Pia the Penguin Fairy

by Daisy Meadows

  Pia was busily waving her wand again, though. “As much as those goblins annoy me, I’d better give them a soft landing,” she explained. The girls saw a huge drift of soft powdery snow appear beneath the falling goblins.

  Plop! Splat! Thump!

  The goblins dropped into the snowdrift and sank. Snow flew everywhere as they scrambled to get out. Their arms and legs waved wildly!

  “Let’s let them figure it out and fly after the penguins,” Rachel suggested. “I can’t see them anywhere now, can you two?”

  “No,” Pia said, looking around. “Let’s swoop down low. We might be able to pick up their trail.”

  The three friends soared over the cliff, their hair streaming in the wind as they flew.

  Once they were closer to the ground, Kirsty spotted some distinctive penguin footprints.

  “They’re heading that way!” she called, pointing ahead. “Come on, let’s follow them.”

  At first, the footprints seemed to lead straight into an icy wall. But as the fairies flew nearer, they realized that the wall was actually the entrance to an icy cavern.

  The big snow-covered archway that led to the cavern was almost invisible against the pure white landscape.

  “Ugh, my feet are so cold and wet,” Rachel heard the goblins grumbling behind them. She quickly turned and saw that they had all managed to climb out of the snowdrift. They were looking very grumpy.

  “Quick, let’s fly inside the cave,” she said in a low voice, not wanting the goblins to notice them.

  Pia and Kirsty agreed, and they all darted into the gleaming cavern.Glittering icicles hung from its roof. The walls and ground were covered in thousands of twinkling ice crystals.

  “There’s Scamp!” Pia cried in delight, flying over to a cute little penguin who was standing in the middle of the cavern.

  He squeaked excitedly as he saw her. He waddled over at once and gestured at the ceiling with one of his flippers.

  “There it is,” Rachel exclaimed, gazing up and beaming as she saw the sparkles shining from the ceiling. “The shell piece has been frozen into one of the icicles!”

  “Oh, clever Scamp,” Pia said, planting a fairy kiss on his head. “Good job! Now, how are we going to get this down?”

  She, Rachel, and Kirsty flew up for a closer look at the shell-icicle. But before they could say another word, they heard stomping footsteps … and in came the goblins.

  “Aha! Fairies!” one of them said, spotting Pia and the girls. “What’s that they’ve found up there?”

  “Ooh! Ooh! It’s a piece of that magic shell!” a second goblin yelled.

  The goblins cheered. “Let’s use snowballs to get it down!” one of them suggested. He scooped up a big handful of snow and packed it into a tight round snowball.

  Splat! Splat! Splat! The goblins all copied their friend, throwing snowball after snowball at the icicle.

  Kirsty, Rachel, and Pia had to dodge out of the way as the icy snowballs flew at them. “Hey!” Pia yelled. “Be careful! You don’t want to break it!”

  But the words had only just left her mouth when—smash! The icicle shattered and the shell piece went flying.

  “Get it!” shouted the goblins.

  “Get it!” cried the girls.

  Luckily, the piece of shell landed near Scamp. He picked it up and tucked it under the fluffy feathers above his feet, just like Kirsty and Rachel had seen the dad penguins do to protect their eggs. The goblins lunged toward Scamp, but when the other penguins saw what was happening, they huddled around Scamp to protect him.

  “Out of the way, penguins,” one of the goblins grumbled, trying to push through them. He didn’t make it very far, getting a few sharp jabs from the penguins’ beaks for his rudeness.

  “Ow! Stop pecking me! Ow!” he cried, rubbing his arm. The other goblins were also being pecked by the penguins. They were determined to keep their new friend Scamp safe.

  “Where is Scamp?” Kirsty whispered from where she, Rachel, and Pia were hovering above the black-and-white birds.

  Before Pia could answer, Scamp’s head popped up from the penguin huddle. He squawked, teasing the goblins.

  “Grab him!” one of the goblins yelled angrily, still trying to push through the penguin crowd.

  But moments later, Scamp popped up from a different part of the huddle and gave another playful squawk.

  Pia giggled. “He’s really having fun with those goblins, isn’t he?” she said. “But maybe I should get him out of there now.”

  Scamp popped up again and one of the goblins made a lunge for him. He was just about to grab ahold of the little penguin when Pia quickly waved her wand, making Scamp and the shell fairy-size. Then, she flew in to snatch them up herself. The goblins grabbed wildly for Pia, but she managed to fly high enough that she was out of their reach.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Rachel said. The three fairies zoomed out of the cavern, with Pia holding Scamp and the shell piece close to her.

  “We did it!” Pia cheered, cuddling Scamp tightly. “Well done, girls. Another piece of shell is safe—that’s wonderful news.”

  “Not so wonderful for the goblins,” Kirsty said. They trudged out of the cavern below, looking very gloomy, and bickering about who was going to tell Jack Frost the bad news.

  “No,” Rachel agreed. “But the penguins seem happy. And look, they’ve stopped doing that strange trying-to-fly thing now.”

  Pia smiled as the penguins trooped out and waddled along the ice back to the sea. Once in the water, they began swimming and diving just like normal.

  “I think it must be because we’ve found another piece of the shell,” she said. “Little by little, the ocean is returning to how it should be. Hooray!” She stroked Scamp’s glossy feathers. “Now we should get the shell piece back to the Royal Aquarium in Fairyland, where it will be safe. Thanks for everything, girls!”

  “Thank you,” Kirsty said, hugging her. “That was fun!”

  “Bye, Pia, bye, Scamp,” Rachel said. “I loved seeing all the penguins— especially that little baby. So cute!”

  Pia waved her wand and a flood of fairy dust streamed around Kirsty and Rachel. Instantly, they were spun into the air by a glittery magic whirlwind. Moments later, they found themselves back in Leamouth Park. They were regular girls again, back in their summery clothes, complete with their roller skates and skateboard.

  One thing was different, though—they were each holding a huge ice-cream cone, filled with pink and white scoops of ice cream and covered in sparkles! “Yum!” Kirsty said in delight, taking a big bite of hers.

  “Delicious!” Rachel grinned and tried hers, too. “Tastes like magic to me,” she said. “What an ice way to finish an adventure!”

  “Should we build another tower, Kirsty?” Rachel Walker asked her best friend, Kirsty Tate.

  The two girls were kneeling on the beach making an enormous sandcastle. They’d been working on it all day in the sunshine. The castle had turrets and towers and archways.

  “Oh, yes, what a great idea!” Kirsty said with a grin. She picked up her bucket. “Let’s start decorating the castle, too. We can use those pretty pink and white shells we found earlier.”

  Carefully, Rachel began to build the tower. Kirsty tipped the shells out of her bucket and began sorting through them.

  “Look, Kirsty, the sun’s starting to set,” Rachel pointed out, noticing that people were packing up and leaving the beach. “We’ll have to go back to your gran’s soon.” The girls were spending their spring vacation in Leamouth with Kirsty’s gran.

  Kirsty’s face fell. “I know we’ve had a great time on the beach, Rachel,” she sighed, “but we haven’t seen even a single magical fairy sparkle all day! I was hoping we were going to find another missing piece of the magic golden conch shell.”

  “Me, too,” Rachel agreed. “But don’t forget what Queen Titania always says—we have to wait for the magic to come to us!”

  “It doesn’t look like any ma
gic is going to come to us today, though,” Kirsty remarked. She began pressing rows of tiny, creamy shells onto the sides of the sandcastle.

  “Isn’t our castle great, Rachel?” Kirsty said proudly, sitting back on her heels to take a look. There was hardly anyone left on the beach now except for the two girls.

  Rachel nodded. “It looks a bit like the Fairyland Palace with all those towers,” she replied. “Except our castle isn’t so sparkly, of course!”

  Suddenly Kirsty gave an excited cry. “Are you sure, Rachel?” she asked with a big smile. “Look in there, under that archway!”

  Rachel bent forward on her hands and knees and peered inside the sandcastle. Then she saw it! A glittering, golden light was shining right in the very center of the castle.

  “Kirsty, I think it’s a fairy!” Rachel gasped as she spotted a tiny figure dancing gracefully through the sandy rooms. “It’s Tess the Sea Turtle Fairy!”

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  e-ISBN 978-0-545-54863-2

  Copyright © 2010 by Rainbow Magic Limited.

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

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  First Scholastic printing, March 2011

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