Milly the River Fairy Read online

  The Earth Fairies must be dreaming

  If they think they can escape my scheming.

  My goblins are by far the greenest,

  And I am definitely the meanest.

  Seven fairies out to save the earth?

  This very idea fills me with mirth!

  I’m sure the world has had enough

  Of fairy magic and all that stuff.

  So I’m going to steal the fairies’ wands

  And send them into human lands.

  The fairies will think all is lost,

  Defeated again — by me, Jack Frost!

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Map

  Poem

  A Fairy Afloat

  Sink or Swim?

  Dirty Water

  Racing Goblins

  Rafting Over Rapids

  Down the Waterfall!

  Teaser

  Copyright

  “It’s definitely colder than yesterday,” Rachel Walker said as she and her best friend, Kirsty Tate, strolled through Rainspell Park. “I can’t believe we were so warm on the beach at the start of the week — and today we’re all wrapped up in our cozy sweaters!”

  Kirsty grinned at Rachel. “And I can’t believe we were swimming in the ocean with Coral the Reef Fairy a few days ago,” she said in a low voice. “Imagine how freezing cold the water must be right now!”

  Rachel shivered at the thought. “She’d have to use a lot of fairy magic to keep us warm today, wouldn’t she?”

  The two girls smiled at each other as they walked through the park. It was the fall break, and they were both here on Rainspell Island for a week with their parents. Rainspell Island was the place where Kirsty and Rachel had first met. They’d shared a very special summer together . . . and now this vacation was turning out to be every bit as magical!

  “Oh, I love being friends with the fairies,” Kirsty said happily, thinking about all the exciting adventures they’d had so far. “We really are the luckiest girls in the world, Rachel.”

  “Definitely,” Rachel agreed. Golden-brown leaves tumbled from the trees every time the wind blew, and Rachel noticed just then that some of the trees were already bare.

  “Well, it’s certainly windy enough today to sail our boats,” she said as a yellow leaf floated down and landed at her feet. She glanced at the paper boat she was holding. Both girls had made one back at their cottage that morning. “They’re going to speed along with this breeze behind them.”

  “Here’s the lake,” Kirsty said as they rounded a corner and saw the stretch of blue water ahead of them. She held up her own paper boat and raised an eyebrow at Rachel. “Mine is going to be the fastest, you know.”

  Rachel laughed. “No way!” she insisted.

  The two girls had decorated their boats with felt tip pens and they were bright and colorful. Kirsty’s was red and gold, and she’d written Autumn Spirit along one side of it. Rachel had colored hers pink and lilac, and had called it Magical Mist.

  As they reached the water’s edge, both girls set their boats down carefully on the surface, and watched them float away. A gust of wind blew the boats straight ahead, and Kirsty and Rachel cheered as the tiny vessels sailed quickly toward the middle of the lake.

  “Go, go, Autumn Spirit!” Kirsty cried.

  “Let’s run around to the other side of the lake so we can catch them as they come in,” Rachel suggested.

  The girls sprinted along the path that circled the lake, making sure they checked on their boats every now and then. When the path led them back to the lake, the girls scanned the water to see where their boats had gone.

  Then Kirsty let out a cry of dismay. “Oh, no! Look, Rachel! There’s a tire sticking out of the water — and our boats are heading straight for it. They’ll get stuck for sure!”

  Rachel opened her mouth to reply, but then noticed something else. “Kirsty, have you seen who’s standing on your boat?” she cried. “It’s Milly the River Fairy!”

  Kirsty looked at her boat, thrilled at the thought of another fairy adventure. Sure enough, there was Milly, one of seven fairies she and Rachel had met at the start of the week. Milly had long honey-colored hair, with a braid around the front. She wore a pretty blue-green top and a matching skirt, both made of flowing, shimmering fabric.

  Queen Titania and King Oberon had given seven fairies-in-training the title of “Earth Fairies” for a trial period. The fairies had the special mission of helping humans look after the environment. Milly was one of the chosen Earth Fairies, as were six others named Nicole, Isabella, Edie, Coral, Lily, and Carrie. Unfortunately, just as the new Earth Fairies were about to be given their magic wands, wicked Jack Frost and his goblins had appeared and snatched them away.

  “I’m sure my goblins will give the words being green a whole new meaning,” Jack Frost had said with a sneer. And then he and his goblins vanished into the human world, where they’d been causing all kinds of trouble with the magic wands ever since.

  Fortunately, Kirsty and Rachel had been able to help five of the fairies get back their stolen wands, but two of the wands were still missing — the ones that belonged to Milly the River Fairy and Carrie the Snow Cap Fairy.

  Milly was smiling and waving at them now from where she stood on Kirsty’s boat. But Kirsty didn’t smile back. “Oh, no,” she said, seized by a jolt of fear. “I don’t think Milly sees that tire — and the boat’s going to crash into it any second. If it bumps too hard, the boat will sink!”

  Kirsty began waving her arms frantically above her head, trying to warn the little fairy. “Watch out!” she yelled. “Milly, get off the boat!”

  But the wind was so strong it carried Kirsty’s words away, and Milly didn’t seem to hear. She clearly thought Kirsty was just being friendly, so she smiled and waved back at her.

  “If Milly gets knocked into the water and her wings get wet, she won’t be able to fly,” Rachel realized. How horrible! “Milly! You’re going to crash!” she yelled, waving like Kirsty.

  It was no good. Milly went on waving and smiling back at them . . . until moments later, when Kirsty’s boat hit the tire with a bump. Then Rachel’s boat blew straight into Kirsty’s — and they both wobbled dangerously on the waves.

  “They’re sinking!” Kirsty cried in horror as she saw water splashing over the edge of her boat. It leaned to one side . . . but luckily, just as it was about to flip over, the girls saw Milly dart up into the air, her wings fluttering furiously as she zoomed away from the boats.

  Down went the boats. Their colored sides became soggy within moments. Milly flew over to the girls, her face blank and pale.

  “Are you OK?” Rachel asked, seeing the little fairy shivering all over. “We were trying to warn you about that tire but . . . ”

  Milly managed a smile. “Don’t feel bad, it’s not your fault,” she said in a silvery voice. “That tire should never have been in the lake in the first place. Since King Oberon and Queen Titania made me the fairy in charge of looking after rivers and waterways, I’ve been finding out just how bad water pollution is around the world. I really need to find my wand so that I can make the rivers and lakes cleaner.”

  Kirsty bit her lip. “And now our paper boats have added to the litter in the lake,” she said, looking sad. “I’m really sorry, Milly. We didn’t think.”

  Milly fluttered over to perch on Kirsty’s shoulder. “What’s done is done,” she said kindly. “And it wasn’t your fault the boats crashed and sank. It’s all the more reason why I should get my wand back!”

  “Well, we’ll certainly help you,” Rachel said at once. She remembered that King Oberon and Queen Titania had promised that if the Earth Fairies were succe
ssful during their trial period, they would be given the roles permanently. The more she and Kirsty learned about environmental issues, the more it sounded as if the world really needed some dedicated Earth Fairies to help clean it up.

  “Thanks,” Milly said, smiling at Rachel. “I have an idea about where my wand is. With the small amount of magic I have, I can take us all there now, if you’d like.”

  “Of course,” Kirsty said at once. “There’s nobody around to see us. Let’s go!”

  Milly sprinkled the girls with some glittering turquoise fairy dust, which made them shrink to her size. Next, delicate fairy wings appeared on their backs. Milly threw another handful of fairy dust over them all, and Kirsty and Rachel found themselves surrounded by a sparkling golden whirlwind that whisked them higher in the air.

  Rachel managed to grab Kirsty’s hand as they rose up in the golden mist. She clung to her friend, breathless with excitement. They were off on another fairy adventure!

  After a short time, Kirsty and Rachel felt their feet touch the ground once more, and the sparkly whirlwind cleared. They looked around and found that they were next to a wide river that had grassy banks on either side. The water in the river was clear and blue. It sparkled in the sunlight as it flowed along. Huge trees lined the riverbanks. Their red and gold leaves cast bright reflections in the river.

  “It’s beautiful here.” Rachel sighed. “Oh, look! Is that a deer?”

  They all turned to see where Rachel was pointing. Kirsty held her breath as the deer emerged from between the trees. The creature looked young and anxious, her wide eyes checking this way and that for danger as she trotted toward the river. The sun glinted off her reddish-brown coat as she bent her head gracefully to drink the water.

  Elsewhere, a group of squirrels was playing in a large beech tree. They scampered up and down the trunk, and swung from the branches like fluffy miniature acrobats. Little pink-and-white flowers grew in clumps around the trees, and birds called to one another. Kirsty and Rachel couldn’t stop smiling at the scene before them. It really seemed like a perfect place!

  Milly had tensed slightly. She seemed to be listening for something. Then she smiled, too. “My wand is near here, I can sense it,” she said. “Come on, let’s fly down the river and see if we can find it.”

  Rachel, Kirsty, and Milly fluttered up in the air and followed the river. After a few minutes of flying they rounded a bend in the river, and the scene changed abruptly. Ahead stood a big factory with smoke pouring from its chimneys. The sound of loud, rumbling machinery filled the air. Even worse, there was a dirty yellow scum on the surface of the water. “Ugh!” cried Rachel, wrinkling her nose. “Why does the river look like that?”

  Milly sighed. “The factory pumps its waste straight into here,” she said sadly. “That’s a really bad thing. The waste makes the water harmful to drink, and the fish living in the river get sick or die. The waste can also kill some of the plants that live in the river.”

  Kirsty felt upset hearing this. “That’s awful,” she said, noticing the way the yellow scum on the water clung to the edge of the grassy riverbank as it flowed past. And it smelled horrible, too — a nasty, chemical kind of smell.

  “Yes,” Rachel agreed, then she put her hands on her hips. “Well, it makes it even more important for us to find Milly’s wand and get it back for her, so that she can do something to clean up this river — and all the others like it.”

  “Yes,” said Milly. “And —” Then she stopped. “Oh, no,” she cried, pointing ahead. “We’ve got to stop that deer. Hurry!”

  She flew off at top speed, and Kirsty and Rachel realized why: The deer was heading toward this part of the river. If the deer drank from the dirty water, she could get sick. Milly used her magic to cast a spell so that she would be able to talk to the deer. Flapping their wings as hard as they could, Kirsty and Rachel flew after the little fairy.

  “Don’t drink that!” Milly called out, swooping toward the animal, who was just bending her head down to the water. “Please! It’s polluted — really dirty and full of bad chemicals. It might make you sick if you swallow it.”

  The deer raised her head and blinked her large brown eyes at the sight of Milly, and Rachel and Kirsty, who were just behind their fairy friend. Then she gazed down at the water with a sad look on her face. “Thank you for the warning,” she said. “My name’s Dotty.”

  “I’m Milly, and this is Kirsty and Rachel,” the fairy said. “There’s some fresh, clean water farther upstream, once you get past this smelly factory. It’ll be much nicer to drink than this.”

  Dotty smiled at her and bobbed her head. “Thank you,” she said again. “Usually I drink farther down the river, but there are some very strange creatures there today, making a lot of noise. I was a little scared of them, so thought I’d come here instead.”

  Rachel’s ears perked up at the deer’s words. “What kind of strange creatures?” she asked.

  Dotty gave a shudder. “Horrible, shouty creatures,” she said. “They’re like little green men, and they’re sailing on the river, frightening all the animals with their screaming and hollering.”

  “Little green men?” Kirsty echoed, her eyes lighting up. “I think we know who they are.”

  “Goblins!” cried Rachel and Milly.

  “Dotty, you’re the best,” Milly said, patting the deer’s black nose.

  “I am?” Dotty asked, looking puzzled.

  “You are.” Kirsty smiled. “Thank you. We have to fly now. Good-bye!”

  Kirsty, Rachel, and Milly set off, following the river again as it wound its way through the woodland. They left the factory behind, and the water began to become clear again. It also became much faster, Rachel noticed. In fact, after a while, the current of the river was so strong that the water was positively rushing along below them, splashing and bubbling as it tumbled over the rocky riverbed.

  A short time later, they heard high-pitched shrieks and excited cheers. “That’s definitely the goblins,” said Milly. “But what are they doing?”

  It wasn’t long before the three fairies found out. When they rounded the next bend in the river they saw four goblins racing along on homemade rafts, two on each one.

  “Look what that goblin is holding,” Milly exclaimed, pointing down at them. “My wand!”

  Kirsty and Rachel saw that a goblin with a big nose had a sparkly magic wand in his hand. He was using it to show the other goblins which way they should sail.

  “Straight ahead!” they heard him shout. “Wheeee! This is fun.”

  “Let’s hide in this tree and make a plan,” Milly suggested in a low voice. “The goblins don’t know that we’ve found them — we should keep it that way for as long as we can.”

  “Good thinking,” Rachel said as they perched on a leafy branch. “If they don’t know we’re here, we can surprise them.”

  Kirsty nodded. “They’re focusing so hard on racing that they’re only looking ahead, and not up in the air.” She leaned over slightly to watch the noisy goblins. “Maybe if we dive straight down from above, we’ll be able to catch them off guard and grab the wand before they even know we’re there.”

  “Yay!” Rachel cheered. “They won’t know what hit them.”

  Milly seemed to like the idea, too. “As soon as I touch the wand, it’ll shrink to its Fairyland size, so I’ll easily be able to carry it away,” she said. “Let’s do it!”

  The three fairies set off, swooping high above the goblins on their rafts. The goblins had obviously built the rafts themselves out of pieces of garbage, Kirsty realized. One seemed to be made of planks tied to some big plastic barrels, while the other was made of wooden poles that had been wound together with twine. The goblins were using flat pieces of wood as paddles.

  The big-nosed goblin was holding the wand in front of him. “Keep going,” he said bossily. “There’s a bend coming up, make sure you steer into it, remember.”

  The goblin sitting next to him rolled his eye
s. “All right, all right, Captain Hook,” he muttered under his breath.

  The goblin with the wand scowled. “I told you not to call me that!” he snapped.

  Kirsty and Rachel had to press their hands to their mouths to stop themselves from giggling.

  “I think this might be a good time to grabthe wand,” Milly suggested with a grin. “Here I go. . . .”

  Down she plunged, arms pointed straight in front of her as she flew. Kirsty and Rachel watched in excitement. For once, this is actually going to be easy, Rachel thought with a smile.

  But just as she was about to say as much to Kirsty, both rafts knocked into a boulder in the middle of the river with a bump. The goblin holding the wand staggered, trying to regain his balance. The wand went flying out of his hand!

  Milly made a dive for it, but she was too late . . . and the wand landed in the water with a splash. She gasped.

  A look of horror spread over Milly’s face. “The wand’s floating away,” she cried to Kirsty and Rachel. “Come on — we’ve got to find it before it’s lost forever. Follow that wand!”

  The goblins looked up in annoyance as they heard Milly’s shout. “Fairies? Yuck!” wailed a tall goblin. “They’re after our wand, I bet. Well, we can’t let them get it!”