Polly sits down on the little stool, her head in her hands. Buster glares at the monsters guarding the cage. ‘Please let me break us out,’ he grumbles impatiently. ‘I really don’t like those monsters and I’m really hungry.’

‘No,’ Polly says, feeling cross and hurt by the mean little monster. ‘Just be patient, Buster! We need to see who this glorious Carmen is so we can warn Miss Spinnaker.’ Once again she wonders why her teacher didn’t come back for them like she said she would.

They sit and they sit, and the sun shifts higher in the sky. Soon, it is shining straight down on them and, even though they are shadowed by the trees, Polly is feeling hot and sticky and dusty. She can see that Buster is feeling hot and hungry too, even though he is trying his hardest not to show it.

The stones burn in Polly’s pocket, and she knows they are calling her to the mines. There is something there they want her to see, and their call seems to be getting more and more urgent.

But now that she has decided they will stay and wait for Carmen, that is what they will do. When Polly sets her mind to something, there is very little that will change it. There is also a little part of her that wants to prove to the mean little monster that his horrible words didn’t affect her. So she will sit there in the blazing sun for as long as it takes.

After some time, they finish the last of the water in the jug. Polly calls out to the monsters to let them know and the big monster unlocks the cage and lumbers in with a wooden barrel over his shoulder. He unplugs a cork and fills their jug with cool, fresh water.

‘Sorry about your Da,’ he whispers as he plugs up the heavy barrel again and sets it on the ground. Then he looks up towards the front of the cage briefly before pulling out a crust of bread from his pocket.

‘Oh, thank you!’ says Polly, surprised by his unexpected kindness.

Buster’s tummy grumbles loudly.

‘You have it, Buster,’ Polly says. ‘I’m OK.’

Buster’s eyes widen with excitement, but he quickly catches himself before snatching it out of the big monster’s paw. ‘No,’ he says firmly. ‘You must eat half, too, Polly. That’s only fair!’ And he breaks the little scrap of bread into two tiny morsels for them to share.

Domsley watches on in amazement. He scratches the stump of his broken-off horn. ‘Why are you two so nice to each other?’ he asks, genuinely baffled.

‘We’re friends.’ Polly shrugs, nibbling at her crust of bread to make it last. Buster swallows his in one gulp and watches on hungrily.

Domsley frowns. ‘But I thought all witches and monsters hated each other?’

‘Not all of them,’ Polly says. ‘That’s just silly. Do you even know any witches or warlocks?’

Domsley’s top lip curls into a sneer. ‘Sure I do! There’s a mean old warlock who runs the factory I work in. If we show up even five minutes late or take a little bit of extra time for lunch he cuts our pay. It’s not like we earn a proper wage either! One time my ma was sick and I had to stay home to look after her, and he gave my job to another monster. Worked there for fourteen years I had, and I’m back to sweeping floors again.’ He spits at the ground. ‘That’s why I left and came here to join Carmen’s gang. At least she feeds us proper.’

‘That warlock sounds horrible,’ Polly agrees. ‘But there are good witches and warlocks, too. Just like there are good and bad monsters.’ She smiles. ‘And you, Sir,’ she says cheekily, ‘I can see, are secretly a good monster’ She taps him on each shoulder as if to knight him. Domsley grins proudly. ‘Him, on the other hand …’ she gestures towards Zeke, who is cleaning out his ear with the stick he had just been using to pick his teeth. ‘Not so much.’

‘He’s OK,’ Domsley says, quietly. ‘Just real angry, is all.’ He lowers his voice even further. ‘His da died in that mining accident too, you know. Ever since then he’s angry all the time. Eats him up like a poison, it does. Sometimes, bad things that happen to you on the outside can make you get bad on the inside, too.’

Polly peers over Domsley’s shoulder to where Zeke is sitting, staring out into the forest, and suddenly she can see that his eyes are not mean, after all. They are sad. Hollowed out with sadness and anger, and she feels her heart ache a little for this other being in the world who has also lost his dad.

To Polly, there is nothing worse that could happen to anyone, monster or witch.

Suddenly she sees they are not so different after all.