'Me? No. We're - we're - ' Granny began.
'Fairies,' said Magrat.
Granny Weatherwax's mouth dropped open. Such an explanation would never have occurred to her.
'Only my mummy warned me about the wicked witch too,' said the girl. She gave Magrat a sharp look. 'What kind of fairies?'
'Er. Flower fairies?' said Magrat. 'Look, I've got a wand -'
'Which ones?'
'What?'
'Which flowers?'
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'Er,' said Magrat. 'Well. I'm . . . Fairy Tulip and that's ..." she avoided looking directly at Granny, '. . . Fairy . . . Daisy . . . and this is . . .'
'Fairy Hedgehog,' said Nanny Ogg.
This addition to the supernatural pantheon was given duc consideration.
'You can't be Fairy Hedgehog,' said the child, after some thought. 'A hedgehog's not a flower.'
'How do you know?'
' 'Cos it's got spikes.'
'So's holly. And thistles.'
'Oh.'
'And I've got a wand,' said Magrat. Only now did she risk a look at Fairy Daisy.
'We ought to be getting along,' said Granny Weather-wax. 'You just stay here with Fairy Tulip, I think it was, and we'll just go and make sure your granny's all right. All right?'
'I bet it's not a real wand,' said the child, ignoring her and facing Magrat with a child's unerring ability to find a weak link in any chain. 'I bet it can't turn things into things.'
'Well - ' Magrat began.
'I bet,' said the girl, 'I bet you can't turn that tree stump over there into . . . into . . . into a pumpkin. Haha, bet you anything you can't. Bet you a trillion dollars you can't turn that stump into a pumpkin.'
'I can see the two of you are going to get along fine,' said Fairy Hedgehog. 'We won't be long.'
Two broomsticks skimmed low above the forest path.
'Could just be coincidence,' said Nanny Ogg.
' 'T'aint,' said Granny. "The child even has a red cloak on!'
'I had a red cloak when I was fifteen,' said Nanny.
'Yes, but your granny lived next door. You didn't have to worry about wolves when you visited her,' said Granny.
'Except old Sumpkins the lodger.'
'Yes, but that was just coincidence.'