Idabelle Bat

Tiga trudged through the forest behind Fluffanora, their boots making squelching noises as they went.

‘Felicity Bat is going to kill us if she finds out we came here,’ Tiga whispered.

‘Well, we should remember never to tell her then,’ Fluffanora whispered back.

Tiga hopped over a puddle. ‘You don’t think it’s … dangerous, do you?’

‘Oh, come on,’ Fluffanora said dismissively. ‘They’re teenagers, not monsters.’

‘Look,’ Tiga said, stopping. ‘I see the lights from the fairy caravan park. Maybe we should let Fran know we’re here. You know, in case we find ourselves in any sort of trouble.’

Fluffanora grabbed her arm and ducked behind a bush as Patricia the producer sailed past with her flying umbrella.

‘Are you mad?’ she whispered. ‘The Points is a top-secret society. We can’t just wander through the forest merrily telling everyone where we’re going. Plus Fran would insist on coming and we’d be thrown out straight away.’

‘Good point,’ Tiga said, getting to her feet and dusting the leaves and twigs off her tights. She took the invite out of her pocket and studied it again. ‘Do you think we’re nearly there?’

Fluffanora stopped in front of a line of five identical trees and stood with her hands clasped neatly behind her back.

‘What are you doing?’ Tiga whispered.

‘Just do the same,’ Fluffanora said.

Tiga reluctantly did so, staring up at the spindly trees. How could they all be identical? she wondered.

‘I read about this in Toad magazine once,’ Fluffanora said with a wink. ‘They did a Points exposé! Although they only got this far and then Idabelle zapped the reporter with some sort of sleeping spell. She’s been asleep and dribbling ever since.’ She pointed to a glass box to the left of the trees. Tiga could see it contained an unconscious witch. ‘They call her Beauty.’

The sleeping witch let out a monstrous snore.

‘Luckily the reporter had a magic notebook recording everything that was going on. Mavis found it and posted it back to Toad headquarters, thinking someone had lost it. They still couldn’t un-zap her though …’

The sleeping witch let out another monstrous snore.

Tiga looked back to the trees. ‘Is something meant to hap–’

BANG!

The puff of smoke made Tiga’s eyes sting. And just like that, where the five trees had been seconds earlier, stood five witches in pointy hats.

‘Ah,’ Idabelle said, marching forward. ‘You’re right on time.’