by Kiki Thorpe
Copyright © 2015 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019, and in Canada by Random House of Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Ltd., Toronto, in conjunction with Disney Enterprises, Inc. Random House and the colophon are registered trademarks and A Stepping Stone Book and the colophon are trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thorpe, Kiki.
A fairy’s gift / written by Kiki Thorpe; illustrated by Jana Christy.
pages cm. — (The Never girls; 11)
“Disney.”
“A Stepping Stone book.”
Summary: “When the Never Girls find out that widespread disbelief is threatening the fairies, they have to spend their holiday break finding a way to make their families and neighbors believe in fairies again—and save the magic of Pixie Hollow”— Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-0-7364-3278-8 (hardback) — ISBN 978-0-7364-8203-5 (lib. bdg.) —
ISBN 978-0-7364-3277-1 (ebook)
[1. Fairies—Fiction. 2. Magic—Fiction. 3. Friendship—Fiction.] I. Christy, Jana, illustrator. II. Disney Enterprises (1996–) III. Title.
PZ7.T3974Fai 2015
[Fic]—dc23
2015009703
eBook ISBN 9780736432771
randomhousekids.com/disney
v4.1
a
For Gregor—
and for anyone who believes in magic—K.T.
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Never Land
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
About the Author
Far away from the world we know, on the distant seas of dreams, lies an island called Never Land. It is a place full of magic, where mermaids sing, fairies play, and children never grow up. Adventures happen every day, and anything is possible.
There are two ways to reach Never Land. One is to find the island yourself. The other is for it to find you. Finding Never Land on your own takes a lot of luck and a pinch of fairy dust. Even then, you will only find the island if it wants to be found.
Every once in a while, Never Land drifts close to our world…so close a fairy’s laugh slips through. And every once in an even longer while, Never Land opens its doors to a special few. Believing in magic and fairies from the bottom of your heart can make the extraordinary happen. If you suddenly hear tiny bells or feel a sea breeze where there is no sea, pay careful attention. Never Land may be close by. You could find yourself there in the blink of an eye.
One day, four special girls came to Never Land in just this way. This is their story.
Detail: left
Detail: right
Here it comes, thought Kate McCrady. Her eyes were fixed on the hands of a wall clock ticking out the minutes. Every December she waited for this moment. But this year, she felt even more excited than usual.
One more minute…
The school bell rang. Kate jumped up from her desk. Christmas vacation had started! Around her, other fifth graders put on their coats and backpacks, buzzing about their holiday plans. Kate had big plans, too. She locked eyes with her best friend, Mia Vasquez, and knew they were both thinking the same thing.
Never Land!
“Should we go now?” Mia whispered.
Kate nodded. “Let’s get Lainey and Gabby. Come on!” She shrugged into her coat and, without bothering to zip it, hurried out the door.
In the hall, their friend Lainey Winters was waiting for them. Behind her thick glasses, her eyes were big with excitement. “I can’t wait to go back,” she said.
That summer, the girls had discovered a portal between their world and the magical island of Never Land. They’d made friends with the fairies who lived there, in a place called Pixie Hollow. They spent the summer visiting the fairies whenever they could, having adventures and exploring the strange, exciting island.
But ever since school had started, they’d found it harder to slip away. Kate had softball and soccer practice, Mia had ballet lessons, Lainey walked dogs in their neighborhood, and they all had chores and homework. As the days grew shorter, the time between their trips to Never Land stretched longer. Secretly, Kate worried that one day they’d go back only to find that the fairies had forgotten them.
“Why isn’t Gabby here yet?” Kate asked. She didn’t want to waste another moment.
They found Mia’s little sister, Gabby, still in her first-grade classroom. She was sitting at her desk with her boots kicked off, drawing something on a small square of paper.
“Gabby!” Mia exclaimed. “Put your shoes on! Where’s your coat? It’s time to go!” She found Gabby’s coat on a hook by the door and brought it to her.
“I’m almost done,” Gabby said. She finished writing something with her crayon. Then she took an envelope from her desk and slipped the paper inside.
“Gabby’s been working on that for weeks,” said her teacher, Ms. Jesser.
“Working on what?” Kate asked.
The teacher smiled and shrugged. “She won’t say. A Christmas surprise, I guess.”
Kate tapped her foot with impatience as Gabby put on her boots and slowly buttoned her coat. “Oops. I did the wrong holes,” she said, starting over.
“Gabby!” Kate wailed. She thought she might burst if they didn’t leave soon!
Ignoring her, Gabby carefully rebuttoned her coat. Then she put on her wool hat and mittens and picked up her envelope. “I’m ready!” she announced.
“Finally!” Kate headed for the door.
“What were you doing?” Mia asked her sister as they walked outside.
“I had to finish my Christmas cards,” Gabby told her.
“Christmas cards for who?” Mia asked with a laugh.
“For the fairies!” Gabby exclaimed. She skipped ahead, calling, “Hurry up, slowpokes, or we’ll never get to Never Land!”
They ran all eight blocks to Mia and Gabby’s house. Inside, they paused only to throw off their coats. Where they were going, moss grew soft beneath their feet and the air always had the silky warmth of summertime.
Four sets of feet pounded up the stairs to Gabby’s room. Gabby flung open the door to her closet. The portal wasn’t always in the same place, but for many months it had stayed here, behind Gabby’s closet door.
As they stepped through the doorway into the darkness, the girls felt a warm breeze that smelled faintly of orange blossoms. One by one they shuffled forward, pushing past Gabby’s clothes until they saw a window of light. A moment later, they stepped out into the sunshine of Never Land.
They were standing at the edge of a deep wood. A clear, shallow stream ran past, spanned by a tiny footbridge made of twigs and pebbles. Beyond the stream, up a bank dotted with wildflowers, they could see the magnificent Home Tree, the ancient maple that was the heart of Pixie Hollow. Fairy glows danced amid its branches.
The girls sighed in unison. “We’re back,” Kate said.
Whenever she came to Never Land, Lainey found herself looking up at the sky. It was a remarkable color, a deep robin’s-egg blue, and there was always something interesting to see. A flock of flamingos, maybe, or one of the Lost Boys flying
by on his way to their hideout.
Today was no different. A swallow darted past. Lainey glimpsed a fairy with a long brown braid riding on its back.
“Fawn!” Lainey called, recognizing her animal-talent fairy friend. She thought she heard Fawn shout something in reply. But a second later, the bird disappeared into the trees.
Lainey turned to her friends. “I’m going to find Fawn and see if she wants to have a deer race. Want to come?”
Kate shook her head. “I want to go flying.”
“I’m going to the meadow,” said Mia.
Gabby waved her envelope. “I have to give out my cards.”
Lainey nodded. “Meet you in a while.” The friends always went to Never Land together—they’d made a rule never to go without one another. But once there, they often followed their own hearts’ desires.
Kate headed to the mill, where she’d get a pinch of fairy dust so she could fly. Mia strolled toward the meadow, where the prettiest flowers grew. And Gabby started for the Home Tree.
Lainey crossed the stream, heading toward the trees where Fawn had disappeared. As she walked, she whistled a Christmas carol.
Deck the halls with boughs of holly…
Lainey stopped. Was it her imagination? Or was there an echo?
She whistled again. A throaty chirp came back, matching her note for note.
Lainey scanned the trees. Since she’d started spending time in Pixie Hollow, her eyes had become much sharper. Now she spied a plump gray bird sitting on a branch. Could that be the one chirping?
She whistled another line of the song. The bird peered at her with beady black eyes. Then it spread its wings and flew away. Lainey sighed.
She started walking again—and the forest around her burst into birdsong. In a chorus of trills, whistles, and cheeps, dozens of birds sang the song back to her.
As suddenly as they’d begun, the birds fell silent. Lainey had the feeling they were waiting.
Heart pounding, she whistled the next part. Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la.
The branches above exploded into song. Lainey’s heart soared. She felt like a conductor with a great feathered orchestra. Lainey and the birds finished the song together.
“Bravo!” shouted a tiny voice. Fawn darted out from her hiding place behind a branch.
Lainey laughed. “Did you tell the birds to copy me?”
“So what if I did?” Fawn said with an impish grin. “It sounded wonderful. You’re a natural song leader. Can you do any others?”
“You bet I can,” Lainey said. She began to whistle “Jingle Bells,” and the entire bird chorus followed along.
Gabby had been all over Pixie Hollow, delivering Christmas cards to her best fairy friends. She’d left two in a robin’s nest for the animal-talent fairies Fawn and Beck. She’d dropped one inside a buttercup for the garden fairy Rosetta, and another into Iridessa’s favorite pool of sunlight. She left a card in the water fairy Silvermist’s birch-leaf canoe. She placed one in a spiderweb hammock for Spinner, the storytelling sparrow man, and another on the knothole doorstep of Prilla, the fairy who’d first brought Gabby to Never Land. And for Dulcie, the baking-talent fairy, she placed one in an empty chestnut shell right outside the kitchen door.
Gabby had only one card left to deliver. Tucked between the roots of the Home Tree was a little building made from an old metal teapot. Gabby squatted down and tapped on the door.
She heard grumbling inside. Too late, Gabby remembered that Tinker Bell didn’t like to be bothered in her workshop. She was about to leave the card on the pebble doorstep, when the door flew open. The tinkering fairy poked her tiny blond head out.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Nothing…I just…I have…This is for you.” Gabby held out the card.
As Tink took the square of folded paper, her face softened. On the front, Gabby had drawn a snowflake in silver crayon—silver because Tink liked metal things. Inside, the card read:
“It’s a Christmas card,” Gabby explained.
“So I see.” Tink looked pleased. She closed the card, then opened it and read it again. She looked pleased. “No one’s ever given me a card before.”
“Never?” Gabby was shocked. “What about for your birthday?”
Tink laughed. The sound was clear and bright, like a tiny bell ringing. “Fairies don’t have birthdays.”
“But then how do you know how old you are?” Gabby asked.
“We don’t get older,” Tink explained. “We just…are. Until we aren’t.” She admired the card again. “I want to give you something, too.”
Tink darted inside her workshop. She returned holding something shiny, which she placed in Gabby’s hand. It was a silver bell about the size of a gumdrop.
“It’s a fairy bell,” Tink explained. “Long ago, Clumsies hung them on their houses. It was a way of saying that they were friendly to fairies and magic.”
Gabby rang the bell, which gave a high, merry jingle. She thought it sounded just like Tink’s laugh.
“Of course, things have changed,” Tink went on. “No one uses the bells anymore. I’ve kept some just because they’re pretty.”
Gabby rang the bell again, enjoying the sound. “It’s a nice present,” she said, putting it in her pocket. “Thank you very much.”
“It’s nothing,” Tink said, waving off Gabby’s thanks. “I’d better get back to work. I have an idea for a self-ladling soup pot. Haven’t worked out all the kinks yet, though.” She pointed to her pom-pom slippers. They were splattered with pea soup.
Tink went back into her workshop and closed the door. Before Gabby left, she peeked through the window. Tink was sitting in a chair made from a bent teaspoon. She was reading her card again.
Mia sat at the edge of the meadow, drowsing among the flowers. She knew her friends were off having adventures. In a minute, I’ll go find them, she told herself. But the air was so soft, the flowers so bright and lovely, the little fairy doors and windows in the trees so charming, she just had to stop and soak it all in. Sometimes Pixie Hollow seemed exactly like a dream. A magnificent dream that Mia and her friends could return to again and again.
She’d been sitting for some time when she suddenly noticed a freckle-faced fairy in a green beanie perched on a nearby daisy. “Oh, Prilla!” Mia said. “I didn’t see you there. Why didn’t you say something?”
“I’m just back from a blink,” Prilla said. She had the dazed look she got when she blinked her eyes and went to the mainland. Prilla always visited children on her blinks. That was how she’d met Mia, Gabby, and their friends—she’d accidentally brought them back to Pixie Hollow with her.
“Why do you do that?” Mia asked. “Go on blinks, I mean.”
“Because it’s my talent and I love it,” Prilla replied. “And because it helps all fairies.”
“Helps them how?” Mia asked.
Prilla looked surprised. “Don’t you know? Through belief, of course! I help children believe in magic. And in turn, children’s belief is what keeps fairy magic alive.” As she spoke, she drew a ring in the air, leaving a trail of sparkling fairy dust. “Like a circle, you see? Fairies call it the Ring of Belief.”
Mia watched the ring of fairy dust slowly fade. She had always believed in fairies, for as long as she could remember. It had never dawned on her that her belief was important to them. “It must be a nice job, meeting kids all over the world,” she said to Prilla.
“It is…usually,” Prilla replied. Her brow furrowed, but she didn’t say more.
Mia was about to ask what was bothering her when she noticed a fairy coming toward them. The fairy seemed to be having trouble flying. She kept swerving to the right, as if she were being blown off course by a strong breeze.
“Are you all right?” Mia asked as the fairy wobbled past.
The fairy’s glow turned pink as she blushed. “I’m fine,” she said. “Think I might’ve strained my wing, that’s all. I’m on my way to see the healers now. Just wi
ng strain, I’m sure,” she repeated, as if to herself.
As she flew off, a sharp gust of wind came up. It bent the meadow grass and sent goose bumps crawling across Mia’s skin. Prilla had to cling to her daisy to keep from being blown into the air.
“That’s strange. It almost never gets this cool in Pixie Hollow,” Prilla said when the gust had died down.
Suddenly, Mia felt anxious to find her friends. The drowsy, dreamy feeling she’d had a moment before was gone, replaced with a strange uneasiness.
“I’d better find Gabby and Kate and Lainey,” she said, standing.
“It was good to see you,” Prilla said. Her usual sweet smile had returned. “It’s been too long since your last visit.”
“I know,” Mia said. “But it’s Christmas break now. We’re planning to come every day.”
“Good,” said Prilla. “See you again soon, then.”
“Very soon,” Mia promised. She waved goodbye to Prilla and hurried off to find her friends.
The next day, Mia, Kate, Lainey, and Gabby sat on the floor of the Vasquezes’ living room. They were trying to play a game of Go Fish, but no one could concentrate. Mia and Gabby’s aunt and uncle and their favorite cousin, Angie, were arriving for the holidays that afternoon. Every time a car went by, Gabby interrupted the game by running to the window.
“It couldn’t be them,” Mia said when Gabby had jumped up a fourth time. “Mami said they’ll be late because of the weather.” But she got up and joined her sister at the window anyway. Fat snowflakes drifted down, covering the street in a soft white blanket. Mia watched another car slowly approach. It rolled past their house without stopping. She sighed and sat back down.
“When was the last time you saw Angie?” Lainey asked. She was shuffling the cards for another game.
“Almost two years ago,” Mia said. Angie and her parents came for a week at Christmas. Mia looked forward to it every year. She’d been crushed when they’d canceled their trip the year before because they’d all come down with the flu.
