Maghatch is a major antagonist in Garry Kilworth's first Welkin Weasels book, Thunder Oak. She is a feared mouflon witch who attacks Sylver and his friends.
Overview[]
After the humans left the island of Welkin, called away by some ancient magic, the same magic animated objects in Welkin, such as statues and gave them sentience. With animals, it gave them consciousness and the power of speech and dexterity. It also gave certain animals magic, many of whom misused it for their own evil deeds. Wodehed the magician was a weasel who was gifted with magic, yet he used it sparingly, to aid others. Maghatch, however, was a cruel, evil witch who used her magic to curse others.
Personality[]
A bad-tempered, cruel individual, Maghatch was witty in her own way as she was able to joke about animals in peril - but this made her all the more sadistic. She was similar to Circe the witch from the Greek myth, and she may have been partially based on her, given how she loved transforming her enemies into animals for no good reason other than sadism. She was so feared hardened soldiers would go mad upon seeing her. However, her magic was no superiority to brute strength - she was only scared of wild dogs, and when that threat passed she joined forces with the bully (Falshed) to tell him where Sylver had gone. Maghatch possibly lived by a code similar to "please everybody" - a code known to get many individuals in heaps of trouble in their lives.
Biography[]
Backstory[]
Maghatch had been known as a feared and dangerous witch, who was also witty and intelligent, and any travellers would do their best to avoid her wood at all costs, for fear of what she might do to them. Such was her fearsome reputation that she desired Sylver the weasel, seeker of the lost human race, for her own, because she knew if she had a famed outlaw as a slave - she thought him "dangerous" and longed to have such an individual at her beck and call - then no one would challenge her and her repute would skyrocket amongst sorcerers. She was so fearsome even hardened stoats like Sheriff Falshed would avoid her chapel.
Thunder Oak[]
She first appears when Sylver and his band have gone seeking a possible prisoner badger of the witch. Mawk the doubter, the coward of the group, is also the voice of reason and he openly says this is a trap. Not so long later, Maghatch herself appears, as a giant menacing mouflon, and she taunts the weasels about falling for such an obvious lie. She is about to enchant them - but Wodehed steps in and urges her to wilt, using his sorcery. She is intrigued, but disappointed when the only spell Wodehed accomplishes is to turn one of her ancient horns into a long-dead herring.
Cackling, Maghatch transforms the weasels in the party. They all get transformed into human beings - causing Sylver to flee in terror. Even though he is seeking the humans' return, he is not prepared to face them so suddenly. When the witch sends his transformed friends in search of him, Sylver hides, and only comes out when the witch enchants them once more.
This time, he promises to stay with them, and not flee - even if they become demons.
However, Maghatch changes them into cute rabbits - but the downside is that the rabbits are petrified of seeing (in their eyes) a predatory weasel in their midst, and flee down a hole. Maghatch cackles through the forest with laughter.
Sylver then sorrowfully agrees to be her slave, and Maghatch orders him to fetch disgusting ingredients such as beetle larvae eggs for her potions for around a week - then she will let him go. However, not wholly trusting the word of a witch who he saw torture his friends, Sylver one day finds Scirf, one of his friends, in rabbit form, and he tries to pass him on a message. To make matters worse, Sheriff Falshed, Sylver's old arch-enemy, has found him. He is at first delighted about finding his old foe, but confused and suspicious about when Sylver dejectedly agrees to be arrested. Just then, Maghatch appears - terrifying Sheriff Falshed into compliance.
Frightened so much by Falshed's threats to roast some rabbits for the pot, Sylver flees to a badger set, where the reluctant badger friend of his father informs him about Gnaish the wild dog, and Sylver heads there. Gnaish is eager to help Sylver, if only to see humans return to the land. So, Gnaish is the only thing a mouflon will fear, and together they confront the witch, forcing her and demanding that she return the cursed rabbits to normal. She does so, only sulkily and reluctantly, and soon Sylver and his restored friends are on their way the next day. As for Falshed, Sylver has no doubt the sulking witch will only be too happy to tell him where the band travelled to next.