The Light switch

Chapter Two

It felt like being on a rollercoaster, that was on a boat, that was in the middle of a storm at sea. Jane never could work out how she had not been sick as her and Tilly hurtled through, she didn't know what, and arrived with a crash into something squishy and soft but tangled up in a net made from tough ropes.

Jane opened her eyes, and they were immediately attacked by every colour, pattern, and picture imaginable for a twelve-year-old. What made it even more confusing was how this rainbow seemed to squish and move around, a deep note like the song of a pod of whales shaking through Jane's body with every wiggle of the rainbow.

"Jane! Jane! Are you alright? Where are you?" Cried Tilly from not far away. Jane reached out a hand in her direction and felt it grasped by the long clever fingers of Tilly, who pulled gently until they were together.

"Tilly, where are we? What are these things? Why are we in a net? Where has my chair gone?" Jane cried, not because she was scared but she was certainly feeling less brave than she could be.

"Jane I am so sorry; I didn't have time to wrap up both of us and your chair when I sent us away from the goblin and into Blanket Town." Explained Tilly trying to squish around and give themselves some room in the middle of all the colourful blankets and duvets surrounding them.

"I took us to Blanket Town where all the Blanketsnatchers live to get us away from that terrible goblin, we should have appeared on the back of a duvet whale, but something is terribly wrong. They are supposed to swim free in skies above the town not be all tied together in nets on the floor, listen to how sad their music sounds."

Jane stopped wriggling for a moment to listen. So it was the music of whales she was hearing, and now she stopped to listen she could hear the sadness of the animals trapped in nets and unable to swim in the sky. Looking she saw that the animal's skin was made from the stitched together duvets and blankets that must cover all the different beds of the children around the world. Looking into one sad looking eye that had appeared on a teddy bear patterned blanket, Jane realised it must be these wonderful creatures that helped the Blanketsnatchers travel from their world to ours.

"Tilly how can we help? We can't leave them trapped in here, there must be something we can do!"

"Hold on Jane, here put this on first and then we can help."

Jane was handed a jumper similar to Tilly's but much, much longer and sown together at the bottom. As she got in like you do into a sack at a sack race, she noticed two of the most beautiful carved wooden butterflies on the rim. Once she got in, they began to buzz and flutter and carry her exactly where she needed to go with just a thought, their tiny delicate wings giving a soft hum as they flew.

"I'm in Tilly, now let's find the bottom of this net and see what we can do!"

Hovering between the wiggling animals and both crawling through the small spaces their wiggling made, they got to the bottom of the netting and found it was tied shut and held in place by a large padlock and chain.

"I can untie the knot," said Tilly "But I can't do anything about the lock."

Jane pulled the pencil from behind her ear and began to suck the rubber as she thought of a way to deal with the lock, it was as at the same moment she realised that her pencil had made it through with her that the idea struck her.

As Tilly's hands worked over the knot in a blur of speed, Jane put her pencil into the padlock and began to wiggle and dance it around. There was a series of clinking and clunking, turning, and whirring, and then with a click, the padlock opened.

The moment the lock was gone, and the knot was untied, the duvet whales took off into the sky like brightly coloured hot air balloons, flinging the net from them to the ground. They ranged in size from that of a small car all the way up to the size of a real whale, and each had a pattern that was special to them made from thousands and thousands of blankets.

They somersaulted and span in the sky with the happiness of being free, their song now filled with happy notes and melody as they head to their home in the clouds. It was as she watched these magical animals fly home, once again making notes in her field journal that had survived the trip, that Jane first saw Blanket town.

The town was built of many rings with the largest at the bottom and narrowing to a sharp needle like point at the top. Each ring was made of tall walls made of stone covered in flowers of all colours, shapes, and sizes, that opened and closed whenever anything passed by so the wall looked as though it was always shimmering like light on ripples of a pond. The buildings also were covered in these flowers and pointed up to the sky like thin towers reaching for the sun. Each had been built with such fantastic designs they surely needed magic just to stop them from falling over.

Although Jane had never seen Blanket Town before, she could tell something was horribly wrong. Fires and smoke filled all the rings, making the flowers shiver and close to hide from the flames robbing the walls of their beautiful colours. The first ring was also covered in ladders and ropes and each was crawling with vicious goblins, just like the one that had been found under Jane's bed.

Tilly was on her knees crying when Jane turned to her to ask what was going on. However before she had a chance to say anything, she saw a large mob of goblins running from the city toward them weapons and torches waving angrily in the air.

"Oi! Someone released the whales! Get them back or the boss will eat us!" Came the scratchy snarls of the goblins.

"Hey look, there's another two of those Blanketsnatchers under the whales! They must have cut them loose, surround them!"

Soon Jane and Tilly were standing back-to-back as the mob of goblins encircled them, all pointing sharp swords, knives, spears, or even one very sharp fork at them. All the goblins were grinning wicked smiles showing their large teeth, and all looked worryingly hungry in their evil glinting eyes.

"Tie them up and get them back to the walls, the boss will want to see these troublemakers, and decide what to do with them." Snarled the largest and most wicked looking, with a smile.

"And I know it won't be pleasant."