‘I have often thought about that. I don’t know what happened to Abraxus after he kidnapped me. He might have flown back to Fairy Land and told them of our fate, or he may have just disappeared without telling my family and my Prince where Nugget and I are. All I know is I miss them so much,’ Blossom’s wings dropped again and her shoulders sagged.
Megan was sad that the small Fairy was upset. ‘Please don’t cry,’ she said tenderly.
‘I know, but it’s jolly hard when I miss my family so,’ Blossom confessed frankly with a soft sigh.
Megan racked her buzzing brain, which felt like wiggly blancmange, trying to think of something to say, to help cheer the Fairy Princess up. ‘You know when you said all children have Magic? Well, do I have enough in me to help you get home?’ she asked perceptively, fully cottoning on to a trail of thought.
‘Oh, y-yes,’ sobbed Blossom enthusiastically, as she dabbed at the sparkly tears racing down her cheeks.
All of a sudden the door burst open like a thunderclap - Blossom became completely still - and glancing up Megan’s mouth hung open, for Lucy was materialized in the doorway.
‘Who are you talking too, Megan?’ she demanded, bustling in mercenarily.
Quick as a flash she improvised, ‘I was just singing too myself.’
Lucy was not to be fooled.
She rubbed her face, and with narrowing bleary eyes, intently inspected the room: she had been so sure she had overheard unmistakable nattering.
Megan did not much fancy the idea of Lucy having seen Princess Blossom come alive; this was her secret and she didn’t know if she was ready to share it - especially with Lucy.
Megan still looked vaguely evasive.
Lucy looked suspicious.
She was about to steamroller on in a pestering flow, but was interrupted when their Mum called from the bottom of the stairs. ‘Lucy, stop that banging! Go back too your own room now and go to sleep.’
Reluctantly storming out of the room she slammed the door behind her.
‘That was close,’ whispered Megan, as Blossom flew into the air.
A simultaneous creak and a gasp of surprise made Megan and Blossom’s heads shoot up, only to see shifty eyes had reappeared, skulking round the chink of the door.
Much too her annoyance that her eyebrows were crossly knitted together, Megan realised this had been Lucy’s next tactic: to wait outside then speedily sneak up on her.
Chapter Three
A Surprise Visitor
Whilst they exchanged stunned stares in a pregnant pause, a thud came from Megan’s half-opened window and they could see a fluttery blur. The rungs on the curtain rail started to rattle a-rat-a-tat-tat, then the gap of the curtains swooshed, and suddenly, another Fairy launched into the bedroom!
Springing off the mattress, Megan bounded over too shut the door, and quickly clamped her hands over Lucy’s mouth to stifle her piggy squeal.
Blossom and the other Fairy met in midair. They bone-crushingly hugged and spun around which made Megan and Lucy feel quite woozy, as their light was like a spectacular Catherine-wheel banger at a bonfire.
Shaking off Megan’s hand, Lucy asked thunderstruck. ‘What are they?’
As both Fairies flew companionably down, mouldy boots with unlaced eyelets landed on Megan’s quilt. Princess Blossom reassured, ‘It’s OK. This is my Brother, Nugget.’
The straggly-haired Elf was a bit taller than Blossom, his blue and rusty-orange wings were much wider and his smudged ears were pointier.
Grimy patches were caked on the elbows of his shabby jerkin, and the stained trousers (shredded in parts) showed signs of once being bottle green.
Megan dragged Lucy over to the bed: they unceremoniously flopped down as Blossom explained to Lucy and Nugget what had been happening.
Lucy’s eyes became so bug-eyed she eventually goggled, and with her wits rousing, said sternly. ‘You should have told me, Megan. I am your Sister, after all.’
Nugget then described how he had been searching for his sister for a very long time and finally knew where she was, when she had shown herself to Megan. ‘But how did you know where I was?’ Blossom asked bewilderedly.
Rummaging around in his pocket for something, he whipped out a flash of brown.
Lucy pursed her lips.
‘A leaf? Oh Yuk!’ she sneered, wrinkling her nose. ‘I can’t believe you have such a filthy thing in your pocket.’
‘This isn’t just any leaf, Lucy,’ Nugget corrected, looking dreadfully insulted. ‘This leaf was taken from a very special tree, which is of the oldest Magic.’
At first the leaf was scrunched up, then it began to unfurl slowly.
Speaking to Blossom, Nugget continued. ‘On the morning of your wedding, I went and asked the tree if I could have one of its special leaves, as a present for you. Not realising how the Magic would bring me to you once you came out of the shell.’
Squeezing Nugget tightly, Blossom replied delightfully, ‘Thank you. I am so happy you are here.’ And she did look happy. Really happy.
He asked if she remembered the last thing that Abraxus said to them, as he threw them into the dark portal. Blossom’s inner mind sought through her bitter reminiscences. ‘Yes, I do. He said that he would destroy our Land, and then the entire Kingdom.’
Nugget clicked his fingers, and in a schoolmasterly voice, urged. ‘We need to go back. We have to see what that evil Dragon has done. If what you say is true, that this human child called Megan is in fact The Fairy Key,’ here, he bowed, ‘then she will need too come with us to open the gateway between our world’s.’
At this point, Lucy, who didn’t know Abraxus was a Dragon, jumped up and flinging her plait, ‘A Dragon? No-one mentioned Dragons earlier,’ she shrieked. ‘Why would Megan want to help you fight a Dragon?’
Megan rounded on Lucy. ‘Without my help, they cannot go back home. But don’t worry; it’ll be all right. I promise.’
‘What do you mean you’re going to help? You can’t go off to this Kingdom, Megan,’ Lucy fretted. ‘You don’t know how it works! I mean, what if you go, then when you come back, we’ve gotten older but you’re still young?’
Blossom flapped forward a little, so she was in front of Lucy, and soothed. ‘It’s OK, Lucy. I understand. But if she does decide to help us, I promise that when she returns not a second would have been lost.’
Lucy stared down at her purple, fluffy-slippered feet, mulled for a whole ten seconds and then looking up at Megan, she slyly smirked.
Facing Blossom, she said triumphantly, ‘Children have Magic, do they? Well, then I’m coming too.’
Thoroughly startled, Megan snarled in protest. ‘You can’t!’
Crossing her arms, Lucy challenged gloatingly, ‘Oh yes, I can. I might not be this so-called Fairy Key thing, but if you don’t let me come, then I will go and tell Mum and Dad.’
Megan couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
This was too much. She felt hacked off. Her cornflower-blue eyes flashed and her cheeks flushed crimson. ‘Don’t you dare tell them. I’m fed-up of you always wanting your own way,’ she seethed querulously, ‘just because you’re the youngest!’
Blossom thought it best to diffuse the impending wobbler. ‘Very well, Lucy, you may come with us,’ a fleeting feature of regret lined her face, and a smidgen of unwillingness now tinged her voice. ‘It is true all children have Magic in them, but Megan is very powerful as she believes in us so strongly.’
‘But it could be me who’s this Fairy Key thing.’
‘No, I’m afraid not, Lucy.’
‘It could be!’
‘No. It is Megan.’
‘Pur-lease. Megan?’
‘Yes. But you can come along, Lucy.’
Smiling sweetly, Lucy simpered silkily, ‘Hmm. Thank you, Blossom.’
Turning to Megan, she snootily stuck her tongue out, and a satisfyingly mischievous grin spread across her face, then under her breath for Megan’s ears, she couldn’t help b
ut go, ‘He he he.’
Chapter Four
The Doorway
Biting her lower lip and wringing her fingers together, Megan asked. ‘What do I have to do, too help you both get home?’
Blossom and Nugget looked from one another in disbelief. After all this time, a chance had come along for them too get back to The Enchanted Kingdom.
Nugget stepped up, and spoke. ‘Megan, with the assistance of the leaf from the Magic tree, you will be able too centre yourself to the Magic buried deep within you.’
Megan stood, fumbled her toes into her pink fluffy slippers and surveyed her room. Is this going to be the last time I will see it, she thought shockingly…
‘OK?’ asked Blossom.
Megan considered this for a moment. In the rush to agree and help, swarms of horrible thoughts now occurred to her: could she actually do the task in hand? Did she have the courage? What if she couldn’t do it? What if Princess Blossom had the wrong child and she wasn’t The Fairy Key. Did she dare hope she was? Could she do this? Could she..?
‘Are you alright?’ the Princess asked.
Megan swatted the pecking thoughts away.
She nodded.
‘Of course she’s alright! What a silly question to ask,’ Lucy said tartly, who couldn’t understand her sister’s behaviour.
‘Ahem.’ Megan cleared her throat.
‘Y-yes,’ she spluttered, ‘I-I’m fine. Let’s do it.’
Blossom and Nugget flew up and he passed the leaf to Megan. ‘Too create the gateway between our world’s, we shall use your bedroom doorway to walk through.’
‘Where will we come out, when we get t-through to The Enchanted Kingdom?’ she slightly wavered still, but was trying her best to mask it.
‘The only place that I know, was the gateway created by Abraxus,’ Nugget recollected. ‘This was in the forest where the Unicorns live so we should come out there,’ he mapped out.
Megan was then taken aback.
The leaf in her outlaid palm was crinkling out popping sparks, and changed from brown to bright orange, then after a second or so, it switched to a vivid purple; she gazed at Blossom and Nugget. ‘It’s the Magic inside the leaf: it can sense the Magic within you,’ commented the Princess.
‘Think of nothing and hold on to the leaf tightly,’ guided Nugget. Like Megan, he, too, was watching the leaf-changing colour-after-colour, ‘just let the Magic in you come to the surface.’
‘Are you OK?’ Blossom asked, still concerned.
Megan gave a saluted thumbs-up.
Making her mind blank she felt the Magic bloom within her: she was a bit scared about it at first but became aware of a very weird feeling spreading throughout her whole body, making her feel nice and toasty.
She trudged forward and groped the handle, and with Lucy, Blossom and Nugget expectantly behind her, she wrenched open the door.
Megan’s eyes bulged.
Instead of the landing, misshapen murky layers, like rolls of compressed toffee, came foraging in.
They were ghoulishly gloomier than the middle of night-time.
Chapter Five
Bumpy Wallops
All four lunged with a lurch into the misty smog, and Megan felt as though she was being yanked and pushed through outer-space. A simmering light began to grow brighter and brighter, and shielding her eyes as the intensity ignited, she skidded around in the air and heard wicked laughter, echoing loudly.
‘Ow! - ’
‘ - Aaaa! - ’
‘ - Eeeek! - ’
‘ - Arrrahhh! - ’
‘ - Humph.’
The last sound came from Megan, who had nose-dived in midair, dropped in a somersaulting movement then gamboled over all topsy-turvy.
Megan lay flat on her back.
‘Whoa.’ She felt groggy.
She sensed a stone was jabbing into the small of her back, and hoisting herself up, she jerked with a jolt from the overwhelming shock of it all, and knelt up on a very bumpy ground, and realised with horror that this was not the forest.
Hunting round, for Lucy, she became aware of a strange sizzling hum behind her. With her heart pumping madly, Megan stole a look over her shoulder and as her eyes adjusted, she saw a very, very large Dragon marshalling towards her!
Turning back, she found Lucy and grabbed hold of her hand; putting a finger too her lips and signaling to Lucy to be quiet, their knees knocked closely together.
Looking upward, they saw the craggy face of a menacing Dragon with enormous wings that were at least as tall as their house, and a wretched Megan saw in his two front-clawed hands he held Blossom and Nugget!
The Dragon then had realised that if Blossom and Nugget had managed too make it back within The Enchanted Kingdom they must have had help. Bringing its large head up swiftly, it keenly smelt the air; there was a different smell, but it couldn’t recognise it.
Both screwed their eyes firmly shut: the Dragon was slowly swinging its salivating jaw, and its breath whispered across the top of Megan’s hair - who had hugged her arms to her chest and daredn’t move, and whose stomach felt like jelly - leaving a lingering foul stench.
Please go away… please go away… please go away… Megan thought, trying as she might, if possible, too will it to pass on.
With splendid timing, from finally hearing the Dragon luckily lumber away, her starry eyes pinged open. ‘Because we’re in the s-shadows, I don’t think he can see us. He must have been able to catch them b-because of their light.’
‘A-Abraxus?’ stuttered Lucy.
‘I think it must be. I-I remember Princess Blossom d-describing what he looked like when we first met… c-can you smell that damp?’ asked Megan, attempting to control her rattling teeth.
‘Yes, I -’
‘- I think we m-must be in a cave -’
‘ - I was about to say - ’
They suddenly heard huffing and bellowing.
Looking behind them they saw Abraxus outside the cave, and as he roared his reign of fire, blazes of molten jets was coming out of his mouth, while great big curls of smoke wafted from his nostrils.
‘What is it doing, Megan?’
Then Lucy’s question was answered for her: they could see that Abraxus was forming a wall of fire where the entrance to the cave was.
They were trapped, and Princess Blossom and Nugget were captured.
Chapter Six
The Wall Of Fire
Scouring the smatter of dirt off her lilac pyjamas, Lucy jumped up. Her green eyes glared and she snapped at Megan. ‘Look at the state of me! I look a mess! This is all your fault!’
‘Don’t you shout at me,’ Megan was quick to retort, understandably heatedly, whilst massaging her wrist.
‘Just look at my hair!’ wailed Lucy, grappling her frizzy ends.
‘Don’t be so ridiculous!’
Lucy snorted.
‘You’re so spoilt!’
‘Just because you don’t care about your hair,’ Lucy heckled, scathingly.
‘What?’
‘I mean, seriously, have you ever used conditioner?’
‘You brat, I’m - ’
‘ - No, I am not! Just shut up, Megan,’ Lucy screeched superiorly, with her hands on her hips. ‘Anyway, how exactly are we going to get out of here?’
Looking down at the ground, Lucy noticed the leaf and picking it up, she thrust it into Megan’s face. At first the leaf was bright orange then turned neon-pink. Puzzled, Lucy muttered to herself under her breath, ‘But how is it changing colour?’
‘Remember, Princess Blossom said it changes colour whenever it senses Magic. It must be sensing yours. I wonder if…’ supposed Megan.
‘What?’
‘Can I hold it just for a minute? I have an idea, we - ’
‘ - No! It’s my turn,’ Lucy trumpeted.
A vein throbbed in Megan’s temple.
She had, quite rightly, had enough. ‘Look, we don’t have time for a fight. Give me the leaf, now!’
she yelled boomingly back, beside herself from a bucketload of indignation.
Begrudgingly, she surrendered the leaf and once in Megan’s reach, the colours shone even brighter. ‘If Abraxus used Magic to hold that wall of fire in place, then why can’t we use the Magic inside us, and with the help of the leaf, get rid of the fire?’ illustrated Megan, who had now quelled down her anger enough to conjure a plan.
‘Oh, do you think we can?’ Lucy asked doubtfully.
‘It’s better than standing here.’
With a scream, Lucy pincered Megan’s forearm. ‘What is it?’
‘Something just ran by my ankle. It felt… hairy,’ she mumbled.
Just to left of them they glimpsed something zip by in the shadows of the caves wall.
‘I want to get out of here,’ Lucy declared rather unhelpfully.
Encouragingly, Megan pointed out. ‘We will.’
‘I’ve got to get out of here! I’ve got to!’ Lucy hysterically screamed.
‘Yes! We will. I’ll get us out,’ Megan repeated.
Clasping Lucy’s hand and clinching the leaf tightly, she told her to concentrate on finding the Magic inside her, and as the leaf rocketed in brightness illuminating the whole cave, Megan asked considerately, ‘OK?’
‘Uh-hu.’ Lucy grumbled.
Being very cautious, as they remembered their mum and dad warning them about how dangerous fire could be, they padded closer to the blazing tongues: they could feel the heat as the wall of fire roared across the ground, licking the flames, which guttered through the sided entrance walls swelling the ceiling.
Against her hips, Megan hoicked her pyjama sleeves up.
Immediately from her steering hand came streaks of pure white rays, which flooded out directly into the fire. The light grew bigger and the fire started to lose its fierce carroty glow, becoming a dull reddish-ginger.
They watched it start to crumple in on itself, and then slowly diminish, until all that was left were weaves of vapours clinging desperately to the entrance.
Clutching the leaf, Megan hollered. ‘Run, come on!’
Megan Button and the Brim-Tree Page 2