Alicia the Snow Queen Fairy Read online

  “It’s a magical ice jigsaw puzzle,” Alicia explained. “The pieces look blank now, but when they are all put together, your face will appear on the puzzle.”

  Looking excited, the goblin started to try to fit the pieces together. But he kept dropping them because his arms were so full.

  “Maybe you should put the snack box down,” Rachel suggested.

  Nodding, the goblin set the snack box down beside him. But it was very difficult to hold on to the large pieces of ice with just one hand.

  “Oh, bother!” he squawked as another one slipped out of his grasp.

  “You need both hands free to concentrate on this puzzle,” said Kirsty.

  “Why don’t you put your other box down, too?”

  She held her breath. She could see the goblin hesitating. Would he fall for her trick?

  “Good idea,” said the goblin.

  He placed the glass box on top of the snack box and turned back to the puzzle. At once, Alicia zoomed around behind him and tapped the box with her wand. It melted away, and the rose simply floated into her arms. It shrank to fairy size as she touched it, and a huge smile spread across her face. Rachel and Kirsty shared a hug and jumped up and down in excitement.

  “We did it!” said Alicia, flying across and giving each of them a tiny kiss on the cheek. “Thank you, from the bottom of my heart!”

  The fragrant scent of the everlasting rose surrounded them as they smiled at one another.

  “Done!” crowed the goblin, putting his hands on his hips proudly. “See how smart I am?”

  He had completed the ice puzzle, and his own face gazed up at him from the finished design. But as he looked at it, the puzzle face rolled its eyes and shook its head. He frowned, looked up, and saw Alicia holding her rose.

  “It’s time for you to go home,” she said to him. “Tell Jack Frost that my friends and I will never allow him to ruin winter.”

  She sounded as regal as a queen, and the goblin gulped. Before he could say a word, Alicia waved her wand and sent him back to Fairyland.

  “Now I must take the rose back where it belongs,” she went on, fluttering in front of the girls.

  “We’ll never forget our amazing adventures with you,” said Rachel, smiling at the little fairy.

  “Winter will always seem even more magical from now on,” Kirsty added.

  “I hope so,” said Alicia. “I will never forget you, either. Good-bye, Rachel! Good-bye, Kirsty!”

  The girls waved as Alicia vanished back to her snowy Fairyland home.

  “We’d better start walking,” said Rachel. “Buttons is waiting for us on the other side of the lake.”

  They set off arm in arm, and then something beautiful happened. The gray clouds parted, and a shaft of bright winter sunlight broke through. It lit up one of the park’s empty flowerbeds, and the girls smiled at each other.

  “It’s funny,” said Kirsty. “The flowerbeds look just the same, but everything is different now that Alicia has her magical objects back. We know that the seeds and bulbs are growing under the soil, and new life is getting ready for springtime.”

  Rachel nodded. “Winter is a beautiful season,” she said. “But knowing that it will end makes it even more special. Now everyone can enjoy the snowy weather and feel glad that spring is coming, too.”

  “So what do you think is the best thing about winter?” Kirsty asked.

  Rachel laughed happily. “That’s easy,” she said. “Fairy adventures, of course!”

  The other fairies jumped up and smiled at Rachel and Kirsty.

  “It’s wonderful to meet you,” Rachel said, recovering from the surprise of being whisked to Fairyland. “But why have you brought us here?”

  “I’m afraid that Jack Frost and his goblins have done something truly terrible,” said Elle, sinking into one of the chairs.

  She raised her wand and pointed it at one of the bookshelves. A large book swept itself off the shelf and opened in midair to a big, blank page. As it hovered there, blurry pictures began to appear on the page. As the pictures grew clearer and the girls drew in their breaths.

  “It’s a picture of this library,” said Kirsty.

  “With Jack Frost and his goblins sneaking around inside,” Rachel added. “What did they do?”

  “They took our most precious belongings,” said Elle.

  The girls watched the picture in the book. Jack Frost undid the golden clasp of a wooden box. He raised the lid and scooped the contents into a bag, laughing. Then he handed the bag to a goblin, threw the box on the floor, and left the library.

  The picture faded, and the book closed itself and slotted back into its place on the shelf.

  “What was in the box?” asked Rachel.

  “Four magical objects that have power over the stories we protect,” said Elle. “They give the holder control of the stories. We use them to make sure that the stories go as they are supposed to, so every story ends happily.”

  “What is Jack Frost using them for?” Kirsty asked.

  “He and his goblins are using our magical objects to actually go into the stories and change them,” said Elle. “They want the stories to be all about them.”

  Kirsty and Rachel exchanged a worried glance.

  Copyright © 2017 by Rainbow Magic Limited.

  All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. 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.

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  First published in the United Kingdom in 2015 as Alyssa the Snow Queen Fairy by Orchard U.K., Carmelite House, 50 Victoria Embankment, EZ4Y 0DZ.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  ISBN 978-0-545-85201-2

  First edition, January 2017

  Cover design by Angela Jun

  e-ISBN 978-0-545-86409-1

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Scholastic Inc., Attention: Permissions Department, 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012.