Читать книгу Father Christmas and Me - Matt Haig - Страница 14

The Cat and the Reindeer

o!’ I screamed.

The thing is it would have been fine if Captain Soot had jumped backwards into the sleigh. But he didn’t. He jumped in the opposite direction. Forwards. Out of the sleigh. And when I looked over the side of the sleigh I couldn’t see him. He was nowhere.

And then I spotted him.

Captain Soot had landed on Blitzen’s back, where he was now clinging on for his life. Blitzen turned his head to see the black furry creature digging its claws into his fur and his eyes widened in horror. He wriggled to try to shake the cat off. I didn’t see much after that because I was flung back, falling into the sleigh and unable to stand up because it was wobbling so much. I tried to catch hold of the reins but the sleigh was tilting so fast – up and down and side to side.

‘Blitzen! Calm down! Blitzen! It’s all right! It’s just a cat! Blitzen! BLITZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHH!’

Blitzen was now charging at full speed, overtaking even Dasher, and leaving all the other elves and reindeer far behind in the sky.

I could just about hear Kip’s voice far away, bellowing, ‘Amelia! Amelia! What are you doing? Come back here this instant! Get control of your reindeer now! Amelia! This is your final . . .’

I could no longer hear Kip. Blitzen was galloping at breakneck speed. The sleigh was now a little bit steadier because Blitzen was travelling in one direction incredibly fast.

Somehow, with great effort, I managed to get to my feet. Gripping both sides of the sleigh, I looked over and realised to my horror that we were heading straight for the place we were told to avoid – the Wooded Hills.

I looked behind and could hardly see the other sleighs. Elfhelm was like a little colourful toy village disappearing into the distance.

‘Oh no, oh no, oh no.’

I leaned over the side, desperately trying to grasp hold of the leather reins that were whipping about like over-excited snakes.

‘Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no.’

It was useless. I couldn’t grab them. I saw Captain Soot clawing his way over Blitzen’s back, towards his neck.

‘No, Captain! No. This way. Come to me. Come on. Please, Captain. Please!’

It was no good saying ‘please’ to a cat. It was no good saying anything to a cat, really. A cat is a cat. But what else could I do?

It seemed that Blitzen was almost trying to gallop away from Captain Soot. Which was quite a difficult thing to do, as Captain Soot was attached to his back.

I looked down at the ground. We were very high. Higher than the trees that we were flying over. And very far away from Elfhelm, now. In fact, it was nowhere to be seen. We were probably miles away.

‘Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no.’

‘Blitzen!’ I shouted one last time at the crazed reindeer. ‘It’s all right. It’s all right. It’s . . .’

I had an idea.

It was a totally stupid idea, but it was the only one I had.

I had to get control of Blitzen. And I couldn’t get control of him from the sleigh. That was absolutely impossible now that I didn’t have the reins.

No. The only way I could get control of Blitzen, and the reins, and grab hold of Captain Soot, was to jump from the sleigh onto the reindeer’s back.