Treasure Hunt

by Titania Woods

  ‘You don’t know that,’ sniffed Twink. But she felt better for having told Bimi, as though a weight had fallen from her. She managed a shaky smile. ‘Anyway, that’s – that’s why I wanted to come to the library, to see if I could find a drawing of Gran.’

  Picking up the book, Bimi opened it to the drawing again. ‘Well, I’m glad you did. And Twink, she looks so much like you!’

  ‘Do you think so?’ asked Twink. The two girls stared down at the open page. Twink’s heartbeat quickened as she saw that Bimi was right. She and Gran looked as if they could have been sisters.

  The thought gave her a warm glow. Twink tucked the book under her arm. ‘Come on, let’s go and check this book out,’ she said.

  But as the two fairies turned to leave, Twink found her gaze drawn to the next shelf down. There were books there of all shapes and sizes – including one slim blue volume that was drawn out slightly from the others.

  Twink’s eyes widened abruptly. ‘Bimi, wait!’ she said, clutching her friend’s arm. ‘What’s that?’

  .

  Chapter Four

  Twink darted to the corner and pulled the narrow book from the shelf. Turning it over in her hands, she saw why her attention had been caught by it. Just visible through the dust, the cover had the word ‘utterby’ written on it in a curling handwriting.

  Twink licked her finger and wiped off the dust. The words sprang out at her. This is the super-private journal of Silvia Flutterby. Keep out! This means YOU!!

  ‘Your gran’s old journal!’ cried Bimi, looking over her shoulder. ‘But what’s it doing here?’

  ‘I – I don’t know,’ said Twink in a daze. ‘The books on this shelf are all old schoolbooks and things like that – I suppose it just got mixed up with them, somehow.’

  Her wings prickled as she stared down at the journal. Though she knew her explanation must be the right one, there was something very strange about finding Gran’s journal just now – almost as if it had wanted to be found along with the drawing of Gran’s year group.

  But when Twink slid the two books across Mrs Stamen’s mushroom desk, the librarian shook her head. ‘I’m sorry, Twink, but volumes from the Records section can’t be taken from the library.’

  Twink felt herself turn pale. ‘But this was my gran’s!’ she said. She showed Mrs Stamen the name on the little book.

  The librarian’s expression changed to one of wonder as she examined the journal. ‘How interesting! Well, then, of course you have to take this, Twink. In fact, I’d say that it belongs to you and your family, rather than Glitterwings!’

  ‘Oh, thank you!’ cried Twink in relief. She slid the slim volume into her petal bag, fastening the clasp firmly.

  ‘Now, what about the other book?’ asked Mrs Stamen.

  ‘This is Twink’s gran, too,’ said Bimi, flipping it open and pointing to the drawing.

  ‘I see,’ said Mrs Stamen. She tapped her chin thoughtfully as the two girls held their breath. ‘Well, I can’t let you take this book, Twink, but I think we have extra drawings of the old year groups on file – shall I try and find a copy of it for you?’

  ‘Yes, please!’ said Twink. Hope tingled through her like fairy dust.

  Mrs Stamen rummaged through the library’s oaken filing cabinets. Soon Twink had not only a copy of the year group drawing, but one of Gran on her own, when she was just Twink’s age.

  ‘Thank you,’ she whispered, staring down at it. ‘Oh, Mrs Stamen, thank you!’

  ‘Not at all,’ laughed Mrs Stamen. ‘That’s what librarians are for!’

  That evening Twink sat in the third-year Common Branch, trying to concentrate on her homework. She had decided to save the journal until that night, when everyone was asleep and she could read it in private . . . but the small blue book was unbearably tempting!

  Finally Twink gave up and pushed her Flower Power project to one side. Glancing over her shoulder to make sure no one was watching, she carefully slid Gran’s journal out from under her other books.

  Super-private! shouted the words on the cover. Twink hesitated, biting her lip. Should she read the journal? After all, it did say Keep out – maybe her gran wouldn’t want her to.

  I’ll keep it for her, and give it to Gran when I see her, decided Twink reluctantly. She started to push the journal aside . . . but somehow her fingers wouldn’t let go of it. What if – what if her gran stayed in the Doldrums for ever? This little book might be all she had left of her.

  I’ll just take a tiny peek, thought Twink, her heart pounding. Quickly, before she could change her mind, she flipped to the first page.

  It began:

  A new term! It was so sparkly to see Aurora again, and good old Foxglove Branch. Aurora and I got beds next to each other, hurrah! She’s brought a cricket clock from home. She says he’s a real scamp, and he loves to play tricks. Once he hid Aurora’s wing polish from her, only then he forgot where he’d put it and she didn’t find it for ages! Anyway, we’re having a brilliant time getting him to chirp songs for us. It’s going to be such a sparkly term!

  The study time went quickly as Twink read and read, forgetting all about her resolution to only take a peek. Gran had told Twink stories of her girlhood before, but nothing about her life here at school! Who would have guessed that her tall, elegant grandmother had got told off for whispering with her best friend during lessons, and that sometimes she’d broken the rules?

  Twink grinned at another entry:

  Jeni was saying yesterday that no one’s ever been down in the school roots, and that there are monsters down there. Can you believe such nonsense, at our age? So Aurora and I sneaked down there last night, just to prove her wrong. Well, we didn’t get eaten by monsters, but it IS pretty creepy – all dark and twisty, and it goes on for ages. At least we had Aurora’s cricket with us – he chirped songs so that we didn’t get too scared. We almost got lost, but we found our way back finally and pretended to Jeni that we’d loved every second of it. Her face was a picture!

  Twink stifled a giggle. Her gran had been even worse than Sooze!

  A sudden commotion filled the Common Branch. Twink looked up, hastily closing the journal and hiding it under the rest of her books. Jax was standing on one of the fire rocks in the centre of the branch, loudly telling a story.

  ‘Oh, you all should have seen it!’ she laughed. ‘Jade took one look at the clue, and zoom, she was off! Pix never even stood a chance.’

  Jade and Ivy were sitting together as usual, studying at a mushroom desk. Jade shook her head. ‘Honestly, Jax! It’s not a contest between Pix and me, you know.’

  Pix’s cheeks were almost as red as her hair. ‘No, it’s not!’ she snapped. ‘And anyway, Jax, I did work the clue out – just not quite as quickly.’

  ‘Well, I think you’re both doing really well,’ said Kiki mildly. ‘I’ve got no idea what the first clue means!’

  ‘Oh, you’ll get it soon,’ Jade assured her. ‘Honestly, it’s not hard at all, really.’

  Pix seemed to grit her teeth at this. Tapping her yellow wings together, she scowled down at her petal pad.

  Sooze flitted over and sat next to Twink. ‘What do you want to bet she’s working on the second clue right now, instead of doing her homework?’ she whispered. ‘You should have seen her when Jade worked it out first. I thought her wings were going to drop off from the shock!’

  ‘What was the first clue?’ Twink whispered back. Sooze unfolded a rose petal. In a low, dramatic voice, she read out:

  .

  ‘Water, water everywhere

  That’s where this clue is found

  And if you were IN the water,

  All around you would be round!’

  Twink frowned. Did that mean the water was in a round shape, somehow? ‘The school pond?’ she guesse
d.

  Sooze shook her head. ‘That’s what almost everyone thought. Loads of us went jetting down to the pond – Pix included. But nothing was there except the water sprites, and ooh, were they cross!’ She put on a high-pitched voice. ‘You bad fairies! Barging around looking for stupid clues and disturbing our nice, quiet pond – pah!’

  Twink laughed, imagining it.

  Sooze lowered her voice. ‘Do you know where the second clue turned out to be? The third-year Bath Branch! It’s under one of the walnut-shell buckets, and –’

  ‘Don’t tell her,’ chided Sili from the next desk. ‘We’re all supposed to work it out for ourselves!’

  ‘That’s all right,’ said Twink quickly. ‘I – I don’t think I’m going to be playing.’

  Sooze and Sili gaped at her. ‘Why not?’ demanded Sooze. ‘It’s the most glimmery thing that’s happened in ages!’

  Twink shrugged. ‘I’ve got a lot to do, that’s all.’ Though it had been fun to hear Sooze’s account, Twink couldn’t imagine taking part in the treasure hunt herself – not with Gran so ill. It just seemed too silly to bother with.

  ‘Opposite!’ said Sooze, propping her hands on her hips. ‘You can’t –’

  From across the branch, Pix suddenly banged her snail-trail pen down with a triumphant grin. ‘Ha! I’ve got it!’ Scooping up her petal pad, Pix flew from the room in a blur of red and yellow.

  A startled silence fell, and then everyone burst out talking at once. ‘The second clue! She’s worked it out!’

  Jax flitted to the doorway, peering out into the trunk. ‘She’s heading upwards!’ she reported over her shoulder. ‘Where do you suppose she’s going?’

  ‘Ooh, let’s follow her!’ cried Lola, Jax’s best friend. Her thin face was flushed with excitement.

  ‘No, we can’t do that!’ laughed Bimi. She was sitting near the window with a yellow-haired fairy called Zena, explaining the Creature Kindness homework to her. ‘We’re not supposed to swap answers, remember?’

  ‘Anyway, Jade, you must be getting worried now!’ grinned Jax, coming back into the room.

  Jade blinked. ‘Why?’

  ‘Because Pix is ahead of you!’ cried Lola, bouncing on her toes.

  Jade looked confused. ‘No, she’s not. I worked out the second clue this afternoon.’

  ‘She’s on the third one already,’ boasted Ivy. ‘That’s my clever sis!’

  The branch exploded into uproar. ‘The third clue, and it’s only the first day!’ hooted Sooze, fluttering up into the air and doing a somersault. ‘Oh, poor Pix! She’ll never get over it!’

  ‘When do you reckon you’ll win the treasure hunt, Jade?’ asked Jax eagerly. She perched on the edge of Jade’s desk. ‘Tomorrow? The next day?’

  Shaking her head with a smile, Jade shoved Jax off her homework. ‘You lot are awful. And no, I won’t finish the treasure hunt by tomorrow, or even next week, probably! The clues are getting much harder.’

  ‘I bet she does win, though,’ hissed Sili in Twink’s ear. ‘And I don’t think Pix will like it very much!’

  After glow-worms out that night, Twink waited until the only sound was that of soft breathing. When she was sure that everyone was asleep, she slipped Gran’s journal out of her petal bag. She could hardly wait to read the rest of it!

  Flitting silently up to the ceiling, Twink unhooked one of the glow-worm lanterns and ducked back under her petal duvet. ‘Glow-worm on – but only a little bit!’ she whispered.

  The plump green worm yawned. Slowly, a faint golden glow appeared. Twink snuggled down with the journal.

  Time flew by as she read. Twink smiled as she turned another page. Gran had been just the sort of bright, bubbly fairy that everyone liked being around. Why, the two of them probably would have been friends, if they’d been the same age!

  Then Twink came to the next entry in the journal, and her heart chilled:

  I can’t believe it. This is so awful that I can hardly even write it down. I’ve lost my ring! My special silver ring that I’ve had practically all my life. I thought it might be somewhere in the tuck shop, because I was helping Miss Nectar put some of the sweets away when I noticed it was missing – but it’s not, I’ve looked everywhere!!

  I feel so numb. I can’t believe it’s lost. Everyone’s been helping me to search for it, but it’s just GONE. I can’t stop crying. That ring meant so much to me!

  And to make matters worse, now Aurora’s cricket is missing too. Poor Aurora! How can we both be so unlucky?

  Oh, I’d give ANYTHING to have my ring back again!

  Twink swallowed hard as she took in the tear-stained words. Oh, poor Gran! But surely she’d found her ring again, with everyone looking for it? Twink flipped ahead in the journal, scanning through the entries.

  Aurora’s cricket had returned to Foxglove Branch the next day, much to Gran’s best friend’s delight. But Gran hadn’t been so fortunate. Though she and her friends had searched Glitterwings for days, looking in every place they could think of, her ring was never found.

  Slowly, Twink shut the book. She felt as forlorn as if it were her own ring that had been lost. I wish I could find it for her, she thought, tracing the letters on the journal’s cover.

  Suddenly Twink’s eyes widened. She knew it was a mad idea – it had all happened so long ago – but what if she could find the lost ring, somehow? Would that be enough to snap Gran out of the Doldrums?

  Twink’s heart thudded so loudly that she was sure it would wake the other fairies. ‘A shock of joy,’ Pix had said. Well, finding Gran’s ring would certainly be that. It had obviously meant the world to Gran; she’d be thrilled to have it back again after all this time!

  How could she possibly find it, though? It sounded as if Gran and her friends had looked everywhere in the school! Twink bit her lip. Still, the ring had to be somewhere, didn’t it – even after so many years? So maybe she could think of something that Gran hadn’t.

  ‘I have to try, anyway,’ whispered Twink, tickling the glow-worm’s belly. His light faded, leaving Twink alone in the darkness. ‘That’s all there is to it – I have to try!’

  .

  Chapter Five

  ‘What will you have?’ asked Miss Honey impatiently. ‘Candied nuts, sweet seeds? Come along, girl, there’s a queue behind you!’

  Hovering at the tuck shop counter, Twink glanced over her shoulder at the queue of first-year students. ‘Well – I don’t want to buy anything,’ she confessed. ‘I just wondered if you need any help.’

  ‘Help?’ Miss Honey stared at her in amazement. ‘Why should I need help selling sweets to you lot?’

  ‘You just . . . look really busy,’ faltered Twink. She was certain that Miss Honey – a thin, bad-tempered fairy with drooping gold wings – would tell her to flap off if she started talking about decades-old lost rings. But she had to get into that tuck shop – it was where Gran had first noticed that her ring was missing!

  ‘I am busy,’ snapped Miss Honey. ‘Which is why you need to move along, if you’re not buying anything! Next!’

  A First Year with purple hair sped up to the counter. ‘I’ll have –’

  ‘No, wait!’ burst out Twink, thinking fast. ‘I mean – you look really busy, but – but it’s also a project I’m doing! We’re meant to help one of the teachers for a few hours, and see what life is like for them.’

  Twink held her breath, praying that Miss Honey would believe her. Peering into the tuck shop she could see teetering wooden shelves and dark corners. Oh, there were loads of places a lost ring could be!

  Miss Honey snorted. ‘See what my life is like, eh? Which teacher thought that one up? All right, then – you can sort all the sweet seeds according to size, if you’re so keen.’

  She lifted the counter up, and Twink shot into th
e shop. ‘Thank you!’ she said fervently.

  ‘No chit-chat,’ retorted Miss Honey as she banged the counter closed again. ‘My life’s not about chit-chat; you can write that in your report! Now, there are the seeds.’ She turned back to the queue. ‘Next!’

  Twink stared in dismay at the overflowing walnut-shell bucket of seeds. This would take ages! When would she get a chance to search? Slowly, she started sorting.

  Half an hour later Twink’s fingers were aching, but the seed level in the bucket hardly seemed any lower. Even worse, her free hour would soon be over, and the tuck shop manager showed no sign of leaving.

  Miss Honey appeared beside her, glowering. ‘Is that all you’ve sorted?’ she scoffed. ‘Huh! In my day, fairies knew how to work!’

  All at once an idea came to Twink. She nodded, trying to look downcast. ‘I’m sorry, Miss Honey,’ she said. ‘I suppose you could have done it much better.’

  Miss Honey frowned. ‘Well, of course I’ve had more practice,’ she admitted. ‘Work, work, work, that’s all I ever do!’ Grabbing a broom made of dried twigs, she attacked the floor with it, stirring up great clouds of dust.

  ‘I know,’ said Twink, holding back a cough. ‘All the other girls chose a teacher for their project, but I wanted to see what life was like for you. You work so hard, and no one really appreciates you.’

  ‘True,’ sighed Miss Honey sadly. ‘Minding this shop, year in, year out – sweet seeds and candied nuts! Bah!’

  ‘In fact,’ continued Twink, ‘I bet you’d like to take a break for a change! Why don’t you go to the teachers’ branch right now, and have a cup of warm nectar?’ She clapped her wings together anxiously as she waited for Miss Honey’s response.

  The tuck shop manager couldn’t have looked more astonished if Twink had suggested she fly upside-down. ‘The teachers’ branch?’ she gasped. ‘Me?’

  ‘Of course!’ said Twink. ‘I’ll mind the shop.’

  ‘Why . . .’ Miss Honey hesitated, clearly tempted by the idea. Twink stood very still, not trusting herself to speak.