On the Trail

by Kiki Thorpe

  Copyright © 2015 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019, and in Canada by Random House of Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Ltd., Toronto, in conjunction with Disney Enterprises, Inc. Random House and the colophon are registered trademarks and A Stepping Stone Book and the colophon are trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Thorpe, Kiki.

  On the trail / written by Kiki Thorpe; illustrated by Jana Christy.

  pages cm. — (The Never girls; 10)

  “Disney.”

  “A Stepping Stone book.”

  Summary: “Four best friends—Kate, Mia, Lainey, and Gabby—travel to Never Land, where they find adventure, friendship, and mystery! When the girls realize that animal talent fairy Beck is missing, the search is on”—Provided by publisher.

  ISBN 978-0-7364-3306-8 (paperback) — ISBN 978-0-7364-8168-7 (lib. bdg.) —ISBN 978-0-7364-3307-5 (ebook)

  [1. Fairies—Fiction. 2. Magic—Fiction. 3. Friendship—Fiction. 4. Mystery and detective stories.] I. Christy, Jana, illustrator. II. Disney Enterprises (1996–) III. Title.

  PZ7.T3974On 2015

  [Fic]—dc23

  2015009702

  eBook ISBN 9780736433075

  randomhousekids.com/disney

  This book has been officially leveled by using the F&P Text Level Gradient™ Leveling System.

  v4.1

  a

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Never Land

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  About the Author

  For Celeste and Phoebe

  —K.T.

  For Johnny

  —J.C.

  Far away from the world we know, on the distant seas of dreams, lies an island called Never Land. It is a place full of magic, where mermaids sing, fairies play, and children never grow up. Adventures happen every day, and anything is possible.

  There are two ways to reach Never Land. One is to find the island yourself. The other is for it to find you. Finding Never Land on your own takes a lot of luck and a pinch of fairy dust. Even then, you will only find the island if it wants to be found.

  Every once in a while, Never Land drifts close to our world…so close a fairy’s laugh slips through. And every once in an even longer while, Never Land opens its doors to a special few. Believing in magic and fairies from the bottom of your heart can make the extraordinary happen. If you suddenly hear tiny bells or feel a sea breeze where there is no sea, pay careful attention. Never Land may be close by. You could find yourself there in the blink of an eye.

  Mia Vasquez stood before the oven in her kitchen. She eyed the timer above the stove. It seemed like ages since a minute had passed. She tapped the timer with her finger. Was it even working?

  When she couldn’t wait any longer, Mia opened the oven door and peeked at the golden brown cake baking inside.

  Mia’s best friend, Kate McCrady, was watching from the breakfast table. “It won’t bake any faster if you watch it, Mia,” she said.

  “Kate’s right,” said her other best friend, Lainey Winters. “Watching just slows it down.”

  “Is that true?” asked Mia’s little sister, Gabby, as Mia shut the oven door.

  Lainey shrugged. “I don’t know. But it feels that way, doesn’t it?”

  That morning, the four girls had worked together to make Mia’s grandmother’s “Light as Air” angel food cake. Mia had first learned to bake from a baking-talent fairy named Dulcie. She loved trying out new recipes.

  Beep! Beep!

  Mia jumped when the timer went off. She pulled on an oven mitt and carefully took out the cake. As she set it on the counter, she admired how the edges of the cake had separated nicely from the pan. To be sure it was done, Mia grabbed a toothpick and poked it into the middle of the cake. It came out spotless. Perfect!

  The girls hovered around the cake.

  Lainey leaned over and breathed in. “Mmm…” The steam rising from the cake fogged up her dark-rimmed glasses. “I can’t see the cake, but it smells terrific.”

  “I want to try it now!” Kate added.

  “Me too,” said Gabby. “Can’t we just have a teeny-tiny taste?”

  “No way!” Mia said. “This cake is for the fairies.”

  That day, Mia was hosting her first-ever tea party in Pixie Hollow. The fairies had always been kind to them, and she wanted to do something nice in return. In her opinion, there was nothing nicer than a tea party with yummy cake.

  They waited for the cake to cool. Then Mia frosted it carefully with fluffy white icing. When she was done, the cake looked even more delicious. But…

  Mia frowned. Something was missing. Dulcie says every recipe needs a pinch of magic, she thought. But what could it be for this one?

  “Why do they call it angel food cake?” Gabby asked, interupting Mia’s thoughts.

  “I guess because it tastes so heavenly, angels could eat it,” Mia said.

  “Oh.” Gabby looked disappointed. “I thought it was going to have wings.”

  “Like you?” Mia said, laughing. Her little sister hardly ever left the house without her costume fairy wings.

  “I think it’s called angel food cake because it’s so light,” Lainey said. “You know, ‘Light as Air’?”

  Mia blinked. “You guys, I think I just got an idea for how to make this cake even better.”

  Moments later, the girls hurried up the stairs to Gabby’s room. The cake had been packed into a picnic basket, along with a blanket, a thermos of tea, and Mia’s mother’s silver cake server.

  Inside Gabby’s room, Mia opened the closet door. One by one, the girls stepped through a welcoming darkness. The floor of Gabby’s closet turned to earth, and the walls became curved, like the inside of a hollowed-out tree.

  When they stepped out into Pixie Hollow, the sun was shining and warm against Mia’s face. The girls were standing on a grassy bank. Mia followed Gabby as she hopped along the rocks to cross Havendish Stream. Lainey and Kate were close behind.

  When they reached the other side, they could see the Home Tree, the great maple where the fairies lived and worked. Mia turned to her friends. “Can you start setting up for the picnic?” she asked. “I need to get the final secret ingredient.”

  “No problem,” said Kate. “See you in the fairy circle!”

  Mia hurried along the bank until she came to the mill. She could see the water wheel turning in the stream. As usual, Terence the dust-talent sparrow man was inside. He was busy measuring out fairy dust. The sparkling dust allowed fairies to fly and do magic.

  “Flying today?” Terence asked when he saw her.

  “Well, not exactly,” Mia said. “I was hoping I could have a pinch of dust for the tea party. You’re coming, aren’t you? I baked a cake!”

  “I wouldn’t miss it,” Terence said.

  As he turned, a shimmer of fairy dust floated through the air around him. He measured out a little dust for Mia, and placed it in a tiny pouch made from a leaf.

  “Thanks, Terence. I’ll see you soon!” Mia waved and left the dust mill. As she made her way back toward the fairy circle, something caught her eye. A rabbit was sitting by the edge of a bramble bush thicket. One of the rabbit’s paws was raised as though he was hurt.

  Mia stopped. She didn’t wan
t to go closer for fear of scaring him off. “Are you all right, little bunny?” she asked.

  The rabbit just looked at her, wiggling its nose. Mia wished Lainey was with her. Lainey understood animals much better than she did.

  Maybe I should get a fairy to help, Mia thought. “Stay here,” she told the rabbit.

  Mia turned and walked briskly toward the Home Tree. Before long, a fairy with two short ginger-colored braids crossed her path. It was Beck, an animal-talent fairy.

  “Beck! Beck!” Mia called, flagging her down. “Are you busy?”

  “Just on my way to the fox burrow,” Beck said. “Mother Fox just had her kits.”

  Mia told her about the wounded rabbit. “Show me where,” Beck said.

  Mia led the way back to the bramble bush. The rabbit was still sitting beneath it. “Oh, it’s you, Dandelion!” Beck said, recognizing him.

  She flittered closer and examined the rabbit’s paw. “He has a thorn stuck in his foot,” she told Mia. Beck reached into a pouch that was slung over her shoulder and pulled out a twig in the shape of a wishbone. “Luckily, I have my tweezers.”

  Beck gripped the thorn with the tweezers, speaking softly to the rabbit the whole time. Despite being hurt, the rabbit looked calm. With a flutter of her wings, Beck gave a hard yank, and the thorn came out.

  “Will he be all right?” Mia asked.

  Beck checked the wound and nodded. “But he’ll need to lay off the paw for a bit.”

  “Good,” said Mia, relieved. Then she stepped back. “See you at my tea party later?” she asked.

  “I’ll come just after I visit the kits,” Beck said, barely looking up from what she was doing. “Now hold still, little guy.…”

  Her good deed done, Mia smiled as she continued on her way. She was eager to add a little bit of her own magic to the day.

  Mia and her friends knelt in the fairy circle in the shade of a hawthorn tree.

  Gabby, Lainey, and Kate had laid out the picnic blanket. As they set down tiny cups and plates they’d borrowed from the fairy tearoom, Mia pulled the cake from the basket. Then she reached into her pocket for the pouch Terence had given her.

  “Now for the finishing touch!” Mia took a tiny pinch of fairy dust and sprinkled the glittering grains over the cake.

  Too much and Mia knew the cake would be heading for the clouds. The other girls held their breath.

  There!

  The cake didn’t move. Hmm. Mia frowned. Maybe I didn’t sprinkle enough, she thought.

  Just then, the cake began to rise. It floated in the air and came to a stop right in front of Mia’s nose.

  Gabby clapped her hands with delight.

  “That is the coolest cake I’ve ever seen,” Kate said.

  “It really is ‘Light as Air’!” Lainey said.

  Mia laughed. “Imagine what Abuela would say if she could see this,” she said.

  “Just one question,” said Kate. “How are you going to cut it?”

  “Oh.” Mia’s face fell. “I guess I didn’t think of that.”

  At that moment, the first guests arrived. The baking fairy Dulcie’s glow brightened at the sight of the huge, white cake floating in the air. “Mia, this is marvelous! How did you do it?”

  “It’s my grandma’s special recipe,” Mia told her. “With a little bonus magic.” She winked at Terence, who was hovering nearby. He winked back.

  “We helped, too!” Gabby said.

  “That’s right,” Mia said. “Lainey mixed the batter. And Kate helped with the frosting.”

  “And I licked the bowl!” Gabby added.

  “Well, I can’t wait to taste it,” Dulcie said.

  But there was still the problem of how to serve it. When Mia tried to cut into it, the cake bobbed away through the air. The fairy circle filled with laughter as the girls took turns chasing it around with the cake server.

  Tinker Bell finally had the idea of using grappling hooks to hold it steady. Several fairies hovered around, holding the cake with long ropes, while Mia sliced it into tiny pieces. By the time she’d served all the fairies, there was still plenty of cake left over.

  “The best part is, you don’t even need a plate!” Dulcie said. She took a dainty bite of the cake slice floating in front of her.

  Tinker Bell fluttered past, chasing a piece of cake. “This is the best tea party I’ve ever been to,” she told Mia. “More fun than just sitting around drinking tea.”

  Mia smiled. Her tea party wasn’t quite as she’d imagined it. But that was the great thing about Never Land—something surprising always happened.

  Mia turned to reach for her own slice of cake. But it wasn’t floating beside her anymore. Then she looked down and saw…

  “That bunny is eating your cake!” Gabby exclaimed.

  A soft gray rabbit was sitting on the blanket, holding down Mia’s plate of cake. He was nibbling at the frosting. Everyone had been so busy talking that no one had noticed the new guest.

  Gabby’s shout startled the rabbit. In a panic, he began to jump around the blanket, knocking over teacups and plates. As Kate lunged to catch him, she bumped into the floating leftover cake, sending it flying. Fairies screamed and dove out of the way to avoid getting hit.

  “Watch out, Gabby!” Tinker Bell yelled.

  Gabby ducked just in time. The cake splattered all over the blanket.

  “Help!” Mia cried. Her tea party was ruined!

  “Everybody! Just. Calm. Down,” Lainey commanded.

  At once, the girls and fairies froze. The rabbit did, too. He sat in the middle of the blanket, surrounded by the floating mess he’d made. His body was shaking, and his whiskers and fur were covered in frosting.

  “Don’t be scared,” Lainey said to him in a soothing voice. “We’re your friends.”

  Myka, a scout fairy, hovered above Lainey’s shoulder. “He’s hurt himself, the poor thing,” she said.

  Mia had noticed that the rabbit was limping, too. A palm frond was wrapped around his front paw like a bandage. It was covered in frosting.

  “Wait a second,” she said. “This is the same rabbit I saw with Beck this morning. He had a thorn in his paw. Beck said he needed to stay off it.”

  “That’s odd,” said Terence. “Beck wouldn’t let a hurt rabbit run around.”

  “Where are all the animal-talent fairies?” Kate asked.

  For the first time, Mia noticed that not a single animal fairy had come to the tea party. She remembered something Beck had told her. “A mother fox had her babies this morning,” Mia said. “Maybe they’re all with her.”

  “Or Beck might be out looking for the rabbit,” said the scout fairy Myka. “I’ll take a look around and see if I spot her.”

  “I’ll go to the fox hole,” Tink said. “Maybe someone there can help.”

  “We’ll stay here and keep an eye on the bunny,” Lainey volunteered.

  After Myka flew away, the remaining fairies helped clean up the scattered cake and the mess on the blanket. Several fairies flew back to the Home Tree with armloads of unused dishes.

  Mia sighed. Her tea party hadn’t turned out at all like she’d planned. It’s all that bunny’s fault, she thought. But she couldn’t really be mad at the rabbit. He was too cute—and he looked too scared.

  “How do we make sure he doesn’t take off before the animal fairies get here?” Kate asked.

  “Maybe I can try talking to him,” Lainey suggested. An animal-talent fairy named Fawn was teaching Lainey to communicate with animals. Already she could speak a bit of Mouse. And once, she’d saved her friends by talking to a bear.

  “Good idea, Lainey,” Gabby said.

  Lainey crouched down slowly to the bunny’s level. “Here goes nothing,” she said.

  Lainey wiggled her nose at the bunny. She thumped her hands softly against the ground. Then she hopped in a circle around the blanket.

  Mia bit her lip to keep from laughing. Kate was smiling, too. “Uh, Lainey, do you actually know how
to speak Rabbit?” Kate asked.

  “No,” Lainey admitted with a sigh. She stood up. “But it kind of seems like it worked, doesn’t it?”

  Mia had to agree that the rabbit looked more relaxed. He sniffed the air, then began to wander around the picnic blanket, led by his nose. He stood on his hind legs to get at a crumb of floating cake.

  “I have an idea to help him stay put,” Mia said. She chased down the rest of her slice of cake and held it out to the rabbit. “Come and get it!”

  Instantly, the bunny hopped over and started to nibble.

  Gabby watched him eat. “Next time we should make a carrot cake. I bet he’d like that even more.”

  “I bet you’re right,” Mia replied with a smile. At least her unexpected guest had good taste.

  Suddenly, they heard voices coming from the woods. A moment later, a group of animal-talent fairies flew into the fairy circle.

  “So, this is the fella that got away?” said Fawn. She shook her head. “Oh, Dandelion, that appetite of yours is always getting you in trouble. Come on, buddy. Let’s get that bandage changed and rest your foot. Where’s Beck?”

  “Isn’t she with you?” Mia asked the fairies. “She said she was going to see the fox kits before she came to the tea party.”

  “We’ve all been with the foxes since morning,” said the animal fairy Terra. “But we haven’t seen Beck.”

  “That’s strange,” said Mia.

  “I doubt there’s anything to worry about,” Fawn said. “Dandelion can be a real escape artist when he’s hungry. Beck is probably out looking for him.”

  The girls looked at one another.

  “That’s what Myka thought,” said Tink.

  “Come along now,” Fawn said to the rabbit.

  Mia watched Fawn lead the rabbit away. A moment later, Myka returned—without Beck.

  “No one has seen Beck since this morning,” Myka reported. “I checked her room. And the mole holes. And the robins’ nests—all the usual places. She hasn’t left word with any of the fairies, either.”