Blossom in Jewel Forest

by Poppy Collins

  Blossom was soon in position, at the back of a line of fairies on one side of the tug-of-war.

  A tree squirrel stood in the centre, holding up an oak-leaf flag. “On your marks, get ready, GO!” he yelled, bringing down the flag to signal the start of the match.

  Blossom held on to the rope tightly, digging her heels into the ground and fluttering her wings. She tried her best to pull backwards, but it was hard work! Instead of pulling the opposite team over the line marked in the middle, her team were being pulled forwards.

  On the count of three, Blossom’s team heaved on the rope once more, but it was no good. Her team fell in a pile, skittering over the dividing line. The other team had won! The winning fairies raised their hands and cheered, but Blossom didn’t mind – it had been good fun, anyway. And she should probably stick to what she did best – baking cakes!

  While the winning team enjoyed their prizes – acorns filled with rosehip chocolate – Blossom rejoined Willa, and they flew off to find Catkin, Primrose, Pip and Nutmeg.

  “Look, there they are.” Willa pointed at a stall where a spider tore out tickets from a tulip-petal book.

  “It’s the raffle!” Blossom realized. “Let’s buy a ticket.”

  They joined their fairy friends at the back of the queue, and soon they all clutched different-coloured tickets.

  “The special prize is top secret,” Nutmeg told them. “I’m hoping it will be an Olympic-sized trampoline!”

  Primrose laughed. “But where would you put that in the palace?”

  Just then someone coughed into the bellflower microphone that stood on the stage in the centre of the fête. “Please gather at the honeysuckle stage for the fancy-dress competition – which will be followed by the forest raffle draw!”

  Pip and Nutmeg ran off to change into their fancy-dress outfits, while the other fairies sat on blue-and-white dotted toadstools in front of the stage, chattering about what they’d been doing that day.

  “It’s been a wonderful fête,” said Primrose. “But everyone agrees that your cakes, Blossom, were the very best thing about it!” Their conversation was interrupted as the fancy-dress parade began. Each entrant fluttered, walked or crawled on to the stage in turn. There was a fairy dressed as a daisy chain, a spider wearing a glittering star outfit, a butterfly in a peacock-feather dress, and even a group of ants dressed up as acorns. Nutmeg wore a brilliant bright green parakeet costume, and Pip looked incredible in a blackberry outfit made of real berries. You could pick off the blackberry pips and eat them!

  The crowd had to clap for whoever they wanted to win. No one was surprised when Pip received the most cheers, and was awarded with a whole sack of fairy-dust to be spent at Starlight-Starbright tailor’s!

  Pip beamed at her friends as she joined them on the toadstools, still wearing the berry outfit and offering out pieces of the berry to munch on. Nutmeg ran over too, grinning in her bright green costume, the beaked head nodding up and down. “Pip, you SO deserved to win! Well done!”

  “Thanks, Nutmeg,” said Pip in her little voice. “I’m sorry I beat you.”

  Nutmeg readjusted her tail feather and shook her parakeet head. “Don’t be silly – I don’t mind at all. I just love to dress up!”

  Next came the raffle, with lots of exciting prizes. A tree squirrel announced each one in turn, holding up the colour of the winning tulip petal for each item. The friends watched as a hummingbird won a sapphire teapot, a firefly won a dandelion-seed blanket, and Primrose won a diamond-shaped hand mirror – “Perfect for my bedroom!” she said.

  Blossom wasn’t too disappointed when her number didn’t come up. She looked down at her pale turquoise tulip-petal ticket and smiled at Pip beside her. “I never was very lucky!” she said.

  “But there’s one raffle prize left,” Pip said. “It’s the extra-special secret prize! You never know…”

  “And the winning petal is … pale turquoise!” announced the tree squirrel on stage as he held up the chosen petal.

  Blossom looked down at her petal, then back up at the tree squirrel. It was her ticket! She flew up to the stage, her heart beating fast. The squirrel passed her a golden envelope. “Open it!” he said with a wink.

  Blossom slid her finger under the gold flap and took out the piece of sycamore-leaf paper inside. Her hands shook as she read it out:

  “CONGRATULATIONS! You have won a party on Shimmer Island – for you and five friends!”

  Blossom squealed with excitement. She’d never guessed it would be such a wonderful prize! Shimmer Island was a beautiful place, with beaches fringed with fairy palm trees and shimmering crystal sand.

  “Who will you take with you?” the tree squirrel asked.

  Blossom didn’t have to think twice about that. “My five best fairy friends – Catkin, Pip, Willa, Primrose and Nutmeg. As a thank you to them for finishing all the cakes so beautifully!” She turned to look at the five fairies. Their mouths all gaped open in surprise.

  Blossom grinned and flew back down to her friends clutching the golden envelope.

  “How did you work it out?” Willa asked.

  “I really thought it was fairy magic at first,” Blossom replied. “But then I saw the flour on Catkin’s skirt, the star sprinkles in Nutmeg’s hair, and moonbutter on Primrose’s shirt, and I put two and two together!”

  Blossom flung her arms around each of her friends in turn, her pale green wings flapping with delight. “And look,” she said as she hugged Pip, “there’s icing all over your ear!” She brushed it from Pip’s pointy ear and chuckled. “I can’t believe you all did that for me. It was the loveliest thing ever.”

  “Well, we saw how tired you looked and couldn’t bear to wake you up,” said Catkin. “So we worked as a team to finish all the cakes.” Catkin bit her lip. “I do hope they were all OK – we used your scrapbook for the recipes and designs, but none of us are half as good a baker as you are!”

  “They were fairytastic,” said Blossom. “Everybody loved them.” Blossom reached into her bag and pulled out a cake box. Inside were six moonbutter cupcakes. “Actually, we can try some right now – I saved these for us all!” She handed the cakes around, then took the last one and bit into it. The cream icing oozed out. It tasted like the smoothest, silkiest cake ever – just like the ones she’d practised herself. “Yup – they’re perfect!” she reassured them all.

  As she finished the delicious cake, Blossom blinked back tears of happiness. She was so lucky to have such wonderful friends. She couldn’t think of anyone else she’d rather share her prize party with. It had been the most amazing fête day – all thanks to her forest fairy helpers!

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  Catkin fluttered along a high branch of the sapphire-sycamore tree. The tree leaves shone in the early morning sunshine and Catkin couldn’t help but spin in delight as she took in the beautiful forest. “I’m so lucky to live here,” she said to herself. She loved Jewel Forest more than anything else, and flying around it always made her happy.

  She skipped on to the fairy skyway, a network of glittering bridges that connected the forest houses, shops and palace. Each spring the forest fairies rebuilt the bridges with new leaves. In fact, it was only last week that Catkin had been part of the skyway building team. It had been hard work, but worth all the effort. The skyway was decorated with all sorts of different-coloured gems, and Catkin thought it looked better than any other year!

  As she flew along, she pulled out her to-do list of fairy errands from
her ivy-leaf trouser pocket.

  Buy starberry muffins from

  Blossom’s bakery

  Hand out sycamore flyers

  Glowberry candles

  On Catkin’s shoulder was a bag full of sycamore seeds. But these weren’t just any sycamore seeds. They were extra-special seeds that she’d collected from the very tree she lived in – the sapphire sycamore. Not only did each winged seed have a sapphire at its centre, but with a sprinkling of fairy magic, the seeds could be sent anywhere in Jewel Forest. Catkin had the idea to use them as a new forest messaging service. When they arrived at their destination, they would spin a short message from the sender in the air. Catkin thought it would be a great way to send instant messages around the forest – quicker than fairy-mail! Today her plan was to hand out the seeds so the fairies and creatures of the forest could see them in action.

  She also needed to pick up glowberry candles for this evening’s Walk in the Woods. Catkin had arranged the walk to celebrate the beauty of the forest, and planned to show everyone all the amazing things that grew there. She fluttered along the skyway and spotted the Cavern Café up ahead. First I’ll stop in for a drink, she thought. All these chores were thirsty work!

  The Cavern Café was set inside a large, hollowed-out branch of an opal-oak tree. It ran almost the whole length of the branch, and was sheltered from wind and rain but open to sunshine and the fresh forest air.

  “Hello!” Catkin called out as she fluttered into the café. “My usual, please,” she said to the waitress, a ladybird named Poppet. Catkin fluttered up to her favourite spot in the café – a terrace along the top of the branch where she could sit and look out at the forest. She sat down at an acorn-nut table and took out her list again. She began adding things with a beeswax pen when Poppet flew up in front of her.

  “I’m dreadfully sorry,” Poppet squeaked in her high-pitched ladybird voice, “but we’ve run out of dandelion milkshake. Can I get you a different flavour, Catkin? How about honey-pear? Or carrot and raspberry?”

  Catkin frowned. She didn’t fancy anything else. The dandelion milkshake always quenched her thirst more than anything else, and it was super-tasty too – sweet and creamy but not too filling. She shook her head, making her red curly hair bounce around her. “I think I’ll give it a miss, but thanks, Poppet.”

  “You could try again tomorrow,” Poppet suggested. “The problem is we couldn’t find a single dandelion in the usual clearing today, but I’m hoping some will grow overnight.”

  Poppet was right – the magical forest often grew plants very quickly, but it was strange that not one dandelion could be found. Catkin popped her to-do list and pen back in her pocket and fluttered up from the chair. “Thanks, Poppet.” The fairy knew that it wasn’t just her favourite milkshake but one of the café’s bestsellers. Many of the fairies and forest creatures would be disappointed that it was off the menu.

  Catkin pulled out a sapphire-sycamore seed from her bag. “Before I go, can I give you one of these? It’s the newest form of messaging in the forest – with a sprinkle of fairy-dust, you can send a message almost instantly to anyone in the forest!”

  Poppet clapped her two front legs together. “What a great idea! Why don’t you leave a pile here and I can tell customers about them?”

  “That would be fantastic – thanks, Poppet.” Catkin grabbed a handful of the seeds and passed them to the ladybird. “I’d better be off now. I’ll keep my fingers crossed you have dandelions back in the café tomorrow!”

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  First published in the UK by Scholastic Ltd, 2014

  This electronic edition published by Scholastic Ltd 2014

  Text copyright © Scholastic Ltd, 2014

  Cover copyright © Pixie Potts, Beehive Illustration Agency, 2014

  Inside illustration copyright © David Shephard, The Bright Agency, 2014

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  eISBN 978 1407 14601 0

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