Cloud Island

by Rosie Banks

  “At least we know what the Storm Sprites were up to,” Lolo said, holding up an empty basket. “They’ve eaten all the cotton candy that was going to be lunch!”

  The weather imps looked cranky, but Lolo soon cheered them up. “We’ll pick some more,” she told them. “We need to check that the thunderbolt isn’t in one of the meadows, anyway.”

  Lolo led Trixi, Summer, Ellie, and Jasmine along to the fluff flower and cotton candy meadows. The girls were delighted to see tiny white cloud bunnies hopping about the fields, chewing on the fluff flower leaves.

  “They’re so sweet!” Summer squealed as she picked one up and gently stroked its soft fur. It looked just like a real rabbit, but it was much softer and fluffier, and it was as light as a feather. The little bunny looked up at her with deep chocolate-brown eyes, and its little pink nose twitched. “I guess even our Other Realm bunnies have tails that look like clouds,” she said thoughtfully.

  “Oooh, cotton candy!” Jasmine said, looking at the meadow of light-pink sugar bushes that stretched out in front of them. “Yum!”

  “Try some!” Lolo laughed. “We need to pick some for the cloud factory imps’ lunch anyway, thanks to those horrid sprites.”

  Jasmine reached down and picked a handful. “Cotton candy is my absolute favorite thing!” she squealed, popping it in her mouth. It was so soft it melted on her tongue. “And this is the best cotton candy ever!”

  The girls got to work filling up baskets of cotton candy for the cloud factory imps, munching as they went. Soon the baskets were full — and so was Jasmine!

  “I think I’ve eaten too much!” she groaned, feeding the rest of her handful to Summer’s bunny.

  “I think I’ll call him Cotton!” Summer giggled. Cotton hopped after the girls as they took the cotton candy to the cloud factory. He wiggled his nose at them as they went inside, almost as if he was saying good-bye, and then hopped off toward a nearby field.

  The weather imps looked after all the weather in the kingdom, so, as well as the cloud factory, there were factories that created raindrops, sunbeams, fog, and snow.

  Lolo took Ellie, Jasmine, Summer, and Trixi into the raindrop workshop, where the weather imps made perfect raindrops by dribbling water into drops that were just the right size. Strung along the top of the room were long clotheslines with little gray clouds pinned on them.

  “We dry out old rain clouds and recycle them into soft and fluffy clouds,” Lolo explained.

  As the rain clouds dried out, water dropped down on the imps and the girls below. Trixi, Ellie, Summer, and Jasmine were getting very wet, although the drops were lovely and warm.

  “It doesn’t normally rain inside!” Ellie joked.

  Trixi laughed. “Anything’s possible in the Secret Kingdom!”

  “I know something you might like,” Lolo told the girls. “It has to do with rain — but it’s not so wet!”

  Lolo led them out of the raindrop workshop and around to some big circles on the ground. Ellie and the others rushed over and gasped — each one was a pool of brilliant, vibrant color.

  “Wow!” Ellie said, gazing at the colors. “I’ve never seen these shades before!”

  “These are the rainbow pools,” Lolo explained. “We use them to create rainbows in the sky.”

  Ellie looked at the magical colors in wonder. “I wish my paints were as beautiful as this!” she breathed.

  The girls wandered around, looking at the gorgeous pools. Summer couldn’t decide which one she liked best! There were ruby reds and dazzling silver-blues, and all different shades of pink. They were all stunning — apart from one that was a purple color, speckled with funny gray bits. “It’s a shame this one’s got dirt in it,” she said sadly.

  Lolo rushed over to look. “There’s something in here spoiling the color!” she exclaimed. She plunged her arm into the pool and pulled out a tiny violet plug. There was a loud sucking noise, and the color started swirling around and around, disappearing down the drain.

  As the color drained away, the girls could see something black and jagged stuck in the bottom of the pool.

  It was Queen Malice’s thunderbolt!

  “Don’t worry,” said Jasmine, putting her arm around Lolo, who was looking at the rainbow pool sadly. “We’ll find a way to get rid of Queen Malice’s evil thunderbolt.”

  But just as she spoke, the cloud beneath their feet started to tremble and shake! Then a thick crack appeared in the cloud, right in front of the violet pool. Ellie, Summer, and Jasmine watched in horror as the crack widened and spread.

  Trixi flew her leaf up into the air and looked from side to side. There was a huge jagged split running through the cotton candy fields, past the rainbow pools, all the way up to the sunbeam factory. “It stretches right across the whole island!” she called.

  “Aah!” Ellie cried as the cloud shook again. She grabbed on to Jasmine and Summer’s hands, and they held one another tightly as the crack in front of them grew wider. Now they could see right through it, down to the kingdom far below.

  “The island’s breaking in half!” Trixi called from above.

  “Oh my goodness!” Lolo gasped. “I’ve never known a cloudquake as bad as this!”

  There was another big tremble, and the crack widened, splitting the island in two. To everyone’s horror, the two sides of the island began drifting apart!

  The girls looked around in alarm. On their side of the crack were the fluff flower fields and the raindrop workshop, and on the other side, with Lolo and some of the other imps, were the cloud factory and the rainbow pools. Already the gap was too wide to jump across, and the other side of the island was moving farther and farther away from them.

  Summer gasped — there, sitting at the edge of the other part of the island, was her cloud bunny, his ears drooping sadly. He was looking over at the fluff flowers, where all the rest of the bunnies were hopping about nervously.

  “I hope he doesn’t try to jump back to his friends,” she said anxiously. “Lolo! Can you look after Cotton?” she called over to the other cloud.

  “Of course!” Lolo shouted back. She scooped up the little rabbit and put him in her apron pocket.

  “Don’t worry,” Trixi called as she came flying down next to them. “I’ll use my magic to put the island back together again.”

  She flew over the gap, tapped her ring, and chanted:

  “With this magic, my wish is plain,

  Cloud Island become one again.”

  Showers of purple glitter shot out of her ring and shimmered through the air between the two halves of the island. But nothing happened.

  “If Trixi’s spell isn’t working, this has got to be because of Queen Malice’s horrid thunderbolt,” Ellie said sadly.

  When the weather imps saw that Trixi couldn’t fix the island, they started running about frantically.

  “What are we going to do?” one shouted. “If the fluff flowers are on one cloud and the cloud factory is on the other, we won’t be able to make any new clouds!”

  “And without clouds there won’t be any rain, and all the flowers and plants in the kingdom will die!” another cried.

  “Please don’t worry!” Summer called. “This is because of Queen Malice’s nasty thunderbolt. But we’ll find a way to break its spell and put the island back together again.”

  “Yes, we’ll think of something,” promised Ellie. “We won’t let her get away with it.”

  “What can we do, though?” Jasmine whispered.

  Just then, one of the messenger doves the girls had seen before flew down toward them with an envelope in its beak.

  The dove flapped across the gap to Trixi. The little pixie took the note and unfolded it. To the girls’ surprise, on it was a tiny moving image of King Merry!

  “It’s just like the magical map!” Ellie cried.

  The king seemed worried, and more messy than normal. His crown looked like it was about to fall off his white curly hair, and his half-moon glasses were lop
sided on his nose.

  “Is everything all right up there, Trixi?” the king asked, his voice sounding tiny and squeaky. “We just heard an awful cloudquake!”

  “We think it’s the work of one of Queen Malice’s thunderbolts, Sire,” Trixi told him sadly. “It’s split Cloud Island in half!”

  “Oh dear, oh dear.” King Merry sounded very upset. “I’ll come up there right away and see what I can do to help. I can use the transporter that I’ve just invented.”

  Trixi frowned nervously. “Your Majesty —” she started saying. But it was too late. King Merry’s face vanished from the paper before she had a chance to finish.

  “Oh no,” she groaned. “I wish he’d let me magic him here! He invented a transporter last week and it keeps going wrong. Yesterday he tried to transport himself into his bath and he ended up in the sea!”

  Suddenly, there was a bright flash and King Merry appeared — right on the edge of the cloud!

  “Aah!” he cried, swinging his arms around to balance himself.

  The girls ran toward him, but it was too late. With a cry of surprise, King Merry fell over the side!

  “Don’t worry — I’ll save him!” Trixi called, tapping her ring. The girls rushed to the edge and peered over, but they couldn’t see King Merry anywhere.

  “Do you think he’s okay?” Summer asked anxiously.

  Suddenly, there was a very familiar voice from high above them. “Oh gracious me!”

  Everyone looked up to see King Merry floating overhead, hanging on to an enormous bunch of brightly colored balloons!

  “King Merry!” the girls cried with relief.

  “Let them go, King Merry,” Trixi called up. “One at a time!” she added — but it was too late. King Merry let go of all the balloons at once and landed on his bottom with a thud, making the cloud wobble.

  “It’s another cloudquake!” a scared imp shouted.

  “Shhh, it’s just King Merry,” said another.

  “Gosh, thank you, Trixibelle,” King Merry said as the girls rushed over to help him up. “I don’t know what I’d do without you!”

  When King Merry got his breath back, Jasmine explained what had been going on.

  “This is terrible, just terrible,” King Merry declared. “How can Malice do such a horrible thing? We have to stop her!”

  Summer twirled her long blond braids thoughtfully. “In Unicorn Valley, the thunderbolt shattered when we undid all the trouble it had caused.”

  “So if we put the island back together again it might break Queen Malice’s spell!” Jasmine agreed.

  King Merry took off his crown and scratched his head. He peered at the big gap between the two parts of the island, shaking his head as if he could hardly believe his eyes. “But how can we do that?” he muttered to himself. “Can we stitch it together? No, no. We could glue it together …”

  “That’s it!” Summer cried. “We can glue it with new clouds from the cloud factory!”

  “Lolo,” she called to the imp on the other cloud. “Can we stick the island back together with new clouds?”

  Lolo shook her head. “We can’t make clouds quickly enough to repair a crack this big,” she replied.

  “If only we could stick it together with something else, just while the clouds are being made,” Jasmine sighed.

  “Maybe we can,” Ellie said, thinking. “I’ve got it!” she said, her eyes gleaming. “We can glue it back together with cotton candy. It’s light and fluffy, like a cloud!”

  “And sticky, too!” said Summer.

  “That’s a brilliant idea,” agreed Jasmine.

  “Do you think it would work, Trixi?” Summer asked the little pixie. “Is cotton candy sticky enough to mend the island?”

  “It should hold the island together long enough for the weather imps to make enough clouds to fix it properly,” Trixi replied. “And I can cast an extra-sticky spell to make sure. But I don’t know how we can move the other half of the island closer so we can stick it together. I can’t use my magic to move it.”

  “There must be some way we can pull the broken part back over here …” muttered Jasmine.

  Ellie looked around Cloud Island for inspiration. Then her eyes rested on the little dove, still perched next to Summer. “The messenger doves!” she cried. “They could flap their wings and blow the broken half back over to us!” She sighed. “If only we could talk to them and explain what we wanted them to do.”

  With a shimmer, the Magic Box appeared in front of them.

  “Of course!” Summer said. “We can use the unicorn horn to talk to them!” Her face broke into a wide grin as she picked up the magical horn the unicorns had given them. It was so tiny — only the size of her little finger — but it gave them a great power. When they held it they had the ability to talk to all the animals in the Secret Kingdom! Summer had often wished that she could understand what her animal friends were saying, and now she’d finally get the chance. She turned to the white dove excitedly and picked up the unicorn horn. “Please, can you help us?” she asked.

  Ellie and Jasmine looked at each other in surprise — it sounded to them as if Summer was cooing like a dove!

  “Me?” Summer heard the dove coo in a surprised voice. “Why, yes, if I can. What’s wrong?”

  “He understood me!” Summer gasped in delight. “I can talk to him!

  “A cloudquake has split Cloud Island in two,” she told the bird. “We were hoping you and your friends could help us put it back together.”

  The dove looked over at the other side of the island. “What do you want us to do?” he asked.

  “Could you gather all of your friends and beat your wings at the same time to make some wind?” Summer asked the dove. “It might be strong enough to blow the broken part back over to us, and then we could stick the island back together again.”

  “We’re going to need a lot of wing power,” the dove replied, flapping into the air. “I’ll gather the flock.”

  “He’s going to get the others!” Summer told Ellie and Jasmine.

  “Thank you!” Ellie and Jasmine shouted and Summer cooed, as the dove flew away.

  “This might just work!” Jasmine said, excitedly. “Let’s tell Lolo.” They hurried to the edge. The other half of the island was farther away than ever, but Lolo was still close enough to hear as the girls shouted the plan over.

  “How clever!” Lolo called back. “We’ll start making as much cloud as we can, and I’ll organize the cotton candy collection on this side.”

  “And I’ll supervise over here!” yelled King Merry. “I love cotton candy … I mean, I love gathering cotton candy!”

  Trixi smiled, “He’ll probably eat more than he collects!” she whispered with a giggle.

  The girls, King Merry, and the weather imps all bustled around the cotton candy meadow collecting armfuls of the sticky pink stuff, which they piled up along the edge of the cloud. Even though King Merry and Jasmine couldn’t resist nibbling on the delicious cotton candy as they collected it, they still managed to gather more than enough to fix the island.

  Trixi flew over the cotton candy heap and recited a spell to make it extra-sticky, then she flew over to the other part of the island to do the same there. Everyone knelt down and started to spread the pink fluff on the edges of the crack.

  “It’s a shame the cotton candy isn’t white,” said Jasmine as she stuck some on. “I hope the pink doesn’t show too badly.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Trixi reminded her. “It’s only temporary. It just needs to hold together long enough for the weather imps to make more cloud.”

  “And when we break Queen Malice’s thunderbolt, everything will go back to normal anyway!” Summer said cheerfully.

  It took a while, but soon their side of the island was covered in the sticky pink stuff.

  “Finished!” Ellie cried.

  “Just in time!” gasped Jasmine as the flock flew toward them. “Look how many doves there are!”

&
nbsp; “Are you ready over there?” Ellie shouted to the other side, but Lolo and the other imps were now too far away to hear.

  Trixi flew over to them and came back a few minutes later. “They’re ready!” she said.

  “Hello, doves!” Summer cooed, holding tightly to the horn. “Can you please start beating your wings to push the two island halves together?”

  The little birds circled the broken half of the island and started beating their wings really fast. Their wings made a strong wind, and the broken section gradually started to move….

  “It’s working!” shouted Ellie shouted, jumping up and down with excitement. “We’re getting closer!”

  The weather imps gathered on both edges, cheering loudly.

  “Well done!” they called to the doves. “Keep going!”

  Up and down, up and down, the doves flapped their wings as fast as they could.

  “Hoorah! You’re nearly there!” shouted King Merry.

  Everyone called and waved as the doves pushed the pieces closer and closer together.

  But just as the two halves of the island were almost touching, something plummeted from the sky. Four spiky-haired creatures with batlike wings zoomed into the gap and interrupted the cheers with loud shrieks and jeers.

  “Aha!” one cried. “The Storm Sprites are here to spoil your day!”

  The Storm Sprites hovered their storm clouds in the crack, laughing nastily.

  “Oh no!” shouted Ellie. “They’ve come back to stop us from fixing Cloud Island.”

  “They’re so horrible,” groaned Summer.

  Whooping and cackling, the sprites started beating their powerful batlike wings. The blast of wind almost blew the girls off their feet.

  “They’re pushing the island apart again!” cried Ellie.

  The doves were fighting against the wind as well, and had to perch on the clouds so that they weren’t blown away.