The Wishing Wings

by Jennifer Castle

  “That sounds bad,” said Addie. “But why do you think I can help?”

  “You can. I had been following you for a little while, but wasn’t sure at first if you could help. Then I saw you overcome your fear of the woods by telling yourself to be brave, and I knew you were the one.”

  It felt strange to Addie—that Sky Dance believed in her like this—but it was a good strange.

  “What can I do?” she asked.

  “Come with me to Wishing Wing Grove. It’s right over there, on the other side of this meadow.” Sky Dance began to speak faster as she got more excited. “I’ll show you the chrysalides and the Changing Tree! You can meet my parents, too! Then you can help us find a child who needs a wish!”

  It did sound wonderful. Still, like with every time she’d faced something new and unfamiliar, Addie couldn’t help feeling the tiniest bit afraid.

  “What about Pepper?” asked Addie, looking over at her dog. He was still fast asleep.

  “Pepper will be fine,” assured Sky Dance. “This is Silk Meadow, the entrance to our world. I’ll ask a couple of other Wishing Wings to stand guard over him.”

  Addie and Sky Dance stared at each other for a moment. Addie realized she was on the brink of something amazing. Butterflies! Magic! An adventure! How could she say no?

  “Show me the way,” said Addie. Now her voice sounded as excited as Sky Dance’s.

  “Good answer!” laughed Sky Dance, and she took to the air.

  Addie began walking quickly after her. She watched Sky Dance zipping and zooming along the breeze. It’s hard to march after a butterfly, she thought. It just doesn’t feel right. Addie picked up her pace. She skipped once. Then twice. Sky Dance seemed to be skipping, too, as she flew, and Addie remembered what Sky Dance had said about the butterfly spirit.

  Addie sensed it now, in every part of her. She was not sad or shy or scared anymore. She felt free.

  When Sky Dance sped up, Addie broke into a run alongside her new friend.

  CHAPTER THREE

  When they reached a thicket of trees at the far side of the meadow, Sky Dance landed on a low branch. Addie caught up with her, then stopped to catch her breath.

  “We’re here,” said Sky Dance proudly. “Welcome to Wishing Wing Grove!”

  Addie stepped into the shade of the trees and looked around. She saw rocks covered with bright lime-colored moss. Flowers and cattails dotted the grass. Willow trees dangled their leaves like curtains. A cool mist swirled in the air, and Addie could hear the babbling of a nearby creek.

  “It’s beautiful,” sighed Addie.

  Two Wishing Wings landed next to Sky Dance. Sky Dance whispered something to them and they flew off toward the spot where Addie knew Pepper lay, hopefully still sleeping.

  “Time to meet my parents,” proclaimed Sky Dance. “Follow me!”

  Addie walked a step behind Sky Dance as they moved deeper into the grove. The air smelled sweet. Like juice, thought Addie, mixed with candy and Mom’s perfume. She slowly breathed it all in, then out.

  “Try not to be nervous,” said Sky Dance. “They may be queen and king, but they’re just Mama and Papa to me, and they’re great.”

  Addie stopped short. “Queen and king?”

  Sky Dance chuckled. “Oops! I forgot to tell you! My family are the rulers of Wishing Wing Grove.”

  “That makes you . . .”

  “A princess?” Sky Dance giggled and lowered her voice to a whisper. “Yes, but I don’t like to call myself that. I want to be known for being me, not just royalty. Even though I’ll be queen someday.”

  Addie was about to ask Sky Dance how she felt about that, but then they came upon a giant boulder. The boulder was covered in a quilt of dazzling colors so lovely it made Addie gasp. It took her a moment to realize the quilt was not made with fabric but with Wishing Wing butterflies. Dozens and dozens of them! Each one’s wings were a different pattern of colors and shapes.

  “Sky Dance has returned!” Addie heard a voice shout, and a cheer went up among the butterflies. Sky Dance flitted over to the rock, and the crowd made space for her. She landed in front of two butterflies sitting on a ledge at the very top.

  Addie hung back, but Sky Dance called out, “Addie! Come closer!”

  Addie stepped up to the rock and bowed her head shyly. How do you greet royal butterflies? It wasn’t exactly something she’d thought about before. “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she finally said.

  “Likewise,” said one of the two butterflies, bowing her head in return. Addie admired the rose patterns on her red, green, and silver wings. “I am Queen Rose Glow, and we’re so happy you’ve come. We’ve all been meeting to discuss the enchantment and what it might mean.”

  “They call me King Flit Flash,” said the other butterfly in a low, wise-sounding voice. The king’s wings were deep blue and jet black, with white lightning bolts on them. “It’s a Wishing Wing’s job to help humans, but I’ve always known that someday we might be the ones who need help. You must be very special if Sky Dance has chosen you.”

  “Thank you,” said Addie, blushing a bit.

  “No, thank you. How can we ever show our gratitude?” asked Rose Glow.

  Flit Flash chuckled. “I have a notion.” He whispered something to the queen.

  “Excellent idea,” she agreed. “Addie will be better able to help us if she can see things the way we see them, even if just for a few minutes.” Rose Glow turned back to Addie, who was feeling extremely confused . . . and curious. “Addie, have you ever wanted to be a butterfly?”

  “Of course!” she burst out. “Who hasn’t?”

  Sky Dance gasped. “Mama! Are you going to do what I think you’re going to do?”

  Rose Glow took to the air and hovered over Sky Dance. “Yes. I’d like you to do it with me. You’ve been studying how, right?”

  “Practicing, too!” shouted Sky Dance. She flew up to meet her mother, then turned to Addie. “Stand very still, okay?”

  “Okay,” said Addie, not sure if she should be excited or nervous. Right then, she was both.

  Rose Glow and Sky Dance flew close to each other and touched their wings together. A brilliant rainbow of pink, turquoise, white, red, green, and silver burst from their wings—both butterflies’ colors combined. As they flew side by side around Addie, the rainbow wrapped her like a ribbon. They circled once, twice, three times. Then the colors dissolved into a cloud of glitter.

  Suddenly, everything looked different.

  Addie was no longer gazing down at the rock. She was peering up at it. Sky Dance and Rose Glow landed next to her, but now they looked bigger.

  Wait a minute, thought Addie. I’m the one who changed! I’m BUTTERFLY-SIZE!

  “Stretch out your wings!” instructed Sky Dance.

  Addie stretched out what felt like her arms and glanced to her right.

  Instead of her arm, there was a wing. She glanced to her left. Another wing. They were magenta and powder blue.

  “Oh my gosh!” exclaimed Addie. “My favorite colors!”

  “You must be all heart, my girl,” said the queen, pointing an antenna at the lavender heart pattern on her wings. “Now the two of you, fly off. This is rare and powerful magic that only two members of the Wishing Wing royal family can make together, but it lasts just a few minutes.”

  “Come on, Addie!” said Sky Dance. “On the way to the Changing Tree, I’ll show you the rest of the grove.”

  “But I’ve never flown before!” Addie protested.

  “Maybe not like this. But you’ve imagined it, right? Just imagine it again!”

  Addie closed her eyes and thought about all the flying dreams she’d ever had. She flapped her wings like she did in those dreams . . . and was suddenly in the air. It felt as natural as running!

  She heard the flit-flut of her wings’ silk against the breeze as she went higher. The rocks in the grove looked like mountains. The trees looked like skyscrapers. It was weird, but wonderful, to be so
weightless. Addie felt all her worries fall far below her to the ground, and she laughed harder than she had in a long time.

  Sky Dance flew up beside her and laughed, too. “Now you’ve really got the butterfly spirit! Follow me!”

  They rose above the boulder, then fluttered farther into the grove. Soon they were looking down on the creek. The water was crystal clear and Addie could see right through to the blue-green of the creek bottom. On the banks, a cluster of bright yellow crickets jumped through the grass.

  “We share the grove with them,” called Sky Dance. “We keep them safe, and they help us manage the grove. They play great music, too.”

  Sky Dance led Addie lower to the ground now, until they both landed on the sprawling roots of a huge oak tree. There was a hole at the base of the tree. A large red ladybug with yellow spots waddled toward it, carrying a basket of leaves on its back.

  “The caterpillar nursery’s in here,” said Sky Dance. “Come on.”

  Addie followed Sky Dance into the hole. Inside the tree, dozens of caterpillars of various sizes and every possible color crawled around, munching on leaves. More ladybugs with yellow spots rushed around, frantic to feed the caterpillars as they gobbled up whatever was put in front of them.

  “They just eat and grow and eat and grow. Being here brings back some good memories,” sighed Sky Dance. “When they’re ready to spin their chrysalides, the crickets bring them to the Changing Tree.”

  After they left the nursery, Sky Dance and Addie came upon a long, thin, bright-green caterpillar with tiny red spikes up and down its back.

  “Oh!” Sky Dance gasped in surprise. “Hello, Madame Furia.”

  “Busy day! Busy day!” said Madame Furia sweetly with a giant smile. One of the caterpillar’s red eyeballs looked up while the other looked down toward Addie. “I heard about your new friend. Is this her? She makes a stunning butterfly! Sky Dance, you’re beautiful too, of course. And so brave! The both of you!”

  “Thank you,” said Sky Dance.

  Madame Furia grinned again, even wider. “I must be off! The queen has asked me to interview our cricket companions to see what they know about the enchantment.”

  They watched Madame Furia inch away in the opposite direction.

  Sky Dance asked, “Isn’t she nice? It’s so sad, what happened to her. She was Mama’s best friend, back when they were caterpillars. But she broke the rules of the grove, and as punishment, she wasn’t allowed to change into a Wishing Wing. She’ll stay a caterpillar forever.”

  “Wow,” said Addie. “What did she do that was so bad?”

  “Madame Furia thought another caterpillar was trying to steal Mama away as a friend, and got jealous. She made it look like the caterpillar was stealing food from the others so she’d get in trouble, but Furia was the one who got caught in her lies. Mama forgave her. She says everyone makes mistakes sometimes. Now she’s in charge of the crickets.”

  Addie was about to ask Sky Dance to tell her more about these “rules of the grove,” but she started to feel a strange, tingly feeling in her arms . . . or rather, her wings. The rainbow suddenly reappeared, spinning around her. Before Addie knew it, she was human-size again. She checked her body, which seemed so big and heavy now, but everything looked in order.

  Sky Dance flitted into her field of vision. “I guess the magic really does only last a few minutes. How do you feel?”

  “Like myself. A little sad not to be a butterfly anymore.”

  “Well, maybe it won’t be the last time,” said Sky Dance. “Look, we’re here at the Changing Tree.”

  It was an enormous willow, with a thick trunk and branches that curved in all directions. The leaves looked green at first, but when the wind swished and moved them, they turned purple.

  Sky Dance flew up to a hollow in the center of the tree’s trunk. Addie drew nearer and took a good look at the chrysalides, which instantly filled her with a sense of sadness and that something was very wrong. They hung gray and still as stones. She counted three. The fourth was just an empty shell, crumpled like a gum wrapper.

  “I see what you mean,” said Addie. “I’m not a Wishing Wing, but even I can feel the dark magic here. But who? And why?”

  “We don’t know,” replied Sky Dance. “One New Bloom will come out each day. My sister was the first. If we can make sure all four of them grant their wishes in time, maybe then the enchantment will be broken and we can figure out who’s behind it all.”

  “Who’s down there?” shouted a high, terrified voice from above. “Whoever it is, go away!”

  Addie looked up to a nearby branch of the Changing Tree. There sat a butterfly with wings of purple, peach, and mint green, with leaf patterns on them. The wings glistened in the sun because they were not quite dry.

  Sky Dance stared up at this butterfly and her eyes glistened, too, but with tears.

  “And that,” said Sky Dance softly, her voice quivering, “is my sister Shimmer Leaf.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  From the tips of her antennae to the bottom edges of her wings, Shimmer Leaf’s entire body was shaking with fear.

  Addie hated being frightened, but not as much as she hated seeing other creatures scared. She put on a big, warm smile and tried to make her voice as soft and soothing as possible. “Hi, Shimmer Leaf. I’m Addie.”

  Shimmer Leaf peered down at her, then jumped back and squealed. “You’re huge!” she cried. “You’re a monster!”

  Addie tried not to take that personally. She kept smiling. “I’m just human. I’m also a friend, who’s here to help you.”

  “Don’t come near me!” wailed Shimmer Leaf, who then flew to the highest branch of the Changing Tree.

  Sky Dance flitted over to Addie’s shoulder. “Let me try,” she said to Addie, then looked up at Shimmer Leaf. “Shimmer,” she cooed. “We went over this earlier. Don’t you remember me? I used to come to the caterpillar nursery to sing you songs and read you stories. I’m your big sister!”

  “What’s a caterpillar?” asked Shimmer Leaf with a trembling voice. “What’s a sister?”

  “See what I mean?” said Sky Dance. She sounded like she was about to cry. “We just don’t know what to do.”

  Addie stared long and hard at Shimmer Leaf, filled with sympathy for the butterfly. She wanted so badly to help her, but she’d never seen herself as a saving-the-day kind of girl.

  It can’t be fun, she thought, to have no idea who you are, or where you are, or WHY you are. As she was thinking, her fingers absentmindedly found the bracelet on her wrist. The feel of the smooth, gold chain, and the memory of how wonderful it felt to have a wish come true, sparked an idea.

  “Can you tell me more about this ‘first wish’ thing?” she asked Sky Dance. “You said she has to find a human child who needs a wish granted. Does she have to find the child herself, or can the child find her?”

  Sky Dance thought for a moment. “I don’t think it matters. They just have to come together.”

  A picture was forming in Addie’s head, getting clearer by the second. It was a picture of her sister, Clara, as she had watched Addie with Pepper that morning. Clara’s face, filled with jealousy, sadness, and loneliness. The face of someone who could really, really use a wish.

  “I know what we have to do,” said Addie to Sky Dance. “Now it’s time to show you my home.”

  As Addie and Sky Dance crossed Silk Meadow, Addie grew anxious about Pepper. She scanned the distance but didn’t see him in the spot where she’d left him. If he’d gotten away, she’d have to choose between searching for him and getting Clara to Wishing Wing Grove. It was a choice she didn’t want to make.

  Suddenly, two little black triangles poked up from the grass. Pepper’s ears! Addie laughed with relief.

  When she and Sky Dance drew closer, the two butterflies who were standing guard flew to meet them.

  “No problems here,” said one. “He’s kind of sweet and harmless, as dogs go.”

  “I still don’t l
ike them,” said the other. “It’s that breath. Ugh!”

  Addie laughed again, and when Pepper heard her, he jumped up and started barking.

  “Yes, yes. Good boy!” she said as she ran to him and started rubbing his neck. Sky Dance thanked her friends and they headed back toward Wishing Wing Grove.

  After she unhooked Pepper’s leash from the tree, Addie paused, trying to figure out which way to go from there. She took a step in a certain direction, and it felt right. She took a few more steps, more confident now. “I’m pretty sure this is the way to my house,” Addie told Sky Dance as they started walking. “I guess I did know all along.”

  “Well, actually, you didn’t,” said Sky Dance with a giggle. “But you do now, because I know.” When Addie turned to give her a confused look, Sky Dance flew in a little circle. “Yep. Because I granted you a wish, I’m officially your Wishing Wing. We’re connected forever. If we’re not too far away from each other, I can send you thoughts and you can send them back!”

  “A magic butterfly hotline!” Addie exclaimed.

  “Exactly! I can’t give you any more wishes, but I can help you in other ways, when you need it.”

  Something bright and fast in the distance caught Addie’s eye. It flitted in and out of the trees. It took Addie a few moments to realize what it was.

  A white butterfly.

  Addie had always loved these. She’d thought they were just as beautiful as the butterflies who had colors and patterns on their wings, but in a pure and simple way. She felt a tickle on her arm. Sky Dance had landed there to watch the white butterfly too, and Addie was overcome with the worried, nervous thoughts Sky Dance was sending her.

  “Oh,” said Addie. “That was once a New Bloom, right? It wasn’t able to earn its magic and become a Wishing Wing.”