Fira and the Full Moon Page 2

  If somebody didn’t do something, the triplets would be fighting all day. Fira took a deep breath. She tried to smile at Luna and Iridessa. She would take charge. “I’ll bring them to the Home Tree and show them around,” she offered.

  The other light-talent fairies nodded quickly. “Let us know if you need any help,” said Luna. She hurried off with Iridessa.

  “I will,” Fira said, but they were already too far away to hear.

  She turned to the triplets. “I’m Fira,” she told them. “I’ll take you to your rooms.”

  “Fly with you!” they cried in unison, offering the fairy greeting. They crowded around Fira. Each one tried to get closer than the others.

  “This way,” Fira said. She squeezed between Sparkle and Helios. Rising into the air, she set out toward the Home Tree.

  She smiled at the arrivals flying beside her. They’d be such a help to the light talents. Sure, they seemed a bit wild. But it was nothing she couldn’t manage.

  Fira felt sure of it.

  IN THE HOME TREE, Fira and the triplets looked at the directory in the lobby. “Here you are,” said Fira. “Your room is on the fourth floor.”

  “Room?” Helios repeated. “Does that mean there’s only one?”

  “We have to share?” asked Sparkle.

  “All three of us?” Glory squealed in dismay.

  “It’s only until the decoration-talent fairies can get two more rooms ready,” said Fira. “Besides, it’ll be fun. You’ll be right next door to me.”

  They flew together to the triplets’ room. Fira opened the door, and the three young fairies crowded inside.

  The decoration-talent fairies had been busy. One moon-shaped fan hung from the ceiling. But Fira noted that there were three of everything else: three beds, stacked one on top of the other. Three walnut-shell dressers with star-shaped knobs. Three mirrors in a row. Each reflected light from a different window, and each one was larger than the next.

  “Here we are!” Fira said.

  “I get the top bunk!” Sparkle called.

  “No, I want the top one!” said Helios.

  “No, me!” cried little Glory.

  But Sparkle was already sitting on the bed, swinging her legs. “I’m oldest. I choose first.”

  “All right,” grumbled Helios. “You can have it. But the mirror closest to the light is mine.” He stopped to admire himself.

  “I wanted that one!” Glory whined. She spun around. “But I’m going to choose a dresser first.” She raced to the dresser in the far corner.

  “Ha-ha,” Sparkle teased, flying faster. “Beat you!” She pulled open a drawer.

  “Not fair!” screamed Glory. She caught sight of the biggest window. “I’ll open the shade,” she declared.

  “No, me,” said Helios. He darted forward.

  “I want to,” Sparkle called out.

  All three dashed toward the window at once.

  “Hold on!” Fira stepped in front of them. “I’ll get it.”

  She snapped the shade open.

  “I’ll get the other ones!” said Sparkle.

  “No, wait!” Fira said. She wanted their crazy contest to end. “Look outside. There are the mining-talent fairies.”

  Fira pointed out the window, to the roots of the Home Tree. In a shady corner, two mining-talent fairies were cleaning their tools.

  “Let me see!” Sparkle rushed to the window.

  “Me too!” Helios flew next to her. Glory tried to squeeze in between them. Giving up, she fluttered up and down, looking over their heads.

  “What strange fairies!” exclaimed Helios.

  “They just look a little different from the other fairies,” Fira explained. “Because mining work needs less flying than other talents, their wings are smaller. And mining-talent fairies are usually shorter, closer to the ground. So they’re more comfortable in the mines.”

  “And their clothes!” Helios said. He smoothed his arrival garment, which was brand-new and brightly colored. “They look like rags!”

  “Not quite like rags,” Fira scolded, a little sharply. “They must be getting ready to go mining. And why wear your best clothes if you’ll be covered in dust and dirt?” She turned back to the window and leaned out partway.

  “Hello, Precious! Hello, Orren!” Fira called down.

  The fairies shaded their eyes and looked up at the window. Neither one smiled.

  “Are you going on an expedition?” Fira asked.

  “Of course we’re going,” Precious replied.

  “There’s a full moon tonight,” Orren said grumpily.

  Sparkle tapped Fira on the shoulder. “Why don’t they sound more excited?”

  “Well, that’s just their way,” Fira said. She wasn’t really paying attention. The mining-talent fairies had reminded her of the firefly flu. Usually, the fireflies settled on miners’ helmets to light the tunnels. Would they be well enough to help by that night?

  She leaned out again to explain the problem to the miners. “I’m not sure any light talents will be able to guide you. We may need to light Pixie Hollow. Maybe you should hold off,” she finished. “Wait a day.”

  “Hold off?” Precious scowled. “Wait a day? But we always go on the night of the full moon. Always.”

  “She thinks our work can wait,” Orren grumbled. “She thinks that Pixie Hollow doesn’t need iron or metal. No, no, no.” He shook his head. “Don’t mind us. We’re just mining-talent fairies. Not important at all. Not like other talents.”

  “I don’t think that,” Fira hastened to call down. “I’m—”

  A loud crash sounded behind her. Fira spun around. A shattered vase lay on the floor. Miniature sunflowers were strewn among the pieces. Water seeped everywhere.

  “Glory did it!” said Sparkle.

  “Helios did it,” said Glory.

  “Sparkle did it,” said Helios.

  “It doesn’t matter who did it,” Fira said. “You need to be more careful.”

  She helped the triplets clean up the mess. Firefly trouble or no firefly trouble, she had to get these young fairies outside. They needed to use up some energy.

  “Come on!” she told them. “I’m giving you a tour of Pixie Hollow!”

  Fira and the triplets hovered just outside the Home Tree. Where should we begin? Fira wondered. What would keep them interested?

  “Moth!” Tinker Bell flew out of her workshop. The shop was really an old Clumsy teakettle. Tink had magically transported it to the Home Tree and squeezed it inside. Its door stood under a steel awning, which was actually the spout turned upside down.

  “I was just coming to get you!”

  Tinker Bell said. “I’ve come up with a new teakettle for you. It has a few surprises I think you’ll like.”

  Fira grinned. She loved to drink tea in her room each morning while watching the sun rise. What can this new kettle do that any old one can’t? she wondered.

  “Come inside!” Tink told her.

  Fira glanced at the triplets. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to bring them inside quite yet.

  Tink caught her look. “Are the triplets giving you any trouble?” she asked.

  “Not a bit.” Fira tossed her head. She didn’t want Tink to think that three brand-new fairies were getting the best of her.

  “Let’s go, Sparkle, Helios, Glory!” she called. “Here’s the first stop of our tour!”

  “Why do you always call Sparkle first?” Helios demanded. “Do you like her best?”

  “Why do you always call me last?” Glory said tearfully.

  They kept arguing as they trailed Fira and Tinker Bell inside. “Not one bit of trouble?” Tink asked.

  Fira laughed. “Well, all right. I’ll admit it. Maybe just a bit.”

  It wasn’t just the arrivals that troubled her, of course. It was all that light-talent planning…and the miners’ expedition…and the fireflies. Fira really had a lot going on.

  Not too much, she told herself. Just a lot.

/>   Tink and Fira flew to a corner of the shop. Fira’s kettle sat on a worktable, next to a pile of dented trays.

  “Tink, is it okay if the triplets take a look around?” Fira asked.

  Tinker Bell frowned, then nodded. “Just don’t touch anything,” she told the young fairies.

  She turned back to Fira and put the kettle over the fire. “When the tea is ready,” Tink explained, “steam comes out the spout in different colors.”

  “Really?” Fira peered at the kettle. It looked exactly the same as any old teakettle. But with Tink’s pots-and-pans magic, you never knew what could happen.

  Across the room, Sparkle picked up a small frying pan. “Tink said no touching!” Glory reminded her.

  Sparkle dropped the pan quickly. It clanged on the ground.

  “But what’s this?” Sparkle pointed to a drawing on the handle. It was a tiny pot with squiggly lines for steam rising from it.

  “That’s my talent mark,” Tink told her. “See my initials? T.B.?”

  The triplets crowded around. They squinted to see the letters. “Oh, yes!” said Helios. He looked around. “This strainer has your talent mark, too.”

  “And each piece in this silverware set!” added Glory.

  The triplets twisted and turned, checking under handles and inside pots. They were careful not to touch a thing.

  Fira smiled. They really were trying.

  “Can you show me how this kettle works?” she asked Tinker Bell.

  Tink nodded and said, “When the tea is ready, the kettle whistles and steam comes out, just like always. But the steam is colored. And each color is for a different kind of tea. Watch this now.”

  Just then, the teakettle whistled. A bright orange cloud came out of the spout. “Orange is for thirst-quenching tea,” Tink explained.

  The color changed to bright red. “A fiery red steam is for early-morning, just-waking-up tea.”

  Next, the steam turned a light shade of blue. “And soothing baby blue is perfect for a nighttime cup of tea.”

  While Tink was talking, Fira sneaked glances at the triplets. Their backs were bent over a worktable. They seemed to be studying a big metal sheet. Fira couldn’t see much. But they were quiet. They weren’t arguing or knocking things over. They were fine.

  “Would you care for a nice cup of orange tea?” Tink asked. The steam changed back to orange. She cleared a space at a table and poured two cups. The friends sat down together.

  Fira took a sip. “Mmmm! Delicious!”

  Tink wrinkled her nose.

  “You don’t like it?” asked Fira.

  Tinker Bell shook her head. “It’s not that. Do you smell a funny odor?”

  Fira sniffed. There was a definite burning smell in the workshop. What could it be?

  The triplets!

  At the very same moment, Fira and Tinker Bell turned to the triplets. A cloud of black smoke enveloped them.

  In a flash, Fira raced over. “Are you okay?” she yelled, waving away the smoke.

  “We’re fine,” Sparkle said in a quiet voice.

  Tink let out a little shriek. “But my brand-new triple-shine copper isn’t!” she wailed. She held out the sheet. A giant hole had been burned right through its center.

  “Um, um,” Helios stuttered. “We were making sparks.…”

  He snapped his fingers to show Tink. A bright spark flew from his fingertips.

  “To try to burn our own talent marks,” Sparkle went on, “and—”

  “And we got a little carried away.” Glory hung her head.

  “The metal is ruined!” Fira was horrified. How could they have been so careless? “I’d fly backward if I could,” she told Tinker Bell, apologizing in the fairy way. “I feel responsible.”

  But Tinker Bell barely heard. She moved the sheet this way and that. She tugged on her bangs, deep in thought.

  “All I have to do is thin this piece out here…bring the extra metal there…,” Tink said, already lost in her repair job. She was too caught up in fixing the sheet to even tell Fira that everything was all right.

  “I’d fly backward, too,” Sparkle said.

  “I’d fly farther,” Helios said.

  “No, me! I’d fly backward farthest,” Glory shouted.

  “Shhh! Let’s leave Tinker Bell to her work.” Fira pushed the noisy triplets out the door.

  They were back where they had started, outside the Home Tree. Fira ran her hands through her hair. Now what in Never Land could she do with them?

  THE THREE YOUNG FAIRIES clustered around Fira. They peppered her with questions and demands.

  “What should we do next, Fira?”

  “Where can we go?”

  “I want to see mermaids.”

  “I want to visit Tinker Bell again.”

  “I want to go to the fairy-dust mill!”

  “Stop!” Fira practically shouted. She took a deep breath. “I’ll tell you where we’ll go.”

  It was a hard decision. Tink had been a good sport about the mishap in her workshop. In fact, she seemed happy to have a problem to fix. Still, Fira would have to think carefully before she brought the triplets anywhere else.

  What would be a nice, quiet place? A soothing place, where everyone could relax?

  A garden! Fira decided. One with sweet-smelling flowers, shady nooks, and pretty plants. And why not take them to her favorite garden in all of Pixie Hollow? Lily’s garden.

  “I know just the place,” Fira told them. “This way.”

  She led the triplets past the Home Tree. They flew over a hedge of raspberry bushes. And there was Lily’s garden.

  A blanket of sweet clover covered the ground. Rows of lilacs and Queen Anne’s lace stood in shady groves. The triplets stared. For once, they were speechless.

  Fira grinned. She’d made the right choice! Then she spied Lily standing by a young flower.

  “You can do it!” Lily whispered to the flower. “You can grow big and strong.”

  “Wow!” said Fira quietly. She flew closer. “I’ve never seen that kind of poppy before.”

  Lily smiled. “It’s my first blue poppy! It’s doing great. It just needs a little encouragement.” She turned to smile at the triplets. “New visitors! Fly with you.”

  “I’m showing them around Pixie Hollow,” Fira explained. “And of course we had to stop here.”

  “Come,” Lily said. “You can see my wild roses…and my Queen Anne’s lace…and my…”

  Fira sat in the shade of a daffodil while Lily led the triplets to each grove and patch of grass. The young fairies were busy. That was good. Fira could take a break and turn her attention to other problems. The fireflies and their flu, to start with.

  It was getting late in the day, and the sun was low in the sky. What if the fireflies still weren’t feeling any better? The mining-talent fairies would be setting off in just a few hours. They’d need light.

  Fira figured she should check with Elixa, the healing-talent fairy. Maybe she’d had some luck finding a cure for the flu.

  Wait! Fira sat up straight. Lily’s garden had all sorts of herbs and special plants. They could be used for medicine! Were the fireflies trying any of those?

  “Lily!” Fira called. She flew over to a wild rosebush. The triplets were measuring their wingspans against a petal.

  “My wings are almost twice the size of a rose petal!” Sparkle said proudly.

  “Well, my wings are, too,” Helios declared. “And just as soft.”

  “How about me? How about me?” Glory hopped up and down.

  “Have you heard about the firefly flu?” Fira asked Lily above their voices. “Has anyone been here to pick plants for a healing potion?”

  Lily nodded. “I’ve been away on a seed hunt. But Elixa came while I was gone. She left a note saying that she took some herbs. She could be using them for the fireflies.”

  “Really?” Fira brightened. “Can you show me?”

  The two fairies flew off. “Stay there,” Fira sh
outed back to the triplets. “We’ll be right back.”

  Lily took Fira to the far corner of the garden. They landed in a sunny grassy patch. “Elixa chose mint leaves from right here,” Lily said.

  Fira studied the plant. She didn’t know much about mint, but maybe it would do some good. “How much—” she began. Then she realized that Lily’s face had turned ashen.

  “What is it?” Fira asked, panicked. “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m not sure,” Lily said. “One of my flowers is upset. I can feel it.” She closed her eyes. “It’s…it’s…it’s my brand-new poppy!”

  Lily rushed away, with Fira close behind. “This has nothing to do with the triplets.” Fira tried to convince herself. “They wouldn’t hurt a flower!”

  But then she saw the three young fairies by Lily’s new blue poppy. They were glowing their brightest.

  “We’re having a contest,” Helios said, “to see whose glow the flower likes best.”

  His glow grew brighter. The poppy stretched toward his light, as it would toward the sun.

  “Ha!” said Sparkle. “My glow is stronger.” She blazed with light. The poppy leaned away from Helios and toward her.

  “No fair!” said Glory. “You two are bigger!” She frowned in concentration. She began to glitter and shimmer. The flower twisted in her direction.

  “Stop!” Lily cried. “The poppy is exhausted! Please leave it alone.”

  “Dim your glows,” Fira commanded.

  The daylight seemed to darken as the triplets obeyed. Lily hovered by the poppy. “There, there,” she said soothingly. “It’s all over. You’ll be right as rain in a few minutes.”

  “Did we do something wrong?” Glory asked, confused.

  “We? Maybe it was just you!” said Sparkle. “You went last!”

  Glory began to cry.

  “I’d fly backward, Lily,” Fira apologized. “I should have been watching them more carefully.”

  “It will be all right.” Lily spoke in that same cooing voice. But this time, she was looking at Fira.