Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Lingonberry

The rag’n’bone man, Mr Jest came round. I only had a handful of chicken bones, but he gladly collected them all for 1 measly shilling. Nettle-field, the white witch even came to get a peck of water mint. That got us a few precious coppers.

Lingonberry smiled when he saw me. We knew where to go – the Great Tree on the edge of the Wareful woods. Mama Rosanna suggested that we took our only healthy horse, Sophie, but I declined, as we could walk. The Great tree was an old sycamore tree with thick scraggly branches. There are spots where me and Lingonberry sit and talk. Today, he told me that his teacher for fire-eating was impressed by how well he could tame his fire. Lingonberry took a pack of matches. He struck one and slowly blew on his fire. It spread onto his arm but didn’t burn. He took the other side of the match and collected the fire unscathed. I clapped and smiled.

“At this rate, you could be one of those rich fire-eaters eh!” I grinned.

He laughed, “I wish! Mum’s tax was up five coppers yesterday!”

Queen Draco II was worried that the Black-hearts would raid us, so she had raised the tax much more. At least the rebelling pale witches bought from us occasionally. They are rebelling against the tyrannical Mortolan dark witches, so want healing herbs, though they would be much better off finding some elves in the far north. Oh well.