“Where are the eggs?” Rachel asked, looking around.
“Underneath the chickens,” Kirsty explained. “They sit on the eggs after they lay them. I’ve helped Mr. and Mrs. Harrison collect the eggs before. But the chickens don’t always like it. Sometimes they put up a fuss.”
“Then it won’t be easy to look for the magic egg, will it?” Rachel asked.
“I know a way,” Emma said brightly. “Back home, my pet chicken, Fluffy, loves to dance. This is her favorite song.”
Emma began to sing in her musical fairy voice.
“Cluck, cluck, cluck! Cluck, cluck, cluck!”
Emma’s voice carried through the coop. The happy chickens stood up one by one, hopping from one foot to the other. “That’s amazing!” Rachel said, her eyes wide in wonder. Kirsty ran to the nesting boxes and looked under one of the chickens. “If there’s a magic egg here, we’ll find it.”
“Wonderful!” Emma exclaimed. “You girls can sing along with me, too, if you want.”
“Cluck, cluck, cluck! Cluck, cluck, cluck!”
Rachel and Kirsty joined in. Now all of the chickens were standing up. Some moved their heads back and forth to the music.
The girls raced along the rows of boxes, hoping to spot the magic egg. At first, they saw one plain white egg after another. But then they both noticed something at the same time.
The biggest chicken in the coop was standing over a beautiful, sparkly egg! As the girls got closer, they could see that it had a picture of an Easter basket painted on it.
Kirsty gingerly reached underneath the chicken and grabbed the egg. It glittered with fairy magic in her hand.
“We did it!” Kirsty cried. “We found the last magic egg!”
“Oh, this is amazing!” Emma cried happily. She flew to Kirsty and waved her wand over the magic egg. It shrunk down to fairy-size, and Emma scooped it up. “Once I return this to Fairyland, the Easter Bunny will have the magic he needs to deliver baskets to boys and girls everywhere.”
Kirsty frowned. “But we still have to find the Easter Bunny,” she reminded the little fairy.
Emma nodded. “I know. But I’m very hopeful. Thanks to you girls, we’ve found the three magic eggs. Somehow, I just know we’ll find the Easter Bunny.”
“We’ll do our best,” Rachel said.
“I need to bring this egg to Fairyland,” Emma told them. “But I’ll come back and find you as soon as I can.”
“And we’ll keep looking for the Easter Bunny,” Kirsty promised.
Emma waved to them as she vanished in a swirl of twinkling light. By now, the chickens were all sitting on their nests again.
“We should try to go back to the pet store,” Kirsty suggested. “I just have a feeling about that place.”
“Right,” Rachel agreed. “Only this time, we need to keep an eye out for goblin traps!”
The girls walked back to the pens where the baby animals were kept. Mrs. Walker and Mrs. Tate were feeding corn to the baby goats.
“That tickles!” Rachel’s mom said with a laugh. She looked up when she saw the girls. “Are you having fun?”
“Definitely!” Rachel said. “Mom, can we get a baby lamb at our house?”
“I don’t think we have room in our backyard,” Mrs. Walker replied.
“But you can always visit us and come back to Strawberry Farm whenever you like,” Mrs. Tate said.
Mrs. Walker brushed the corn crumbs off of her hands. “We should wash up before we head home.”
“I need to stop at the market on the way back,” said Mrs. Tate.
That gave Kirsty an idea. “Can I show Rachel the pet shop while you’re shopping?”
“I don’t see why not,” her mom replied. “It’s just a few doors down.”
Kirsty and Rachel looked at each other. They were both thinking the same thing: Maybe they would finally find out what was happening in the pet shop!
When they got to town, Kirsty and Rachel waved to their moms and cautiously walked up to the pet shop. They saw a sparkly white egg sitting on top of a mailbox nearby.
“Another trap!” Kirsty said. “But it won’t work this time. We’ve already found all the missing eggs.”
A bell tinkled as they pushed open the door of the pet shop. Half of the store was filled with shelves stocked with pet food, toys, and bowls. The other half was filled with tanks and cages of small pets — lizards, snakes, hamsters, and rabbits. A few customers were looking at the animals, while others shopped for different supplies.
Kirsty and Rachel walked through the aisles, looking around.
“Everything seems normal,” Rachel remarked. She shrugged.
“I know,” Kirsty said. “I wish Emma were here. She could tell us if she felt something magical.”
Suddenly, Rachel stopped. “Kirsty, look over there!”
Rachel pointed to the big pen in the corner set up for rabbits. It held a small, brown rabbit, a black-and-white rabbit with floppy ears, and a fluffy, white rabbit. The white rabbit was sparkling with fairy magic!
“Do you think it could be the Easter Bunny?” Kirsty whispered.
“May I help you, girls?” asked a voice behind them.
The girls spun around and gasped. They knew that voice!
“Jack Frost! What are you doing here?” Rachel asked bravely.
Jack Frost grinned. He was taller than the goblins, with spiky white hair, and a pointy nose and ears.
“I’m sorry, my name is Mr. Jackson,” he said. “I’m a friend of Mrs. Gilligan’s. She asked me to watch the shop while she’s away.”
“You can’t fool us!” Kirsty said, crossing her arms. “We know what you’re doing. You’ve kidnapped the Easter Bunny!”
Jack Frost chuckled coldly. “What lively imaginations you have. Now, if you don’t mind, I must ask you to leave the store. You’re disturbing the customers.”
“But we’re not—” Rachel began, but Kirsty stopped her.
“Come on, Rachel,” she said.
Rachel and Kirsty left the shop.
“Why did we leave?” Rachel asked, confused. “I think that white bunny in the pen might be the Easter Bunny!”
“I do, too,” Kirsty said. “But Jack Frost isn’t like an ordinary goblin. He’s got powerful magic. We can’t beat him without Emma’s help!”
“Here I am!” Emma cried just then, popping into the air in front of them. “The last magic egg is safe in Fairyland.”
“Jack Frost is inside the pet shop!” Kirsty told her immediately.
“And we think we found the Easter Bunny,” Rachel added. “But we’re not sure. It looks like a regular white rabbit, but it’s all sparkly, like it might be magical.”
Emma clapped her hands together. “Oh, that’s fabulous news! Jack Frost must be using a spell to make the Easter Bunny look like an ordinary rabbit. That’s not his true form, of course. We must get him back right away!”
“But Jack Frost is guarding the shop,” Kirsty pointed out. “How will we get past him?”
Emma was thoughtful. “We need a distraction of some kind. Then I can fly in, wave my wand over the Easter Bunny, and send him home.”
Just then, a group of grumbling goblins approached on the empty sidewalk. The goblins looked dirty, and some of them had fake wool from their lamb costumes stuck to their green skin.
“Jack Frost is going to be so mad!” said one goblin.
“We didn’t find the magic egg!” wailed another.
“It wasn’t our fault! It was those terrifying cows and sheep,” complained another.
Emma grinned. “Goblins always make a good distraction!” she said brightly. Then she whispered her idea to the girls. “Do you think you can do it?”
Kirsty nodded. “Just watch.” She turned to Rachel. “I’m so excited!” she said in a loud voice.
“Me, too!” shouted Rachel. “The last magic egg is inside the pet shop.”
“But it’s in the snake tank,” Kirsty replied loudly, biti
ng her lip. “I’m too scared to reach into the tank to get it!”
The goblins raced up to them. “We’re not scared!” one of them bragged. “We’re going to get that magic egg before you do!” taunted another.
The goblins ran into the pet shop, with the girls and Emma close behind. They peeked around a shelf and watched as the goblins pulled open the lid of the snake tank. Then they started picking up the snakes and waving them in the air.
“Where is it? Where is the magic egg?” they cried.
The snakes slid out of their hands and started crawling on the floor.
Jack Frost came around the corner — and he was furious. “What are you doing?” he screamed at his goblins. “Put those snakes down!”
Emma winked at Rachel and Kirsty, and flew to the rabbit pen. Jack Frost was so busy yelling that he didn’t even see her.
The girls watched as Emma waved her magic wand over the Easter Bunny three times. A cloud of glittering fairy dust surrounded the rabbit. The cloud lifted the white bunny up, up, up, into the air.
That’s when Jack Frost finally noticed. “No!” he yelled. He ran toward the rabbit pen.
But he was too late.
Poof! The Easter Bunny disappeared.
“That’s not fair!” Jack Frost cried, swatting at Emma. But she only giggled before vanishing, too.
“Jack Frost looks really angry,” Rachel remarked.
“We’d better get out of here,” Kirsty whispered, edging quietly toward the door.
The girls ran back to the market as quickly as they could.
Back home, Rachel and Kirsty helped get dinner ready. Afterward, they played board games with their parents. There was no sign of Emma anywhere!
They couldn’t talk about what had happened that day until bedtime, since their parents might hear. Kirsty snuggled into her bed, and Rachel pulled up the covers on hers.
“I wonder where Emma is,” Kirsty said.
“It’s the night before Easter,” Rachel reminded her. “I’m sure she’s very busy.”
Kirsty yawned. “I guess so. I just hope she got back to Fairyland okay.”
“I know she did,” Rachel said. “We saw her. And all three magic eggs are back, too.”
“That’s right,” Kirsty agreed. “That means that Easter candy will taste delicious, Easter eggs will be bright and beautiful, and the Easter Bunny will deliver baskets to boys and girls all over the world.”
Kirsty’s door opened, and Kirsty’s mom peeked inside.
“Go to sleep, girls,” she said. “The Easter Bunny is coming tonight!”
“We know, Mom,” Kirsty said, winking at Rachel.
The girls drifted off into a deep sleep. In the morning, they both woke up at the same time. Bright sunlight shone through the window. Outside, the spring birds were singing a happy song.
“The Easter Bunny!” Kirsty and Rachel cried.
They scrambled out of bed and ran downstairs. On the kitchen table were two beautiful Easter baskets. A tag on one read KIRSTY, and the other read RACHEL.
“He came!” Rachel said.
The girls’ parents came into the kitchen, yawning.
“I see the Easter Bunny visited last night,” Rachel’s dad said with a grin.
Kirsty grabbed her basket. “Come on!” she told Rachel. “Let’s see what he brought.”
The girls took their baskets onto the sunny porch and sat on the steps. They looked through the shiny Easter grass.
Kirsty found a chocolate egg and popped it into her mouth. “Yum!”
Rachel ate a blue jellybean. “It tastes like blueberries!”
“And look,” Kirsty said, picking up a dyed Easter egg with purple and pink swirls. “It’s bright and beautiful!”
Then Kirsty saw the grass in her Easter basket start to move. Out flew the best Easter surprise of all — Emma!
“Happy Easter!” she cried, hovering in front of the girls.
“Happy Easter, Emma!” the girls said together, grinning.
“King Oberon and Queen Titania are so happy that you helped us find the Easter Bunny,” Emma said. “They sent you each a special gift. Go ahead, look inside your baskets.”
The girls eagerly dug through the brightly colored Easter grass. At the same time, they each pulled out a beautiful golden egg.
“Open them up!” Emma told them.
Each egg had a hinge on the back, and they opened right in the middle. A beautiful tune began to play, and inside, a tiny fairy in a yellow dress twirled around and around.
“Emma, that’s you!” Kirsty realized.
Emma clapped her hands, delighted. “Aren’t they wonderful?”
“She looks just like you,” Rachel said. “Please make sure to thank the king and queen for us.”
“Of course!” Emma said. She twirled around in the air in front of them. “Well, I have to head off now. Today is a busy day! But thanks again, girls. Have a happy Easter!”
Rachel and Kirsty smiled at each other. “We definitely will!”
“Rachel, look!” Kirsty Tate cried excitedly, pointing through the car window. “There’s McKersey Castle!”
Rachel Walker, Kirsty’s best friend, stared down the long driveway at the huge stone castle ahead. It was set on a hill, and it had two tall turrets, one on either side of the entrance gate.
“It’s beautiful,” Rachel breathed.
Mrs. Tate, who was driving, smiled in agreement. “Isn’t it the perfect place for a party?” she said. “It was so smart of Lindsay and Robert to choose a castle for their big costume ball.”
Lindsay was Kirsty’s cousin, and she and her husband were celebrating their tenth wedding anniversary at McKersey Castle. Kirsty and her parents had been invited. Kirsty was allowed to bring a friend, so Rachel had traveled with the Tates all the way to the Scottish Highlands.
The two girls watched with delight as the car crossed the drawbridge and came to a stop in the castle courtyard.
“Hello!” cried Lindsay. Kirsty’s cousin rushed out of the large oak castle doors with her husband, Robert. She hugged the Tates one by one. “And you must be Rachel,” Lindsay said, giving Rachel a hug, too. “Come inside, everyone.”
The inside of the castle was cool and welcoming. There were tall arched windows, a flagstone floor, and a suit of armor standing in one corner. Colorful embroidered banners and tapestries hung from the ceiling.
“I’ve picked out a special bedroom for you two,” Lindsay said to Kirsty and Rachel.
Lindsay led the girls up a winding staircase. “Ta-da!” she announced, throwing open a small wooden door.
Rachel and Kirsty gasped with delight when they saw the huge room. It had two canopy beds and pretty white furniture. One side of the room was taken up with an enormous window. After the girls had put their bags down, they went to look out the window.
“We’re right over the drawbridge!” Rachel cried excitedly.
“We’re so high, it seems like we can see all of Scotland!”
Suddenly, Kirsty spotted a white van approaching the drawbridge. “McKersey Village Cakes,” she read from the side of the van.
“My cake!” Lindsay cried, hurrying over to the stairs. “I’m dying to see it! It was difficult to arrange, but a party’s no good without a cake, right?” She grinned at them. “Be careful up here, OK?”
The girls nodded. “Lindsay’s really excited, isn’t she?” Kirsty laughed, as her cousin clattered off down the stairs.
“So am I!” Rachel said. She shivered. “Oh! Did you just feel that blast of icy wind, Kirsty?”
“Yes,” Kirsty agreed, frowning.
Rachel’s eyes widened. “I can see ice!”
Curiously, they began to climb the frozen steps. As they did, the air got colder and colder. Suddenly, Rachel and Kirsty heard a horribly familiar, icy voice.
“Raise my flag to the top of this tower!” it snapped.
Hardly daring to breathe, the two girls peeked around the tower wall to the top of th
e steps. To their shock, standing next to a gnarled green goblin, was Jack Frost himself!
“Isn’t it exciting that we’re going to be Esther’s bridesmaids?” Rachel Walker said happily.
“Yes—I can hardly wait for next Saturday!” replied Kirsty Tate, smiling at her best friend. “And it’ll be twice as much fun with you here!”
The girls were in Kenbury, the pretty little village where Kirsty’s cousin Esther had grown up. The sun was shining brightly and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. It was perfect wedding weather!
Esther, Mrs. Tate, and Aunt Isabel, Esther’s mom, were in the nearby wedding dress store, but the girls had stepped outside to look at the pretty church where Esther was going to get married.
Just then, Aunt Isabel popped her head out of the store’s front door.
“Girls, come back inside,” she said with a beaming smile. “Bella is ready for you to try on your dresses.”
Rachel and Kirsty hurried to the room at the back of the store. Bella held up two amazing dresses, and the girls’ eyes widened.
“Oh, they’re beautiful!” Rachel whispered.
The two best friends quickly got changed, giggling with excitement. Then they stood in front of the long mirror.
“Oh, girls, you look fabulous!” cried Aunt Isabel.
“Just like princesses!” Esther added.
The dresses were pale blue, and they shimmered and sparkled with hundreds of tiny silver beads. Soft frills made the gowns swirl around the girls’ legs, and the sleeves were made from fine blue silk. They fluttered when the girls moved their arms.
“They’re just like fairy wings!” Kirsty whispered to Rachel.
Bella checked to make sure the dresses fit properly, and made some small alterations.
“I love all the old traditions, and bridesmaids are one of the oldest traditions of all!” Bella said. “It’s their job to help things go smoothly for the bride.” Rachel and Kirsty exchanged happy looks.
Emma the Easter Fairy (9780545549288) Page 4
