairies.

  ‘Jungle punch?’ Gideon asked, suddenly brandishing a large jug of fizzy orange liquid. Stella saw that hippo-shaped ice cubes floated on top, as well as one particularly large ice cube in the shape of an expedition boat. There were even little ice explorers stood on its deck, poised with their binoculars.

  ‘Is that the same thing as tiger punch?’ Beanie asked, peering at it suspiciously. ‘Because if it will make you go bonkers then I’d rather not.’

  ‘It isn’t the same thing,’ Gideon snapped. ‘Nothing in this picnic will make you go any more bonkers than you already are.’ He paused, then added, ‘Except, possibly, Captain Greystoke’s Expedition-Flavour Smoked Caviar.’ He pointed at a little bowl of black stuff in the middle of the spread. ‘If you eat too much of that it can make you go a bit dotty.’

  Gideon proceeded to place a paper umbrella decorated with monkeys and bananas into each of their teacups. The jungle fairies had produced thimble-sized wooden kegs of their own, and Mustafah held his up to Gideon hopefully.

  ‘No!’ Gideon snapped. ‘There isn’t enough for you. You know the rules. Guests come first.’

  ‘I don’t want any of that horrible stuff,’ Ethan said, wrinkling his nose at it. ‘The fairies can have my share.’

  ‘But you must all try the jungle punch,’ Gideon whined.

  ‘You drink it if you’re so mad for it,’ Ethan replied, narrowing his eyes at the Jungle Cat boy. ‘Why are you so particularly keen for us to have it anyway?’

  ‘I’m not,’ Gideon said quickly. ‘Just trying to be hospitable, that’s all. Although why anyone would bother trying to be hospitable to members of the Polar Bear Explorers’ Club, I have no idea.’

  ‘Don’t call me a member of the Polar Bear Explorers’ Club!’ Ethan sniffed. ‘I’m from the Ocean Squid Explorers’ Club, which is easily the best one of the bunch. In fact, it’s superior to the rest of your clubs in every possible way.’

  While the explorers were squabbling about clubs, the jungle fairies had produced a tiny ladder from somewhere and set this against the side of the punch jug. M
ustafah had climbed to the top and dunked one of the wooden goblets in, filling it to the brim before passing it back down to Hermina, who greedily knocked it back in one gulp.

  Suddenly noticing them, Gideon gave a cry of dismay and threw out a hand to shove Mustafah off the ladder. Unfortunately, he used a bit too much force, and ended up knocking the entire jug over. The orange liquid fizzed out over the picnic blanket, soaking Mustafah in the process.

  ‘Now look what you’ve done!’ Gideon exclaimed. ‘You blasted things!’

  He raised his arm and, for an awful moment, Stella thought he was actually going to hit one of the little fairies. But Shay immediately grabbed his wrist and said, ‘If it’s a fight you’re looking for, how about picking on someone your own size?’

  Gideon glared at Shay, who gazed back at him quite calmly. His shadow wolf, Koa, had appeared beside him, and she clearly didn’t seem to think much of the Jungle Cat explorer either for she bared her teeth in a way that was pretty menacing, despite the fact that she had no physical substance. Gideon snatched his arm away hastily.

  Mustafah picked himself up, dripping wet, and limped to the edge of the picnic blanket looking rather bedraggled and sorry for himself.

  ‘Oh dear, did you hurt yourself when you fell off the ladder?’ Stella asked, noticing his limp. ‘Beanie, come here, I think this fairy is injured.’

  Not only was Beanie studying to be a medic, but he also had some healing magic thanks to his elf heritage. He came straight over and explained to Mustafah that he could make his leg feel better if he liked. The fairy stuck it out and Beanie lifted his hand, holding it inches away. A soft green light glittered out from Beanie’s fingertips, surrounding the fairy for a moment.

  ‘There you go,’ Beanie said. ‘You should feel much better now.’

  The fairy carefully tested his leg and then, clearly delighted with the results, went running, stamping and dancing off to rejoin the others. As the explorers cleared away the remains of the picnic, Beanie noticed that all four of the jungle fairies were practising their headstands.