by Gail Herman
As DULCIE LEFT the kitchen, fairies were flying to the tearoom for lunch. But Dulcie didn’t want to be anywhere near Ginger…or her biscuits.
Slowly, she wandered through the Home Tree. Before long, she found herself outside the library.
“Hmmm,” she said. “I never have enough time to read. But now…” She sighed. “Now I have all the time in the world.” She tried to look on the bright side. “I can learn so much. About everything!”
Dulcie flitted to the history section. “‘The History of Never Land,’” she read. She pulled the book from a shelf. “This sounds interesting.”
She flew to another set of shelves. “Here’s a gardening book. After I read this, I can share some ideas with Lily.”
Next she took a book about fairy holidays, and one that told the legend of the first Never fairy. She stacked the books on a table without opening any.
When she glanced up, the cooking section was right in front of her. “Well,” she said happily. “Here I am. Right where I belong.” If she couldn’t bake, at least she could read about baking.
She opened book after book. It felt good to see the recipes. She knew them all so well. Each one was like an old friend.
Suddenly, a piece of paper fluttered down from a high shelf, right past Dulcie’s nose. She picked it up. It felt heavier than leaf paper. Its edges were curled, and it was yellow. It seemed ancient.
That’s it! Dulcie realized. The paper was parchment, a material used by fairies long ago.
She blew off a layer of dust. Clearly, this piece of parchment hadn’t been read by anyone in years. She studied it carefully.
“Why, it’s written in Leaf Lettering!”
Long before, fairies didn’t have the regular alphabet. They used leaf symbols instead of letters. It was such an old style of writing, fairies almost never used it anymore. And Dulcie’s leaf-symbol reading was rusty.
She shook her head in frustration. Perhaps more light would help. She edged closer to the window and squinted at the symbols.
“That first one looks like a C,” she murmured. “Then O, then M.” She translated letter by letter. Then she took a pencil and leaf paper and wrote out each one.
It spelled “Comforte Cayke.”
“Comfort Cake?” Dulcie said out loud. “Why, I’ve never heard of it.”
It must be an ancient recipe, she thought. Something very old but, at the same time, new and different to her. And maybe, just maybe, it had some ancient magic to it, too.
Dulcie’s heart beat quickly. She was growing more and more excited.
“‘An extraordinary cayke,’” she translated, “‘that when baked will…’”
The rest of the sentence was rubbed off. The words were impossible to make out. There were no directions after it. And as far as she could tell, just one ingredient was listed.
The recipe wasn’t a recipe at all. Dulcie’s heartbeat slowed. Her excitement faded.
If only she could make this cake…If only she could bring something to Never Land that had been missing for so long…
She sat on the floor to figure out the rest of the symbols. THREE, she wrote out carefully.
Three! The first word was “three.”
Then came “sacks,” then “flour.” Three sacks flour!
Dulcie shook her head. The cake needed only flour? And plain, ordinary flour at that? That wasn’t magical at all. There had to be more.
Dulcie turned the parchment this way and that. But there were no more clues.
Well, that was that. She was supposed to be relaxing, anyway. She shouldn’t be thinking about baking so much as a cookie, much less an ancient cake.
But Dulcie couldn’t put the parchment back on the shelf. She couldn’t leave it behind. It didn’t feel right.
She slipped the recipe between her books and left the library.
THE HOME TREE halls buzzed with activity. Fairies were leaving the tearoom. Dulcie stopped and sniffed. Delicious smells floated out the door.
“Dulcie,” Lily said, flying over to her. “How was your morning?”
“I’m having a wonderful time!” Dulcie fibbed. She didn’t want anyone feeling sorry for her.
She showed Lily her library books. “I’m planning to get lots of reading done. I couldn’t be happier.”
“Really?” Lily gave her a long look.
Dulcie sighed. “No, not really,” she confessed. “I miss baking and my kitchen so much!”
Lily nodded. “It must be hard. Why, if I couldn’t work in my garden, I don’t know what I’d do.”
“And imagine what it would be like if someone else, like Iris, took your place!” Dulcie added.
Iris was another garden-talent fairy. She didn’t have her own garden. But she knew a lot about flowers, plants, and trees. And she sure acted like it.
“Well,” Dulcie went on, “that’s how I feel about that tricky Ginger taking over the kitchen.”
Hastily, Lily hid something behind her back.
Dulcie peeked around. “What’s that?”
Just then, Iris flew over. “Oh, Lily!” she sang. “Is that an extra poppy puff roll you’re holding? If you’re not going to eat it, can I have it? The rolls are delicious today. Remind me to tell Ginger how much I like them!”
Lily blushed. Slowly, she brought out the roll. “You can have it, Iris.”
“Mmm!” Iris said.
Dulcie could barely speak. Her glow flared bright orange, she was so angry. But not at Lily. At Ginger.
Ginger was baking Dulcie’s specialty! Her most famous treat! It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. Dulcie had to show Ginger she was still in charge.
Dulcie flew to her room. She dropped the books on her bed.
She was going to do something. Definitely. But what?
Once again, the ancient recipe caught Dulcie’s eye.
What if the cake was so delicious…so tasty…so amazing…that all the fairies begged for Dulcie to come back to the kitchen? Then no one would think Ginger should be in charge—ever again.
It didn’t seem to be a real recipe. But still…
“One step at a time,” Dulcie told herself. First she’d get the flour. She grabbed the parchment and flew out the door, headed for the fairy-dust mill.
Dulcie had never thought much about how ingredients got to her kitchen. She’d been too busy. But now, she would have to find flour on her own. The cake had to be a surprise. After all, Dulcie was on vacation. She wasn’t supposed to be baking.
She needed to be sneaky. And fast. One more day of Ginger being in charge, and no one would remember Dulcie. She’d be as stale as two-day-old bread.
Dulcie flew quickly, but not too quickly. She didn’t want to look like she was in a hurry. That might make the other fairies wonder.
“Just taking a flight around Pixie Hollow,” she called out each time she saw another fairy. “Not doing much.”
At last, Dulcie reached the mill. She slipped quietly inside. Then she darted behind a bin and peeked out.
Fairies and sparrow men fluttered busily about. In one section of the mill, fairies measured out fairy dust.
Two harvest-talent fairies, named Pell and Pluck, worked in another section. They were placing stalks of wheat in piles. As they walked, the tufts on the ends of the wheat brushed their noses.
“Achoo!” Pluck sneezed.
“Here,” said Pell. She handed Pluck a leafkerchief.
Then Pell sneezed, and Pluck gave Pell her leafkerchief.
The two made trip after trip. Each stalk was three times the size of a fairy, and hard to balance. Pluck and Pell teetered and tottered. They sneezed and blew their noses. But they didn’t stop.
Meanwhile, other fairies separated the seeds from the stalks. A third group carried the seeds up to a hollowed-out log that was cut in half to form a chute. They dropped the seeds inside.
The seeds rolled down the chute and fell through a funnel. At the bottom, the millstone ground the seeds into flour.
A waiting fairy scooped up the flour and put it into sacks. Then a fairy named Maisy hefted it onto her shoulder and flew away.
Dulcie watched with growing interest. Why, this is fascinating, she thought.
She’d had no idea that making flour took such skill and hard work. But she didn’t have time to think about that now. She needed to spring into action.
It shouldn’t be difficult to take some flour. Surely no one would notice if she borrowed one or two or three sacks.
She would take the sack just after it was filled but before Maisy returned.
Dulcie slid behind a seed bin. She waited.…There! The fairy had filled the sack with flour and set it aside.
For a moment, no one was around.
Dulcie wrapped her arms around the sack of flour. She hugged it and tried to rise into the air. But the bag was heavy! Dulcie fell over, knocking the bag to the ground. Flour spilled everywhere.
She hid behind the bin.
“Oh!” Maisy came back. She shook her head as she spotted the spilled flour. With a sigh, she swept it up. Then she hoisted the sack onto her shoulder and flew off.
Dulcie was ready for the next sack. She sprinkled a bit of fairy dust onto it. “Whew!” She could lift it right up.
Suddenly, Maisy landed beside her. “I’ll take it from here, Dulcie. Remember, no work for you. You’re resting!”
Dulcie smiled brightly. “You’re right, of course, Maisy. Guess I’ll be off, then!”
Dulcie flew out of the mill. She needed a new plan.
Why not just follow Maisy and see where she stores the flour? she decided.
She trailed Maisy away from the mill, around hedges and bushes, past plants and flowers, to the Home Tree, and straight into the kitchen pantry!
Dulcie peeped through a window. She saw Maisy put the sack on a pantry shelf. That was it! Dulcie realized. The flour went right to the kitchen!
She waited for Maisy to leave. Then, quickly, she moved the flour to a corner behind the acorn bins. There! She wiped her hands on her apron. The flour was completely hidden.
“Now,” she said to herself, “I’ll just wait here for Maisy to come back with more!”
A little while later, Maisy returned with another sack. “How strange!” Maisy muttered. “Where is that other sack of flour?”
She looked around, never thinking to check the corner.
She shrugged. “I’ll just have to get more.”
The same thing happened again and again. Each time, Dulcie hid the sack. Each time, Maisy scratched her head, confused.
Finally, Maisy flew into the kitchen and spotted Ginger. “Aha!” she said. “You’ve been using the new flour!”
Ginger snapped, “What new flour? I’ve only been here two minutes. And I don’t have any flour! Where is it?”
“All right, all right.” Maisy drew herself up. “You don’t have to get huffy about it.”
For a second, Dulcie felt bad. But she couldn’t worry about Ginger’s temper. She sneaked upstairs to her room.
Dulcie picked up the ancient recipe. If only there were more to it!
“I’ve gotten the flour,” she whispered. “Now what?”
One by one, leaf symbols appeared on the parchment. Dulcie grinned. She had been right! This was a magical recipe.
She had proved she could get the flour. She had performed a task. And something had happened! More writing!
Slowly, she translated the symbols: one egg.
How would she manage that?
DULCIE HOVERED outside the Home Tree. She was trying to figure out which way to go.
“Eggs, eggs, eggs,” she muttered to herself.
Fresh eggs were delivered to her kitchen every morning. Dulcie just used them. She didn’t know anything about getting them.
Where did egg-collecting fairies go? She felt a little embarrassed admitting it, but she had no idea.
I have to find an egg collector, Dulcie thought, and follow her, just like I did Maisy.
She hurried to the Home Tree lobby. She sat down on a toadstool chair and pretended to relax.
One by one, fairies and sparrow men fluttered past. Half an hour went by before Dulcie spied Colette, an egg-collecting-talent fairy. She was carrying a cushioned basket half her size.
“She’s collecting eggs! Right now!” Dulcie said.
Dulcie trailed Colette. Every time Colette stopped, Dulcie ducked behind a leaf. Every time Colette flew, so did Dulcie.
Finally, Colette came to the dairy barn, where the dairy mice lived. She flew a little beyond that to a grove of trees. Dulcie followed.
“I never knew these were here,” Dulcie whispered. The trees were saplings, just four feet tall. They were covered with fluffy white blossoms and stood in a semicircle.
Robins twittered all around. Colette flew among them. She paused by a nest filled with eggs and put her ear close to one.
Even Dulcie knew that fairies used only empty eggs. They were eggs that wouldn’t hatch. “She’s listening for baby chicks!” Dulcie said to herself. Colette lifted a pale blue egg into her basket. Dulcie had used robins’ eggs in lots of her recipes. They made delicious cakes and cookies.
Then Colette pulled a balloon carrier from behind a tall fern. She unwound the cord from the anchor root. Fairy dust–filled balloons lifted the carrier high off the ground.
Colette carefully pushed two more eggs into the balloon carrier. Pulling the carrier, she flew toward the Home Tree.
Dulcie now knew which nest had the empty eggs. But she wanted to check on the other ones. She flew to another tree and peered inside a nest.
Four blue eggs were nestled close together. Cracks lined each shell. Tap, tap, tap. The babies were breaking through. One by one, they poked their way out.
“Peep, peep!” They shook their wet feathers.
In a flash, the mama robin flew over.
Dulcie shook her head in wonder. Just think, all this had been happening right in Pixie Hollow. And she had never known!
Smiling and thinking of the tiny birds, Dulcie picked up an empty egg. She could barely get her arms all the way around it. She had to peek around the side of the egg as she flew. Once, she almost bumped into a blueberry bush. Then she saw a group of fairies flying nearby. She darted behind a leaf and waited for them to pass.
Before long, Dulcie poked her head into the kitchen. It was empty. Quickly, she hid the egg with the flour. Then she hurried to her room and took out the recipe. There, in bold symbols, was more writing: five teacups sugar.
Her next task! To get the sugar.
Dulcie thought for a long moment. Sugar came from sugarcane. And wasn’t there a sugarcane field near Havendish Stream? She wasn’t sure. But hadn’t she seen a sign when she was circling that morning? Sweet Field. That could be it.
Away Dulcie flew. This time, she didn’t feel strange leaving the Home Tree. At least, not as strange.
Dulcie soon spied Sweet Field, which was full of sugarcane. Fairies and sparrow men flitted all around.
Dulcie ducked behind a big tree root. “I was right!” she said happily.
Some fairies, wielding axes, chopped at the sugarcane. Others pushed a big round stone over a fallen cane, squeezing out the sugary juice.
Two sparrow men boiled the juice in huge pots, turning it into a sticky brown mountain of sugar. Two more fairies shoveled the sugar into giant barrels. Then they rolled the barrels into the bottom of a hollow tree.
All I have to do is borrow one barrel, Dulcie thought. That should be more than five teacups. Piece of cake!
She waited for a fairy named Ava to leave the hollow tree. Then she sneaked inside. The place was filled with barrels!
But just then, another fairy brought in one more. The barrel rolled to a stop. It was so close to Dulcie that it pinned her wing against the tree wall.
She was stuck! She wriggled this way and that. But it didn’t make a difference. She couldn’t get free.
Dulcie groaned. She’d have to c
all for help. And she wouldn’t be able to take a barrel. Not now. All the fairies would know. Instead, she scooped up handfuls of sugar and put them in her apron pockets.
“Hello?” she called out. “Anyone there?”
“Dulcie?” Ava flew over. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, just taking in some sights. You know, I’m on vacation.” She pointed at her wing. “Do you think you could help?” She hoped her pockets weren’t bulging too much.
Ava moved the barrel. “Come back and visit anytime, Dulcie.”
Dulcie smiled. Now that she knew exactly how to get to Sweet Field, maybe she would.
When Dulcie returned to her room, she checked the ancient recipe again. The next ingredient was waiting for her.
Four drops vanilla.
Dulcie loved vanilla. But she didn’t have a clue where it came from. Then she remembered the book she’d borrowed from the library, The History of Never Land.
She began to flip through the pages. Maybe there was something about long-ago fairies first finding vanilla.
She stopped at page 327. The entry read: Fairies explore the vanilla orchids.
Dulcie read on. Vanilla came from orchid plants. Now she knew what to do.
Vanilla. Chocolate. Nuts. Berries. One by one, the ingredients appeared on the parchment. And one by one, Dulcie found them with the help of her books.
With each trip, she grew a little bolder, a little more sure of herself.
By the time she found the almond orchard, Dulcie felt as if she’d visited every part of Pixie Hollow. And she’d seen so many different talents at work! She watched as the tree-picking talents used hacksaws to remove almond fruits from a tree. They wore helmets made of walnut shells to protect their heads. And their arms looked strong from carrying heavy nuts and fruit. Dulcie realized that many of the fairies did difficult—even dangerous—work. But they seemed to love it as much as she loved working in the kitchen.
After that trip, she sat on her bed to rest. Another ingredient had shown up. She translated each leaf symbol.
“Oh!” Dulcie caught her breath. The words read: 10 drops sweet syrup from the Creeping Treacle Vyne.