Chloe Slipperslide's Secret

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Map of Friendship Forest

  Epigraph

  CHAPTER ONE: Off to Friendship Forest!

  CHAPTER TWO: An Unwelcome Visitor

  CHAPTER THREE: The Wicked Spell

  CHAPTER FOUR: The Wide Lake

  CHAPTER FIVE: Toadstool Glade

  CHAPTER SIX: Good Old Mr. Cleverfeather!

  CHAPTER SEVEN: Violet’s Secret

  CHAPTER EIGHT: Chloe’s Gifts

  Sneak Peek

  Puzzle Fun!

  Lily and Jess’s Animal Facts

  Copyright

  “Look at that!” said Lily Hart, pointing to all the autumn leaves floating on Brightley Stream. “It can’t be much fun for the fish and frogs with all those in the water.”

  Her best friend, Jess Forester, joined her on the bank of the stream. She nodded. “Let’s clear it up.”

  “Quack! Quack! Quack!”

  Three ducks bobbed past. They were snowy white, but when one of them ruffled her tail, Lily spotted a few gray feathers among the white ones.

  “I remember those markings!” Lily whispered excitedly. “We took care of those three ducks in the wildlife hospital when they were little ducklings. Now they’re all grown up!”

  Lily’s parents ran the Helping Paw Wildlife Hospital in a converted barn in their yard. Jess and Lily loved caring for the injured or orphaned creatures—they both adored animals!

  When the ducks had gone, the girls kneeled at the water’s edge to gather leaves from some gnarled old tree roots that grew by the stream. Soon they had made a big pile.

  “The stream looks much better,” said Jess. She reached out to grab another handful of soggy leaves.

  “Jess, listen!” said Lily. “I can hear rustling.”

  Jess stood up, and gave a delighted cry. “Look!”

  A beautiful golden cat bounded out of the cattails, her eyes as green as sunlit grass.

  “Goldie!” cried Lily.

  The cat pressed against the girls’ legs, purring happily.

  Goldie lived in a secret world called Friendship Forest. She’d taken the girls on some amazing adventures there, and they’d made lots of animal friends. All the forest creatures lived in adorable little cottages or dens—but best of all, they could talk!

  “I wish you could speak in our world, Goldie,” said Jess, bending to pet her.

  The cat glanced across the stream toward Brightley Meadow, and mewed.

  Lily’s eyes sparkled. “She wants to take us to Friendship Forest!”

  The cat leaped across the stream’s stepping stones into Brightley Meadow, and looked back.

  “We’re coming!” Jess called.

  The girls raced after Goldie toward a big, lifeless old tree in the middle of the meadow. The Friendship Tree!

  As Goldie drew near, new leaves sprang from every branch. Lily and Jess grinned as a squirrel darted about, gathering fat brown acorns, and a flock of rainbow finches swooped down to chatter noisily among the branches.

  “It’s so gorgeous!” said Lily.

  They hurried to join Goldie, and the cat lifted her paw to pat some letters carved into the trunk.

  Jess’s tummy fluttered with excitement. “Ready?” she asked.

  Lily nodded. Together they read the words. “Friendship Forest!”

  A door appeared in the tree trunk. Jess glanced at Lily, then reached out to turn the leaf-shaped handle.

  The door opened, and golden light spilled out as the girls followed their friend inside the tree. As the shimmering glow surrounded them, they tingled all over, and knew that they were shrinking, just a little bit.

  When the golden light faded, Lily and Jess found themselves in a sun-dappled forest clearing. The air was warm, and the delicious scent of honeysuckle and ripe blackberries drifted on the breeze.

  “We’re in Friendship Forest!” cried Lily.

  The girls turned around to see Goldie. The cat was now standing upright, wearing a golden scarf. She ran to the girls and hugged them. Now that they were smaller, she reached almost to their shoulders.

  “I’m so glad you’re here,” Goldie said.

  “Me, too!” Jess said—then she frowned anxiously. “But why have you brought us here, Goldie? Is Grizelda causing trouble?”

  Grizelda was a horrible witch who wanted the forest all for herself. Now she had four creatures helping her—a bat, a rat, a toad, and a crow. They came from the Witchy Waste, which had once been a pretty water garden, full of ponds and water lilies. But the creatures were so messy that they’d ruined it! Grizelda had asked them to make Friendship Forest messy, too, so that the animals would have to leave—and then Friendship Forest would be hers.

  But luckily, Goldie shook her head. “Nobody’s seen Grizelda since your last visit,” she told them.

  Lily and Jess grinned at each other.

  “Phew! That’s a relief,” said Lily.

  “I brought you here for a much nicer reason,” said Goldie, her green eyes shining. “Agatha Glitterwing the magpie is holding a Craft Club for all the animals at her jewelry shop. Would you like to come and join in with us?”

  Lily and Jess glanced at each other in delight. “Yes, please!” they cried.

  The path to Agatha’s shop was lined with pink poppies and bright sunflowers. As they walked nearer, a jingly noise floated on the air, like hundreds of tiny bells.

  “What’s that?” asked Lily. “It sounds so pretty!”

  Goldie smiled. “You’ll see!”

  As they walked around a thicket of bushes, they saw a large beech tree with necklaces and bracelets dangling from every branch. As they stepped closer, Jess and Lily could see that the jewelry was made from shiny seeds, nuts, and pebbles. As the breeze blew, they jingled and jangled like dozens of tiny wind chimes.

  “So that’s what’s making the noise!” cried Lily.

  Goldie smiled. “Welcome to Agatha Glitterwing’s shop,” she said.

  Beneath the tree, lots of little animals were sitting on blankets.

  “Hey, everyone, it’s Jess and Lily!” called out a rabbit wearing a purple ribbon around her neck.

  “Lucy Longwhiskers!” Lily cried, recognizing the bunny they’d rescued on their first adventure in Friendship Forest.

  There was a chorus of happy, squeaky, squawky greetings.

  “I’m so happy you’re here!” Sophie Flufftail the squirrel told them as she hugged Jess’s leg.

  “Me, too!” cried Ruby Fuzzybrush the fox cub.

  Agatha Glitterwing fluttered over with an excited squawk. “Welcome to my shop!” she told the girls. When she spoke, her long, shiny necklace jangled. “Would you like to make some jewelry, too? It’s so much fun!”

  “We’d love to!” they said, and settled on a blanket next to a sleek little brown otter. She had a long tail and a pretty pointed face with sparkling eyes. Around her neck, she wore a necklace of shiny silver shells.

  “I’m Chloe Slipperslide,” she said.

  “I love your necklace,” Jess said. “It’s so pretty! Did you make it?”

  Chloe beamed. “Thank you! Yes, I made it at Craft Club! I can help you make necklaces, too, if you like.”

  “Chloe made this for me,” said a small voice. It was a tiny turtle in a violet swimming cap.

  “Violet Flippershell!” Lily said, delighted.

  Violet held up her flipper. She wore a bracelet of the same silver shells as the otter’s necklace. “I love my bracelet. Chloe’s so good at making things.”

  Chloe modestly shook her head, and the tips of her ears blushed pink. She rummaged in a basket, pulled out two ribbons, and passed them to the girls. “To start your necklace, you nee
d to hold one end of the ribbon,” she began.

  Snap!

  Pebbles, nuts, and seeds suddenly rained down on them from above.

  “Oh, no!” cried Chloe, looking up into the branches of Agatha’s shop. “One of the necklaces must have broken!”

  “What happened?” squawked Agatha.

  Snap!

  More nuts fell, bouncing off Violet’s shell. “Eek!” she squealed in surprise.

  “Caw! Caw!”

  Everyone looked up to see a scruffy crow perched on a branch above their heads. Jess let out a gasp. “It’s Snippit!”

  Snippit was one of Grizelda’s messy helpers from the Witchy Waste. He wore a waistcoat with a missing button. As the girls watched, he closed his beak around the string of another beautiful necklace. Snap! The nuts tumbled to the ground.

  “Stop breaking Agatha’s jewelry, Snippit!” cried Lily.

  “Won’t,” he cawed. “It’s fun!”

  Goldie shook the nuts and seeds from her fur. “He’s going to make poor Agatha’s shop as messy as the Witchy Waste!” she said.

  A moment later, the other Witchy Waste creatures came out from the trees. “What a lovely mess you’ve made, Snippit!” cried Peep the bat, while Masha the rat and Hopper the toad laughed with glee.

  Snippit giggled as he pecked at another necklace. “Heeheehee! I love shiny things, and shiny messes are even better!”

  Agatha flapped her wings furiously as more seeds came tumbling down.

  “Go on,” Masha the rat called to Snippit. “Do it!”

  Jess glanced at Lily. “Oh, no,” she said, “Masha’s telling Snippit to use his spell!”

  Grizelda had given each of the Witchy Waste creatures a magic spell which would make one of the forest animals as messy as they were. If the spell wasn’t lifted, the poor animal would completely transform into a Witchy Waste creature just like them! Then it would be able to change another animal, too, until the whole forest was filled with messy creatures.

  “Run!” Goldie yelled to the animals. “Quick, before Snippit casts his spell on you!”

  The crow was already ruffling his scruffy feathers, and purple sparks were flying around him. The animals fled in panic, rushing to hide in the trees and bushes. But when Lily looked back, she was horrified to see that Chloe hadn’t moved.

  “Chloe! Run!” Lily cried.

  But Chloe just crouched with her paws over her eyes and her long tail quivering.

  “She’s too scared to move,” cried Jess. “I’ll get her!”

  But before she could reach Chloe, purple sparks splattered over the frightened little otter.

  Lily gasped. “Oh, no! Snippit’s put a spell on Chloe!”

  Snippit flew around in circles, cawing with delight as Jess, Lily, and Goldie rushed to Chloe. The purple sparks died away, and the little otter blinked up at them, her eyes wide with worry.

  “It’s okay,” Lily said, picking Chloe up and cuddling her. “We’ll stop the spell.”

  Then Jess spotted an orb of yellow-green light floating toward Agatha’s shop. “Oh, no!” she said with a groan. “Look! Grizelda’s coming!”

  With a flash of smelly sparks, the orb transformed into the witch. She wore a purple tunic over tight black pants and high-heeled boots, and her green hair swirled wildly around her bony face. Snippit landed on her shoulder.

  Grizelda stroked Snippit’s scruffy head. “Well done,” she told him. “That otter will soon start being messy, too. Then you can spoil the forest together—and the meddling cat and the interfering girls won’t be able to stop you! Ha-ha!”

  “Yes we will, Grizelda!” Jess shouted. “We stopped Peep’s spell, and Masha’s, and we’ll stop Snippit’s, too!”

  “Snippit’s much smarter than those two.” Grizelda sneered. “You won’t win this time!” She threw back her head and laughed, her locks of green hair twisting and swirling about her head. Then she snapped her fingers and vanished in a splatter of stinky sparks. Snippit landed next to the other three Witchy Waste creatures.

  Lily turned and called to the animals, “Grizelda’s gone!”

  They all crept out slowly from their hiding places. Lily glanced at Chloe, who was still in her arms. The tiny otter had a dazed look in her eyes.

  “Will she be okay?” Violet Flippershell asked tearfully.

  Goldie knelt down next to her. But before she could answer Violet, Snippit swooped over and pecked at a ribbon.

  “Leave that alone!” squawked Agatha the magpie. “You’ve made enough of a mess already!”

  “I’m just getting started,” Snippit told her, gleefully turning over a basket of ribbons. Then he picked up a little pair of scissors in his beak and stuffed them into his waistcoat pocket!

  Agatha’s feathers all stood up on end. “That’s stealing!” she told him furiously.

  Chloe suddenly wriggled out from Lily’s arms. She ran to Sophie Flufftail and snatched the seed bracelet the squirrel had been making. Then she flapped her front legs and hopped away into the trees as if she was trying to fly.

  “Oh, no!” said Goldie. “The magic’s starting to work. Chloe’s already behaving just like Snippit!”

  “Poor Chloe!” Violet wailed, her head and legs disappearing into her shell.

  “We have to do something!” squawked Agatha, her wings flapping madly.

  Jess pulled her little sketchbook from her pocket. “Don’t worry,” she said. “We know exactly what to do! We need the spell we found in Mrs. Taptree’s library.”

  Lily nodded. “It worked for Olivia Nibblesqueak and Evie Scruffypup. Let’s hope it works for Chloe!”

  Jess flipped to a page in her sketchbook and read aloud. “A spell to turn you back into yourself again:

  You want to be yourself again?

  Then here’s what you must do.

  Gather up those favorite things

  That mean the most to you.

  What do you like to do the most?

  What food do you love the best?

  And what’s your biggest secret?

  Now here’s a little test.

  Put them in your favorite place,

  The place you love to be.

  If someone names those things aloud,

  Yourself once more you’ll be.”

  “Right,” said Lily, “we have to find out Chloe’s favorite hobby, her favorite food, and her secret.”

  “Then put them in her favorite place to break the spell!” Jess added. She turned to Goldie. “Let’s go and talk to Chloe’s family. They’ll know what her favorite things are.”

  “Good idea,” said Goldie, “but I’m not sure where they live.”

  “Should we ask Violet?” suggested Lily. “She’s friends with Chloe.”

  Poor Violet was so upset about Chloe that she was still in her shell. Jess knelt down and whispered to the little turtle. “We need to find the Slipperslides so we can help Chloe. Can you tell us where they live?”

  There was a sniff from inside the shell, then the little violet swimming cap appeared, and the tiny turtle peeped out.

  “They live on the Wide Lake,” she said, shakily.

  “Thanks!” said Jess. “Come on, we’ve got to lift that spell—before Chloe turns into a naughty crow like Snippit!”

  As the girls and Goldie got to Willowtree River, Lily spotted a lovely silver raft moored to a tree with a long silver ribbon.

  “That belongs to Silvia Whitewing the swan and her sisters,” she said. “Remember we went on it when we rescued Ellie Featherbill?”

  Goldie’s ears pricked up. “There they are now!”

  Three swans were having a picnic on a lacy cloth beneath a weeping willow.

  “Where’s the Slipperslides’ house?” Lily called to them.

  “Why, it’s over there,” Silvia said, pointing her wing out over the water.

  Standing on stilts over the water was a neat wooden house. Fixed to one side were three diving boards and a polished wooden slide.

 
Two young otters were whizzing down the slide while two more leaped from the diving boards. They all splashed into the water, squealing with delight as they tumbled over one another.

  “Thank you!” Lily cried to the swans. The girls and Goldie ran around the lake, waving their arms.

  When the otters spotted them, they swam across. The littlest one, who was wearing pink goggles, was clinging on to her big sister’s red swimming cap. When they reached the shore, they turned over and floated on their backs. The tiny one hooked her paw around her sister’s so she wouldn’t drift away.

  “I’m Flo,” said the otter in the red swimming cap. Her two brothers floated alongside her. “This is Richard and Johnny, and our little sister is Tallulah.”

  There was a shout from the little house. “Coo-eee!”

  “And here come Mom and Dad,” added Flo.

  A moment later, Mr. and Mrs. Slipperslide appeared at the door. They dove off the highest board and swam swiftly to the bank.

  Goldie introduced Jess and Lily.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” said Mr. Slipperslide. “This is all our family except for little Chloe. She’s at Craft Club.”

  “That’s why we’re here,” said Lily. “I’m afraid we have bad news.” She explained what had happened.

  The young otters crowded around their parents.

  “That horrible crow!” wailed tiny Tallulah.

  Jess crouched down and took Tallulah’s little paw. “Don’t worry,” she said. “We’ve got a plan.”

  Mr. Slipperslide hugged all his children, then looked up at the girls. “How can we help?” he asked. “We’ll do anything to save Chloe.”

  “We need you to answer a few questions,” Lily said. “First, what’s Chloe’s favorite hobby?”

  “I know!” said Flo. “Making jewelry!”

  “That’s right,” said Mrs. Slipperslide. “She’s very proud of her silver shell necklace. She never takes it off.”

  Lily turned to Jess. “Chloe’s necklace must be her favorite thing,” she said, “so we’ll need it for the spell. But she’s wearing it! How are we going to get it?”