Breeze's Blast

by Emily Bliss

  Just then, a voice chortled and then boomed, “The Blast Feast is ready!”

  Cressida turned around and saw eight red dragons, all wearing white chef’s hats and aprons, stirring gigantic silver vats. She had been so excited by jumping on the clouds that she hadn’t even noticed the dragons before.

  The same dragon that Cressida had seen carrying vats down to the palace kitchen stepped forward, smiled proudly, and announced, “We’ve cooked up stewed roinkleberries with creamed froyananas, roasted plums with froyanana sauce, avocado-froyanana soufflé, simmered corn and froyanana chowder, froyanana-oat-bragglenapple bars, froyanana-mango stir-fry, chocolate-eggplant pancakes with diced froyananas, and mushroom-froyanana tarts.”

  Cressida’s stomach turned, and she grimaced at the thought of so many froyananas. Meanwhile, the princess unicorns looked ecstatic.

  “Wow!” said Breeze, jumping in backward circles. “You outdid yourselves this year!”

  “I can’t wait!” Sunbeam exclaimed, dancing with excitement.

  “This is the feast of my dreams! So many froyananas!” Bloom sang out.

  The dragons laughed, and green flames and blue smoke rose from their nostrils as they emptied the contents of their vats into a row of gold and silver troughs. “Bon appétit!” the dragons called out. The unicorns rushed across the cloud floor and began to gobble down the food in the troughs.

  “This stew is incredible!” gushed Moon between bites.

  “And the soufflé is amazing,” Prism added, licking her lips.

  “It’s the best chowder I’ve ever had,” Bloom and Sunbeam said in unison.

  Cressida smiled as she watched the unicorns eat. She was glad they were enjoying their feast. Just then, a dragon bounced over to her carrying a silver tray piled high with sliced roinkleberries. “Sunbeam remembered how much you loved these,” the dragon said. “All the other dishes have froyananas in them, and Bloom mentioned that, for some strange reason, you don’t like those.”

  “Thank you!” Cressida said. She had first eaten roinkleberries on her first trip to the Rainbow Realm, when she’d visited the Glitter Canyon with Sunbeam, and she knew she loved them.

  As Cressida ate the sweet fruit, she realized it was probably about time to go home and fly her own homemade kite up into the clouds above her backyard. She was eager to see Corey, even if she couldn’t tell him about her adventures or how he and his book about bats had helped her get the bats off the giant kites. She hoped he still wanted to make a giant bat kite, and she wanted to help him do it.

  “You look like you’re thinking about going home,” Breeze said, looking up from her trough.

  “I’ve had such a wonderful time here,” Cressida said, “and I loved the Blast. Thank you so very much for including me. But I do think it’s time for me to go home. I’m looking forward to flying kites with my brother.”

  “You have kites in the human world?” Breeze asked, eyes widening.

  “Yes,” Cressida said. “In fact, I was making my very first homemade kite this morning when you called me. The only thing I had left to do was make the tail.”

  “Wow,” Breeze said. “Have fun flying it.”

  Moon took a final bite of the food in her trough and trotted over to Cressida, still wearing her blue, sequined cape. “I heard you say you’re about to leave,” she said. “Thank you so much for lending me your magic cape. I know I should give it back to you, but,” she said, blushing, “I was wondering if I could keep it to wear later on when we all fly back down to the ground.”

  “Of course,” Cressida said, smiling. “I don’t need it in the human world. I’m not really a superhero after all.”

  Then, Flash, Sunbeam, Bloom, Prism, and Firefly joined Cressida, Moon, and Breeze.

  “Good bye!” Flash and Sunbeam said.

  “Come again soon!” Prism and Bloom said.

  “We’ll invite you back in no time,” Moon said, and Firefly nodded.

  Cressida pulled the old-fashioned key with the crystal ball handle from her back pocket. “Take me home, please,” she said. The clouds and sky began to spin around her, faster and faster, until they were a swirl of blue and white. Then, everything went pitch black—as dark as Moon had made the Windy Meadows—and Cressida felt the sensation of soaring through the air. She always liked that part of leaving the Rainbow Realm best, but today she especially liked it because it reminded her of flying Kelly the Kite up into the magic clouds.

  Soon Cressida felt herself land on the soft forest floor. At first, the trees and sky spun in a blur of green, brown, and blue. Then, the woods slowed to a stop and she found herself sitting beneath the oak tree with the key still in her hands. She stood up, and as she pushed the key into her pocket, she felt something unfamiliar. She pulled it out to discover a long string of the same blue sequins that had been on her magic cape. Attached to the string, a note read,

  Here’s a magic tail for your kite.

  Love, Breeze

  Cressida smiled. And then she skipped back toward her house, ready to tie the sequin string to her unicorn kite and fly it in her backyard.

  In the top tower of Spiral Palace, Ernest, a wizard-lizard, leafed through a dusty book entitled Formal Wear for Feathered Friends. As he turned the pages with his scaly fingers, a bird with messy red feathers and bright green eyes grinned with excitement and hopped from one foot to the other.

  Ernest looked up from a page that read, “Magic Spells for Beginners: Wingtips for Woodpeckers and Spats for Sparrows.” He furrowed his green brow and cleared his throat. “Bernadette,” he said, “let me make sure I’m getting this right. You want me to turn one of your head feathers into a ball gown?”

  “Exactly,” Bernadette said. “Last year, I wore an emerald green tuxedo to the Starlight Ball. It matched my eyes perfectly. But this year I want to try a ball gown. I have so many feathers on the top of my head,” she continued, looking up at her thick, messy head plumage and grinning sheepishly, “that I was thinking I could spare one to make the perfect dress.”

  Ernest nodded and flipped to a page with the words, “Advanced Spells: Turning Feathers and Plumes into Gowns,” in large, gold letters across the top. He read for several seconds and asked, “You don’t happen to know what a plume is, do you?”

  “It’s just a fancy word for a feather,” Bernadette said, shrugging.

  “Then I think I’ve found just the right spell,” Ernest said.

  “Fantastic!” Bernadette said, twirling on one talon while she kicked the other foot in the air. “I’ve been practicing my dance moves all week.”

  Ernest laughed. “Me too! And I’ve almost perfected the spell for my tuxedo.” He blushed and added, “It just needs a few, um, tweaks.” He straightened his pointy hat and pulled his wand from his cloak pocket. “Are you ready for your ball gown?”

  “Absolutely!” Bernadette said.

  Ernest lifted his wand, pointed it at an unruly feather on Bernadette’s head, and chanted, “Feathery Fancily Pleathery Plown! Turn this Ballroom into a Crown!” He stared expectantly at Bernadette. But instead of a gown appearing, thunder rumbled and a giant bolt of gold lightning tore across the sky.

  “Oh dear,” Ernest said, grimacing. “What did I do wrong this time?”

  Emily Bliss lives just down the street from a forest. From her living room window, she can see a big oak tree with a magic keyhole. Like Cressida Jenkins, she knows that unicorns are real.

  Sydney Hanson was raised in Minnesota alongside numerous pets and brothers. She has worked for several animation shops, including Nickelodeon and Disney Interactive. In her spare time she enjoys traveling and spending time outside with her adopted brother, a Labrador retriever named Cash. She lives in Los Angeles.

  www.sydwiki.tumblr.com

  Text copyright © 2018 by Emily Bliss

  Illustrations copyright © 2018 by Sydney Hanson

  All rights reserved

  You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make a
vailable this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

  First published in the United States of America in April 2018 by Bloomsbury Children’s Books

  www.bloomsbury.com

  This electronic edition published in 2018 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

  Bloomsbury is a registered trademark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

  For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 1385 Broadway, New York, NY 10018

  Bloomsbury books may be purchased for business or promotional use.

  For information on bulk purchases please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at specialmarkets@macmillan.com

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Bliss, Emily, author. | Hanson, Sydney, illustrator.

  Title: Breeze’s blast / by Emily Bliss ; illustrated by Sydney Hanson.

  Description: New York : Bloomsbury, 2018. | Series: Unicorn princesses ; 5

  Summary: Princess Breeze invites her human friend, Cressida, to attend the Blast, a festival featuring kite flying, but the wizard-lizard, Ernest, has blundered again and now giant bats sleep on the kites.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2017020574 (print) | LCCN 2017036915 (e-book)

  ISBN: 978-1-6811-9650-3 (HB)

  ISBN: 978-1-6811-9649-7 (PB)

  ISBN: 978-1-6811-9651-0 (eBook)

  Subjects: | CYAC: Festivals—Fiction. | Kites—Fiction. | Bats—Fiction. | Unicorns—Fiction. | Princesses—Fiction. | Magic—Fiction. | Fantasy. Classification: LCC PZ7.1.B633 Bre 2018 (print) | LCC PZ7.1.B633 (e-book) | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017020574

  Book design by Jessie Gang and John Candell

  To find out more about our authors and their books please visit www.bloomsbury.com where you will find extracts, author interviews and details of forthcoming events, and to be the first to hear about latest releases and special offers, sign up for our newsletter.