Primrose in Jewel Forest

by Poppy Collins

  Thanks fairy much Sally Morgan!

  Welcome to the world of the fashion fairy princesses! Join Primrose and friends on their magical adventures in fairyland.

  They can’t wait to explore

  Can you?

  Contents

  Cover

  Half Title Page

  Dedication

  Title Page

  Map

  Jewel Forest

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Fashion Fairy Princess Website

  Sneak Peek of Blossom in Jewel Forest

  Fun Facts about Primrose

  Back Ads

  Copyright

  “Oh, Primrose! Your room looks beautiful,” said Fluff Tail as she hopped into Princess Primrose’s bedroom. “Thank you so much for inviting me to stay!”

  “Not at all, Fluff Tail,” said Primrose, putting her arm around the excited bunny rabbit. “Thank you for coming! Nutmeg and I just love sleepovers. We are going to have so much fun.”

  Fluff Tail hadn’t been to a sleepover at the Tree Palace before and she was very excited. The palace was built into an ancient diamond-nut tree in the heart of the magical Jewel Forest. It was where the king and queen of the forest fairies lived with their two beautiful daughters, Princess Primrose and Nutmeg. Fluff Tail had been to parties in the trunk of the Tree Palace but had never been up into the branches, where the royal bedrooms could be found.

  Primrose’s bedroom was in a branch close to the top of the tree. It had beautiful polished wooden walls and lots of large leaf-shaped windows that looked out on to Jewel Forest. Fluff Tail hopped over to one of the windows and peered out on to the glittering trees below.

  “My goodness!” said Fluff Tail. “I’ve never seen the forest from this high up. I think I might even be able to see my lovely little house if the clouds weren’t quite so low.”

  “Not quite,” said Primrose, laughing and tucking her glossy nut-brown plait neatly between her glittering yellow wings, “but you can certainly see a long way.”

  “What was that?” said Fluff Tail, looking hard into the darkening forest. “And another one… I think I just saw a raindrop. They look very different from up here, don’t they? It must be starting to rain.”

  “Oh, I do hope so!” said Primrose, fluttering to her bunny friend’s side. “I love to look out of the window when it rains, especially at night when the moonlight glints through the raindrops and makes them glow like milky-white gemstones.”

  “That sounds beautiful,” said Fluff Tail, smiling.

  “It is,” said Primrose excitedly, “and it’s even better when the wind blows, too! It rushes through the branches and around the trunk, making a beautiful whistling sound, like lots of forest fairy flutes playing all at once. It’s magical and—”

  Primrose stopped as her bedroom door swung open and an enormous tray, piled high with delicious sleepover treats, entered the room. Fluttering behind, and almost hidden by the huge tray she was carrying, was a small fairy with choppy nut-brown hair and glittering orange wings, who was wearing leaf-patterned pyjamas with fluffy slippers. It was Primrose’s little sister, Nutmeg.

  “Hello, Fluff Tail! I’m so glad you came,” said Nutmeg, placing the rose-coloured wooden tray on Primrose’s bed. “I asked the palace kitchen to make your favourite carrot cupcakes.”

  “I hope you didn’t go to any trouble, Nutmeg,” said Fluff Tail, hopping over to the bed and eyeing the tray of yummy-looking cakes hungrily.

  “No trouble at all!” said Nutmeg, smiling and popping one of the orange-frosted cakes into her mouth. “Primrose and I love them, too.”

  “Ooh, is that a bottle of forest fizz?” asked Primrose, pointing at a glittery glass bottle. “I do hope it’s ruby-currant flavour.”

  “It is!” said Nutmeg, handing her a cup.

  “My favourite!” said Primrose. “Fluff Tail, have you tried it before?”

  “It’s delicious!” said Fluff Tail, giggling and twitching her little pink nose. “And I love the way the bubbles make my nose tickle.”

  When they had finished the delicious tray of goodies, the full-up fairies flopped back on to Primrose’s bed, and Fluff Tail let out a groan, looking at the empty plates.

  “I’m so full,” she said, rubbing her round tummy with her soft silvery paws.

  “Me, too!” said Primrose, laughing. “I suppose we won’t be needing a midnight feast after all.”

  “Mmm, no…” said Nutmeg, smiling sleepily.

  “Good thing, too,” said Fluff Tail. “My cousins Eloise and Silver are coming to stay with me at my burrow tomorrow, and I want to be home early to get everything ready for them.”

  Fluff Tail lived in a burrow called Sapphire Lodge. It was dug into the roots of a beautiful sapphire tree a short walk from the Tree Palace.

  “Listen to the rain now,” said Primrose. “It sounds like there might be a storm. We’d better close the shutters on the windows before we go to sleep.”

  “I hope it’s a storm,” said Nutmeg. “There’s nothing nicer than being all tucked up and cosy, listening to the wind howling outside. It’s so exciting.”

  “Don’t you get a bit scared, being this high up when the wind is blowing so hard?” asked Fluff Tail.

  “Not at all,” said Nutmeg. “This tree has been here for ever! It’ll take more than a little storm to blow it— Eeeeek! What was that?”

  Nutmeg wrapped her slim freckled arms around the bunny’s soft body, startled by a sudden crashing sound outside.

  “Nutmeg!” said Primrose, laughing gently at her funny little sister. “That was just a bit of thunder.”

  “I know that,” said Nutmeg, blushing, a little embarrassed for having made such a fuss.

  Primrose walked over and held her sister’s hand. “Perhaps you’d better sleep in here with us tonight,” she said gently.

  “Oh yes! Please can I?” said Nutmeg, cheering up instantly. “Not because I’m scared, of course, but I do hate missing out on all the fun. I’ll go and get the hammocks!”

  Nutmeg fluttered through a little wooden door and into her room, which was right next door to her sister’s and just as beautiful.

  “Hammocks?” said Fluff Tail. “How exciting! I’ve never slept in a hammock before. I usually sleep on my little pine bed.”

  “You’re going to love sleeping in a hammock,” said Primrose. “They’re made of leaves and jewel-moth silk and are so comfortable.”

  As she spoke, Nutmeg fluttered back into the room carrying two hammocks, and the fairies hung them up on either side of Primrose’s four-poster bed.

  “What do you think, Fluff Tail?”

  “They do look very comfortable,” agreed Fluff Tail, “but how will I get in? I can’t fly like you and Nutmeg.”

  “Easy,” said Nutmeg. “You just jump up on to the bed and then hop in.” Nutmeg demonstrated, gracefully fluttering up on to the bed and bouncing into her soft hammock.

  “OK,” said Fluff Tail, a little doubtfully. She took a big hop up on to Primrose’s bed and then a small hop into the hammock on the other side and was instantly wrapped up in the soft jewel-moth silk.

  “Oh my,” said the sleepy bunny. “I don’t think I have ever felt anything so comfortable.”

  “Aren’t they wonderful?” said Nutmeg.

  “I’m almost jealous,” said Primrose, laughing as she climbed into her bed between the two hammocks.
>
  As the two fairies and the sleepy rabbit settled down to sleep, they could hear the wind whistling its beautiful music through the branches of the tree palace.

  “It sounds like quite a storm out there,” said Nutmeg, snuggling deeper into her soft hammock.

  “What’s that chiming sound?” said Fluff Tail.

  “It’s the diamond nuts,” said Primrose. “They chime like that when big raindrops fall on them.”

  “It’s so beautiful, I don’t want to fall asleep,” said Fluff Tail. “I want to stay awake and listen to it.”

  “Me, too,” said Nutmeg. “Let’s try and stay awake as long as we can.”

  “OK,” said Primrose, “but I hope there isn’t any more thunder. We don’t want you falling out of your hammock, eh, Nutmeg?”

  The three friends laughed and tried their hardest to stay awake, listening to the storm outside, but the magical music it was making was starting to act like a soothing lullaby, and very soon they all fell fast asleep.

  “What was that?” cried Fluff Tail the next morning, forgetting for a moment that she wasn’t in her own bed and almost falling out of her soft hammock. “I thought I heard a—”

  Cuckoo!

  “A cuckoo! I did, I heard a cuckoo!” cried the startled bunny.

  Cuckoo! Cuckoo!

  “Wake up! Primrose! Nutmeg!” Fluff Tail hopped down from the hammock and started looking around Primrose’s room. “There must be a cuckoo trapped in the Tree Palace somewhere.”

  Cuckoo! Cuckoo! Cuckoo!

  “It’s OK, Fluff Tail,” said Primrose, sitting up in her four-poster bed and smiling at her furry friend. “It’s just my cuckoo clock. It does that every morning when it’s time to for me to get up. Look!”

  Primrose pointed towards a pink house-shaped clock hanging on the carved wall next to her bed. As she pointed, a tiny wooden cuckoo flew out of the house, shouted Cuckoo! and then fluttered over to land on Princess Primrose’s extended finger.

  “See, Fluff Tail?” said Primrose, holding the cuckoo for Fluff Tail to get a closer look. “It isn’t a real cuckoo but a magical wooden one that lives in the clock.”

  The tiny cuckoo hopped off Primrose’s delicate finger and on to the puzzled rabbit’s twitching pink nose.

  “Oh yes!” said Fluff Tail, laughing. “I can see that now. The Tree Palace really is amazing!”

  “If you think that’s amazing,” said Nutmeg, sitting up in her hammock and giving a big yawn, “just wait until you see breakfast.”

  Princess Primrose and Nutmeg put on their satin dressing gowns and fluffy slippers and walked over to a carved panel in Primrose’s bedroom wall. Primrose felt the wall for a small ear-shaped knot in the wood and whispered gently into it. “Please take us to the breakfast room,” she breathed in a voice so quiet Fluff Tail could barely hear her.

  As soon as she spoke, the wooden panel slid to one side and the sisters walked through it and down a winding, narrow staircase, with Fluff Tail hopping behind.

  Fluff Tail chuckled. The Tree Palace was so different from her simple, comfortable home.

  As Fluff Tail hopped out of the narrow passage and into the Tree Palace’s breakfast room, she gasped. In front of her stood a beautifully laid buffet table that was covered with a glittering white tablecloth sprinkled with tiny jewel nuts. On top of the glittering cloth, pink wooden platters held a mountain of delicious treats. There were warm jewel-nut rolls, ruby strawberries dipped in forest-honey cream, and even more carrot cupcakes.

  “Help yourself, Fluff Tail,” said Primrose, handing the hungry bunny a plate.

  Primrose, Nutmeg and Fluff Tail each filled a plate with breakfast treats and took a crystal goblet of forest-fruit juice. The three friends sat at a table in front of the large stained-glass window at the end of the carved wooden breakfast room.

  “That was quite a storm last night,” said Primrose, taking a bite from a delicious-looking emerald-berry pancake. “I hope it didn’t keep you awake, Fluff Tail.”

  “Not at all,” said Fluff Tail, scooping the carrot frosting off one of the cupcakes and popping it into her mouth with her fluffy paw. “I slept very well. But I am looking forward to getting home and seeing my cousins.”

  “Eloise and Silver?” asked Primrose.

  “Yes!” said Fluff Tail. “It’s been so long since I last saw them. I’ve been tidying up my little garden and getting things ready for them all week. I just hope the storm didn’t make too much of a mess.”

  “We’ll help you tidy it, if it has,” said Primrose, reassuring her friend. “Nutmeg and I will walk you back after breakfast.”

  “Oh yes!” said Nutmeg excitedly, almost spilling her juice. “We love to walk through the forest after a storm. The rain knocks some of the loveliest nuts from the tops of the tree branches. Primrose, can we take our baskets to collect them?”

  “Of course, Nutmeg,” said Primrose, laughing at her enthusiastic little sister.

  “Let’s flutter upstairs and get dressed. Fluff Tail, we’ll meet you back here in two ticks of a dandelion clock.” And with that the two fairies zoomed out of the breakfast room.

  Fluff Tail barely had time to take another sip of her delicious juice before Primrose and Nutmeg fluttered back in, wearing emerald-green raincoats and sparkly jade green wellies. Nutmeg was carrying an enormous glittery basket and Primrose was holding a lilac satin umbrella with a golden handle.

  “Hi, Fluff Tail,” said Primrose. “Are you ready to go? I know you didn’t bring your raincoat, so I thought you could use this,” she said, holding out the umbrella.

  “That’s so thoughtful of you, Primrose,” said Fluff Tail. She took the umbrella and then followed her fairy friends down a huge sweeping staircase all the way to the bottom of the Tree Palace and then out into the forest.

  Jewel Forest looked more shimmering and magical than ever. The glittering raindrops clung to the leaves and branches and made them super-sparkly in the dappled morning sunlight. Nutmeg fluttered ahead, collecting jewel nuts, while Primrose and Fluff Tail walked along behind.

  “Don’t you just love the smell of Jewel Forest after the rain?” said Primrose, grinning. “I’m so glad I said we would walk you back, Fluff Tail. What time do your cousins arrive?”

  “At teatime,” said Fluff Tail. “I’ve ordered fancy cakes from Blossom’s Bakery just for them.”

  “Mmm, delicious. Blossom’s moonbutter cupcakes are the best!” said Nutmeg, licking her lips as she plucked a glittering nut from a fallen branch before zooming off to find another.

  As they continued up the path, Fluff Tail had to slow down – there were lots of fallen branches and even some uprooted trees that she had to hop over and scrabble through. “My garden is going to be more of a mess than I thought,” said Fluff Tail, scrambling over a glittering tree branch. “It looks like the storm winds blew a lot harder here.”

  “Don’t worry, Nutmeg and I will help clear it up,” said Primrose. “And we can always get Catkin to help. She’s wonderful with plants. Oh look, I think I see some candy-tufted tree squirrels up ahead.”

  “Hello, Conker and Sycamore,” said Primrose, greeting the fluffy pink squirrels with a friendly hug. “We heard the big storm last night. How are all the squirrels?”

  “We’re fine,” said Conker, “but a few houses weren’t so lucky.”

  “Oh dear, I do hope my house is all right,” said Fluff Tail, peering nervously up the path.

  “I’m sure it will be,” said Primrose, putting her arm around her friend. “Let’s go and see it now.”

  “Sycamore and I will come with you,” said Conker.

  As she hopped up the path, Fluff Tail began to worry. So many trees have been blown down. Please let my little house still be there, she thought to herself, but as they got closer her heart fell.

  “Oh no!” Fluff Tail cried. “
My beautiful home!” Primrose crouched down to give her friend a hug. The rabbit buried her furry face in Primrose’s shoulder, not wanting to look at the fallen sapphire tree in front of her. The tree was lying on its side with its roots – usually buried deep into the soil – reaching up into the air. Tangled among the roots and scattered around the forest floor were all Fluff Tail’s precious belongings.

  “Oh, Fluff Tail!” said Primrose, stroking her friend’s soft ears. “I’m so, so, sorry.”

  “Here,” said Nutmeg, tipping all the glittering nuts out of her basket. “I’ll collect what I can in my basket.”

  Nutmeg bent down and carefully picked up one of Fluff Tail’s broken wooden chairs from the mess.

  “Thank you, Nutmeg,” said Fluff Tail, sobbing. “It’s so kind of you to help, but I won’t have anywhere to put any of the things you save. My lovely home is ruined and I have nowhere to go.”

  “You can come and stay with me,” said Conker. “We squirrels love having company.”

  “That’s a great idea,” said Primrose. “You can stay with Conker until we find you a new house.”

  “But I don’t want a new home,” said Fluff Tail sadly, nudging some of the wilted carrot plants in her once-perfect garden. “I loved this one. And I was so excited about showing it to Eloise and Silver too. They’ll be on their way shortly – how can I tell them not to come?”

  “Don’t worry about your cousins. I’ll go to the post office right away and send them an urgent fairy-mail telling them what has happened,” said Primrose gently. “I promise that we’ll find you a wonderful home, Fluff Tail. Even more beautiful and comfortable than Sapphire Lodge.”

  “And until we find one,” Conker added, “you’ll have a jolly time staying with us squirrels. Come with me and I’ll make you a delicious cup of calming diamond-nut tea.”