Kirsty’s eyes widened as she spotted a sudden movement in the flowers. Something was rummaging through the orchids! She nervously elbowed Rachel as she spotted a familiar flash of green.
“There’s a goblin!” she hissed.
“Look, another one!” Rachel whispered, pointing to a second goblin on the other side of the garden. “And there are two more!”
“They must be searching for the orchid petal,” Kirsty said.
“Well then, we’ll have to look for it, too,” Rachel declared. “We have to find it before they do!”
The two girls crouched down and began peeking into the flowerbeds, hoping to find the magic orchid petal before the goblins noticed them. They hadn’t been looking for very long, though, when they heard a triumphant goblin cry, “I’ve got it! I’ve got it!”
Rachel and Kirsty looked up and saw a goblin not far from them leaping up and down excitedly. He was waving a purple-and-blue petal in one hand.
“The orchid petal!” Kirsty groaned as he raced off toward his friends.
The girls jumped to their feet as the goblin ran across the garden. A large raised flowerbed was in his path. He tried to jump over it, but he tripped and fell into a patch of mud instead.
Rachel grabbed Kirsty’s hand. “Come on,” she called. “Let’s try to get that petal!”
The girls hurried to the goblin and stood over him.
“The fairies will be really angry with you if you don’t give that back,” Kirsty warned. “And you should know, Olivia the Orchid Fairy is probably on her way here right now!”
The goblin sat up and brushed the mud off himself. Then he rudely stuck out his tongue. “I don’t care!” he insisted, clutching the petal.
Just then, the air seemed to shimmer around them, and a tiny fairy darted into view.
Rachel smiled. “Olivia!” she cried.
Olivia the Orchid Fairy fluttered in midair. She had glossy dark hair that was pulled back in a ponytail, and she wore a purple dress with bell sleeves and a wide yellow belt. “Hello, girls,” she sang. “I see you’ve found my petal.”
The goblin with the petal stood up and backed away. “Uh-oh,” he murmured nervously. Then he spotted his friends across the garden. “Hey!” he shouted to them. “Help!”
Six other goblins rushed over. Kirsty noticed that one of them, a goblin with extremely large feet, was carrying the magic wand.
“The orchid petal is mine,” Olivia told the goblins. “And I’d like it back, please.”
“Come any closer, fairy, and I’ll turn you into an ice cube,” the goblin with the wand threatened. “Run!” he ordered his friends. They took off across the garden as fast as they could go.
Then the goblin with the wand grinned and made a mean face. “You’ll never see that petal again,” he told the girls. “Never!” And with that, he let out a nasty laugh and raced out of the garden at top speed.
“Quick! After them!” Kirsty shouted, running along the path with Rachel close behind.
Olivia zoomed through the air next to them. “It’ll be faster if we all fly,” she said, pointing her wand at the girls. A sparkling stream of purple-and-blue fairy dust swirled around Kirsty and Rachel, instantly turning them into fairies.
“Thanks, Olivia,” Rachel said, flapping her glittery wings in delight. “Now let’s catch up with those goblins.”
The three friends flew through the air, following the pesky green figures. They were beginning to gain on the goblins when they rounded the corner. Rachel and Kirsty gasped at the sight — Rainbow Falls was straight ahead of them. Water plunged from high rocks into a large, deep pool just in front of the goblins. The fine spray from the waterfall was making rainbows shimmer and dance in the air above the wet rocks in the pool. The girls hovered in midair, gazing with wonder at the sight.
There were signs all around the falls saying that no one should climb on the slippery rocks. The goblins ignored all the signs. One by one, they started leaping onto the nearest rock.
“They’re not going in the pool, are they?” Kirsty said in surprise. “Goblins hate getting their feet wet!”
“They’re using the rocks as stepping stones,” Rachel realized. “They’re going to get away with that petal!”
Olivia sighed. “Come on, let’s follow them,” she said, and the three girls fluttered after the goblins. “You know, all these little rainbows remind me of the ones we’ve used to travel to Fairyland,” Kirsty said. Then she smiled as an idea struck her. “You know, I just thought of something that might stop the goblins!” she said to her friends in a low voice. “Just go along with what I say, OK?”
Rachel and Olivia nodded, looking curious.
Kirsty winked at them and then said loudly, “Isn’t it lucky that the goblins came to Rainbow Falls? Do you think they noticed that these little rainbows are just like the magical rainbow bridges the fairy king and queen use to bring people to the Fairyland Palace?”
Rachel tried to hide a smile as she realized what her friend was up to. Kirsty was trying to trick the goblins!
Olivia seemed to have caught on, too, because she was agreeing loudly. “Yes, they’re exactly like the rainbow bridges,” she said. “And a rainbow bridge will whisk you straight to the fairy king and queen if you step into one. It’s powerful magic!”
Rachel nudged Kirsty with glee. It was obvious that the goblins had heard what the girls had been saying. They now looked extremely nervous, all huddled together on a stepping stone. They were muttering anxiously about being whisked off to answer to the king and queen of Fairyland.
A rainbow formed right over the head of one goblin, and he pulled away from it. “No! I don’t want to go to Fairyland!” he exclaimed.
A second rainbow appeared near the goblin with the orchid petal. “Me neither. No way!” he yelped, hopping to a different stone.
Then the goblin holding the wand let out a squeal as a rainbow appeared right in front of his face. “Ooh! I don’t like this!” he wailed.
Kirsty and Rachel looked at one another. “They’re so nervous, they’re not thinking about the petal at all now,” Kirsty whispered.
Rachel nodded. “This might be a good chance for us to try and grab it,” she suggested.
“Good thinking,” Olivia agreed. “If we all swoop down together, hopefully we’ll catch them by surprise and we can get my petal back.”
“Let’s try,” Kirsty said, looking determined. “One, two, three … GO!”
The three fairies zoomed toward the goblins. Unfortunately, the goblins saw them coming.
“Oh no you don’t!” one shouted, splashing water at the girls.
Kirsty dodged the spray, but Rachel wasn’t so quick, and her wings became heavy with water. She shook them out and backed away, trying to flap them dry.
Laughing, the goblins flicked more water at the fairies, until all three of them were forced to back off.
“That’s right, fly away,” the goblin with the wand sneered. He put his hands on his hips, but then jumped as another rainbow appeared right by one of his elbows. “Stupid rainbows! They’re really getting on my nerves!” he snapped.
But the goblin with the petal was looking thoughtful. “How do we know these rainbows are magic, anyway?” he said. “What if those fairies are trying to trick us, like they did with the sunflower petal yesterday?”
Kirsty and Rachel exchanged a worried glance. Would the goblins realize that the rainbows were actually completely harmless?
“If you think it’s all a trick, why don’t you step into one of them and find out?” a skinny goblin challenged.
“Why should I do it?” the goblin with the petal replied. “You try it!” And he gave the skinny goblin a shove toward the nearest rainbow.
“Yikes!” yelled the skinny goblin, falling straight through the rainbow and into the pool with a splash. “Hey! It’s freezing in here!” he shouted, struggling to climb out. The other goblins ignored his complaints. They were far too excited after learning
that the girls had tricked them.
“Those rainbows aren’t magic at all!” one of them yelled, looking victorious.
The goblin with the wand pulled the skinny goblin out of the water, and then glared up at the fairies. “It’s time to teach those tricky fairies a lesson, once and for all,” he declared. “This spell will freeze you into ice. No more fairies, won’t that be nice?” he shouted, pointing the wand at them.
“Quick!” yelled Rachel. “Fly away!”
Three icy bolts of magic poured from the wand toward the girls and Olivia. Hearts pounding, Kirsty and Rachel zoomed away from the freezing magic, with Olivia whizzing alongside.
The ice bolts just barely missed the three friends and struck Rainbow Falls instead. Kirsty, Rachel, and Olivia stopped and stared in amazement as the entire waterfall and the pool below turned to solid ice, and the roar of the water was silenced immediately.
“Wow!” Kirsty gulped. “It’s beautiful!”
Even the goblins seemed amazed by the icy waterfall. The magic had frozen every drop of water in an instant. Even the splashes of spray were frozen in midair, like twinkling diamonds.
A shout from one of the goblins broke the silence. “Hey, we can walk across the pool now!”
Rachel looked down to see that the goblins were skidding and sliding across the ice. “They’re heading around the back of the waterfall,” she said. “Let’s follow them.”
The three fairies flew after the goblins, who had now crept into the icy cave behind the frozen waterfall. Kirsty, Rachel, and Olivia swooped into the cave after them, swerving to avoid the gleaming icicles that now hung from its roof.
“Where are they? Which way did they go?” Rachel asked. Looking around the ice cave, she saw no sign of the goblins.
The water had frozen into unusual twisted shapes, a lot like crystal sculptures. The sun shone through them, making them glitter and sparkle with a bright, white light. “It’s so beautiful,” Kirsty said, wide-eyed. “Like a magical ice world.”
Rachel nodded. “It’s like a frozen Fairyland,” she said in awe, “all glittery and sparkly. But there isn’t a goblin in sight.”
“We’ll have to search for them,” Olivia said. “They must be here somewhere.”
The three friends fluttered around the cave, looking behind every icicle in search of the goblins.
“There are so many places the goblins could hide.” Kirsty sighed, seeing pathways leading in all directions. “It’s like a maze in here!”
Just then, Rachel let out a cry. “Look, there’s a flower!” she called, pointing to the icy wall on her left.
Kirsty and Olivia fluttered over to see a bright purple orchid blooming right out of the ice.
“Only my petal could have done that,” Olivia said, looking excited. “Orchids take lots of love and a long time to grow that big!”
Kirsty’s face lit up as she saw another orchid, an orange one this time, further down the cave wall. She pointed to it with delight. “It’s a trail of flowers!” she cried. “The goblins must have gone this way!”
The three friends followed the trail of orchids along the passage. Then Olivia swooped in front of Kirsty and Rachel, motioning for them to stop. “I can hear the goblins whispering ahead,” she said in a low voice. “We can’t let them see us. They might try to turn us into ice again!”
Rachel and Kirsty nodded. They certainly didn’t like the idea of being frozen solid, like the waterfall.
The three fairies flew a little farther. Olivia led the way, until they came to the edge of a room that was covered in ice. Very carefully, Rachel peeked around the block of ice that stood at the entrance. She could see a row of icicles dangling from the ceiling, and the goblins all huddled together in the small space.
“I’m f-f-f-freezing,” one of them moaned, his teeth chattering.
“It’s colder than Jack Frost’s Ice Castle in here,” another agreed, wrapping his arms around himself.
The goblin with the orchid petal was the only one who didn’t seem to be bothered by the cold. He was amusing himself by dragging the magic petal along the icy walls, making bright new orchids bloom everywhere.
Drip! A drop of water fell from an icicle onto a goblin’s head. “Hey! Who’s dripping water on me?” he whined.
“Be quiet! Those fairies will hear you!” another scolded him.
“Nobody’s dripping water on you,” a third told him angrily. “Don’t be silly!”
“Olivia, could you turn us back into girls now?” Kirsty asked in a whisper, as the goblins continued to bicker. “I think we’ll have a better chance of getting the orchid petal that way.”
“Of course,” Olivia said, waving her wand over the girls. A stream of purple-and-blue fairy dust poured from the tip of the wand, and then floated around Kirsty and Rachel.
Rachel shivered as she became a girl once more. It felt even colder now that she was standing still, rather than zipping around on her fairy wings. Her teeth began to chatter. Luckily, before the goblins heard the sound, two more goblins started to yell about being dripped on.
“The magic spell is wearing off,” Kirsty realized as she noticed water trickle off the icicles. “The ice is melting!”
Drip! Drip! Drip!
“Whose idea was it to sit here, anyway?” the goblin with the wand complained. He yelped as freezing water ran down his back. “Let’s get out of here!”
Rachel and Kirsty stepped in front of the goblins as they got up to leave the room. “You’re not going anywhere until you give us that magic petal,” Rachel said bravely.
The goblins all shook their heads. “There’s no way we’re going back to Jack Frost without this petal,” the one with the wand said. “We’re keeping it, and that’s that!”
“But haven’t you realized that your spell is fading?” Kirsty pointed out. “You can’t stay here. Soon, the waterfall will have completely melted!”
“And we are right in the middle of it,” Rachel added. “So when the ice melts, we’ll all be trapped between these rocks, and the water will be over our heads!” She shuddered at the thought, hoping that the goblins would realize how dangerous the situation was!
Drip! Drip! Drip! Drip!
The goblins looked around nervously as the drops of water started falling faster. “Let us out!” the skinny one cried, trying to push past the girls.
“Give us the petal first,” Rachel replied, standing firm.
The goblin with the wand pointed it threateningly at the girls, but Olivia let out a tinkling laugh. “Your spell didn’t work very well last time, did it?” she reminded him.
“She’s right,” the skinny goblin muttered, pushing his friend’s wand away. “No more magic!”
By now, the drips had turned into little streams, soaking the goblins. “Ugh!” they cried, trying to shield their heads with their arms.
Kirsty and Rachel were getting wet, too.
“We’re running out of time,” Kirsty said, looking around the cave as water streamed down its walls. “This place is melting fast!”
“You don’t really want to end up in the middle of a waterfall, do you?” Rachel asked.
“No!” the goblins wailed miserably. “Let us out!”
Rachel shook her head firmly as melted ice started to pour down like rain. Frustrated and afraid, the goblin with the petal shoved it into Rachel’s hands and then barged past her. “We give up, you win!” he moaned, running back the way he’d come.
“Let’s get out of here!” shouted another goblin, and all six of the remaining goblins raced after their friend.
Olivia beamed to see her petal safely in Rachel’s hands. “Good work, girls!” she cried thankfully, shrinking the petal to its Fairyland size with a wave of her wand.
“The ice is melting quickly now,” Kirsty said. “I think we should get out of here.”
Rachel nodded, then gasped as a huge chunk of the icy ceiling gave way with a crash. “We only have a few seconds left,” she cried. “Run!
”
“We’ll fly out,” Olivia called, waving her wand over the girls. “It’s quicker.”
Kirsty, who’d been slipping and sliding along the slushy ice floor, suddenly felt as light as air, fluttering on sparkly fairy wings again. “Thanks, Olivia. Now let’s go!” she shouted gratefully.
The three friends zoomed out of the melting waterfall at top speed. They darted out from beneath the icy cascade in the nick of time. As they turned to look back, there came a great cracking sound and the ice broke from the entrance of the waterfall. At once, water began pouring freely over the falls again, tumbling and crashing into the pool below.
“That was close!” Kirsty whispered, as the roar of the waterfall echoed in the valley. “Thanks, Olivia. I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad to have fairy wings.”
Rachel grinned. “Look, there go the goblins,” she said. The fairies watched as the goblins grumpily trudged off into the woods.
Olivia gazed at her orchid petal happily. “Thank you so much, girls. I never would have gotten this back without you,” she said. “And now I should take it back to Fairyland where it belongs. Once it’s there, I can use its magic to help all the orchids, and the other blue and purple flowers, to grow again.”
Kirsty checked her watch. “And it’s time for us to meet our parents,” she said. “I bet they haven’t had half as much fun as we have!”
“I’ll send you on your way with a last bit of fairy magic if you like,” Olivia offered. “You’ll be girls again when you arrive.”
The Petal Fairies Collection Page 7