Lara the Black Cat Fairy Read online

  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

  North, South, East, West

  Buttercup Surprise

  A Trail of Clover

  Three Against Three

  Double Bad Luck

  Lucky at Last!

  Teaser

  Also Available

  Copyright

  “Come on, Kirsty.” Rachel Walker picked up her backpack and smiled at her best friend, Kirsty Tate. “It’s time for our next activity — we’re going on an orienteering expedition.”

  “Oh, great!” Kirsty exclaimed happily, lacing up her hiking boots. “I’m really looking forward to it.” Then she grinned. “But, to be honest, I’m not exactly sure what an orienteering expedition is!”

  Rachel and the other girls in the cabin — Emma, Natasha, Katie, and Catherine — smiled sweetly at Kirsty.

  “Orienteering is when you use a compass and a map to find your way to a specific place,” Emma explained. “All the different teams try to get there first. It’s a lot of fun.”

  “It sounds fantastic,” Kirsty agreed.

  “I’ve enjoyed all the camp activities so far,” Rachel remarked to Kirsty as their bunkmates went outside.

  Kirsty nodded. “And it’s been even more exciting since our fairy friends asked us for help!” she whispered.

  On the day the girls arrived at the camp, they discovered that Jack Frost had been up to his old tricks again in Fairyland. This time he and his goblins had kidnapped seven magical animals from the Magical Animal Fairies.

  The magical animals were very rare because they helped spread the kind of magic that every human and fairy could possess — the magic of imagination, luck, humor, friendship, compassion, healing, and courage. The fairies trained the magical animals for a whole year to make sure the animals knew how to use their powers. Then they could spread their wonderful gifts throughout the human and the fairy worlds!

  But Jack Frost was determined to keep the animals from using their magic gifts. He wanted everyone to be as grumpy and miserable as he was! So he and his goblins had stolen the young magical animals and taken them to his Ice Castle. But the animals had managed to escape into the human world, where they were now hiding. Of course, Jack Frost sent his goblins after them, but Rachel and Kirsty were determined to find the young animals first and return them safely to Fairyland. The girls knew they could count on the Magical Animal Fairies for help.

  “I’m glad we found Sizzle the dragon yesterday,” Rachel said, as she and Kirsty left the cabin. “Ashley was so happy to see him again, wasn’t she?”

  Kirsty nodded. “I hope we find the other animals soon,” she said anxiously. “Remember what the fairies told us — the magical animals can’t always control their powers because they haven’t finished their training yet.”

  “But they really tricked Jack Frost and his goblins when they escaped from the Ice Castle, didn’t they?” Rachel laughed.

  Rachel and Kirsty joined their bunkmates, who were standing with the girls from the cabin next door. Edward, one of the camp counselors, was there, too.

  “Ah, there you are,” Edward said, smiling at Rachel and Kirsty. “Here’s your map and compass. Now, you’re all going to walk due west for twenty-seven paces, and then you’ll find your mystery location!”

  Everyone listened carefully as Edward explained how to place the compass on the map and watch the magnetic needle to find out which direction was north.

  “Hold the map steady, Kirsty,” said Rachel as the needle swung around. “Look, that’s north.”

  “So west is that way,” Kirsty said, pointing to her left. “Come on, Rachel!”

  Some of the other campers had already headed in that direction, and Rachel and Kirsty followed them, counting each step under their breaths.

  “Twenty-four, twenty-five,” Rachel murmured. Then she stopped and burst out laughing. “Look, Kirsty, we’re at the Mess Hall!”

  “Nice work, everyone,” called Edward as he hurried out of the Mess Hall. He began handing out bottles of water and granola bars. “That was easy, wasn’t it? Now we’re going into the field to try a longer route, so follow me!”

  Edward strode off and everyone rushed after him. Soon they were out in the fields that surrounded the camp.

  “In orienteering, it’s really important to use your compass correctly,” Edward explained, opening the gate into the field. “Because this is a race between different teams, you need to find the shortest route between the points on your map. If you don’t, you won’t win!”

  “I’m enjoying this, aren’t you, Rachel?” Kirsty remarked, taking a sip of water. “I never thought maps and compasses could be so much fun!”

  Rachel was about to reply when a soft, muffled noise suddenly caught her attention. She stopped and cocked her head to one side.

  Meow! There it was again!

  “I can hear a cat,” Kirsty said, glancing around at the long grass.

  “Me, too,” Catherine agreed.

  Suddenly, Rachel noticed a tiny, jet-black cat in a patch of fuzzy dandelions. The cat was batting at the plants and chasing the fluffy white seedlings as they floated off into the air.

  “Look, there it is,” she pointed out. “Isn’t it cute? I wonder where it came from.”

  “It’s probably from one of the farms,” Edward replied. “There are a lot close by.”

  “Oh, I love cats,” Natasha said eagerly. She knelt down on the grass and held out her hand. “Here, kitty!” she cooed.

  The cat stopped playing and looked over at the group. She had beautiful, emerald-green eyes and her black fur gleamed in the sunshine. As the cat began to purr loudly, Kirsty gave a gasp.

  “Rachel!” she whispered. “The cat’s whiskers are shimmering!”

  “I know, I can see it, too!” Rachel murmured, her heart thumping with excitement. “It must be fairy magic!”

  Before the girls could say anything more, Rachel suddenly felt her gold locket slip from her neck. She made a grab for it but missed, and it fell into a shallow ditch at her feet.

  “Is it broken?” asked Kirsty as Rachel bent to pick it up.

  Rachel examined the clasp and shook her head. “No, it must have just come undone, somehow,” she replied, frowning.

  At that moment, a loud flapping of wings overhead made everyone look up. A large pigeon was swooping down toward them. Its bright eyes were fixed on the half-eaten granola bar in Catherine’s hand.

  “Help!” Catherine shrieked in alarm, as the pigeon grabbed the bar and flew off.

  “Are you OK, Catherine?” asked Rachel. Before Catherine could reply, Natasha, who was still kneeling near the cat, gave a cry of pain.

  “Oh, my hand’s itching!” She gasped, rubbing it hard. “I must have touched that patch of poison ivy —” She pointed to a patch of leaves with reddish stems. “But that’s weird. I don’t remember seeing it before!”

  “Here.” Edward pulled a tube of cream from his bag and passed it to Natasha. “Rub this where it itch
es, and it will feel better.”

  “Rachel, have you noticed that three unlucky things happened in the last minute?” Kirsty whispered to her friend. “This little black cat must be one of the missing magical animals!”

  Rachel nodded. “We know that one of the missing magical animals is a black cat who’s being trained to spread good luck,” she agreed. “And we also know that because the animals are so young, their magic is very unpredictable.”

  “In this case, it’s working in reverse!” Kirsty murmured. “We’re getting bad luck instead of good luck!”

  “We’d better take the cat back to Fairyland before any goblins appear,” said Rachel. She turned to look at the cat again, but at that very moment, it raced off, bounding through a patch of red poppies. Rachel and Kirsty shared a glance of dismay.

  “OK, that little cat’s got the right idea!” Edward announced, clapping his hands. “Let’s get a move on.”

  “At least Edward and the other girls haven’t noticed anything out of the ordinary about the cat,” Kirsty whispered. “They think it’s just a farm cat.”

  Meanwhile, Edward had begun dividing the girls into teams of two.

  “Rachel and Kirsty, you’re a team,” he said, handing them an envelope.

  “Oh, that’s good!” Rachel exclaimed in a low voice, grinning at Kirsty. “We’ll be able to keep a lookout for the cat.”

  “Yes, maybe we’re getting a little bit of good luck, too!” Kirsty pointed out.

  “OK, each team has a different set of instructions inside their envelope,” Edward explained. “The clues will lead you all around the fields, but if you have any problems, I’ll be close by.” He glanced at his watch. “It’s noon now. We should aim to meet up again around 12:30. All the instructions will lead you to the same place, where there will be a surprise waiting for you! Good luck!”

  “I wonder what the surprise is,” Kirsty remarked, tearing open the envelope. She unfolded the instructions and read aloud: “‘Head north through the field for sixty paces until you reach a fence. Then turn right (due east). Follow the fence for ten paces until you reach a wooden gate.’”

  “That doesn’t seem too difficult,” Rachel said, as the other teams began to hurry off in different directions. “Maybe we’ll spot the cat again while we’re following the instructions!”

  “I hope so,” Kirsty replied.

  Carefully, the girls lined up the compass and began to walk north, counting their steps. As they walked, they both scanned the field. There was no sign of the little black cat.

  “Twenty-one, twenty-two,” Kirsty murmured. Then she stopped. “Rachel, was it fifty or sixty paces to the north?”

  “I can’t remember.” Rachel shook her head. “Can you check the paper, Kirsty?”

  Kirsty unfolded the instructions again. Then she let out a gasp.

  “Rachel, look!” she cried. “The writing has changed — and so have the directions!”

  The girls stared at the paper. Now there were swirly golden letters that read, “Head west for forty strides until you find a cluster of glimmering buttercups.”

  “Fairy magic!” Rachel gasped. “It must be! Quick, Kirsty, which way is west?”

  Trembling with excitement, Kirsty looked at the compass.

  “That way!” she said, pointing across the field.

  The girls hurried west, counting their paces as they went.

  “Look at that golden light!” Kirsty pointed up ahead after they’d gone thirty-eight paces. “That must be the patch of buttercups glimmering in the sun.”

  “I wonder what we’ll find there?” Rachel said eagerly.

  The gold buttercup blooms were nodding and dancing in the warm breeze. Rachel and Kirsty bent over the flowers, peering down at them. Suddenly Rachel clutched Kirsty’s arm.

  “Look, Kirsty!” she exclaimed. “Right there, in the middle of all the buttercups!”

  Kirsty looked where Rachel was pointing and saw a tiny fairy perched on a buttercup, waving up at them.

  “It’s Lara the Black Cat Fairy!” Kirsty cried.

  Looking very happy to see Rachel and Kirsty, Lara fluttered up out of the buttercups. She wore a silver cardigan, jeans, black buckled boots, and a scarf printed with little cats. Her long, shiny black hair swirled around her as she flew to land gracefully on Kirsty’s shoulder.

  “Hello, girls,” Lara said with a big smile. “I’m so glad you got my message! I’m looking for my little black cat, Lucky. I just know she’s close by!”

  “We saw her a few minutes ago, Lara,” Rachel explained quickly, “playing in a patch of dandelions.”

  “But she ran away before we could catch her,” Kirsty added.

  Lara nodded. “We have to find her before Jack Frost’s goblins do,” she said anxiously. “We’d better search the fields. Which way do you think we should go first?”

  Rachel and Kirsty glanced around. The other teams had scattered now, and there weren’t any other campers nearby.

  “Maybe we should go back to the dandelion patch and start from there,” Kirsty suggested.

  Rachel was about to agree, when she looked down and noticed something that made her eyes open wide with surprise. There, nestled in the grass at her feet, was a four-leaf clover. As Rachel stared down at it, excitement flooded through her. She’d heard about lucky four-leaf clovers before, but she’d never seen one. They were very rare!

  But then Rachel blinked in surprise as she noticed another four-leaf clover close to the first one — and then another, and another!

  “Look!” Rachel gasped, kneeling down and pointing at the little plant right in front of her. “I think I found a trail of four-leaf clovers!”

  “Wow!” Kirsty gasped. “I’ve never even seen one before — never mind a whole trail!”

  Lara was clapping her hands in delight. “I bet Lucky left this trail!” she declared. “We should follow it right away!”

  Quickly, Rachel and Kirsty began to follow the winding trail of four-leaf clovers. They were easy to spot in the grass because they shimmered with fairy magic.

  “The trail seems to lead us in the direction of that farmyard over there,” Kirsty said, pointing ahead of them.

  The farmyard looked very quiet. There was no one around — just a few geese waddling here and there. Lara and the girls could also see a big barn and three haystacks.

  “The trail ends here,” Lara said with a frown, pausing at the edge of the farmyard. “But Lucky’s still around here somewhere. I can definitely sense that she’s close by!”

  “Let’s search the farmyard,” Kirsty suggested, glancing at Rachel. But her friend was frowning and looking confused.

  “What’s the matter, Rachel?” asked Kirsty.

  “I’m sure that there were three haystacks in the farmyard a moment ago,” Rachel replied. “But look.” She pointed across the yard. “Now there are only two!”

  Kirsty and Lara stared at the haystacks. Rachel was right. There were only two of them now.

  “That’s strange —” Kirsty began.

  Suddenly they all heard a tiny meow. The next moment, a small black cat bounded across the farmyard, chasing a leaf that danced in the breeze.

  “Lucky!” Lara cried out.

  Lucky stopped in front of one of the haystacks and eagerly cocked her head at the sound of Lara’s voice.

  “Lucky!” Lara called again.

  At that very moment, a long green nose poked out of the middle of the biggest haystack. Then a second nose poked out of the other one.

  Rachel, Kirsty, and Lara watched in horror as one pair of green arms, and then another, popped out of the haystacks.

  “Goblins!” Kirsty exclaimed. “They’re hiding in the haystacks!”

  As Lucky turned to run toward Lara, the goblins leap
ed out of the haystacks. One of them grabbed Lucky! The cat meowed and wriggled, but couldn’t get away. Chuckling triumphantly, the goblins scurried across the farmyard.

  “After them!” Lara cried.

  Immediately, Kirsty and Rachel ran after the goblins, with Lara flying alongside them. But as they dashed across the farmyard, the third haystack suddenly appeared from around the corner of the farmhouse. It stopped in front of them and blocked their path.

  “Oh, no!” Rachel groaned, skidding to a halt. “That’s the other haystack!”

  “Haystacks don’t move on their own,” Kirsty said. “There’s a goblin inside!”

  “Don’t worry, girls!” Lara declared, flicking her wand and sending fairy sparkles dancing around them. “We’ll fly over it!”

  Instantly, Kirsty and Rachel shrank down to become as tiny as Lara, with sheer, sparkly wings on their backs. All three of them whirled up into the air and flew over the top of the haystack.

  “No fair!” the goblin inside shouted grumpily.

  Rachel glanced back over her shoulder. “He’s coming after us,” she warned. Sure enough, the goblin shook himself free of the hay and charged across the farmyard behind them.

  “I think those other two goblins are heading for the barn,” Kirsty panted.

  The three friends flew as fast as they could. Soon, they began to catch up with the two goblins in front of them.

  Then the goblin holding Lucky gave a loud roar of surprise as he tripped over a milk pail that was lying in the middle of the farmyard. The pail flew up into the air and landed right on the goblin’s head!

  “Help!” he shouted, stumbling around. “Who turned out the lights?”