Nicola was unable to restrain herself from acting on her initial instinct to insult this creep. She'd had enough of these magical types by now and her anger monentarily outweighed her fear.
However, as she tried to speak she felt something stopping her, a restraining force that was far more powerful than she was. She tried again to get the words out but it wasn't happening. Had one of the wizards done this to her? No, why would they do that when they wanted to speak to her. No, wait! It must have been Noelle! That reassuring touch she had felt on her arm a few moments ago had been a spell to mute her! Damn it, did she not trust her not to say anything stupid or inflammatory?
As Nicola calmed down, she realised it may have been for the best. Speculating negatively about the size of a wizards manhood probably wouldn't have gone down well. But she was on board with being diplomatic now, could she have her voice back already?
"See, I told you. She doesn't understand you" Noelle answered smugly as Nicola tried not to glare too hard at Cedric.
"That's fine, she doesn't really need to" the wizard shrugged. Then with a sudden and unexpected arm gesture, he appeared to make Nicola vanish.
"Hey, what have you done to her?" Noelle shouted accusingly, her calm demeanor gone as if a switch had been flicked.
"She's fine" Cedric sighed nonchalently "I've merely sent her on ahead. I'd invite you as well, but you talk too much and the authorities might take a dim view of us using a local girl for our entertainment. Now, a foreigner on the other hand..."
"Come on Edmund" Cedric winked maliciously before dissapearing along with his friend,
"Shit!" Noelle panicked to herself as what had just happened began to sink in "Shit! Shit! Shit!"
It was at that point she remembered the reason they were here in the first place.
"James, are you ok down there?" Noelle knelt down next to the long grass where James had been hiding.
"Gribbit - what happened?" The small green figure asked as he hopped into sight. It had been kind of hard to follow from his vantage point but he knew it wasn't good "where is - gribbit - Nicola"
"We'll find her" Noelle spoke reassuringly as she lay her hand on the ground in front of James "hop on"
The beautiful giant witch then raised James to eye level as she spoke gently to him "Look, I know you are probably regretting ever meeting me right now, but I promise I will fix this for both of you, ok?"
With no other offers of help forthcoming, James nodded.
Meanwhile, once she had gotten over the shock of her sudden, unexpected teleportation, Nicola found she had been transported to..