Bluebell chose her indigo silk top, with pale-blue sequinned shorts. She was delighted when Honey asked if she’d liked to borrow her silver wedge sandals. The wedges were the perfect shoes for her outfit! Meanwhile, Buttercup made her decision easily – she’d been desperate to wear her glitter belt ever since she’d bought it from Sparkle Sensations last week. She tucked a yellow blouse into it and added gold pointy pumps.
“Oh, you all look gorgeous!” said Honey, fluttering about wearing gold-silk cropped trousers and a white vest top. “So, are you ready?”
The fairy princesses nodded at once. “YES!” they all shouted. They couldn’t wait to find out Honey’s big surprise!
Rosa could hardly believe her eyes when she stepped out of the door of the Sand Castle. It was night-time, but the beach was brightly lit by hundreds of moon-shaped lanterns hanging from the palm trees. The sand sparkled more than ever, and the air was filled with the sound of songbirds chirping an upbeat melody.
“Surprise!” Suddenly hundreds of blonde-haired sand fairies fluttered out from behind the palm trees, waving and smiling. They all wore grass skirts in different colours, and had beautiful flower garlands around their necks.
The fashion fairy princesses were lost for words – even Violet! It was such a spectacular and unexpected sight that Bluebell couldn’t help but squeeze Rosa’s hand in excitement.
“We wanted to do something to welcome you all to the island,” explained Honey. “So we decided to do what we do best – throw a party!”
Two sand fairies flew towards them, holding piles of flowers in their hands. When they got closer, Violet realized they weren’t just flowers, but flower garlands, just like the ones the sand fairies were wearing.
“Hello! I’m Luna, and this is Chelle,” said a sand fairy with bobbed blonde hair. “We made these for you.”
“Have we got the colours right?” Chelle asked. She had a crown of palm leaves nestled on top of her golden locks.
“Oh yes!” said Violet, finally managing to speak. The garlands were in each of the fairy princesses’ favourite colours. She plucked the purple garland from the pile and popped it carefully over her head. “Thank you,” she said, grinning. “It’s so pretty!”
“Yes, thank you!” said the other fairy princesses. Rosa picked up the bright pink garland, Buttercup the golden-yellow one and Bluebell took the garland of delicate sky-blue flowers. Then Luna and Chelle pinned a few tropical flowers in each of the fairy princesses’ hair.
Honey turned to them and clapped her hands. “Now you’re wearing everything you need for a Shimmer Island party, it’s time to dance!” She flew off towards the sea, where a circular dance floor made of woven seaweed was lit up next to the shoreline. Beside it, a row of red crabs clacked their claws in time to the music. Honey fluttered on to the dance floor, and as soon as her feet touched it, it began to move slowly clockwise.
“You’ve got to come and join in!” Honey called, and Violet and Rosa flew over immediately.
Rosa began skipping about and fluttering her wings to the beat, and the spinning dance floor felt as though it was moving in time to the music! When the music became slower, the dance floor would slow down, and when the melody quickened, the dance floor would suddenly speed up. “Oh my fairyness!” said Rosa. “This is so much fun!”
But Bluebell noticed that Buttercup was standing, frozen, on the glistening sand. “Don’t you want to dance?” she asked, frowning at her friend.
Buttercup looked up shyly. “I do,” she said, “very much. But I’m not sure I can with everyone watching. . .”
Bluebell glanced around. Buttercup was right – most of the sand fairies had circled the dance floor, and were clapping their hands as Violet, Rosa and Honey danced about with big smiles on their faces. Bluebell knew how shy Buttercup could be, especially around fairies she didn’t know. Of course she was worried about dancing in front of everyone. Bluebell looked about at all the sand fairies, clapping as they watched her friends dance. Suddenly she had an idea.
She jumped on to the dance floor. “How about a conga?” she cried, and the songbirds immediately changed their song to a two-beat rhythm. Bluebell took the lead, and the sand fairies poured on to the dance floor, lining up behind each other and kicking out their legs in time to the music. Fluttering their wings, they flew back and forth and upwards and downwards across the seaweed dance floor. A warm wave of happiness washed through Bluebell when she saw that Buttercup had joined the conga, and was shaking her hips towards the back of the line. Now everyone was dancing.
As Bluebell brought the conga to an end, a sound quite different from the songbirds’ melody started up – a gentle tapping rhythm that was becoming louder and louder. Rosa swung round, trying to work out exactly where it was coming from.
“Wow!” Rosa gasped when she saw the procession of sand fairies fluttering out from behind the Sand Castle. The fairies all had different-sized shell drums hung around their necks, and they tapped out a fun, magical tune.
“We must dance to this!” cried Honey, grabbing the hands of Buttercup and Rosa. Bluebell glanced at Buttercup, worried that she’d still be feeling shy, but instead she was the first to start dancing! Soon, they were all doing twirls in the air together.
Honey showed the fairy princesses how to do a triple high-kick spin. It wasn’t long before they got the hang of it, and they danced and spun together in the sparkling Golden Bay air.
“This is wonderful!” cried Buttercup, laughing with delight.
The fairy princesses had so much fun dancing that the evening whizzed by much too fast. They couldn’t believe it when the sand-fairy drummers lowered their shell drums and began to proceed away. It was time for bed!
As Violet fell into Honey’s hammock-bed with her friends, she realized just how exhausted she was. She barely had time to wonder what the fun-loving Honey had in store for them tomorrow before her eyes closed, the hammock gently rocking the friends to sleep.
Rosa stretched up her arms and yawned. It took a moment to remember where she was, and then she sighed happily – they were on holiday on Shimmer Island! She climbed out of the hammock-bed, taking care not to wake her friends, who were all still curled up asleep. Honey was nowhere to be seen. She must have got up earlier, Rosa thought. Rosa didn’t want to disturb the others, so she silently fluttered out to Honey’s shell-covered balcony. But the view was so different from yesterday that she reached up to her face to check that she had her glasses on. Yes, her pretty dark-rimmed frames were in place – so what was going on outside?
The sky was an awful dark grey, instead of its usual bright blue, and the beach was a dull grey too. It was as if Shimmer Island had been covered in a horrible dirty blanket. Rosa could see lots of sand fairies rushing about on the shore of Golden Bay with frowns on their faces, rubbing their arms to keep warm. What in fairyland has happened? thought Rosa.
Just then her friends began to stir.
“Good morning, Rosa,” said Buttercup, as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
“I’m afraid this morning doesn’t seem very good at all,” said Rosa. “Look outside!”
The fairy princesses jumped up and flew to the window.
“Perhaps it’s just a passing storm?” Bluebell suggested.
“But didn’t Honey say that Shimmer Island is always sunny?” said Violet. “It looks like something really bad has happened!”
“Let’s go downstairs to breakfast and see what’s going on,” Rosa suggested.
“Good idea,” replied Violet, and the four fashion fairy princesses began to get dressed quickly.
As she added an acorn-nut slide to her blonde hair, Buttercup looked down at her lemon-yellow wrap dress sadly. “Oh dear – our summer clothes seem really out of place now it’s all grey and miserable outside.”
“You’re right,” Bluebell agreed, staring at her sky-blue skirt
in the mirror. “But we don’t have anything else to wear!”
The four best friends zoomed out of Honey’s bedroom and down the spiral stairs, almost crashing into Honey at the bottom.
“I was just coming to get you,” Honey explained. “There’s been a bit of a disaster here on Shimmer Island. . .”
“Has it got something to do with the grey skies?” asked Rosa as she and her friends fluttered down the last few steps to join Honey.
“I’m afraid so,” said Honey. “We’ve run out of sunshine!”
Violet creased up her face in confusion. “What do you mean, run out?”
“Well, Shimmer Island is kept sunny all year round because we are given bottles of sunshine by the sky fairies. We store them behind the waterfall – you know, the one I took you to yesterday?”
“Forever Happy Waterfall?” Buttercup put in.
“Yes, that’s the one,” Honey replied. “But the problem is, the reserve bottles of sunshine have gone missing! Without them, Shimmer Island will stay grey and miserable. What are we going to do?”
The fairy princesses shared a worried look.
“Perhaps we can help?” Bluebell suggested. “Do you have any idea where the sunshine bottles might have gone?”
Honey shook her head. “No idea,” she said. “But they’ve never disappeared before, so I’m worried that they’ve been stolen.”
“But who would do such a thing?” said Rosa, shocked that there might be a thief on beautiful Shimmer Island.
Violet’s forehead wrinkled with a determined frown. “I have no idea,” she said, “but we’re going to find out!” With that, she flew out of the Sand Castle, her friends following her close behind.
The sight outside was so dreadful that Buttercup felt tears pricking her eyes. The sand on the shore of Golden Bay had lost its sparkle, the palm trees drooped like rag dolls, and the ocean looked grey and uninviting. Most horrible of all was the silence – not one of the songbirds was singing, which was very strange indeed for an island usually full of music. It was hard to believe that it was the same place where they’d had the magical party last night!
Sand fairies rushed around, talking in worried tones. They seemed so different from their usual happy selves. Luna and Chelle flew by in a hurry, giving them sad little waves as they passed.
“Everyone’s been looking ever since dawn,” said Honey. “But so far nothing’s been found.”
The friends all stood on the sand, not sure where to start. All except Rosa, that is, who had begun drawing lines in the sand with a large conch shell. “So we’re here,” she said, pointing to a place in the sand she’d marked with a cross, “and the waterfall is all the way over there.”
Bluebell fluttered closer to her friend to see what Rosa was doing. She’d sketched out the moon shape of Shimmer Island in the sand, with Golden Bay at the top and the Forever Happy Waterfall at the very bottom. In the middle of the circle she’d drawn the pool, and a little further down, the sand fairies’ coconut beach huts.
“Let’s start by searching the north of the island,” Rosa said. “Honey, can you think of anywhere the bottles of sunshine might be hidden?”
Honey raised her eyes in thought for a moment. “We could try the palm trees behind the castle? There are so many, the bottles of sunshine could easily be hidden among them.”
“Good idea!” said Violet, and the fairies flew off at once, weaving through the hundreds of tall palm trees that stood at the rear of the Sand Castle.
They looked around the trunks of the trees and beneath fallen leaves. But everything seemed so miserable in the grey morning – it didn’t seem as if the magical sunshine was close by. The fairies even fluttered up to the drooping treetops to look between the palms and coconuts, but they couldn’t find the bottles anywhere.
“It’s like looking for fairy-dust in a sandcastle – impossible!” Bluebell exclaimed. “What are we going to do?”
“Let’s not panic,” said Rosa, fluttering back to the map of Shimmer Island she’d drawn in the sand. “I think we should try the pool next.”
“That sounds sensible,” said Honey. “There are lots of places in the rocks where the bottles could be hidden.”
As the five fairies flew to the middle of the island, Buttercup felt glad Rosa was taking charge. She always knew what to do in difficult situations. They soon got to work searching among the rocks that surrounded the beautiful pool – although even the pool didn’t look so lovely now the sun’s rays had disappeared. The glittering turquoise water had turned to a dull dark blue, and the drooping palm trees had shed some of their leaves into the water.
Violet shivered as she darted in and out of the rocks. She was glad she’d put on her palm-leaf cape today. It was so cold on the island now!
Rosa had suggested that they search different areas around the pool, but it wasn’t long before the fairies came together again, shaking their heads – no one had found anything at all.
“Perhaps we should go back to the castle,” said Honey. She felt bad that her friends were spending their holiday searching for the sunshine when they should have been having fun!
But Rosa wanted to carry on. “No, let’s go and check the waterfall,” she said, feeling more determined than ever to find the missing bottles of sunshine. “I know that lots of sand fairies have already looked there, but there’s no harm in us trying too.”
Bluebell was worried they’d find the waterfall no longer running, but to her relief the water still gushed over the high ledge, although it didn’t look quite so magical without the sun shining on it.
“I’m really thirsty,” said Honey. “Let’s have a drink while we’re here.” She fluttered down to the banks of the river. “Mmm, it’s fizz-berry-and-banana shake today!”
“What do you mean?” Violet asked. What was Honey talking about?
The fairy princesses flew over to Honey, who was cupping her hands into the fast-flowing water that poured from the waterfall.
Honey looked over her shoulder at her friends. “Come on, you’ve got to try it!”
The missing sunshine forgotten for a moment, the fairy princesses rushed over to join Honey, lying alongside one another on the bank and using their hands to bring up water from the river.
Sure enough, when Buttercup trickled some of the liquid into her mouth, it tasted of the ripest, fizziest berries mixed with sweet banana. Yum, yum, yum!
When she’d finished drinking, Honey sat back on her heels and watched her friends sip at the water. “It’s a different flavour every day – you never know what you might get!” But her smile quickly disappeared. “It’s not looking good, is it?” she said, glancing around at the sand fairies who were flitting about behind the waterfall and shaking their heads. “Maybe we’ll have to get used to cold, grey weather.”
“But we can’t give up yet!” said Rosa. “We’ve got to find the sunshine. This is the happiest place in fairyland – and everyone is always smiling. . .”
“Well, not everyone,” said Honey.
“What do you mean?” Violet asked.
“Rosa’s right, the island is a very happy place, but there is one grumpy sand fairy here. She lives in the shadowy sand dunes on the other side of the island, all by herself. It’s silly, but I’ve always been a bit afraid of her, although everyone says she’s harmless.”
“Wait,” said Bluebell, pulling at one of her ears in thought. “Could she have stolen the sunshine?”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” said Honey with a wave of her hand. “This fairy hates sunshine – that’s why she lives in the shadows of the sand dunes!”
Violet jumped up. “But if we’ve looked everywhere else, perhaps it’s worth a try?”
Rosa was nodding. “Yes, I think so too! And we really want to help you. Honey, will you show us the way?”
The five fairies set off, flying u
p and over the rushing waterfall with Honey leading. Without the sunshine, it was already rather cool on the island, but as they flew, it suddenly got a LOT colder. Bluebell rubbed her arms to keep warm and Violet wrapped her palm-leaf cape more tightly around her.
At last they came to land on the shore, just in front of several high sand dunes. The sharp hills of sand lined up along the beach cast shadows over the fairies – this place didn’t look very inviting at all!
Violet was already setting off towards the dunes. She looked behind when she realized that the others hadn’t followed her. “Let’s find this grumpy fairy, shall we?” she said. “Even if she hasn’t got the sunshine, maybe she has an idea where it is!” But her friends were all staring at the sand dunes as if they hid monsters, or the Pixlins from fairy tales.
“Perhaps we could persuade her to come out here instead?” Rosa suggested.
“I don’t think that will work,” said Violet. “Honey said this fairy likes to be left alone. But we really need to find her, and I can’t do this by myself – I need your help. Please?”
“Violet’s right,” Bluebell said quietly. “As much as I don’t want to go in there, it’d be much better if we all went to find her.” She held hands with Honey and Buttercup, and together with Rosa they fluttered across the sand to join Violet.
“I think she might live in here,” said Violet, pointing to a little gap between two of the giant dunes. Next to it stood a little sign which read: KEEP OUT!
Rosa peered in. Sure enough, there seemed to be a tiny tunnel-like gap in the dunes which led away into darkness.
“I’ll go first,” Violet offered.
The other fairies admired how brave Violet was as she got down on her hands and knees and crawled into the opening, squeezing her wings tightly shut so she could fit in the narrow tunnel.
Honey in Shimmer Island Page 2