Edie the Garden Fairy Page 2

  The goblin looked puzzled. “Why was this thrown away?” he asked.

  “I don’t know why people can’t put their trash where it belongs, and not dump it in the countryside,” Rachel said.

  “They could even have recycled some of this,” Kirsty added.

  The goblin began burrowing into the pile again, tossing pieces of junk everywhere. Edie and the girls glared at him.

  “We’d better start looking through the other garbage piles,” Rachel whispered to her friends. “We have to find the wand before the goblin does!”

  Edie, Rachel, and Kirsty moved to a nearby trash pile and began searching through the rusty tools, old TV sets, and broken bicycles. As Kirsty picked up a crumpled cardboard box, she once again noticed a flash of rusty brown from the corner of her eye.

  The fox is back, she thought, turning to look.

  Kirsty saw the fox dart toward one of the nearby fields. She blinked. It looked like the fox was leaving behind a ribbon of sparkles as he ran.

  “Look!” Kirsty said, pointing out the fox to Rachel and Edie. “Isn’t that odd?”

  Edie gasped with surprise. “That fox has my wand!” she exclaimed. “He’s leaving a trail of fairy magic!” She turned to Rachel and Kirsty. “It’ll be faster if we fly after him, girls — and I have just enough magic of my own to turn you into fairies!”

  Edie hovered above Rachel and Kirsty and clapped her hands. A shower of glittering fairy dust floated down onto the girls, and they began to shrink.

  Meanwhile, shimmering fairy wings appeared on their shoulders.

  “Quick, we can’t let it get away!” Edie whispered, so that the goblin couldn’t hear.

  The three friends rose into the air and flew after the fox, who was now bounding across the field.

  “Don’t lose sight of him!” Kirsty panted as they zoomed through the air.

  Rachel glanced down and cried in dismay. “The goblin’s following us!” she called. “He figured out that we know where the wand is!”

  “I think the fox has realized that we’re following him, too!” Kirsty shouted, as the fox cleverly ducked into a clump of tall grass, out of sight.

  “Don’t be scared, Mr. Fox,” Edie called as the fox reappeared deeper in the field and then bolted off again. “We won’t hurt you!”

  The fox slowed down a little and glanced up at Edie and the girls, waving his bushy tail to and fro. They could see he had Edie’s wand clutched between his teeth.

  The goblin dashed across the field. “Interfering fairies!” he screeched furiously. “Give me back my wand!”

  The fox looked very nervous and took off again. He ran right into the middle of a tall bush and disappeared.

  “The goblin scared him away!” Kirsty groaned.

  “Where’s the wand?” the goblin demanded suspiciously, staring up at the three fairies as they hovered over the bush. “Is it in here?”

  The goblin began shoving the branches of the bush aside. Suddenly, the fox poked his furry head out. The goblin shrieked with glee when he saw the glittering wand.

  “Give that to me!” he shouted, trying to grab it from the fox.

  But the fox was too quick for him. He jumped out of the bush and ran off. The goblin lunged after him but only managed to grab the fox’s tail.

  The stubborn goblin held on. The fox finally wriggled free, throwing the goblin off-balance.

  “Help!” the goblin screeched as he fell backward into the bush. He tried to pull himself out, but he got tangled up in his extra-large overalls. Edie and the girls couldn’t help laughing.

  “There’s the fox,” Rachel whispered.

  The fox had stopped a little way off and was staring at the goblin, Edie, Rachel, and Kirsty with curiosity. He still had the wand in his mouth.

  “If we try to catch the fox, he’ll just run off again,” Edie said in a low voice. “We have to persuade him to give us the wand.”

  “We’d better get rid of the goblin first!” Kirsty pointed out. She glanced at the goblin, who was still struggling to untangle himself. “He just keeps scaring the fox away.”

  “I have an idea!” Edie winked at them. Then she waved her arms in a pretty pattern and a few sparkles of fairy magic appeared. They floated on the breeze across the field. One landed on the grass, and Rachel and Kirsty were amazed to see two rabbits pop their heads out of a hole at that very spot. Another couple of sparkles settled on a nearby tree. The next moment, two squirrels appeared out of the leaves.

  “Thank you for answering our call for help, my friends!” Edie said, as the squirrels and rabbits gathered around them. “Can you distract that goblin while I use my magic to talk to the fox?”

  The rabbits and the squirrels looked at the goblin, who was still trying to untangle himself.

  The squirrels looked puzzled.

  Rachel frowned. She stared down at the long blades of grass around them, and she suddenly had an idea.

  “Quick, Edie, make me and Kirsty human-size again, please!” Rachel said.

  Edie nodded and did so.

  “Now, Kirsty, help me break off four blades of grass the same size as Edie’s wand,” Rachel instructed.

  “Oh, I think I can guess what your idea is, Rachel!” Kirsty laughed as she selected a tall blade of grass.

  The girls chose four grass stalks in all. Then they opened the magic lockets Queen Titania had given them and sprinkled the grass with fairy dust. Now the blades of grass shimmered in the sun just like Edie’s wand.

  “Fake wands!” Edie said with a smile, as the girls handed a blade of grass to each of the rabbits and the squirrels. “What a brilliant idea.”

  “Now run off in different directions!” Kirsty whispered to the rabbits and squirrels. They all nodded and then scurried away.

  By now, the goblin had finally scrambled to his feet.

  “Look!” Rachel shouted, pointing across the field. “I see the wand!”

  “Yes, a squirrel has it!” Kirsty added.

  The goblin stopped and glanced around while Kirsty, Rachel, and Edie held their breath. Would the fake wands fool the goblin?

  “Ah!” the goblin jeered, sticking his tongue out at them. “You can’t trick me!”

  He pointed in the opposite direction where a rabbit was hopping along, trailing glitter. “That rabbit has the wand!” the goblin yelled. And he chased after it.

  “Now we can talk to the fox in peace!” Edie whispered.

  The girls walked quietly over to the fox. Edie hovered above them. This time the fox didn’t run away.

  “Hello,” Kirsty said softly. “That wand belongs to our friend Edie the Garden Fairy, and she’d really like it back.”

  The fox looked stubborn.

  “If Edie gets her wand back, we’ll be able to finish the garden,” Rachel explained. “If we don’t finish, it’ll be turned into a parking lot instead.”

  “There won’t be any flowers or trees,” Kirsty added. “Just lots and lots of concrete and cement.”

  The fox seemed to frown. He sat there for a moment, and then he placed the wand on the grass. He stepped back.

  “Oh, thank you!” Edie exclaimed joyfully. She fluttered down and touched the wand, which immediately shrank down to fairy-size.

  The fox smiled and bounded away.

  Rachel turned as she heard a loud, rumbling sound in the distance. “Here come the bulldozers!” she gasped. “That means the mayor must have arrived, too.”

  Edie and the girls hurried back to the garden. As they went, they saw the rabbits and the squirrels crisscrossing the field in front of the goblin, waving their fake wands. The goblin was chasing first one, then another, looking very frustrated.

  “I wonder when he’ll realize that the animals have pretend wands?” Rachel laughed.

  “I’ll send him home soon if he doesn’t figure it out!” Edie replied with a wink.

  As the girls reached the garden, the bulldozers pulled up to the lot. All the volunteers, including Janet, were ga
thered around the mayor, near the wooden arch. But Rachel and Kirsty were disappointed to see that the garden hadn’t been finished.

  “Don’t worry, girls,” Edie whispered, ducking out of sight behind Kirsty’s hair. “Now that I have my wand, I can help!”

  Rachel and Kirsty watched eagerly as Edie waved her wand. A mist of glittering fairy dust cleared away all the trash in a flash. Another flick of Edie’s wand made the flowers bloom just a little more brightly and it also made all the green leaves shine. Then Edie sent a stream of magic sparkles toward the middle of the garden and a large bed of beautiful flowers appeared in a rainbow of colors.

  “Please come and see what we’ve done,” Janet said to the mayor, as everyone turned to look at the garden. “We didn’t have much time, but —” She stopped, looking surprised. “Well, it looks even more beautiful than I thought it did!”

  “This is just wonderful!” the mayor declared, his face breaking into a smile. “Please show me around, Janet.”

  “You and all the other volunteers have done a great job,” Edie whispered to Kirsty and Rachel, as Janet took the mayor on a tour of the garden. “Now that I have my wand I’m going to take care of all the gardens on Rainspell, and everywhere else!”

  “I don’t think we need a parking lot here,” the mayor announced with a smile. “I think that this space should definitely be a wildlife garden!”

  Rachel and Kirsty cheered and applauded with everyone else as the bulldozers rumbled away. Edie looked delighted, too.

  “I need to get back to Fairyland and tell everyone the good news,” she murmured. “Thank you, girls, and remember to keep a lookout for goblins and wands!” Edie blew them both a kiss and disappeared in a cloud of fairy dust.

  “Doesn’t it feel good to do something for Rainspell Island, Rachel?” Kirsty said happily. “After all, this is where we met our very first magic friends, the Rainbow Fairies!”

  Rachel nodded in agreement.

  “What should we call the park?” the mayor asked Janet.

  Janet glanced at the cluster of colorful flowers in the middle. “How about Rainbow Park?” she suggested.

  Rachel and Kirsty glanced at each other with a smile as everyone cheered.

  “Perfect!” Rachel whispered.

  Rachel and Kirsty found Nicole, Isabella, and Edie’s missing magic words. Now it’s time for them to help

  Join their next adventure in this special sneak peek. . . .

  Kirsty Tate grinned as she stepped onto the beach. “This looks fun!” she exclaimed, gazing around in excitement.

  Her best friend, Rachel Walker, was close behind. “And there’s so much to do,” she said, her eyes bright. “Where should we go first?”

  The two girls had come with their parents to Rainspell Beach, where the local surfing club was holding a “Save the Coral Reefs” event. As Kirsty and Rachel looked around, they could see a crowd of people dancing to the lively beat of a samba band, a line of food stands that all smelled delicious, and an information center surrounded by flags displaying pictures of bright, colorful tropical fish.

  “Maybe we should split up and meet back here in an hour for lunch?” Mr. Walker, Rachel’s dad, suggested.

  “Good idea,” Rachel replied. “How about we meet you at the information center at twelve?” She slipped an arm through Kirsty’s. “Come on, let’s explore.”

  The girls made their way into the crowd, enjoying the hustle and bustle of the event. They were on Rainspell Island for a school break. So far they’d had a very exciting few days helping their new fairy friends, the Earth Fairies.

  “There’s another good reason for going off on our own,” Kirsty said, thinking about the adventures they’d had lately. “We might meet another fairy today.”

  Rachel grinned and crossed her fingers. “Here’s hoping!” she said.

  At the start of the week, Kirsty and Rachel had magically transported themselves to Fairyland to ask King Oberon and Queen Titania for their help in cleaning up the human world. The girls had met seven fairies-in-training who each had a special mission. When their training was complete, they would become the Earth Fairies. Their jobs would be to help save the environment in both the human world and in Fairyland. But before the fairies had received their wands and could start work, Jack Frost had appeared. He’d declared his goblins were the only truly “green” creatures and had ordered them to steal the magic wands and hide them in the human world!

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  e-ISBN 978-0-545-62224-0

  Copyright © 2009 by Rainbow Magic Limited.

  Previously published as Green Fairies #3: Edie the Garden Fairy by Orchard U.K. in 2009.

  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, July 2014

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