“You’re in the pond without a paddle!” one of the goblins on the dock yelled.
“How am I going to get back?” the goblin screeched in a panic. He was stuck!
“You can ride on the back of the alligator!” the big-footed goblin cackled. All the goblins burst out laughing.
“Help me!” the goblin in the boat cried, chewing on the end of the scarf in fear.
“Oh, that’s just disgusting,” Autumn declared under her breath. She covered her eyes.
“Don’t worry,” Kirsty reassured her. “The goblins did all the hard work. And now I’ve got a plan!” Kirsty whispered her idea to Rachel and Autumn, and the three fairies flew to the middle of the pond. The goblin was crouched in the center of his boat, shivering with fear.
“Are you in trouble?” Rachel asked, fluttering just above the rowboat.
“I’m scared,” the goblin confessed.
“Yeah,” Kirsty said with wide eyes. “We heard something about an alligator.”
“A huge alligator with teeth like knives,” the goblin said. “I don’t want to be his dinner! I really, really don’t want that.”
“I have something I really want, too,” Autumn said. The goblin looked up at her. “I really, really want my scarf back.”
“We can promise to get you safely to shore, if you promise to give Autumn her scarf,” Kirsty said.
The goblin looked at the dock, where all the other goblins were laughing. He frowned, still scanning the water for the alligator.
Out of the corner of her eye, Rachel saw a frog jump into the pond with a loud splash.
“Yikes!” the goblin yelled. “It’s the alligator!” He quickly unwrapped the scarf and threw it at Autumn. She swooped down to catch it just before it dropped in the pond.
“Thank you!” she exclaimed.
As soon as she grabbed the scarf, it shrunk to fairy-size. With an elegant swish, Autumn tossed the scarf around her neck. A brisk breeze instantly swept across the pond, making it easier for the three tiny fairies to tow the rowboat ashore.
At once, Kirsty noticed the rustle of the wind in the trees. Rachel felt a delightful shiver as a rush of air lifted the hair off her neck. The scarf was working its magic!
“We don’t have a moment to spare,” Autumn said. “I’ll change you back to girls and make sure you have plenty of firewood. The Fall Festival is about to begin!”
In no time at all, glitter circled around the girls and they grew to their full size. When they looked at the wheelbarrow, it was full of neatly stacked sticks.
“I can’t thank you enough,” Autumn said as she evened out the cozy scarf around her neck. “Luckily, I’ll get another chance tomorrow! For now, I have to head back to Fairyland to share the good news.”
Another swirl of gold and orange glitter whooshed into the air, and Autumn vanished.
“Brrr,” Kirsty said, lifting the wheelbarrow handles. As the girls headed toward the barnyard in search of Kyra and Mrs. Tate, the air grew even cooler. “I’m glad we packed warmer clothes in the car trunk. We’ll have to change before the bonfire.”
Rachel rubbed her arms to stay warm and smiled at her friend. “I think fall really has begun,” she said. “And so has another fairy adventure!”
An Early Start
A Stuffy Fairy
A Pretty Pumpkin
A Helping Paw
Underground Gourd!
When Kirsty Tate woke up the next morning, her nose was cold. A crisp breeze lifted the curtains from the window, and a sliver of sunlight brightened the room. Her best friend, Rachel Walker, snuggled under her blankets as she blinked awake.
“Wow, a day can make a big difference,” Kirsty said. “It’s hard to believe that yesterday was the hottest day of the year!”
“Today feels chilly,” Rachel agreed. “Just like a fall morning should be.” Thanks to Kirsty and Rachel, Autumn the Falling Leaves Fairy had her beautiful magic scarf back from Jack Frost’s goblins! As soon as Autumn had placed it around her neck, the brisk breezes of fall had chased the heat away. By the time the Fall Festival opened with a big bonfire, it had felt like fall. Lots of people showed up and toasted marshmallows, crowding around the fire to stay warm in the night chill.
But Jack Frost and his goblins still had two of Autumn’s magic objects, and Rachel and Kirsty were determined to get them back. The success of the Fall Festival at New Growth Farm depended on it!
Of course, both girls understood that the problem was bigger than the Fall Festival. Kyra, the farmer, needed a good harvest so she would have enough money to keep the farm going over the winter. Plus, autumn everywhere was a mess, not just in Kirsty’s town!
“Why are we still in bed?” Rachel asked suddenly. “We have a ton to do today!”
“I know,” Kirsty said with a nervous sigh. The girls got dressed, putting on lots of layers in order to stay toasty, and raced down the stairs. Mrs. Tate was sitting at the kitchen table, shaking her head.
“What is it, Mom?” Kirsty asked.
“The newspaper says that all the local farmers are having trouble,” Mrs. Tate explained. “Just like Kyra. Some crops are getting ripe too fast and rotting. Others aren’t growing at all.”
“That’s horrible,” Rachel said out loud. She couldn’t help thinking about how it was all Jack Frost’s fault. He should never have stolen the magic objects! Autumn’s magic pumpkin had the power to protect the fall harvest. Rachel and Kirsty had to find that pumpkin, even if it took all day!
“We should go straight to New Growth Farm,” Kirsty said. She grabbed her lunch bag and stuffed some muffins and other snacks inside. “We’re ready!”
Mrs. Tate looked surprised. “You don’t want to sit down and eat?” she asked. “You should take it easy. We were at the bonfire very late last night.”
“We want to help Kyra,” Kirsty insisted. She looked at Rachel, who nodded.
“Well, OK,” Mrs. Tate said, gathering her breakfast dishes. “I’ll leave a note for your dad. He can join us later.”
Kirsty and Rachel rushed out to the car. They both knew what they had to do! The farm was a big place. Finding one small pumpkin wouldn’t be easy, especially when the goblins would also be looking for it.
They spotted Kyra as soon as Mrs. Tate pulled into the long driveway. The farmer was feeding the chickens. After she closed the car door, Kirsty looked around at the large fields filled with all kinds of greens and vegetables. As expected, nothing looked ready to harvest — and worse, some of the plants looked rotten! The tomatoes had brown bottoms, and the apples were full of worms. The girls would have to work fast if they wanted to find the pumpkin before the festival opened again at noon.
“We have to decide where to start,” Kirsty whispered as they followed her mom toward the chicken pen.
“Yes,” Rachel agreed. “We need a strategy.” She shook her head as they passed by a patch of droopy lettuce. “A very good strategy.”
“I need two wheelbarrows of gourds,” Kyra said to Kirsty and Rachel after everyone had said hello. “Can you pick them for me?”
The girls gave Kyra blank stares.
“You know what gourds are, don’t you?” Kyra smiled. “The gourd is a plant family that includes squash, melons, and pumpkins,” she explained. “We’ll put the gourds in special gift baskets. The baskets will be the prizes for our games today.”
“That sounds great!” Kirsty enthused. She gave Kyra a big smile. Then she and Rachel each took the handles of a wheelbarrow and started to roll them away. But as soon as Kyra had disappeared inside the farmhouse, Kirsty’s smile disappeared, too.
“Two wheelbarrows?” she asked, trying to balance her wheelbarrow with its extra-wide handles. “How are we going to fill two? We’ll be lucky to fill one.” She knew what a gourd was, but she didn’t know how they would find that many ripe ones.
; “I know. When we saw them yesterday, all the squash were too small to pick,” Rachel agreed. “We’d better get started.”
“Let’s look for Autumn’s magic pumpkin at the same time,” Kirsty suggested.
“That’s perfect, because a pumpkin is a gourd,” Rachel reminded her friend.
“Leafy greens are planted in this part of the field,” Kirsty explained with a smile. “We should head over toward the apple orchard. The gourds are over there.”
Rachel shielded her eyes from the sun so she could see the other side of the field. “Let’s hope the magic pumpkin is hidden with the other gourds.”
Just then, the girls heard a small sneeze. And another. And then a sniff. “Excuse me,” said a tiny voice.
“Autumn, is that you?” Rachel asked uncertainly. It didn’t sound like their new fairy friend.
“Yes, it is! I’m down here,” said the voice.
Rachel and Kirsty crouched down and saw Autumn. She was sitting on a kale leaf and held a handkerchief in her hand. Her eyes were puffy, and her nose was a rosy red.
“Oh, Autumn! Have you been crying?” Kirsty asked.
“No,” Autumn said. “I have a cold. My eyes won’t stop watering.” She took a deep breath and blew her nose. Her entire body seemed to shake. “I feel like I could cry, though,” she added. “This farm makes me so sad. None of the plants are growing like they should.”
“We have to find your magic pumpkin,” Rachel said. “It’s the only way to make things right. But how will we find one pumpkin in the middle of a huge farm?”
“There’s a special trick,” Autumn said in a small voice. “You know that my pumpkin’s magic brings a healthy fall harvest. It also helps remind people of the wonderful foods that come from fresh farm crops.”
“How does it do that?” Rachel wondered.
“It smells like warm pumpkin bread, right from the oven!” Autumn said. The very thought made the fairy smile, and her nose crinkled.
“Oh, that sounds wonderful,” Kirsty said.
“The trouble is that I can’t smell anything,” Autumn said with a sniff. “This cold is so bad I can hardly breathe. Without my special objects, I don’t have all my powers. I can’t even make myself better.”
Rachel’s eyes filled with concern. She hated being sick! It was especially hard if there was something important that you had to do. “Don’t worry, Autumn. Kirsty and I will help you find the pumpkin.”
“My mom says I have a great sense of smell,” Kirsty added.
“Let’s put that nose to work,” Autumn said with a giggle — then she sneezed.
The morning air was still cool, so Rachel and Kirsty were happy to keep moving. As they bent down to check for gourds, the sun felt warm on the backs of their heads. “This is slow work,” Kirsty said, lifting a large leaf away from a prickly vine. She looked under it, but she saw only the ground.
“It’s taking a long time because there aren’t very many gourds,” Autumn said.
Rachel sighed. There were only four yellow squash in her wheelbarrow. Kirsty had three honeydew melons and two zucchini. “I don’t think I’ll ever fill this thing,” Rachel mumbled.
Kirsty stood up and took a deep breath. “I smell something,” Kirsty said, her eyes open wide. “I think it smells like something baking, but I can’t tell where it’s coming from.” She turned around and sniffed again. “It always smells like it’s right behind me.”
“Does it smell like pumpkin bread?” Autumn asked, biting her lip. “Like cinnamon?”
“I don’t know,” Kirsty said. “I think I might smell chocolate?”
Autumn looked puzzled.
“Um, Kirsty?” Rachel began. “Doesn’t your mom put chocolate chips in her special muffins?”
“When I’m lucky!” Kirsty said with a laugh.
“Isn’t that what she made this morning?” Rachel asked.
Kirsty nodded.
“And didn’t you pack some muffins in your backpack?” Rachel added.
Kirsty blushed. “Well, that explains why the smell is always behind me,” she said with a giggle. “Would anyone like a muffin?”
The girls and Autumn sat down in the rough grass at the edge of the field. Kirsty opened the foil wrap and handed a muffin to Rachel. She tore off a little crumb and passed it to Autumn, who held it in both hands.
As they ate, the breeze shifted. It was now coming across the field, brushing over the tall cornstalks.
“Wait,” Kirsty said. “I think I smell something new.” She lifted her nose slightly and took in short breaths of air. “Autumn, I smell cinnamon now. And warm, rich pumpkin!”
“Oh!” Autumn cried. She popped the rest of the muffin in her mouth and clapped for joy. “Quick, we have to find it. Leave your things in the wheelbwarrow, and I’ll turn you into fairies. We’ll see things so much better if we can glide over the fields.”
“Now I can smell it, too!” Rachel announced. “It smells delicious!”
Both girls stood still as Autumn swirled her wand. Deep orange and gold fairy dust whipped through the air and circled the two friends. Their feet gently left the ground, and soon wings appeared on their backs. Rachel and Kirsty smiled at each other. It was so much fun being fairies!
Once they had shrunk to Autumn’s size, Rachel and Kirsty flew into the air behind their newest fairy friend. They needed to flap their wings hard because they were going against the wind. But the smell of yummy pumpkin bread grew stronger, and it encouraged them to keep going.
“I see something up ahead,” Autumn yelled over the wind. “It looks like there’s a big space in the middle of the corn. Maybe the pumpkin is down there.”
Kirsty scanned the field. She could see it, too. There was a bare spot where no corn was growing.
The three friends held their breath as they flew over the spot. Then Rachel gasped. There was a gorgeous orange pumpkin below them! It was a little bigger than a basketball, and nice and plump. Rachel was sure the wonderful smell was coming from this giant gourd.
There was just one problem: A goblin was sitting smack-dab on top of it.
“Is that your pumpkin?” Rachel asked Autumn.
Autumn nodded.
“At least we know where it is now,” Kirsty said. She was trying to look on the bright side of things.
The three fairies hovered over the scene. There was one goblin sitting on the pumpkin, and three other goblins standing nearby among the cornstalks.
“They’re guarding it,” Kirsty said to her friends.
“How long do I have to sit here?” the first goblin yelled. “My rump is getting sore.” The other goblins snorted and covered their mouths.
“Someone has to sit on it,” answered a goblin with very long fingers. “As long as a goblin is touching it, a fairy can’t shrink it down to its magic size.”
“Why me?” asked the first goblin. His voice was high and whiny.
“Because you’re good at it,” said the long-fingered goblin. “Besides, the rest of us are hungry. We’re going to find something to eat.”
“I want that pumpkin bread we smell. Let’s find it,” a pot-bellied goblin suggested. “I could eat a whole loaf.”
When the fairies heard this, they laughed a little, too. “The goblins don’t realize that the smell is coming from my pumpkin,” Autumn said. “There isn’t any pumpkin bread yet, because there aren’t any ripe pumpkins.”
“Don’t you get up!” The goblin pointed his long finger when he spoke. “Or Jack Frost will be mad at you.”
“But I’m hungry, too,” the whiny goblin mumbled. He frowned as the other goblins walked away.
Rachel motioned to Kirsty and Autumn. “Let’s talk somewhere else. We don’t want him to hear us,” she whispered. The three fairies flew to another part of the cornfield. They all perched on a stalk.
“We just need to get him to stand up,” said Rachel.
“Let’s think,” Kirsty said.
All at once, their cornstalk started to shake. “What was that?” Rachel asked. She grabbed on to a tiny ear of corn. Kirsty clung to the stalk. But Autumn just fluttered her wings and floated to the ground.
“Well, hello!” Autumn exclaimed.
Kirsty and Rachel looked down and saw a fuzzy brown groundhog next to Autumn. He was standing on his hind legs. “He must have been shaking the cornstalk,” Kirsty said.
“Were you trying to get our attention?” Autumn asked.
The groundhog nodded. Then he let out a series of chirps, high and low.
“I see. You know about Jack Frost,” Autumn said. “And you want to help us?”
The groundhog blinked his sparkly eyes and nodded again.
Kirsty and Rachel looked at each other, amazed. Autumn understood the groundhog! The girls flew down. Soon, other animals joined their group. The rabbits, chipmunks, and birds wanted to help, too. There were lots of squeaks and chirps and tweets.
Of course — Jack Frost has made life hard on the animals, too, Kirsty realized. They don’t have food, either. The acorns aren’t even falling from the oak trees.
Autumn the Falling Leaves Fairy Page 2