“Let me see,” Oola said. She took the bottle from her friend and frowned at the fairies. “Oh!” she cried. “I know what these are—they’re fairies. I used to have one. But mine didn’t have wings. And it didn’t come in a glass cage.”
“What did you do with it?” Numi asked.
Oola shrugged and handed the bottle back to Numi. “Nothing,” she said. “It was very boring.”
“Boring!” Tink squeaked indignantly.
“Hey! Hey!” Iridessa tapped on the glass. “We’re not boring! If you let us out, we’ll show you!”
Numi tossed her long, blue hair over one shoulder. “What can you do?” she asked.
Tink rolled her eyes. “Don’t bother, Iridessa,” she said. “Mermaids don’t care about anyone but themselves.”
But Iridessa wasn’t listening. She snapped her fingers, sending up a silver spark. Then she sent up another, and another. Soon the bottle was swirling with sparks.
“Oooooh,” the mermaids said, their eyes wide.
Numi smiled. “Very pretty.”
Oola frowned. “My fairy never did that.”
“What can the other one do?” Numi asked. She turned her violet gaze toward Tinker Bell. Tink stuck out her tongue. She put her thumbs in her ears and waggled her fingers.
“Tink!” Iridessa nudged her friend. “Stop that! Maybe they can help us!”
Numi giggled. “That one’s funny!”
“I think she’s rude. Let’s get rid of her,” Oola suggested. “But keep the other.”
“Oh, I like them both!” Numi said brightly. “I could put the bottle by my bed. It would make a nice lamp.”
“A lamp?” Iridessa cried. “Hey, no—wait! You need to let us out of here! We have to get back to Pixie Hollow to save the other fairies from an owl!”
“But then you’ll fly away,” Numi said reasonably.
“Well, of course we’ll fly away!” Iridessa said. “Weren’t you listening? We have to go help our friends.”
“You fairies don’t understand how lucky you are.” Numi wagged a finger at them. “You’re going to live at the bottom of the Mermaid Lagoon in a beautiful castle!”
Iridessa gasped. “B-b-bottom of the Mermaid Lagoon?” They would never escape from there! They couldn’t possibly swim to the surface.
“We have to do something!” Tink whispered.
Iridessa nodded. The mermaids had liked her show of sparks. Maybe they would like something else that glittered. Beyond the rock, sunlight sent sparkles shimmering like diamonds over the water. Iridessa concentrated, drawing two sparkles together. Then three. Then four. Then three more. The sparkles joined like petals on a flower. They floated toward the rock, a water lily of light.
Oola scooped it up. “What is it?” she asked. Then she tucked the glittery flower into her hair. “Aren’t I beautiful?”
Numi frowned. “Give me that,” she said.
“Why?” Oola demanded.
“Because my fairy made it, that’s why,” Numi said.
“I won’t,” Oola said. “It would look silly in your hair, anyway.”
“But it’s mine!” Numi insisted. She reached for the glitter flower. And as she reached, she dropped the bottle.
Once again, the fairies landed in the water with a splash. They were on the other side of the rock now, out of the current.
Gradually, the mermaids’ argument faded into the distance behind them. Iridessa sat down next to her friend. “Tink, do you think they’ll come after us?” she asked.
“No. They’ve probably forgotten us already,” Tink said.
THE BLUE WATERS of the Mermaid Lagoon drifted into the distance. The bottle was bobbing out to sea again—this time in the wrong direction. It was headed away from Never Land.
“I’m hungry,” Tink moaned. She and Iridessa sat facing each other. Their backs were pressed to the sides of the bottle. “I wonder what Dulcie served for lunch today.”
Iridessa’s stomach gave a low growl. “Probably mushroom tartlets,” she said. Mushroom tartlets were one of her favorite dishes.
“Or cherry tomato soup,” Tink suggested. “Or lemongrass salad.”
“Maybe it was crab-apple sandwiches with mint sauce,” Iridessa added. A shy flitterfish swam close to the bottle. Iridessa touched the glass, right where the fish’s nose was, and it fluttered away in a swirl of bubbles.
“With honey cupcakes for dessert.” Tink sighed at the thought of the sweet, crumbly treats, drizzled with fresh honey. “And rose-hip tea.”
Iridessa rested her head against the glass. Until that moment, she hadn’t realized just how thirsty she was. “We have to get out of this bottle,” she said. A flicker of fear leaped in her heart. She didn’t like the feeling. Light-talent fairies were usually warm-blooded and fiery—but now, Iridessa shivered. “If we don’t get out soon…”
She didn’t need to finish the sentence. Tink nodded. “I know.”
If they didn’t get out soon, they could be in real danger.
Suddenly, the bottle tipped and swayed. Iridessa looked up and saw a huge green wall of water. Before she had time to think, the wave crashed down over the bottle.
White foam swirled beneath them, and the bottle shot forward. The wave roared in their ears. Then, in an instant, the wave stretched out and quieted to a hiss. It washed them onto a clean stretch of white sand dotted with bubbly green seaweed. The wave retreated to the sea with a delicate swish.
Iridessa looked around. “Where are we?” she asked. In one direction, as far as she could see, white sand met blue water. In the other direction stood a lush forest. Tall, slender trees dripped with flowery green vines. Iridessa admired their pink-gold blossoms—she had never seen such flowers before!
Tink grabbed her friend’s arm. “Dessa,” she said. “Did you see that?” She pointed to something just over Iridessa’s shoulder.
Iridessa turned to look. “It’s just a hole in the sand,” she said.
Tink narrowed her eyes at the hole. “Something moved,” she whispered.
Sure enough, after a moment a long, spidery leg poked out of the hole, followed by a pretty shell. The shell was brilliant blue and looked like an oval stone. It was also very large.
“What is it?” Iridessa whispered back.
“I have no idea,” Tink said.
The two fairies stood perfectly still, watching the shell. Another long, blue leg poked out, then two large pincers. Between the pincers was a small head with round black eyes, as shiny as ripe blackberry seeds. The creature was a crab.
“Hey, you!” Tink called to the crab.
Right away, the crab tucked himself back into his hole.
“I think he’s afraid of us,” Iridessa said. It was amazing that something with such large claws could be afraid of two fairies trapped in a bottle!
Tink’s eyes were gleaming. “Yes—but he can help us! Hey!” she shouted. “Come back!”
“Stop shouting!” Iridessa cautioned. “You’re scaring him!”
“Hey!” Tink shouted again. She pounded on the glass with her tiny fist.
Suddenly, a blue leg poked out of the hole.
The fairies looked at each other.
Tink tapped at the glass again. Clink, clink, clink!
Slowly, two antennas felt their way out from beneath the shell. Then the crab poked his head out. He looked at the fairies with his bright eyes.
Tink tapped lightly on the glass.
The crab scuttled closer on his long legs and waved a pincer, almost in greeting.
“It’s okay,” Tink said gently, tapping on the glass. “We’re your friends.”
The crab edged right up to the bottle. His beady eyes stared at it. Tink moved toward the bottle’s neck, tapping all the way. “We need to get out of here,” she begged the crab.
All at once, as if the crab understood, he clamped the cork in his giant pincer. With a twist and a pop, the cork came free.
Fresh air blew into the bottle. It smelled of
the sea and of the pink-gold flowers. Air had never smelled as sweet to Iridessa. “Thank goodness!” she cried. She crawled out of the neck of the bottle and plopped down onto the sand. Then she gave her wings a huge stretch. They were stiff and sore.
“We’re free!” Tink yelled. She followed Iridessa out of the bottle. She dropped next to the crab and planted a kiss on top of his blue shell. The crab began to scuttle away as she turned a somersault in the air.
Iridessa did a loop-the-loop. The wind against her face and her wings felt so good! Laughing, she darted toward the waves. She dipped a toe in, and then raced back to shore before the water caught her.
Tink stopped her somersaults and landed on the sand in front of Iridessa. “Now all we have to do is get the bottle back to Pixie Hollow,” she said. Her face was pink, and she was smiling.
Iridessa’s smile vanished. She had forgotten that they couldn’t just fly back to Pixie Hollow. They had to take the bottle with them!
“How are we going to do that?” she asked.
Tink gave her a huge grin. “I’ve got an idea.”
IRIDESSA PUSHED THE cork back into the bottle’s neck. “I can’t wait to hear this one,” she muttered.
“Dessa, the answer is obvious!” Tink said. She waved a hand at the clear glass. “All we have to do is use the bottle as a boat. Look how far we’ve already traveled!”
Iridessa shuddered. “I’m not getting back in that bottle,” she said. “No way.”
“Not in it,” Tink corrected. “On it. We’ll ride it the way the pirates travel on their ship. It will be a fairy Jolly Roger!” Tink grabbed a twig and sketched her idea in the sand so that Iridessa could see. “We’ll put the bottle on its side,” she explained. “Then we’ll tie floats to either side to keep it from spinning. We can use a stick as our mast.”
“A mast?” Iridessa said. “What about a sail?”
Tink pointed to the forest behind Iridessa. The pink-gold flower vines were covered with large leaves. “There.” Tink tugged on her bangs, thinking hard. “But what can we use for floats?”
Iridessa snapped her fingers, sending out a silver spark. “What about that seaweed on the shore?” she asked. “Each strand has lots of little air pockets in it.”
“Iridessa, you’re a genius!” Tink cried. “All right, I’ll make the mast and the floats.”
“What can I do?” Iridessa asked.
“Braid some rope,” Tink said. “We’re going to need lots.”
The fairies got to work. Iridessa looked closely at the pink-gold flower vines and found that they were made of many slender tendrils. She yanked several down and started braiding them together.
Before long, she had a large pile of rope. She brought it to Tink, who was weaving a thick mat of seaweed. Tink measured the rope. “We’ll need more,” she said.
“More?” Iridessa asked. But she went back to the forest to collect more vines.
By the time Iridessa returned, Tink had used the rope to tie the seaweed firmly to the bottle. She had crossed two big twigs to hold the leaf sail. Then she had used some sticky sap and a pinch of fairy dust to attach the sail to the bottle.
“It’s beautiful!” Iridessa said.
Tink beamed proudly. “Not bad,” she said, “considering neither one of us is a boat-making talent.”
“It looks done,” Iridessa said. She held out her rope. “So what’s this for?”
Tink shrugged. “I don’t know yet,” she said.
Iridessa frowned. “You don’t know yet?” She planted her hands on her hips. “I made all that rope for nothing?”
“Not for nothing,” Tink told her. “I just don’t know what for yet. But I once heard a pirate say that you can never have enough rope.”
Iridessa’s glow flared, but she forced herself to take a deep breath. After all, they didn’t have time to argue. They had to get back to Pixie Hollow!
“All right,” she said. “Let’s get this boat into the water.”
“I’ll sit at the front,” Tink said. “To navigate.”
“What will I do?” Iridessa asked.
“Fly behind and steer,” Tink said. “You’ll have to push the boat in the right direction.”
“Why do I get the hard job?” Iridessa demanded.
“Because I made the boat,” Tink said.
“I made the rope!” Iridessa shot back. “We should take turns.”
Tink gritted her teeth. “Fine.”
“Who’ll go first?” Iridessa asked. Just then, she noticed a flat white disk near Tink’s feet. “We can flip this sand dollar,” she said, lifting it out of the sand.
One side was perfectly smooth, and the other had a star pattern. “I call star,” Tink said quickly.
Iridessa fluttered into the air, then tipped the sand dollar so that it tumbled down onto the sand. The sand dollar landed star side up.
“Star!” Tink shouted, leaping into the air. “I navigate first!”
Iridessa sighed. It figured. Since yesterday, she had been trapped in a bottle, swallowed by a crocodile, nearly kidnapped by mermaids, and cast away on a desert island, and now she had to push a bottle halfway to Never Land. She was starting to think her luck would never return.
TINK AND IRIDESSA struggled to get the bottle back into the water. Time after time, the fairies had to shoot high into the air as a wave threatened to crash down on them. Then they darted back to the bottle to try again to haul it over the waves. But once their bottle-raft was safely past the breaking waves, a gust of wind picked up behind them. The leaf sail puffed out as it caught the breeze.
Iridessa guided the bottle as she fluttered along behind it. This isn’t so hard, she thought.
“More to the right!” Tink called from the bottle’s neck.
Iridessa shoved her left shoulder against the bottle. It twisted slightly in the opposite direction.
“Perfect!” Tink cried. She gave Iridessa a huge smile over her shoulder.
Iridessa grinned back.
After a while, the fairies changed places. Riding at the front of the bottle was much better. When Iridessa was behind the large leaf sail, it was impossible to tell where she was going.
Now she could see land at the horizon. She saw tall white cliffs and a shimmering waterfall. Far to the left was a tiny speck of a ship—the Jolly Roger. If they stayed on course, they would reach the mouth of Havendish Stream. Then they could sail down the stream all the way to Pixie Hollow.
Sooner than she would have liked, it was time to trade places again. Iridessa noticed right away that the bottle seemed heavier than before.
She checked the mast. The leaf sail fluttered, then went limp.
“What happened?” Iridessa asked.
Tink flew to the top of the sail. She licked her finger and held it up to test the breeze. “The wind has died down,” she said. “We’ll have to push instead.”
Iridessa strained her wings. The bottle was moving slowly. It was difficult to steer, too.
Suddenly, a wave knocked the bottle-boat off course. “Tink!” Iridessa cried. “Help!”
Tink flew to the back of the bottle, and the two fairies fought to turn the boat in the right direction. Once they had it back on course, they fluttered their wings like butterflies in a windstorm. They pushed the bottle with all their strength.
Drops of sweat broke out on Iridessa’s forehead. Her wings ached. Her breath came in short gasps.
Tink and Iridessa had been struggling along this way for several minutes when Tink noticed a strange shape swimming beside them. “It’s that turtle!” she cried.
Iridessa stopped and turned to look where Tink was pointing. Sure enough, it was the turtle they had seen earlier.
“He’s about to pass us,” Iridessa said. Hot tears stung her eyes. “Tink, we’re going too slowly. We’ll never get back to Pixie Hollow in time!”
“I have an idea,” Tink said. She flew to the base of the mast, where she had stored the rope. “He may not have helped us get
out of the bottle. But he’s going to help us get the bottle going!”
“What are you doing?” Iridessa called.
Tink had already tied one end of the rope around the middle of the bottle. She made a loop at the other end, then flew to the turtle. She dropped the loop over his neck.
The rope between the turtle and the bottle stretched tight. It was working! The turtle was pulling them along toward Never Land. And he didn’t seem to mind a bit. In fact, he didn’t seem to notice.
Tink frowned. “We’re still moving slowly,” she said.
“True,” Iridessa agreed. “But it’s faster than we were going.” A small smile twitched at the edge of her mouth. “And at least the rope came in handy.”
Tink grinned. “I told you it would.”
Iridessa tried not to watch the sky as the turtle swam toward Never Land. She couldn’t make the bottle move any faster. All she could do was be patient. She and Tink sat near the front of the bottle. The shores of Never Land grew larger as they got closer. After a while, a seagull wheeled overhead.
That’s a good sign, Iridessa thought. Seagulls like to stay near shore. Soon they were close enough to hear the rumble of the surf.
“Tink,” Iridessa said, “does it look as if the Jolly Roger is getting bigger?”
“Oh, nuts and bolts! That’s just what I was thinking,” Tink admitted. “It means our friend the turtle isn’t going toward Havendish Stream.”
Iridessa sighed. “I’m afraid we’re going to have to say good-bye, then,” she said.
Tink flew to untie the turtle. “He’s not the friendliest turtle I’ve ever met,” she said as he swam off.
“The turtles in Havendish Stream are much nicer,” Iridessa agreed.
“Speaking of Havendish Stream…,” Tink said, “we’d better get moving.”
Both fairies flew to the back of the bottle. They pushed with all their strength. Luckily, the breeze picked up a bit, and soon the bottle was again sailing toward the shore.
“I see it!” Tink shouted. “I see Havendish Stream!”
Disney Fairies: Iridessa, Lost at Sea Page 3
