Savannah the Zebra Fairy

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Map

  Poem

  A Deer Display

  Fairy in Hiding

  Stampede!

  A Zany Zebra

  Roped In!

  A Magic Touch

  Teaser

  Copyright

  “I wonder what junior ranger badges we’ll earn today,” said Rachel Walker as she got out of the car at the Wild Woods Nature Reserve.

  “I hope we’ll be spending time with the animals again,” said her best friend Kirsty Tate. “Since the fairies gave us the gift of being able to understand what animals say, I want to be with them all the time!”

  The girls smiled at each other happily. As friends of Fairyland, they were used to magical adventures. But this summer they were having a non-magical adventure, too. They were spending a week as volunteer junior rangers at Wild Woods Nature Reserve. Every day, the junior rangers earned badges for their backpacks by doing jobs around the reserve. Rachel and Kirsty had already earned three badges.

  “This week is going so fast,” said Rachel. “I can’t believe it’s already our fourth day!”

  “Look, there’s Becky,” said Kirsty, seeing the head of the reserve walking toward them. “Come on, let’s find out what she wants us to do today.”

  The girls waved good-bye to Mrs. Tate, who had driven them to the nature reserve.

  “Good morning, girls!” said Becky. “I’ve got an exciting job for you. I want you to feed our herd of deer. They’re some of the sweetest animals on the reserve, and there’s a baby fawn that’s especially cute. But he’s very shy, so you might not see him.”

  The girls could hardly believe their ears. The beautiful deer were one of the main visitor attractions at the reserve.

  “Really?” Rachel gasped. “Thank you, Becky!”

  “It’s like a dream come true!” said Kirsty.

  “Well, let’s get started, then!” said Becky with a laugh.

  She led the girls over to where four large buckets were waiting on the ground.

  “These are full of deer feed,” said Becky.

  “What do the deer eat?” asked Kirsty, looking into the buckets.

  “It’s a special mixture of fruit and grasses,” Becky told them. “The visitors love to watch them being fed every day.”

  “Why do the deer have to be fed by humans?” Rachel asked. “Isn’t there enough food for them growing at the nature reserve?”

  “That’s a really good question,” said Becky. “There’s plenty of food for the deer growing here, but we do a special daily feeding display for the visitors so they can see the animals close-up.”

  Carrying two buckets each, the girls followed Becky to a pretty meadow, full of clover and buttercups. On the far side of the meadow was a leafy forest, and a fence surrounded the other three sides. There were lots of people standing beside the fence. They looked excited and hopeful.

  “Look, the visitors are gathering already,” said Becky. “I’ll go over and talk to them while you scatter the food around. The deer will be here soon—they know when it’s feeding time!”

  She walked over to the fence, and Rachel and Kirsty made their way slowly through the meadow toward the woods, scattering the deer feed as they went.

  “My heart’s thumping like crazy,” said Kirsty in a whisper. “We’re actually going to see real-life deer!”

  “Look!” said Rachel in a thrilled voice.

  Two deer were stepping out of the woods and into the meadow. One was a female with a velvet-soft coat, and the other was a buck with large antlers. They moved with incredible grace, and they shyly blinked their big eyes as they looked at the girls. Kirsty smiled and scattered a little more food. The animals moved closer. Then more of the herd came out from between the trees. Soon the girls were surrounded by lots of deer wanting food.

  “Listen,” said Kirsty. “They’re whispering to one another!”

  “Not many visitors today,” the girls heard one buck saying to another.

  “Eat up, everybody,” said a third.

  “Mmm, scrumptious clover,” murmured a young female deer behind Rachel.

  “I’m so glad that you like it,” said Rachel in a soft voice.

  The deer all perked up their ears and stared at her with interest.

  “How unusual,” said an older female. “Humans who really know how to communicate!”

  “We’re friends with the fairies,” Kirsty explained to them. “They gave us the magical power to talk to animals.”

  “It was the best gift ever,” Rachel added.

  “Yes,” said Kirsty thoughtfully, turning to her best friend. “But we shouldn’t forget why they gave it to us. We promised to help protect the animals from Jack Frost and his goblins! We can’t let him take animals from the wild—you can’t just collect animals like that.”

  On their first day at Wild Woods Nature Reserve, the girls had traveled to Fairyland and met the Baby Animal Rescue Fairies, who looked after animals in both Fairyland and in the human world. While they were there, Jack Frost had stolen the fairies’ magic key chains and ordered his goblins to bring him lots of animals from the human world. He wanted to put them in a private zoo for his own selfish enjoyment. Kirsty and Rachel had vowed to stop him, and the fairies had given them the power to talk to animals.

  “We’ve already saved a panda, a tiger, and a meerkat,” said Rachel. “I wonder if the fairies will need our help again today!”

  The girls scattered some more feed around the meadow.

  “I hope you enjoy your meal,” said Kirsty, smiling at the deer.

  “It’s nice to meet some humans who really understand us,” said a handsome buck. “The others who work here are very nice, but they don’t always seem to know what we want.”

  “Do you like living at the reserve?” asked Rachel.

  “It’s wonderful here,” said the buck. “All the food we can eat, and huge, tree-filled areas to live in. It’s perfect.”

  The girls smiled, and Kirsty took off her blue-and-white sun hat and wiped her forehead. The day was getting hotter and hotter. The hat slipped out of her hand and fell onto the ground. Before Kirsty could pick it up, the handsome buck had stepped on it by accident.

  “I’m very sorry,” he said, lifting his hoof. “I hope I didn’t mess it up.”

  “Oh, no, it’s fine,” said Kirsty. She picked it up and hooked it over a twig on a tree at the edge of the woods for safekeeping.

  Rachel was gazing around at the deer who were happily feeding. A different buck gently nudged her with his antlers. “There seems to be a little more food in that bucket …” he remarked.

  Rachel laughed and bent down to empty the rest of the food onto the grass. As she straightened up, she saw something move among the trees in front of her.

  “Kirsty, look over there,” she whispered. “I think it’s the baby fawn that Becky was talking about.”

  Both girls gazed over and saw a small, dappled fawn that was trying to hide behind a tree.

  “Oh, he’s shy,” said Kirsty.

  She held out her hand and walked toward the fawn.

  “Leave some for the others, OK?” Rachel said to the buck with a grin.

  She followed Kirsty toward the trees.

  “There’s some tasty food over here,” Kirsty said in a soft voice. “Why don’t you come and try some?”

  The little fawn took a few steps back.

  “There’s plenty to go around,” said Rachel.

  But the fawn hid his face behind a large bush.

  “Don’t be scared,” said Kirsty in a kind voice.

  At that moment, Rachel heard a faint, tinkling voice. She put her hand on Kirsty’s ar
m.

  “Listen!” she said.

  “Rachel!” came the voice again. “Kirsty!”

  “It’s a fairy!” said Kirsty.

  The girls looked around, trying to follow the sound of the voice.

  “It’s coming from your sun hat!” said Rachel.

  They ran over to the tree where Kirsty had hung her hat, but there was no one there.

  “I’m sure that it came from over here,” said Rachel, feeling confused.

  They heard a tiny giggle.

  “It’s nice to see you again,” said the voice.

  Kirsty stared more closely at her hat, and then a big smile spread across her face.

  “It’s Savannah the Zebra Fairy!” she said.

  It was no wonder that they could hardly see Savannah against the blue-and-white stripes of the hat. The fairy was wearing a blue-striped tunic dress with dark leggings. Savannah’s reddish-brown hair glinted in the sunlight as she hovered in front of them.

  “Hello, Savannah!” said Rachel in an excited voice. “We almost didn’t see you.”

  “My stripes camouflage me,” said Savannah, turning a little pirouette against the backdrop of the hat. “None of the human visitors can see me, even though I’m in full view. I blend right in!”

  “That’s amazing,” said Kirsty, looking at all the visitors. “Some of them are looking right at you, Savannah. That’s so clever.”

  “I learned it from my friends the zebras,” said Savannah. “They have stripes that camouflage them on the grassy plains.”

  “It would be amazing to see a real zebra,” said Rachel.

  “Actually, I’ve come to ask if you’d like to see some right now,” said Savannah. “You see, there are some goblins chasing them, and they’re getting scared … I would really appreciate your help.”

  “We’ll come right away!” said Kirsty.

  “We’ll do anything we can to stop Jack Frost and his goblins,” said Rachel.

  The girls glanced back at the deer. They were finishing the food the girls had scattered. Becky was still talking to the visitors, and no one was looking at the girls. They slipped behind the tree where the fawn had hidden.

  Savannah lifted her wand and waved it over the girls in a zigzag pattern. Instantly, they felt the power of Savannah’s magic sweep them into the air, and the trees around them disappeared.

  “I feel as if I’ve walked into a sauna,” said Kirsty, looking around. “Wow, where are we?”

  They were standing on a grassy plain. It stretched so far in all directions that the girls couldn’t see where it ended or began. The sky was bright blue, and everything shimmered in the heat.

  “What’s that noise?” asked Rachel.

  Savannah and Kirsty listened. They could hear a thundering roar, which seemed to be getting louder. Then Kirsty turned around and yelled.

  “Stampede!”

  A herd of zebras was pounding toward them across the plain!

  Savannah waved her wand again and the girls were transformed into fairies. In the blink of an eye, they were zooming upward. Their wings fluttered so fast that they were blurry with speed.

  They were just in time! The fairies felt a rush of air as the herd of zebras charged underneath them.

  “Look!” cried Rachel, pointing to the back of the stampede.

  A baby zebra was scampering along, trying to keep up.

  “He looks scared,” said Savannah. “Come on, let’s go and see him.”

  She led Rachel and Kirsty over the crowd of zebras until they were flying alongside the baby zebra.

  “Hello, little one,” said Savannah.

  “These are my friends Rachel and Kirsty. Why are you all running?”

  “I’m Ziggy,” said the little zebra in a breathless voice. “Haven’t you

  seen the strange green things? They’re scary!”

  Two adult zebras slowed down and trotted back to Ziggy.

  “Mom, Dad!” cried Ziggy. “I’m glad to see you! Look, I made some new friends!”

  “Ziggy, you have to stay with the herd,” said his mother. “It’s dangerous to be alone when those strange creatures are around.”

  “What were they like?” asked Savannah.

  “There were four of them,” said Ziggy’s father. “Green creatures with enormous feet and long noses.”

  Rachel and Kirsty exchanged a suspicious glance.

  “That sounds like goblins,” said Rachel.

  “Maybe if we follow the zebras’ hoofprints back the way they came, we can find the goblins,” said Kirsty.

  “Great plan!” Savannah said, turning around with a determined expression.

  The three friends rose high above the grassy plain, following the zebras’ hoofprints in the other direction. They flew a long way, tracking the prints back across the grass. They flew over wide-spreading trees. Finally, Rachel called out.

  “Look—down there!” she cried.

  Two goblins were sitting beside a watering hole, holding a big brown sack.

  The girls fluttered down and hid in the long grass around the watering hole. The goblins were talking loudly, not thinking that anyone could be listening.

  “We have to catch the baby zebra before the other two,” said the shorter goblin.

  “Who is he talking about?” asked Rachel in a whisper. “Who else would be trying to catch Ziggy?”

  “Ziggy’s parents said that they had seen four green creatures,” Kirsty remembered. “There must be two more goblins around here somewhere. Maybe they’re having a competition to see who can catch Ziggy first.”

  “Those mean goblins!” said Savannah.

  “The others have that fairy’s key chain toy to help them catch the zebra,” said the tall goblin in a gloomy voice. “We don’t stand a chance.”

  “Don’t be silly,” said the short goblin. “We have a bag full of zebra traps, and all they have is that little fluffy toy.”

  He opened the sack and pulled out a large net, herbs and twigs to attract the zebra, and a rope tied at the end like a lasso.

  “Jack Frost will be very pleased with us when we bring him that baby zebra,” the short goblin continued. “He’ll probably give us a big reward.”

  Kirsty put her hand over her mouth, looking upset.

  “They’re planning to use those horrible things to catch Ziggy!” she said in a low voice. “We have to stop them!”

  Rachel was thinking about Ziggy running along with his family. Suddenly, she had an idea.

  “Savannah, can you use magic to make the sound of a zebra stampede?” she asked. “If we can make the goblins think that they hear the zebras, maybe we can lure them away from where Ziggy really is.”

  “That’s a great idea,” said Savannah.

  She waved her wand, and suddenly the girls heard the thunder of zebra hooves. The sound was coming from the opposite direction of where the zebras had really gone.

  “Listen!” said the tall goblin, sitting up very straight. “That’s the zebras—it’s coming from over there! Come on!”

  They stuffed their equipment back into the sack and ran off with it—far away from the zebras!

  Rachel, Kirsty, and Savannah burst into laughter.

  “That’s two goblins out of the way,” said Kirsty.

  “Which leaves two more to find, as well as Savannah’s key chain,” said Rachel.

  “Let’s go back and check on Ziggy,” Savannah suggested.

  The three friends zoomed up, enjoying the warmth of the sun on their wings. They flew back across the grassy plain to the zebras. The herd had stopped running, and they were grazing on the juicy grass.

  Kirsty and Rachel spiraled down, followed by Savannah.

  “All I can see is black and white,” said Rachel with a laugh.

  “And green,” said Kirsty in a worried voice. “Look at that zebra over there. It has green-and-white stripes!”

  The strange-looking zebra was in the center of the herd, moving steadily toward Ziggy and his pare
nts.

  Savannah frowned and waved her wand. All their outfits changed, and they were now each wearing a black-and-white tunic dress.

  “The stripes will help to camouflage us,” the little fairy explained. “Come on—we have to save Ziggy!”

  They swooped down and landed on Ziggy’s back. But he didn’t seem to notice them. He was moving through the crowd of zebras, faster and faster, leaving his parents behind. Rachel stood up on his back and peered ahead.

  “He’s moving toward the green-and-white zebra,” she said.

  Kirsty stood up, too, and she and Rachel held hands. Ziggy was galloping now, and they had to flutter their wings to keep their balance.

  “Look at the green zebra’s feet,” said Savannah. “They’re enormous!”

  They were very close now. Suddenly they heard a grumbling voice coming from the back end of the zebra.

  “What’s going on?” said the voice. “Haven’t you caught that zebra yet?”

  “That’s not a zebra,” said Rachel. “It’s two goblins in disguise!”

  There was a muffled squawk from the front end of the zebra.

  “The goblin at the front must have something in his mouth,” said Rachel.

  “I bet it’s Savannah’s magic key chain,” said Kirsty in excitement. “That must be why Ziggy’s following the green-and-white zebra. The goblins are using Savannah’s special charm to get Ziggy away from the herd.”

  “How are we going to get it back from inside a zebra costume?” asked Savannah.

  She sounded defeated. Rachel and Kirsty squeezed her hands.

  “I have an idea,” said Kirsty. “If all the zebras go for a drink at the watering hole, the goblin zebra will have to open its mouth to drink …”

  “And it’ll drop the key chain,” finished Rachel. “Awesome idea, Kirsty!”

  “But how can we get the zebras to go for a drink?” Kirsty asked. “Can you cast a spell, Savannah?”