Ashley the Dragon Fairy

  There are seven special animals,

  Who live in Fairyland.

  They use their magic powers

  To help others where they can.

  A dragon, black cat, phoenix,

  A seahorse, and snow swan, too,

  A unicorn and ice bear —

  I know just what to do.

  I’ll lock them in my castle

  And never let them out.

  The world will turn more miserable,

  Of that, I have no doubt!

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Map

  Poem

  The Adventure Begins!

  Off to Fairyland!

  Into the Labyrinth

  Searching for Sizzle

  The Pogwurzel Plan

  Fairy Flying

  Teaser

  Also Available

  Copyright

  “Bye, Mom! Bye, Dad!” Kirsty Tate yelled, waving as her parents’ car pulled away.

  Her mom, who was in the passenger seat, rolled down the window. “See you next week,” she called. “Have a great time, girls!”

  Kirsty grinned at her best friend, Rachel Walker. “We will!” both girls said together. A whole week away at an outdoor adventure camp — it was going to be just perfect!

  “Hi, guys,” came a voice from behind them. They turned to see a tall, smiling girl with long brown hair. Her red T-shirt had ADVENTURE CAMP COUNSELOR printed on it in yellow letters. “You must be Kirsty and Rachel,” she said. “I’m Lucy, one of your camp counselors. I’ll take you to your cabin, OK?”

  Kirsty and Rachel followed Lucy along a path, feeling very excited. They passed through a small wooded area where Rachel spotted a squirrel bounding up one of the pine trees. Then they headed out to a sunny meadow with rolling hills beyond it. There were wooden cabins scattered around, each with colorful curtains in the windows, and front doors painted in bright hues. Music rang out from some of the cabins, and Kirsty and Rachel could see clusters of campers having fun. There was a basketball hoop attached to one of the trees and some boys were playing a pickup game. A couple of girls were skateboarding outside another cabin, while a small group sat at a picnic table, laughing and chatting.

  “Here we are,” Lucy announced as she stopped at a cabin on the right. It had a light blue door and blue-checked curtains in the windows. “I’ll let you unpack. After that, you might want to explore the camp. There are maps everywhere, so you won’t get lost. We’ll all be going on a cave trip in about an hour, OK?”

  Kirsty and Rachel thanked Lucy, then entered the cabin feeling curious and excited about their home for the next week. There was a bunk bed and four single beds, a separate bathroom, and a bulletin board on the wall. Rachel plopped down on the lower bunk and Kirsty threw her cardigan on the top bunk to claim it.

  “Wow, look at this,” Kirsty said, reading the schedule for the week. “Canoeing, horseback-riding, swimming . . . there’s so much to do here!”

  “I can’t wait to meet our bunkmates,” Rachel said, smiling. “And you never know — we might even make some new fairy friends while we’re here, too!”

  Kirsty smiled at the thought. She and Rachel were good friends with the fairies, and they’d had lots of adventures with them. Magical things just seemed to happen whenever the two girls got together! “Come on, let’s explore,” she suggested. “We can unpack later. I can’t wait to look around!”

  Rachel agreed, so the girls left their bags and headed out into the sunshine again.

  There was a big building in the center of the camp with a sign above the double doors that read CLUBHOUSE. Close by was a large, wooden sign with posters behind a glass case. One was a map with arrows pointing in different directions — to the Mess Hall, the sports fields, an outdoor amphitheater, and more.

  “Look, here’s a map,” Rachel said, pointing to the colorful sign in the glass case. She and Kirsty walked over to it.

  “Ooh, a waterfall,” Kirsty said, pointing it out to Rachel on the map.

  “And there are the stables,” Rachel noticed. She blinked. The sun was shining very brightly. As it reflected off of the glass case, it seemed to sparkle. Rachel shielded her eyes. The light was dazzling!

  Kirsty was covering her eyes, too. “The sun is so strong,” she said. “I wish I had my sunglasses!”

  Rachel was about to reply when she heard another voice. “Kirsty! Rachel! This is King Oberon. The fairies need your help. Please use your magic lockets to come to Fairyland as soon as you can!”

  Rachel gasped. So the glass case really was sparkling with fairy magic! Rachel grabbed Kirsty’s hand and pulled her to the side of the clubhouse, where nobody could see them.

  “Come on,” she said, fiddling with the latch of the special locket she always wore around her neck. “Oh, I hope the fairies are all right!”

  Kirsty was busy with her own locket. Inside was some magic fairy dust, given to them by the fairy queen herself. Each girl took a pinch and sprinkled it over herself. Then the two held hands as a magical, sparkly whirlwind spun around them. Another fairy adventure had begun!

  Moments later, the girls felt themselves being gently set down, and the whirlwind spun away. They blinked and looked around. “The Fairyland Palace!” Kirsty cried in delight, seeing it in front of them.

  “And there are Queen Titania and King Oberon,” Rachel realized. “Come on!”

  The two friends ran over to the fairy king and queen, who were standing with a group of fairies that the girls didn’t recognize. As in the past, Rachel and Kirsty had shrunk to fairy-size now that they were in Fairyland.

  “Hello again, Kirsty and Rachel,” King Oberon said. Kirsty noticed that he didn’t seem as cheerful as usual, and she wondered why. “We’ve called you here because Jack Frost is up to his tricks again. This time he’s really gone too far! He’s stolen seven magical animals from our fairies — a dragon, a black cat, a phoenix, a seahorse, a snow swan, a unicorn, and an ice bear.”

  “Why?” Rachel asked. “Why does he want them?”

  Queen Titania joined the conversation. “These are our Magical Animal Fairies,” she said, pointing to the group of seven fairies who stood with her. “Every spring, they get seven new young magical animals to look after and train for one year. Each magical animal has special qualities and helps spread the kind of magic that every human and fairy can possess — the magic of imagination, luck, humor, friendship, compassion, healing, and courage. The fairies spend a whole year teaching the baby animals how to use and control their powers.”

  Kirsty still didn’t quite understand. She was about to ask a question when one of the Magical Animal Fairies stepped forward and smiled. She had an afro and had wrapped a stylish scarf around her head. Her cargo pants were embroidered with a dragon on one leg, and she wore a striped tank top. “Hi,” she said. “I’m Ashley the Dragon Fairy, and this is Lara the Black Cat Fairy, Erin the Phoenix Fairy, Rihanna the Seahorse Fairy, Sophia the Snow Swan Fairy, Leona the Unicorn Fairy, and Caitlin the Ice Bear Fairy.”

  Rachel and Kirsty smiled at the seven friendly faces before them. “Hi,” Rachel said, curious to know more about these fairies and their animals.

  “Each of the magical animals looks after a different magical power,” Ashley went on. “The baby dragon is responsible for imagination. The black cat looks after luck, the phoenix’s magical quality is humor, and the seahorse is responsible for friendship. The snow swan inspires compassion, the baby unicorn has the power of healing, and the ice bear looks after the power of courage.”

  “We spend a whole year teaching the baby an
imals how to use and control their magical powers,” Lara added. “Once the magical animals are all trained, they go back to their families in Fairyland. There, they help spread their magic gifts throughout the fairy and human worlds.”

  “But Jack Frost kidnapped the magical animals because he didn’t want them to be fully trained,” the queen explained. “And if the animals aren’t trained, they can’t help spread their magic, like imagination and humor — qualities that everyone needs!”

  “We believe that Jack Frost would like the world to be as miserable as he is,” the king added. “He doesn’t want people or fairies to have friendship and luck.”

  Kirsty and Rachel exchanged horrified glances. They couldn’t imagine how awful life would be without friendship! And the idea of a world without any humor or courage was too sad for words.

  “We’ll help,” Kirsty said right away. “We’ll go to Jack Frost’s castle now and get the animals back for you!”

  The king smiled. “Thank you, Kirsty,” he said. “We knew we could count on you and Rachel. However, something remarkable has happened. Come to the Seeing Pool and we can show you.”

  The king and queen led the girls and the Magical Animal Fairies to a large blue pool in the palace gardens. The queen touched the surface of the water with her wand, and it shimmered with all the colors of the rainbow.

  A picture started to form on the water — a picture of Jack Frost surrounded by all the magical animals outside of his Ice Castle. Rachel giggled when she saw flames blast out of the little dragon’s nose as he sneezed. The flames melted part of the castle’s icy wall! “Oh, no,” she said. “I don’t think Jack Frost will be very happy about that.”

  “Look at the ice bear!” Kirsty said, pointing to a different area of the picture. A cute white bear was chasing Jack Frost’s goblins and freezing them into icy statues with a light tap of its paws.

  The girls watched the scene develop into chaos. The magical animals were now happily chasing one another around the castle, completely ignoring Jack Frost’s orders. And then, suddenly, a sparkling window opened up in one of the castle walls, and the seven young animals jumped through it, one after the other.

  “Where did they go?” Rachel asked, puzzled.

  “Into the human world, it seems,” the queen told her. “And there’s Jack Frost sending his goblins through the same window, to track them down!”

  The girls watched as a group of the goblins scrambled through the magical window and vanished from sight. The window gradually faded away.

  “What happened next?” Kirsty asked.

  Ashley shrugged unhappily. “We don’t know,” she said. “The animals must be hiding somewhere in the human world.”

  “We’ve got to find them before anyone else does,” Erin added. “They’re so young, they can’t control their magic abilities — and they may be causing strange things to happen in the human world!”

  “We’ll help you find them,” Rachel said confidently.

  “Thank you,” said King Oberon. “But you must be careful. As Erin said, the animals aren’t able to work their magic very well yet. This might mean that their magic qualities of imagination, luck, humor, friendship, compassion, healing, and courage are more powerful than usual. It might even mean that their special magic does the opposite of what they want it to do, especially if the animals are nervous.”

  “The magic qualities will affect anyone who comes near the animals,” the queen said. “So watch out for anybody acting strangely — it may lead you to one of them.”

  “I’ll go to the human world with you to search for Sizzle, the baby dragon,” Ashley said. “He has a cold right now. He must have caught it while he was at Jack Frost’s Ice Castle. I’m worried about him!”

  “You must be careful and stay out of sight,” the queen reminded her. “No one in the human world can know about Fairyland or anyone who lives here. Good luck!”

  With those words, she pointed her wand at Ashley, Kirsty, and Rachel.

  The three of them had just enough time to call good-bye. Then another glittery whirlwind whisked them up and took them spinning through the air. . . .

  With a last flurry of sparkles, the girls found themselves back to their normal size, and on the campgrounds once again. Ashley eagerly glanced from side to side, but then a look of disappointment crossed her face. Her glittery wings drooped. “We Magical Animal Fairies can always tell when our creatures are nearby,” she said, “but I can’t sense anything here.”

  She was about to say something else when they heard voices. Not wanting to be seen, Ashley darted onto Kirsty’s shoulder and hid behind her hair.

  “I guess we’d better go back to our cabin,” Rachel said. “It must be time to go on the cave trip.”

  “Keep a lookout for dragons,” Kirsty whispered excitedly, as they headed off. Oh, it was wonderful to be starting a new fairy adventure!

  Back at their cabin, they saw that their bunkmates had arrived and were all unpacking. “Hi,” said a blonde girl wearing a pink baseball cap. “I’m Emma, and this is Katie, Natasha, and Catherine.”

  “I’m Rachel and this is Kirsty,” Rachel replied.

  “Hi,” Kirsty said to all of them. She could feel Ashley still tucked under her hair. She hoped that none of the other girls spotted the little fairy!

  Just then, Lucy popped her head around the door. “Hi, everyone, it’s time for our trip,” she said. “We’re going to the Labyrinth — some hidden caves deep in the mountain. It’ll be cold in there, so make sure you wear warm clothes under your raincoats, and thick socks with your hiking boots. Oh, and bring some gloves, just in case!”

  The six girls quickly got ready. While everyone was busy, Ashley slipped out of her hiding place and tucked herself into the front pocket of Rachel’s coat.

  “Hey, what’s that?” Natasha asked just then. Rachel’s heart almost stopped, thinking the other girl must have spotted Ashley. But Natasha was pointing at Rachel’s bed. With a huge rush of relief, Rachel realized that Natasha was talking about a magazine that had fallen out of her bag.

  “Oh, it’s a new magazine,” Rachel replied. “You can borrow it, if you want.”

  “Thanks,” Natasha said, looking happy. “Are we all ready? Then let’s go to the Labyrinth!”

  The six girls headed out to meet the rest of the campers.

  Lucy and some of the other camp counselors handed out helmets with lights fixed to the front. The counselors led the campers through the campsite.

  After a short walk, they arrived at the caves. “I need to do a quick head count to make sure we’ve got everyone,” Lucy said as they gathered at the entrance. She walked around, counting under her breath. “Nineteen, twenty, twenty-one . . .” She frowned. “That’s weird. We should only have eighteen people here. Did I count wrong?”

  She swung a large red backpack off her shoulders and rummaged through it, pulling out a roster. “I’ll call out the names, then we can see who all is here,” she decided. “Emily Adams?”

  As Lucy went down the roster, Kirsty noticed a group of campers sneaking off into the cave! “Rachel,” she whispered. “Look!”

  Rachel’s eyes widened. “I’m sure I saw a flash of green,” she whispered. “They must be goblins!”

  Ashley peeked over the top of Rachel’s pocket to see. “Why are they going into the cave?” she wondered in her tiny voice.

  “Kirsty Tate?” Lucy called out.

  “Here!” Kirsty replied.

  “And Rachel Walker,” Lucy said.

  “Here,” Rachel said.

  “Is there anyone else?” Lucy asked. She looked relieved when no one answered. “OK — then everyone’s here,” she said. “I must have counted some of you twice. That was silly of me. Let’s go into the Labyrinth!”

  The group went into the mountainside
, walking through a rocky tunnel that led into a huge, high cavern. It was very eerie. Their voices echoed against the cave walls, and they could hear water dripping in the distance. “These are limestone caves,” one of the counselors told the group, shining her flashlight up to the roof of the cavern. “Up there are what’re called stalactites — do you see? They look a lot like rock icicles.”

  “And if you think they’re impressive, wait until we get to the maze,” another counselor added. “There is tunnel after tunnel after tunnel. Just as you start to feel really lost, you come out into this magnificent cave full of the most enormous stalactites you’ve ever seen!”

  Meanwhile, Lucy unzipped her jacket. “It’s warm in here,” she said in surprise. “Usually it’s much cooler than this. And wetter, too — but the path isn’t slippery at all today. I’m even going to take my gloves off!”

  Rachel looked down and saw that Lucy was right. The rocky ground beneath their feet looked bone dry, except . . .

  She frowned and bent lower to take a closer look. There, on the ground, was a set of tiny, clawed footprints — and they were shimmering with magic!

  “Kirsty, Ashley,” she hissed, her voice trembling with excitement. “Look — I think the baby dragon might have come this way!”

  Ashley’s face lit up with a grin. “That is definitely a dragon’s trail. Sizzle must have been here!” she whispered. “And that explains why the cave is so warm. Dragons give off lots of heat, especially if they have a cold and keep sneezing flames!”

  “So that’s why the goblins are here,” Kirsty figured. “They must be looking for Sizzle. I hope they haven’t found him yet.”