“Go! The elevator is that way!” he yelled.
Of course, there was an elevator, Eleanor thought. For a second, she had wondered if she would have to ride all the floating ladders up to the roof, and that just reminded her of the fire escapes on the tallest buildings back home. She ran toward the elevator and pushed the highest number she could find: 24.
Eleanor’s stomach lurched at each floor, and she was so relieved when she saw her number glow on the panel. The door opened to a cobblestone bridge that connected the elevator landing to the rest of the roof. Eleanor stepped out and looked around. She gasped.
5
Eleanor was up high. Like really, really, high. She started to look down and quickly realized she was afraid of heights.
“Don’t look down, don’t look down,” she said aloud to herself. With one hand on the wall next to her, she looked around for something resembling a torch. She had never actually seen one, but she had read about them in books her father had brought home from the printing place. She knew that if it were to scare the giants, it had to be huge.
The roaring continued and the bridge started to shake.
“Come on, come on, where is it?”
Eleanor wished that Elfie was up there to help her. Pix would have had this thing lit by now. She walked a little further down the bridge, still trying not to look down.
Finally, she spotted a giant bowl-like structure filled with sticks. It was on the other side of the roof.
“That must be it,” she said to herself.
She carefully crossed the bridge and her knees began to wobble.
“Why did it have to be way up here?” she whispered.
Once across the bridge, she moved to the other side of the roof.
“All right, how do I light this thing?” she said, examining the giant bowl.
Her father often talked to himself when he had a problem, so Eleanor thought she would at least try it.
She had lit the woodstove back home a few times, but she had matches then. She looked around for a box of matches. There was nothing.
“Come on, think. I’m the only one that can do this; Elfie said so. Think.” Eleanor put her fingers to her temples. She knew she had to figure this out fast because the giants were close.
Roooooar.
She looked up. They were coming over the hill. She trembled. They were going to squish the whole village, and it would be all her fault. She sat down and buried her head in her knees.
“I can’t stop the giants and I can’t get back home,” Eleanor cried. She had to get to the ending, the happily ever after. This was a fairytale, so it had to have one. She just had to figure out what it was.
She wiped her eyes and then it hit her. She looked at her hands. Elfie had mentioned she had magic. The Nightshade Kingdom was an enchanted place, so she had to at least try. She put her hands over the twigs and wished for fire.
6
She didn’t even have to say the word and she felt her hands grow hot. The torch lit; she heard the roars turn to shrieks, and the giants turned around. Elfie was right; they didn’t like fire. Eleanor looked at her hands and a fire burned through her. She knew that she had to explore this new power.
After a few seconds of staring at the torch, she realized she was still sitting on the top of the library. She carefully crossed back over and took the elevator back down.
Once she was back to the main level of the library, Eleanor decided to explore a little before finding Elfie. She couldn’t help it; the books called to her. Eleanor had never seen books in this condition before. They weren’t scorched, and the bindings were full of beautiful colors. Eleanor would give everything to have a library like this at home.
Before picking a shelf, she glanced over at the main desk to see if the furry man was still there. He was sound asleep with his feet on the desk. She was relieved that she didn’t have to pretend to be Pix right now. As she approached a shelf at her eye level, she swore she saw a book shudder. This was definitely a magical place.
Remembering her magic, Eleanor looked back at her hands. There were no scorch marks or anything.
“Incredible,” she said.
She thought of fire again and then smelled something burning. She looked up to see three books smoking.
“Oh shoot!” She patted them out and turned to see if the furry man had noticed.
He was still loudly snoring.
“Phew.”
She would ask Elfie more about her fire magic later, but she wanted to touch these books first. She pulled one with a soft green cover out and opened it up. It was in a language unfamiliar to Eleanor, so she closed it and grabbed the powder blue one next to it. She began to open it when she heard footsteps behind her.
“Great job, girl. I knew you could do it. But uh, we have to go. We have a ton more to do today,” Elfie said, coming up behind her.
Eleanor slipped the book into her cape pocket and looked back at the desk. The creature was still snoring. Eleanor didn’t know what the borrowing rules were for a magic library, but it was a library after all. These books were meant to be borrowed. She made a mental note to return the book prior to going back home. Besides, she did just save the whole village from giants, so there was that. She glanced back at the library one more time before exiting, though she longed to stay. The door swung shut behind them, and Eleanor felt the book’s heaviness in her pocket.
7
Elfie and Eleanor walked back down the cobblestone streets toward the gates.
“So, what’s next on our list?” Eleanor asked.
“We’ve got to go find Milo. He’s a fairy too, although he acts more like a human than anything. He spends more time in the village and hanging out with the guards than he does in the fairy camp.”
“Why do we need to find him?” Eleanor asked, wanting to find a place to read her new book. She was torn. She knew she needed to get through the chapters so she could return home, but she also loved the feeling of this new world. Plus, she was sure that the main ingredient for Christmas dinner was sure to be broccoli.
“He works at the market and hears a lot of gossip from the guards. We need to find out if the crystal is still in the castle,” Elfie said.
“There’s a castle?” Eleanor asked. Her eyes grew big at the thought of a grand castle. She wondered what Christmas dinner would look like at a castle.
“Yeah, and that’s where the crystal is supposed to be, but with the magic this out of control, it’s gotta be gone,” Elfie said, opening the door to the market.
Elfie walked straight to the fairy with shaggy blonde hair. He was piling red apples into a large blue woven basket.
“Hey Milo, any chance you heard something from the castle guards?” Elfie asked.
“Mm-hmm. The guards have it on lockdown. Gargoyles have turned, and nobody’s got a clue. The guards were told to keep everyone away.”
Eleanor tried to keep up with the conversation, but her eyes quickly moved back to the apples. They reminded her of the poison apples she had read about in her other fairytale book. The apples looked delicious, but the thought of being stuck sleeping forever in this story stopped her from asking Elfie to purchase one for her.
She turned back to Elfie and Milo and started listening again.
“I’m not sure how anyone would even get close to the queen at this point,” Milo said.
“Would my magic help?” Eleanor asked.
Elfie looked at her and shook her head. “Pix, you’re not supposed to be talking about that in public, remember? It makes the dwarves uneasy.”
“Why would it make them uneasy? I just saved the village with it,” Eleanor said.
“I mean, your mom did blow up their mines a decade ago with it. Plus, it won’t work anyway. Magic doesn’t work on castle grounds,” Elfie said.
“Mm-hmm. Even if you got close, you’d be toast. The gargoyles, remember?” Milo put his hand up to his mouth and turned toward Elfie so Eleanor couldn’t hear. “Hey Elfie, what’s up
with Pix today?”
“We all have off days, Milo,” she said, dropping dried fruit into her basket.
Eleanor followed close behind Elfie. She had to be careful. It was bad enough Elfie knew who she really was. She couldn’t have the whole town knowing.
Elfie handed Milo three gold coins and put the dried fruit in her bag. “Well, see you back at the camp,” she said.
“Wait—those look like snacks for one of your adventures. You’re not going looking for the crystal, are you? Leave it to the guards,” Milo said.
“Don’t be crazy. I just like dried fruit.”
Elfie walked toward the door with Eleanor following.
Once they were outside, Eleanor wanted to ask Elfie a million questions.
“So how do we know him again?” she asked.
“He’s our neighbor at camp. That’s what we call the fairy village,” Elfie said.
“You don’t live in town?”
“We”—Elfie made it clear that Eleanor was one of them too— “live in treehouses. The trees don’t grow high enough in the village, so we built them just out of town.”
They walked down the snow-covered path, and Eleanor’s feet began to freeze. She understood why the queen had enchanted the snow to stay where nobody walked.
Remembering that fire melts snow, she pointed her hands toward the path just before her feet and thought of the fire that came to her earlier. Blasts shot from her hands and the snow began to melt out of their way.
At first, Eleanor thought she finally had a handle on how things worked in the village and what the real Pix did in the kingdom, other than talk to beavers. And then she heard angry shouts. Elfie nudged her and Eleanor looked up with a ball of fire still in her hands.
“What is wrong with you?” someone shouted from a few shops down.
A short man with a long beard and a pointed hat that sagged to the ground came stomping down the road. Eleanor had never seen someone with a scowl so mean before.
“You know better than to use that magic out here!” he shouted. “Right in the open. You’re lucky you didn’t burn down the whole village. If the queen wasn’t locked up in her castle with more to deal with, I would call the guards right now.”
“But I just saved you all with fire not even an hour ago,” Eleanor shouted back. The fireball still swirled in her hand. It grew hotter as her temper grew.
“Pix, shut it down,” Elfie interrupted. “I told you the dwarves hate that magic.”
“But he’s being rude,” Eleanor defended herself.
“Rude? Me? You’re the one who is insensitive and a showoff. Your mother burned down our mines, and now that they’re rebuilt, you want to set the rest of the town on fire? Figures. Go back to your fairy lot and stay away from here,” he said, right before storming off.
Eleanor’s anger diminished and her fire disappeared. Her face grew red in embarrassment again. There was just too much to remember.
“Sorry, Elfie. I guess I thought I was helping,” Eleanor said as they continued down the snow path.
“It’s all good. I know this is new. But you’ve got to at least pretend to be her. She’s actually loved in this village, despite her family,” Elfie said. It was clear that she missed her best friend.
“How much longer to camp?” Eleanor asked. She was looking forward to seeing where Pix lived and maybe even reading her book. But most of all, she wanted to get as far away from the dwarves as possible.
“It’s right up there,” Elfie said, pointing to a wooden gate with sunflowers at the entrance.
As they walked into camp, Eleanor’s eyes grew wide. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
8
Eleanor walked deeper into the fairy camp and fell in love with every step. The trees were tall and bushy with round houses built into them. Each tree had a rope ladder that hung lazily to the ground. Little chimneys let out puffs of pink smoke every few seconds. The air smelled like warm apple pie.
“Let’s grab some supplies just in case we’re there for a while. It takes all day to get to the castle gates, so we may need to bring some gear,” Elfie said.
“Um, I don’t really have any supplies,” Eleanor said.
“Well, that’s why we’ll stop at your loft before heading out too, silly.” Elfie gave her that look again.
“Oh, right, of course. I’m Pix.”
Elfie’s tree loft was something that Eleanor had only heard about in her father’s stories about kids building treehouses in their backyards. Inside, there was a small living room, a small kitchen, a magic stove filled with green fire, and a loft with a hammock. It reminded Eleanor so much of home.
Elfie grabbed a change of clothes, her travel hammock, and a hand-carved bamboo flute.
“What’s that for?” Eleanor asked.
“Flutes are very important to bring on adventures, especially when we’ll probably be going through the woods. Wolves, while they don’t usually attack, are often protective of the deep woods. They don’t like anyone in their territory. But the flute music enchants them, and they end up turning and going the other way. Let’s hope they haven’t turned too,” Elfie joked.
Eleanor felt a chill go through her whole body. “Of course, there are wolves,” she said sarcastically.
“All right. Now we just need your stuff,” Elfie said.
Eleanor nodded, still in awe of how the fairies lived.
Her only problem was that she had no idea where her house was. She let Elfie lead the way so she could get some idea of the direction they were headed. Elfie headed three trees down and started to climb.
“All right, I’ll go in and grab my things,” Eleanor said.
“This isn’t your house, but I do need your help in here. Milo isn’t home and his safe is fire protected. I’ll need you to open it so we can borrow a map.”
Eleanor tried to remember the conversation they had back at the market. She couldn’t remember Milo giving them permission to take anything. She was about to say something, but she had already started trouble once. They climbed the treehouse and Eleanor looked around. It was pretty much the same as Elfie’s but way less organized.
“It’s over here,” Elfie said.
Eleanor headed over to a large safe with a seal on the front. The seal was embossed with a glowing flame.
“Did he say this was okay? I don’t want to get into any kind of trouble,” Eleanor said. She couldn’t help it. She had already borrowed a book without permission. She didn’t want to add a map to her list of crimes.
“Oh, come on. We’re just borrowing it. Kinda like that book you borrowed from the library without checking it out first,” Elfie said, winking at Eleanor. “Pix has always done this for me when I needed one of his maps.”
“Okay, as long as he won’t get mad.” Eleanor put her hand on the safe and asked for the fire to come.
And it did. The latch on the safe came loose, and Elfie popped the door open. Inside were a dozen maps, all tied with a different color string.
“We need one that shows the entire kingdom, and I believe those are marked in maroon,” Elfie said, taking a map out and closing the door. “All right, last stop, your place.”
Again, Eleanor let her go through the door first.
“Why don’t we ever fly?” Eleanor asked, looking back at her wings. “Wouldn’t it be quicker?”
“For sure, but we don’t know where the owls stand right now. The air may be dangerous. Wanna get eaten by an owl today?” Elfie asked.
“No, I’m good,” Eleanor said, laughing.
Elfie led Eleanor to Pix’s loft, which was only a couple trees down from Milo’s place. Eleanor opened the door. It was the house of her dreams. Twinkling lights were strung all about, and she wished magic like that existed in her world. Electricity was expensive, and there was no way her parents would be able to have that many lights. A fireplace with pink and purple fire burned near the sofa.
Eleanor noticed a shelf filled with books near the firepla
ce. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the one she borrowed from the library and set it next to the others. Pix wasn’t so different from Eleanor after all. Minus the glowing bulbs and magic fireplace, of course.
She grabbed her overnight bag and stuffed some clothes, snacks, and her hammock into it. Then she went back over to her bookshelf and picked up a shiny pink book. She opened it and found that it was in English. It looked like a history of Fairytown, so she stuffed that into her bag too. She needed more information about this place if she expected to make it through the chapters. She took one last look around and closed her door. She had no idea if she’d return to her fairy home again.
“So, what kind of adventure are we going on? We’re not doing what Milo said, are we?” Eleanor asked.
“Of course, we are. Our kingdom needs the crystal to be working again, and you need to get to the ending so you can go home and I can have Pix back. We can’t just sit around and wait for someone else to do it. Let’s go.”
Eleanor’s knees began to tremble. She was certain there would be an evil witch along the way. She reminded herself that this was a fairytale, so there would be a happy ending, no matter what they met along the way. She also knew, however, heroines in fairytales always met scary things. Her knees trembled even more. Their adventure had begun.
9
As they left the gate to the fairy camp, Elfie told Eleanor the first place to start the adventure and find the missing crystal would be at the castle with some detective work.
“We’ve got to find out where the crystal is and what’s going on inside the castle,” she said as they made their way through the main village.
Eleanor put her hood up to avoid any more encounters with the dwarves. She was thankful that fairy hoods made anyone wearing them invisible, especially because the word had probably spread already, and she didn’t need a townful of people coming at her with pitchforks. Plus, she didn’t want to make too much of a mess for the real Pix.
Nightshade Forest Page 2