Stephanie the Starfish Fairy Read online

  Starry Skies

  Trapped!

  Searching for Spike

  Tide Pool Discoveries

  Shannon to the Rescue

  Super Stars!

  “The ocean sounds so much louder at night, doesn’t it?” Kirsty Tate said to her best friend, Rachel Walker. They were making their way down to Leamouth beach in the darkness. Stars twinkled in the sky above them and a full moon cast silvery streaks on the waves.

  “It feels completely different at night,” Rachel agreed. “No noisy seagulls, no ice-cream trucks, no families making sandcastles …”

  Kirsty smiled. “It’s really nice,” she said, hugging herself to keep warm as a cool breeze swept in from the water. “Just like everything else about this vacation, really!”

  Both girls were staying with Kirsty’s gran for a week during their spring vacation. Kirsty wasn’t exaggerating when she said they’d been having a great time. In fact, it had been magical!

  The two friends had been helping the Ocean Fairies look for the seven missing pieces of a magic golden conch shell that had been smashed by Jack Frost’s goblins. So far, they’d found four pieces of the shell and had four wonderful fairy adventures. But there were still three more pieces left to find.

  Tonight they’d been invited to join Gran’s astronomy club for an evening picnic on the beach. The forecast said it was going to be a beautiful, clear night. Gran and her friends had brought card tables and picnic baskets to the beach, plus some impressive-looking telescopes.

  Kirsty and Rachel helped set the food out as the guests arrived. Then, as the sky grew darker, Gran pointed out some of the constellations. “There are eighty-eight constellations, or ‘groups of stars’,” she told the girls, and pointed up. “There’s an easy one—the Great Bear or, as it’s also known, the Big Dipper. Do you see the shape of a ladle up there?”

  Rachel and Kirsty peered at where she was pointing. “Yes!”

  Rachel cried excitedly. “I see it. There’s the handle, and there’s the scoop.”

  “Oh, yeah!” Kirsty said, gazing up.

  “Well, the ‘Big Dipper’ is part of the Great Bear,” Gran explained. “The handle is the bear’s tail, and the ‘dipper’ is part of the bear’s body. If you look carefully, you can see legs and the shape of his head, too.” She smiled at the girls through the darkness. “It’s a little like connecting the dots to make a picture.”

  While Gran passed around cups of coffee from her thermos to the adults, Kirsty and Rachel continued to stare at the stars. They tried hard to spot more pictures. “I can see a violin,” Rachel said, showing Kirsty. “It’s just like Victoria the Violin Fairy’s.”

  “Oh, yes,” Kirsty said. “And there’s a shoe with ribbons attached, just like Ruby the Red Fairy’s!”

  An excited cheer went up among the astronomy club members at that moment, and the girls saw that some of them were pointing at the sky.

  “A shooting star!” Gran exclaimed. “Well, I never. That’s very special. Make a wish, girls!”

  “I wish we could meet another Ocean Fairy soon,” Rachel murmured at once.

  Kirsty heard her. “That’s what I wished for, too,” she whispered. “We have to find the other pieces of the magic golden conch shell. We only have two days left in Leamouth and there are still three pieces missing!”

  The golden conch shell was very important. Every year at a grand oceanside gala, Shannon the Ocean Fairy played a special song on the shell, ensuring order throughout the world’s oceans. Before she’d been able to play it this year, though, Jack Frost had sent his goblins to snatch the conch shell from her. He said he didn’t like the beach because it was too hot and too noisy, and he didn’t see why anyone else should have fun there.

  Unfortunately, the goblins had fought over who got to carry the shell. Then they’d dropped it onto the floor, where it smashed into seven pieces. The Ocean Fairies had all tried to grab the broken pieces, but before they could reach them, Jack Frost had cast a spell that sent the shattered shell into the human world. Then he’d vanished.

  The fairy queen had used her magic to send each of the Ocean Fairies’ special animal helpers out into the oceans to guard a piece of the broken conch shell. Since then, Kirsty and Rachel had been helping the Ocean Fairies find their animal friends. Each time, the animals had led them to another piece of the shell. But Jack Frost’s sneaky goblins were looking for the shell pieces, too. They were desperate to please Jack Frost by finding them before the fairies did.

  The shooting star fell now, past the constellations that looked like Victoria’s violin and Ruby’s shoe. “Here, girls,” came a voice. It was one of Gran’s friends, a nice old man named Frank. “Would you like to watch the shooting star through this telescope? You’ll be able to see it more clearly.”

  “Yes, please,” said Rachel, putting her eye on the telescope viewer. She started with excitement as she saw the shooting star magnified. Only it wasn’t actually a shooting star at all. It was Stephanie the Starfish Fairy!

  “Kirsty, take a look,” Rachel said meaningfully, trying very hard not to show how happy she was in front of the astronomers.

  Kirsty took her turn at the telescope and peered through the lens. She gasped as she saw what Rachel had noticed. There was Stephanie, her short red hair blowing in the wind as she flew. She was wearing black pants, a turquoise vest, and wedge sandals. She was heading right for a group of tide pools farther up the beach, her tiny body glowing in the darkness. Was she trying to alert the girls that she was there, Kirsty wondered?

  Rachel smiled to herself, too. She was sure Stephanie had come to the beach to look for her starfish, Spike. Hopefully that meant another piece of the magical shell was nearby!

  “Thank you,” Kirsty said politely to Frank, moving away from the telescope. “She—I mean it—looks wonderful close-up.”

  Stephanie’s bright light suddenly vanished as she plunged to earth, and the grown-ups returned to their picnic.

  “I think we should investigate,” Kirsty murmured to Rachel. “Come on, let’s ask my gran if we can take a walk.”

  Kirsty’s gran was helping herself to a plate of sandwiches. “Of course you can go exploring,” she said, when the girls asked. “You both have flashlights, right? Just be careful where you walk. The seaweed might be slippery. Stay away from the water’s edge—and don’t go too far.”

  “We won’t,” Rachel promised. The girls hurried away, shining their flashlights along the beach. “I wonder where Stephanie is,” she said to Kirsty, once they were a safe distance from the grown-ups. A cloud had slipped over the moon, making the beach seem much darker.

  The girls ran their flashlights over the sand and rocks, but couldn’t see any sign of the little fairy.

  “I hope she didn’t fall in one of the tide pools,” Kirsty said anxiously. “She’d be in trouble if her wings got soggy. She wouldn’t be able to fly!”

  She and Rachel were just starting to worry when Stephanie’s sparkly light reappeared. “Oh, there she is!” Rachel gasped excitedly. “I wonder why she’s shining like that though.”

  The two friends stared at the little fairy’s bright light zipping around frantically in all directions. “I think she’s just letting us know where she is,” Kirsty replied. “Come on, let’s shine our lights over there so we can see her better.”

  She and Rachel both held out their lights and tilted them so that the beams illuminated Stephanie. In dismay, they realized why the fairy was thrashing around. She’d been caught in a tide pool net—held by a goblin!

  “Oh, no,” Rachel whispered. “Come on, we’ve got to help her!”

  They ran toward Stephanie and the goblin, but soon saw that he was
n’t alone. There were three goblins, all dressed in black with brown camouflage blotches on their faces. The camouflage had made them very hard to see in the dark.

  “What are those lights?” one of the goblins asked, blinking as the flashlights lit up his face. “I can’t see anything with them in my eyes.”

  “Move away from them then, silly,” another goblin snapped. “Hurry up and tie that net before the fairy escapes.”

  “Help!” cried Stephanie, still fighting to get out. “Help me!”

  The girls rushed over, but they were too late. One of the goblins used a long piece of seaweed to tie up the top of the net. Stephanie was trapped!

  Alarmed, Rachel and Kirsty snapped off their lights and ducked down behind the rocks, just out of sight. Stephanie was giving off just enought light for them to see the goblins carrying the net around the tide pools. They held it above the water and peered down. “She is the starfish fairy, I suppose,” Kirsty thought out loud. “Maybe she always shines like a star?”

  “Yes, and now the goblins are using her light to help them hunt for Spike, I bet,” Rachel realized, her heart thumping. It was horrible to see poor Stephanie swinging around so helplessly in that net.

  “We’ve got to get her out of there,” Kirsty muttered, “and somehow find Spike before the goblins do. Let me think….”

  Before the girls could come up with a good plan, they both noticed a pink sparkly light coming from a nearby pool. The goblins spotted it, too. “Aha! That must be the starfish!” They cheered and rushed over.

  Rachel felt tense as she watched them searching. “Where is it?” the goblins grumbled. “Silly starfish, we saw you sparkling. We know you’re over here somewhere!”

  “I don’t see anything,” one of them muttered angrily after they’d splashed around for a while. “We must have been seeing things.”

  “There’s a different sparkly light!” another goblin yelled, sounding happier. “Maybe that’s the starfish.”

  The goblins hurried over to another pool. Kirsty and Rachel could see a faint shimmering coming from underneath the water. But as soon as the goblins reached the pool, this light vanished just like the last one.

  “I wonder if that really is Spike,” Kirsty whispered to Rachel as the goblins hunted without success. “I’m starting to think that Stephanie is making those lights with fairy magic to fool the goblins!”

  Rachel nodded. “I bet you’re right,” she said. “Good for her. While she’s keeping them busy running around after the different lights, we should try to find Spike ourselves. Where should we look first?”

  “Hmmm,” said Kirsty. “Well, my guess is that Stephanie was heading straight for Spike before she was captured.” She gazed up at the stars. “She went past the violin shape, didn’t she? And then past Ruby’s shoe …” She paused, staring at the sky in surprise. “I don’t remember that constellation, do you?”

  Rachel looked up at the pattern of stars Kirsty had spotted next to the shoe. “Your gran said it was like connecting the dots, didn’t she?” Rachel said, trying to figure out the picture in this new constellation. Then she gave a squeak of excitement as she realized what it was. “A starfish! It’s a clue!” Kirsty grinned. “Stephanie must have used her fairy magic to make it,” she said happily. “She’s showing us where she thinks Spike is—and hopefully where another piece of the conch shell is, too. Let’s go!”

  The girls crept over to the tide pool directly underneath the starfish constellation. They had to be quiet so the goblins didn’t see or hear them. Thankfully, the goblins had been led to yet another sparkly light in the opposite direction. They were busily splashing around over there, moaning about how much they hated getting wet.

  As Kirsty and Rachel reached the tide pool, the moon slid out from behind the clouds again. Suddenly, it was much easier to see what they were doing. They could see mussel shells and barnacles around the edge of the pool and—hooray! Right at the edge of the shallow water, pulsing with a faint pink light, was a starfish. “Ooh,” Rachel whispered excitedly. “Spike, is that you?”

  The girls peered closely at the pinkish yellow starfish lying in the pool. They grinned as it lifted up one arm and gave them a little wave.

  “So it is you, Spike,” Kirsty said happily. “Yay!” She put a hand in the pool to pick him up and Spike hopped into her palm. “I wonder where the shell is? Have you been guarding it, Spike?”

  Previously, when they’d found the magic ocean creatures, their fairy friends had been there to translate for them. This time, the girls would have to figure it out on their own. Spike wriggled on Kirsty’s hand as if he wanted desperately to tell her something. “What do you think he wants us to know?” Rachel wondered. “It’s too bad Stephanie isn’t here to tell us what he’s saying,” Kirsty said. Just then, Rachel caught a glimpse of something golden hidden under some seaweed in the tide pool. ‘Oh,” she said, lifting up the seaweed. “It’s the shell!”

  The mussels in the pool began opening and closing their own shells as if they were applauding. Spike seemed to dance a little jig of joy on Kirsty’s hand.

  Rachel beamed as she scooped up the golden piece of conch shell. This was the fifth piece they’d found!

  “This is great,” Kirsty said happily. “We’ve found Spike and the shell! Now we just need to rescue Stephanie so she can take them both back to Fairyland.”

  She and Rachel glanced over to where Stephanie was still using her fairy magic to cast sparkles in the pools to trick the goblins. “The lights she’s making look fainter to me,” Rachel said anxiously. “Oh, no. She must be very tired by now, with all the magic she’s used,” Kirsty said. “What should we do?”

  Rachel thought for a moment. The goblins were sounding more and more bad-tempered as they continued to hunt for Spike. They would get even angrier if she and Kirsty tried to rescue Stephanie. If only they had someone to help them!

  Then an idea came to Rachel. “We could use our lockets to go to Fairyland and ask for help,” she suggested. She grabbed the pretty locket that hung around her neck. The fairy king and queen had given one to both Rachel and Kirsty, and they contained fairy dust that could take them to Fairyland.

  “Good idea,” Kirsty said. She opened her locket and sprinkled fairy dust over herself. She scattered some of the glittering dust over Spike, too, and then she and Rachel held hands. Usually, a sparkly whirlwind came and whisked them away to Fairyland.

  But nothing happened this time. “That’s strange,” Rachel said. “Maybe it only works in daylight.”

  “Maybe we didn’t use enough,” Kirsty said. She sprinkled another pinch of dust over herself. But still nothing happened.

  Spike squirmed on her hand and Kirsty glanced down at him. “I wonder if it’s because Spike’s not with Stephanie?” she said to Rachel. “Maybe the magic won’t let us take him or the shell back without Stephanie.” She bit her lip. “Looks like we’ll have to leave them both behind while we go get help.”

  “We’ll hide you very carefully, Spike,” Rachel said, as Kirsty lowered him back into the pool. “And we’ll hide the piece of shell, too.”

  The girls tucked Spike and the golden piece of conch into a group of anemones. They were the exact same shade of pink as Spike, and their waving fronds closed around him. It seemed like they knew they had to keep him and the shell out of sight.

  The moment the girls finished, a whirlwind sparkling with twinkling stars whipped up around them. They were off to Fairyland!

  A few seconds later, Rachel and Kirsty felt themselves being lowered gently to the ground, and the whirlwind vanished. They looked around to see that they were in Fairyland. The whirlwind had brought them right to the Royal Aquarium where their Ocean Fairy adventures had all begun!

  Sitting outside the aquarium was Shannon the Ocean Fairy herself, her wings drooping sadly. She jumped up, looking much more cheerful when she saw the girls nearby. ‘Oh, hello!” she called. “Have you found another piece of the golden conch?”
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br />   “Yes, we have,” Rachel replied, “and we’ve found Spike. But there’s a problem.”

  She and Kirsty explained that Stephanie had been captured by the goblins and was being held prisoner in their fishing net. “Stephanie seems really tired now, and we’re worried about her,” Kirsty finished. “Will you help us rescue her?”

  Shannon nodded. “Of course,” she replied. “Let’s go to Leamouth!”

  Shannon waved her wand and a whirlwind appeared, pulling the three of them up into the air. It spun faster and faster until everything was a blur of rainbow colors and glitter. Moments later, they were back in Leamouth—but Kirsty and Rachel weren’t their usual human selves any more. Shannon had turned them into fairies! They each had beautiful sparkling wings on their backs.

  “Down here,” Shannon cried, darting behind a large rock. “Oh!” she said in surprise.

  Kirsty and Rachel flew quickly after her, wondering what she’d found. “Puffins!” exclaimed Rachel, recognizing the comical-looking black-and-white birds. “I’ve never seen a real one before!”

  Shannon frowned. “I’ve certainly never seen them at night before,” she replied, before flying up to the biggest puffin. “Guys, you’re supposed to be asleep now, not wandering around on the beach!” She shook her head. “This is because the golden conch shell is still broken,” she told Rachel and Kirsty. “The ocean creatures are all mixed up. The sooner we can fix the shell and I can play my ocean song on it, the better.”

  Kirsty glanced around for the goblins. “There they are,” she said, spotting them nearby. “And there’s Stephanie in the net. Can you see her?” The silvery moon above them cast just enough light to show poor Stephanie lying at the bottom of the goblins’ net.