“Streak!” cried Trixie in horror before quickly leaping from the cart to go to the poor old horse’s aid. The others all quickly followed her and stood around the old fallen horse as it lay quiet and still, upon Henry’s front lawn.
“Is he all right?” asked Jamie nervously.
Colin knelt down beside the old steed and began to check his breathing, then he ran his hand along Streak’s neck, pulled back his eyelids to see his eyes, lifted his tail to see how limp it was, and then finally chewed on one of his ears.
“Well?” asked Trixie, impatient for the verdict.
“I think…” but before Colin could finish his sentence the poor old horse let out a loud bottom burp and then began snoring rather loudly as he lay asleep. “He’s fine, he’s just very tired,” continued Colin before quickly holding his nose.
“Urgh!” cried the others, covering their noses and stepping away from the horsey flatulence.
“Let’s quickly go inside and let Henry know we’re back,” said Colin still holding his nose as the flowers in the front garden began to wilt.
“Because it will be safer for all of us,” added Marty, wearing his rubber gas mask again.
The little group quickly left the poor old tired horse sleeping and entered Henry’s delightful little home.
“Henry, we’re back! And we have the dragon with us, you should come and see this one, it’s quite impressive,” said Colin, calling out to his friend as he stepped in through the front door.
But there was no reply, which Colin found a little strange and a bit puzzling.
“Henry, are you here, old boy?” he asked, waiting for an answer that didn’t come.
Colin then stepped past the empty front room and headed towards the kitchen at the back of the house, everything looked normal and nothing seemed to be out of place but something clearly wasn’t right.
“Henry?” he called out again, but still didn’t get a reply.
“I’ll look upstairs,” said Trixie, heading for the ornate wooden spiral staircase.
“Be careful,” Colin said in a low, serious voice, beginning to fear something wasn’t right at all. Trixie nodded and then made her way up the stairs, followed by Jamie, who decided to go with her. Colin stepped into the little round kitchen, and at first nothing seemed strange or out of place, it looked just like it had done earlier in the day. He then moved to the kettle and, placing the back of his hand against it, he could feel it was still warm, which meant Henry had only brewed it recently, and on the table beside it was a half-eaten cheese toasty which Henry had made while waiting for their return, which was also still warm and rather delicious thought Colin as he finished it off.
Then, turning around, Colin noticed the back door was slightly open and quickly stepping to it he peered out, and outside lying in the grass a few feet away, he could see a small grey china cup and a long white wooden wand. Opening the door and stepping out, Colin picked up the wand and for a moment stood looking around the garden for any other clues, but there was nothing else out of place, so quickly he stepped back inside.
“He wasn’t upstairs,” said Jamie, strolling into the kitchen. “Whose is that?” he asked, seeing the white wand in Colin’s hand.
“I believe its Henry’s,” replied Colin with a frown. “White Alaskan fir, a very rare valuable wand, the Ministry gave it to him for his years of service when he was on the council.”
“What did they give you?” inquired Jamie.
“Marty,” replied Colin.
“Wow, that doesn’t seem quite right,” Jamie said, not seeing how that was a gift.
“Yes, come to think of it…” but before Colin could finish his sentence Trixie suddenly let out a scream from the front room and immediately Jamie and Colin rushed to her aid.
“WHAT IS IT? WHAT IS IT?” cried Colin running into the room, holding the white wand ready to deal with whatever made Trixie scream.
“LOOK!” she gasped in horror pointing to a big sheet of parchment that had been nailed to Henry’s wooden mantelpiece with a rather unnecessarily large metal horse nail. Colin moved to the mantelpiece and then began reading the paper out loud:
“WANTED: Four fugitives who broke into the Magical Ministry and stole valuable artefacts. These persons: Colin Gertrude Hillary Caterwhich, Trixie Lesley Caterwhich, Martin Finnegan Riley, and a young boy who goes by the name of Jamie, are to be treated as armed, dangerous and mentally unstable, a large reward could be yours for anyone with information to their whereabouts and assistance in capturing them.”
“Oh no!” Trixie cried before flopping onto the sofa in despair.
“Well, at least they got our likenesses correct,” muttered Colin looking at the black and grey drawings of the four of them below the writing.
Jamie sat down next to Trixie and placed his hand on her shoulder to try and comfort her, then he lifted his knees up to his chest and rested his head on them looking very glum. In the space of one night they had gone from would-be heroes to wanted criminals, and worse, he was going to have to explain this to his mother eventually: why exactly he thought it was a good idea to break into a Ministry building without permission? And that thought made him feel even more depressed.
“What do we do now?” he asked, but before Colin could answer, Marty, who had still been outside until now, strolled in through the door and interrupted him.
“So where are the sandwiches, and is there any jelly?” he asked eagerly.
“There’s neither, Henry’s missing and I think you should have a look at this despicable thing,” snapped Colin gruffly before sitting down in Henry’s favourite chair looking just as glum as Jamie.
Marty clambered up onto the coffee table to get a better view and started to read the wanted notice, and on seeing those scary, horrible words, he immediately knew the worst.
“Oh no!” he groaned in horror. “No, no it can’t be.”
Colin then let out a long heavy sigh before he spoke.
“I believe it’s a warning from the dark wizard, he obviously knows we’re after him now and he’s clearly had a hand in this lie.”
Marty then began mumbling hysterically. “They’ll lock us up for sure, and throw away the key.”
“No, I don’t think they will go that far,” replied Colin.
“Oh yes they will, and it won’t be the nice cushy prison, oh no, it’ll be the bad place where there is no choice from the dessert trolley, I know I’ve been there, semolina pudding or prunes every day, that’s it, and that’s all there ever is,” groaned Marty in despair. “Well I can’t do it, not again I tell you, I just can’t do it,” he then cried, overreacting once more.
“Calm down, man,” replied Colin, unimpressed by his little friend’s hysterical outburst.
“I know,” said Marty, suddenly having a great idea. “I’ll run away and join the navy, yes a life on the open waves, that’s it, that’s what I’ll do.”
“No you won’t, because we don’t have a navy, and you told me you get seasick,” replied Colin bluntly. “Which is why you couldn’t help us go after that mermaid that got lost at sea that time.”
“Oh yeah,” Marty said, remembering that exact day.
“Well, okay, I’ll go join the circus then,” Marty then said, having another great idea. “I can juggle.”
“And I could become an acrobat,” mumbled Trixie who was now hugging a big cushion for comfort.
“Yes, we could all become performers and our stage will be the world, all we have to do is change our names, style our hair differently and live our lives incognito for the next few decades,” continued Marty, rambling excitedly.
“I could be Miss Incognito,” muttered Trixie sombrely.
“No, that’s not going to happen,” declared Colin putting an end to all the silly talk. “What we will do is stay here an
d figure this out, there must be something we have missed or overlooked, and when we will find it we will bring that dark wizard to justice and clear our names,” he said, rising to his feet defiantly with a new glimmer of hope in his eyes. “Think people, think, now what do we already know?” he then asked his companions. “The dark wizard is sending creatures through the magical barrier to try and break it down: why? In order to increase the power of magic,” Colin continued as his little grey cells began to work once again.
“He’s hiding in the Ministry, and he has a secret room where he’s hiding the incriminating reports, but we can’t find the door,” added Trixie, sitting up.
“Yes!” agreed Colin, nodding.
“And…” said Jamie before then pausing because he was not able to think of anything.
“Exactly…” sighed Marty glumly. “We’ve got nothing! We don’t have anything more than suspicion, we might as well order a pizza from the express window in the kitchen and then sit and watch the carnival on the crystal ball.”
Colin then suddenly had another spark of inspiration, the little cogs in his head were spinning around rapidly as something Marty had just said had once again ignited a possible solution.
“Express window!” he cried excitedly, making everyone else jump, then he quickly marched out of the front room.
“I’ll have a ten-inch meat feast with stuffed crust,” said Marty, following him.
“Are we really ordering pizza?” asked Jamie, a little surprised by the slight detour the plan to get them out of trouble had now taken.
“Why not? What else can we do?” replied Trixie following Marty and her uncle into the other room. In the kitchen, Colin moved straight to an odd square window above the little cooker, which had a big metal shutter pulled down over it. It seemed rather out of place in Henry’s little round kitchen, but in the magical world, who could tell what was odd and what was normal?
Flicking the catch across, Colin pushed the shutter up and instantly the window became a service hatch.
“Good afternoon! Welcome to Express Pizza, what can I get for you today?” said a young woman appearing at the window in a red baseball cap and blue polo T-shirt.
“Of course, there it is, see? Oh, I’ve been such silly old fool!” exclaimed Colin annoyed, delighted and relieved, all at the same time, which is tricky but not impossible to pull off.
“What is your order, sir?” asked the young woman, looking puzzled at Colin’s behaviour.
“Ten-inch meat feast with stuffed crust,” replied Marty eagerly from down on the tiled floor.
“You see, you see!” Colin said, pointing excitedly at the window.
But Jamie and Trixie didn’t see and they shook their heads and shrugged, unsure what Colin was getting at. “You don’t see,” he sighed, knowing he was going to have to explain. “The window, it’s an express window, and any house or building can have one because it’s just like the doors, it’s a magic portal to another room, oh why didn’t I see it before!” he exclaimed, before doing a happy little jig across the room.
“Sir, are you going to order something?” asked the young lady again, a little annoyed that Colin seemed to be wasting her time.
“Stuffed crust, ten-inch, meat feast, please!” said Marty louder, trying to get her attention.
“I get it, the dark wizard didn’t make a secret door to the room, he made a window,” said Jamie, finally understanding what Colin was getting at.
“Yes, that’s why we couldn’t find it, and why no one else knows it is there,” added Trixie, also finally understanding what Colin was saying.
“Exactly!” replied Colin proudly as they all began to do a small happy jig around the room.
“We’re going to catch a dark wizard, we’re going to catch a dark wizard…” they began chanting as they danced around excitedly.
“Here, you’re just wasting my time, ain’t you?” said the young lady, turning rather hostile.
“Stuffed crust, ten-inch, meat feast, please!” cried Marty desperately repeating his order.
“Oh yes, sorry about that, my apologies,” Colin finally replied before closing the shutter back down.
“Stuffed crust, ten-inch, meat feast!” Marty cried once more, knowing he just wasn’t going to get his pizza.
The others then made their way back into the front room and then Colin stood by the window as other thoughts began to bubble in his head.
“I think that’s where Henry is,” he said as the thought came to him.
“Really?” gasped Trixie in disbelief.
“Yes, it makes sense, the dark wizard has obviously worked out why we broke into the library and what we’re looking for, somehow he knew we were here, and so he released Spot to distract us, and then finding Henry all alone, and not willing to risk anyone else finding out what we know, he took Henry hostage and left us this ‘wanted’ poster to try and force us into silence.”
“He’s so evil!” growled Trixie, really cross.
“Yes, yes he is,” agreed Colin.
“So are we going to rescue Henry?” asked Jamie, sensing another exciting adventure coming.
“Yes we are,” replied Colin confidently. “Yes we are.”
“How?” asked Jamie, inquisitively.
Colin then glanced out of the window and a big smile swept across his face, a big smile of someone having a rather ingenious idea, until he was more smile than face.
“Jamie, do you know how to fly?” he asked, grinning excitedly as he turned to face the young boy.
“Fly?” replied Jamie, looking puzzled.
Chapter Eight
“WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!” screamed Jamie at the top of his voice as they shot through a big fluffy white cloud. “This is incredible!” he cried excitedly as Spot dipped, swooped and then soared across the big blue cloudy sky.
The four excited catchers sat on top of Spot’s scaly back, clingy tightly to the pointy horns that ran down his spine as he flew them quickly across the land towards the capital city.
“I’ve never flown a dragon before, it’s utterly brilliant!” added Trixie as she hung on behind Jamie, with a huge smile on her face under her travelling goggles.
“Well, it’s definitely better than a flying pig,” said Marty, sitting in Colin’s top pocket.
“Oh yes, a flying pig is a tricky one,” agreed Colin.
As they swooped across a village they could see hundreds of people below, all heading for the city.
“Just as well we chose air dragon, looks like the roads are packed,” said Trixie, looking down.
“Hey, that’s a point, what about the people below, won’t they get scared seeing a dragon flying overhead?” asked Jamie curiously.
“Hopefully not, I’m hoping they will just think we’re a giant parade balloon passing by,” replied Colin confidently.
Then a young wizard below suddenly screamed in a high-pitched voice,
“Dragon!” before he leapt into a nearby river to escape a possible attack from the flying beast.
“Okay, hopefully most people will think Spot’s just a large parade balloon,” Colin said with a sigh as he adjusted his reply.
They flew on quickly across the open fields and other small villages and soon enough they were approaching the city. Looking ahead, Jamie could see the first signs of the parade, the huge balloons that Colin had mentioned were now floating high above the buildings, and then he could hear music and excited cheering as thousands of wizards and witches and other magical creatures took to the streets in celebration.
“The city’s packed!” said Trixie, seeing the crowds.
“I see, I think this is what the dark wizard has been planning for, I think he is going to try and accomplish his evil plan today, right here in the carnival,” said Colin, beginning to finally under
stand the dark wizard’s intentions.
“But why? And how?” asked Trixie, still puzzled by it all.
“I’m not sure, but I believe we will find the answer in his secret room,” replied Colin.
Spot flew on over the buildings as he entered the city and then darted between the giant balloons with super-agility and haste. In a blink of an eye he shot past a giant black cauldron balloon representing the Witch Helms High School, then past a giant brown toad balloon, representing Toadhampton Shopping Centre and Giant Crystal Ball Complex, and then right on past a giant green ogre balloon, representing the Parents for a Little Peace and Quiet Organisation.
“Go, Spot, go!” cried Jamie excitedly.
Then the big red dragon swooped around a tall glass building a couple of times, because he mistook his reflection for another red dragon and in doing so made everyone feel slightly nauseous as they went around and around in a large circle, until finally they passed over another tall building and then our little group of heroes could finally see the Magic Ministry building ahead of them.
“Aim Spot at the dark wizard’s window,” ordered Colin.
Jamie nodded and then leant forward to whisper in Spot’s ear.
Instantly, Spot lurched forward, flapping his enormous wings even more rapidly than he had been doing, and in just a few seconds he gathered a tremendous amount of speed as he shot towards the huge government building.
“Hold on tight!” cried Colin, gripping hold of the small horn in front of him with one hand and trying to hold his hat on with the other. The window quickly came into view as they rapidly approached it, and then Spot gave a mighty roar and the window shattered into a thousand tiny little pieces, and then without hesitation Spot smashed his big red spiky head through the remaining wooden frame before he came to an abrupt halt as his big body hit the stone wall of the building and he dug his big sharp claws into the concrete masonry to secure his position.
Then finally he settled, sitting perfectly still with his giant head resting inside the window.
The Catchers Page 18
