Kirsty looked at the boats bobbing on the calm sea. “We should get back to the regatta. We said we’d meet our moms to watch the race. They’re probably waiting for us.”
“Although it doesn’t look like there’s going to be a race,” Rachel said with a sigh. “There’s still not enough wind for the boats to sail.”
“But as soon as I put the shell back, the wind will return,” Joy reminded her.
Kirsty glanced at the big clock on the harbor wall. Almost half an hour had passed since they had left their dads with the harbor master. “I don’t think that’s going to be fast enough. The harbor master must be about to make a decision any minute now,” she said, feeling disappointed.
“You mean, you need wind right now?” Joy asked.
Rachel and Kirsty nodded.
“No problem!” Joy exclaimed, grinning. She swooped down to a rock and raised the shell to her lips. At once, a breeze swirled across the beach.
“The shell’s bringing back the wind!” Kirsty exclaimed.
Joy grinned and blew harder. With every breath, the wind grew stronger and stronger, until the sails of the boats were flapping in the breeze.
Lowering the shell, Joy smiled at Rachel and Kirsty. “I think your dads will be able to race now.” She waved her wand and a cloud of sparkling fairy dust floated around them.
Kirsty and Rachel were their normal size again. “Thanks, Joy!” They grinned.
“Thank you,” said the fairy. “I couldn’t have found the shell without your help. See you soon!”
In the distance, there was a loud hooting noise. “The race is about to start!” Kirsty exclaimed. “Come on, Rachel!”
Waving good-bye to Joy, the two girls ran across the pebbly beach.
As they reached the ice cream truck and joined their moms, they heard the horn again. The breeze swelled, and the boats shot across the starting line.
“Come on, Dad!” Rachel and Kirsty shouted as their dads’ boat raced toward the finish line. Their boat was ahead of the others! The girls watched as the sail billowed in the wind. As they got closer and closer to the finish line, it looked like Mr. Tate and Mr. Walker were going to come in first. And …
“They won!” cheered Mrs. Tate.
Rachel beamed at Kirsty. “I’m very glad we got that shell back.”
“Me, too,” Kirsty agreed. “And now there’s just one more shell to find.”
Rachel grinned. “And when we get it back, Rainspell Island will be the perfect place for summer vacation again!”
The sun was shining and a breeze was blowing fluffy white clouds across the sky as Rachel and Kirsty ran down to the beach. It was a perfect day to be outside!
“It’s very quiet,” said Kirsty. Usually there were lots of people out on Rainspell Island, playing, swimming, and sunbathing. But ever since Jack Frost had stolen the sand and shells for his castle, people had been staying away from the beach.
Rachel nodded. “It just isn’t the same without the sand. We have to get the last Rainspell Shell back.” Just then, she spotted Mr. Williams and his four fluffy donkeys farther down the beach. Mr. Williams was holding up the smallest donkey’s leg and checking its hoof. “But at least the donkeys are still here,” Rachel added.
She and Kirsty headed over.
“Hello, Mr. Williams,” Kirsty called. “Can we have a ride, please?”
Mr. Williams shook his head. “Not today, I’m afraid. The beach is too rocky. Pippin hurt her hoof stepping on a stone.”
“Oh, no!” Kirsty stroked the donkey’s velvety nose. “Will she be OK?”
“She’ll be fine after a day’s rest,” Mr. Williams replied. “But there won’t be any more donkey rides while the beach is like this.” He sighed. “I’d better take them back to their field.”
Rachel and Kirsty watched as Mr. Williams led the unhappy donkeys away.
“Jack Frost is determined to ruin everyone’s vacation, isn’t he?” Rachel said sadly.
Suddenly, Kirsty pointed to a tidepool. “Look! I saw some sparkles over there.”
A cloud of golden dust whooshed up from behind a rock, and Joy the Summer Vacation Fairy spiraled into the air. “Hello!”
Joy landed on Kirsty’s shoulder, light as a feather. “I’ve figured out where Jack Frost is keeping the magic scallop shell!” she exclaimed. “He’s using it to decorate his throne in the Great Hall of his castle.” Joy clasped her hands together. “It’s going to be very difficult to rescue that shell. It’s the trickiest one of all! But if we don’t put it back in its underwater cave, the beaches on Rainspell Island will never have sand again.”
“We can’t let that happen!” said Rachel.
Kirsty nodded. “It might be dangerous, but we’re not going to give up. We have to get that shell back!”
Joy waved her wand, showering Rachel and Kirsty with fairy dust. At once, they shrank down to fairy-size.
“It’s not going to be easy to get into the castle this time,” Joy warned the girls as they flew over the island. “Jack Frost is so angry about losing the other two shells that he put extra goblins on guard duty.”
Sure enough, when they reached the castle, there were goblins everywhere — on the drawbridge and by the door, walking around the towers and patrolling the beach.
Kirsty noticed that the windows in the castle looked strange. She flew to a nearby window and touched the glass. It was freezing cold! “It’s made of ice!” she gasped.
“All of the windows are,” Joy replied. “Jack Frost has put a spell on them so they won’t melt in the sun. My special summer magic can make a hole just big enough for us to get through.” She looked nervously at the goblin guards below. “Should we fly to the back of the castle, where it’s quieter?”
Rachel and Kirsty nodded, and they all flew around the castle. They stopped next to a small window near the bottom of a tower.
“Here goes!” Joy cried. Her wand glowed brightly as she touched it to the icy window. There was a fizzing sound, and the ice began to melt around the tip of the wand.
“It’s working!” Kirsty whispered.
“Keep going, Joy. It’s almost big enough for us to fit through!” urged Rachel.
Concentrating hard, Joy made a perfectly round hole in the window. “Phew!” she said. She looked pale under her freckles.
“Are you OK?” Rachel asked.
Joy nodded. “I’m just tired. Jack Frost’s spell is strong, and melting the ice is very difficult.” She waved her wand. Usually a cloud of glittering fairy dust whooshed out, but now only a few sparkles floated into the sky. “There’s not much magic left in my wand,” she said, looking worried. Joy began to squeeze through the hole. “Come on. Let’s go rescue the last Rainspell Shell!”
Rachel and Kirsty followed her through the window. It led into a narrow hallway.
“Be careful!” Joy whispered. “The Great Hall is this way.”
The three of them flew cautiously along the hallway, staying near the ceiling where the shadows were darkest. Rachel could feel herself getting goose bumps. What if a goblin came down the hall? Or, even worse, what if Jack Frost did?
There were large footprints in the sand on the floor.
“Those are goblin footprints,” Joy whispered nervously.
They flew down a set of stairs and along another hallway until they came to a big wooden door.
“This is the door to the Great Hall,” Joy told the girls.
Rachel pushed the door open a little and peeked in. “There’s no one here,” she said in relief.
A magnificent throne stood in the middle of the empty room. Icicles hung off its arms, and its back was a large scallop shell carved out of ice. A real scallop shell was stuck to the very top. Its wavy, white edge glowed with golden fairy dust.
“It’s the magic shell,” Joy breathed.
“Quick!” Kirsty said. “Let’s grab it before anyone sees us!”
The three of them flew over and took hold of the shell. It came loose with the faintest sound
of tinkling fairy music.
“Stop right there!” A cold voice snapped through the air.
Rachel, Kirsty, and Joy spun around.
Jack Frost was standing in the doorway!
“Quick!” Rachel gasped. “We have to do something!”
Jack Frost raised his hands, but Joy was quicker. Waving her wand so that it flared like a candle, she pointed it at the sandy floor. There was a sizzling sound, and the floor glowed red-hot.
With a cry, Jack Frost leaped back. “Ow! The floor is hot.” The icicles on his beard began to drip.
“Melt the window, Joy!” Kirsty cried. “Let the sunshine in!”
Joy raced to the window and touched the pane with her wand. There was a faint fizzing noise, and a very small patch on the window began to melt. “My wand is running out of magic!” Joy gasped.
“Freeze!” Jack Frost ordered, pointing his fingers at the floor.
Rachel watched in dismay as the red glow faded from the floor. “Quick, Joy!” she urged.
“Come on, wand!” Joy whispered. There was a sizzle and a loud snap as a maze of splinters spread across the ice.
Crack! The window shattered! Sunlight came streaming in.
Jack Frost stumbled backward with his hands over his eyes. “Guards!” he shouted.
“Let’s go!” Kirsty said, flying into the air with Rachel. “Come on, Joy!”
But Joy didn’t move. She lay on the window ledge, panting. Her face was white, and her wand had lost all its sparkle.
Kirsty and Rachel swooped down and tried to help Joy up.
“Can’t move …” Joy murmured. “Too tired … no magic left …”
“Don’t worry,” Rachel said, trying to stay calm.
“We’ll help you. Kirsty, can you take the shell while I carry Joy?”
Kirsty nodded. Rachel put her arms around the little fairy and flew upward, straining hard. Even though the fairy was tiny, it was very difficult to fly with her. Joy hung limply, her wings drooping and her eyes closed.
“Guards!” Jack Frost yelled again.
“Quick, Rachel, through the window!” said Kirsty.
Jack Frost raised his hands, and a gust of freezing air filled the room. With a loud crackle, the window froze over with a fresh sheet of glittering ice.
Kirsty looked around desperately. There was a narrow staircase on the other side of the room. “Let’s go that way!” she called to Rachel.
Carrying Joy and the shell, the two girls flew across the room and up the spiral staircase. Below, there was the sound of pounding feet and shouting. The goblins were coming!
“Stop those fairies, NOW!” Jack Frost yelled, and the goblins started to run up the stairs.
Kirsty spotted a window ahead. “If Joy’s wand hadn’t used up all its magic, we could have melted our way out,” she panted.
Just then, the two girls heard a faint scratching noise and a little voice singing, “All day long, I dig and dig. All day long, I dig and dig …”
“I know that voice!” Rachel gasped. “It’s Sally, the sand beetle!”
A little brown-and-black beetle popped its head out of the wall. “Hello again!” Sally said in surprise. “What are you doing here?”
She looked at Joy, and her eyes widened. “What happened?”
“It’s a long story,” Kirsty replied.
“We really need to get out of here, Sally!” Rachel said. “Fast!”
“Come here, you pesky fairies!” the goblins shouted as they charged up the staircase.
“Quick!” said Sally. “Follow me!”
Her legs whirred as she made the tunnel bigger. Kirsty dived in, hugging the shell in her arms. Rachel pulled Joy in behind her. They just made it before the goblins rushed around the corner. The girls held their breath and stayed very still. Would the goblins notice the tunnel?
To their relief, the heavy footsteps thudded by and moved on up the stairs.
Kirsty and Rachel slithered through the tunnel with Joy and the magic shell. It led to a narrow window ledge on the other side of the castle wall.
“That was close!” Sally said, waving her feelers.
“Very,” Kirsty agreed.
“We can’t stay here,” Rachel said, glancing at the window behind them. “The goblins might see us.”
“Can’t you fly away?” Sally asked.
Kirsty shook her head, trying not to look down. The beach was a long way below them! “We can’t carry Joy and the shell that far.”
“Oh, what are we going to do?” Rachel said desperately.
Caw!
They all jumped and looked up. A black-headed seagull was flying toward them.
“Do you fairies need some help?” it called.
The seagull looked as big as a horse, but its black eyes were kind.
“My name is Gregory,” he cawed. “Is there something wrong with Joy?”
“She used up all her magic against Jack Frost,” Rachel explained.
Joy groaned and her eyelids flickered.
“We need to take the magic scallop shell back to the underwater cave,” said Kirsty.
“No problem,” Gregory declared. “Climb on to my back and I’ll fly you down to the sea.”
The girls didn’t need the seagull to tell them twice. Rachel scrambled on first with Joy, and Kirsty followed with the scallop shell. They dug their hands into the soft white feathers on Gregory’s back and held on tight.
At that moment, the goblins ran down the stairs. Gregory flapped his powerful wings and flew away from the window ledge. The goblins were too late!
“We’re safe!” Rachel shouted as the wind swept through her hair.
“NO!” They turned and saw Jack Frost standing at the window of the Great Hall. “You pesky fairies!” he yelled. “Bring back that shell!”
“Never!” Kirsty shouted back. She laughed happily as Gregory swooped over the sea.
“Oh, goodness,” Joy mumbled, starting to wake up. “I don’t feel very well. Everything’s swaying.”
“It’s OK. We’re on Gregory’s back,” Rachel told her. She squeezed Joy’s hand. “We’re safe now.”
“I’m afraid I can only take you as far as the surface of the sea,” Gregory called over his shoulder. “You’ll need to swim the rest of the way to the cave.”
Kirsty looked over at Rachel. “How are we going to do that? We can’t breathe underwater.”
“Don’t worry,” said Joy, trying to sit up. “We can use fairy magic.”
“But your wand has run out of magic,” Rachel reminded her.
“We don’t need my wand,” Joy replied. She was looking much better now. “What we need is this!” She rummaged in her beach bag and pulled out a sparkling pink bottle.
“It’s a bottle of bubble mixture!” Kirsty said. Joy pulled out a small bubble wand with a circle at one end.
“It’s fairy bubble mixture,” said Joy. She dipped the bubble wand into the bottle and blew three big bubbles. She handed one to Rachel and one to Kirsty and kept one for herself. “Put the bubble on your head.”
The bubbles sank down over the girls’ faces until their heads were completely enclosed. They looked just like old-fashioned diving helmets!
Joy put one on, too. Then she patted the seagull’s smooth feathers. “Good-bye, Gregory. Thank you for rescuing us!” Holding on to the magic shell, she looked at Rachel and Kirsty. “Ready?”
They nodded nervously. The sea beneath them looked very deep!
“One, two, three … JUMP!” Joy cried.
Down, down, down, Rachel, Kirsty, and Joy went into the deep water. At first, the girls held their breath, but they soon realized they didn’t need to. With the fairy helmets on, they could breathe underwater! Fairy magic also seemed to be keeping them warm, because the water didn’t feel cold at all.
“Wow!” Kirsty said, gazing around. The ocean floor was covered with pink, peach, and white coral. Anemones waved their tentacles, and schools of brightly colored fish swam by.
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Joy the Summer Vacation Fairy (Rainbow Magic) Page 4