Copyright © 2007 Disney Enterprises, Inc.
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ISBN 978-1-4231-5905-6
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Table of Contents
All About Fairies
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IF YOU HEAD toward the second star on your right and fly straight on till morning, you’ll come to Never Land, a magical island where mermaids play and children never grow up.
When you arrive, you might hear something like the tinkling of little bells. Follow that sound and you’ll find Pixie Hollow, the secret heart of Never Land.
A great old maple tree grows in Pixie Hollow, and in it live hundreds of fairies and sparrow men. Some of them can do water magic, others can fly like the wind, and still others can speak to animals. You see, Pixie Hollow is the Never fairies’ kingdom, and each fairy who lives there has a special, extraordinary talent.
Not far from the Home Tree, nestled in the branches of a hawthorn, is Mother Dove, the most magical creature of all. She sits on her egg, watching over the fairies, who in turn watch over her. For as long as Mother Dove’s egg stays well and whole, no one in Never Land will ever grow old.
Once, Mother Dove’s egg was broken. But we are not telling the story of the egg here. Now it is time for Beck’s tale.…
IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL AFTERNOON, cool and clear with a golden glow. Every once in a while, the breeze would puff. It sent dandelion fluff through the air and lifted the tendrils of Beck’s hair to tickle her ear.
Beck sighed happily and listened in on a conversation between a pair of chameleons. Beck was an animal-talent fairy, and she could communicate with all the creatures in Never Land. She understood the meaning of every buzz, hiss, peep, coo, growl, purr, bark, and honk.
The chameleons were trying to decide whether they looked better in yellow or orange. Beck was about to offer her opinion—which was that you could never go wrong with basic green—when she spotted a forest boar. She had never seen that boar before. He looked very intent as he trotted along the main path.
Beck flew quietly over him and watched him from above. Where was he going? What was he doing? Was he friend or foe? She followed the boar until he turned off the path and dove under some brush.
Beck flew lower. Where had he gone?
She saw a bush shake. Then a mound of dirt rumbled. Was that him? Yes! Wait! There he was. No! There? No!
The boar was gone. He had probably ducked into one of the tunnels below Pixie Hollow. Many years before, the animal-talent fairies had built a maze of underground tunnels that only they could find their way around. Beck hoped the boar wouldn’t get lost.
Snort!
The boar popped up from the underbrush. Beck suddenly found herself face to eyeball with him. She was so startled, she somersaulted backward and landed in a sprawl on a broad blade of elephant grass.
The boar made a series of boar sounds. Snort! Grunt! Snort! Snort! Grunt! Snuffle! Snort!
Now, a pots-and-pans-talent fairy, such as Tink, or a water-talent fairy, such as Rani, would have heard a lot of scary boar noises. But remember, Beck was an animal-talent fairy. Even though she had never met this boar before, she knew what the noise was—good-natured laughter. The boar was not an enemy.
Beck sat up, straightened her tunic, and flew closer. The boar snuffled a bit, but Beck understood him perfectly. “Aha! Caught you,” he said. “You’re following me, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” Beck answered. “Are you angry? I know spying is bad manners.”
“I’m not angry. But why are you following me? Have I done something wrong?”
“No, no, no!” Beck answered. “I was just curious. Whenever I see strangers, I wonder where they came from and where they are going.”
The boar lifted his hairy upper lip to show a set of long, sharp white teeth.
Another fairy might have mistaken this for a menacing snarl. But Beck saw a friendly smile. The boar told her, “I’m from the eastern tip of Never Land, and I’m on my way to the western side of the Never Land forest. There are truffles there that taste like clouds dipped in joy. And when the rain falls, it makes a noise like nothing you’ve ever heard. It’s just like music. You can settle under a rotten log and listen all afternoon. Here’s the song I heard on my last visit.”
He threw back his head and began to sing in his snuffly boarlike way. Snuffle Snuffle Snort Snort Grunt Grunt Snoooooorrrrt!
Beck felt chills up and down her spine. Even through his snorts and snuffles, she could hear the music plainly. It was a strange, beautiful melody.
When he was done, she clapped. “The rain never makes music like that in Pixie Hollow,” she said. “I wonder why.”
“Different plants. Different dirt. Different sound,” the boar explained. “It’s a beautiful place, Pixie Hollow, but you just don’t get the music here that you get in the western forest. Or the truffles, either.”
Beck sighed. “I wish I could hear a rain song.”
“Come with me,” he invited. “It takes only a few weeks to get there.”
Beck shook her head sadly. “In Pixie Hollow, there’s just enough of everything. No more, no less. Every fairy gets one teacup of fairy dust a day. My dust wouldn’t take me that far. Without it, I can’t fly.”
“Well, you can walk. And when you get tired, you can ride on my back.”
Beck was touched. That was a very nice offer. “I wish I could. But I can’t. If I left, who would take care of Mother Dove?”
“I’ve heard of her. Wonderful bird. Love to meet her sometime. Not today, though. I’ve got to get going before the truffle season is over.” He twitched an ear. “Good-bye.”
“Good-bye,” Beck said as the boar turned and trotted off.
She was still watching him when she heard a heavy rustle above her. She looked up. A flock of strange blue-and-yellow-striped birds passed overhead.
Those birds fascinated Beck. They always flew fast and stayed in a perfect star formation that turned in the sky like a pinwheel.
But they never stopped to visit. They moved right past Pixie Hollow. What kind of birds were they? Where were they going? As she watched, they passed over the treetops and soared into the distant sky.
BECK FLEW to Mother Dove’s nest in the hawthorn tree at the edge of Pixie Hollow. As always, Mother Dove looked contented sitting in her nest on her magic blue egg.
“Hello, Mother Dove!” Beck said. “Is there anything you need?”
Mother Dove cooed happily. “Just a glimpse of you. And now I have it.”
Beck felt her mouth curve into a smile. Knowing that Mother Dove loved her and needed her made Beck feel special. Without Mother Dove, there would be no Never Land. She was the source of all its magic.
Beck looked up again, watching the birds in the sky. “How big is the world, Mother Dove?”
Mother Dove ruffled her feathers a bit and settled herself more comfortably. “Bigger than we can imagine.”
Beck closed her eyes and tried to imagine. Mother Dove was right. She couldn’t. “Imagining is hard work,” Beck said with a laugh. “It’s making me hungry.”
“Why don’t you go get a cup of tea and a muffin?
” Mother Dove suggested.
“All right, then,” Beck agreed. “I’ll be back later.”
“Don’t hurry,” Mother Dove said kindly. “I’m fine here. I’m always fine.”
Beck took to the air again. She passed over Queen Clarion’s gazebo, the dairy barn, the fairy-dust mill, and Havendish Stream.
She flew into the lobby of the Home Tree and fluttered into the tearoom.
Every day, baking-talent fairies baked perfect pastries. Decoration-talent fairies covered the tables with fresh flower petals. And laundry-talent fairies folded the leaf napkins in new and amazing ways.
That day, the napkins were folded into star shapes. They kind of reminded Beck of the blue-and-yellow birds in their star formation.
The tearoom was almost empty. A few mining-talent fairies huddled together over a map. Beck was too shy to join them. She didn’t really know anything about mining. Besides, they looked busy and serious about their work.
So Beck helped herself to some butter cookies from the buffet and darted out the window. She flew straight to her favorite perch. She called it the Tip-Top. It was the highest branch on the tallest tree in Pixie Hollow. Beck landed lightly.
“Hello,” said a friendly voice behind her. “What are you doing way up here?”
Beck turned. Terence, a dust-talent sparrow man, was sitting only a twig or two away.
“What are you doing up here?” she countered. “I thought this was my special place.”
Terence laughed. “I come up here for the view.”
Beck handed him a butter cookie and grinned. “Me too. Do you ever wonder what’s over there…and over there…and over there?” She waved her hands comically in a circle.
Terence looked out at the forest and mountains beyond Pixie Hollow. “Sometimes,” he said. “But mostly I just like to be here.” He turned back to Beck. “Have you ever heard of a sparrow man called Spinner?”
Beck shook her head.
“He was curious like you. He said there was a big world outside Pixie Hollow and he had to see it.”
“And did he?”
Terence nodded. “He did. He was gone for the longest time, because of course, he ran out of dust and had to walk. He was gone so long we thought he’d been eaten by a hawk, or died of disbelief. But then one day he walked back into Pixie Hollow. He looked as shabby as an old tunic but merry as a bell. He said he had seen the most marvelous things. A sea with waves striped with different colors. And a desert with sand that talked.”
Beck felt her heart begin to beat faster. How wonderful it would be to travel and see all those things!
“Of course, we didn’t believe a word of it,” Terence added.
Beck’s face fell. “Why not?”
Terence laughed. “Because he was a tall-tale-telling-talent sparrow man. He actually claimed he’d found a truffle that tasted like a cloud dipped in joy and heard a rainstorm that sounded like music. He said he’d met butterflies the size of Clumsies. Oh, and this is a good one. He said he’d seen trees that grew upside down and flopped on the ground at night to sleep. He said in the morning, they straightened up and stretched their roots in the air just like somebody yawning.”
Beck remembered what the boar had said about truffles and rain. “Maybe they weren’t just stories. Maybe they were true,” she argued. “Where is Spinner now? I wish I could talk to him.”
Terence shrugged. “He disappeared soon after he came back. We figured he’d gone traveling again.”
They heard a rustle overhead. It was another flock of blue and yellow birds in pinwheel formation.
Beck jumped up. This time they weren’t flying over! They were coming in for a landing. The formation broke into a hundred separate fluttering birds. They landed in the treetops, laughing and joking.
Beck cleared her throat. As an animal-talent fairy, she felt it was her duty to greet them. “Hello,” she said. “Welcome.”
The leader of the flock puffed out her chest and flapped her wings. She opened her beak and squawked a series of birdcalls.
Now, Terence, as a dust-talent sparrow man, heard something that sounded like this: Caw Caw Whoooop! Twoooieeee! Sreek!
But Beck understood the flock leader perfectly. What she heard was this: “Hello! We were told that this is Pixie Hollow and that we would be welcome. We’d like to eat some of your berries and drink from your streams—if you don’t mind.”
“We don’t mind at all,” Beck answered. She was delighted to have a chance to meet these strange birds. “Where are you from? Where is your home?”
The birds laughed.
Beck smiled. “Did I say something funny?”
The flock leader’s eye twinkled. “We are Explorer Birds. Our home is wherever we happen to land. And wherever we land, we feel at home.” She sipped some dew from a cupped leaf. “My name is Goway,” she said after swallowing.
“I’m Beck.”
Goway cocked her head, looking at Beck’s wings. “Are you a bird?”
“No. I’m a fairy!”
“Then how is it that you speak Bird?”
“I’m an animal-talent fairy,” Beck explained. She leaned forward eagerly. “But tell me something. Have you ever seen a sea with striped waves? Or heard sand talk? Or eaten a truffle that—”
The thundering sound of a hundred pairs of wings drowned out Beck’s soft voice. The birds were in flight again, circling and chasing each other.
Goway gave Beck a little bow. “Sorry. Wish I had time to talk. But this flock is restless. I’d better go up front and get them moving.” She beat her wings against the air. Seconds later, the birds had fallen into formation and were spinning away.
Beck opened her lips to say good-bye but bit back the word. Why not go with them? Instead of trying to imagine the size of the world, why not see it for herself? Or at least as much as she could see in a day.
She shouted, “Wait! Wait! I want to go with you.” She leaped into the air and flew as fast as she could.
“Where are you going?” she heard Terence call. “Hey, what did they say?”
Beck didn’t pause to answer. She couldn’t. No time. The birds were already high in the air and yards away. She lowered her head into the wind and beat her wings as hard as she could. Faster…faster…faster…
But no matter how fast she flew, she couldn’t catch up. They were too quick. Finally, she gave up. She landed on a branch and watched them disappear into the distance.
Her wings had come to a stop. But her mind was racing and spinning…just like a pinwheel.
“WING EXTENDERS!” Tink exclaimed.
The inside walls of Tink’s metal teapot workshop arched up and curved over like a high vaulted ceiling. Tink’s surprised cry bounced off them and echoed through the workshop.
Beck nodded. “I think my wings are too short. If I had longer wings, I could fly faster.”
“Beck, you’re not a fast-flying-talent fairy,” Tink argued. “Why do you need to fly any faster?”
“I want to keep up with the birds,” Beck explained.
“That makes sense,” Tink agreed. “You are an animal-talent fairy. So I suppose keeping up with birds would be a good thing.” Tink pulled her bangs, the way she always did when she had a problem to solve.
“I know!” She snapped her fingers and hurried to a big pile of scrap metal.
Clang! Clank! Clink! Boooinnng! went the scrap metal as Tink sorted through it. “Twire brought these over to see if I could use them for anything,” she shouted over the noise.
She pulled a pair of long wire frames from the pile. “Let’s see what I can do.” Tink grabbed her tinker’s hammer and began to pound.
Clang! Bang! Clang! Bang!
Beck covered her ears.
“There!” Tink gave the frames one last little knock with her hammer.
Pong!
“Try this!” She lifted the lightweight wire frames off the worktable and placed them across Beck’s shoulders. The wire frames fit over Beck’s w
ings and made them twice as long.
“That ought to do it.” Tink nodded, and her bangs bounced. “Now all we need is a few yards of gauze and a couple of sewing-talent fairies, and you’re good to go.”
An hour later, Beck was back at the Tip-Top wearing her wing extenders. The sewing-talent fairies had done a beautiful job of stretching gauze over Tink’s wire frames. Beck’s test flight had brought her to the Tip-Top in record time.
It almost made her wish she were a fast-flying-talent fairy instead of an animal-talent fairy. It was exciting to move through the air twice as fast as usual.
She heard a sound in the distant wind. She looked up. Yes! It was another flock of Explorer Birds. Beck stood, ready for flight.
As soon as they came into view, she shot into the air. Never had she flown so fast. Within seconds, she was catching up with the birds. “Hello!” she cried. “Mind if I join you?” She moved to the right and tried to join the flock. But the wing extenders made Beck clumsy.
Whap! Whap!
Uh-oh! Her wing extenders knocked, jostled, and swatted the birds around her. They didn’t like it one bit.
“OUCH!”
“WHAT IS THAT? SOME KIND OF HAWK?”
“HEY, STOP IT! WHO ARE YOU SHOVING?”
“YOU’RE NOT A BIRD! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE…”
Suddenly, Beck found herself twirling through the air in a tangle of wings, gauze, feathers, and beaks. She felt a series of angry pecks on her head and arms. The Explorer Birds were trying to drive her away.
Beck gave her wings one huge hard flap and shot out of the tangle.
As soon as she was out of it, the Explorer Birds got into line again. They turned and flew away from her as fast as they could.
Beck wobbled back to the Tip-Top. Her wing extenders were bent and torn. She shrugged them off. But she wasn’t giving up. She had another idea for flying with the birds. It was a much better one, too.
“Now you want a sleigh?” Tink looked at Beck as though she were crazy.
Disney Fairies: Beck Beyond the Sea Page 1
