There has never been an army as strange as the one that Flax brought to defend the Floating Forest.

The sketters were at the front, with their claws extended and their hearts full of rage.

Behind them came the mor-kits, giggling and vicious.

Then the horned globs, who everyone else kept treading on, because they forgot they were there.

And last of all, the minch-wiggins, unseen in the shadows.

When the sketters saw the Lady, they flexed their claws. Snick. Snick.

They roared their hatred.

Then they poured through the trees towards her.

The witch shouted a Word. ‘Stop!’

The sketters kept coming. So did the mor-kits and the horned globs and the minch-wiggins.

‘Stuff your ears,’ Flax had told them. ‘It doesn’t matter what you use, as long as it blocks out her voice.’

The minch-wiggins had pine nuts in their ears.

The horned globs had mud.

The mor-kits had grass and fur.

The sketters had—

No, don’t ask.

The Lady shouted louder. ‘Stop!’

This time, her Word got past some of the blockages. A few of the sketters stopped.

The rest kept coming.

The Lady summoned more of her power.

‘Stop!’

And every single sketter stopped.

Flax, watching from the trees, gasped in dismay.

But the Lady must have aimed her Word at the sketters and only at the sketters. Because the mor-kits, the horned globs and the minch-wiggins kept coming.

The Lady clicked her tongue in irritation. She aimed at the mor-kits.

‘Stop!’

The mor-kits stopped.

But the horned globs and minch-wiggins didn’t.

Horned globs do not have hunting teeth, or sharp claws that go snick snick. But when the witch forgot them, they threw themselves at her legs until she was knocked to the ground.

Then the minch-wiggins (still in the shadows) wrapped vines around her until she couldn't move.

Flax held her breath. Was this going to work?

Was it really going to work?

The short answer is, no.

Oh, you want the long answer?

Very well. But I warn you now, you will not like it.

Because shadows cannot fool a witch for long.

‘Shadows begone!’ cried the Lady, as she lay on the ground wrapped in vines.

And there were the minch-wiggins: Flax’s Auntie Grub, her Uncle Beech, her cousin Violet, her brother Bean, and all the rest of them. Blinking at the witch in terror.

They tried to flee, but she shouted, ‘Stop!’

The Word got past the pine nuts, and they could not move.

‘Undo! Snap! Unravel!’ shouted the Lady. And the vines unravelled and snapped and undid.

The Lady tried to stand up. But the horned globs, who she had forgotten again, tucked in their heads and hooves and rolled desperately at her, so she was knocked off her feet once more.

‘Remember!’ she cried to herself, as she fell.

Then, ‘Stop!’

The horned globs stopped.

Flax’s army had failed.