Whizardy Witch and The Empty Satchel (Age 7-8) Whizardy Witch is always whizzing around. She is the fastest witch in the Land of Magic. “Zoomedy zoom, let’s go broom,” she squeals, making her broomstick go faster. Whiz, and off she whizzes. One day, Whizardy Witch was rush- ing around in her bedroom, getting ready to go out, when she heard a squeal of fright coming from the kitchen. “Pixies, we have Pixies!” mum shouted in panic at the top of her voice. “Shoo, get out of my kitchen.” Whiz rushed to see what all the commotion was about. When she reached the kitchen, her mum was firing blasts from her wand at a dozen or more little Pixies who were speeding around grabbing everything they could lay their hands on. “Look out Whiz,” warned mum as two pixies jumped up and tried to steal Whiz’s hat. “Broomsticks come and help,” screamed Whiz. Out from the broom cupboard flew two brooms frantically trying to sweep the invaders out of the door. The Pixies were too fast, they squeaked and laughed as they shot from one place to another, avoiding being caught. “I need to get my satchel,” shouted Whiz. She rushed to the cupboard to find her satchel strewn on the floor, completely emptied of leaves. “They have stolen my magic,” she grumbled. The Pixies fled out of the house making a terrible noise. They jumped through the windows, ran through the door and even flew straight up the chimney as they es- caped with all their looted prizes. Their squeals of delight gradually faded into the distance as they sped away across the meadows. The Kit- chen looked like a bomb had hit it. Everything was smashed, thrown everywhere or taken by the invaders. Mum sat down shaking with anger and frustration. Whiz clutched her empty satchel to her chest. The two broomsticks quivered and quaked unsure what to do next. “Where did they come from Mum?” Whiz wondered. “I didn’t even know we had Pixies around here.” “I don’t know Whiz; we don’t get them here very often. I think it must 20 or 30 years since we last saw them in our Land. Something must be going on in the Land of Mischief for them to be here. I will have to send a message to Dad to inform the King. This is serious Whiz and I am afraid they will not go away without powerful spells being cast.” “Why have they taken so many of our things?” Whiz sniffed hard upset by the Pixies behaviour. “They are really unkind creatures.” “They can’t help themselves Whiz,” explained mum. “All Pixies are mis- chievous by nature and have a terrible habit of taking other people’s things.” “Stealing, you mean,” said Whiz sulking as she looked again inside her empty satchel. “They stole my magic leaves.” “Yes, they did Whiz, and I am sorry. We will go and refill your satchel later, I promise.” “I thought you once said to me that the Land of Mischief was locked,” Whiz pondered. “That is true Whiz,” mum said glumly. “Normally, the magic locks on the gates of the Land of Mischief keeps them inside. That is why this is so serious. Somehow, they have escaped. Mum was just planning on sending word to the castle when two mes- senger rooks flew up to the open window. “Oh dear,” said the first rook as she saw the mess in the kitchen. “Our master sent us to check if you were safe. There have been many reports from across the Land of Magic of bands of Pixies. I can see they have been here too.” Whiz showed the rooks her satchel. “They stole my magic leaves,” she complained. The second rook tilted his head and hopped closer over to Whiz, “I will report this to your Dad, young Whizardy Witch. He will not be best pleased and will inform the King of the looting taking place. They will be brought to justice and we will try to recover your stolen things.” The first rook added cautiously, “You should lock your windows and doors just in case they return. Maybe try to block up the chimney as well. Other Pixies will come searching for more things once they here about your house. I recom- mend a Guarding Spell too. That should keep them out.” The second rook interrupted, “most of the Pixies are on the other side of the Land of Magic closer to their homeland. You are less likely to be troubled out here, so don’t be afraid young Whizardy.” Mum thanked the messenger birds and agreed to do as they suggested. The pair of birds flew off leaving Whiz and mum sitting glumly amongst all the mess. “I can’t even cast a spell to help,” whimpered Whiz. “I don’t have any leaves left.” Mum smiled sympathetically and said, “Don’t worry Whiz, I will sort all this out.” She waved her magic wand, saying, “Cats that preen and grass so green, reverse this mess, so it’s nice and clean.” A rumbling sound exploded in a flash of bright yellow stars, each one fizzing and spinning around the room. Immediately, everything began righting itself. Broken cups and plates reassembled before fly- ing back into open cupboards, chairs arranged themselves around the kitchen table, coats jumped up to their pegs on the wall and all the papers and cloths, from the draw- ers, folded themselves then returned to their rightful places. Whiz grinned, “That is a useful spell mum. I will add that to my magic spells book. I’ll call it the Tidy-Up spell.” Mum laughed, “But I don’t expect you to be wasting precious magic leaves on this spell, when you need to tidy your room, young lady! This is for extraordinary events like today. Normally, you do the tidying yourself!” She grinned knowingly at Whiz and gave her a big hug. “Now we need to lock up the house as the messenger rook suggested.” Whiz grinned back at her mum and added, “Do we have to. We could go after them ourselves. We are the fastest witches in the Land of Magic after all. Why don’t we go to their land and get our things back? I could pick up some leaves on the way, so my satchel was refilled.” “We could do that Whiz,” said mum solemnly. “But that would not be the right thing to do. The King will send his soldiers into the Land of Mischief to punish the guilty Pixies. They will bring back what is right- fully ours and then seal the gates again. The responsibly is not ours.” Then she added calmly. “We cannot take the law into our own hands.” Whiz’s face dropped. “Okay mum. I understand,” she agreed reluctantly. “But we could zoom off to get some more magic leaves though,” added Whiz hopefully. Mum laughed again, “Yes Whizardy Witch, fastest witch in the Land of Magic. We could go zooming off to the magic forest for some leaves.” She nodded to the broom cupboard and squealed, “But I bet you will not get there first. Come on broom!” “Oh yes I will,” shouted Whiz ex- citedly, calling to her own broom- stick. Then whizzing out of the door heading for the Tree of Spells in the magic forest. *** And that is the story of Whizardy Witch and the Empty Satchel.