“Follow them!” Kirsty cried.
Ella swooped down to hide under Rachel’s hair as the girls raced after the goblins. The goblins ran past an English cottage garden, then a rock garden, before turning into a maze of hedges.
Kirsty had just enough time to glimpse the sign as she ran by. It read, Chaney Court Hedge Maze. Can you find the statue in the middle?
The goblins scattered, each charging down different paths.
“Which one has the petal?” Rachel cried, not sure which goblin to chase.
“I’ll turn you both into fairies,” Ella decided. “Then we can fly and hopefully spot the petal from above!”
In a shower of pink sparkles, Kirsty and Rachel found themselves shrinking to fairy-size.
Gorgeous, glittery wings appeared on their backs, and they immediately zoomed up above the maze.
“I can see three goblins,” Kirsty said, pointing them out. “Oh, and there’s another….”
“There’s one in the middle, by the statue,” Rachel added.
“And look at what he’s holding!”
“My petal!” Ella cried joyfully.
The three friends zipped toward the statue. “Ella, if you turn us back to our normal size, Rachel and I can try to get your petal back from him,” Kirsty suggested.
Ella lifted her wand, but Rachel stopped her.
“Hold on,” she said, pointing down at the maze. “The other goblins are almost at the center, too. I don’t think we’ll be able to get the petal away from all of them.”
Ella nodded. “Let me make the maze a little bit more difficult for them,” she said with a sly grin.
She flitted over and sprinkled some fairy dust along the path that led to the center of the maze. Instantly, a new section of hedge started to grow, blocking the entrance to the clearing where the statue stood.
The goblin who was already standing by the statue stared at the new hedge. “Hey! I’m trapped!” he yelled.
“And his friends won’t be able to come to his rescue!” Kirsty realized with a giggle. “Super smart, Ella!”
Rachel grinned. “Now let’s get that petal!” she cried.
Rachel and Kirsty swooped down to the center of the maze. Once they landed, Ella turned them back into girls with another wave of her wand.
The goblin was surprised to see them appear in front of him. “Help! Those girls have found me!” he shouted in alarm.
Kirsty grinned. “You can shout as much as you want, but they won’t be able to help you.”
Rachel held out her hand. “You might as well give us the petal now,” she told him, “because you’re trapped in here with us!”
The goblin hid the petal behind his back. “I’m not giving it to you,” he said stubbornly.
“Hang on! We’re coming!” another goblin’s voice called from somewhere over the hedge.
“It’s no use,” the goblin with the petal shouted back. “I’m stuck in here with their pesky fairy magic!”
“Well, those fairies should know by now that we have our own magic!” came another shout. The girls jumped and looked around, because the voice sounded very close behind them.
There was a rustling noise, and Rachel and Kirsty turned to see a wand poking through the hedge — a wand held by a goblin’s green hand!
Before the girls could do or say anything, one of the goblins started chanting a spell.
“This will stop those girls, I think. Lightning bolts, zap all things pink!” he cried from the other side of the hedge.
Kirsty looked down at her top in horror. She was wearing pink — and so were Rachel and Ella. They were all about to get blasted by the goblins’ icy magic!
“Hide!” yelled Kirsty, ducking behind the statue. The next instant, lightning bolts fizzed through the hedge right at her.
CRASH! One bolt hit the statue — and to the girls’ surprise, it turned the statue bright pink!
CRASH! Another bolt struck the goblin with the petal.
Rachel and Kirsty stared at him in shock. He had turned pink, right before their eyes!
Ella gave a tinkling laugh. “It’s because of the way the goblin said the spell,” she explained. “When he said ‘Lightning bolts, zap all things pink’, he wanted for lightning to strike everything that’s pink—but instead, it’s turning things pink!”
The goblin with the petal didn’t seem to notice his color change. “It didn’t work!” he shouted through the hedge. “The lightning missed that pesky pink fairy and her friends!”
Three goblins peered through the hedge — and immediately burst into laughter. “Hey, pink looks good on you!” one of them teased.
“What?” demanded the goblin with the petal. He looked down at himself and gasped. “I’m pink!” he wailed.
“It’s definitely your color.” Rachel giggled.
“Very flattering,” Ella agreed, sputtering with laughter.
“It’s not funny!” the pink goblin snapped, stomping his foot. “Turn me green again right now!”
Once the goblins on the other side of the hedge had managed to stop laughing, the wand poked through the branches again. The girls heard another goblin clear his throat, to cast a second spell.
“Oh, no you don’t!” Kirsty cried, darting forward and snatching the wand right out of his hand.
“Hey!” came a surprised shout. “Give that back!”
“No way,” Kirsty replied happily. But she then gulped in alarm, because the magic hedge plants that Ella had conjured up suddenly vanished in a burst of pink sparkles. And, all at once, the other goblins charged into the middle of the maze!
Ella quickly turned the girls back into fairies, so they could zoom up into the air and escape the goblins. The goblins’ wand in Kirsty’s hand became fairy-sized, too.
“Hey — give our wand back!” one of the goblins shouted.
“Jack Frost will be mad if we come back without it,” another said, worried. He jumped up, trying to catch the girls.
“Sorry, guys!” Rachel grinned. ”But —”
She broke off as she spotted a girl in a lilac T-shirt walking close to the center of the maze.
“Oh no!” Rachel gulped. “Look!”
“We can’t let her see the goblins!” Ella cried.
Kirsty’s mind raced, until she remembered she had a magic wand in her hand. She quickly pointed it down at the goblins and tried to think up a spell. “Whisk this magic far away, back to Jack Frost’s hideaway!” she declared.
A magical wind began to blow around the goblins, sweeping them up into the air. But then Kirsty felt a cold wind tugging at her, too.
“Oh no!” Ella exclaimed. “We’re part of the magic, too. We’re caught up in the spell!”
Kirsty gulped as the wind grew even stronger. “You mean …” she began.
Ella nodded. “We’re on our way to Jack Frost!”
Everything blurred before the girls’ eyes as they were whisked up in the magical whirlwind with the goblins.
When the whirl of magic finally died away, the girls and Ella saw that they were hovering in midair, a short distance from Jack Frost’s ice castle. Below them, the goblins were lying in the snow, a heap of tangled arms and legs.
Jack Frost turned in surprise, from where he’d been feeding his snow geese at the pond.
“Oh, it’s you!” he snapped at the goblins. “What do you have for me?”
Kirsty, Rachel, and Ella quickly fluttered behind a nearby tree, hoping Jack Frost wouldn’t notice them. Luckily, his eye was drawn straight to the goblin at the bottom of the heap, who was still bright pink. “What on Earth …?” Jack Frost sputtered. “What have you been doing?”
“It wasn’t my fault!” the pink goblin moaned. “Besides, look what I brought for you!” he added proudly, wiggling his hand out from under the other goblins. He was still clutching the rose petal between his fingers.
“At last! A magic petal of my own!” Jack Frost cried triumphantly. “Now I will have all the flowers I want g
rowing around my castle!”
Poor Ella could hardly watch. “If Jack Frost gets his hands on my petal, I might never see it again,” she whispered miserably.
“What if Kirsty and I distract him?” Rachel suggested. “Then you can fly over and grab the petal while he’s not looking!”
“OK!” Ella said, her face brightening. “Let’s try it.”
As Ella headed toward the petal, the girls flew out into the open, behind Jack Frost.
Kirsty saw that Jack Frost was just reaching out to grab the petal.
“Hey, Jack Frost!” she called quickly. “Aren’t you wondering where your wand is?”
Jack Frost turned in surprise, and glared when he saw Kirsty and Rachel.
“We’ve got it!” Rachel added.
“And we’re going to cast a spell on you!” Kirsty cried.
“How did you get my wand?” Jack Frost bellowed furiously.
He immediately marched away from the goblins, toward the girls. “I’ll take that, thank you,” he snapped. He stared hard at the wand, then lifted his hand and muttered a magic word. Instantly, the wand flew from Kirsty’s grasp back to its master.
With a horrible grin, Jack Frost pointed the wand at the girls. “Maybe this will teach you to stop causing trouble!” he told them. And then, as he whispered a spell, a freezing lightning bolt came shooting out of the wand — straight toward Rachel and Kirsty.
“Hide!” shouted Rachel. Quickly, she and Kirsty hid behind the tree trunk. Neither of them could see Ella now, but they both really hoped she’d been able to grab her petal.
Kirsty peeked around the tree to look for Ella, and then pulled back in alarm as two more lightning bolts flashed past. She and Rachel clung to each other.
“What are we going to do?” Kirsty asked as lightning bolts whistled past the tree, barely missing the girls.
“I don’t know,” Rachel replied. “Sooner or later, one of these is going to hit us!”
But as the girls looked at each other in panic, Kirsty saw a stream of pink fairy dust sparkling in the sky above them. As she watched, the fairy dust began to turn into brightly colored flowers that rained down to the ground between the girls and Jack Frost. More and more of them appeared in the sky and floated down, creating a curtain of falling flowers. And when Jack Frost’s lightning bolts hit the bright blooms, they bounced right off.
“The flowers are acting like a shield,” Kirsty realized.
“It must be petal magic!” Rachel cried in delight.
“And, look, there are the Petal Fairies!” Kirsty exclaimed, pointing to where Ella was flitting in the air, along with the other Petal Fairies: Tia, Pippa, Louise, Charlotte, Olivia, and Danielle. They were all smiling and waving at Kirsty and Rachel.
“Ella must have rescued her petal when we distracted Jack Frost.” Rachel laughed. “And now all of the Petal Fairies have come to rescue us!”
Kirsty nodded happily. “Look!” she said, pointing to the curtain of flowers. “When the icy lightning bolts hit the magic wall, they freeze the falling flowers. Aren’t they pretty?”
Rachel grinned. “Yes. And, look — Jack Frost obviously thinks so, too!” She pointed to Jack Frost, who was no longer hurling lightning bolts at the girls. Instead, he was bending down and scooping up armfuls of the frozen flowers.
“Hey, you guys!” he shouted to his goblins. “Come and help me gather all of these. They’re perfect for decorating my castle gardens!”
The goblins, who’d untangled themselves by now, ran over to help. “Look at these frozen sunflowers!” one of them exclaimed. “They’ll look good over here,” he added, planting them in the ground. Being frozen, they stood up straight and sparkled brilliantly with frost.
“These tulips are nice,” another goblin sighed. “I think I’ll take a bunch home to my mom.”
Ella and the other Petal Fairies flew down to join the girls.
“Thank you for saving us from Jack Frost,” Kirsty said.
Ella laughed. “We’re the ones who should be thanking you,” she told the girls. “You did a great job — again!”
Tia smiled. “Let’s leave Jack Frost to his frozen flowers,” she suggested, taking Kirsty by the hand.
Louise came over and took Rachel’s hand. “Yes, let’s go,” she said.
“Where to?” Kirsty asked, feeling excited.
Olivia smiled. “To the Fairyland palace, of course!” she said. “King Oberon and Queen Titania are waiting to see you!”
The seven Petal Fairies led Kirsty and Rachel away from Jack Frost’s castle to the beautiful gardens outside the Fairyland palace. There, the girls saw the fairy king and queen waiting for them. They were standing next to a pool that glittered in the sunlight.
“Good job!” Queen Titania said warmly as the girls landed. “We watched everything right here, in the seeing pool. Rachel and Kirsty, you have done a fantastic job helping the fairies get all seven of their magic petals back.”
“Yes, we couldn’t have done it without them,” Charlotte the Sunflower Fairy said, beaming.
“And now that Jack Frost has his everlasting ice flowers, he won’t bother our Petal Fairies again,” the king added. He shook his head, looking frustrated. “If he had just come and asked us for help in the first place, none of this would have happened. He didn’t need to steal the petals.”
“Yes!” Queen Titania said. “We certainly understand that flowers are meant to be shared. I’m glad Jack Frost is happy with his palace garden now.”
Then Ella waved her wand over Kirsty and Rachel and, to their surprise, garlands of rainbow-colored flowers appeared around their necks.
“Thank you!” Rachel exclaimed. “They’re beautiful!”
“Of course,” Ella replied. “They’re just a little something to remember the Petal Fairies by.”
The queen lifted her wand. “I’m afraid it’s time for you to return to the human world now,” she said.
“Oh, yes, we’re supposed to be meeting our parents soon,” Kirsty agreed.
“Good-bye, girls,” Ella said, giving Rachel and Kirsty a last hug. “And thanks again!”
“Good-bye,” the two girls chorused.
The queen waved her wand over them, and they were whisked away from Fairyland in a blur of color. Seconds later, they found themselves back in the maze, and at their normal size.
“It’s strange being here without Ella or the goblins,” Kirsty said, looking around.
Rachel nodded. “It’s so much more quiet!” She laughed.
“And look,” Kirsty said, “our flower garlands have turned into necklaces. Aren’t they pretty?”
Rachel saw that Kirsty was right — they were both wearing necklaces made of glittering, flower-shaped beads. There were seven different beads that matched the colors of the magic petals. The necklaces were almost as beautiful as the real flowers!
Just then, a girl with a lilac T-shirt walked into the center of the maze.
Of course! Kirsty thought. It’s the girl who was about to reach the middle when we were whisked away to Fairyland.
“Hi,” said the girl. “My name’s Arabella Diers. This maze is hard, isn’t it? It’s taken me forever to get here!”
“I’m Rachel,” Rachel replied. She didn’t know what to say about the maze. After all, she and Kirsty had flown to the middle. They hadn’t actually had to find their way through the maze at all. Suddenly, she realized that they didn’t have a clue how to get out!
“It is hard,” Kirsty was saying. “In fact, we can’t remember the way out. Can you?”
Arabella nodded. “I think so,” she said. “Follow me!” As she turned to lead the way out, she caught sight of the girls’ necklaces. “Ooh! They’re pretty,” she commented.
It didn’t take the three girls long to find the start of the maze.
“Here we are!” Arabella said proudly as they reached the exit.
“Thank you,” Kirsty said. Impulsively, she pulled off her fairy necklace and handed i
t to Arabella. “Here — have this,” she said. “To say thanks for helping us.”
Arabella’s face lit up. “Oh, thank you!” she breathed, looking starry-eyed with delight. Rachel and Kirsty grinned.
“That was nice of you,” Rachel said, taking her own necklace off as Arabella walked away. “If you like, we could try and make my necklace into anklets. Then we can each have one.”
Suddenly, she gasped as the necklace started to shimmer with a sparkly pink light. As the girls watched, the necklace split apart and transformed itself into two pretty anklets.
Kirsty stared at Rachel, her mouth wide open. “How did you do that?” she gasped.
Rachel was just as surprised as Kirsty. “I didn’t do anything! The fairies must have been watching over us,” she said with a smile. “Thank you, Petal Fairies!” She handed an anklet to Kirsty, and both girls fastened them around their ankles.
“We’d better go and meet our parents,” Rachel said. “Come on!”
The girls rushed over to the refreshments tent, just in time to see their parents sitting down by a beautiful, flowering rose bush. “Aren’t these fantastic?” Mrs. Walker said to Rachel and Kirsty, sniffing one of the blooms.
“Yes, and you wouldn’t believe it, but when we passed the rose tent a minute ago, all the roses were looking much better!” Mr. Tate put in.
The girls exchanged happy glances. Now that the rose petal was back in Fairyland, it was working its special magic all over the world again. Roses and dark pink flowers everywhere would be growing beautifully!
Mr. Walker smiled at the girls. “Did you have fun?” he asked.
The Petal Fairies Collection Page 10