Kitty the Tiger Fairy Read online

  “Make them go away!” the second goblin yelled at the girls, pointing down at Stripes and Tig, who were growling loudly.

  “We can understand tiger talk,” Rachel said. “They’re asking you where their sister is.”

  The three goblins glanced at each other. “We’re not telling you!” the third goblin snapped rudely. Then he wobbled a little on the branch and shrieked with fright. “Tell them! Tell them!” he shouted at the others. “Otherwise we’ll be stuck here forever or we’ll fall out of the tree and the tigers will get us!”

  “We saw her going up to the top of the big waterfall,” the first goblin mumbled grumpily.

  “But then we lost sight of her,” the second goblin added.

  Kitty, who had been listening above them, quickly swooped down to Stripes and Tig.

  “The goblins don’t have Sheba,” she told the cubs. “She’s somewhere near the top of the waterfall. Let them go.”

  Obediently, the tiger cubs stopped growling and sat down on the grass.

  In the meantime, the three silly goblins hurried down the tree as fast as they could and ran off without a backward glance.

  “Meet you at the top of the waterfall!” Stripes shouted to Kitty and the girls. “Come on, Tig!” The cubs ran toward the cliff as fast as they could in a blur of orange and black.

  Kitty, Rachel, and Kirsty flew to the river and followed it to the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. Then they fluttered upward, enjoying the cool, fresh air and the sight of the clear, sparkling water tumbling down over the cliff. Kirsty laughed as she flew a little too close and droplets of water landed on her face.

  “Isn’t it beautiful?” She sighed.

  “Gorgeous,” Rachel agreed, turning to look at the view of the river winding along below them.

  Kirsty glanced up and saw Stripes and Tig waiting for them on top of the cliff. But all of a sudden she saw another flash of orange and black behind the cascading waterfall.

  “Is that you, Sheba?” Kirsty called. She squinted, trying to see farther, but the orange-and-black creature had disappeared.

  Kirsty turned to Rachel and Kitty. “I think I just saw Sheba the tiger cub behind the waterfall!” she told them breathlessly.

  “Let’s go and see,” Kitty said immediately. “I’m afraid we’ll get pretty wet, though.” She linked hands with Rachel and Kirsty. “Get ready, girls!”

  Kirsty took a deep breath. They were about to get very, very wet. She just hoped it was Sheba that she’d seen!

  Swiftly, the three friends zoomed around the falling sheet of water and landed on a ledge behind it. Now they were right in front of the cliff face.

  “Look, there’s a little cave over there,” Rachel said, smoothing back her wet hair. “I wonder if Sheba’s inside.”

  They peered into the cave. To Kirsty’s delight, she saw a little tiger cub rolling around on the ground. She was playing with a tiger key chain, throwing it into the air and catching it between her paws. Kirsty could see the key chain was surrounded by a faint, golden glow that lit up the dark cave.

  “My magic key chain!” Kitty said excitedly. “Hello, Sheba. You can come out of the cave now. The goblins are gone.”

  “Don’t want to!” Sheba’s growl was sassy, her golden eyes full of mischief. “I’m having too much fun!”

  “Animals love our special key chains,” Kitty reminded the girls, as Sheba continued batting the furry tiger around. “She won’t give it up easily! But if we can find something else Sheba likes, then she might forget about my key chain.”

  “I’ll see what I’ve got,” said Rachel, searching in her pocket.

  “Wait, remember how much Stripes and Tig enjoyed playing around in the water?” Kirsty said slowly. “Maybe Sheba would come out if she thought she was missing a whole lot of fun?”

  “That’s a great idea,” Kitty agreed.

  Kirsty peeked into the cave again. “It’s time for a little tiger to splash around in the river!” she said. “Come on, Sheba, you don’t want to miss all the fun.”

  Sheba’s eyes lit up. “Hooray!” she cried in her growly voice, dropping Kitty’s tiger on the ground. She batted it across the cave to Kirsty with her paw. Then she ran out and jumped straight through the waterfall into the pool not far below them.

  “Thank goodness!” Kitty murmured gratefully as she rushed over to retrieve her magic charm. The instant she touched it, the key chain shrank down to its Fairyland size and Kitty clipped it firmly to a belt loop on her jeans.

  As Kitty and the girls flew around the waterfall once more, they could hear splashing and yelps of delight below them. Stripes and Tig had spotted Sheba in the pool and rushed down from the cliff to join her. The three cubs were having a water fight!

  Suddenly, Rachel saw the three goblins rush out from the trees. “Be careful, cubs!” she yelled. “Here come the goblins again!”

  “We need a tiger for Jack Frost’s zoo!” the first goblin shouted. “Grab them!”

  “GO AWAY!” Stripes, Tig, and Sheba roared in unison. The three goblins shrieked in terror and huddled together on the riverbank, their teeth chattering with fright.

  “You can’t just take any animals you want, no matter what Jack Frost says,” Kitty said sternly as she, Rachel, and Kirsty swooped down toward the goblins.

  “You can’t just collect animals like toys or books, you know!” Rachel added.

  Then Kirsty gasped in surprise. She’d just spotted a large, fully grown tiger standing on the rock jutting out over the river.

  “There is an enormous tiger over on that rock!” Kirsty exclaimed nervously. “It looks really fierce …”

  This was too much for the goblins. They fled immediately, falling over their own big feet to get away as fast as they could.

  “It’s the cubs’ mother,” Kitty explained. “Come and say hello.” She led the girls over to the tiger. “These are my friends Rachel and Kirsty,” Kitty told her.

  “Hello, girls,” the mother tiger said in a gentle voice. “Thank you for finding my cubs. I was extremely worried about them.”

  “Mother! Mother!” the cubs roared in chorus. They began paddling across the pool toward her.

  “And thank you, Rachel and Kirsty, for finding my magic tiger key chain.” Kitty patted the key chain attached to her jeans. “I’ll be off to Fairyland now to tell them the good news!”

  An idea popped into Kirsty’s head. “Before you go, Kitty, could you help us out at Wild Woods?” she asked.

  “Of course!” Kitty said instantly.

  They all called good-bye to the mother tiger, Stripes, Tig, and Sheba. Then Kitty’s magic restored the girls to their normal size and whirled them off to Wild Woods Nature Reserve. Just a few seconds later, the three of them were back at the stream.

  “We can’t move that log,” Kirsty explained, pointing it out to Kitty. “Can you help?”

  “I certainly can,” Kitty agreed, smiling. She tapped the log with her wand, showering it with fairy dust. The log immediately rose up out of the water, floated through the air, and came to rest on the bank of the stream.

  “Thank you, Kitty,” Kirsty said happily. “Look, Rachel, the water’s starting to flow again!”

  The girls cheered as the water splashed through the gap left by the big, heavy log and began to fill up the dry bed of the stream.

  “And now I really must go.” Kitty smiled. “Good-bye, girls. I know I can count on you to help protect wildlife everywhere from Jack Frost and his goblins!” She vanished in a puff of glittery fairy dust.

  Then the girls heard the sound of beating wings overhead and the heron swooped down to land on the bank next to them.

  “The water’s flowing again!” the heron said excitedly. “Now I can fish downstream whenever I want.”

  Rachel nudged Kirsty. “And here come the three otters!” she said.

  The mother otter was leading her two babies to the edge of the water. “Hello, girls,” she called to Rachel and Kirsty. Then she turn
ed to her babies. “Just do what I do,” she told them, and slipped into the water. Her babies followed, looking a little nervous.

  “You’re doing really well!” Kirsty called, and she and Rachel applauded as the baby otters paddled hesitantly across the stream.

  Suddenly, the girls heard the sound of footsteps, and they saw Becky approaching through the trees. The heron flew away, and the otters swam into a clump of reeds to hide.

  “How are things going, girls?” Becky asked. “You got the stream flowing again—that’s wonderful!” Then she noticed the log on the bank. “How on earth did you manage to move that? Nice work! It’ll be a perfect bench for visitors.”

  Rachel and Kirsty grinned at each other.

  “I think you both deserve a second badge,” Becky added, handing one to Rachel and another to Kirsty. “As you can see, these badges have a picture of the stream on them.”

  The girls were thrilled.

  “And I have another tricky task for you tomorrow,” Becky went on, her eyes twinkling. “Do you think you’ll be able to do it?”

  “We hope so!” Rachel replied with a grin.

  “A tricky task?” Kirsty whispered as Becky went off to check on the other junior rangers. “It can’t be trickier than helping the Baby Animal Rescue Fairies protect wildlife from Jack Frost!”

  “True,” Rachel whispered back. “We’d better be ready for anything!”

  Rachel and Kirsty found Mae and Kitty’s missing magic key chains.

  Now it’s time for them to help

  Join their next adventure in this special sneak peek …

  “So, all we know about today’s job is that it’s going to be especially tricky!” Kirsty Tate remarked to her best friend, Rachel Walker, as they made their way along a path through the woods.

  The two girls had volunteered to spend a week of summer vacation working as junior rangers at Wild Woods Nature Reserve. “What do you think we’ll be doing, Rachel?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m looking forward to finding out when we meet Becky in the meadow!” Rachel replied with a grin. Becky was the head of the nature reserve. “I hope it’s something we can do really well—and then we might earn another badge.”

  “I love getting badges,” Kirsty said happily. She swung her backpack off her shoulders so she could proudly sneak a peek at the badges pinned to the pockets. This was the girls’ third day at Wild Woods, and they’d already earned two badges because they’d successfully completed their tasks on the previous two days.

  The girls heard a rustling noise in the undergrowth, and a little red squirrel scampered out of the bushes. He stopped in front of Rachel and Kirsty and gave them a mischievous glance.

  “I heard what you were saying,” the squirrel told them breathlessly. “And, you’re right: You’ll have a very difficult job to do today!” Then, giggling, he bounded away.

  “Good luck!” chirped a voice from above. The girls looked up and saw a pair of goldfinches sitting on a branch side by side. “Like the squirrel said, you’ve got a very tricky task today.”

  “Very tricky!” the other goldfinch agreed. Then the two birds soared up into the blue sky.

  “It’s such amazing fun being able to talk to animals!” Rachel exclaimed. “We couldn’t do it without the Baby Animal Rescue Fairies’ magic.”

  Kirsty nodded. “I just wish we hadn’t been given this magic for such a serious reason.” She sighed. “We need the power to talk to animals so we can save wildlife everywhere from scary Jack Frost and his goblins!”

  Copyright © 2013 by Rainbow Magic Limited.

  All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc., 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012, by arrangement with Rainbow Magic Limited.

  SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc. RAINBOW MAGIC is a trademark of Rainbow Magic Limited. Reg. U.S. Patent & Trademark Office and other countries. HIT and the HIT logo are trademarks of HIT Entertainment Limited.

  First Scholastic printing, January 2015

  e-ISBN 978-0-545-72304-6

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