After that, the branch really began to climb.  Sandy went from feeling like she was walking up a gentle slope to wondering how steep it would have to get before her legs started aching too much to go on.  Below them, the town shrunk from the streets and houses they recognised to a bunch of lights and patterns in the dark.  And they still weren’t anywhere near the end.

“You really don’t know who gave you it?” asked Anastasia.

“No.”  Sandy thought a little, then added, “Well, there was this old lady I met just before Halloween, but…”  If it was Mrs Jaeger who gave you this plant, then you’re an idiot for climbing it. “Well, I don’t know why she’d be giving me presents, but she’s the only one I can think of who’d have something like this.” 

“Something magic,” said Anastasia- quietly, as if she was worried somebody might overhear her.

“Well, yeah,” said Sandy, “I guess.”  There wasn’t anything else to add to that.  There was only one word for a plant that grew like this.

Anastasia squinted up at the plant ahead of her.  “How far up do you think it goes?”

“Dunno.”  Sandy thought of something.  “How far up do you have to go before it stops being sky and starts being space?”

“We’ll know when we stop breathing.”  Anastasia said it light-heartedly, but Sandy could really have done without having to think about that.  “What’s that up there?”

Sandy looked ahead.  There was a strange, shadowy thing about twenty yards up.  “Um…  An extra branch, I think?  Or maybe…”

They moved ahead, and she saw a few more details.  It was a thorn, Sandy was sure of it.  A red-cabbage-purple thorn with dark spots, so big that the branch had to swell in the middle to accommodate it. 

It looked about five foot tall, and it was right in the middle of the path.

“Is it safe to touch?” asked Anastasia.

“I don’t know.”  Keeley’s words suddenly came back:  You watch- prick your finger on one of them, your hand’ll swell up and explode.  “I hope so.  I don’t know how we’re going to get around it if we don’t.”

Anastasia paused for a moment, analysing the giant thorn ahead of them.  Then she skipped forward and went right up to it.

Sandy thought she was going to touch it.  She was positive- Anastasia would give it a playful tap, then announce that it was safe and Sandy could come up after her.  But that’s not what happened.  Instead, Anastasia leaned backwards as if she was doing the limbo, and moved around it.

She looked as if her whole upper body was hanging off the branch, and Sandy suddenly wondered why she hadn’t been more worried about them falling until now.  They had to be at least a few hundred feet up by now.  Nearly aeroplane height.  Sandy looked down at Anastasia’s shoes- little black ballet flats, not much grip at all.  One slip and slide of the soles, and she’d be falling through the air.  But there she was, dancing around the thorn as if she knew there was a safety net.

On the other side of the thorn, Anastasia straightened up and waved.

Sandy moved slowly, one foot in front of the other, one hand on the side of the thorn.  She still wasn’t sure if touching it was a great idea, but there was no stinging or tingling in her palm as she did it, which was probably a good sign. 

Anastasia caught her eye, and shook her head.  “Tch.  Where’s your sense of adventure?”  And she skipped ahead again.

(To be continued)