Chapter 28

Naomi clutched her anger tight to keep her fear at bay as she stumbled down the passage. Thoughts of dead mice danced in her head. She didn’t abandon them until she realized the darkness up ahead was lightening from pitch black to moonlit. She quickened her pace and dashed out of the tunnel into a forested area. She blinked and was relieved to see anything again.

“It took you long enough.”

Naomi whirled around toward the mouse and felt her jaw drop. She had been ready to commit rodent-cide, but she had not figured on there being a witness, a large, snorting, long-legged witness.

“Where did you get the horse?” All homicidal urges had melted away in the wake of her unabashed wonder.

“From the stable of course. Now do you want to get up here or gawp at the nice horse for the rest of the night?”

Naomi went up to the horse cautiously. It looked like one of the draft horses. When she reached the horse’s head, and let it sniff her hand, she realized it was actually Stomper. She rubbed his forehead and wondered how she was going to manage this. One riding lesson did not a horsewoman make. To her surprise, she realized the horse was bridled and saddled.

“Mr. Squibbles, did you have help?”

Mr. Squibbles, who sat between the horse’s ears, ruffled his fur. “What, you don’t think a mouse could saddle and bring a horse out here on his very own?”

“Who helped you?”

“Maybe a poor stable boy, who is more superstitious than wise, thought a ghost of a dead general told him to saddle and ready the horse, and maybe the dead general got the horse to come out here with a little animal speak, and you should thank the dead general.”

“Thank you, General. What are your orders, sir?”

“Get on the horse, Naomi. We’re wasting moonlight.”

Naomi climbed up onto the horse with little grace, but luckily Stomper was a very patient horse. She sat on his back uncomfortably and fiddled with the reins. Master Geoff had not let her hold the reins during her lesson. She didn’t know what to do with them.

Mr. Squibbles sighed. Naomi got the feeling he would be doing that a lot during their little adventure. “Nudge the horse gently with your left heel and pull the right rein some to turn him around.”

Naomi did as she was instructed, and Stomper slowly wheeled around. “Now nudge him again with both heels.” The horse began to trot through the woods.

“Can’t you use more animal speak to tell him what to do? I really have no feel for this,” Naomi suggested. The small animal hunched his shoulders.

“Very well. If I had known you were this helpless, I would have planned this a whole lot differently.”

“What would you have planned?”

“Not to have done this at all.”

They rode in relative silence. The mouse would occasionally chitter something to the horse to guide him, and Naomi would yawn. Dew began to set, and Naomi felt clammy. The night seemed very surreal to her. They traveled through the forest following a dirt trail. The insect noises sounded off key to her, and the animals they would hear would make noises that sounded like wildlife calls put through a synthesizer. Naomi kept a wary eye out for low hanging branches. Stomper moved sedately, but Naomi knew she would not have covered as much ground on her own. The further they went the more apprehensive Naomi became. The forest grew denser, and the eerie wildlife noises increased. She began to worry about Umbreks.

“How much further?” Naomi asked after they had traveled for what she judged to be an hour.

The mouse didn’t answer.

“Mr. Squibbles?” Naomi peered at the mouse sitting between Stomper’s ears.

“Um,” the mouse nervously laughed.

“What?”

“Well, you see, the house is around here somewhere…”

“You don’t know WHERE it is?”

Mr. Squibbles’ ears flattened. “I knew where it was, but she must have moved it.”

“What did she do, make it grow legs and have it walk away?” Naomi asked.

“No, that'd be silly. She couldn’t have gone far. She likes these woods. We’ll find her. Don’t worry.”

“Don’t worry, he says. We’ll find the magically moving house. It can’t have walked off too far. I hate this place.” Naomi muttered to herself.

“There,that light! It’s her. It has to be. Nobody else would live out here.” Mr. Squibbles chittered something to Stomper, and the horse sped up to a trot heading toward the light.

Naomi didn’t let herself believe it. She sat stonily and kept her eyes firmly on the house. It could be a woodcutter’s cabin or a hunter’s lodge. She was already formulating a ruse to tell the owners when the house turned out to be some poor family’s home. She would claim to be lost, which was the truth, who had been set upon by Umbreks, several days old truth, trying to find her way back home. She realized she wouldn’t have to lie much at all.

When they reached the house, Mr. Squibbles leaped down from the horse before Naomi could stop him.

“Agatha, you crusty old bag get your wrinkly ass out here! I’ve brought her!” the mouse called.

“Mr. Squibbles!” Naomi shouted.

If the witch were home, she didn’t want to be hexed before she even reached the doorstep. The door to the cabin swung open, and an old hunched woman stood in the light. She raised a lantern up, and Naomi’s eyes met the dancing eyes of Agatha. Everything that she’d gone through came rushing up in Naomi’s throat and burst out in a loud, “You!”

Agatha’s smile widened into a toothy grin. “Welcome to my home.”

“Do you know how much trouble you put me in! I was forced to marry Tavik!”

“That was the plan.”

“Plan? I didn’t agree to any plan!”

“It was better you didn’t know.”

Naomi slid off Stomper and marched up to the witch. “You better be ready to tell me stuff now. Stuff like how I can get home.”

“Come inside, and we’ll discuss it.” Agatha held the door wide. Naomi looked into the hut and felt like the fly being invited in by the spider but shook off her misgivings and went in. She turned to look at Stomper. She wasn’t sure if she should tie him up or not. Before she could decide whether to go back outside, the door swung shut on its own.

“Have a seat, Naomi. We have much to discuss.”

Continue to Chapter 29.