Little Witch Emily Is Sad

 Emily was sad. She had heard her Grandmother, Hag Sabrena, was being retired by the other witches because she was three hundred years old. It was mandatory that in her family, witches would be retired and forced to live in a forest where only other retired witches lived. There would be no more practical jokes on regular humans or animals. She would have to live out her days being bored. She would not be able to cast spells any longer. Emily couldn't imagine life without having a little fun.

Emily was just an apprentice witch because she was only fifty six years old. She was still making mistakes on the spells she cast on animals. She would be so happy to graduate and be a full fledged witch. 
She was tired of turning rabbits  into skunks and skunks into porcupines. She was getting better and better, but so far could not get one hundred per cent on her weekly tests by the head of the hag school she had to attend before she could be on her own. She felt really bad about her friend's dog. She had tried to make him into a puppy again and it had resulted into turning him orange. She was having trouble concentrating because of his growling at her. She told him to shush and be patient. Soon he would be back to normal if all went well. In her mind she thought, "Poor, Oscar. I'll try to hurry to get you back to normal."

As Emily sat in the quiet forest studying her spell book she could  hear the croaking of her old Hag. Surely she wasn't crying. She had never heard her grandmother cry. She just had to find a spell that would give her old grandmother a shot of youth. She had an idea. She had a friend, Marlee, that had already graduated into the intermediate class. She would get in touch with her and tell her that she needed her help. She knew at this time of day she would be soaking in a tub of cold water to rejuvenate her lightning fast speed in her specialty of zapping spiders for her special brew of highly specialized memory tonic.. Maybe that would be the answer. She smiled. She thought that a glass of Marlee's special brew would make Hag Sabrena's spells be better. She sent one of her favorite squirrels to give Marlee the message. Jimmy was a good squirrel and was always ready for her to experiment on him.

All of a sudden Emily heard a terrible screech and a splat just on the edge of the forest. It looked like it was close to the humans that lived nearby. "Oh no! Poor Liz. "Sorry, Liz. I didn't mean to do that. Just a minute. I'll start over. I'll hurry, now you just have to wait a bit." She quickly turned the pages of her Spell Book and for the life of her she couldn't find a spell to get her friend, Liz, free from the tree.

The little witch ran over to the tree and much to her surprise there was her grandmother's face also fastened onto the back of the tree. "Oh dear, oh dear. What can I do? What can I do? At this rate I will never graduate and my dear grandmother will not live in her  forest with her witch friends. Maybe this Spell Book is out of date. Dear Hag Sabrena what shall I do? Please tell me. Cast a spell of what? You have got to be kidding me. I don't need a man to help me. Marlee is trying to stir up a brew to make you younger, and I am rereading my book. Surely we don't need a warlock to solve this problem.

The longer she sat looking through her worn out Spell Book the more worried she got. She thought she could hear her grandmother's witch friends coming through the forest looking for her. They were coming to carry her away to the retirement forest where she would never be able to cast another spell. Oh dear, oh dear. Their chanting is getting closer and closer. What shall I do?  She would surely die of loneliness and boredom in that retirement place. She just couldn't let that happen.