Seven Pets for Seven Witches

by Annabel Chase

  Pushing the humiliating memories away, Caitlyn turned from the mirror and began climbing into bed. Then she paused and looked around the room in puzzlement. Something wasn’t right…

  Of course! Nibs!

  The black kitten usually followed her up at bedtime and slept curled up at the foot of her bed. Tonight, however, the little feline was nowhere to be seen.

  Where was he?

  Caitlyn frowned, trying to remember when she had last seen Nibs. He had been scampering around the kitchen, chasing the moth and getting under their feet, as they had prepared dinner. But she couldn’t remember seeing him after that. Feeling worried, Caitlyn left her room and tiptoed down the spiral staircase. The door to the Widow Mags’s bedroom was slightly ajar and Caitlyn peeked inside. She could hear her grandmother’s heavy breathing and see her huddled form on the bed, but there was no sign of a little kitten anywhere. Next, she crept into the kitchen and looked under the table, on every chair, in the pantry, behind the cupboards, but Nibs was nowhere to be seen.

  Then she saw that one of the kitchen windows was slightly open and something glittered on the window ledge. She hurried over and touched a finger to it, frowning. It looked like… granules of sugar, she realised, feeling the gritty texture. She leaned out and saw another glitter in the grass below the window, and then a little farther away, on the path leading through the cottage’s rear garden. She suddenly remembered Nib’s accident with the cinnamon sugar and the way the fine granules had clung to his fur. He must have climbed out of this window and jumped out—probably chasing the moth—and the sugar which had been on his fur had shaken loose, leaving a glittering trail.

  Caitlyn hesitated, then flung open the back door and hurried out into the night. Thankfully, it was summer and the air was balmy, with a gentle breeze that stirred the treetops. She followed the path through the garden until she reached the rear gate, and stepped out to find herself at the edge of the forest. Here she paused, peering into the darkness. She could see a tell-tale trail of sparkling sugar on the ground next to a tree.

  “Nibs? Nibs, are you there?” she called softly.

  She strained her ears but there was no answer. Caitlyn stared uneasily at the shadows between the trees. Could Nibs have gone into the forest? She had watched him play at the edge of the woods a few times, but had never seen him venture far. Still, he was getting bigger and bolder with each passing day, and if he was busy chasing a moth, he might have easily wandered in without noticing.

  Maybe he would come back soon enough of his own accord. She could just leave the kitchen window open and hope that she would find him curled up on a chair in the morning. Caitlyn turned away from the forest and took a few steps back, then faltered.

  What if he wasn’t there in the morning? What if he couldn’t find his way back? Or was lying hurt somewhere? She couldn’t bear the thought of the little kitten lost and alone in the darkness.

  No. She would have to go and look for him. Hurrying back into the cottage, Caitlyn rummaged through the kitchen drawers until she found an old torch. It only gave a faint beam of light—the batteries were obviously dying—but it was better than nothing. There was a full moon tonight, and the open landscape was lit with a pale, silvery light, but she knew that deep in the forest, the canopy would block out most of the moonlight.

  She stepped out of the back door once more, but as she was about to close it behind her, she hesitated and cast a look back into the cottage. Should I wake the Widow Mags? Her grandmother had been sleeping so soundly, she hated the thought of disturbing the old woman. In any case, she’d probably be back soon. She was sure that Nibs couldn’t have gone far.

  Clutching the old torch in her hands, Caitlyn hurried back to the edge of the forest and found the spot where she had seen the scattering of sugar granules. She flashed the torch farther down the track between the trees and saw another faint glitter a few feet away. Then another farther on. And another. Slowly, she walked deeper and deeper into the forest, her head down, following the trail of glittering sugar.

  Every so often, she called Nibs’s name, hoping to hear an answering “mew”, but there was nothing except the murmur of the wind through the trees and the rustling of forest creatures in the undergrowth. In fact… Caitlyn paused and looked back uneasily. Was it her imagination or had she heard the rustling getting louder and louder? Almost as if someone—or something—were following her…

  A sudden cry above her head made her jump.

  It’s just an owl, she told herself as she sagged against a tree, clutching her chest. But even as she felt her pulse steady, she heard the loud rustling again, somewhere in the undergrowth behind her. She whirled around and raised a shaking hand, shining the torch in the direction of the noise. But the beam was so faint now, it was hard to see anything clearly.

  Then a gust of wind blew through the trees, parting the branches and letting a shaft of moonlight shine down, lighting the forest floor. Caitlyn gasped.

  The figure of a man loomed suddenly out of the undergrowth.

  Without pausing to think, Caitlyn raised the torch and whacked it as hard as she could.

  “Ouch!” came a grumpy voice, old and quavering. “That hurt!”

  Caitlyn stared into the darkness. “V-Viktor?”

  The branches parted again. In the pale moonlight, Caitlyn saw a stooped old man in a faded black suit, with rheumy eyes and a few strands of grey hair combed across his bald head… and a pair of yellowed fangs protruding from the corners of his mouth. Caitlyn thought wryly that most girls would have screamed at the sight, but she just felt a rush of relief at seeing the old vampire.

  “Viktor! What are you doing here? Why are you following me?”

  “I was not following you,” said Viktor, rubbing his head and looking at her reproachfully. “I was deep in the forest, minding my own business, when I saw you walking past, so I came after you to ask what you’re doing.” He made a tutting noise. “Do you realise it’s past midnight? Well after the time a young lady should be out walking alone.”

  “I have a good reason for being out here—I’m looking for Nibs. Have you seen him?”

  The old vampire shook his head, then asked in his turn: “Have you seen my fangs? I’ve been looking for them everywhere. I thought I might have dropped them here in the undergrowth when I was picking blackberries earlier…” He scowled. “That cursed dentist! A pox of garlic on him! I told him these new fangs didn’t fit properly. They keep falling out in the most inconvenient places—”

  “Your fangs?” Caitlyn furrowed her brow. “But… aren’t they in your mouth?”

  “They are?” Viktor quickly felt his gums with his fingers and smiled delightedly. “Oh yes, they are! So they didn’t drop out after all.”

  Caitlyn resisted the urge to roll her eyes. How had she ended up with a six-hundred-year-old vampire uncle who kept losing his fangs everywhere?

  Viktor rubbed his bony hands. “Well, now that I am here, I can offer my assistance in your search.”

  “Uh… that’s okay, Viktor. There’s no need for you to hang around—”

  “Hang around? Oh no, I am not taking my bat form.”

  “No, no… I mean, you don’t have to stay with me.”

  “But of course, I must stay! As your guardian uncle, it is my duty to provide you with protection.”

  Caitlyn sighed. “Viktor, wouldn’t you rather go for a nice snooze, instead of creeping around in the forest?”

  Viktor bristled. “Creep? Vampires do not creep! We gliiiide through the shadows.” He swept an arm around himself and twirled as if to demonstrate, but smacked into a nearby tree and keeled over.

  “Viktor! Are you all right?” Caitlyn knelt down and helped him sit up again.

  “I’m fine, I’m fine…” Viktor blustered, although Caitlyn could see another bump rising on the other side of his forehead, to match the one she had given him.

  She helped him to his feet and waited as he dusted himself off. By now, the torch was
almost dead, but she found to her surprise that her eyes had acclimatised to the dark, and the moonlight filtering down through the trees lit up the forest floor better than she’d expected. In fact, the sugar granules seemed to sparkle even more in the moonlight. As they started down the track again, Caitlyn found it easy to follow the glittering trail.

  She set off at a brisk pace, with Viktor tottering along behind her. They were deep in the forest now and Caitlyn wondered how Nibs could have come this far. Then she had a worrying thought: what if this trail of sugar granules wasn’t from Nibs? What if she had been following the wrong thing?

  Before she could voice the thought, the trail of sugar ended abruptly at an ancient stone bridge which stood in the middle of a clearing. A small stream ran underneath and ferns grew wild and thick along its banks. It looked like nothing had been disturbed for centuries. Beyond the bridge, the track continued, leading back into the trees, but although she strained her eyes, Caitlyn couldn’t see any glitter on the distant path.

  She paused and glanced back the way she had come. Viktor had fallen behind but she could hear him slowly approaching, muttering to himself and shuffling through the undergrowth. She dropped her eyes back to the ground around her. There was a scatter of sugar glittering at her feet, and then another a few feet away, to one side of the bridge, closer to the water. If the sugar trail had been left by Nibs, then it looked like the kitten had not crossed the bridge but had gone down the bank to the stream. Perhaps he had been thirsty and gone in search of a drink?

  “Nibs?” Caitlyn called softly. “Nibs, where are you?”

  She hadn’t really expected a reply and was startled when there was an answering “Mew!” It was very faint and seemed to be coming from underneath the bridge. Caitlyn didn’t pause to think. She plunged down the bank, pushing the bracken and fern fronds out of her way as she clambered down to the underside of the bridge. There, she found a small hollow carved out of the bank, tucked under the curve of the stone. She crouched and crawled halfway in, wishing she still had her torch. It was pitch black down here.

  “Nibs?”

  “Mew!” Again, she heard the faint cry, but it sounded quite far away and had a strange echoing quality. But how could that be? Surely the hollow wasn’t that big…

  She crawled in a bit farther… and a bit farther…

  It’s not a hollow at all but the start of a tunnel, she realised suddenly. The tunnel widened around her, allowing her to straighten up, and soon she found herself standing in a large, underground cavern. She looked around in wonder. She felt as if she were in the bowels of the earth. There was even a low rumbling, like a distant earthquake. The walls of the cavern were made of rock and seemed to have some kind of luminescent quality, so that parts of the interior were lit by a pale blue glow. It wasn’t much light but it did enable her to get a sense of the place.

  There was a large stone mound in one corner, covered in moss and lichen, and piled high with bracken, which looked like it might have been used for a bed. And there were old and broken things littered about the rest of the cave, all looking like they had been scavenged from rubbish heaps: chairs with three legs, piles of broken crockery, pieces of rotten carpet, an old rubber tyre, several empty glass bottles, and even a rusty old toaster atop a pile of large rocks.

  In the opposite corner stood a wooden kitchen dresser propped up against the wall. It was the kind you often saw in farmhouses, with drawers and cupboards below, and shelves above, displaying plates in a row. It was so incongruous that Caitlyn wondered how it had been brought in through the narrow tunnel. Maybe that explained why it was crooked and seemed to be missing a leg, so that it sagged to one side. There were no plates on it, just various jars arranged in rows on the shelves. Hanging next to the dresser, from a piece of rock jutting out from the cave wall, was an old-fashioned wooden bird cage. Something moved in the cage—a black bird of some sort?—and Caitlyn stiffened in surprise.

  Wait… Caitlyn gasped. That wasn’t a black bird in the cage… it was Nibs! She could see the kitten’s yellow eyes glowing in the dark.

  “Nibs?”

  “Meeeew!” The kitten pawed frantically at the bars of the cage, causing it to rock back and forth in the air.

  “Oh my God, Nibs…!” Caitlyn started to rush towards the cage but a sound behind her stopped her in her tracks. She froze and turned her head slowly to look over her shoulder. What she saw made her heart skip a beat.

  The pile of bracken on the “bed” in the corner seemed to be moving: something large and hairy turned over, and she realised that the dried fern fronds had actually concealed a sleeping creature. It settled once more and a loud rumbling filled the air. It was the same sound that she had heard earlier—what she had thought was the “rumbling of the earth”—but which she now realised was soft snoring.

  Cautiously, Caitlyn tiptoed a few steps back towards the bed mound and peered at the creature in the dim light of the cave. It had a large, brutish head, with a bulbous nose and huge nostrils, and a thick neck that seemed to merge with massive, meaty shoulders. It was hard to make out the rest of the body, covered as it was by piles of bracken, but it seemed to have a long torso and short legs, and big hairy arms—very much like a gorilla. In fact, for a moment Caitlyn wondered if it might just be a gorilla—perhaps one which had escaped a local zoo and made a home here in the forest? But another look at the creature’s clammy grey skin and huge size told her that this was no gorilla.

  No, in fact, she had a bad feeling she knew what it was: a troll.

  Chapter 3

  She had no proof, of course, but she had read enough stories and seen enough pictures of trolls living in caves and under bridges… Caitlyn swallowed nervously. If she was lucky, maybe she could rescue Nibs and creep out of the cave without the troll waking up. She hurried back to the cage and stretched up to try and unhook it from the rocky protrusion, but it was too high. She glanced around for something to climb on: the only thing vaguely suitable was a three-legged chair that looked as if it would collapse under any slight weight. Caitlyn turned back to the wooden dresser and regarded it thoughtfully. It was missing a leg as well, but it was also propped against the wall, and if she was very gentle…

  Carefully, she hoisted herself up onto the sideboard ledge. She held her breath as she felt the dresser tilt slightly, but it didn’t topple over. Inch by inch, she straightened until she could reach the bird cage.

  “Mew! Mew! Mew! Mew!” cried Nibs, jumping up and down in the cage and making it rock violently.

  “Hush, Nibs! You have to stay quiet!” said Caitlyn in an urgent whisper.

  “Meeew!”

  “All right, all right… I’m going to get you out.”

  Moving slowly, so as not to shift her weight too much, Caitlyn unlatched the cage door and pulled it open. But before she could reach inside, Nibs dived for the opening and tried to wriggle through.

  “Nibs!” Caitlyn gasped as the cage swung against her, causing her to lose her balance. She reeled backwards and put out her other hand to steady herself. Her fingers brushed one of the glass jars sitting on the shelf and sent it spinning.

  “Oh no!” Caitlyn lunged and caught the jar just in time before it fell off the shelf. The dresser creaked alarmingly and began to sag to one side. Quickly, Caitlyn threw her weight in the other direction and leaned back against the shelves. The wood creaked again, then held fast.

  Whew. Caitlyn looked back at the cage and realised that it was empty. Nibs had managed to wriggle out and jump to the ground. He was standing next to the dresser, looking up at her expectantly.

  “Mew?”

  “Shhh!” Caitlyn admonished. “Stay there, Nibs. I’m coming down.”

  Carefully, she twisted her body so that she could slide the glass jar back onto the shelf behind her. But as she did so, the faint blue light from the cave wall illuminated the inside of the jar and Caitlyn realised that it was filled with cinnamon sticks. Glowing red cinnamon sticks.

  Caitl
yn felt her heart jerk with excitement. She remembered the mythical kanel, the magical cinnamon used by trolls to make troll tea… the same magical cinnamon that could make “fat-burning chocolate”.

  Caitlyn hesitated. It would be so easy to withdraw a few sticks from the jar. There were so many—the troll would never miss them. Before she realised what she was doing, Caitlyn had tipped the jar sideways and was gently shaking out a few sticks of kanel. The warm, spicy scent of cinnamon filled the air. Caitlyn felt her nose twitch, then a terrible urge to sneeze seized her. She held her breath, hoping the urge would go away, but instead the itch got worse and worse until…

  “AH…AHH…AHHTCHOOOO!”

  The entire dresser shook. With a loud creak, the wood suddenly gave way and Caitlyn went down in a heap of glass jars and splinters. There was a resounding crash. Over from the bed-mound came a loud grunt and a snort; then the troll stirred. It sat up and rose slowly to its feet, blinking and rubbing its eyes. Caitlyn scrambled up and checked herself. Other than a few bruises and scratches, she didn’t seem to be hurt. She picked her way out of the rubble and ran over to Nibs, scooping the kitten up in her arms.

  “Mew?”

  “Time to go, Nibs!” she cried.

  But as she turned towards the cave entrance, she found that the troll was blocking her way. It moved its head from side to side, sniffing intently, but it seemed to have trouble pin-pointing where she was. Its small piggish eyes blinked myopically as it peered around the cave.

  “UNGHH,” it grunted, swinging its arms around, groping in the air.

  Could she get past it? The troll looked pretty slow and stupid, and she didn’t think it could see very well… but even as she was debating the risks, Caitlyn was suddenly horrified to hear a familiar quavering voice calling her name.