Dive into the archives.

The Way of the Wizard

September 2010

Hello my young friends. Here we are once again and, as promised, we

have more of our story, “Through the Garden Gate”.

Much happened in our first chapter; Ness and Muffin decided to explore

outside the confines of the garden and in doing so Ness learned more

about his ancestor, - in ghost form-Uncle Jasper, who informed him that he

could not only speak, but he could, with Anna’s assistance, also help with

the problems of running the country estate; mainly the annoying rabbit

population that promised to cause havoc

for the gardens of the local community.

Muffin, happily enjoying the unaccustomed freedom of the world outside

the garden, knew nothing of Jasper and Ness’s secret, but he was

beginning to suspect something was amiss, and he intended to

find out what it was.

We’ll start this part of the story where we left off, sitting around a campfire

in the Valley with Belle, Remedy and Snowy eager to find out just

how Ness would get out of his predicament.

Through the Garden Gate

Chapter 2 & Chapter 3

These are my little stories taken from inside my

Magical Book of Ways

Lord Ness rarely slept late, unlike Muffin, who would have breakfast in

bed if it were possible. Today was no different, even though he’d tossed

and turned all night going over and over in his mind the extraordinary

experience of the previous evening.

He decided he must go again, alone this time, and prove to himself that it

wasn’t just a strange dream. Muffin was sleeping soundly

as he crept out of the bedroom.

The Butler was up and about doing whatever Butlers do at that time of

day and the outer door was open. Ness looked around carefully; made

sure no-one was watching, and dashed off down the garden, through the

hole in the fence and away into the bush.

Within minutes he was back under the old oak tree. “Now we’ll see if it

was true or not,” he muttered as he settled down to wait.

“Good morning your lordship. You’re an early riser.”

Once again Ness got the shock of his life. He turned, half expecting to see

old Jasper behind him.

“I wish you’d stop doing that,” he said peevishly. “You could at least

whistle when you’re coming ,then it wouldn’t be so much of a shock.”

“Ha-ha, I was here before you” the mystery voice laughed.

“You walked right through me.”

“You mean I can just walk into you and out the other side?”

Ness shivered at the thought.

I SUPPOSE I’LL NEVER SEE YOU

“Of course you can. I’m only a voice when I’m in this mode.

It’s easier to keep my coat clean.”

“I suppose that means I’ll never see you. I thought maybe you could

make yourself visible.” Ness said glumly.

“Well I can, but it’s not easy” the voice replied. “I save that trick for special

occasions, if anyone saw me wandering around at night it wouldn’t be

long before the ranger came calling at the Manor, because

you and I are like two peas in a pod.”

“They’d reckon it was you and want to know why you weren’t tucked up

in bed, anyway, you haven’t told me why you’re here so early.”

“Well, to tell the truth I came to make sure you were real and last night

wasn’t a dream,” Ness admitted. “I don’t meet ghosts every day so I

thought I may have eaten too much cheese or something.”

“A real ghost.

Now there’s a new idea. I suppose I must be as real as a ghost can be.”

Once again ole Jasper laughed, but it wasn’t a happy laugh, more of a

sad and wistful sound. “Wish I could be real again,” he murmured, “and

Anna too.” “We’d soon have the estate back to what it used to be.”

“Muffin had an idea that we could do that,” Ness suggested hopefully.

“We were hoping you’d made maps and things so we would know

what to look for and where to find it.”

“Maps!, what on earth do you want a map for?” Jasper scoffed.

“We never had one, never had a reason to.” ” All you need is the will to

do the job and sure as night follows day it’ll all fall into place.”

He paused for a while and Ness held his breath waiting for him to continue

and hoping he hadn’t left in a huff.

“Tell you what” …now he sounded to be up in the tree and

Ness craned his neck to hear him.

“You both seem keen enough.” “We’ll make a deal. Anna and I will help

you and in return you will be helping us.”

“Sounds alright,” Ness said doubtfully, “but how can we help you?” He

sounded shocked, “we can’t even see you.”

“I’ll explain that later, right now it’s time to show you where the rest of the

traps are.” “You can bring Muffin along later and spring them all.”

HOW CAN WE HELP?

Ness followed the voice eagerly around the woodland. He marked

every trap and memorized its position, made sure he remembered all

the hidden trails they followed, and finally they were back where they’d

started.

“Right, that’s all for now.” “You get home for your breakfast before they

come looking for you,” Jasper instructed. “And don’t tell Muffin what

we’re planning just let him think it’s all your idea.”

Ness arrived home just as Muffin, bleary eyed, shuffled from the bedroom.

“Ah, there you are Ness,” he mumbled sleepily. “I noticed you weren’t in

bed, but then I fell asleep again. “Where did you go?”

“Oh, not far, just a walk around the garden, listened to the birds

and that sort of stuff.”

“Sounds good.” Muffin yawned and staggered into the kitchen,

“Maybe I should join you tomorrow.”

“No, wouldn’t interest you a bit”, Ness said hurriedly. “You stay in bed and

catch up on your sleep, it’ll do you more good.”

Muffin looked at him suspiciously. “Didn’t you say just yesterday that I

spent too much time in bed?” ” You’re not hiding something are you?”

“Me! Hide something from you.” Ness looked downcast. “Surely you know

I wouldn’t do that.” ” I was only thinking that we could go to the woods

tonight and have another look around.” ” We both need extra sleep or

we’ll be worn out before we get there.”

“Oh,,, sorry. We’ll have a nap after dinner then, that should be enough.”

Ness breathed a sigh of relief. “Good idea Muffin, now let’s get

something to eat. I’m starving.”

The afternoon seemed to drag by. Ness and Muffin stretched out their

nap as much as they could, but even Muffin got bored after two hours.

“What time is it Ness?” he asked for the third time in a few minutes.

Ness rolled over and sniffed the air. “Too early,” he decided.

“The Butler isn’t cooking our dinner yet.”

“Maybe he’s forgotten. I’ll go and remind him.” Muffin dashed into the

kitchen just in time to see a couple of pork chops going into the oven. He

settled down to wait in his favourite place by the kitchen door.

Ness, finally left in peace, drifted into a deep sleep.

“Dinner time.”

Ness was woken from his reverie by Muffin’s shout. He rubbed his eyes,

stretched and yawned, then, suddenly remembering their important

business, dashed into the kitchen. He polished off his dinner in record time

and they were out of the door at top speed.

I THOUGHT WE CAME TO PLAY

Ness glanced around the shady place under the oak tree fully expecting

to hear Jasper. There was nothing. The twilight birdsong was over and the

woodland was settling down for the night.

“Right, let’s get to work, it’ll be dark soon.” He said finally.

“What sort of work Ness?” Muffin looked puzzled.

“I thought we came here to play.”

“Plenty of time to play later.” Ness snapped. “Right now we’ve got a little

job to do. Follow me Muffin and keep to the path.” Ness had a good

memory. He led them unerringly to the place where he’d marked the first

trap. “Here we are Muffin, you grab that big stick and bring it here.”

Muffin pulled the stick and dropped it at Ness’s feet.

“Now what?” he asked.

“Same as last night.” ” Spring this nasty trap thing now

grab hold of the stick and let’s get it done.”

Muffin kept his eyes tight shut as the jaws clashed together. “I hate that

noise,” he complained. “It makes my ears ring.”

“It would do a lot worse if you got your feet in it,” Ness assured him.

“Come on, there’s a few more yet.”

“Something’s bothering me.” Muffin sat under the oak tree and looked

up at Ness. “How did you know where to find all those traps?” “You went

straight to them without looking.”

Ness looked flustered. In his enthusiasm to get the job done

he hadn’t thought of that.

“Just guesswork I guess,” he mumbled, “plus a bit of bush craft.”

“Pretty good guesswork,” Muffin said dryly.

“And where did you learn your bush-craft?”

Ness was stumped. He hadn’t reckoned on Muffin questioning him and

he had no ready answers.

“Must be in the blood I suppose. Probably from ole Jaspers side of the

family.” That was the best he could do at a pinch. If Muffin asked any

more

awkward questions he’d be stumped.

Luckily Muffin seemed satisfied.. “Right, what do we do next, look for

rabbits or”, he added with a grin, “another display of bush-craft.”

Ness flushed, not sure whether Muffin was pulling his leg or being sarcastic.

He decided to ignore the remark.

“You decide,” he suggested. “After all it was your idea to escape from the

garden in the first place.”

“Well, remember you said Anna and Jasper used to go to a secret beach

lets go find that.” “It shouldn’t be hard for a man of your talents,” he

giggled.

“OK mister funny man,” Ness laughed. “Let’s go.”

He looked around desperately, hoping for some word from Jasper.

Just as he was about to give up he heard a whisper. “Back down to the

main footpath and turn right, it’s not far.”

“Thanks uncle”, Ness replied without thinking.

This time Muffin heard him plainly.

UNCLE WHO???

“Thanks uncle,” he echoed. “Uncle who? Where is he? and

what are you thanking him for?”

Well young friends, the story gets more curious by the minute. As we

missed our story last month, and Belle, Muffin, Remedy, and Snowy have

been waiting impatiently for Ness to continue his adventure in New

Zealand, Ness has happily agreed to add another chapter of his strange

tale, after all, it isn’t often that he gets to have the stage to himself and he

was enjoying the experience. Even Belle, usually a chatterbox, is quietly

fascinated as the story unfolds.

Wrapped snugly in their blankets, with the campfire’s flickering firelight

casting shadows on our little band, we sat quietly on the riverbank as Ness

cleared his throat and continued.

Through the Garden Gate

Chapter Three

There were few times when Ness was stuck for an answer.

This was one of them, and try as he might, he couldn’t come up with a

believable story to explain his new found talents.

He mumbled something about having to concentrate on finding the path

to the secret beach and set off, seemingly uncertain, down the narrow

twisting track. His only hope now was to convince Muffin that he wasn’t

infallible and the only way to do that was to get lost, well not really lost,

but to appear to be so.

They arrived safely back at the main path where Ness knew, thanks to

Jasper, he should turn right. Instead he appeared unsure.

WE SHOULD TRY THAT WAY

“I think we should try that way,” he mumbled, pointing to his left. “What

do you think?”

“You’re in charge”, Muffin answered “but isn’t that the way we came? I

don’t remember passing a beach.”

“Neither do I” “Ness said glibly, “but there maybe a path we missed.”

“We’d better go and check it out.”

They trotted along the path, carefully looking on either side, poking their

heads through the tight tangle of ferns that lined the path

to check for hidden trails.

Eventually they were back in the open, the field of long grass was ahead

of them, but there’d been no sign of a way to the beach.

“We’ll have to go back and start again,” Muffin grumbled. “I told you this

was the wrong way.”

“Alright,” Ness agreed, thankful that Muffin was beginning to doubt his

prowess as a bushman. “This time you can lead.” “You may have more

luck than I did.”

They were soon back where they’d started. The sun was beginning to set

and daylight was fading.

“We’d better hurry” Muffin warned. “You know the Butler worries

if we’re out after dark.”

“We’ll just try down this way quickly and then we’ll

have to head back home.”

Ness was happy to follow, knowing full well what lay ahead.

“There seems to be a trace of a track here,” Muffin stopped at the edge

of an overgrown clearing and pointed excitedly at the vague outline of a

long disused path. “Shall we explore it?”

“Doesn’t look very promising,” Ness remarked without enthusiasm “but

you’re leading the way. It’s up to you.”

“Right. I vote we do,” Muffin dived headlong into the mass of grass and

brambles that were blocking their progress and disappeared from view.

Ness smiled with relief. His plan appeared to be working. Muffin was

beginning to doubt his ability. With a satisfied chuckle he followed.

“This is it, I found it.” Muffin’s excited shout reached Ness long before he

reached the grassy bank where Muffin was prancing with delight. He

pushed his way with difficulty through the last blackberry bush

and looked in amazement.

I FOUND IT!!

Before them was an idyllic scene. Wavelets, tinged pink by the setting sun

lapped on a shell covered beach, an ancient tree bending its limbs down

to the shore, appeared to be resting on its elbows.

But, and by far the best feature of all, there was no sign that anyone ever

came there. No footprints, no garbage. Not a sign of civilization.

Ness patted Muffin on the shoulder. “Looks like you’re better than me at

this tracking lark, I’d never have found this,” Ness said happily. Now we

can do as Jasper and Anna did on those hot summer days.”

He paddled out into the warm clear water, shook himself vigorously

and sighed. “Perfect,” he said. “When we have more time, I’m going to

learn to swim, but right now we’d better be heading home.”

NESS SHOOK HIMSELF VIGOROUSLY

TIME TO HEAD HOME

And so as night falls and Belle and the Boys pick up their blankets and

head back to the cabin, it’s time for all you young ones to tuck yourselves

into bed to dream about the day ahead and all the adventures that will

come your way. Sweet dreams until we meet again.

The Wizard, Lord Ness, Muffin and their ghostly friends

Jasper and Anna

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