Jim Henson's Enchanted Sisters

by Elise Allen

  “Is it going to break?” Spring asked worriedly.

  “She won’t be on it long,” Summer said. “It’ll hold her.”

  The branch bent even more as Winter swung herself up to a seated position. The blanket draped only a few feet away from her. All she needed to do was scoot a little bit closer …

  Crack!

  “Cobwebs and cockleshells!” Spring exclaimed. “Was that the branch?”

  Neither Summer nor Autumn answered, but they each took one of Spring’s hands as they all breathlessly watched Winter scoot the last inches between herself and the blanket.

  CRACK!

  The entire branch snapped clean off the tree. Both Winter and the blanket fell.

  “NO!” Spring wailed.

  The sisters were terrified, but Winter didn’t seem frightened at all. Even as she plummeted, she reached for the blanket. Her fingers grazed it, but the wind whipped it away before she could get a firm grip.

  “Blast!” she yelled, followed by “Ouch!” and “Oof!” as she smacked into several branches. None of them stopped her fall, and she was about to run out of branches and hurtle straight to the ground, when she grabbed the lowest tree branch with both hands. She dangled there, still so high she could look down at the top of Flurry’s head.

  “Winter!” Autumn called. “Are you okay?”

  “No!” she called back.

  “You’re hurt?” Spring asked.

  “Of course not—but I lost the blanket! Hey, Flurry—catch!”

  She released the branch, and Flurry flopped onto his back so Winter could land with a giant FOOMF in the middle of his soft, furry belly. She crawled up his body until the two were face-to-face.

  “Thanks, Flurry.”

  Flurry wrapped his paws around her and hugged her tight.

  “Okay, okay.” Winter laughed. “I need to breathe …”

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” Autumn asked.

  “Perfectly,” Winter assured her. “And I saw where the blanket went. Follow me!”

  She took off running and Autumn stumbled over her snowshoes trying to keep up. Winter led her sisters to a clearing at the very edge of the mountaintop.

  “We should be able to see it from here,” Winter said. “Eyes peeled.”

  Winter was right. If the blanket was anywhere in the area, they’d see it from this spot. The view was dizzying. Far below them ran a fast-moving river surrounded by glaciers and thick sheets of ice. Autumn knew that eventually the river led to a tall waterfall that flowed into Spring’s Sparkledom, but she couldn’t see that from here.

  Together, the sisters scanned horizon to horizon.

  “There it is!” Summer cried.

  Mother’s present for Serenity danced in the wind, halfway between the Sparkles above and the river below.

  “I think it’s going to land in the water,” Autumn realized. “If I get down there, I can catch it!” She took one clumsy downhill snowshoe-step before Winter grabbed her arm.

  “You can’t just run down a mountain! Who do you think you are, me? Flurry, bring the sleigh!”

  Flurry obeyed. Summer and Spring climbed aboard, but Autumn hesitated. Winter had done so much, but the blanket was Autumn’s responsibility, and Autumn wanted to do her part to retrieve it. She had an idea, but it made her so nervous she knew she’d have to jump in and do it without thinking about it first.

  “Winter, can I ride on Flurry with you? It’ll give me a better view, and then you don’t have to do anything but steer.”

  “You’ll really ride up on Flurry?” Winter sounded surprised but thrilled. “That would be amazing! Ditch the snowshoes and hop aboard!”

  Autumn did, but it wasn’t easy. Even though Flurry was about the same size as Whisper, the bear couldn’t give Autumn the same elephant-trunk boost. She had to struggle to get astride him, and once she did, she felt strange and unbalanced. Flurry’s back was so broad that Autumn couldn’t grip with her legs. This, Autumn told herself, was why quick decisions were a bad idea. Riding on Flurry was a mistake. She should change her mind and get off. Now.

  “AAAAAA!!!!!!”

  Too late. Autumn screamed as Flurry raced down the impossibly steep slope. Autumn dug her fingers into Flurry’s fur and gripped so hard her hands went numb. She tried to squeeze her legs around Flurry and steady herself, but she still bounced up so wildly she was positive she’d be thrown and tumble down to the river.

  Autumn ached to shut her eyes and take deep breaths, but she wouldn’t let herself. She lost Mother’s blanket. She had to work to find it again. She steeled herself, sat up tall, and scanned the sky.

  “THERE!” Autumn screamed. The blanket floated just above the rushing river, not far from them at all.

  “Good eyes!” Winter cried. “Hold on tight!”

  She swerved Flurry, and the sleigh whipped around behind him. Autumn screamed, but she kept her eyes locked on the blanket as Flurry zoomed onto a wide, flat sheet of ice that ended at the very edge of the river.

  Flurry ran easily on snow, but ice was much harder. He slipped and slid and made little progress. The blanket, meanwhile, came to rest at the very edge of the ice sheet. It dangled there, one corner in the rushing river. If Autumn didn’t act quickly, it would rush away with the current and she’d never see it again. Without thinking, she leaped off Flurry’s back and raced across the ice, but her feet slid fruitlessly.

  She had no time for this. With a wild burst of inspiration, she threw herself on her stomach and slid across the ice. She sailed to a stop just inches away from the blanket. It twinkled in front of her, teasing her with its closeness. One last lunge and she’d have it back. She hurled her body forward …

  … just as a gust of wind blew the blanket into the river. Autumn could only gape as the rushing water whisked it around a bend and out of sight.

  “That was amazing!” Winter cried.

  Autumn turned and saw her three sisters approaching. Winter looked so happy she practically glowed.

  “What are you talking about?” Autumn asked. “I didn’t get the blanket.”

  “But you rode Flurry! And you jumped off him! And you slid on the ice like a seal! That’s so … not you!” Winter seemed to realize that didn’t sound quite right, so she added, “No offense.”

  “It’s okay,” Autumn said. “You’re right. I didn’t really think about what I was doing. I just wanted to get the blanket.”

  “We still can,” Summer said. “I have an idea.” She raised her scepter and cried:

  She touched her scepter to the ice behind them. Yellow sparkles spread over it in a long line until the sheet of ice cracked away and became a raft that hurled into the river with a tumbling jolt. Back on the shore Flurry roared, but his voice grew softer as the float raced the Sparkles down the churning river.

  “It’s okay, sweet little bear!” Spring called to him. “We know what we’re doing!” Then she turned to Summer. “Um … what exactly are we doing?”

  “White-water rafting!” Winter crowed. “Summer, you’re brilliant!”

  “I can’t let you and Autumn be the only ones trying crazy things to get the blanket, can I?” Summer winked at Autumn, and Autumn felt strangely proud to be included as a fellow adventurer.

  They all screamed as the ice raft hurtled around a corner, but then they saw the blanket again. It was far ahead of them, and moving quickly.

  “How can we possibly catch up to it?” Autumn asked.

  No one had an answer.

  “Winter,” Spring asked, “do you think I can take off my snowshoes? They’re kind of uncomfortable.”

  Autumn knew what she meant. She was glad she’d already removed her own snowshoes. They were so big and unwieldy. Like giant oars on her feet.

  Giant oars.

  “Winter!” Autumn cried. “Can you freeze the snowshoes solid?”

  “You really think that’ll make them more comf—” Winter’s eyes lit up as she got it. “Solid like paddles! Yes! Summer, Spring, ta
ke off the snowshoes!”

  They did, and Winter pulled out her scepter.

  Blue sparkles shot out and danced over all four snowshoes, turning exactly half of each into solid ice.

  “Just half?” Autumn asked.

  “The other half’s the handle,” Winter said. “Now everyone grab a paddle and row!”

  Each sister grabbed a snowshoe-paddle and rowed through the choppy river. Freezing water splashed in their faces. Churning rapids threatened to throw them overboard. Still, they kept going, getting closer and closer to the blanket. When they were just behind it, Winter reached out with her paddle, stretching it as far as she could.

  “I’m so close!” she said. “I can almost get it!”

  Spring tapped Autumn’s back and said something Autumn couldn’t hear over the roar of the water.

  “Paddle harder, everyone!” Summer called. “Get Winter closer!”

  Autumn paddled harder. She thought she might have heard Spring say something else, but she wasn’t sure.

  “I’ve got it!” Winter cried as her paddle caught the blanket’s edge, but before she could pull it in, a dip in the river jolted the blanket away.

  “No!” Winter, Summer, and Autumn all moaned.

  “AUTUMN, SUMMER, AND WINTER!!!!” Spring shrieked. “Please listen to me!”

  Spring never yelled like that. All three sisters turned to her. Now that she had their attention, she spoke softly. She said only one word.

  “Waterfall.”

  They’d been so focused on the blanket they hadn’t even realized, but now they turned and saw it. Just a short way down the river, everything disappeared over the giant waterfall that connected Winter’s Sparkledom to Spring’s.

  The sisters barely had time to scream. First the blanket slipped over the waterfall’s edge, then the ice raft and the Sparkles plunged down after it.

  Autumn’s eyes were closed. She was falling. Her back hit something soft and springy, then she was in the air again.

  It didn’t make sense. Shouldn’t she have plummeted into the water in Spring’s realm?

  Her back hit the soft, springy thing again.

  Now Autumn heard something. Screams. Oh, no. Were her sisters okay? But there was something else too. Could it be … laughter?

  “Autumn, open your eyes!” Winter said. “Spring caught us!”

  Autumn looked around. She was sitting on a giant net made of vines and covered with fluffy moss and flowers. The net stretched from a tall tree on one riverbank to an even taller tree on the other.

  “You grew this?” Autumn asked Spring. “But you were so scared …” Like all the Sparkles, Spring usually had trouble with her powers when she was very emotional.

  “Oh, I wasn’t scared,” Spring said. “I mean, I was at first, but then I thought about the word ‘waterfall,’ and how perfect it is that it’s exactly what it describes: water … falling! And then I thought about other words that do the same thing, like ‘afternoon,’ which comes after noon, and ‘cupcake,’ which is a cake in a cup, and—”

  Winter laughed. “Spring, we’d have gone over the falls by the time you thought all that.”

  “But it’s true!” Spring insisted. “And then I thought the word ‘waterfall’ would be perfect for a way into your Sparkledom, Autumn, because then it would be water, falling into fall! And then I remembered—we were falling into spring! My home! And I couldn’t be scared falling into my own Sparkledom. So while we were falling, I used my powers to make us a soft landing spot. Do you like it?”

  “I love it,” Autumn said. “Did you catch the blanket too?”

  “Sorry,” Spring said. “It fell too quickly. But it has to be down there somewhere, right?”

  Autumn looked down. As always, Spring’s land was sunny and beautiful. Countless flowers bloomed, and the fields were filled with adorable baby animals. The lagoon into which the waterfall spilled was filled with life too. Baby ducks glided along the surface, while underwater, schools of fish swam every which way. The lagoon was so clear that Autumn could see all the way to the bottom.

  The blanket wasn’t there.

  “I don’t see it,” Autumn said. “It must have floated down one of those paths.”

  She pointed to the far end of the lagoon, where the water split into four streams. Each branched off to a different part of Spring’s Sparkledom.

  “So we’ll check them all,” Winter said.

  “We don’t have time,” Summer said. “Look at the sky. It’s already late in the afternoon, and Serenity’s party’s at sunset.”

  “We’ll split up,” Autumn said. “We’ll each explore a different branch of the river. When one of us finds the blanket, we’ll send the rainbow for the others. We just have to get down from this net first.”

  “I know how,” Spring said. She whistled. The Sparkles heard hoofbeats and a loud neigh, then a beautiful violet unicorn appeared on the bank of the lagoon.

  “Dewdrop!” Spring squealed.

  Spring loved every animal, but Dewdrop was by far her favorite. He was the only creature of his kind. Mother Nature had given him to Spring when Dewdrop was a baby with a teeny bump for a horn. Flowers grew naturally in Dewdrop’s mane and tail, and though he was fully grown, he still acted like a baby. His favorite thing was lying with his head in Spring’s lap while she scratched him to sleep.

  “Can you give us a ride, Dewdrop?” Spring asked.

  Dewdrop neighed what could only be a yes, then took a running start and leaped. Dewdrop didn’t have wings, but he could leap so high and long it was just like flying. When he was just below the net, all four Sparkles leaped onto his back. Dewdrop carried them effortlessly, then landed on the lagoon bank near the start of the four streams.

  It was time to split up. Even though it had been her idea, Autumn was worried. She hadn’t forgotten about Sleet. What if he had already told the other Weeds—or worse—Bluster Tempest about the blanket? What if they were looking for the blanket too?

  “Maybe I was wrong,” Autumn said. “Maybe we shouldn’t go off on our own.”

  “You’re right!” Spring said brightly. She tilted her head back and made a series of impossibly high-pitched squeals. Seconds later, four pink dolphins popped their heads out of the lagoon and echoed the sounds exactly.

  “Thanks for coming!” Spring said. “Can you give us rides down the streams? It’s to help Mother Nature.”

  The dolphins all chirped and did backflips.

  “They said they’d love to,” Spring translated. “Hop on!”

  Each Sparkle climbed aboard a dolphin. Once they were settled, Autumn said, “The minute one of us sees the blanket, we call the others by rainbow, right?”

  “Right,” Summer agreed. Then she leaned down to her dolphin and asked, “So … how fast can you go?”

  The dolphin squealed, then tore down one branch of the river.

  “You think that’s fast?” Winter cried. “Show ’em what you can do, dolphin!”

  Winter’s dolphin screeched excitedly, then raced down a second stream.

  “Slow down!” Autumn called after them. “You can’t look for the blanket if you’re going that fast!”

  “Don’t worry,” said Spring. “They won’t miss it.”

  “But they’re not even paying attention,” Autumn said. “They’re just racing!”

  “They’ll pay attention when it’s important,” Spring said.

  “How do you know?” Autumn asked.

  Spring shrugged. “I trust them.”

  She chirped to her dolphin, and the two traveled a slow, S-shaped pattern down a third stream. Dewdrop trotted on the shore beside them.

  “I see it!” Spring gasped.

  “Already?” Autumn asked. “You see the blanket?”

  “No! A starfish with seven arms! And look, this anemone had babies! And they’re purple!”

  Autumn sighed. While Summer and Winter might zip right over the blanket, Spring could spend all day entranced by a single spot. If
Autumn was lucky, the blanket would be in her own branch of the stream. She nickered to her dolphin, and they started their journey.

  As they traveled, Spring’s words echoed in Autumn’s head. She’d said she trusted their sisters to pay attention when it was important. Truthfully, Autumn did too. With all four of them working together, they were sure to find Mother Nature’s blanket.

  They just had to find it in time.

  Autumn had been right to trust her sisters. Every one of them searched carefully for the blanket. And while each Sparkle wanted to be the one to find it, Spring wanted it most of all. She wanted her sisters to be proud of her. She hadn’t seen a trace of the blanket yet, and it was getting late, but Spring wasn’t worried. She was in her own Sparkledom. Things worked for her here.

  “We’ll find it, right, Dewdrop?” she asked. The unicorn clip-clopped down the riverbank through a patch of fluffy dandelions. Mother once told Spring that in the Outworlders’ realm, dandelion fluff was always white. How sad that must be! Dandelion tops in Spring’s realm not only grew as large and round as Spring’s own head, but they came in every color: yellow, blue, pink … even orange-and-purple polka dots.

  Dewdrop sneezed as the fluff tickled his nose, and multicolored dandelion fluff flew everywhere. Spring giggled as the feathery seed pods whirled around her, then she suddenly gasped.

  “Fluff and feathers, Dewdrop!” she cried. “You gave me an idea! We can wish for the blanket!”

  While dandelions in the Sparkledoms and the Outworld couldn’t be more different, they did have one thing in common: both were perfect for wishes. Spring urged her dolphin to the riverbank until they were face-to-fluff with the lowest-hanging flowers. “When I say ‘wish’ the second time we all blow,” she told Dewdrop and the dolphin. “That’ll make it a triple-wish.” She closed her eyes tight and said, “We wish to find Mother Nature’s blanket. Dish … fish … wish!”