As Elspeth finished her incantation James felt strange for a moment as if he were shrinking, the room growing and swallowing him. Then all of a sudden he was somewhere different.
It was magic that sent him wherever he was for sure, but had the witch messed up and used the wrong spell? Rather than being turned into a child's toy he had been transported to an empty meadow somewhere. Had he inadvertently escaped Elspeth? Even if he had there was no immediate clue to his location or how to get home.
In fact there was something unsettlingly unreal about this place. The grass was too perfectly green and fresh, the sky bluer than he had ever seen it before and the clouds looked as if they had been hand drawn. Still, the breeze against his naked skin and the feel of the grass underneath his feet assured him this was real.
Just as he was about to try and get his bearings he heard a familiar voice booming over his head.
"Ok children, it's time for your story!" Elspeth announced proudly.
"What kind of story?" A young boy's voice asked.
"Any kind of story you like" Elspeth answered "As long as it's about James"
"Who's James?" a young girl wanted to know.
"My new friend" Elspeth answered "he's very kindly agreed to be the star of your magic book"
Wait? What? So James was in a book? With everything he had experienced recently that just about made sense to him. So what was this? A choose your own adventure for children? Suddenly James' concentration was broken by the sound of giggling.
"He's not wearing any clothes!" the little girl laughed. James instantly placed both hands in front of his manhood.
"I can still see his bum!" the little boy laughed.
"Well, you can dress him however you want, this is your story after all" Elspeth explained "the only rules are that James must always be the lead character and he can't die. If you try that then the story will end, James will return to reality and I will be very cross with you"
"But we can do anything else we want to him?" The boy asked hopefully.
"Yes, but play nice. James is been very generous in agreeing to be your entertainment for the evening so make it a nice story. Just say how you would like it to go and the book will make it happen. Now, I have a dinner to attend to so I'll leave you to it. Behave ok?"
"Yes Auntie Elspeth!" The children answered angelically in unison.
After a few moments of silence James could hear ominous whispering and giggling from the young voices above the clouds.
"What shall we do then?" One of the voices asked eventually.