ThE RaCe Of ThE WitChEs On bRoOmStIcKs

Once the young witches living in Witch-Land decided that they wanted to see which witch could fly the fastest on their broomsticks and that which witch was more intelligent than the other. So they decided to have a race. They went to the witch’s union and told them to arrange a race for them in which they can prove themselves and stand out in front of others. The head witch in the witch union who had to arrange for the race asked for 2 months time in which she would prepare the race for those witches. The young witches agreed to it and tried to wait that long.

Those witches were lazy. They did not want to practice also because they did not wanted to show other witches how fast they were and bring in more competition and thus cause themselves to exert themselves more.

Two months passed and those witches did nothing but fought and quarrelled amongst themselves, which was a part of their nature.

At the end of two months they went to the head of the witch’s union and asked her if she was done preparing the race for them. The head witch said politely “yes”. She said that the race will begin after 3 days when the sun is about to rise i.e. during dawn of the third day. She also warned the witches that the race will not be easy and all the young witches who want to take part in the race should come well prepared. Each of the witch boasted saying that she was better than the rest of them and that nobody could beat her.

Amongst all of them was a young witch whose name was Catastrophe. Although her name was deadly but she was very  nice to the other witches and did not wanted to take part in the race as she did not agree to fact of racing and thus one being proven superior to others in her wit and activeness. But since she was young and docile she had to listen to other witches and therefore had to take part in the race. So when she was forced to do so she decided that if she takes part in the race she will definitely win it.

Now to do the wit part she said that time will tell but to do the racing part she did something unique. She got her broomstick and streamlined it. How she streamlined it was that she picked up a sharp blade and sharpened the blunt part of the front side of the broom in such a way that it looks like the sharp tip of front part of an arrow. He knew that this will decrease the drag on her flight when she flies during the race. Then she hid her broomstick so that nobody gets that idea.

Dawn of the third day approached therefore all the young witches lined up at the starting line before the sun rise before  start of the race. Catastrophe also lined up there and waited for the race to start.

The rules of that race began as follows. In that race first they had to cross a circle made of smoke and that too in such a way so as to go around the circumference perpendicular to the circle’s circumference so as to form a spring like loops or pattern around the circle’s circumference. This had to  be done 50 times. This was to be done to check that the witches had a fit brain and that they did not loose their concentration while flying.

Then they had to cross a star which was also made of magical smoke. The star had to be crossed in such a way that they fly over to the top of the star and jump down leaving the broomstick. The broomstick by that time had to follow the complete path of the star’s circumference and meet the witch in the centre of the star thus catching her witch owner and making her sit on it. The witch who catches her broomstick and thus gets seated on it at the point nearest to the centre of the star scores the maximum point. This race was conducted to see that how well is a witch coordinated with her flying broomstick which she has to ride forever for her life.

The third part of the race was they had to fly over a triangle which was again made of smoke. While flying over the triangle they had to move over the triangle’s perimeter cutting sharply through the corners. This test was conducted to see that how much control do witches have on their broomstick while turning. The witch who turns most sharply wins that round.

Fourth part of the race was to check the wit of the witches. In this part they had to go to the marked forest and pick up a green coloured flower. Now remember that the flower is green in colour i.e. it is difficult to find a green colour flower amongst green leaves because leaves are sometimes arranged in a flower like pattern too. Second thing that made it tough was that there was only one green coloured flower in that part of the forest thus it was difficult to find it.

Fifth part was also to check the wit of the young witches. In this part of the race they had to find a bonsai apple which was the size of the cherries amongst stack of cherries.

The sixth part of the race was to find a hail stone amongst ice in the icy mountains.

So the race began with the passing of a broomstick across the front of the starting line at the beginning of the sunrise. All witches yelled and squeaked and moved forward flying on their broomsticks. As they flew near the smoky circle all tried to go 50 times in a spring like pattern around the circumference but many of them fainted on their broomstick and many fell on the ground.

The remaining witches including Catastrophe who could complete it flew to the second round. In that round too, many witches fell on the ground away from their broomsticks as they were not well coordinated with their broomsticks.

Now the remaining witches tried completing the third round by doing steep and sharp turns on the corners of the triangle. Until now Catastrophe was leading the scores and thus she moved forward.

Now when the remaining witches reached the 4th round all witches looked confused except Catastrophe. Catastrophe had  though about how to find flower that had colours of a leaf amongst leaves. She knew that that even though visibly it would be difficult to distinguish the green flower amongst green leaves but she knew that in that part of the forest there was only one flower of that kind so its smell should be different from the leaves. So she reached there early and started smelling the leaves. After a minute or so she found an arrangement of leaves that looked like a flower and also smelled like one so she realized that that was the green coloured flower that is required by the race rules. So she plucked it and kept it in her pocket as a proof and flew towards the next part.

In the next part there was a stack of 50,000 cherries in which she had to find a bonsai apple that was as small as the cherries were and was also red in colour, same as that of cherries. This time she did some magic. She waived her magic wand and with magic broke all the stems of the stack of the fruits in front of her in the pile and took them to a vacant land and with magic, planted them and made them grow in a blink of an eye. When the plants grew she flew across all the plants and saw that all the cherry plants had similar structure except one tree that was different than the cherry plants and then she knew which was the bonsai apple tree. Then she commanded her magic wand to tell her that from which stem did that bonsai apple tree grew from and that that belonged to which fruit. The wand told her immediately by pointing towards the fruit. She then picked the bonsai apple up and flew to the icy mountains for the next round. Since wands cannot decipher themselves she had to do that trick

To find a hail stone amongst ice was difficult but she did not lose hope. She though that since it was the last round it would be very difficult and since all rounds have to be won to win the race she had to win this round anyhow too.

When she reached the icy mountains all that she saw was ice except for a small pebble rock. Now that pebble rock looked strange amongst all the ice so she went near it to check it out. When she lifted it up she saw a spherical piece of ice beneath it which she immediately realized that it is the hail stone because it was spherical and uniquely white as wanted by the competition. She picked it up cast a spell on it so that it does not melt while on the way and flew back to the starting point which was also the ending point of the race and won it.

The witches realized that although Catastrophe was young but she was intelligent enough to outsmart every witch. From that day on they stopped pushing her around and she gained new self respect.