by Lindsey Kelk
Down on the ground, right in front of them, a little pink puffball with big eyes, a smiley face, short arms and little legs appeared out of nowhere. It came up no higher than Cinders’s knee and right away she noticed, in its arms, a huge pile of gingerbread crumbs.
‘Oi!’ Cinders shouted, hopping down from her horse. ‘What are you doing with those?’
The fluffy pink creature paused for a second, staring open-mouthed at the girl as she marched over.
‘What’s wrong?’ Cinders asked. ‘Can’t you hear me?’
‘I can hear you all right,’ the thing squeaked. ‘But a better question would be, can you see me?’
‘I most certainly can,’ she replied.
‘Crumbs!’ the creature whispered, dropping its precious load of gingerbread in surprise.
‘Exactly,’ Cinders agreed. ‘Now, do you want to tell me what’s going on here?’
‘We’re not going to hurt you,’ Cinders said as she sat down next to the little creature. It was trembling, its pale pink fur puffed out on end. ‘I’m Cinders, and these are my friends – Hansel, Sparks and Mouse.’
‘Mouse?’
‘He’s a horse,’ she answered. ‘It’s a long story.’
‘He was a mouse and then Cinders wished he was a horse and then he never turned back properly,’ Hansel called.
‘Not that long a story then,’ the pink puffball said.
‘I suppose not,’ Cinders said with a shrug. ‘So what’s your name?’ She smiled at the furry little thing as it gave her a suspicious look. It really was very cute, she thought to herself. Definitely superior to munklepoops and grumpy bears as far as creatures of the Dark Forest went.
‘My name is Bloop,’ it said eventually. ‘Pleased to meet you.’
‘Pleased to meet you too,’ said Cinders. She held out her hand to shake, but Bloop took a step backwards and stared at her as though she was weird. Not a hand-shaker, she noted. That was fine. ‘And not to be rude,’ she added, ‘but what exactly are you?’
‘Me?’ Bloop replied, eyes wide with astonishment. ‘I’m a blobble, of course. Isn’t it obvious?’
‘Not really,’ said Cinders. ‘Sorry.’
‘I don’t think I’ve ever even heard of a blobble before,’ said Sparks.
‘I suppose that makes sense.’ Bloop gave a wise nod. ‘We’re usually invisible to everyone but our owners.’
‘But … we don’t own you,’ said Cinders.
‘I know,’ said Bloop. ‘It’s all a bit strange.’
‘And what are you doing here?’ Cinders asked, wondering if it would be all right for her to give Bloop a stroke. She’d never seen such soft fur, but she knew you weren’t supposed to touch people, or blobbles, without asking permission first, and they had only just met.
‘I belong to the royal family of, um … well, a place,’ Bloop said, casting his eyes left and right shiftily, ‘and my job is to protect the, er, place … from intruders. Which unfortunately includes you.’
‘Well, I never,’ Sparks huffed, far less interested in stroking the little pink ball of fluff, but strongly considering giving it an investigatory sniff. ‘Intruders? How rude!’
‘We’re not intruders,’ Cinders insisted. ‘We’re questers. We’re on a quest to find Fairyland and we’re looking for the Alabaster Tower. Can you help us, Bloop?’
At that, Bloop’s eyes grew very, very wide. ‘I’m afraid I can’t tell you anything unless you know the secret password. Very sorry – you seem perfectly nice – but rules is rules,’ he said, collecting his spilled breadcrumbs as quickly as he could. ‘Nice to meet you all. A horse that used to be a mouse, eh? What will they think of next?’
‘Wait!’ Cinders cried. ‘Please don’t leave!’
But it was too late. As quickly as he had appeared, Bloop the blobble vanished, leaving the four of them all alone in the woods.
‘Oh, flipping fiddlesticks!’ Cinders sobbed, a big fat tear falling down her cheek.
‘Now, now,’ Sparks chided. ‘No need for that sort of language.’
‘No need?’ she replied, spinning round in the dirt with tears running down her face. ‘No need? Sparks, there’s every need! We’re tired, we’re hungry, we almost got eaten by a miffed bear and a munklepoop, and now some flipping pink puffball has nicked our breadcrumbs so we have no idea where we’re going or how to get home. I’m starting to think this whole thing was a terrible idea. We should have stayed in the palace and let the king lock me up in the dungeons for all the use I’ve been. Some quester I’ve turned out to be.’
‘That’s it, young lady!’ Sparks barked, his fur positively bristling.
Cinders blinked at her lifelong puppy pal. Was he shouting at her? When she was sad?
‘I’m not having this!’ Sparks went on. He was definitely shouting. ‘We’ve no time for you to sit around feeling sorry for yourself. It’s been a big week, I’ll grant you. You’ve found out you’re half fairy and have magical powers, you’ve met the prince, moved to the palace, been exiled by King Picklebottom, rescued Hansel, avoided being eaten by assorted animals and now you’ve met your first blobble.’
‘It’s pretty incredible when you think about it,’ Hansel mumbled to Mouse, who squeaked in agreement.
‘What of it?’ Cinders sniffed. She still felt like a failure.
‘You want to give up because a pile of breadcrumbs has disappeared?’ Sparks barked. ‘I’ve known you since you were born and I am not standing for this nonsense. It’s time to pull up your socks and find another way to Fairyland. I will not let you give up, Cinderella!’
Cinders gave a big gulp. People only used her full name when she really was in trouble.
Before anyone could say anything else, Bloop the blobble reappeared with a pop and a flash, plopping to the ground between the girl and her dog.
‘Giddy gadkins,’ he said, looking at them with great curiosity. ‘Did one of you just use the secret password?’
‘I don’t think so,’ Cinders said, wiping away her tears with the back of her hand. ‘We don’t know what it is, remember?’
‘That’s funny. I was sure I heard someone say Cinderella.’ He clapped his hand over his mouth quickly. ‘Not that Cinderella means anything, obviously.’
‘No, we did say that,’ Cinders said, frowning. ‘Sparks said it. Cinderella is my full name.’
‘That is very odd,’ Bloop said, scratching his head. ‘Because Cinderella is the secret password to the Alabaster Tower, as decreed by the royal family of Fairyland. Since you know it, I can take you to the tower right now, if you’d like?’
‘Good golly gosh,’ whispered Cinders. ‘What do you think that means?’
‘I really couldn’t say,’ Sparks replied before giving his friend a big, loving lick on the cheek. ‘Shall we go and find out?’
Back in the palace was another royal family, and they weren’t nearly as delighted to hear the name ‘Cinderella’.
King Picklebottom was sitting on his throne with the queen at his side, awaiting an update on the missing girl. Margery, Elly and Aggy sat silently in tall wooden chairs that had been pushed up against the walls. Not quite thrones, but close enough for now, Margery had thought to herself. It was only a matter of time before Joderick fell head over heels in love with one of her daughters, and then they’d all live in the palace forever, happily ever after.
Elly was about to suggest a quick afternoon game of I Spy to break the tension when the door to the throne room burst open. One of the king’s absolute favourite soldiers (mostly because he always kept his armour extra shiny) entered with a very worried look on his face.
‘Is she back?’ cried the king, rising to his feet.
‘She is not, Your Highness,’ said the soldier, ‘and I’m afraid I have some more not-altogether-brilliant news.’
‘If you’re going to tell me that Cook is out of ice cream, you can turn right back round,’ the king huffed. ‘It’s Tuesday and on Tuesday we have ice cream. Today has been bad e
nough already.’
‘In that case, I’ve got good news and bad news,’ the soldier replied.
‘Good news first,’ King Picklebottom demanded.
‘The good news is that Cook has three different kinds of ice cream,’ he said. ‘Chocolate, vanilla and floople blossom.’
‘Hmm,’ said the king. ‘I like floople blossom so that is good news. And the bad news?’
The soldier gulped. ‘Prince Joderick is missing.’
The queen
at the top of her lungs while Elly and Aggy
‘What do you mean he’s missing?’ bellowed the king. ‘He’ll be hiding in the kitchens or running around the gardens or getting up to something he shouldn’t as per usual.’
‘I’m afraid not,’ the soldier said, scratching his shiny silver helmet. ‘One of my guards spotted him entering the Dark Forest a little while ago, and we’ve conducted an exhaustive search of the palace. He’s nowhere to be found.’
‘But that’s preposterous!’ shouted King Picklebottom. He really was a very loud man. ‘I saw him only this morning when he was coming out of …’
And that was when he remembered. Joderick had been hurrying out of his private chambers. Looking shifty. With something hidden down his britches.
‘Just a mo!’ The king jumped off his throne and legged it down the corridor, throwing open the doors to his chambers before his guards could even catch up with him. Plopping down on to the floor (not an altogether easy task when wearing a full ermine-trimmed robe), he twisted open the secret compartment in the leg of his desk and reached inside. All that was left was half a sheet of parchment. His secret map to Fairyland had been ripped in two – Joderick must have torn it without realising.
Even worse – the letter and the painting were both missing. The last thing his father ever told him was to protect the map and hide the painting. This was not good news at all.
‘Oh, dear,’ he muttered to himself. ‘Oh, dear, oh, dear indeed.’
Looking up, he saw everyone from the throne room gathered round the doorway.
‘You!’ King Picklebottom cried, pointing at Margery. ‘Your daughter cast a spell on my son!’
‘Stepdaughter,’ Margery replied, realising she was in trouble. Without another word, she fell to her knees before the king and grabbed hold of his ankles as she wept. ‘I fear it is true, Your Highness. Cinders has cast a spell on us all!’ she wailed, forcing out a few fake tears for good measure. ‘But please, you must take pity on us. We were living under her spell as well. Even our home isn’t safe. The palace is the only place we can be protected from that little monster.’
‘Bit harsh,’ whispered Aggy.
‘Stay out of it,’ Elly whispered back.
‘All right, that’s quite enough of that,’ the king said, shaking the woman off his ankles. As annoying as she was, he had a sneaking suspicion she was cleverer than she was letting on, and the last thing he needed was her getting a look at his half-map and asking questions.
No one needed to know about the letter or the painting. Ever.
‘Her father must know something,’ he declared. ‘Bring him to me at once.’
‘My husband has been terribly ill ever since we arrived here,’ Margery explained, before lowering her voice to a whisper and wiping away an invisible tear. ‘I believe it’s another spell cast by his wicked daughter.’
The king paced back and forth, trying not to panic. On the one hand, he was very happy to leave Cinders in the Dark Forest to be gobbled up by nobbledizooks, but, on the other, he very much wanted Joderick back, even if he had stolen half his map.
‘Joderick would never disobey me and enter the Dark Forest unless he had been bewitched,’ the king decided, thinking out loud. ‘Therefore I reverse my decree.’
‘Which one?’ asked his first adviser.
‘The one I made yesterday,’ the king said.
‘The one about no one wearing yellow on Fridays?’ asked the second adviser.
‘No!’ yelled the king. ‘The other one!’
‘The one about everyone wearing yellow on Saturdays?’ asked a third.
‘The one about Cinderella’s exile!’ the king bawled. Honestly, you just couldn’t get the staff these days. ‘The girl is no longer exiled. She must be returned to the palace, and bring Prince Joderick with her.’
‘But who is going to go into the Dark Forest to find her?’ asked the king’s favourite soldier. He tried to cross his fingers behind his back, hoping very much that it wouldn’t be him, but it was almost impossible to cross your fingers while wearing a gauntlet.
The king climbed back on to his throne, his mind made up.
‘There’s only one person I can trust,’ he said with a dark look on his wrinkly face. ‘Get me the Huntsman.’
Hansel did not like the look of the Alabaster Tower one little bit.
It was too tall and too skinny. Imagine sweeping all the stairs that had to be inside? No, thank you. And he always ended up doing all the sweeping, no matter what. Gretel always nabbed the easy jobs.
Cinders, on the other hand, was ecstatic. They were finally getting closer to Fairyland! With every step they took, she felt the funny feeling in her fingers grow a little stronger. First it was a tingle, then a buzz and eventually it felt as though she had fireworks exploding inside her hands, and she liked it very much. Brian, her fairy godmother, had said her powers would get stronger as she got closer to Fairyland, and it looked as though she’d been telling the truth.
‘What do you think is inside?’ Cinders asked her friends, wiggling her fingers.
‘More like who do you think is inside,’ Sparks replied, watching a spiral of white smoke drifting out of the top of the tower. ‘On the upside, it looks like they’ve got the kettle on.’
‘I think it must be fairies,’ Cinders guessed with an extra skip in her step. ‘Not even my dad could build something this beautiful and he’s the best builder in the entire kingdom.’
‘I hope they’re happy to have visitors,’ Hansel added gloomily. ‘Whoever they are.’
The tall, spindly trees of the Dark Forest began to thin out until the gang found themselves entering a clearing. In front of them was a moat and beyond the moat was the tower, glistening and glimmering in the sunlight. Cinders couldn’t see a single brick or window in the entire thing. It looked as though it had been carved out of a single giant piece of crystal, with just one huge drawbridge at the front.
The only problem was the drawbridge was up and there was no one around to lower it.
‘How do you reckon we get inside?’ Cinders asked. ‘Should we swim across?’
‘No way,’ Hansel said, peeking into the moat. ‘That water’s got to be fifteen metres deep, and it’s full of snapfizzles.’
Cinders looked over his shoulder and saw he was right. Snapfizzles were the very worst kind of fish. If you didn’t know better, you might think they were cute, with their big eyes and rainbow scales, but, if you got too close, they’d snap at you with their shiny teeth. Her father had told her that once a snapfizzle snaps on to you it never, ever lets go.
‘It’s almost as though someone doesn’t want us getting inside,’ Sparks noted, scratching his left ear with his hind leg. ‘Perhaps we ought to keep on going.’
‘But we have to find out which way to go next,’ Cinders reminded him. ‘The bears only told us that the Alabaster Tower was halfway. Do you want to spend another night riding round in circles?’
Mouse squeaked loudly in protest. He certainly didn’t.
‘If we could get over the water, I bet I could find a way inside,’ Hansel said, eyeing up the tower. ‘If there’s one thing I’m good at—’
‘It’s sneaking into other people’s houses,’ Cinders finished for him.
‘You say that like it’s a bad thing,’ Hansel muttered, kicking a stone into the moat.
‘If only I had wings like Brian,’ Cinders sighed. ‘Then I could fly us all over the moat.’
She touc
hed her thumb to the tips of her fingers and they crackled and fizzed. Just for a moment, she almost felt as though she didn’t need wings. She almost felt as though—
‘Um … Cinders,’ Sparks said, his leg freezing in mid-scratch.
‘Yes?’
‘Are you aware that you’re floating in the air right now?’
She looked down and saw that her feet were fifteen centimetres off the grass.
‘Good golly gosh!’ she gasped as she fell back to earth and landed right on her bum with a bump. ‘Well, that was new.’
Even though he didn’t want to admit it, Hansel was terribly impressed. He’d always fancied flying as a magical power. He thought it might be nice to be able to zoom up into the sky and away from all your problems. Hovering fifteen centimetres off the ground wasn’t going to get Cinders very far, but it was a pretty good start.
‘Hello there.’
They all looked up to see that the drawbridge had opened and walking towards them was a very strange-looking woman with pale skin and green hair and purple eyes. Cinders felt a big smile stretch across her face. This woman had to be magic. Maybe she would know something about her mum.
‘Cinders, Hansel,’ the woman said with a deep curtsey. ‘And you must be Sparks and Mouse. I’m so happy you’re here. I’ve been waiting for you. Won’t you come inside?’
There’s something off about this, thought Sparks as they followed the strange woman across the drawbridge and into the tower. Even though she smelled exactly like his favourite sausages, he could tell something was wrong, only he couldn’t quite put his paw on what it was.
The moment they crossed into the Alabaster Tower, the heavy wooden drawbridge shot upwards, slamming shut behind them, and Sparks’s fur began to prickle.
‘Don’t worry about that,’ the lady said. ‘We only have the drawbridge closed to keep others out.’
Or to keep us in, Sparks thought to himself.