Trouble in Fairyland

by Beth Sadler

  All through that long, warm afternoon, the three conspired to fine- tune their plans for rescuing their friends. Finally, as the day lengthened and the trog’s snores started to slow, the girls flew back to the Royal House to eat and rest; ready for the next day’s adventures.

  Chapter 6

  Next day, at five minutes to noon, Rydah and Dixie were ready for the coming battle. They would have to be fast and cunning, devious and determined, and most of all courageous. However, they were determined to succeed. Now it was once again time to leave the safety of the Royal House and join Old Man Oak in the forest.

  Holding tight to Rydah’s belt, Dixie was airborne in seconds.

  “You know Ry, I’m getting to like this mode of transport; we could challenge a few of our friends to a race.”

  “Good idea Dix, however, first we have to get rid of the pesky trog.”

  With a burst of speed Rydah quickly covered the last meadow to Old Man Oak. Once settled in his welcoming branches, Rydah felt her courage returned to her. There is nothing like resting in the branches of a 500 year old tree to boost your morale, she thought.

  “Okay Tree we’re ready to go. Have you finished making the wake- up pollen?” asked Rydah.

  “I certainly have,” replied Old Man Oak. “Here you are; two seed pods full of the pollen that will wake some of our friends. Use it wisely Princess, for I won’t have time to make another batch in time to stop the trog.”

  “Will do Commander,” she joked with a smart salute.

  “Will do Commander,” echoed Dixie as she grinned cheekily at Old Man Oak. “We won’t let you down.”

  “You can count on us Tree,” said Rydah. “After all, these sorts of stunts are what I’m always in trouble for. I’m an expert at whizzing and jigging. Only this time it will be for a good cause.”

  The two girls gave each other a tight hug, then set off stealthily, to carry out their respective roles. They had two hours before the trog awoke, and they would need every second of it.

  Dixie had the job of waking up Stephan Super Spider. Stephan could weave a huge web that was as strong as steel. He was going to be very, very important to the success of their plan.

  Rydah had to waken Bertie the rabbit first, he had to get his burrow ready for action. Then she had to find Bella and Bill the giant butterflies. They were very silent, strong butterflies, and that would be an important part of the plan.

  Sneaking through the grass and leaves Dixie searched for the tree that Stephan had fallen asleep in. It was slow, tedious work; but finally she found him.

  Holding up the pod of pollen under his plump body, she puffed gently until he was misted with the powder. Slowly his legs started to move, then, with a big stretch he tangled his eight legs around Dixie’s hand. Dixie put a finger to her lips warning him to be quiet before he could speak.

  “You and the rest of the inhabitants of the island were put under a sleeping spell by an evil trog, Stephan” she whispered. “Now we have to save everyone.”

  Stephan looked shocked and alarmed by this news.

  “Your Princess has a plan and asks for your help. What say you?”

  Stephan tightened his hold on Dixie’s hand and hissed his answer in spider language.

  “No one must harm our Princess Rydah. I will help in any way that I can.”

  Dixie, of course, understood spider language, so was able to give him his instructions very easily.

  “I must go and find Susy Snake now” said Dixie. “I will bring her back here and we will fine tune our part of the plan together. Goodbye for now.”

  With a gentle twist, Dixie freed her hand from Stephan’s legs and tiptoed away to find Susy Snake.

  While Dixie was carrying out her part of the plan, Rydah was risking discovery by working close to where the trog snored so horribly. She couldn’t see him, which was a bit frightening, but she screwed up her courage and with intense concentration, worked the shrinking spell on herself.

  Chapter 7

  This time she couldn’t afford to make a mistake. Giving herself a stern lecture she stood at the entrance to Bertie’s burrow and slowly started to shrink. So far, so good, she thought when she was able to walk easily into the burrow. The pod had become very heavy as she shrank; however it couldn’t be helped. She just had to carry on.

  Rounding the corner that had got her into trouble the last time she was here, she found herself in Bertie’s kitchen. There he sat at the table asleep, with his face in his carrot soup---what a mess he was in.

  Oh dear! She thought. He won’t be very happy when he wakes up. Ah well! I must get to work.

  Rydah decided to place the pod on the table in front of Bertie and puff from there. It was really quite heavy now. With gentle puffs she managed to cover his head and shoulders with pollen, and then, very quickly, he came awake spluttering in his soup and making gasping noises.

  “Quietly please Bertie or the nasty trog will hear you.”

  Bertie blinked at her through the dripping soup. “Wha, wha, what happened to me. He muttered groggily?

  “Tibor Trog snuck onto our island. It happened when the spell was lowered to let my parents and grandparents off the island. Now we have to stop him taking over our kingdom by ourselves. Will you please help me Bertie?”

  “Of course I will. Why, how could I look myself in the mirror if I didn’t help my friends fight for our land? I’m not a coward you know.” Twirling his whiskers with a delicate paw he repeated his words. “Not a coward you know; no, no, not a coward.”

  Rydah explained the plan to him and then, while he got busily to work, she silently slipped out of the burrow. Tip-toeing past the still sleeping trog, she resumed her normal size and took to the air. Time was running out and she still had to find Bella and Bill the butterflies.

  Rydah finally discovered Bella and Bill resting on a toadstool. It had taken her ages to find them and she was getting worried that the Trog would soon wake. Everyone had to be in place when that happened.

  Puffing the last of the pollen over their wings she marvelled at their beauty.

  As they slowly woke, the colours of their wings glowed as they were stretched and opened to the sunlit day.

  Bella immediately knew that something was wrong.

  “I never sleep during the day,” she gasped worriedly. “What’s happened—what’s wrong?”

  “Don’t panic” soothed Rydah. “I’ll explain everything and then, with your help, everything will soon be fixed again.”

  “Yes, yes, whatever you need us to do, young Rydah,” spoke Bill. “We must all work together if trouble has come to our island.

  And just like that, the plan was now ready to be put into action. As long as Dixie had found Susy Snake, it was all systems go.

  Explanations were made hurriedly and questions answered, as they raced back to the gathering point near the trog. They had to get back before he stopped snoring, as that was the only way they could find him.

  His invisibility cloak must be the first thing to get rid of in this war against Tibor Trog.

  Chapter 8

  When Rydah, Bella and Bill arrived back at the meeting point they were met by a relieved Dixie who had Suzy Snake curled gently around her arm. Stephan was stressfully wringing all eight of his legs until he caught sight of them.

  “We were starting to worry that you couldn’t find Bella and Bill,” whispered Dixie.

  “Yes!” sighed Stephan, in his spider language voice. “We didn’t know what we would do if you didn’t make it back in time.”

  “Yes,” hissed Suzy. “We need you to save us all.”

  Bertie the rabbit popped out of his burrow just then, and announced in cheerful tones. “All finished Princess Rydah! And if I must say so myself, a very good job too.” He twirled his luxurious whiskers with his soft paw and nodded happily. His job had been an important one. He had made an escape hole for Rydah in one of the tunnels in his burrow.

  Rydah smiled around confidently into the faces
of her subjects as she spoke. “Don’t worry my friends I’m sure our plan will work. Are you all ready to begin now?”

  “Yes,” said Dixie bravely. “Let’s do it.”

  “Okay Bertie and Bella, off you go,” said Rydah, with an encouraging smile.

  With a gentle waft of their wings, Bertie and Bella lifted into the soft sunlit day, and headed towards the sound of the Tibor’s snores.

  Settling by the tree where the snoring was the loudest, they slowly felt along the ground with their delicate feelers, until they found the edges of the trog’s invisible cloak. Very slowly and gently, they each took a firm hold on the material and then, quick as a wink, took to the sky with the cloak stretched out between them.

  The others standing by on the ground got their first good look at the trog. He was quite, quite, ugly.

  “Yuck” said Dixie. “I’ll be glad when he is off of our island. He doesn’t belong here at all.” And she shivered with horror at the sight of him.

  Rydah was ready to begin her plan, now that she could see him.

  “Get ready now everyone, make lots of noise to wake him up, then scatter and hide.”

  Screwing up all of her courage for her part of the plan, Rydah jumped towards the trog, clapping her hands and singing at the top of her voice.

  “Catch me if you can you naughty old Tibor Trog. Let’s see if you can run fast enough.”

  The Trog woke up in startled surprise. “Wha, what’s going on?” He grumped and grumbled as he struggled to his feet. “Who’s got my invisibility cloak?”

  Looking around quickly, he finally looked up into the sky and spotted Bella and Bill with his precious protection. “Bring that back you great big idiots,” he roared, shaking his fist at the sky.

  Then he heard what Rydah was saying, and roared with outrage at her laughter. Lickety- spit, he took off after her at a run.

  Rydah dodged around trees and up into the branches, she climbed over hills, and ducked under bushes. Finally, when she thought that she had given the others enough time to get into position, she zoomed over a stream, and led the trog back to where they had started from. There, just as planned, was Suzy snake hiding in the grass in front of Bertie’s burrow.

  Rydah concentrated hard, this time she must get the spell just right. With fingers crossed she worked the shrinking spell and zipped down Bertie’s burrow. With a giant roar the trog tried to follow, but Suzy snake was ready.

  Slithering out of hiding in the grass, she lithely twisted her coils tightly around his legs, tripping him and sending him crashing deep into the burrow before he could work a shrinking spell. He didn’t stand a chance of catching Rydah now. There he was---stuck tight, halfway down the burrow.

  Rydah carried on down the tunnels until she found the new exit that Bertie had kindly dug out for her. With a whoosh she was free and returned to her normal size. “Now to capture that nasty Tibor Trog,” she thought.”

  Racing back to the burrow entrance, she found Dixie and Stephan had already covered the stuck trog with Stephan’s special steel web. He would never escape from that.

  “Whoopee!” yelled all of the friends together. “We’ve done it, we’ve trapped the trog. Now all we have to do is get him to the ferry and boot him off of our island.

  Rydah laughed and sang at the top of her voice. “Three cheers for us. Hurrah. Hurrah. Hurrah.”

  All the friends were laughing and rejoicing when a well-loved voice interrupted their fun.

  “It appears that my faith in you was rewarded my daughter,” said a relieved Prince Ethan. “I had a feeling something was wrong, so I caught the early ferry home. However, it looks like you have solved this problem all by yourself.”

  Giving Rydah a big, loving hug, he then looked at the struggling, roaring trog. “I think if you don’t mind I’ll give you a little help cleaning up this mess. Tibor Trog has long been a menace to the Fairy peoples so he’ll be welcome at the mainland jail”

  “Go ahead father,” smiled Rydah. “We’ve caught him, and now we just want him off of our island.

  “My pleasure” laughed Prince Ethan, and with a swift, wave of his wand, the trog was whisked through the sky to the ferry. With another wave of his wand he awoke all of their subjects.

  “Now, my darling daughter, and all of our friends, I think it’s time to celebrate don’t you?” he smiled. “After all, it was your sense of fun that has saved the island.”

  And that is exactly what they did, long through the soft summer day and into the enchanted night. And none of the humans living there ever knew what trouble had come to Magic Mudlo Island -----Except you of course.

  The End

  More Children’s Books by Beth Sadler

  Trouble in Fairyland

  Dragon Quest

  Cruz’s Big Secret

  Freedom

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