can store her magic in it, magic that controls the cauldron,” replied Gloo.
Ice-Ghost walked over to the corner of the room where the witch’s flying cauldron sat. He looked inside the cauldron and saw a footstool and a club. He guessed that the witch must use the footstool when flying the cauldron. As for the other item, he chose not to think about what heartless deeds she did with it. “Gloo,” he said, “can you operate this?”
Looking at his hooves, Gloo replied, “Like this? I don’t think so. Somewhere, there is a lever that you can pull that allows you to operate it manually.”
Ice-Ghost looked around until he found the lever and pulled it causing a steering wheel, similar to one found in a ship, to pop up. Once the steering wheel popped up, the cauldron began to make a soft woom-woom sound. Looking at the cauldron Ice-Ghost said, “Well, this is interesting.”
Ice-Ghost stepped into the cauldron and turned the wheel. The cauldron turned right. He turned the wheel the other way and it turned left. He pulled the wheel back and it lifted off the ground. He pushed the wheel forward and it went back to the ground.
This seems easy enough, thought Ice-Ghost. Ice-Ghost looked at Christy and she looked imploringly back at Ice-Ghost.
“Okay, Christy, I will take you, but you must promise to do as I ask when we get there.”
Christy smiled and said, “But I want to help.” Just then, a long faint “Reaaaaacht” could be heard from outside. The ice-witch’s rats had been gathering a safe distance away from the castle.
“Promise me you will.”
Christy lowered her head and said, “I promise.”
Gloo, with eyes wide open, begged, “Please take me with you. I don’t want to stay here, and maybe I can help.”
Ice-Ghost looked at the size of the cauldron and said, “Very well, but this is going to be dangerous.”
“I know, I know,” Gloo replied anxiously, “but if the witch is destroyed, my people will be free to come and go as they please. Many have not seen their home in a long time.”
“So,” said Ice-Ghost, “is that the reason you have been the witch’s henchman for so long?”
Gloo bowed his head and answered, “Yes, it has been a terrible life and I am sorry.”
Ice-Ghost got out of the cauldron and knelt on one knee, so that he was face-to-face with Gloo.
“I am sorry to hear that, my friend,” said Ice-Ghost. Gloo raised his eyes at the word ‘friend’ and knew that the Ice-Ghost had meant it.
“And thank you, Gloo, for saving us. We could not have escaped without your help.”
Gloo smiled and bowed. “You’re welcome, but let’s not speak of that anymore, friend. For now, I would like to know how we are going to deal with the witch.”
“I don’t know,” replied Ice-Ghost, “but we have rats that will soon find the courage to enter the castle again. I think we are safe for now, but we must hurry and make a plan. The three sat huddled in the room of enchantments. “What do you think we should do now, Ice-Ghost?” asked Christy.
Ice-Ghost lowered his head and said, “I don’t know yet, Christy, but we’ll find something.”
Just then, he looked over and saw something lying on the floor. It was the last droplet of Spring Awaking sitting at the bottom of the broken vial. Seeing it gave him an idea. Ice-Ghost picked up the tooth and the broken vial. Then, he sat back down and removed from one of his little bags an object resembling a twisted nail. Methodically, he began to drill into the top of the tooth.
Gloo asked, “Do you have a plan, Ghost?”
“Yes, my friend, but it was really your idea.”
“Good, good, I won’t ask about the details until you’re done.”
“Thank you again, my friend, and I am glad because I don’t want to worry anyone yet.”
After 15 minutes of painstaking work, he had hollowed a thin hole in the tip of the tooth. He then poured the last remaining droplet of Spring Awaking into it. Using wax from one of the witch’s candles, he covered the drilled hole. Just then a loud “Reeeeeaaaacht” was heard outside the castle walls. Tucking the tooth into his tunic, he stood up and looked at both Gloo and Christy.
“I think that it is time we left for the top of the world. We must hurry.”
Everyone climbed into the cauldron and Ice-Ghost began to pull the wheel back when, suddenly, they heard a voice call out.
“Wait! Wait! Please take me with you.” They turned to see a face in the mirror. Gloo turned to Ice-Ghost.
“The mirror is no more of a friend to the witch than I am.”
Ice-Ghost turned to the mirror and spoke, “Mirror of Panoramian, I presume.”
“It is I, my young Numen.”
Christy softly asked, “Numen?”
Gloo interrupted her, “Do not bother yourself about that name yet, girl.”
Christy turned to Gloo, “Christy, please call me Christy.”
Gloo smiled, “I am sorry, but for now, Christy, it would be better if you forgot the name.”
Christy smiled, “Yes, there are greater things at hand.”
The conversation continued with Ice-Ghost and the mirror. “No doubt you have a story that needs to be told, but time is short. As I have said, it will be dangerous and there will be no place for you to hide. You could easily be broken, I fear.”
The mirror replied, “Please, call me Pan, and, as for a place to hide, I need none. I have not had a place to hide from the witch’s scorn for a very long time. I would rather chance being broken or cracked than spend the next thousand years at the mercy of the witch.”
“Very well then, Pan, but you come at your own peril. We must hurry.”
“Thank you, thank you,” said Pan.
Just at that moment everyone heard ice-rats hurriedly clawing through the frozen doorway.
Ice-Ghost skated while Gloo trotted over to where Pan hung on the wall. With Gloo standing alongside him, Ice-Ghost removed Pan from the wall just as they heard a small boom and crashing sound. The ice-rats had clawed and broke through the doorway opening.
Ice-rats!” cried out Christy as she looked out of the cauldron. “Please, everyone into the cauldron now.” The ice-rats ran toward them.
With Pan now in Ice-Ghost hands, they ran and leaped into the cauldron. Ice-Ghost grabbed the wheel and quickly pulled it back. Into the air they went as the giant rats leaped upward, trying to grab hold of the cauldron’s rim. The cauldron was jarred every time an ice-rat’s body slammed into it. Ice-Ghost struggled with the wheel. Two of the rats succeeded in grabbing the cauldron’s rim and began to pull it down. One of the ice-rats was able to slip its head into the cauldron. Just then, Christy screamed out, “Gloo!” With his hind legs, Gloo kicked the ice-rat’s head so hard that it let go and fell to the ground.
The cauldron began to rise again, but there was still one remaining rat to be dealt with. Gloo jumped on top of the rim and began stomping on the rat’s feet. It released one of its clawed feet as Gloo began to jump on the other.
“Careful, Gloo,” was all that Christy could say before the rat reached up with its other clawed foot and grabbed Gloo by his ears and pulled Gloo down as he fell. Christy had only a second to grab Gloo’s tail as his body disappeared from sight. Gloo’s tail wrapped around Christy’s arm, as she struggled not to be pulled down with him.
“Ow, my ears! Ow, my tail!” is what everyone heard next.
The ice-rat quickly climbed up Gloo and put its snout into the cauldron, when WHAM! Christy punched the rat in its sensitive sniffing nose. The ice-rat squealed out a loud groan as it went crashing down onto the floor. Ice-Ghost was now able to stabilize the cauldron and help Christy pull Gloo back into it. Down below the sound of ice-rats angrily squealing could be heard. Not wanting to hear any more Ice-Ghost flew the cauldron up and out of the castle’s window opening and into the horizon.
Out into the open air Ice-Ghost flew the cauldron and no one spoke a word, until Ice-Ghost finally broke the silence. “Ahhh, nice punch,
Christy. Had that big punch for very long?”
With her own feeling of disbelief, she answered, “Nooo…just found it.” Then, she shrugged her shoulders and smiled. In a daze, Christy sat down and rethought the moment. I just punched a giant rat on the nose. I actually did it.
Ice-Ghost chuckled and then smiled, “Oh, by the way Christy, nice job,” and turned back around and continued flying the cauldron northbound. Everyone felt relieved, but very tired from the ordeal. Their trip started out with very little talking. Eventually, Ice-Ghost spoke with Gloo as he flew the cauldron. Being lost in her own thoughts, Christy heard little of what was being said. As they flew, Christy couldn’t help, but wonder what Ice-Ghost was going to do with the tooth and droplet of Spring Awaking. Was he going to kill the witch?
“Ice-Ghost,” she finally asked, “are you going to kill the witch?”
“No, I do not think that this plan will kill her. I only hope that, if I can prick her with the tooth, it will thaw out some of the coldness she holds so near to her heart.”
With an uneasy look, Christy asked, “What if that doesn’t work?”
“I do not know, but where there is hope, there is life. At least that’s what some people say.” This answer did not make those riders in the cauldron feel very hopeful, but it sufficed. Everyone fell silent again as they continued to fly toward the northern top of the world. Onward they flew until the silence became so deafening that all they could hear was their heartbeats and the wind.
As they approached the northern top of the world,