Kitty the Tiger Fairy

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Map

  Poem

  Return to Wild Woods

  Kitty Comes for Help

  Tiger Talk

  Tree Goblins!

  Sheba’s Splashing

  Going with the Flow

  Teaser

  Copyright

  “I can’t wait to find out what we’ll be doing today!” Rachel Walker exclaimed eagerly as she followed her best friend, Kirsty Tate, through Wild Woods Nature Reserve. “I hope we see lots of different animals.”

  It was summer vacation, and the girls’ parents had arranged for them to spend a week as junior rangers at Kirsty’s local nature reserve. The reserve was a haven for all kinds of animals like hares, otters, and red squirrels.

  “We’ll have lots of cool pictures to remind us of our time here at Wild Woods,” Kirsty remarked as the girls wound their way through the trees, carrying their backpacks. She stopped to take a picture of a red-and-blue butterfly drinking nectar from a cluster of wildflowers. She showed the photo to Rachel.

  “It’s beautiful,” Rachel said with admiration as Kirsty slipped the camera into her backpack. “Look, Kirsty, there’s Becky with the other junior rangers.” She pointed to the clearing ahead of them where a group of girls and boys were gathered around the head of the nature reserve. “I bet she has some interesting jobs for us!”

  Becky was chatting with a couple of the junior rangers. She spotted the girls and waved to them.

  “Everyone’s here now, so good morning to you all,” Becky announced with a huge smile. “I’m thrilled you’re back for more important wildlife work here at Wild Woods Nature Reserve! Did you have a good time yesterday?”

  “YES!” everyone shouted, full of excitement.

  “Well, we have a very busy day ahead of us,” she informed them. “I have a special job for you down at the stream. You can start off by getting yourselves dressed in these!” Becky pointed to a bunch of tall rubber boots piled on the grass beside her. Rachel and Kirsty lined up with the other junior rangers to grab a pair, and then they pulled on the rubber boots. The boots were so tall, they covered their legs all the way up to their thighs.

  “I feel like Puss-in-Boots!” Kirsty said to Rachel with a grin.

  Becky grabbed a rake that was leaning against a nearby tree and a net lying on the grass. “Follow me, everyone,” she called, walking off through the woods.

  “I wonder why we’re going to the stream,” Rachel remarked as everyone followed Becky. “I hope we’ll be able to do the special job, whatever it is.”

  “If we finish it, we might get another badge,” Kirsty said hopefully. Becky had given the girls badges with a picture of a tree on them after they’d successfully planted some young saplings the day before. Rachel and Kirsty had proudly pinned the badges to their backpacks. “And maybe”—Kirsty lowered her voice so that no one else could hear—“our fairy friends will need our help again today, too!”

  When the girls had arrived at the nature reserve yesterday, they’d been thrilled to see their friend Bertram, a frog footman from Fairyland. Bertram was visiting relatives who lived in a pond in Wild Woods, and he’d offered to take the girls to the Fairyland Nature Reserve. Of course, Rachel and Kirsty had agreed immediately. At the Fairyland Reserve, their old friend Fluffy the squirrel was their guide, and they’d seen lots of fascinating animals, like penguins in the ice and snow, and monkeys swinging through the jungle. The girls had also met the seven Baby Animal Rescue Fairies whose job it was to look after the Fairyland Nature Reserve and to protect wildlife everywhere, in both the fairy and human worlds.

  Rachel and Kirsty had been having a wonderful time with their fairy friends until Jack Frost turned up and ruined everything! Jack Frost had declared that he liked animals so much, he was going to collect one of each kind for his private zoo. Then, with a magic ice bolt, he stole the Baby Animal Rescue Fairies’ charms—the tiny, furry animal key chains that helped them care for wildlife. Jack Frost then gave the key chains to his goblins, and ordered them to hurry away to the human world and bring him some animals for his zoo!

  “We need to keep an eye out for goblins as well as wildlife,” Rachel whispered. The girls had promised to help the Baby Animal Rescue Fairies retrieve their magic key chains, and also protect the animals that selfish Jack Frost wanted to capture for his private zoo. The fairies had been very grateful. All seven of them had waved their wands together, and their combined magic had granted Rachel and Kirsty the power to talk to animals.

  “It was so mean of the goblins to kidnap Pan Pan the baby panda yesterday,” Kirsty recalled as Becky led them deeper into the woods. “But at least we were able to rescue him and take him back to his mother. Wasn’t it amazing talking to a real-live panda, Rachel?”

  “Awesome!” Rachel agreed. “Pan Pan was so cute!” She glanced around. “I can hear water trickling, Kirsty. We must be close to the stream.”

  Kirsty took her camera out and snapped a few pictures. The forest was beautiful in the early morning light.

  Becky led the junior rangers past a clump of oak trees toward the stream. But what the girls saw ahead of them made them come to an abrupt stop and gasp in horror.

  “Oh, no!” Kirsty cried. “What happened to the stream?”

  Everyone could see that the little stream was a complete mess. In one place, there was an ugly pile of dead leaves, twigs, and overgrown reeds that had created a dam, blocking the flow of water. When the water reached the dam, it had nowhere to go, so the stream was overflowing its banks. This made the ground damp and soggy. But below the dam there was hardly even a trickle of water, and the girls could see the dry bed of the stream.

  “This is really bad for the wildlife in and around the stream,” Becky explained, frowning. “We have to get the water flowing freely again.” She turned to Rachel and Kirsty. “I’d like you two to do this job, please.”

  “Okay,” the girls agreed eagerly. Kirsty put her camera away.

  “One of you can clear away the mess,” Becky went on. She began pulling at the dam with the rake, loosening some twigs and leaves. “Then the other can use the net to scoop the stuff out of the water.” Becky handed the rake to Kirsty and showed Rachel how to drag the net across the surface of the water, collecting all the leaves and twigs. “Can you do that?”

  The girls nodded.

  “Excellent!” Becky flashed them a smile. “I’ll come back when I’ve shown the others their jobs farther up the stream. Just pile up all the stuff you scoop out on the bank, girls. We can make compost with it. We try to be as green as we can here at Wild Woods!”

  “No problem,” Rachel called as Becky and the other junior rangers left.

  The girls got to work. Kirsty used the rake to break up the dam and Rachel tried to catch every piece of leaf and twig in her net so she could remove it from the water. It was hard work, but they were determined to get the stream flowing freely again.

  Suddenly, the flapping of wings overhead made both girls look up. Rachel gasped as she saw a large bird with gray, white, and black feathers flying toward them.

  “Oh, it’s a heron!” Rachel exclaimed.

  “Isn’t she beautiful?” Kirsty said with a sigh, her eyes wide.

  “Thank you for cleaning up the stream,” the heron called to them in a high, sweet voice. “I’m looking forward to fishing downstream once the water is flowing again.”

  “You’re welcome,” Kirsty called. She and Rachel waved as the heron flew off over the treetops.

  “Being able to talk to animals is so much fun!” Rachel said happily as they got back to work.

  A few moments later, Rachel heard a rustling among the reeds. She glanced over and
saw three pairs of bright, dark eyes watching her. Rachel smiled when she realized that it was a mother otter with her two babies, and she pointed them out to Kirsty.

  “Hello, there,” Kirsty said to the otters. “Can we help you?”

  “I was hoping to teach my babies to swim,” the mother otter explained, twitching her whiskers. “But the stream is too deep on one side of this dam and too shallow on the other.”

  “We’re clearing away the dam,” Kirsty told her. “Why don’t you come back a little later?”

  “Good idea,” the mother otter agreed. “Thank you!” And the three otters scampered away.

  The girls continued pulling the dam apart. More water was beginning to trickle through here and there, which encouraged them to keep working.

  “See that big log?” Rachel panted, pointing it out to Kirsty. “I think that’s keeping a lot of water from getting through. Let’s try to pull it out.”

  Kirsty pulled at the log with her rake, but it didn’t budge, even though she put all her weight into it. Rachel threw the net down and went to help her, but even between them, they couldn’t move the log at all. It was stuck fast. Both girls tried and tried, but they were puffing and panting, now out of breath.

  “Let’s take a break.” Kirsty gasped.

  There was nowhere to sit down except on the wet ground, so the girls leaned against a nearby tree and rested for a few moments.

  “I think we need an energy boost!” Rachel said with a grin. “I packed some cereal bars.”

  Rachel opened her backpack and took out her tiger-print lunch box. As she took the lid off, the girls were surprised to see a magic golden glow coming from inside. Then they saw a little fairy flutter out of the lunch box and hover, smiling, in the air before them.

  “Kitty the Tiger Fairy!” Kirsty exclaimed.

  “Hi, girls!” Kitty said. She was dressed in a sleeveless top with diagonal stripes, rolled-up jeans, and ankle boots. She also wore a headband with tiger ears on top of her blond curls. “I’m sure you can guess why I’m here.”

  “Jack Frost’s goblins are trying to catch more animals?” Rachel guessed.

  Kitty nodded. “Right now those mischievous goblins are chasing three tiger cubs, hoping to capture one for Jack Frost’s zoo,” she replied, frowning anxiously. “And I can’t protect the cubs with my magic because the goblins have my magic key chain.”

  “Can we help?” Kirsty offered eagerly.

  Kitty smiled. “Thank you, girls,” she replied. “Let’s go and stop those dreadful goblins. They can’t get away with kidnapping my beautiful tigers!”

  Kitty shook her wand, conjuring up a cloud of glittering fairy dust. The girls were whisked gently away and, in the blink of an eye, Rachel and Kirsty found themselves thousands of miles from the nature reserve. They landed in a beautiful, faraway jungle where they could feel the heat of the red-gold sun overhead. They were standing on a rock jutting out over a river that flowed down from a beautiful, high waterfall. The banks of the river were lined with tall trees and tropical flowers.

  “I wonder what happened to my poor little tiger cubs?” Kitty said anxiously.

  Before Rachel or Kirsty could say anything, they heard a loud roar coming from among the trees.

  “GO AWAY!”

  “Who’s that?” Rachel asked cautiously. She and Kirsty turned to look. Suddenly the girls saw two tiger cubs slip out from behind a tree and prowl toward them. They looked ready to pounce!

  Immediately, Kitty swooped down lower. “Don’t worry, little ones,” she called to the tiger cubs. “These are my friends. You’re very safe.”

  The tiger cubs stopped, looking uncertainly at the girls.

  “They’re not green like the others!” the biggest cub growled.

  “We’re not green because we’re girls, not goblins,” Rachel explained gently.

  “And we want to help you, not hurt you,” Kirsty added.

  The tiger cubs looked much happier.

  “Let me introduce you,” Kitty said with a smile. “Cubs, these are my friends Rachel and Kirsty. Girls, this is Stripes”—she pointed her wand at the biggest cub—“and this is Tig, his brother.”

  “Pleased to meet you!” Stripes and Tig declared in their cute, growly little cub voices.

  “But, boys, where’s your sister, Sheba?” Kitty went on, looking worried. “You three are always together.”

  “We got separated when the little green boys started chasing us,” Stripes replied, his voice full of concern.

  “We’ve been looking for Sheba for a while,” Tig explained. “We followed her scent to the river, but it stops here.”

  “Sheba must have managed to get across to the other side of the river,” Kitty guessed.

  “Tig and I were going to swim over and look for her,” said Stripes, “but then we hid in the trees because we thought you were coming to catch us!”

  “We’ll help you search for Sheba,” Rachel offered.

  “Thank you,” Tig said gratefully. “We’d offer you a ride on our backs if you were a little bit smaller.”

  “Well, that’s one problem easily solved!” Kitty laughed. With a flick of her wand, she scattered magic sparkles around the girls, turning them both into fairies.

  Full of excitement, Rachel and Kirsty flew over to the tiger cubs. Kirsty floated down onto Stripes’s back, and Rachel landed on Tig. The cub’s fur is as thick, soft, and warm as a blanket, Rachel thought as she stroked Tig’s head.

  With the girls clinging onto their furry necks, the two cubs bounded into the river and began to swim. Kitty flew just above them, keeping an eye on what was going on beneath her. The cubs were racing against each other, seeing who could swim the fastest. Tig playfully splashed Stripes with his little paw, and Rachel and Kirsty burst out laughing.

  “Hey, stop that!” Stripes growled. He scooped up some water in his paw and tossed it at his brother. A few drops flew upward and splashed Kitty’s clothes as she zoomed along above them.

  “Sorry, Kitty!” Stripes called.

  “Just keep swimming!” Kitty told him with a smile.

  When the tiger cubs reached the other side of the river, they waded out of the water onto the bank. Rachel and Kirsty fluttered off their backs, and the cubs shook themselves vigorously to dry their wet fur. Then the two of them were off, noses to the ground, trying to pick up their sister’s scent.

  “Sheba’s been here!” Tig announced, his tail twitching with excitement. “We can smell her.” He and Stripes began sniffing their way along the trail Sheba had left. Kitty, Rachel, and Kirsty flew after them, following the tiger cubs along the riverbank toward the waterfall.

  “I can’t see Sheba anywhere,” Kitty murmured.

  “Maybe she’s hiding if she’s frightened of the goblins,” Rachel suggested.

  Suddenly, Stripes and Tig stopped, perking up their ears.

  “We can hear something!” Stripes told Kitty and the girls.

  Kitty beckoned to Rachel and Kirsty. Silently, the three of them flew ahead of the cubs and they heard the faint sound of rough, gruff voices.

  “It sounds like goblins!” Kirsty whispered.

  Kitty, Rachel, and Kirsty wound their way through the lush green jungle. They followed the sound of the voices. After a few moments, Rachel spotted three goblins climbing up the trunk of a tree ahead of them.

  “There they are!” Rachel murmured, pointing them out to Kitty and Kirsty.

  “Let’s fly higher up the same tree,” Kitty suggested. “Then we can listen to what they’re saying. We should be able to find out where Sheba is, as well as my key chain!”

  Keeping high in the air so that the goblins wouldn’t spot them, Kitty led the way over to the tree. She floated down onto one of the higher branches, and Rachel and Kirsty landed next to her.

  Kirsty peered through the leaves. She could see the three goblins below them. They weren’t very good climbers, and they were huffing and puffing as they tried to move up from branch to
branch.

  “This is all your fault!” the goblin who was highest up the tree screeched at the one just below him. “You lost the fairy’s magic tiger key chain!”

  “Lost!” Kitty repeated under her breath, looking disappointed.

  “It wasn’t my fault,” the second goblin whined. “Not really.”

  The third goblin was even lower down the tree and was struggling to swing himself up to the next branch. He made a giant, desperate lunge and ended up hanging upside down from the branch by his feet, like a bat.

  Kitty and the girls tried hard not to laugh at him.

  “I need help!” the goblin shrieked.

  The first and second goblins ignored him and kept arguing.

  “You were carrying the fairy’s magic key chain,” the first goblin shouted accusingly. “And now you don’t have it—so it must be your fault!”

  The second goblin looked sheepish. “I wasn’t expecting those tiger cubs to be so scary,” he mumbled. “And anyway, the magic key chain isn’t really lost—we know where it is. The smallest tiger cub has it.”

  Kitty glanced excitedly at the girls. “That’s Sheba!” she whispered.

  Suddenly, there was a rustling in the undergrowth down below. The next moment, Stripes and Tig burst out and raced toward the tree, growling fiercely. The girls could understand what the cubs were roaring. They were saying: Where’s our sister?

  The goblins were terrified. Two of them hauled the third up to join them, and they all sat shivering and shaking on the branch below Kitty and the girls.

  “I have an idea how to find Sheba and Kitty’s magic key chain!” Rachel whispered, her face lighting up. Quickly, she explained her plan to Kitty and Kirsty, then the two girls flew down to the goblins.

  “Oh, no!” shouted the first goblin. “Pesky fairies and scary tiger cubs!”