“What is it?” Prilla asked.
“The footprints. They just…stop.”
“DO YOU THINK the fairy who made them flew from here?” Prilla asked. “Or maybe the wind blew her away.”
“Maybe,” said Beck. But she seemed to be thinking of something else. She dropped down and pressed her ear to the ground. “Yep! Just what I thought.”
Prilla and Lily dropped down and pressed their ears to the ground, too. “I don’t hear anything,” Prilla said.
“Me neither,” Lily said.
“You don’t hear all the chattering?” Beck asked. Her eyes were wide with surprise.
Prilla and Lily shook their heads.
“I guess you have to be an animal talent,” Beck said. “We’re above the tunnels. The animal talents built them so we could move around easily, but a lot of animals take shelter in them. From the sound of it, the critters down there are all excited about something.”
Prilla bounced to her feet. “Maybe Queen Clarion decided to use the tunnels today to get around!”
“Or maybe she fell into one by accident.” Beck took a few steps and pointed to a hole in the ground. It was hidden by a big fern leaf. “She wouldn’t be the first.”
Prilla stood on the edge of the hole. She put her arms out and let herself teeter back and forth. She was eager to drop in and explore the mysterious tunnel. “So are we going down to look?”
“You bet!” Beck said.
Prilla didn’t wait another moment. She jumped into the hole. But it was too narrow for her to fully spread her wings. She landed on the soft earth below with a THUD! Prilla rolled quickly aside. A second later—THUMP!—Lily came tumbling behind her.
Prilla stretched out a hand and helped Lily to her feet. Next down was Beck. She landed gracefully. She’d had a lot of practice.
Prilla looked around. The tunnel was dark. The only light came through the hole above their heads and from their glows.
Prilla had never been underground before. It was a whole different world, strange and exciting at the same time.
Beck led the way, and Prilla and Lily followed her.
When Prilla’s eyes grew used to the dim light, she was amazed to see that the tunnel wasn’t really empty. Twisting roots and plant tendrils stuck out of the dirt. Between them, earthworms wriggled lazily. The packed earth walls of the tunnel smelled damp and rich.
As the fairies walked, sleeping pill-bugs briefly uncurled to see who was passing by. Then they curled back up. A line of ants scurried up the path. Some stopped to curiously inspect the fairies. Others paid no attention at all.
Beck had said it was noisy, but to Prilla’s ears, the tunnel was eerily quiet. She saw the moving life all around her, but she couldn’t hear the chatter of the worms and insects.
“This is spooky,” Lily whispered.
Prilla nodded. They both huddled closer behind Beck.
A squeaking noise made them jump and press their backs against the wall of the tunnel. Beck laughed as five baby mice came running by. They sped past the fairies without so much as a how-de-do and vanished in the dark.
“I wonder where they’re going in such a hurry?” Beck mused.
Lily said, “If Queen Clarion is down here and has the heart seed, they’re running to find her. Animals love the scent and the taste of a heart seed. In fact,” she added thoughtfully, “it could be dangerous to have a heart seed in your pocket. An animal might think that you are the tidbit that smells so delicious.”
At that moment, the five baby mice came running back. This time they were going twice as fast. They practically ran over one another as they scrambled out of the tunnel.
“What is—” They turned a corner, and the words died on Beck’s lips.
Prilla looked past her and saw why. There, straight ahead of them, was a snake. A big snake, sound asleep.
In the snake’s narrow middle was a bulge. He had recently swallowed a large meal. Prilla’s heart began to race, and Lily’s words echoed in her head: It could be dangerous to have a heart seed in your pocket. An animal might think that you are the tidbit that smells so delicious.
Prilla’s eyes widened in horror. Oh, no! Could that bulge be…Queen Clarion?
“BECK,” PRILLA WHISPERED, “I think he sees us.”
The snake had opened one eye.
“Stay calm,” Beck whispered. “Don’t show any fear.”
The snake lifted his head. He studied the three fairies.
Beck took a step back and made a series of hissing snake sounds. The snake’s head swayed as if he was listening. He hissed an answer.
“What’s he saying?” Prilla whispered. “What’s he saying? Did you ask him what he ate?” Prilla felt Beck’s elbow dig into her side. “Ouch!”
“Shhh,” Beck warned out of the side of her mouth.
Beck spoke to the snake again. Then she started to back away. Prilla and Lily had to back away, too.
“Ask him what he had for lunch,” Lily whispered.
Beck looked back at Prilla and Lily. “Snakes are very polite,” she said. “I can’t just ask him flat out what he ate. That would be rude.”
Prilla bit her lip. “Then how are we going to find out?”
“Let me talk to him,” Beck said. “You two get ready to run in case he doesn’t feel like chatting. Snakes can be moody.”
Prilla watched Beck approach the snake again. Beck was so brave! Meanwhile, Prilla’s heart was beating so loudly, she was surprised it didn’t echo in the tunnel. The snake moved closer. His eyes glittered dangerously.
The snake’s tongue flicked faster. The conversation seemed to take an awfully long time. The snake’s face swayed in front of Beck. Prilla stared at his hinged jaw. She knew it could open like a door and swallow a fairy—or two or three—whole.
“Maybe we should run,” Lily whispered in a trembling voice.
“No! Wait!” Prilla said, even though she was shaking from head to toe. “I think they’re done. Here she comes.”
Beck was backing toward them with great care. “Let’s go,” she whispered as she turned slowly. “We don’t want to seem rude. Just walk calmly back the way we came.”
Prilla forced herself to walk and not run. But she couldn’t hold back her fear. She had to know. “Well? Did you find out what he ate?”
“He ate an egg,” Beck whispered as they rounded a corner. As soon as they were out of the snake’s sight, she added, “Now run!”
The hole was only a few feet away. The fairies shot out of the tunnel and into the sunlight.
“Thank goodness he didn’t eat Queen Clarion,” Prilla gasped. She turned a few cartwheels to show her relief.
“Yes. But listen to this,” Beck said. “He told me that he was asleep in a tree earlier today. On a weather kite. And somebody tipped him off it. Whoever did it smelled delicious, he said.”
“Queen Clarion!” Lily exclaimed. “It had to be. She smelled delicious because she had the heart seed.”
“Maybe. Maybe not,” replied Beck. “I’ll bet all fairies smell delicious to a snake. Or it could have been a squirrel or a possum. But let’s imagine it was Queen Clarion. Why would she tip the snake off a kite? She’s usually very considerate.”
“Because she wanted the kite,” Lily guessed. “It would be too risky to ask him to move. He might eat her. So she had to tip him off the kite when he wasn’t looking.”
“But why would Queen Clarion want a kite?” Beck asked.
As if to answer the question, another gust of wind came racing around the bend. It lifted Prilla’s hat off her head, and she scrambled after it.
“Maybe she wanted to go somewhere,” suggested Prilla. “And she wanted to use wind to get there.”
Lily nodded. “That’s possible. Or maybe she was just trying to bring it back for the weather-talent fairies. If she got tangled up in it, the wind would have carried her off.”
“Which way would she have gone?” Beck asked.
“I know how to find
out,” Prilla said with a grin. “Come on!”
“ISN’T THIS FUN!” Prilla cried as the kite flew higher.
Prilla, Lily, and Beck all sat on knots in the tail of the biggest weather kite in the field. Prilla sat on the topmost knot. Beck sat on the knot in the middle. And Lily sat on the knot at the bottom.
Far below them, on the ground, twenty strong fairies and sparrow men fought to hold on to the kite. The kite strained against the line.
Prilla was dizzy with excitement. She had never been so high up! She could see shores, horizons, and the mysterious lands all around Never Land.
Directly south, right in the path of the wind, was a dense forest. The trees were so tall that their tops were hidden in the clouds.
“Look at those trees!” Prilla cried. She had to shout to be heard over the roaring of the wind and the snapping of the kite.
“That’s the High Tree Forest,” Lily called up to the others.
Prilla leaned down to shout at Lily. “What’s there? I mean, besides the trees?”
“Animals and birds,” Beck answered for her. “Lots of them.”
“Do you think…?” The rest of Lily’s question was carried away by the wind.
But Prilla guessed what Lily was thinking, and she nodded. “If Queen Clarion blew away on a kite, that’s where she might land—or crash.”
“We’ve got to go look for her!” Lily cried.
“But how will we get there?” Beck asked. “We don’t have nearly enough fairy dust to fly that far. And we’d need twice as much dust with this wind.”
Lily hesitated for a second. Then she reached into the pocket of her tunic and pulled out a pair of gardening shears. With one snip, she cut the thick rope that linked them to the ground.
“Aiiiiiiiiieee!” Prilla shouted.
The moment the kite was free, it soared into the air. It climbed higher and higher, and flew faster and faster. Wind rushed past Prilla’s ears. It made them so cold, she felt as if they might freeze. She was thrilled and terrified at the same time.
All she could do was hold tight to the tail. She wanted to close her eyes. But as scared as she was, she didn’t want to miss one moment of the amazing ride.
The world seemed to twist and turn. Below them, mile after mile of Never Land raced by as they soared across the sky.
The High Tree Forest was coming closer. Prilla could see the thick trees. Their branches and leaves spread out to make a dense canopy of green. The forest was directly in their path.
“How are we going to stop?” she yelled.
“We’ll make a soft landing in the leaves,” Lily shouted. “Don’t wor—”
Before the words don’t worry were out of Lily’s mouth, her eyes filled with alarm. Two birds were barreling toward them. It was clear they thought the kite should get out of their path and not the other way around. They didn’t even slow down.
The birds flew through the kite, tearing two large holes in it. The kite began to fall. It faltered as it dropped. The tattered edges of the holes rattled and snapped.
When the kite got close to the ground, the fairies let go of the tail and spread their wings. They landed right at the edge of the High Tree Forest.
“Now what?” Prilla asked the other two. She wasn’t feeling nearly as brave now as when they started their search.
“Now we find the queen,” Beck answered.
Lily led the way into the forest. The tree trunks were gigantic. Even the smallest trunk was wider than the Home Tree.
Lily hurried from one plant to another. “Look at this color!” she cried. “Look at this shape!”
Prilla bounced along behind Lily. The flowers were very pretty here! But just then, Beck tilted her head.
“Shhh,” she whispered.
Prilla’s heart began to beat faster. “What do you hear?” she asked.
“The usual. Foxes, raccoons, hedgehogs, bugs, a few snakes. But there’s something else, too. Some creature is making a sound that I’ve never heard before. It sounds like some kind of bird.”
Lily’s smile faded. “Then we need to find Queen Clarion soon. If she has that seed in her pocket, birds are especially dangerous.”
Beck looked up. “If Queen Clarion was on a kite, she probably crashed into the top of one of these trees. Maybe we should fly to the top of the tallest tree. That way, we’ll see the whole forest. We’ll spot that shiny kite in no time at all.”
The fairies took a few steps deeper into the forest. They left the sun behind and entered into the damp gloom.
Colorful mushrooms crept up the sides of tree trunks. The fairies tilted their heads back and stared up at the soaring trees. The treetops all came together overhead in a thick umbrella of branches and leaves.
“But which tree is the tallest?” Prilla asked. “They all look tall to me.” The breeze kicked up and ruffled her curls. They tickled her forehead. “We’d have to fly as high as the clouds to find out.”
Prilla had never flown that high before. She wasn’t even sure she could. What if her wings gave out midway?
“I have an idea!” Lily pointed to the trunk of a tree. A thick climbing vine wound its way all around the tree and circled upward. Lily stepped onto the vine and began to walk around the tree trunk.
“It’s just like a circular staircase,” she said with a delighted laugh. “We can climb up to the treetops on this. From there we’ll figure out which tree is the tallest. Easy!” Lily dusted her hands together as if their task were already done.
PRILLA FELT AS if she had followed Beck for miles. Up and around. Up and around. Up and around. The climb was long, and not at all easy.
About halfway up, Prilla and Beck came to a big knothole. “Let’s wait here for Lily,” Prilla suggested. Lily had fallen behind because she kept stopping to look at plants.
Prilla sat on the edge of the knothole with her back to the opening. It felt good to rest a little.
But suddenly, a tingle went down her spine. Something was watching her!
Prilla jumped up and whirled around. Two beady red eyes stared out from inside the dark opening.
“Beck! Look at that!” she cried. “Something is in there!”
Beck peeked into the knothole. After a moment, she called back, “It’s just a tree frog! She’s coming out to say hello.”
POP…POP…POP…POP!
The tree frog’s skinny arms and legs stretched out when she walked. With each step along the branch, her fingers and toes made odd popping sounds.
“What’s that noise?” Prilla asked.
“It’s the sticky pads on her fingers and toes,” Beck answered. “That’s how she hangs on to the tree.”
The frog was green with bright red eyes. She stopped in a thatch of leaves a few inches away from the fairies. Then she peeped to Beck in Frog.
“She wants to know who we are,” Beck said to Prilla. “I’ll tell her we’re fairies from Pixie Hollow.” Beck peeped back at the frog. Then she squatted down and stuck her leg out at an angle.
“Tree frogs speak in different ways from other frogs,” she told Prilla. “Body language means a lot to them.”
POP…POP…POP…POP!
The frog took a few steps away. Then she closed her eyes.
“I guess she doesn’t know what a fairy from Pixie Hollow is,” Beck said.
“Tell her we’ve lost our queen and we’re here to find her,” Prilla urged. “Ask her if she’s seen another fairy creature like us.”
“I’ll tell her we’re just visiting and don’t mean any harm.” Beck hopped along the branch like a frog. She flicked a finger against her cheek to make POP…POP…POP…POP! sounds.
The frog came closer to the fairies again. She hung upside down, ready to leap away at the first sign of trouble.
Beck hooked one of her own legs over a branch and hung down like the frog. She blinked her eyes and moved her elbows around as she spoke in Frog. Every now and then, she flipped her finger against her cheek to make a POP…POP! noise.
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The frog puffed up her neck.
Beck held her breath until her face turned red.
The frog quivered, as if she was very excited. She changed her position on the branch.
Prilla watched Beck stick out her leg and pull it back in several times. When she wasn’t moving her arms or swaying, she was puffing her cheeks in and out.
Beck and the frog chatted in Frog for a long time.
Zzzzzzzz! A gnat flew by. In an instant, the frog’s tongue snaked out. She snatched the gnat out of the air less than a centimeter from Prilla’s ear.
The frog hardly seemed to notice what she had done. She kept on talking to Beck, with just a break to swallow her snack.
Prilla watched with growing impatience. Goodness! Animals sure did seem to be long-winded.
Finally, Beck dropped from the branch overhead and hovered next to Prilla. “It’s a good thing frogs like to gossip. She told me all about how the owl in the next tree isn’t speaking to the weasel family that lives in the trunk. She also told me that everybody today is chattering about a mysterious stranger in the forest.”
“A mysterious stranger! It must be Queen Clarion!” Prilla cried. “Where is she?”
“In the canopy,” Beck answered. “That’s all she knows. I also asked her which tree in the forest is the tallest. She said she doesn’t get out much during the day. But if we want to wait until nighttime, she can take us right to it.”
A shiver went through Prilla’s wings. Nighttime! She couldn’t imagine anything scarier than being in this forest at night.
Beck put a hand on Prilla’s arm. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I told her we had to be home by dark.”
Prilla looked at the sky. “But can we get home by dark?” The day was quickly drawing to a close.
“We can if we find Queen Clarion soon. But…” Beck frowned suddenly. “Where is Lily? She should have caught up by now.”
Disney Fairies: Queen Clarion's Secret Page 2
