Lindsay the Luck Fairy Read online

  All the goblins in warm-up suits laughed. The tall goblin took the lucky hat off his head and threw it straight into the air. Kirsty gasped as she tried to figure out where it would land. The hat swirled around — and then magically zoomed right into another goblin’s hands!

  “Come and get it,” the goblin cried. He waved the black hat over his head and ran into the woods. The rest of the goblins scrambled off behind him.

  “Hey, that’s not fair!” Kirsty cried. “We weren’t ready.”

  “Ready or not, this might be our only chance.” Lindsay flew off in hot pursuit of the goblins.

  Rachel and Kirsty started to chase them, too, but soon, Kirsty had to stop. “Go ahead,” she yelled to Rachel. “I have to tie my shoes again.” Kirsty guessed that this was more bad luck.

  Rachel glanced back at her friend, and then ran smack into a giant tree trunk. Ouch! “Really bad luck,” she mumbled. Stunned, she took a deep breath, shook her head, and began running again.

  Kirsty soon caught up, and the girls followed the goblins’ nasty laughter.

  “There’s a stream ahead,” Rachel pointed out. “Let’s jump it.” She ran ahead and leaped right over the brook. Kirsty prepared herself for the jump, but tripped on her takeoff. She landed in the muddiest part of the stream and splashed murky water all over Rachel. “We’re drenched!” she cried.

  “We have to keep going. The goblins are just up ahead,” Rachel insisted.

  Before long, the girls came to a clearing and ducked behind a tree, so they wouldn’t be seen. The goblins were running around, tossing the lucky hat back and forth. They caught it easily every time.

  One goblin was even doing somersaults between his throws. “I’m the best. Watch this!” he yelled. He threw the hat up high and did a cartwheel before it came back down.

  Just then, Lindsay flew up to the girls. She landed on Kirsty’s shoulder, looking sad. “I have never felt so unlucky,” she said. “They’ll never drop the hat.”

  “Oh, yes they will,” Kirsty said. “That goblin is extra lucky because the hat and its magic are close to him. “That’s right,” Lindsay answered.

  “Then I have a plan.” Kirsty whispered her idea to Rachel and Lindsay. “I think it could work,” Lindsay agreed, looking hopeful and fluttering her wings.

  Lindsay quickly turned Rachel into a fairy, and Kirsty waited until her two friends had flown high into the sky together. Then she approached the bragging goblin.

  “You’re very good at that,” she said to him with a big smile.

  “Oh, yes I am,” the goblin agreed. “I’m the best.”

  Kirsty pretended to think hard. “I wonder if you’re good enough to do a somersault and two cartwheels before the hat comes back down.” She raised an eyebrow at the goblin.

  “I’m sure I am,” the goblin boasted.

  “You’d have to throw your hat very high,” she said.

  The other goblins all agreed that their friend could do it.

  “I’d love to see it,” Kirsty said, looking up to make sure that Rachel and Lindsay were still flying overhead.

  “Just watch,” the goblin huffed. “Ready?” He threw the hat high in the air. The goblins all cheered as their friend did a somersault and then spun into two perfect cartwheels.

  While the goblins watched, Rachel and Lindsay swooped down and grabbed the lucky bowler hat from the air. Lindsay instantly shrunk it to its Fairyland size and placed it on her head. “Hooray!” she cheered, and gave Rachel a big hug. “Tell Kirsty thank you for me. I want to get the hat back to Fairyland right away.”

  Down below, the goblins were waiting for the hat to return.

  “What happened?” asked the goblin who had just finished cartwheeling. “Where’d it go?”

  “You threw it too high,” the other goblins complained. “Why did you have to show off?”

  As the goblins were busy arguing, Kirsty snuck away. She met Rachel in the woods. Lindsay had already changed her friend back to her human size. They gave each other high fives.

  “We found the first lucky charm,” Rachel said. “Now we just have two more to go.”

  “And we have two more days,” Kirsty said with a smile. “I have a feeling our luck is starting to change!”

  A Classic Castle

  Wildflower Watch

  Double Chase

  A Clever Clue

  A Charming Poem

  “Here we are. We finally made it!” Mr. Walker announced. He pulled the car into a small gravel parking lot. “I wasn’t sure we’d ever get here.”

  “Yes. We were a mess, but we’re here now,” Mrs. Walker said. She sounded relieved.

  Rachel Walker smiled across the backseat at her best friend, Kirsty Tate. They knew exactly why they were running late. They had all misplaced something that morning. Then they got lost on their drive to the castle. But Rachel and Kirsty knew there was a good reason for that!

  “I’m glad you have the day off, Mom,” Rachel said, unbuckling her seatbelt.

  “We’ll all have a lot of fun,” Kirsty agreed. “I’m especially looking forward to the picnic.” Mr. and Mrs. Walker had packed sandwiches and sweets for their trip. Kirsty and Rachel could hardly wait for the brownies at the bottom of the picnic basket! At that moment, only one thing excited them more than those yummy brownies — fairies!

  Rachel and Kirsty were in the middle of another fairy adventure. They had already found one of Lindsay the Luck Fairy’s good-luck charms. Now there was good luck in games and sports again! But Lindsay needed more help. Her other two charms were still missing. One of them, the shamrock, controlled the luck of finding (and losing) things. Since the shamrock was gone, now people were losing things all of the time. It was why they couldn’t find the castle that morning. They had lost their way! Things really were a mess. Kirsty and Rachel hoped they would find one of Lindsay’s charms today.

  “I’m excited to be here, too,” Mrs. Walker said as she got out of the car. “I think this is the park where I played with my brothers and cousins all those years ago. I remember the castle and the woods. And the windy beach.”

  Kirsty gasped when she saw the castle. It was built of old white stone, and it had a wooden drawbridge. A colorful flag flew above the tall bell tower. The castle looked like something out of a book.

  “I can’t wait to explore in there. Can you?” Rachel asked her best friend. “It looks like a great hiding place for one of Lindsay’s charms.”

  “But the castle is enormous. How will we ever track them down?” Kirsty wondered.

  “Maybe the magic will come to us,” Rachel said.

  Mr. Walker took a deep breath and smelled the salty seaside air. He walked over to Rachel’s mom. “So this is where you got lost and saw a spooky green leprechaun when you were a kid, huh?” Rachel’s dad said with a delighted laugh. “Was he spying on you?”

  Mrs. Walker shook her head. “I’m not sure he was spying on me,” she answered. “I think he was … oh, never mind. That was a long time ago.” She pushed her dark hair behind her ear. “And we all know there wasn’t a real leprechaun.”

  “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you,” Mr. Walker said, putting his arm around his wife.

  Rachel and Kirsty looked at each other. They knew Rachel’s dad was just joking with her mom, but Mrs. Walker had sounded serious.

  “Is it possible? Did your mom see a real leprechaun?” Kirsty whispered.

  “I don’t know. It sounds mysterious,” Rachel said. “We’ll have to be on the lookout.”

  “On the lookout? For what?” a tiny voice asked.

  The girls peered around. Lindsay the Luck Fairy was fluttering right behind them! “Oh, Lindsay! It’s great to see you,” Rachel said. She lowered her voice. “But we don’t want anyone else to spot you.”

  “You can hide in my backpack,” Kirsty suggested. “As soon as Rachel’s parents are gone, we’ll tell you everything.”

  “Remember, meet us on the beach in two hours,” Mrs. Walker ca
lled.

  “We won’t forget,” Rachel said, waving to her parents. “Have a good nature walk! Don’t get lost,” she joked, but immediately wished she hadn’t. With the lucky shamrock missing, anything could happen!

  Kirsty waved, too. “We don’t have much time,” she said to Rachel. While Rachel’s parents looked for wildflowers, Kirsty and Rachel would be looking for Lindsay’s missing magic charms.

  Kirsty unzipped her backpack, and Lindsay flew out. “Any ideas where we should start?” Rachel asked their fairy friend.

  “Hmm,” Lindsay thought out loud. “One of the charms is close. I can feel it.”

  “It looks like we might be the only ones at the park so far,” Kirsty said.

  “I’ll hide on Rachel’s shoulder, just in case,” Lindsay said.

  Kirsty shivered as they walked across the drawbridge. The wind whipped through her hair.

  They bought tickets from one of the guards just inside the castle walls. She gave them a map of the castle grounds that they could share.

  Rachel unfolded the map. “The castle is really big,” she said.

  “Maybe we should start in the gardens,” suggested Kirsty.

  “Sounds good to me,” whispered Lindsay. “And don’t forget to look for goblins, too. If they’re here, we’ll know we’re on the right track.”

  The girls walked across the stone courtyard and entered the colorful gardens. There were rows of yellow and red tulips, and patches of deep blue irises. Beyond all the flowers, there was a grassy lawn and a forest of tall trees.

  “Let’s walk all the way around the lawn,” Lindsay said.

  “Okay.” Kirsty and Rachel both shrugged. It was going to be hard to find something so small in a place so big.

  “Can you do a spell that might give us a hint?” Rachel asked the little fairy. “Maybe it could tell us which direction to go.”

  “Sadly, no,” Lindsay said. “Jack Frost’s magic is hiding the charms, and his magic is very strong. Oh, but I just thought of something. I could do a spell to make the charm glimmer! That will make it easier to see.” Lindsay smiled, pleased with herself. But then her smile quickly disappeared.

  “What’s wrong?” Kirsty asked.

  “I’ve lost my wand!” Lindsay said, looking around. She flew off Rachel’s shoulder and began searching the ground. “I can’t do any magic without my wand.”

  “When did you last have it?” Rachel asked.

  Lindsay’s eyes were wide. “I’m not sure. It must have slipped right out of my hand.”

  Rachel and Kirsty immediately dropped on their hands and knees and began to search. But a fairy wand was even smaller than a magic charm! At least the charms had grown larger when they entered the human world.

  “Oh, it’s no use. This is more of my horrible luck,” Lindsay muttered. “Besides, it is more important to find the charms. I can get another wand back in Fairyland, but the shamrock and the gold coin are both one of a kind.”

  “Then let’s go back to looking for them. Maybe we’ll find your wand, too,” Kirsty said.

  Rachel didn’t say anything. She had a funny feeling that someone was watching her. She turned around and saw a dark green shadow in the trees. “Kirsty, Lindsay … I think someone is watching us. In the trees. It might be a goblin.”

  Lindsay and Kirsty slowly glanced at the trees. The shadow seemed short, and it looked like there might be a hat on its head.

  “I see it, too,” Kirsty whispered. “It looks like there’s only one of them.”

  “Maybe it isn’t a goblin at all,” Lindsay said quietly. “Maybe it’s a leprechaun!”

  A leprechaun! Rachel and Kirsty stared at the figure in the shadows again.

  “It looks like he’s wearing a bowler hat, just like the statue in the town hall,” Rachel said quietly. But they could only see the outline of the figure. They couldn’t see his clothes or his face.

  “We could follow him,” Lindsay suggested.

  “I thought all leprechauns were troublemakers,” Kirsty said. “I heard that they steal people’s luck.”

  “I heard that, too,” Rachel agreed.

  “That’s probably just an old folk tale. There’s no way all leprechauns are mischievous,” Lindsay said. “Besides, I already lost all of my luck.”

  “Look! He’s moving!” Rachel pointed into the woods.

  The girls and Lindsay started to follow the figure. They moved slowly at first, hoping he wouldn’t notice.

  “Hey, look!” a gruff voice yelled out. “There’s someone in the woods!”

  The girls turned around to see a group of boys running toward them. The boys were all dressed in jeans and striped shirts. They wore baseball caps that covered their faces.

  “Get that guy!” another boy yelled.

  At once, Rachel and Kirsty realized that the boys were chasing the shadow in the woods. The next moment, the girls realized the boys were … goblins!

  “It’s the guy in the black hat and funny shoes,” cried a third goblin. “The one who stole our charms!”

  “Their charms?” Rachel and Kirsty said in surprise.

  “Those are my charms,” Lindsay said, stomping her tiny foot on Rachel’s shoulder.

  “So, someone took the charms from the goblins,” Kirsty said. “And the goblins think it was the person in the woods!”

  “We have to catch him!” Rachel insisted.

  Rachel and Kirsty took off running into the woods. They crunched through last fall’s leaves and ducked under low branches. Lindsay stayed perched on Rachel’s shoulder and grabbed on to the collar of Rachel’s jacket so she wouldn’t fall. The girls ran after the goblins — and the shadow — for some time.

  “I wish I had my wand,” Lindsay said. “Then I could turn you into fairies. You could fly much faster.”

  It was true. The shadow was fast — too fast to catch. The girls could see him jump onto a log way up ahead. He turned around and stuck his hands out on either side of his head, but they couldn’t see his face. He was too far away!

  “I think he just stuck his tongue out at us,” Kirsty said between breaths.

  Rachel laughed. “That’s kind of funny,” she said.

  The goblins didn’t find it funny at all. They yelled and ran even harder.

  “He’s too far ahead,” Kirsty said, panting.

  “Let’s take a break,” Rachel agreed. When they came to a log, they stopped and took a seat. Lindsay flew down to sit on Rachel’s knee.

  “Well, at least we know that the goblins don’t have my charms,” Lindsay said.

  “Do you think the shadowy guy really has them? Does he even know what they are?” Kirsty wondered.

  “I’m not sure,” Lindsay said.

  The girls and the fairy sat quietly, catching their breath.

  A robin landed on the ground near them. It chirped, pecking at the grass. The bird looked up at Rachel, Kirsty, and Lindsay, chirping over and over.

  “Hi, pretty bird,” Kirsty said. The robin chirped and pecked again. “Hey, what’s that?” Kirsty reached down and picked up a piece of paper near the robin’s beak. She carefully unfolded it.

  “There’s writing on it!” Rachel said. “It looks like a poem.”

  “Or,” Lindsay added thoughtfully, “a clue.”

  The paper was the size of a postcard. It was stiff and yellow with age. Kirsty held it in her hands so Rachel and Lindsay could see.

  “The writing looks fancy,” Rachel said, “and old.”

  “Lindsay, why do you think this paper is a clue?” Kirsty asked.

  “Didn’t the leprechaun stop by this log?” the fairy answered. “Maybe he dropped it.”

  “Maybe it leads to one of the charms,” Rachel said.

  Kirsty nodded. “We don’t know if he really is a leprechaun yet,” she reminded her friends. “But let’s see what the paper says.” She began to read:

  May the light of friendship guide you.

  May the power of love keep your hearts true.<
br />
  When the luck of the Irish seems to have left you,

  May the chime of the bells give you hope anew.

  “That’s so pretty,” Rachel said with a sigh.

  “I like it,” Kirsty agreed. “But it doesn’t sound like a clue. It doesn’t say anything about a shamrock or a gold coin.”

  “It was worth a try,” Lindsay said.

  “I’ll hold on to it, just in case,” said Kirsty, folding the paper and sliding it into her pocket.

  Lindsay sighed. “I thought we had finally found some good luck. What should we do now?”

  “Let’s look at the map,” Rachel suggested. “Maybe we can figure out where the goblins and the leprechaun went.” Rachel reached for one back pocket, then the other. “Oh, no! I lost it.”

  “More bad luck,” Lindsay said.

  “We don’t need the map,” Kirsty said to her friends, trying to look on the bright side. “Let’s just go back in the castle. We can listen for the goblins to return there, and then track them down.”

  “They might help lead us to the leprechaun,” Rachel agreed.

  Lindsay perched on Rachel’s shoulder again, and the two girls walked into the castle courtyard. At once, they heard yells echo off the stone walls. “That must be the goblins,” Kirsty said, excited.

  “But they sound far away.” Rachel paused. “I have an idea.” She walked over to one of the guards on duty.