“We’ll start right away,” Rachel said, and Kirsty nodded.
“Great,” Scarlett replied, smiling. “I’ll check the vegetable patch over there.”
“And we’ll search this field,” Kirsty said. “Come on, Rachel.”
The girls walked slowly across the meadow, scanning the grass for any sign of the garnet. They were just passing a haystack when something very strange happened.
“My legs are tingling!” Kirsty gasped.
“We’re shrinking!” Rachel cried as she saw the ground rushing toward her.
The girls had been fairy-size before, but then they’d always had pretty wings to fly with, too! Not this time. They had simply shrunk! Suddenly the haystack seemed like a mountain in front of them, and the grass was waist-high.
“The garnet must be very close, if the magic is working on us now,” Kirsty pointed out.
“Scarlett! Hey, Scarlett!” Rachel shouted, trying to attract the fairy’s attention. But her voice had shrunk, too. Scarlett couldn’t hear her tiny call. “Rachel, look at the top of the haystack,” Kirsty cried, pointing upward. “It’s glowing red!”
Rachel peered up at the haystack, and sure enough, something at the top was shining a deep red color. “It must be the garnet!” she declared. “Let’s climb up and get it for Scarlett.”
“Good idea,” Kirsty agreed.
The two girls began to climb the haystack. It was very hard work! The hay was sharp and slippery, and it was difficult to get a grip on the smooth stalks. Little by little, the girls drew closer to the magic garnet.
Just as Kirsty was about to reach the top, the piece of hay that she was holding on to suddenly swayed and bent. Kirsty clutched at another stalk, but it snapped in two! “Help!” she cried, desperately trying to hang on. “I’m falling!”
“Here!” Rachel yelled, leaning down to reach Kirsty. “Grab my hand!”
Kirsty clung onto her friend’s outstretched fingers, her heart pounding. “Thanks,” she said shakily as her feet found a strong straw and Rachel helped pull her back up.
The girls climbed carefully up to the top. Then Rachel gave a triumphant cry. “We found it!” she cheered. In front of them lay the glittering red garnet. The sun shone through it, casting a rich, rosy light across the hay.
“Wow!” breathed Kirsty. The jewel seemed even more impressive now that the girls were fairy-size. It was no bigger than a hen’s egg, but right now that was almost as tall as Rachel and Kirsty!
“Scarlett!” both girls shouted. They waved their arms around at the top of the haystack, hoping the fairy would see or hear them.
But Scarlett was still searching in the vegetable patch. She had no idea that her jewel had been found.
Then Kirsty had an idea. “What if we turn the garnet around so that its red light shines over to Scarlett?” she suggested. “That will get her attention.”
“Perfect!” Rachel agreed. “I bet it’s heavy, though. I think we’ll have to lift it together.”
Kirsty took hold of one side of the jewel, and Rachel held the other. Then Kirsty counted, “One … two … three!” Together, the girls turned the garnet so that its rosy light was shining right at Scarlett.
The little fairy turned around. When she saw the girls with the garnet, her face lit up. “Hooray!” she cried, leaping into the air and twirling for joy.
“You found it!”
Kirsty and Rachel both took a hand off the jewel to wave at her. When they did, the garnet slipped slightly. Its sparkling red light danced farther down the vegetable patch, flickering over a nearby scarecrow.
And then, to the girls’ surprise, the scarecrow moved!
Rachel and Kirsty stared in amazement as the scarecrow jumped down from its wooden stand and started lumbering its way toward the haystack.
“What’s happening?” Rachel asked. “Do you think it’s more fairy magic?”
“I don’t know,” Kirsty replied. “I didn’t think the garnet could do that.” She watched the scarecrow walking jerkily toward them and suddenly felt nervous. “It’s coming this way. What do you think it wants?”
Rachel narrowed her eyes and stared hard at the scarecrow. “Hang on a minute,” she said. “Look at its green, pointy nose. That’s not a scarecrow — it’s a goblin!”
“Oh, no!” Kirsty cried, grabbing Rachel’s arm in fright. “Look at how big it is!”
“It’s as big as a grown-up,” Rachel said anxiously, biting her lip. All of a sudden, she felt smaller than ever. How would she and Kirsty protect the garnet? They were so tiny, and the goblin was so huge! “Oh, hurry up, Scarlett! Come and get the garnet!” she yelled.
Scarlett was flying over as fast as she could, a determined look on her face. “I’m coming,” she cried. “Hang on, girls!”
Kirsty gulped, still holding onto Rachel. “Look!” she said, pointing at the scarecrow.
It had stopped walking and was pulling off its long coat. And underneath the coat, there wasn’t just one goblin, there were two. One was standing on the other’s shoulders! The top goblin jumped down. As Rachel and Kirsty watched in horror, both goblins started running as fast as they could toward the garnet — and the girls.
“Let’s get out of here,” Kirsty cried. She and Rachel began to clamber back down the haystack as quickly as they could, carrying the garnet between them. The jewel felt strangely warm in their hands.
“My fingers are tingling,” Rachel called out. “Do you think that means — ?”
But Rachel’s words were cut off. The garnet’s magic was working again — and this time, both girls were growing. They clung tightly to the jewel as their legs lengthened, and their heads moved up toward the sky. Suddenly, the haystack, which had seemed like such a mountain to climb, was nothing more than a regular haystack. It couldn’t hold the weight of the two girls!
“I’m sinking,” Rachel panted as her feet sunk into the hay. “We’re too heavy for the haystack now.”
Scarlett arrived at that moment, looking anxious. “I’ll try to use my magic to get you out of there!” she cried, waving her wand quickly. But only one glittering red sparkle fell out. It fizzled uselessly on the grass. “Oh, no, here come the goblins!” she cried, fluttering protectively in front of Kirsty and Rachel.
“Oh, dear! Oh, dear!” chuckled the taller goblin. He watched as the girls floundered around in the waist-deep hay.
The other, shorter goblin was close behind. “I think we’ll take that garnet, thank you very much,” he declared, reaching out to snatch it from Rachel’s hand.
“Oh, no you don’t!” Rachel cried, throwing the precious stone into the air before the goblin could grab it. “Catch, Scarlett!”
Scarlett caught the garnet just in time but, in the human world, it was too big and heavy for her to fly with. She quickly sunk down through the air under the weight of the jewel, flapping her wings as hard as she could to keep from falling too far.
Kirsty could see that Scarlett was trying to angle her wand so it would touch the stone. The little fairy was trying to recharge her wand with growing and shrinking magic! But before she could do that, poor Scarlett lost her grip on the wand. It tumbled down into the hay.
Luckily, Kirsty pounced on the wand before either of the goblins could reach it. Then something terrible happened. The shorter goblin whipped off his scarecrow hat and held it out under the falling fairy.
“Help!” Scarlett cried as she plunged helplessly into the dark hat.
“Gotcha!” cheered the goblin. “A garnet and a fairy — that’s a bonus!”
“Hey!” called Rachel, kicking the hay in an attempt to get out of it. “Let Scarlett go, right now!”
“No way!” Both goblins laughed nastily — and ran away.
As the two girls finally scrambled out of the haystack, the goblins sprinted across the field with Scarlett and the garnet still trapped inside the scarecrow hat. Scarlett couldn’t fly out because the goblin held the opening of the hat shut! Kirsty and Rachel could
hear the goblins singing happily.
“Twinkle, twinkle, garnet stone,
You are never going home.
Jack Frost wants you hidden away.
Out of Fairyland you’ll stay.
Sparkle, sparkle, on and on
The fairies’ magic will soon be gone!”
“Come back!” shouted Kirsty angrily. “Rachel, we have to get that scarecrow hat … before it’s too late!”
As Rachel and Kirsty took off after the goblins, they looked around for anything that could help them rescue Scarlett. Then Kirsty’s gaze fell on Cloud and Buttons. She remembered that, in the past, the goblins had been scared of dogs. “Wait!” she called to Rachel, thinking fast. “Maybe Buttons and Cloud can help us!”
It seemed like the dogs had already had the same idea. They were both pulling on their leashes and barking at the goblins.
“Come on, boy,” Rachel said, letting Buttons off his leash. “Let’s go goblin catching!”
“You too, Cloud,” Kirsty said, unclipping his leash. “Go, dogs, go!”
Cloud and Buttons did not need to be told twice. With a loud chorus of barks, they both ran eagerly toward the goblins.
The goblin carrying the scarecrow hat looked back over his shoulder and screeched with fear when he saw the dogs. “Quick!” he yelled to his friend. “Climb on top of the scarecrow stand!”
Both goblins scrambled back up the wooden stand. They clung tightly to its beams.
Woof! Woof! Woof! Buttons and Cloud barked happily, jumping up and trying to lick the goblins’ toes.
“Eek!” yelped the tall goblin, pulling his feet up. “Go away, you horrible mutts!”
Kirsty and Rachel ran over. “This is all your fault,” they heard the tall goblin hiss at his friend. “It was your idea to climb up here!”
“Well, if you ran faster we could have been out of here by now,” the short one moaned back.
“Is everything OK?” Kirsty asked sweetly. She patted Cloud and Buttons, who were still looking up hopefully at the goblins. They wanted to play!
“No!” snapped the tall goblin.
“Just send the dogs away!” the short goblin begged.
“I don’t think so,” Rachel replied cheerfully. “Unless …”
“What? What?” the goblins cried together.
“Unless you set Scarlett free,” Kirsty finished.
The short goblin looked thoughtful and scratched his leathery green head. “All right,” he said at last. “The fairy can go. But the garnet is staying right here, in my hat.”
“OK,” the girls agreed.
Rachel grabbed both dogs by their collars and held them back. “Now, let Scarlett go,” she said.
The goblin carefully opened the hat just wide enough for Scarlett to flutter out.
She zoomed through the gap and flew over to land on Kirsty’s shoulder. “Thank you,” she said as Kirsty handed her wand back. “That hat smelled awful!”
“Well, you’re still not getting your hands on our jewel,” the goblin said, reaching into the hat to pat the garnet. “You might as well — hey!” he suddenly yelped in surprise. “What’s happening?”
Kirsty, Rachel, and Scarlett stared at the goblin. And then all three of them began to laugh.
“It’s the garnet!” Scarlett laughed. “It’s making him shrink!”
Sure enough, the short goblin was growing even shorter before their eyes. “Help! Make it stop!” he squeaked in a tiny voice.
His friend was chuckling loudly — but not for long. Now that there was one big goblin and one tiny goblin on the scarecrow’s stand, the whole thing was off balance.
“Whoa!” the big goblin cried as he began to fall. “Help!”
Splat!
The girls backed out of the way just as the large goblin landed on the ground. “Oof!” he panted. “Stupid garnet!”
Woof! barked the dogs, running over and licking the goblin playfully. Woof! Woof!
Rachel and Kirsty couldn’t help smiling as the goblin rolled around, helpless with laughter. “It tickles!” he roared. “Ooh, it tickles!”
Then Kirsty remembered the garnet. She rushed over to the scarecrow pole where the tiny goblin was still hanging on. Kirsty plucked the hat easily from his arms.
“Hooray!” cheered Scarlett when she saw the magic garnet gleaming in Kirsty’s hand. “Great job, Kirsty!”
“We did it!” Rachel cried. “We found another jewel.”
The girls and Scarlett headed back toward the farmhouse. They called the dogs to follow them, once they were a safe distance from the goblins.
Then Scarlett carefully touched her wand to the magic garnet and waved it in the air. A stream of glittering red fairy dust flooded out across the fields. A smile lit up Scarlett’s face. “That’s more like it!” she said.
Baa! Baa! The sheep were suddenly back to their normal size. Cloud and Buttons stared at them in confusion, wondering where they had come from. Cloud sniffed at a stray red sparkle and jumped as it fizzed into thin air under his nose.
Kirsty turned to look at the chestnut tree. The giant chestnuts had disappeared. They had shrunk to their normal size again! And what was that, in the middle of the field?
“Mr. Johnson’s tractor!” Rachel laughed. “The garnet must have shrunk that, too. Remember, we thought it was a toy?”
Kirsty grinned as the last few bright twinkles of fairy magic disappeared from the tractor’s wheels. “Now Mr. Johnson will be in a good mood again,” she said happily.
“And so will King Oberon and Queen Titania when I send this garnet back to Fairyland,” Scarlett added.
The tiny goblin had been turned back to his regular size, too. The girls and Scarlett watched as he jumped down from the wooden stand and stomped away with his goblin friend. Although the girls couldn’t hear what they were saying, it was clear that they were arguing again.
Scarlett chuckled. “And that’s the last we’ll see of them,” she said, sounding satisfied. She touched her wand to the garnet once more and it vanished in a fountain of glittering red fairy dust.
“Now the garnet is safely back in Fairyland,” Rachel said with a sigh of relief. The air where the garnet had been shimmered for a second, then returned to normal.
“And I should be going back, too,” Scarlett added, hugging the girls good-bye. “Thank you for all your help, Kirsty and Rachel. And good luck finding the other magic jewels!”
The girls waved as the tiny fairy zoomed away to Fairyland.
“Phew,” Rachel said as they headed back to the farmhouse. “That was close. For a minute, I thought the goblins were going to get away with the garnet and Scarlett.”
Kirsty ruffled Cloud’s shaggy coat. “Well, thanks to these two dogs, both Scarlett and the garnet are safe and sound,” she declared with a smile.
Rachel grinned at Kirsty. “Come on,” she said, breaking into a run. “We’ll have more fairy adventures soon, but for now, I’m starving. I wonder if Mrs. Johnson has any more of those plums left.”
“I hope so,” Kirsty said, running after her friend. “Race you there!”
Toy Trouble
Mirror Magic
A Goblin Drops By
Goblin Getaway
Catch That Goblin!
Going Up
“Wow!” Kirsty Tate gasped, her eyes wide with amazement. “This is the biggest toy store I’ve ever seen!”
Her best friend, Rachel Walker, laughed. “I know,” she agreed. “Isn’t it great?”
Kirsty nodded. Wherever she turned, there was something wonderful to see. In one corner of the store was a huge display of dolls in every shape and size, along with an amazing number of dollhouses. A special roped-off area was filled with remote-control cars, buses, trucks, and airplanes. Nearby stood rows of bikes, skateboards, and scooters.
Shelves were piled high with every board game Kirsty could think of, plus stacks of cool computer games. Colorful kites hung from the ceiling, along with big balloons and sp
inning mobiles. Kirsty had never seen anything like it, and this was only the first floor!
“Look over there, Kirsty,” Rachel said, pointing at the dolls.
Kirsty saw a sign that read MEET FAIRY FLORENCE AND HER FRIENDS. She stared at the dolls displayed around the sign. Fairy Florence wore a long pink dress. She looked boring and old-fashioned. Kirsty and Rachel glanced at each other and burst out laughing.
“Fairy Florence doesn’t look like a real fairy at all!” Rachel whispered, and Kirsty nodded.
Rachel and Kirsty knew what real fairies looked like because they’d met them … many times! The two girls had often visited Fairyland to help their fairy friends when they were in trouble. The problems were usually caused by icy Jack Frost. He was always making trouble with the help of his mean goblins.
Just a few days earlier, King Oberon and Queen Titania had asked Rachel and Kirsty to help them. Jack Frost had stolen the seven magic jewels from the queen’s crown. The jewels were very important, because they controlled a lot of the magic in Fairyland.
Jack Frost had wanted the magic for himself, but after the heat and light of the jewels began to melt his ice castle, he had angrily thrown the gems far into the human world. Now it was up to the girls to return the jewels to Fairyland, before the fairies’ magic ran out for good.
“I hope we can find the rest of the magic jewels before I go home,” Kirsty said to Rachel, looking worried. “After all, I’m only staying with you until the end of school break.”
“Well, we found India’s moonstone and Scarlett’s garnet,” Rachel reminded her.
The Jewel Fairies Collection Page 3