The Petal Fairies Collection Read online

  Cover

  Map

  Poem

  The Petal Fairies #1: Tia the Tulip Fairy

  The Petal Fairies #2: Pippa the Poppy Fairy

  The Petal Fairies #3: Louise the Lily Fairy

  The Petal Fairies #4: Charlotte the Sunflower Fairy

  The Petal Fairies #5: Olivia the Orchid Fairy

  The Petal Fairies #6: Danielle the Daisy Fairy

  The Petal Fairies #7: Ella the Rose Fairy

  Also Available

  Copyright

  A Fairy Garden

  Petal Thieves

  Goblins Get Magic

  It’s Raining Petals!

  A Silly Spell

  The Wrong End of the Stick

  “I think the Fairy Garden must be through here,” Rachel Walker said, pointing to an iron gate. She and her friend Kirsty Tate were exploring the grounds of Blossom Hall, an old hotel where their families were staying for spring vacation. Both girls had been interested to hear the owner of Blossom Hall, Mrs. Forrest, talk as she’d served their breakfast that morning. She told them about the history of the hotel. It once had been a large house with a very special garden — a fairy garden. This caught the girls’ attention. After all, Kirsty and Rachel knew a lot about fairies: They were friends with them!

  “It’s known as the Fairy Garden because there is a perfect ring of tulips growing in the middle of it,”

  Mrs. Forrest had explained. “We call it the Blossom Fairy Ring. And you’ve come at just the right time of year. The tulips are blooming and they look beautiful, though I don’t think they’re as bright as they were last year.”

  As soon as they’d finished their breakfast, Rachel and Kirsty had asked their parents if it was all right for them to go exploring. The families had arrived at Blossom Hall the night before, and the girls were excited to look around in the warmth of the morning sun. From the breakfast room, the gardens looked very pretty. They had pink-and-white flowering cherry trees, long rolling lawns, and clusters of cheerful flowers.

  “Of course you can explore,” Mr. Tate had said. “Just make sure you stay inside the wall that runs around Blossom Hall and its gardens.”

  Mrs. Forrest had told the girls to follow the winding path that led through a group of trees at the back of the house. “You’ll come to a walled garden, with a gate on one side,” she’d said. “The Fairy Garden is in there.”

  The girls followed Mrs. Forrest’s directions, and now Rachel lifted the latch of the gate eagerly. “Here we are!” she said, pushing it open.

  The girls stepped into the walled garden together. “It’s beautiful!” Kirsty exclaimed, taking in the rambling roses that climbed the walls and the old stone fountain in one corner.

  “It’s just the kind of place you can imagine a real fairy visiting,” Rachel said, smiling. “And that must be the Blossom Fairy Ring!” she added, pointing to a circle of yellow and orange tulips. The bright flowers grew in a grassy area at the very middle of the peaceful little garden.

  “How pretty!” Kirsty said. She walked over for a closer look and noticed that some of the tulips were wilting. She stopped and listened carefully. “Rachel, do you hear someone crying?” she asked in a whisper.

  Rachel stood still, listening hard, then nodded. She also heard the faint sound of sobs. “But I don’t see anyone else here,” she whispered back. “Who could it be?”

  The girls looked around the small garden. It wasn’t big enough to have many hiding places. Then, as Kirsty was walking past the tulips in the fairy ring, she paused. The crying was definitely louder there. It seemed to be coming from the tulips themselves.

  Kirsty looked inside the nearest tulip and gasped. A tiny fairy was sitting at the bottom of the flower, with her face in her hands.

  Kirsty motioned to Rachel, then kneeled down by the flower. “Hello,” she said gently. “I’m Kirsty. What’s the matter?”

  The fairy gave a gulp and looked up at Kirsty. She had long brown wavy hair, and was wearing a cute white-and-orange outfit with a pretty tulip necklace and little orange shoes.

  “Hello,” she said sadly. “I’m Tia the Tulip Fairy, and I’m looking for my magic petal.”

  “Hi, Tia,” said Rachel, crouching next to Kirsty. “Maybe we can help you find the petal?” she suggested. “We’ve helped lots of other fairies before.”

  Tia looked from Rachel to Kirsty, and her face brightened. “Rachel and Kirsty? I’ve heard all about you,” she said. “Oh, thank goodness you’re here!”

  Kirsty smiled. “What happened to your petal?” she asked. “How did you lose it?” Tia got to her feet. “It’s a long story. I might need some help explaining,” she said. As she spoke, she sprinkled a handful of orange, petal-shaped fairy dust over the girls. Before they knew it, they found themselves shrinking until they were the same size as Tia.

  “We’re fairies!” exclaimed Rachel, fluttering the shimmering wings on her back with delight. Then she noticed that the Fairy Garden was blurring right before her eyes.

  She had just enough time to grab Kirsty’s hand before she felt herself being pulled quickly through the air. “Where are we going?” she cried, feeling a rush of excitement.

  “To Fairyland, of course!” Tia called back with a smile.

  After a few moments, the girls felt themselves slowing down, and then they landed on the ground. They were standing in front of the Fairyland palace. Its towers and turrets gleamed in the sunshine. Nearby stood the king and queen of Fairyland, along with a group of other fairies that Kirsty and Rachel did not recognize.

  “Hello, Your Majesties,” Kirsty said, giving a polite curtsey. She and Rachel had been to Fairyland many times to help the fairies, but she was still filled with awe every time she saw King Oberon and Queen Titania.

  The king and queen both smiled.

  “We’re so glad to see you again,” the king told the girls.

  “You’re just in time to help,” the queen added.

  “What happened?” Rachel asked.

  The smile slipped from the king’s face. “I’m afraid Jack Frost has been up to his tricks again,” he said seriously. “This time, he’s been causing trouble for our Petal Fairies.”

  Rachel and Kirsty exchanged glances. Jack Frost was always up to no good in the fairy world.

  “What has he done now?” Kirsty asked, raising her eyebrows.

  “He was upset that none of the beautiful flowers of Fairyland would grow around his cold ice castle,” the queen explained. “So he sent his goblins to steal the Petal Fairies’ magic petals, hoping that their powerful petal magic would help.”

  “Here are our Petal Fairies,” the king said, introducing them one by one. “You’ve met Tia the Tulip Fairy, and this is Pippa the Poppy Fairy, Louise the Lily Fairy, Charlotte the Sunflower Fairy, Olivia the Orchid Fairy, Danielle the Daisy Fairy, and Ella the Rose Fairy.”

  The Petal Fairies all gave small smiles of welcome, but Kirsty and Rachel couldn’t help noticing how sad they looked.

  “Let’s go to the seeing pool,” the queen suggested. “We can show you how it all happened.”

  The girls followed the fairies through the palace gardens to the magical seeing pool. The queen waved her wand over the water, and it shimmered with all the colors of the rainbow as a picture formed on its surface. Kirsty and Rachel stared at the images forming in the pool.

  There, they saw a group of Jack Frost’s goblins sneaking into the palace gardens. The sun was just rising, and one of the goblins was yawning.

  “That’s our home,” Tia told the girls, pointing out a tall pagoda. The goblins were creeping toward the pretty pink building. It was four stories high, with little golden balconies and a sparkling gol
den roof. “We sleep on the top three floors.”

  “The ground floor is where we keep the magic petals,” Charlotte added.

  “Where we kept them, you mean,” Olivia said sadly. “Until this morning …”

  The girls watched as the goblins tiptoed into the pagoda. Moments later, they appeared again. They now had gleeful smiles on their faces and seven colorful petals, each the size of a small pancake, in their hands.

  “Jack Frost is going to be so happy with us when we bring these back to the ice castle,” the first goblin cackled, waving an orange petal above his head in triumph.

  Tia let out a groan as she watched. “That’s my magic petal. Look at the way he’s whirling it around!” she cried. “He’s not taking good care of it at all!”

  Rachel squeezed Tia’s hand to try to comfort her as they watched what happened. The other goblins all looked amazed as a stream of orange tulips floated out from Tia’s magic petal. The tulips planted themselves in the ground under a tree!

  “Hey!” shouted one goblin with an especially long nose. “How did you do that?”

  The goblin with the orange petal stopped and stared at the clumps of tulips that had appeared. “I just … waved it,” he said in surprise. “Like this.” He shook the petal again, and another stream of tulips — pink ones this time — appeared. These flowers planted themselves nearby, too.

  “Wow!” the long-nosed goblin exclaimed. He held the yellow petal in his hand and looked at it with curiosity.

  “That’s mine,” Charlotte the Sunflower Fairy told Kirsty and Rachel, frowning.

  The long-nosed goblin wiggled the yellow petal, and seconds later, a bunch of sunflowers sprang up at his feet. He jumped back in surprise and then chuckled.

  “This is great!” he said with excitement. “Where else can we grow flowers?”

  Before long, all the goblins were playing around with the magic petals. Purple flowers popped up around tree trunks, red ones blossomed in a nearby stream, and a big white daisy appeared on one goblin’s head!

  The queen shook her head as she watched from the side of the seeing pool. “And while those goblins were playing with the petal magic,” she said disapprovingly, “our Petal Fairies woke up and realized that their petals had been stolen.”

  “And we wanted them back!” Ella the Rose Fairy declared.

  “When the magic petals are safe inside the pagoda,” Louise the Lily Fairy explained, “our wands are automatically filled with petal magic each morning. Of course, that didn’t happen this morning because the petals were gone, but we still had a little petal magic left. So we used the last drops to make a spell that would bring the magic petals back to us.”

  In the pool, Kirsty and Rachel could see the effect of the fairies’ spell. The petals were swept out of the goblins’ hands. A magic wind carried them back toward the fairies in a sparkly, pink stream, high in the air.

  The goblins looked alarmed. “Quick, get them back!” one of the goblins shouted. He rushed after the petals.

  The others followed, running along and jumping up, trying to grab the floating petals. “Jack Frost will be angry if he finds out we let them go!” one of the goblins panted.

  “He certainly will!” boomed a chilling voice. Just then, Kirsty and Rachel saw that Jack Frost had appeared behind the goblins. He looked furious.

  Jack Frost muttered a few magic words. Then he waved his wand in the air, shooting an icy bolt of magic straight toward the petals.

  Boom! Jack Frost’s icy magic collided with the fairies’ petal magic. There was an enormous explosion of pink petals and dazzling white-and-silver snowflakes. The magic petals flew in all directions like sparks. Then they disappeared from view.

  “Where did they go?” Rachel asked.

  The Petal Fairies exchanged glances.

  “That’s the problem,” Tia replied.

  “They’re lost in the human world,” the king explained. “But we don’t know where!”

  “We’ll help you find them,” Kirsty said at once. She felt chills at the thought of another fairy adventure.

  The king and queen smiled at the girls.

  “We were hoping you’d say that,” the queen said warmly. “Without the petals, the Petal Fairies can’t make new flowers grow.”

  “And when they don’t have their petals, all the flowers already in bloom die more quickly,” the king added sadly.

  “That’s awful,” Kirsty said. She could hardly imagine what the world would look like without flowers. The gardens of Blossom Hall would seem empty, and her own garden at home would no longer be full of color!

  “We’ll do our best to help you get the magic petals back,” Rachel promised the Petal Fairies.

  The queen waved her wand over the seeing pool again. “There’s just one more thing we need to show you before you go….”

  Kirsty and Rachel watched the pool as colors rippled across the surface. The picture changed. Now they saw Jack Frost in the great hall of his ice castle, demanding that his goblins find the magic petals.

  “I order you to stay together,” he told the goblins firmly. “Do whatever you have to do to bring the petals back to me. That includes using this….” He handed a magic wand to the goblin closest to him.

  The goblin took the glittering silver wand, a mischievous grin spreading across his face.

  “This wand is charged with my own powerful magic,” Jack Frost explained. “I’m giving it to you to make sure you don’t get outwitted by those fairies again. Don’t let me down!”

  The goblins all nodded eagerly.

  “You must take great care,” the king warned Kirsty and Rachel as the picture faded. “The goblins will be in one big group, and they will have a wand full of Jack Frost’s magic. They could get into all kinds of trouble.” Rachel nodded solemnly. “We’ll be careful,” she promised, biting her lip.

  Just then, Tia stepped forward. “I thought I could sense my tulip petal near Blossom Hall — that’s why I was there this morning,” she explained. “Maybe we could look there first?”

  “Of course,” Kirsty said.

  Pippa the Poppy Fairy nodded. “Once that petal has been found, at least the tulips will be safe,” she said. She turned to the girls. “Each petal protects its own particular flower and flowers of a certain color,” she told them. “So Tia’s orange petal not only makes the tulips grow, but also every other orange-colored flower—like marigolds. When all seven magic petals are safe in Fairyland, they make all the flowers in the world grow!”

  Kirsty and Rachel turned back to Tia. “What are we waiting for?” Rachel asked, grinning.

  “Let’s go back to Blossom Hall and start searching!” Kirsty added.

  Tia smiled gratefully. Then she waved her wand, sending a flurry of fairy dust swirling all around the three of them. Kirsty and Rachel had just enough time to wave good-bye to the king, queen, and the Petal Fairies before they were swept up in a whirl of glittering color.

  The girls were off on another exciting fairy adventure!

  When the magic whirlwind came to a stop, Rachel and Kirsty found themselves standing on one of the lawns of Blossom Hall. They were girls again.

  Tia fluttered in front of them. “Let’s start looking!” the little fairy called, her wings a shimmering blur as she flew toward the nearest flowerbed. “I’m sure the magic tulip petal is somewhere close. I can just feel it.”

  The three of them began searching a row of flowerbeds—Tia from the air, Rachel and Kirsty walking carefully along the edge — all hoping to spot the bright orange petal. Kirsty couldn’t help noticing that some of the flowers were looking wilted, and there were a few empty spots where nothing was growing at all.

  Tia noticed Kirsty staring at the bare patches of earth. “There should be some lilies coming up there,” she told the girls, “but they haven’t started growing yet, because the lily petal is lost.” She pointed to another empty patch. “Soon, there should be some gorgeous poppies over there,” she said, lookin
g sad again. “But if Pippa doesn’t get her poppy petal back, then …” her voice trailed off.

  Rachel stared at the bare ground, feeling sad. They had to find the magic petals — the sooner the better!

  Once they’d checked all the flowerbeds, the girls and Tia headed over to a rock garden. Unfortunately, there was no sign of the magic tulip petal there, and they didn’t see it anywhere by the trickling fountains.

  “There’s an apple orchard,” Kirsty said, pointing. “Should we try looking there?”

  “Good idea,” Rachel said, walking toward it. “Oh, aren’t the trees beautiful with all their blossoms?”

  The others agreed. Delicate sprays of pinky-white flowers lined the branches of the apple trees.

  “And that one is even prettier than the others,” Kirsty said, pointing out a tree a short distance away. It was covered in blossoms. “I wonder why it’s flowering so well?” A thought struck her and she stopped. Kirsty looked excitedly at Tia. “You don’t think it has anything to do with your petal’s magic powers, do you?”

  Tia’s eyes lit up. “It might, Kirsty. Let’s take a closer look!” she said.

  Tia and the girls hurried toward the tree, but they came to a sudden halt when they spotted Jack Frost’s band of goblins underneath it!

  The goblins were all shaking the trunk of the tree as hard as they could. Showers of apple blossoms tumbled from the branches like confetti.

  “Why are they doing that?” Rachel wondered aloud.

  “My petal! It’s there, in the tree!” Tia cried suddenly, pointing to a high branch.

  Rachel and Kirsty looked up and noticed a bright orange petal stuck in the highest branches of the tree. The magic petal was much larger than a real petal, Kirsty noticed. It was almost as big as her own hand.