The Catchers

by Stuart J. Kent

  “Jamie, this is my young apprentice and lovely niece, Trixie,” he said, introducing her.

  Jamie stood transfixed by her shoulder-length, bright-red hair, which framed her smooth, milky-white face, and her small pointy nose and big green eyes; she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, which came as a surprise because until then he had no idea why girls even existed.

  “Why is he staring at me? What’s wrong with him?” Trixie asked, a little unnerved by Jamie’s blank look.

  Colin quickly gave Jamie a little nudge, snapping him from his trance.

  “Say something,” Colin whispered.

  “Err… you’re lovely!” mumbled Jamie.

  “What?” Trixie said, a little shocked.

  “I mean hello… err… it’s nice to meet you,” mumbled Jamie quickly, now feeling very embarrassed and turning red as a beetroot as Colin tried to stifle his laughter. Trixie gave him a long stern look before replying.

  “Right, so he’s not a magic dweller, then?”

  “No, he is not, but he is our guest here, so be nice,” replied Colin.

  Jamie then noticed the unusual clothes that Trixie was wearing and he had honestly never seen such a strange-looking outfit on a girl before. Trixie wore an old black leather jacket that appeared to be far too big for her and under her jacket she had on a black T-shirt with a sparkly glitter splash across it, she also wore a short black skirt with stripy coloured stockings underneath, and a pair of big dark brown leather boots that came halfway up her legs, and upon her head was a pair of old-fashioned leather driving goggles holding her hair back in place. As Jamie was noticing her outfit he was once again staring at her and after a few seconds, Trixie whispered to her uncle,

  “He’s staring again.”

  Colin then quickly gave Jamie a pat on the shoulder. “Come on, Jamie, we must get on,” he said, before he climbed up onto the small leather driver’s bench at the front of the cart.

  Jamie then climbed up the small wooden steps built into the side of the cart and sat next to Colin, and as he got comfy, Trixie climbed up and sat down next to him, squishing him up against Colin.

  “Err… Jamie, not so close please, I need room to drive, give me a little more room young man,” Colin asked politely, nudging him back towards Trixie.

  Jamie nervously shuffled back towards Trixie and smiled awkwardly at her. Trixie sighed.

  “Boys,” she muttered before pulling down her leather driving goggles into place on her face.

  Jamie then spotted the old, tired-looking grey horse that stood at the front of the cart ready to pull them along and glanced up at Colin, a little concerned.

  “Um… how long is this going to take?”

  “Oh, not long, Streak can still move pretty well for an old boy,” replied Colin with a smile.

  “Streak? Why do you call him…?” before Jamie could finish his question, Colin snapped the reins and instantly Streak shot forwards pulling the cart with tremendous thrust.

  Jamie cried out in shock as he fell backwards off the little bench into the back of the cart.

  “Oy! Watch it!” shouted the little man as he jumped out of the way of Jamie’s crash landing.

  “Wow!” exclaimed Jamie in amazement as he now lay in the back, staring up at the sky.

  “See, he’s still got it,” Colin grinned.

  The little man stood next to Jamie dusting himself off and grumbled.

  “You nearly crushed me, you did.”

  “Sorry!” replied Jamie sitting up. “I didn’t mean to.”

  “Okay, apology accepted and you can call me Marty,” the little man smiled.

  The horse-drawn cart raced through the magical countryside, hurtling along at incredible speed and Jamie watched in amazement at all the strange new magical places they passed.

  First, they passed a village where all the houses glowed bright yellow, then they passed another village where all the houses were made of candy and then another village went by that appeared to be floating in the clouds.

  On and on they went, passing ever more strange and wonderful new places, like the blue and red sparkly trees of Ganglier, the pink waterfalls of Mycia and then on past the green Jelly hills of Candia.

  “It’s amazing how so many of these places seem to rhyme,” Colin observed as they passed the ivory towers of Dandria.

  “Yes, almost like someone meant it to be that way,” Marty agreed.

  “This is incredible!” screamed Jamie excitedly over the oncoming rush of wind. “How fast are we going?”

  “I don’t know, no one’s ever been able to measure the speed, because once Streak gets going, the speedometers just keep exploding,” shouted Colin back.

  “You know, you shouldn’t keep talking while we’re moving at this speed, you might end up swallowing a…” before Trixie could finish her sentence a bug flew straight in her mouth which, ironically, was exactly what she was trying to warn Jamie about.

  “Urrgh!” she cried, coughing it back up, before spitting it out.

  The others all began to laugh loudly at what had just happened, until they raced through a large cloud of bugs and they all ended up swallowing bugs as well.

  “Told you,” grinned Trixie as the others sat coughing and spluttering.

  A few minutes later, the cart came to a screeching halt halfway along a quiet narrow dirt track that ran along the edge of a rather eerie wood. The trees in this wood were old and gnarled, their leaves were in shades of greys, yellows and coppers, and slowly they were falling silently to the dewy ground.

  Jamie stared at this dull, morbid place and a chill seem to flow over him, giving him the shivers; the whole place had a very strange, cold, damp, depressing feel to it.

  “Here we are, the Ever Autumn woods,” said Colin before stepping off the cart.

  “Ever Autumn woods?” Jamie asked repeating the name.

  “Yes, apparently some wizard or witch many years ago cast a spell so this whole wood is always in autumn, always dull, cold and depressing all year round,” continued Colin.

  “Why?” asked Jamie curiously.

  “Sentimentalist,” replied Marty.

  “What’s a sentimentalist?” Jamie asked.

  “It means they have a thing for autumn, they like the drab and damp atmosphere,” replied Trixie quickly. “Now, can we get on it with it, please,” she sighed, grabbing the jar with the sprite in it from the back of the cart.

  Jamie and Colin then followed Trixie as she entered the woods, they strolled on between the decaying trees and lifeless grey grass, until finally after about a minute of walking they came upon an even darker, dingier, damper place deep amongst the trees.

  “This is the swamp of Fred,” said Colin in a quiet voice.

  “Why do they call it the swamp of Fred?” asked Jamie.

  “Because Fred found it, so he got to name it,” replied Colin.

  “Oh right, yeah,” Jamie said, a bit disappointed by the answer.

  “But there’s something more important you need to know,” Colin continued. “Now be careful here, things are not what they seem,” he warned his young new friend. “This decay, this place that courts death, attracts the strange and unusual, so stay close.” Colin then went to move forward but then stopped and Jamie immediately bumped into him.

  “Not that close, Jamie,” Colin muttered before moving on.

  “Sorry,” whispered Jamie.

  After a few more steps they reached the edge of the swamp of Fred and immediately Jamie could smell the dark, muddy, stinky, waterhole that was infested with bugs and other creepy crawlies.

  “Phew!” he exclaimed, waving the smell from his nose.

  “Okay, this will do, no need to go any further,” whispered Colin.

  Trixie placed t
he large glass jar down on the ground and then stepped back. Inside, the sprite had awoken from its nap and was now a little agitated, it hopped around excitedly inside and leapt up at the glass lid trying to get out.

  “Okay Jamie, go let it out,” Colin said, giving him a little push of encouragement.

  “Me?” said Jamie, surprised that he had to do it.

  “Yes, you, I said you could, so get on with it,” Colin replied, eagerly.

  Jamie walked nervously to the jar, then bent down and placed his hands on the lid before nervously looking back at the others.

  “You’re doing great,” whispered Colin, grinning and holding both his thumbs up encouragingly.

  “Yeah, fantastic, can we get on with it, I would like to get home sometime today,” sighed Trixie, less enthusiastically.

  Jamie then held the jar with one hand and with the other hand he began to undo the large lid.

  “Here you go,” Jamie whispered as he pulled the lid off.

  The Sprite stared suspiciously up at him for a moment as if it was sure this was some kind of trick Jamie was playing, then suddenly it leapt from the jar with a little “woo!”.

  Jamie watched it flip high into the air above him and then it dropped straight down into the mucky smelly swamp, and as it did the nasty stinky swamp water splashed up, covering Jamie where he knelt.

  “Oh dear!” exclaimed Colin, trying not to laugh.

  “Urrgh!” cried Jamie in horror as the cold, wet, smelly water soaked into his hair and T-shirt. “That smells so nasty.”

  “I know,” cried Trixie, unable to stop herself any longer from laughing.

  “That’s why we stood back here,” added Colin through tears of laughter. After much uncontrollable laughter and giggling, Colin managed to regain some self-control and as he wiped the tears from his eyes, he held out one of his big old hands as Jamie approached him.

  “Welcome to the life of a catcher,” he grinned, looking at Jamie.

  “Thanks,” Jamie sighed, shaking his hand.

  “That was your first lesson, never stand too close when releasing a creature back into its habitat,” Trixie said with a smile.

  “I think I’ll remember that,” replied Jamie.

  “Right then, come on, we’ve still got lots to do before we can finish for the day,” Colin said before walking back the way they had come. Jamie was about to follow when Trixie stopped him.

  “Don’t forget the jar.”

  “Oh yeah, I’ll get it,” he said turning back round as Trixie continued on following her uncle.

  Jamie stepped back to the edge of the swamp of Fred and was about to pick the jar up when something out the corner of his eye caught his attention. Looking across the swamp of Fred, he could see something in the dark gloom of the far bank, under the overhanging tree branches, and staring hard he could just make out a large shadowy figure hunched over, looking down at the ground. Jamie watched curiously; why was this dark mysterious figure all alone in the middle of this dark damp wood? Then he observed the figure bending down to pick something up, something Jamie couldn’t quite make out. The sinister figure then appeared to mutter something quietly to itself as it held the thing it had picked up in one hand, and then with its other hand it began to make a circular, rhythmical motion over the thing.

  As it continued to do what it was doing, Jamie saw an eerie blue glow appear around the thing it was holding and for a moment he could see part of the face of this mysterious figure. Jamie could see a dark beady eye, and part of a long thin nose, which sat over what seemed to be a thin, tight-lipped mouth and a stubbly hairy chin. Then there was a sudden flash of bright light, Jamie blinked and the figure was gone.

  For a moment, Jamie stood alone, unsure what to do, unsure what he had seen, and blinking hard from the sudden bright light. Once he had regained his ability to see he quickly grabbed the large jar and sprinted after the others.

  “Hold on, wait for me!” he called out excitedly, and after a quick sprint he caught up with the others back at the edge of the woods.

  “I saw something,” he gasped, trying to catch his breath.

  “You saw what?” asked Trixie.

  “Something, a figure in the woods,” replied Jamie, still trying to get his breath back.

  “What did you see, Jamie?” asked Colin, intrigued.

  “I saw a person, on the other side of the swamp, and I think they were casting a spell,” Jamie replied. Colin and Trixie shared a knowing glance.

  “What, exactly, did they do?” asked Colin, now very intrigued.

  “Whomever it was picked something up off the ground, but I couldn’t see what it was, and then it held up in its hand like this,” replied Jamie holding up his hand to demonstrate what he had seen. “And then they waved their other hand over it, like this,” he added waving his hand in a similar motion.

  “Then what happened?” asked Trixie, just as intrigued.

  “There was a weird blue glow, and then a flash of light, and then they were gone!” replied Jamie.

  “This is it, the first real evidence, the first eyewitness, real proof that the rumours are true,” exclaimed Trixie excitedly.

  “Rumours, what rumours?” asked Jamie, confused about what was going on.

  “The rumours that there are dark forces hidden amongst us, who are up to no good and are plotting to overthrow the Ministry,” replied Marty.

  “Really?” Jamie said in disbelief.

  “Yes, the rumours have been around for months now but no one’s ever come forward with any proof, until now,” Trixie said excitedly.

  “Jamie, I don’t suppose you saw what the figure looked like?” asked Colin.

  “Well, yes, kind of,” replied Jamie.

  “Kind of?” repeated Trixie, confused.

  “Well, I only saw part of his face in the eerie blue glow,” Jamie replied. “He had…”

  But before he could say another word, Colin held up a finger to silence him.

  “Stop, don’t say another thing.” Then Colin quickly looked around in all directions, as if he was checking for something, something dangerous and unseen.

  They all looked around in every direction and on looking upwards they saw a big black raven sitting on a tree branch staring down at them, and then looking down by the road edge they spotted a large brown toad sat amongst the tall dying grass watching them, and finally looking back into the woods amongst the gloom of the decaying trees they could see several pairs of inquisitive, menacing eyes that peered back at them.

  “I fear there are too many eyes and ears out here, come, we must leave this place at once,” Colin said dramatically, before turning and marching across to the cart.

  “At once!” added Trixie, doing exactly the same thing as her uncle. They all quickly climbed aboard the cart and were soon racing off down the road away from the woods.

  “Where are we going?” asked Jamie as they thundered along that quiet track.

  “To the Ministry, we must report this immediately,” replied Colin, gripping the reins as tight as he could, as Streak towed them along.

  Jamie sat a little puzzled and amazed that this seemed such a big important incident to the others and needed to be brought to the attention of a higher authority.

  “Really? We are going to the Ministry?” he asked.

  “Yes, as we said, this is the first real proof we have that the rumours might be true, that there might indeed be a dark force at work in this land; the Ministry must know about it,” replied Colin.

  “What you saw can finally start an investigation,” added Trixie.

  “And if we’re all lucky, it might just turn out to be some old witch casting some enchantments for the market,” Marty added with a grin.

  “Yes, well, either way the Ministry needs to know,” Colin
said before urging Streak onwards.

  “Oh, right,” Jamie said, a little concerned that he was getting into a situation that was much bigger than he could handle; after all, it was less than an hour ago he had discovered a small magical creature in his own bedroom, then he had met a group of strange but friendly magical folk who took him for a ride in their amazing and incredible magical world, and now he was about to help start an investigation that might reveal dark and evil magical forces who might do who knows what if they are discovered, and most worryingly of all he still hadn’t had his tea and his stomach was beginning to grumble.

  “Was that you?” asked Marty, hearing the noise.

  “Yes it was,” sighed Jamie.

  “Oh good, I thought it was me, I’m starving I haven’t eaten anything since mid-afternoon tea-time,” Marty replied before pulling a tiny chocolate muffin out of his pocket and scoffing it down. Jamie sat watching him in envy as he wondered how that muffin had tasted; then a fly hit him in the head.

  “Ouch!” he groaned, rubbing his head.

  Chapter Two

  “Magictasium, our capital city,” said Colin, pointing ahead to the horizon. Jamie stared hard, intrigued to see the approaching city with its mass of sprawling buildings reaching outwards and upwards as far as the eye could see.

  “Wow! That’s a big city!” gasped Jamie excitedly as they got closer; he could now see tall towers and spires reaching upwards towards the clouds, and large stone and brick buildings covering large areas surrounded by smaller stone and brick buildings in their masses.

  “It’s the capital city, it has to be big,” replied Trixie. “There are a lot of important people working here.”

  “Like what?” asked Jamie, intrigued.

  “Government stuff, you know laws and rules have to be made and things,” replied Trixie sounding not quite sure of what she was saying.

  “Oh yeah,” Jamie said, kind of understanding.

  “And magical potions and spells have to be conjured and tested,” added Trixie trying to think of other important things. “And…”