Annabelle flew into Rachel’s pocket and scooted down out of sight. Then Rachel and Kirsty linked arms and walked around the corner, into the middle of the maze.
“We found it!” said Rachel in a loud voice. “The center of the maze. Oh, look — someone else got here before us!”
The goblin glanced up and spotted them standing there.
“It’s that wonderful artist we saw earlier,” said Kirsty cheerfully, making sure the goblin could hear her. “Let’s go see what he’s drawing now.”
They walked over to the goblin, who had almost finished his picture of the gnome. But he jumped up and stood in front of his easel, his arms folded across his chest.
“Go away!” he snapped. “I don’t speak to friends of that pesky fairy.”
“What do you mean?” said Rachel with a laugh. “How could we be friends with a fairy when there’s no such thing?”
Kirsty laughed, too, and leaned forward to look at the drawing.
“You’re a really good artist,” she said. “That gnome looks so lifelike! I bet you can draw people really well, too.”
The goblin gave a smug little smile.
“I’m the best artist you’ve ever met,” he said. “I’m even better than that Sara Sketchley.”
“Can you draw us?” Kirsty asked.
“Oh, that would be wonderful,” Rachel exclaimed, clapping her hands. “Please say yes!”
The goblin artist puffed out his chest with pride. “I can draw anything!” he said. “Drawing you two will be a piece of cake.”
He flipped his drawing pad to a new page and turned the easel so he was facing the girls. They posed arm in arm while the goblin’s pencil flew across the paper. After just a few moments, the goblin signed his picture with a flourish and turned it around to show the girls.
Rachel and Kirsty gasped. They knew it was the magic of the pencil sharpener, but the picture was astonishingly good. It was almost like looking in a mirror!
“You must be a great artist,” said Rachel. “I wish I could draw like that! Would you teach us how to draw?”
“We could practice by drawing you,” Kirsty suggested. “You have such an . . . interesting face.”
“I bet lots of artists want to paint you,” Rachel added. “You’re so rugged and . . . um . . . handsome.”
The goblin strutted back and forth in front of them and then struck a pose, standing with one foot up on a big rock.
“Sure, draw me,” he said. “Try to capture my good looks and charm!”
Kirsty pulled out a pencil and secretly broke off the point. Then she held it up.
“Oh, no, my pencil’s broken,” she said.
Rachel quickly broke off the tip of her pencil, too.
“Mine, too,” she said with a groan. “And I don’t have a pencil sharpener.”
“Neither do I,” said Kirsty, digging through her pencil case.
The goblin looked annoyed. He had been so excited about having his picture drawn.
“Hurry up!” he snarled. “Get on with it.”
“Do you have a pencil sharpener we could use?” Kirsty asked. “If we can’t find one, we won’t be able to draw you!”
The goblin gazed at them, and the girls felt their hearts pounding. Would their plan work? Had they fooled the goblin?
“Don’t you have other pencils you can use?” asked the goblin.
Rachel and Kirsty exchanged glances. He sounded very suspicious. And they couldn’t lie — they had pencil cases full of other pencils! What could they say? The goblin took a step toward them, and his face crumpled into a sneer.
“I know you!” he cried. “I never forget a face! You were with that horrible fairy earlier.”
He stuck out his tongue and then ran away from them as quickly as he could.
“Annabelle, we need some drawings of hedges — quickly!” cried Rachel. She had a plan!
Annabelle zoomed into the air and flicked her wand. A life-size drawing of a hedge dropped down in front of the goblin. He turned the other way, and another hedge drawing dropped in front of him. He thought the hedges were real! Believing that his path was blocked, he let out a loud wail.
“I’m trapped!” he yelled. “Let me out! I don’t like this maze anymore!”
“Give Annabelle’s magic pencil sharpener back,” called Kirsty from the center of the maze. “Then we’ll let you out.”
“No way!” the goblin shouted. “Jack Frost told me to keep it away from you pesky fairies!”
“Then you’ll just have to stay in the maze,” said Kirsty.
“I don’t like it!” the goblin whined. “I’m hungry! I’m thirsty! I want to go to the bathroom!”
“All you have to do is give Annabelle’s magic pencil sharpener back,” said Rachel. “It doesn’t belong to you.”
High above them, Annabelle gave a cry of excitement.
“He’s opening his pencil case!” she called out.
Peeking around the edge of the paper hedge, Rachel and Kirsty saw the goblin pull a shimmering silver pencil sharpener out of his pencil case. He squinted angrily up at Annabelle.
“Here, come and take it,” he said, annoyed. “But I hope it doesn’t work for you! You rotten fairies ruin everything.”
Annabelle fluttered down and took the pencil sharpener from the goblin’s bony hand. It immediately shrank to fairy size, and the magic hedge drawings vanished in a puff of fairy glitter. Rachel and Kirsty hugged each other in delight, and Annabelle gave a little twirl in midair.
The goblin shuffled back to the picture of the gnome that he had been drawing. He picked up his pencil and tried to finish, but his lines were all squiggly. The gnome in his picture started to look skinny and bony!
The other goblins appeared from inside the maze, and walked up behind him. They didn’t notice Kirsty and Rachel standing off to the side.
“That’s a terrible picture,” said one of the goblins scornfully.
“What do you know about drawing?” snorted the goblin artist.
“Much more than you, judging by your drawing,” snickered another goblin.
“Why are all the pages back in my sketchbook?” asked a third goblin, looking confused. “I crumpled half of them up, and now they’re all as good as new.”
“That’s because littering is wrong,” said Rachel, stepping out of the shadows. “You goblins need to learn to take care of the world around you. When Annabelle got her magic pencil sharpener back, she used her magic to clean up the big mess you made.”
The other goblins ignored Rachel and spun around to glare at the goblin artist, instead.
“You fool!” the tall goblin shrieked. “How could you let that fairy get her magic object back? Jack Frost is going to be so angry with us again!”
“I was STUCK!” the goblin artist screeched in anger.
“We need a plan,” said the plumper goblin. “What are we going to tell Jack Frost?”
The goblins all sat down on stones in the rock garden and began to think hard.
Rachel and Kirsty couldn’t help giggling at the goblins as Annabelle flew over to them.
“Follow me, and I’ll lead you through the maze to the exit,” she said.
Rachel and Kirsty left the goblins, who were still arguing about how to tell Jack Frost the terrible news. The girls kept their eyes on Annabelle, and she guided them all the way to the exit. There, she fluttered down beside them, with her magic pencil sharpener clutched in her hand.
“I’m not letting this out of my sight,” she said with a big smile. “Girls, you’ve saved drawings all over the world. Thank you so much for helping me! Without you, I’m sure Jack Frost’s goblins would still have my magic pencil sharpener.”
“We were happy to help,” said Rachel.
“Hopefully, we can do the same with the other miss
ing objects,” Kirsty added.
“I’ll tell the other Magical Crafts Fairies how wonderful you are,” said Annabelle. “Good-bye, and thanks again!”
As the girls raised their hands to wave good-bye, Annabelle disappeared in a shower of fairy sparkles.
“Come on,” said Kirsty. “Let’s get back to the drawing class.”
Hand in hand, the girls ran across the bridge to the main part of the garden. Sara Sketchley was standing in front of the group of kids, holding up a finished picture of a beautiful rose.
“Now that you’ve seen me draw, I want to see what you can do,” she was saying. “I’d like you to draw the most beautiful thing you can think of. It can be a person or a place, real or fantasy. Just have fun!”
Rachel and Kirsty exchanged happy smiles as they rejoined the class. They knew exactly what they were going to draw! They both took out their pencils and sketchbooks.
“My pencil is as good as new!” whispered Rachel. “Look!”
“Mine, too,” said Kirsty, pressing her finger to the sharp point of her pencil. “Thank you, Annabelle!”
The girls were both concentrating on their drawings when they heard a familiar voice.
“Everyone seems to be hard at work here!”
The girls looked up and saw Artemis Johnson, the organizer of Crafts Week. She was walking toward Sara Sketchley, with Mr. and Mrs. Walker at her side.
“Hello, Artie,” said Sara with a smile. “Yes, everyone’s very busy. Let’s take a look at how you’re all doing.”
She led Artie and Mr. and Mrs. Walker around the little group. When they reached Rachel and Kirsty, Sara put a hand on each of their shoulders.
“These are very interesting,” she said. “You girls are so talented! Kirsty’s picture of a magic fairyland is so realistic that I can imagine being there! And, Rachel, your fairy is so lifelike that it looks like she could flutter off of the paper and cast a spell!”
“What vivid imaginations,” said Artie. “I can’t wait for the exhibition at the end of the week!”
Mr. and Mrs. Walker beamed with pride. Kirsty and Rachel reached out their hands and linked their pinkie fingers in their secret sign of friendship. Kirsty had drawn the Fairyland Palace, which she had visited many times. Rachel had drawn a picture of Annabelle. They didn’t have to imagine at all. They were drawing from real life!
As the grown-ups moved away, the girls whispered to each other about their very magical morning.
“Do you think we’ll have another adventure tomorrow?” asked Kirsty.
Rachel looked at her best friend and smiled happily. “I’m sure we will!” she said.
Rachel and Kirsty have found Kayla’s and Annabelle’s missing magic objects. Now it’s time for them to help
Join their next adventure in this special sneak peek. . . .
“It looks like another magical morning, Kirsty,” Rachel Walker said, gazing out the window of Daffodil Cottage. Even though it was still early, the sun was already shining. Rainspell Island looked green and beautiful with the morning light glimmering on the sea.
“Are you talking about the weather or our adventures with the Magical Crafts Fairies?” Kirsty Tate asked, her eyes twinkling. They’d arrived on Rainspell Island two days earlier and the girls were spending every other night in Kirsty’s little attic bedroom at the b and b with the Tates, and alternate nights with Rachel’s parents at a nearby campsite. The girls loved going to Rainspell Island for vacation because it was where they’d first met and become friends with the fairies.
“Both!” Rachel replied. Then she sighed. “Wasn’t it mean of Jack Frost to steal the Magical Craft Fairies’ objects?”
Kirsty nodded. “It was terrible,” she agreed, “especially with Crafts Week here on Rainspell and Magical Crafts Week happening at the same time in Fairyland. No one will have fun doing arts and crafts if Jack Frost has his way!”
While eagerly checking out the Crafts Week activities a few days before, Rachel and Kirsty had been thrilled to meet Kayla the Pottery Fairy, one of the seven Magical Crafts Fairies. Kayla had invited them to Fairyland to see King Oberon and Queen Titania announce the opening of Magical Crafts Week. The best and most beautiful crafts produced by the fairies would decorate the Fairyland Palace! Everyone, including the girls, had been very excited.
But the opening ceremony had turned into a disaster when Jack Frost and his goblins showed up, tossing balloons filled with bright green paint at the crowd. Queen Titania, Kayla, and the other Magical Crafts Fairies had been splattered with paint! In all the confusion, Jack Frost and the goblins had stolen the Magical Crafts Fairies’ special objects.
Jack Frost had declared that he was the best at every kind of craft, and that no one else was allowed to be better than him. Then, with a wave of his ice wand, he and his goblins had disappeared to the human world — taking the magic objects with them. Rachel and Kirsty knew that the Crafts Week on Rainspell Island and in Fairyland would be a complete disaster while the fairies’ magic items were missing. They’d immediately offered to help the Magical Crafts Fairies find the goblins and get their magic back!
“The pottery and drawing classes were so much fun,” Kirsty remarked as she buttoned her favorite pink shirt. “But only because we found Kayla’s magic vase and Annabelle’s magic pencil sharpener just in time.”
“And we’ll do our best to find the other magic objects, too,” Rachel said firmly. “We can’t let Jack Frost ruin the whole week!”
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e-ISBN 978-0-545-72318-3
Copyright © 2014 by Rainbow Magic Limited.
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First Scholastic printing, March 2015
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The Magical Crafts Fairies #2 Page 2