Goldie fluttered down and landed on the biggest pig’s snout. “What’s wrong?” she asked kindly.
The pig squinted at the golden fairy in front of his little blue eyes. “It’s like this,” he began in a squeaky voice. “It’s been so hot that the farmer added some cold water to the mudhole, so that us pigs could keep nice and cool.” He twitched his ears indignantly. “But someone else has stolen our spot in the mud—and he won’t let us in!”
“It’s not fair,” a piglet squealed, running up to Rachel and Kirsty. “We’re so hot! It’s not fair!”
“No, it’s not,” Kirsty agreed, giving him a pat on the head.
“That sounds like the kind of trick a goblin would play!” Rachel pointed out. “Where is the mudhole?”
The pigs gave them directions, and the girls set off for the mudhole with Goldie flying above them. It seemed to get hotter and hotter as they walked. Rachel crossed her fingers. She was sure that they would find a goblin in the mud. Who else would be mean enough to stop the pigs from cooling off in their own mud pool?
The girls hadn’t been walking for very long when they heard someone singing in a croaky voice:
“I’ve been having so much fun
Blasting out this golden sun.
It’s roasting, toasting, popcorn weather.
Oh, how I love my Sunshine Feather!”
Kirsty, Rachel, and Goldie all ducked behind a nearby tree and carefully peeked out. There, covered in thick, wet mud, was an extremely cheerful goblin. He waved the Sunshine Feather in the air while he sang. Each time the feather moved, golden sunbeams flooded from its tip, making the air feel even hotter.
Every time he got to the end of his song, the goblin started all over again, splashing his feet in the mud as he sang. “I’ve been having so much fun…”
“What should we do?” Kirsty whispered. The goblin held on to the feather so tightly, it looked like it would be impossible to take it away from him.
Goldie twirled around in frustration.
“I hate seeing him with my Sunshine Feather,” she muttered, folding her arms across her chest. “Look, he got mud all over it!”
Rachel frowned. “Maybe we could distract him somehow, then run over and grab the feather while he’s looking the other way.”
“I don’t know about running through all that slippery mud,” Kirsty said quietly, eyeing the mudhole doubtfully. “We’ll probably fall over. And look, the goblin is right in the middle of it. He’ll be able to see us coming way before we get there.”
They moved farther away from the mudhole so that they could figure out what to do next without the goblin overhearing. But after a few minutes, Rachel held up her hand. “Shh! What’s that noise?” she whispered in alarm.
Kirsty, Rachel, and Goldie held their breath and listened to the strange new sound. It was a loud, wheezing, rumbling noise, somewhere between a grunt and a hiss.
Grumble-sshhh, grumble-sshhh, grumble-sshhh…
The sound was coming from the direction of the mudhole. Kirsty and Rachel crept back to the tree and peeked out from behind it, wondering what sort of terrifying creature had appeared.
When Rachel saw what was making the noise, though, she had to clap her hand over her mouth to stop herself from laughing out loud. The wheezy rumble was coming from the goblin—he was snoring!
“At least he isn’t singing anymore,” Kirsty whispered, laughing.
Goldie fluttered her wings hopefully when she saw that the goblin was asleep, and she flew a little closer to the Sunshine Feather. But her face fell when she saw just how tightly the goblin was clutching the feather to his chest. Goldie flew back to the girls, shaking her head. “If I try to pull it out of his hand, the goblin is sure to wake up,” she told them. “How are we going to get that feather?”
Kirsty smiled. “Maybe we could…” she began thoughtfully. Then she grinned from ear to ear. “Yes! That could work!” she said.
Without another word, Kirsty began running back toward her house. “I’ll be back in a minute,” she called over her shoulder.
Rachel and Goldie watched her go. They were both dying to know what Kirsty was up to. Luckily, they didn’t have to wait very long. When Kirsty came back, she looked quite different!
“What is she wearing?” Goldie whispered to Rachel as Kirsty ran toward them.
“Her dad’s sunglasses,” Rachel replied, staring at her friend in disbelief. She was starting to wonder if Kirsty had been in the sun for too long. Why had she brought the enormous sunglasses back with her? And why was she carrying a fishing pole?
Kirsty grinned at the confused expressions on her friends’ faces. “I’ll explain everything,” she promised, propping the fishing pole and sunglasses up in the tree branches. “But first, Rachel and I need to shrink to fairy size.” Both Kirsty and Rachel had been given beautiful gold lockets by the Fairy Queen. Inside each locket was magical fairy dust. A tiny pinch of the sparkling dust turned the girls into fairies in the blink of an eye!
Kirsty and Rachel both pulled out their lockets and sprinkled themselves with fairy dust. It glittered a bright sunshine-yellow in the light and then— whoosh— they shrank smaller and smaller and smaller. The tree next to them looked enormous as the girls shrank to Goldie’s size.
Kirsty and Rachel fluttered their wings happily. They both loved being fairies!
“Now,” Kirsty said. “Let’s fly up into the tree and I’ll tell you my plan.”
The three friends all perched near the fishing pole, and Goldie and Rachel watched as Kirsty carefully balanced the sunglasses on the end of the fishhook.
“We’re going to let the fishing line out very slowly,” Kirsty said, “and lower the sunglasses right down onto the goblin’s nose.”
“Why?” Rachel asked, confused.
“I don’t know if they’ll look good on him,” Goldie said.
Kirsty shook her head, trying not to laugh.
“With sunglasses on, everything will look dark to him,” she whispered. “With a bit of luck, the goblin will think the Sunshine Feather is broken!”
Goldie clapped her hands in delight. “Oh, what a great idea!” she cried. “I love to play tricks on those mean old goblins.”
Very carefully, Kirsty, Rachel, and Goldie turned the handle of the fishing rod and lowered the sunglasses all the way down in front of the goblin. Kirsty held her breath as the sunglasses landed right on his big nose. Perfect! The girls reeled in the fishing line, and Goldie waved her wand in the air. It released a stream of magical fairy dust. Little golden sparkles fizzed and popped like firecrackers around the goblin’s head until he woke up with a start.
He opened his eyes and blinked when he saw that everything around him had gotten dark. “My feather’s broken!” he moaned, giving it a shake. “Shine, sun!” he commanded.
Of course, the girls knew that the Sunshine Feather wasn’t broken. As soon as the goblin shook it, the sun became brighter than ever. But as far as the goblin could see, the world was still dark.
He waved the feather again. “I said, shine!” he ordered. The sun shone like it was the middle of the day, but Goldie and her friends realized that the goblin thought it looked like night. He shook the feather two more times and the sun shone hotter and brighter, but the goblin saw only darkness. As far as he could tell, the Sunshine Feather was not working. “Broken!” he announced angrily, and he threw the feather away in disgust.
Just then, Goldie darted out of the tree like a little golden firework. While the goblin was still muttering to himself, Goldie swooped down and grabbed the feather from the mud.
“Thank you!” she called, hugging the feather tightly as she flew back to the girls. Kirsty’s plan had worked!
With another sprinkle of fairy dust, Rachel and Kirsty turned themselves human again. They grabbed the fishing rod and started scrambling down from the tree.
But the goblin spotted the girls and jumped to his feet. As he did, the sunglasses bounced on his nose.
<
br /> “Sunglasses?” he exclaimed, reaching up to grab the glasses in confusion. He pushed them onto the top of his head and squinted at the girls in the dazzling sunlight. “You tricked me!” he yelled when he saw Goldie clutching the Sunshine Feather. “Come back with that feather!”
Kirsty and Rachel looked at each other in fear. Now that Jack Frost’s goblins were so big, they seemed scarier than ever. And this one looked very angry at having been tricked.
He shook his fist and headed straight toward the girls.
“Run!” shouted Kirsty.
Rachel grabbed Kirsty’s hand and they both sprinted toward the farmhouse as fast as their feet would carry them. The goblin wasn’t far behind, making a horrible growling sound in his throat as he ran.
“Give me back that feather! Give it back!” he yelled angrily.
Rachel’s heart thumped in her chest. The goblin was closing in on them. She could hear his breathing. The goblin stretched out his hand to grab her and Rachel gasped.
“Got y—” the goblin began. Then his voice turned from anger to confusion. “Hey! What’s going on?”
In a swirl of dancing sunbeams, Goldie had waved the Sunshine Feather and pointed it straight at the goblin. Now the sun beat down fiercely upon him— and the thick mud that covered him started to dry rapidly. As his legs became stiff and heavy with the hardening mud, the goblin slowed down. Then the mud dried completely, and the goblin couldn’t move at all.
“No-o-o!” he wailed.
Despite having been so scared just a few seconds before, the girls found themselves smiling at the goblin now. “It’s a goblin statue!” Rachel exclaimed, laughing.
Only his eyes moved now. They flicked back and forth wildly. The goblin glared at the girls, and then at Goldie. Kirsty noticed that her dad’s sunglasses were still perched on top of the goblin’s head. She took a cautious step toward him, then another. The goblin didn’t move, so Kirsty marched right up to him and carefully grabbed the glasses.
“I’ll take these back now, I think,” she said. “If I’d known that these sunglasses would be so useful, I’d never have laughed at Dad for wearing them!” she told Rachel.
Goldie and the girls made their way back to the farmhouse. The pigs were waiting expectantly for them.
“The mudhole is all yours again,” Goldie told the pigs in her sweet voice. “You’ll see a new goblin statue nearby,” she added. “But don’t worry. I don’t think he’ll be in any hurry to go back into the mud.”
The pigs grunted happily and trotted off toward their cool mud pool. The smallest piglet nuzzled Kirsty and Rachel’s legs before he went. “Thank you!” he squealed.
Rachel watched the pigs go. “What will happen to the goblin?” she asked. “He won’t have to stay there forever, will he?”
Goldie’s eyes twinkled mischievously. “Not forever, no,” she said. “The dried mud will wash off as soon as it rains.” She smiled cheerfully. “But Jack Frost won’t be happy with him when he finds out we got the Sunshine Feather back!”
Now that the three friends were out of danger, Goldie expertly waved the Sunshine Feather. The sun began to set, just like it was supposed to. The girls watched as the sky turned orange, pink, and a deep red.
“Let’s bring the Sunshine Feather back to Doodle,” Kirsty said. “And then we’d better go to bed!”
Rachel was yawning. “It’s been another busy day, hasn’t it?” She smiled.
As the sun set, the warmth quickly faded away. The girls soon found themselves shivering in their thin shirts. Goldie fluttered above them with the Sunshine Feather, waving it gently. A few sunbeams flooded onto Rachel and Kirsty’s bare arms to keep them warm.
It was almost dark by the time they all got back to Kirsty’s garden. They could just barely see the silhouette of Doodle on top of the barn roof.
Goldie flew up to give the rooster back his magic feather. As she did, Doodle came to life. His fiery feathers glowed brilliantly in the twilight. He turned to look at Rachel and Kirsty. “Will come—” he squawked urgently. But before he could say any more, the magic drained away. Doodle’s colors faded and he became a rusty old weather vane again.
Every time the girls returned one of Doodle’s feathers, the rooster came to life for a few seconds and squawked a word or two. Rachel frowned as she pieced together all the words that Doodle had said so far. “Beware! Jack Frost will come…” she murmured. An icy shiver shot down her spine, as if Jack Frost was already there. “I think it’s a warning, Kirsty. Let’s hope he doesn’t come soon!”
Goldie looked worried. “Take care of yourselves. And thank you for everything,” she said. She blew them a stream of fairy kisses that sparkled in the darkening sky. “I must go back to Fairyland now. Good-bye!”
Kirsty and Rachel watched Goldie fly away. Soon she was nothing more than a tiny golden speck in the distance. Then, just as the girls were about to get ready for bed, they heard footsteps. Mr. Tate came out of the house, looking around with a puzzled expression on his face. “Did I just hear a rooster crowing?” he asked.
“A rooster? At this time of day?” Kirsty replied innocently.
Mr. Tate frowned. “I must be hearing things,” he said, turning to go back inside. “Good night, girls. Sleep well.” He glanced up at Doodle as he headed back toward the house. “I’m sure that weather vane had a smaller tail before,” he muttered, then shook his head. “Now I’m seeing things, too! It’s definitely time to call it a night….”
Kirsty and Rachel smiled at each other. “He’s right!” Kirsty said. “Doodle does have four feathers now. We only have three more feathers to find. I wonder which one will be next!”
A Misty Morning
Magic in the Mist
Goblin in the Fog
Pogwurzel Plot
Goblin Pie
Back on Track
“Wake up, sleepyhead!” cried Kirsty Tate, as she jumped out of bed and started to get dressed.
Her friend, Rachel Walker, was asleep in the extra bed in Kirsty’s room. She was staying with Kirsty and her parents in Wetherbury. Sleepily, she rolled over and opened her eyes. “I was dreaming that we were back in Fairyland,” she told Kirsty. “The weather was mixed up— sunny and snowing all at the same time— and Doodle was trying to fix it.” Doodle, the magic weather rooster, had been on Rachel’s mind a lot lately, because she and Kirsty were on an important mission with the Weather Fairies!
Every day in Fairyland, the Weather Fairies used Doodle’s magic tail feathers to make the weather. Each of the seven feathers controlled a different kind of weather, and each of the seven Weather Fairies was responsible for working with one specific feather. The system was perfect until mean Jack Frost sent his goblins to steal Doodle’s magic feathers.
The goblins took the feathers into the human world, and when poor Doodle followed them out of Fairyland, he found himself transformed into a rusty weather vane. Since Rachel and Kirsty had found the Rainbow Fairies together, the Queen of the Fairies had asked them to help find and return Doodle’s magic feathers, also.
In the meantime, Fairyland’s weather was all mixed up—and the goblins had been using the feathers to cause trouble in the human world, too.
“Poor Doodle,” Kirsty said, looking out the window at the weather vane on top of the old barn. Her dad had found Doodle lying in the park, and brought him home for their barn roof. “Hopefully we’ll find another magic feathertoday,” Kirsty continued. “We already have four of the stolen feathers. We just need to find the other three. Then Doodle will get his magic back!”
“Yes,” Rachel agreed, brightening at the thought. “But I have to go home in three days, so we don’t have very long!” As she gazed out at the blue sky, a wisp of silvery mist caught her eye. “Look—that cloud is shaped just like a feather!” she said.
Kirsty looked up, too. “I can’t see anything.”
Rachel looked again, but the wispy shape had disappeared. “Maybe I imagined it,” she said, sighing.<
br />
The memory of the dream fizzed in her tummy like bubbles. It felt like a magical start to the day.
Rachel loved sharing fairy adventures with Kirsty. The girls had met on vacation in Rainspell Island with their parents. That was when they had first helped the fairies. That time, Jack Frost had cast a nasty spell to send the Rainbow Fairies away from Fairyland, and the girls had helped all seven of them get home safely.
Now, Rachel and Kirsty hurried down to the kitchen. Mr. Tate was sitting at the table. He looked up and smiled at the girls. “Good morning! Did you sleep well?”
“Yes, thanks,” Rachel replied. When she sat down, she saw a bright green flier on the kitchen table. It read: Grand Fun Run, Green Wood Forest, Wetherbury. Everyone welcome. She looked at the date. “That’s today.”
“Yes. My mom’s running in it,” said Kirsty.
“Most of the village will be racing. Why don’t you two go and watch?” suggested Mr. Tate. “You could cheer Mom on.”
“OK,” Rachel and Kirsty agreed happily.
Maybe we could look for goblins on the way, thought Rachel. She felt excited, and a little bit nervous. Goblins were mean creatures, and Jack Frost had cast a spell to make them bigger than normal. Luckily, the laws in Fairyland say that nothing can be taller than the King and Queen’s fairy castle, so the goblins couldn’t get too big. But they were still almost as tall as Rachel and Kirsty’s shoulders.
The Weather Fairies Collection Page 6