Mean Lock

Tiga stared up at the gigantic mountain and then at the large black iron gates guarding the path that led inside.

‘What exactly is inside?’ she whispered, but Fluffanora was too busy rattling the gates to notice.

‘It’s locked,’ she said.

‘I know what to do,’ Peggy said. She took a deep breath, raised the reins high, then cracked them back down. The cats went flying. They shot straight through the gaps in the gate, but the sled was too big! It hit the metal bars and flipped up, sending Peggy crunching into the bars. Only her nose got through.

‘Nope,’ she said, peeling herself off the gate and pulling the cats back through. ‘We’ll have to find another way in.’

Fluffanora flicked her finger and the gates began to wobble and smoke. But they didn’t open.

‘Do you think it’s a challenge?’ she asked Peggy. ‘Aren’t there supposed to be challenges?’

‘What exactly is inside the mountain?’ Tiga asked again, but they weren’t listening.

‘We could try a potion?’ Peggy suggested. ‘Something with snow?’

‘WHAT EXACTLY IS IN THE MOUNTAIN?’ Tiga bellowed. ‘WILL SOMEONE PLEASE ANSWER ME!’

The gates creaked open.

‘Ah!’ Fluffanora said, shaking the snow off her gloves and stepping through the gates. ‘It was a Mean Lock.’

‘What’s that?’ Tiga asked.

‘It only opens for mean people,’ Peggy said as she and the sled slid on through. ‘You shouted so aggressively, the gates thought you were mean.’

‘Gates can’t think,’ Tiga said.

Fluffanora and Peggy chuckled.

‘Everything can think with a little magic,’ Fluffanora said. ‘Now come on, we need to at least get to the second level as quickly as possible before nightfall. They say strange creatures roam the mountain at night – the higher up we are, the less likely we are to want to run back.’

Tiga shivered and looked around her. The place was dark and frozen – an icy cave with carefully carved paths that splintered and scuttled in all directions. Above her head was a frozen ceiling, blocking her view overhead.

Tiga gulped, just as BROOMSTICK BOOM, the popular witch board game, landed at their feet.

‘Broomstick Boom!’ Tiga cried, opening the box.

But it wasn’t Broomstick Boom inside. It was another game entirely – this one looked old and was made of cold black stone and ice.

‘I don’t know if you should touch it,’ Peggy said, her voice shaking.

Fluffanora shushed her. ‘It’s obviously part of the mountain’s game. Go on, Tiga.’

‘The mountain plays a game?’ Tiga said as she flipped the latch on the old stone game. It creaked open like the door to a haunted house.

‘It’s just a board,’ she said, holding it close to her nose to inspect it.

The path on the board curled around the inside of a spindly mountain. And there were three player pieces – one, a witch in a sparkly hat, another witch that glowed a luminous green, and a third that had a cart with a bunch of cats pulling it.

‘It’s us, but how did it know?’ Fluffanora said, looking around her. ‘The sparkly one is me, Peggy is the one with the cart and cats, and you’re the green one – because you’re Tiga Green, and the green blood thing. But how would the game know that?’

‘And what’s that little light further up the mountain?’ Peggy asked, rubbing the game with her finger, as if trying to rub the light out. ‘It’s not a smudge.’

Tiga moved them to the tip of the mountain and closed her eyes, hoping it would magically transport them there. But when she opened her eyes again, the pieces were sliding all the way back to the beginning.

Not far from the start point, scratched into the game, was a picture of three broomsticks and a large hole.

‘I don’t like the look of that,’ Tiga whispered, as Fluffanora slowly raised her arm and pointed at three objects glowing in the distance.

‘Broomsticks,’ Peggy said. ‘Do you think we have to ride them?’

Pop!

‘Did you hear that?’ Tiga whispered. ‘It sounded like –’

‘Melodie McDamp blowing a bubble,’ Fluffanora groaned, taking a wary step backwards. ‘They got through the gate too. That must be what that little light on the game is – the other players.’

Tiga looked up.

‘Stay hidden,’ Fluffanora whispered, pulling them all to the side. ‘They can’t see us – they’ll know we’re trying to get to the Ritzy Six.’

The ice above her head shook slightly and Tiga could just make out boots, though the ice was so thick she thought she might be seeing things.

Then a face smooshed against the ice!

The three of them slid back into the shadows.

‘What if she sees us – or the cats?’ Peggy whispered.

Tiga held a finger to her lips.

The boots above them tottered on and disappeared.

‘How did they get up there? That means they’re ahead,’ Tiga said glumly. ‘And the Ritzy Six are ahead of them. How are we ever going to reach the Points with Idabelle and her friends between us?’

‘All we can do is try,’ Fluffanora said as she tiptoed up to the brooms and grabbed one of them. ‘Are you comin–’

But the broom was off – spiralling down into a deep dark hole.

‘Fluffanora!’ Peggy cried. She turned to the cats. ‘Right, you all need to get on the sled, which I will balance on my head, while riding the broom.’

The cats looked appropriately concerned.

‘Are those … houses down there?’ Tiga asked as she squinted into the frosty hole.

Peggy nodded. ‘They call it Under Peak. The place where witches live deep underground. We must have to go down to go up to the next level …’

‘I don’t suppose the witches down there are friendly, are they?’ Tiga asked.

Peggy cackled, then stopped when she realised Tiga wasn’t joking. ‘Oh no, Tiga. They’re the worst. The good thing is there are only a few of them.’

Tiga shakily held on to the broom and it dragged her over the edge and into the darkness below.