Tiffany Aching, the young witch of The Chalk, is at the annual Scouring Fair. She notices that many of the young men and women take this as the chance to try and form a relationship. She muses over the Giant carved into the chalk. During the cheese-rolling competition, at which Horace cheats, while tending to a broken leg she makes acquaintance with Letitia Keepsake, Roland`s fiancee. They do not exactly hit it off.

A spoof sport of the Chalk
farthing stamp showing the Chalk Giant

That night she has a difficult situation with a drunken father who has caused his young daughter, Amber Petty, to lose her baby. Tiffany advises Mr Petty to leave the area when the villagers can be heard approaching, banging and chanting - rough music. Tiffany takes Amber to the Feegle Kelda for the Soothings, to help her forget the bad parts of her experience.
Then it is over to the old Baron in his castle. He is ill and Tiffany regularly draws off the pain and throws it out of the window. The Baron offers her a bag of money, fully aware of its value, for Tiffany to help others. Miss Spruce, the nurse who obviously resents Tiffany`s abilities, enters just as the Baron passes away with Tiffany leaning over him clutching the money. With Roland absent on a visit to Ankh-Morpork there is a bit of confusion as to whether Tiffany should be arrested, but Preston the new trainee guard helps her out.

The Baron`s Castle illustrates one of the
One Farthing stamps from the second
issue of stamps from The Chalk.

The Ankh-Morpork skyline as shown on the $1 Civic stamp. The Unseen University lies at the centre

Tiffany flies with some Feegles to the Ankh-Morpork to tell Roland the bad news. On the way the Feegles set her broom alight so she lands on a Lancre mailcoach. On a stop she detects a presence - a man with no eyes, who can speak words of hate directly into her mind, and whose presence is characterised by a stink. In the city she heads straight to Mrs Proust at the Boffo Novelty shop on Tenth Egg St. The Feegles head out to find Roland calling in at various pubs. At the Kings Head they meet Wee Mad Arthur of the City Watch who is unaware he is also a Feegle. Roland is found with Letitia and her mother, the Duchess. While she tells them the news, it becomes apparent that witches are not liked in the city, and people are getting threatening, The horrible smell appears again and the man with no eyes is there in the crowd. He seems to be fermenting the anti-witch feelings.

The Mailcoach Penny Patrician that was only
avaiable in booklets of 6 stamps from the
Green Cabbage Trading scheme

Return cover addressed to the Boffo Novelty & Joke
Shop It is stamped with the rare 12p on 10p
Morpokia overprint

Tiffany suddenly drops down a  hole in the street, and underground is led through a series of tunnels by Miss Smith to  where she is living. They are under a particularly magical area, the Unreal Estate, where the wizards at the university dump their rubbish; it has previously been mentioned in connection to sentient rats. Miss Smith tells Tiffany of a story from 1000 years ago. A young Omnian priest is instructed to work as a witchfnder. He catches one, but is strongly attracted to her, She is sentenced to be burned at the stake. Wondering if hr could or should set her free he walks across to her. But as the torch is dropped on the firewood the witch grabs hold of him and they burn together, He survives but with a burning hatred of witches. His hatred is so great that it lives on after his death and The Cunning Man was born. He now seems to have been awoken  two years ago, just when Tiffany kissed The Wintersmith. Miss Smith is revealed as Eskarina, the only female wizard ever

The Unseen University Great Hall as it may appear    An Omnian 1 Obal stamp with attached    The Ramtop One Farthing stamp which features
from the Unreal Estate due to the thaumatic            tract label. The text perhaps should have    the Wintersmith as he would appeared to Tiffany.
disturbances there                                                 been read by that young priest!                                                                                        

Arriving back home with the Feegles they find the Baron`s men about to start digging into the Feegle mound. Rob Anybody is as angry as he has ever been. Tiffany calms the situation down. The guards explain that they are there to take Amber back to her parents. Tiff says she will take Amber to see the new Baron, Roland, and let her say where she wants to be. Jeannie, the Kelda, says Amber has surprising abilities. She has learned and understood the Soothings, something only a Kelda can do.
Back in own bed she dreams that her bed is on fire. Flames lick up, without burning her. A hare appears and jumps through there fire. The hare runs into the flames. Back at the castle Tiffany has only one friend, Preston, while all the rest, Baron and staff alike are all anti-witch. The Duchess is very overbearing and domineering towards both her daughter and Roland. Tiffany is put in the dungeon, accused of theft and the killing of the old Baron (and a cook who was drunk and fell down the stone steps to the cellar). She can get out easily through the chimney with her broomstick. Using her See-Me abilities she visits Letitia`s room. Letitia immediately knows that Tiffany is there, so she reveals herself. Letitia is feeling guilty that she has not been nice to to Tiffany, and confesses she always wanted to be a witch, but good looks, blonde hair and being the daughter of a Duke did not fit the job description. They fly to Keepsake Hall where Letitia has a rapport with the numerous ghosts roaming at night. In the library she gives Tiffany a gift as recompense for putting a doll of her head first in a bucket of sand. One large grimoire starts to open - it is a copy of Bonfire of the Witches, written by the Cunning Man in his Omnian priest days. They manage to put it into a book press before he can escape the pages.

The day for the old Baron`s funeral and Roland`s wedding approaches. Letitia confesses all to Roland and explains that Tiffany is a good witch. For some reason Tiffany says Roland I will marry you. The Cunning Man keeps trying to materialise through mirrors and a tapestry. Eskarina reappears, freezing time, while she explains that Tiffany has to defeat him; Tiffany alone. If she fails the other witches would have to remove them both into oblivion. Back in Ankh-Morpork an evil killer, McIntosh, has bent the steel bars of his cell in the Tanty and is heading towards The Chalk.
Guests are arriving for the ceremonies at the  castle, Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, Verence and Magrat of Lancre, and Pastor Egg who will officiate. Mrs Proust arrives with Long Tall Short Fat Sally and Mrs Happenstance. The importance of what Tiffany does is becoming apparent. Letitia has had a lonely upbringing and it requires Nanny Ogg to explain what her what will happen after the marriage - to much tittering. Mrs Proust recognises the Duchess as one of the dancing girls in the music halls of Ankh-Morpork and she is forced to drop her affectations and hoity-toitiness

Nanny Ogg from the Royal Mail stamp from the Magical Realms special issue
This could have been at the Baron`s wake - or countless other opportunities for a drink

Tiffany prepares to meet The Cunning Man. She can feel the  body of McIntosh, driven by the Cunning Man, approaching. Preston and the Feegles are forbidden to help. She and Letitia fly out to the King Field, thick with stubble after the harvest. One job they have to do first is to pull a drunken, trouserless Roland out of the pigsty where he had been dumped on his stag night. McIntosh appears, so Tiffany, Roland and Letitia run from him, hand in hand. Preston does have a part to play; to set the stubble alight. Tiffany can see him and a shadowy figure in a pointy black hat. The three run on, side by side, with a hare towards and through the flames. The hare runs into the flames. The flames consume McIntosh and the Cunning Man will not return for a long time. Tiffany explains to Roland that jumping through flames like that was a very old marriage ceremony, but they need to return to the castle for a more formal ceremony
The Ankh-Morpork Three-farthings stamp issued to commemorate
the Year of the Pensive Hare.
It was only available to Journal subscribers

It is revealed that Amber Petty`s beau sewed Letitia`s wedding dress, Roland grants Tiffany wishes. She wants the Feegles to have their own land, and an old barn on the Aching Farm converted to school and Preston to be a teacher. In a year he could have earned enough to train as a doctor at the Lady Sybil.
Eskarina reappears and reveals that Tiffany did have help defeating the Cunning Man. It was in the form of her older self who stepped back in time with the help of Esk. Old Tiffany disappears before answering any of Tiffany`s questions. The shadowy figure she saw was dressed in black was herself. When I am old I shall wear midnight Tiffany had said.