Lacey the Little Mermaid Fairy

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Map

  Poem

  Fairy Tale Castle

  Mermaid in the Moat

  Search and Rescue

  Tickle Time

  Fairy Tale Emergency

  A Fairy Tale Ending

  Teaser

  Copyright

  The Fairy Tale Fairies are in for a shock!

  Cinderella won’t run at the strike of the clock.

  No one can stop me—I’ve plotted and planned,

  And I’ll be the fairest one in all of the land.

  It will take someone handsome and witty and clever

  To stop storybook endings forever and ever.

  But to see fairies suffer great trouble and strife,

  Will make me live happily all of my life!

  “I’m sure it’s this way,” said Rachel Walker, pointing to a twisty stone staircase. She lifted a rolled-up banner onto her shoulder and began to tiptoe down the steps.

  Kirsty Tate followed behind her best friend. In her arms she was carrying a large cardboard box.

  “This must be the east tower,” she decided, stopping to peek out of an arched window. Rachel paused to look, too. From where they were standing the girls had a perfect view of Tiptop Castle’s courtyard.

  Kirsty beamed—it was like a scene from a fairy tale! A fountain carved in the shape of a shell bubbled merrily in the middle and sweet-smelling pink roses curled up the columns around the sides. She wouldn’t have been surprised to glimpse a royal princess wandering along the walkways or a knight ride in on a glossy white horse.

  “What a magical place,” declared Rachel. “We’re so lucky to be staying here!”

  “I wouldn’t have missed it for anything,” agreed Kirsty, following her friend through an oak archway at the bottom of the stairs.

  Rachel and Kirsty had been sharing an amazing spring vacation at Tiptop Castle. Being together was always a dream come true, but this week had been extra-special so far. The friends were taking part in the castle’s annual Fairy Tale Festival. They’d spent their days dressing up in beautiful costumes, acting out stories, and drawing pictures of all their favorite characters.

  Every night when the fun and games were over, the girls got to sleep in a real castle bedroom! It was a world away from their homes in Tippington and Wetherbury—a place full of tapestries, glittering chandeliers, and four-poster beds with velvet hangings.

  The girls stepped out into the castle courtyard.

  “The drawbridge is just over there,” said Rachel.

  Kirsty opened her cardboard box and lifted out the decorations inside: a long string of red and gold flags. Some had stripes and others had polka dots.

  “These would look really pretty pinned around the gatehouse,” she suggested.

  “Good idea,” replied Rachel, unfurling a banner. She felt her heart skip when she read WELCOME TO THE FAIRY TALE BALL twinkling in the afternoon light.

  Kirsty and Rachel shared an excited smile. Tiptop Castle was celebrating the end of the Fairy Tale Festival with a wonderful party for all of the children who had taken part in the event. Their parents had even been invited to join in, too.

  “All the grown-up guests will be here by six,” said Rachel, tying the banner to the front gate so that everyone would see it.

  Her eyes shone. This had been such an exciting spring vacation! On their very first morning at Tiptop Castle, they had been visited by Hannah the Happily Ever After Fairy. The fairies were Kirsty and Rachel’s very special secret. No one else knew about the magical adventures they had shared with Hannah and her friends.

  Before they could say “once upon a time …” Hannah had shrunk the girls to fairy size and whisked them back to Fairyland. They found themselves fluttering through the air to greet seven beautiful fairies. Each of the Fairy Tale Fairies took care of a fairy tale and the characters in it. Meeting them had been an honor, especially when they’d presented Kirsty and Rachel with a special book filled with their favorite stories.

  Rachel shuddered as she remembered what had happened next. When she’d opened up The Fairies’ Book of Fairy Tales, all of the pages had been blank! The Fairy Tale Fairies had realized that their magic objects were missing, plunging their stories into terrible trouble. The magic objects were the invisible glue that kept the characters inside their tales. Without them, Cinderella and all the others would slip out and disappear.

  It didn’t take long to figure out what had happened to the magic objects. With an icy blast Jack Frost had appeared. He bragged that his goblins had swiped the Fairy Tale Fairies’ objects so he could rewrite all of their stories in the way that he chose. Noble princes, fair princesses, and kindly fairies were gone for good. Instead he cast himself and the goblins as the stars!

  Before Kirsty and Rachel could do anything to stop him, Jack Frost vanished to the human world. The Fairy Tale Fairies were sad. Jack Frost had not only stolen their magic objects, he’d made off with all of their fairy tale characters, too!

  Ever since they’d got back to Tiptop Castle, Kirsty and Rachel had been trying hard to rescue the treasured possessions. They’d managed to return six of the magic objects so far. They’d also helped characters find their way back into the pages of Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Cinderella, The Frog Princess, Beauty and the Beast, and The Princess and the Pea.

  “It really has been an adventure from start to finish,” Rachel said.

  “It’s not over yet,” Kirsty reminded her.

  Rachel sighed. Poor Lacey the Little Mermaid Fairy was still searching for her magic object! If they didn’t find it soon, the festival would be over and the story of The Little Mermaid would be ruined forever.

  “Come on,” said Kirsty, slipping her arm through Rachel’s and leading her back inside. “The decorating’s done now. Let’s go and get ready for the ball.”

  The girls made their way across the courtyard, chatting about what to wear. They skipped past the gurgling fountain, watching the sunbeams dance and glow in the water.

  Rachel’s heart began to flutter.

  “Kirsty,” she whispered. “Look!”

  Kirsty had seen it, too. The sunbeams weren’t sunbeams at all! Instead, a thousand tiny golden bubbles shimmered in the spray. The girls tiptoed up to the fountain, and then sat on the stone ledge that ran around the edge. A little fairy was splashing in the water! She looked up and smiled sweetly.

  “Hello again!” she exclaimed. “Are you ready for an adventure?”

  Kirsty and Rachel recognized Lacey the Little Mermaid Fairy right away—she was just as sparkly as they remembered! Lacey’s delicate wings glistened in the sunshine and her mermaid tail sparkled with pale purple scales. Her dark hair was held in place with a fine golden headband. Along the bottom of her shirt a row of tiny jewels glinted in the light.

  “We’re always ready to help a fairy,” whispered Rachel, kneeling over the side of the fountain to make sure that no one else would see Lacey.

  “Always,” echoed Kirsty. “What can we do?”

  Lacey’s pretty smile faded. “It’s my fairy tale.” She sighed. “I can’t go on for a minute longer without putting things right!”

  “Is there still no sign of your magic object?” wondered Rachel.

  Lacey shook her head sadly.

  “What does it look like?” asked Kirsty.

  “It’s an oyster shell with a pearl inside,” replied Lacey. “It’s very precious. The characters from The Little Mermaid have been gone for days now. The shell could be anywhere!”

  “We’ll find it somehow,” promised Rachel.

  “There must be somewhere new that we can search,” said Kirsty. “Let’s
think …”

  “Hey! Over here!”

  Lacey and the girls looked up. Someone was shouting from the other side of the courtyard. Another voice bellowed a reply:

  “Look at that!”

  “It’s splashing all over the place!” yelled a third voice.

  “Don’t just stare at it—let’s get it!” boomed another.

  Lacey flipped out of the water. “That noise,” she cried breathlessly. “It’s coming from the moat.”

  “We need to get there fast!” urged Rachel.

  Kirsty began to run, but Lacey shook her head.

  “You’ll be faster as fairies,” she said, pointing her wand into the fountain. As soon as the wand touched the water, a wave of miniature golden shells showered in all directions. Lacey beckoned for the girls to put their hands underneath it. Kirsty and Rachel gazed in wonder as the shells tickled and popped on their fingers before disappearing into the spray. Soon the girls were covered in a sparkling mist of gold.

  “We’re getting smaller!” exclaimed Kirsty.

  When the mist cleared, Rachel reached up to touch her shoulders. A gauzy pair of fairy wings had appeared. The friends joined hands, then fluttered into the air.

  “Hey, you!” shouted the voices again. “Come here!”

  Kirsty, Rachel, and Lacey hurried across the courtyard, following the noisy shouts. They flew out past the gatehouse, across the drawbridge, and over the moat.

  “Oh my!” cried Lacey, nearly tumbling out of the sky. “Goblins!”

  Kirsty and Rachel looked down. Floating on the moat, in among the lily pads, was an inflatable raft. Four green goblins were sitting on it, fighting over a giant fishing net.

  “She’s too heavy!” moaned one goblin, tugging the net with all his might.

  “Let me have a try,” barked another, shoving his friend out of the way. The goblin heaved and hauled the net until—plop!—it landed on the raft. The rest of the gang hooted in delight. A mermaid suddenly popped her head out of the net, then sat up in the middle of the raft.

  Lacey gasped. “It’s the Little Mermaid from my fairy tale!”

  “It figures that the goblins are up to no good.” Rachel frowned.

  “Why did you do that?” asked the Little Mermaid, pointing at the biggest goblin. “It’s not very nice—I don’t like being fished out of the water.”

  The rude goblin stuck out his tongue at her. “We don’t care what you like,” he announced. “We only care about what Jack Frost likes. And he’s got a job for you.”

  The Little Mermaid looked puzzled.

  “If he’s going to be the star of your fairy tale, he’ll need some mermaid lessons,” added another goblin, “and who better to teach Jack Frost than the Little Mermaid herself?”

  With that, the goblins broke into whoops of laughter.

  They sat clutching their sides, laughing at their own cleverness. The Little Mermaid tried to talk to them, but no one would listen to a word she said.

  Kirsty flew ahead of Rachel and Lacey.

  “We must get down to the raft,” she urged, leading the way down to the water’s edge.

  “We’ll have to be careful,” warned Lacey.

  The brave fairies made their way across the moat, fluttering from lily pad to lily pad. When they got close, they flew up beside the Little Mermaid.

  “Shh,” whispered Rachel, waving hello. “We’re here to set you free.”

  The Little Mermaid looked at them with relief. “Thank you.” She smiled. “Now, if I can just get out of this net …”

  Kirsty tugged at the cords, but they wouldn’t budge. They were wound tight around the mermaid’s tail.

  “It won’t come off,” Lacey said, pulling from her end.

  Rachel frowned. The Little Mermaid was really caught.

  Just then, a huge paddle plunged into the water. Another one dropped down on the other side. The Little Mermaid leaned over the side of the raft, her eyes filled with worry.

  “The goblins are rowing away,” she whispered urgently. “What am I going to do?”

  Lacey watched nervously as the raft lurched downstream.

  “We’ll find a way to save you somehow,” she called.

  Kirsty, Rachel, and Lacey flew after the Little Mermaid. The silly goblins were so busy paddling, they didn’t notice a thing.

  “Hurry up!” bellowed the biggest one, nudging his friend in the stomach. “We can’t keep Jack Frost waiting!”

  “He’s going to have to,” grumbled the other one. “How am I supposed to row any faster with a big lump like you weighing us down?”

  While the goblins squabbled, the Little Mermaid wriggled inside the fishing net. Her face fell when the raft veered out of the moat and into a narrow sidestream.

  “They’re heading for Tiptop Pond,” murmured Rachel, pointing to a pool of water hidden among the trees.

  As the Little Mermaid and the goblins rounded the final bend, an old wooden boathouse loomed into view. Kirsty and her friends fluttered into the branches of a willow tree to see what would happen next.

  Bang! Clatter!

  The boathouse doors were suddenly flung open. The fairies watched in amazement as Jack Frost strutted into view. He was decked out in a mermaid outfit and swimming cap! He had water wings on his arms and a rubber ring around his middle that kept slipping down. Big toes poked out of the bottom of the costume where the mermaid’s tail should have been. He clutched a trident in one hand, dripping with jewels and gold chains. Before Jack spoke to the goblins, he couldn’t resist peeking into the water to look at his reflection one more time.

  “Splendid,” he said, turning around to admire the sequins that glittered all over the outfit in icy shades of blue. He swaggered up and down the bank of the pond, waiting for the goblins to notice him. When they didn’t, his face broke into an angry scowl. “Get over here now!” he bellowed.

  The goblins paddled so hard that the raft nearly tipped over.

  “We got her,” squawked the biggest one. “The Little Mermaid.”

  Jack Frost banged his trident on the ground. The net instantly fell away from the Little Mermaid’s tail. She flipped herself into the water, but there was no escape. The goblins made sure that they were blocking the stream that led back to the moat.

  “You can leave when you’ve taught me what I need to know,” declared Jack Frost. “I want to act like a mermaid!”

  The Little Mermaid glanced up at Lacey, Kirsty, and Rachel. She had no choice. With a big sigh, she began the first lesson.

  “We’ll start with swimming and tail swishing,” she decided. “You do know how to swim, don’t you?”

  “Humph!” muttered Jack Frost. He made an angry face, then gingerly stepped into the water, still clutching the trident in his fist.

  Kirsty waited until Jack Frost was in up to his waist. He tried to do swimming strokes with his arms, but his feet stayed rooted to the ground.

  “Let’s look inside the boathouse for your shell,” she suggested. “Jack Frost could be here for hours!”

  One by one, the fairies silently glided toward the shallow edge of the pond. Only the Little Mermaid noticed them go by, doing her best to make sure that Jack Frost faced the other way.

  It didn’t take long to search the boathouse. The magic scallop shell was nowhere to be seen. The fairies flew back outside, landing gently in a patch of reeds.

  “What do we do now?” wondered Rachel, looking across the pond. All the friends could see from their hiding place was the tip of Jack Frost’s trident wobbling as he moved.

  “He’d swim much better if he put it down,” said Kirsty absent-mindedly.

  Lacey suddenly gasped in surprise. “Look!” she cried, pushing the reeds to one side. There, in among the priceless gems hanging from the trident, was her magic shell with the pearl inside!

  “No wonder he wants to keep the trident close,” marveled Rachel.

  Lacey nodded happily, then whispered a fairy spell:

  A scallop
shell, a creamy pearl,

  Bubbles gather, bubbles swirl!

  Three foamy gold bubbles suddenly rose out of the pond and floated dreamily through the air. Kirsty and Rachel beamed with delight as the bubbles got closer and closer to their heads.

  “When they touch you,” said Lacey, “dive into the pond. The bubbles will help you breathe underwater.”

  Kirsty and Rachel did as they were told. Suddenly they felt the bubbles settle on their heads. Instead of popping, they sat on their shoulders like pearly diving helmets.

  Rachel dove in after Lacey. She looked back through the emerald-green pond, but Kirsty was nowhere to be seen.

  Suddenly a voice rang out through the water.

  “Help me, someone!” cried her best friend. “I’m stuck!”

  Rachel and Lacey swam back as fast as they could, a little trail of golden bubbles streaming behind them.

  “Over here!” cried Kirsty.

  Rachel peered through the dappled water. There was nothing to be seen to the left or right, and only a thick clump of weeds below. She looked again. There was poor Kirsty, stuck right in the middle of it! Somehow the weeds had wrapped around her arms and legs, holding her fast. Lacey reached into the weeds to grab her hand, but they began to tangle up around her, too.

  “Don’t come any closer,” urged Kirsty. “You must get to the trident.”

  “We’re not leaving you,” declared Lacey, looking around for help.

  “Let’s ask those fish!” suggested Rachel.

  A school of silvery fish with see-through tails glided in and out of the weeds, nibbling at the stems. As soon as Rachel got close, they darted off in a hundred different directions.

  “Please don’t be scared,” said Lacey. “We won’t hurt you—we’re fairies.”

  Slowly and nervously, the fish moved back into the light. The moment they saw Lacey’s friendly face and fairy wings they surged forward, swishing their tails excitedly.