'Come on, Fury,' Merlynna begged and puffed as she chased after her flying friend, who was zipping around outside the Home for Enchanted Girls. 'Please come down. If you do, I'll give you your favorite treat, a dragon bone. Hmmm, yum. Wouldn't that be nice.'

Fury was not duped by the bribe. Instead he just meowed and purred with content as he dipped and yawed through the air without a care in the world. He then soared high and glided as if he was floating amongst the starry sky before drifting off around the sacred rocks resting on the sacred mound nearby, each one humming with magic.

Merlynna wagged her finger. 'Well, if you're not going to cooperate, I will have to take this up a notch. No more tickling spells from now on.' And with a flick of a hand, a suspending charm shot upwards and towards Fury like a streaking firefly. However, as it was about to connect, her furry companion dodged it with ease.

The airborne cat swerved around the next one and the next one after that, his happy chattering now turning to angry hisses.

'Pretty please with a wand on top,' Merlynna implored, watching the feline dive over a pumpkin patch, around a stack of large cauldrons and under a bewitched climbing frame for the younglings. 'And don't you dare get angry with me, mister.'

Another failed spell attempt sent Fury up and onto the roof of the orphanage, where he perched on the gutter and began grooming his wings.

'Now you're just teasing me, aren't you?' said Merlynna, herself getting a bit angry too. 'Rubbing it in. Because of that, I may not take you along with me to my placement. And being that Miss Harrower, Madame Joan and Mrs Good don't want you around unless I'm here, you'll have to find another home and another human to befriend. I bet you wouldn't like that.'

Fury stopped his licking and just gave out a long drawn out yawn in response.

'Tired, are you? I'm not surprised. You've been going nonstop all day. How about this, I take you inside, into the warmth, and you can have a lovely sleep.' Merlynna raised her arms and gestured with her hands. 'Come on. Just imagine curling up on my bed or a rug in the dining room, shutting your eyes and dreaming about chasing mice.'

Fury flashed a wanting look down at Merlynna.

'Ahhh, that sounds nice, doesn't it? Then come on, I'll take you inside.'

Fury, however, had no intention of going with her. He got up from his roost and meandered further onto the roof.

'Where are you going? Inside is not that way.'

But Merlynna was wrong.

Fury skulked over to the largest chimney stack, spread his wings before flying up and down into its flue.

'Oh, come on. Seriously,' Merlynna moaned before rushing over to a window and opening it with a spell. 'Fosgail.'

After almost knocking over a lit candlestick sitting on the sill while climbing in, she ran down a corridor and through a set of doors.

Inside the dining room, the aroma of roast dinner still in the air, her gaze descended over the many round tables and to the fireplace at the other end, it almost covering the entire back wall. She could hear scratching emanating from it and saw soot showering down onto the hearth.

'Got you now,' Merlynna said to herself, ready to cast a more powerful suspending charm at the first sign of movement.

And the moment she saw fur, she sent it over, the spell bedazzling the dining room with a vibrant, pulsating blue.

But the charm wasn't fast enough. Before it even reached the head table, Fury was on the hearth staring at it as if it was one of his toys. And after watching the spell disappear up the chimney, he took to the air again, darting over Merlynna's head and out the set of doors.

'I just can't win, can I.' But Merlynna was quick to the pursuit again, fleeing the dining room to see Fury bouncing off of the walls of the corridor, his claws scratching the paint.

'Please don't. I'll get in trouble,' she snapped in whispers before following him up the stairs and to the landing adorned with brooms. 'But if you want, two can play this game.'

Though not the graceful of riders – in fact, she was terrible, one of the worst at the orphanage – Merlynna grabbed a broom from its brackets, its bristles of red troll hair angled in every direction, and mounted it. She then pushed off and up she floated.

'Whoa. Maybe I've finally figured this out,' she said, surprised. Only moments later, though, the broom began to wobble madly and shake. 'Yeah, I thought it was too good to be true.'

Despite her ride seemingly trying to buck her off, Merlynna leaned forward. And down the corridor towards her bedroom she flew, jerking all over the place as if she was riding a firework. But she was gaining on Fury, who she saw had rounded a corner at the very end.

With determination, she eyed the turn, but when it was time to make it herself, pointing the broom handle to the left, she kept on going straight. And right straight into a door, smashing through it with a boom. Everything then became a blur until she smashed into something else, fell off the broom and hit the floor with a thud right on her backside.

A groan escaped Merlynna's lips as she fumbled to her feet. And as the broom zipped away on its own and out of sight, she saw what she had hit. She had smashed into a shelf home to an array of magical objects, many of which had tumbled off on impact.

Instantly, she heard the pounding footfalls of Miss Harrower, Madame Joan and Mrs Good. 'I'm in double trouble now. No, triple trouble.'

She bent down and hurriedly began collecting up the items by her feet. There were wands, a few uninhabited genie lamps, cups, stones, and what looked like some dull metal shard, which suddenly began to glow the moment she touched it.

'What in the wizarding muddle is this?' Merlynna raised the object to get a better look and saw that the metal was shimmering too.

Worried that she had set something off that she wasn't supposed to, something that she was rather good at doing here at the Home for Enchanted Girls, she buried it deep inside a pocket of her pajamas.

It was just in time too as Miss Harrower, Madame Joan and Mrs Good burst through the doorway.

'Well, well, well, I'm not surprised to see you, Merlynna,' said Mrs Good, looking at the mess that the young witch had caused. 'May I ask what you're doing inside the storage room so late at night?'

Merlynna closed her eyes, but not all the way, just enough to see where she was going. She then raised her arms as though she was a mummy who had come back to life and began walking towards the door.

'Merlynna,' Miss Harrower said with a not-so-amused tone in her voice. 'You've already tried the sleep walking excuse with us. It didn't work the last time and we are not swayed now.'

Merlynna abruptly stopped, opened her eyes and said, 'Really? I tried it before? When was that?'

'The time we caught you sneaking into our office to find the never-ending-string yo-yo we confiscated from you,' replied Madame Joan.

'Oh, yeah,' nodded Merlynna. 'Now I remember. Any chance of getting that back. I traded a whole lot of magic beans for it.'

'Not. A. Chance,' Mrs Good blurted out. 'You almost decapitated several of the girls with it. Now answer my question. What are you doing in the storage room so late at night?'

'I was trying to catch Fury and I may have wandered into the storage room looking for him.'

'And what was that very loud crash we heard? It sounded like a train had come through the orphanage.'

With a look of bewilderment, Merlynna shrugged. 'Crash?' What crash? I didn't hear a crash.'

'Merlynnnnnnnna!' snapped Miss Harrower.

'Okay, it was me. I crashed into the storage room while on a broom and caused this mess.'

The three old witches glared.

'You were riding inside?' Mrs Good screeched, causing Merlynna to cover her ears.

'I don't really think what I was doing could be considered riding. As usual, I was all over the place.'

'Merlynnnnnnnnna!' Miss Harrower snapped again.

'Okay, I'm sorry. It won't happen again. And I'll tidy up. I'll also fix the walls downstairs.'

'What happened to the walls?'

'Fury may have put a few scratches on them.'

The old witches glared again.

'Just a few,' said Merlynna. 'Easy to fix.'

Mrs Good put her head in her hand. 'Merlynna.'

'Yes?'

'Just go to your room.'

'Will do, ma'am.' Padding her pocket to make sure the glowing shard was still there and not about to pop out, Merlynna walked past Miss Harrower, Madame Joan and Mrs Good and headed off.