Cosmo and the Secret Spell, page 2
It was just as well that Cosmo had such a good sense of direction, because Albert clearly wasn’t inclined to leave his chair in order to show the younger cat the way back. But Cosmo never went anywhere without making sure he knew the way back home again, and luckily he had made sure he rubbed his scent up against several lamp posts and gateposts on the way as a marker.
He got back to find his mother in the front garden, yowling at the top of her voice, and at first he thought she had discovered he was missing and was calling for him. But he soon realized that she was worried for another reason.
‘I’ve lost Kit!’ she told him as soon as he joined her. ‘You might be old enough to go off on your own all day – but he isn’t! Goody and Gabriel have already left with Spike, and Scarlett has gone to Bunty’s house, so I’ve no one to help me look for him.’
‘I’ll help you,’ Cosmo said immediately. ‘Which Kit is it?’
‘The smallest one. He’s always trying to follow you, Cosmo, and I think he might have gone off looking for you today! You haven’t seen him, have you?’
‘Of course not or I’d have brought him straight home again,’ Cosmo mewed. ‘Don’t worry, Mother. I know all the places kittens like to explore around here. I’ll find him for you!’
‘Your father’s still in quarantine and I have to go and look after the other kittens,’ India replied, ‘so it would be a big help if you could look for him, Cosmo.’
Without saying anything else, Cosmo hurried round to the back of the house to begin his search. The back garden was the place to start, he was sure, because he had seen the smallest kitten heading off towards the bottom of their back garden the day before, only to be called back sternly by their father. And he would have heard Kit or smelt him if Kit had followed him along the road with Albert today, because young kittens were not very good at being stealthy and invisible like older cats.
When Cosmo reached the bottom flower-bed he soon spotted something that made him certain his younger brother had been here – paw prints. They were tiny, baby-kitten-sized paw prints and they led across the dirt, round the same rose bush twice, and on through the flower-bed as far as the fence that separated their garden from the next one. There was a very small hole in the fence where the paw prints ended. Kit must have gone through that hole and into the next garden, Cosmo thought.
Cosmo was too big to squeeze through the gap himself, so he jumped right over the fence instead, and found himself in the flower-bed of the house that backed on to theirs, which belonged to a rather excitable Yorkie dog called Ramses. In the middle of the Yorkie’s lawn, Cosmo could see the garden pond, which he himself had found very exciting as a young kitten – and sure enough, there was Kit at the very edge of it, tapping at the water. Cosmo was about to call out to him when something unexpected happened.
From the undergrowth around the pond, just behind where Kit was standing, an enormous frog suddenly leaped out and pounced on to Kit’s back – and the tiny kitten got such a fright that he toppled forward, right into the pond.
Cosmo raced towards the pond as Kit splashed helplessly in the water. Kit couldn’t swim and he would drown unless Cosmo saved him. But Cosmo couldn’t swim either – so what was he going to do?
He reached the pond to find Kit barely afloat in the middle of the water, too far out from the edge for Cosmo to reach him by extending a paw. If he wanted to save his little brother, Cosmo would have to jump into the water too. But how could he stay afloat himself if he couldn’t swim? Cosmo suddenly remembered seeing Ramses swimming across this pond one hot afternoon during the summer. (Ramses had moved his front and back paws like paddles and kept his chin up above the water as he had moved forward, Cosmo remembered.) Ramses was a similar shape to Cosmo and he hadn’t sunk – so maybe if Cosmo did exactly what he had done, then he would be able to swim across the pond too. Cosmo had never seen a cat swim before – in fact most cats hated water and avoided getting wet whenever they could – but he didn’t see why a cat shouldn’t be able to stay afloat if a dog could.
‘Try and keep still, Kit. I’m coming to rescue you!’ Cosmo yowled, and before he could change his mind he plunged into the pond and started to move all four paws as fast as he could, in just the same way he had seen Ramses do. Miraculously, it worked! Kit was right in front of him. The kitten was almost completely submerged, so Cosmo had no choice but to grab the first bit of Kit’s fur he could get his teeth into – and keep hold of it, while paddling as hard as he could towards the other side of the pond.
Cosmo was exhausted by the time he reached dry land, but he still found the strength to haul the younger kitten out of the water. Kit was totally bedraggled, trembling with shock and spluttering water as he lay on his side beside Cosmo.
Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, Cosmo saw a large ugly frog glaring at him fiercely from the undergrowth.
He turned his head sharply, but there was nothing there.
Cosmo told himself he must be imagining things. After all, the frog that had given Kit such a fright and made him fall into the pond was probably long gone by now and completely unaware of the chaos it had caused.
Kit was opening his eyes and starting to whimper. ‘Don’t worry, Kit, you’re safe now,’ Cosmo told him, before licking the pondweed from his little brother’s face.
And from far back under the bushes, the large ugly frog – which had a very unfroglike wart on its face – watched them in angry silence.
Cosmo watched as India licked her smallest kitten until she was satisfied that all the nasty pond water was completely gone. ‘You were very brave to jump in and rescue him, Cosmo,’ she said between licks. ‘I’m very proud of you.’
‘Yes, but he’s even more wet now, Mother,’ Cosmo pointed out, because he couldn’t help feeling that his mother went a bit too far where licking was concerned. After all, the pond hadn’t been that dirty.
India eyed Cosmo’s fur, which was also still damp from his plunge into the water, and Cosmo realized she was thinking of licking him clean too. ‘I’m going to tell Father what happened,’ he said, but before he could bound away up the stairs, the cat flap opened and Cosmo’s friend Mia appeared.
Mia was a young tabby cat, the same age as Cosmo, who lived next door with her mother, Professor Felina, and a very doting human called Amy. She was clearly bursting to tell him something so he decided to let her speak first before telling her about his experience at the pond.
‘Cosmo, you’ll never guess what’s happened!’ she miaowed excitedly. And before he could even try and guess, she continued, ‘Amy’s got a boyfriend! Mother’s very worried about it because Amy is completely in love with him and Mother says that a human who’s in love is often a lot less doting on her cats than she ought to be. This morning Amy forgot to fill up our food bowl before the Crunchy-munchies ran out! Can you imagine?’
‘Wow!’ Cosmo mewed in reply. ‘What’s he like?’
‘You’ll see for yourself in a minute. Before Goody left she came round to our house to ask Amy if she’d look in on all of you this evening. Scarlett and her aunt are coming in to see you tomorrow, but she wanted you checked up on before then as Mephisto has a cold. Anyway, when Amy told Maurice – that’s his name – he insisted on doing it for her. Mother thought I’d better come and tell you so that you didn’t wonder who he was. He should be here any minute.’
‘But it’s not evening yet,’ Cosmo said, looking out of the window at the late-afternoon sky.
‘I know. Mother thinks that he’s just trying to impress Amy by being super keen to help out.’ (The professor-cat was an expert in the study of Human Behaviour – or Humanology as she liked to call it – so she was very good at analysing the ways of humans.)
‘I’d better go and tell Father,’ Cosmo said. ‘He won’t like it if a stranger suddenly walks in on him – especially if he’s in the middle of using his litter tray or something!’
‘Mother tried to tell Amy that,’ Mia replied, ‘but Amy doesn’t understand cat language, no matter how hard Mother tries to teach her.’ (The professor-cat was also an expert in foreign languages, including Human, and she often tried to spell out human words for Amy using scratch marks on the back of the sofa or Crunchy-munchies spilt on the kitchen floor – but Amy never seemed to appreciate Felina’s efforts.)
Cosmo was about to go upstairs when the cats heard the front door opening and Mia mewed, ‘That must be Maurice now.’
Footsteps could soon be heard moving around in the hall, then in the living room and then in the dining room. ‘Why is he looking all round the house instead of coming straight through to the kitchen?’ Mia said.
Then they heard Maurice open the cupboard under the stairs and rummage around in there, grumbling impatiently, ‘Where are you?’
There was something familiar about his voice, but before Cosmo had time to work out what it was, Amy’s boyfriend entered the kitchen.
Cosmo let out a startled miaow, because the figure who stood in front of them was the same young man Cosmo had seen coming out of the Frog-Witch’s house earlier that afternoon!
Cosmo felt the fur on his tail start to bush up as their visitor gave the cats a dismissive glance before heading straight past them to the back door. He unlocked it with the key that Goody had left there, muttering, ‘You’re much more likely to be out here somewhere, I suppose . . .’
As soon as he had gone, Mia exclaimed, ‘That’s a very strange way for a human to behave!’
‘He’s not a human – he’s a witch!’ Cosmo miaowed, before telling them all about his visit to the Frog-Witch.
‘What – or who – can he be looking for here?’ India asked, sounding worried. ‘Oh dear – I wish your father wasn’t shut up in the spare room.’
‘I’d better follow him and see what he’s up to,’ Cosmo said.
‘I’ll come too!’ Mia mewed.
‘Be careful, both of you,’ India told them, and she turned to her new kittens and told them very sternly that they must all get inside the cat basket and stay there. Then she hurried upstairs to tell Mephisto through the door what was going on.
Out in the garden, Cosmo and Mia crept across the grass, keeping their bodies low as they stalked the young witch, who had reached the bottom of the garden and seemed very interested in what was underneath the bushes there.
He muttered to himself, before suddenly looking at his watch and frowning when he saw the time. Then he turned and walked swiftly back across the lawn as the two cats hid behind a bush so that he wouldn’t spot them.
‘We’ve got to keep following him,’ Cosmo said. ‘Come on!’
They followed Maurice round to the front of the house and along the pavement as far as a bus stop in the next street. Presently a bus pulled up at the stop and Maurice climbed aboard.
‘I wonder where he’s going,’ Mia said.
‘That’s the bus you catch if you want to visit the Witch Prison,’ Cosmo told her. ‘It drops you off right outside. I wonder if he’s going to visit somebody there.’
‘What shall we do now?’ Mia asked as they watched the bus disappear round the corner.
‘I think you should tell your mother that Maurice is a witch, not a human, and see if she can find out more about him by nosing through his stuff. Has he got any stuff at your house?’
‘Oh yes – lots of magazines and things! They’re in Amy’s spare room and he’s asked her not to touch any of them.’
‘Well, see what you can find. I’m going to visit the Frog-Witch again to see if she can tell me any more about him.’
‘Be careful, Cosmo,’ Mia mewed.
‘You too – I’ll meet you back at my house later, OK?’
And they rubbed noses to say goodbye.
What neither Cosmo nor Mia realized was that they had been followed to the bus stop. Cosmo’s eight brothers and sisters had sneaked out of the cat basket after their mother had gone upstairs, and now they were having a great time stalking their older brother.
By the time Cosmo reached the Frog-Witch’s house, he still hadn’t noticed that they were behind him, which was partly because he was more lost in his own thoughts than usual, and partly because the smallest kitten was actually very good at directing the others to move forward or stay put at the appropriate times as they tailed Cosmo.
As Cosmo found the open kitchen window at the back of the Frog-Witch’s house, the smallest kitten had already spotted another opening at the side of the house that was at just the right level for the kittens to reach.
‘Look!’ he mewed as he stuck his head inside it. ‘There’s some sort of slide attached to the other side of this window!’ In fact it was more of an air vent than a window – and it had rather a strange smell coming out of it – but it was easily big enough for the kittens to climb through. ‘Hey!’ he protested, as the other seven bigger kittens pushed him out of the way to inspect the opening themselves.
Inside the house, Cosmo was miaowing to try and attract the attention of Albert or the Frog-Witch. They didn’t seem to be there, and after checking the ground floor and finding it occupied only by frogs, he spotted a door in the hall that looked like it led down to the basement. Gingerly he hooked it open with his paw and headed down a flight of stone steps until he came to another door, which he nudged with his nose until it creaked open and he found himself inside some sort of laboratory. On various bench tops all around the room were glass jugs and jars filled with different coloured liquids, some of which were giving off rainbow-coloured steam as they bubbled away.
The Frog-Witch was standing at a bench on the far side of the room, fiddling with some sort of strange contraption that consisted of a series of tubes leading back to a large cauldron, from which gold and green steam was billowing out. The last tube led into an enclosed plastic incubator, inside which a white mouse was sitting nibbling at a piece of cheese. There was also a tube leading out through the container roof, upwards and out through the top of the basement wall, which, the witch now explained to the mouse, would be its source of fresh air throughout the whole experiment.
‘Good, because it’s very smelly in here,’ the mouse squeaked.
‘It is rather a stinky sort of spell, I’m afraid,’ the Frog-Witch agreed apologetically. ‘I’m very grateful to you for volunteering. And rest assured, there’s no need to worry if you don’t enjoy being a frog, because I will be turning you back into a mouse again very soon.’
Cosmo’s ears pricked up at that. Everyone knew that any animal who had been turned into a frog, could never be turned back again, so what was going on?
The Frog-Witch stepped back from the apparatus, clearly still unaware of Cosmo’s presence as she reached up to touch a red button on the wall. As she pressed the button there was a noise inside the cauldron – and even more noise from inside the series of tubes – before gold-coloured sparkling smoke started to billow out into the incubator.
Cosmo watched the sparkly smoke completely engulf the mouse and then, very suddenly and silently, in the time that it took him to blink once, the white mouse had been changed into a small green frog.
The whole incubator had now filled up with gold smoke and the frog was starting to make a strange noise, midway between a choke and a croak. Then there was a loud thudding noise from the air tube that ran down into the incubator from the top of the wall, and suddenly – to the Frog-Witch’s obvious amazement – one kitten after another came hurtling down it! And as they breathed in the golden smoke inside the incubator, they instantly got turned into frogs too!
‘Oh my goodness!’ the Frog-Witch exclaimed, rushing to press the red button that turned the apparatus off.
Cosmo yowled with fright as he saw what was happening, and that’s when the Frog-Witch noticed him for the first time. ‘What are you doing here?’ she burst out. Then she turned back to her apparatus and held in her breath before opening the door of the incubator, just as the last of Cosmo’s siblings was hurtling down the tube. She managed to catch it in time to whisk it out before it breathed in any of the smoke, then she slammed the door shut and carried it out of the basement, shooing Cosmo ahead of her.
‘Those are my brothers and sisters!’ Cosmo miaowed when they reached the top of the basement stairs. ‘We can’t just leave them there.’
The Frog-Witch looked angry as she replied, ‘Your brothers and sisters nearly ruined my experiment!’ She placed the kitten she had saved on the floor and looked down at it sternly. ‘I suppose you found the air-vent opening and thought you’d use it as a slide, did you?’
‘We were following Cosmo,’ the kitten whimpered, and Cosmo saw that it was the smallest kitten – the one he had already had to rescue once that day.
‘Mother told you to stay in your basket, Kit,’ he mewed at it crossly. ‘What’s she going to say when she hears that all the others have been turned into frogs?’ And as he thought about having to tell his mother what had happened he began to feel like whimpering himself.
‘You know, it’s really not so bad being a frog,’ the Frog-Witch said, trying to cheer him up. ‘In a minute I shall go down and give them some nice slugs to eat. They’ll like that!’
‘But they’re not frogs!’ Cosmo burst out. ‘They’re kittens!’
The Frog-Witch looked unperturbed. ‘And they will be again. Don’t worry. Remember the secret spell I told you about – the one I have been working on for years? Well, it’s ready at last.’ She looked very proud as she announced, ‘I am the first witch ever to invent a spell that can turn frogs back into whatever creature they started out as!’
‘But that’s impossible!’ Cosmo exclaimed.
‘Plenty of witches before me have tried it, and none have succeeded, that is true!’ the Frog-Witch agreed. ‘But I am not called the Frog-Witch for nothing! No one knows more about frog magic than I do! And that is why I will succeed where every other witch has failed! Just think, my frog prince will soon become a true prince once again! And all those kittens will be transformed back to their original selves as well!’
