Spring's Sparkle Sleepover

by Elise Allen

  Yet before she could conjure her powers, several bubbles burbled on the surface of the swamp. Thunderbolt, Twister, and Sleet scattered away from Quake with a chorus of “Ew!” and “Gross!”

  “It wasn’t that!” Quake complained. “I made an underground quake to get you off me! That’s what made the bubbles!”

  “Yeah, right,” Sleet scoffed. “I can smell it, Quake.”

  “It’s a sulfur swamp!” Quake wailed. “That’s what you smell!”

  The boys kept arguing, but now they were far apart, and Autumn placed a hand on Winter’s arm. “You can’t get them all at once,” she warned. “We don’t want to start a big fight. We need to stop them quickly.”

  “Autumn’s right,” Summer said. “We each pick a Weed.”

  “We’re gardening?” Spring asked.

  “Something like that,” said Summer. “Pick which weed you want to pluck. I’ll take Sleet.”

  “I’ll grab Thunderbolt,” said Winter.

  “Twister, please,” said Autumn, spinning her scepter.

  “Then I’ll take Quake.” Spring giggled. “That rhymes!”

  Winter stood tall on Sammy’s back and swung her arms, preparing to leap. “One … two … three …”

  “Wait!” Spring stopped her. “We’ll have better aim if we swing!” She pulled a few seeds out of the purple pouch dangling around her neck, pointed her scepter at them, and chanted:

  Violet sparkles enchanted the seeds and four ropy vines grew out of them. She handed each sister her own rope vine and then asked in sea monster language, “Will you hold the other ends of these for us, Sammy? Tightly, please. Then fly us down so we can get close to the boys.”

  Spring fashioned two ropes tightly around each of Sammy’s wings. Spring knew he’d hold on and keep her and her sisters safe.

  “Great idea, Spring,” Winter said. “You’re amazing.”

  Spring smiled at the praise, then each sister slid down Sammy’s back, holding her end of the rope. They dangled there until each sister was close to her chosen Weed. Winter and Summer let go of their ropes first, and landed right on top of Thunderbolt and Sleet, tackling them in the mud. Autumn touched ground in front of Twister, then blew him out of the slimy pool with a burst of wind.

  Quake was the farthest away, and by the time Spring slid off her rope to get to him, he’d crawled out of the ooze and was running through the rusting amusement park. Spring chased him around the carousel, roller coaster, and Ferris wheel, then saw him dodge around some dilapidated dirt bikes. He climbed into a sidecar of one of the bikes and ducked low.

  Did he really think he was hiding there? Spring had seen him crawl inside!

  She approached slowly, wondering if it might be a trick. With her scepter drawn, she leaned over the top of the sidecar … and found Quake cowering on the floor!

  “Don’t use your scary magic on me!” he wailed. “I’ve seen what that scepter-thing can do! I don’t want any trouble!”

  Spring smiled to herself. Quake was frightened because the last time he’d seen Spring’s scepter, Thunderbolt had used it. The combination of his powers and hers had created electrified tree roots that were so scary they even terrified Spring.

  “I will use my scary magic on you,” Spring said, “unless you tell me where Bluster Tempest is hiding with Mother Nature’s scepter!”

  Quake winced. “I can’t. He’d be mad if he found out I squealed.”

  “I won’t tell if you don’t tell,” Spring said.

  Quake turned his head to one side and looked up at Spring. A small snail slithered up his cheek. “Honest?” he asked.

  “Pinky petal promise,” said Spring. She held up the pinky finger on her right hand.

  “That’s a good promise,” decided Quake. “Okay. And promise not to tell my brothers I told?”

  “Double pinky petal promise,” she agreed. She held up both pinky fingers.

  The snail had made its way to the tip of Quake’s nose. He crossed his eyes to look at it, then whispered, “Bluster hid the scepter in his fortress. It’s in the heart of the Parched Desert. It’s up in the air, but looks like sand and sky.”

  Spring sensed that Quake was telling the truth, but she didn’t understand. “Is this a riddle? Because normally I love riddles. Like, where do moths go to have fun?”

  “Where?” asked Quake.

  “To the moth ball,” answered Spring. “But right now I don’t have time for riddles!”

  “I don’t get it,” said Quake, looking confused.

  “Scary magic, remember?” Spring warned, waving her scepter. “Please explain exactly why Bluster’s secret fortress is up in the air and looks like sand and sky.”

  “It’s stuck like a piece of spinach between two giant boulders shaped like teeth. It looks like sand and the sky because the whole thing’s made of mirrors.” Quake eyed Spring’s scepter. “I did what you asked. No scary magic now, right?”

  Spring felt bad that he was so frightened. After all, her magic wasn’t scary and she would never really hurt him. She wanted to do something nice for him, but there wasn’t much time. She had to hurry to save Mother’s scepter and wake her before sundown.

  Then she remembered how upset Quake had been when Twister had muddied his candy stick, and knew she could make him happy in no time at all. She pointed her scepter at the ground and recited:

  Violet sparkles tilled the earth and grew into a field of tall green stalks. Each one rose high into the air and blossomed with sucker sticks, chewy taffy, chocolate candy bars, and giant gumballs.

  Quake wiped his face in amazement, actually making it dirtier. He also managed to wipe the snail onto his hand. Spring was relieved it had its shell to protect it. “Gee, Spring,” he said, drooling. “Thanks!”

  As Quake dove into the crop of treats, Spring raced to gather her sisters. She found them back at the swamp. Summer, Winter, and Autumn held Sleet, Thunderbolt, and Twister at scepter-point. The three Sparkles were wind-blown and coated in frost and mud, but the boys were in worse shape. They were encased in ice from the neck down, stopped in mid-run.

  “We’ll never tell you where Bluster hid Mother’s scepter!” Twister yelled.

  “Then you’ll stay frozen forever!” Winter roared.

  “Sparkles!” Spring beckoned to her sisters and they gathered around her. “I know where the fortress is!”

  “How’d you find out?” Winter asked.

  Spring held up both her pinkies. “Can’t say. But I can get us there. Let’s go!”

  “How?” Autumn asked. “Sammy was so spooked, he already flew back to Pink Dolphin Lagoon!”

  Poor Sammy, thought Spring. She couldn’t blame him for heading back to her Sparkledom. She wished she could fly back there too. But she and her sisters had a scepter to retrieve.

  “I know exactly how we’ll get there,” she said.

  Chapter 10

  Dust kicked up behind three dirt bikes as the Sparkles zoomed along the Parched Desert. Spring led the way on her black cycle with snakeskin decals. Autumn followed on a bicycle with one monster-sized wheel in the front and a mini wheel on the back. Summer’s ride had three thick wheels, and Winter bumped along next to her in a bullet-shaped sidecar. In her mind, Spring thanked Quake. Not only had he told them how to find Bluster’s fortress, but he’d led them to the perfect way to get there—the Weeds’ dirt bikes!

  Spring was also glad she’d rewarded him with the candy patch. It kept him busy, so he hadn’t bothered them when they drove away. The other Weeds were still in ice when they left. Winter promised they’d melt free later in the day.

  “We’ve been riding for a long time!” Autumn shouted. “Will we be there soon?”

  “I think so!” Spring shouted back.

  “We’d better be!” Summer yelled. “There’s only a few more hours left for the season-changing Ceremony!”

  All four girls scoured the desert plains. A shimmer of heat grazed land as red as a scraped knee, stretching out endless
ly in every direction. Boulders stood like sentinels along the way, but none of them looked like teeth, until …

  “I see them!” Winter hollered. “There!”

  Twin boulders rose from the desert floor. They looked like the fangs of a giant shark buried beneath the sand. According to Quake, the fortress should be between them, but invisible because it was made of mirrors.

  “Let’s get closer!” Spring suggested.

  She and her sisters pumped their pedals and pulled alongside the boulders. Sure enough, their own reflections gleamed back at them.

  “Tendrils and tadpoles,” Spring cried, “we look a fright!” Spring’s hair was still hopelessly tousled and knotted from her tangle with Serenity, and the mud splattered all over her sisters had hardened into a cracked paste.

  “Forget that—we found the mirrored fortress!” Winter crowed. “Now we just have to find the door and get in.”

  “How?” Autumn asked. “The door will be mirrored too. We won’t be able to see it.”

  “We could if we had a tub,” Spring said. “The mirror in my bathroom always mists up when I take a bubble bath, and then I can see it really well.”

  “Spring, that’s perfect!” Summer cried.

  “A tub?” Spring asked. “It would be nice. Then I could wash my hair, and you could get the mud off you, and—”

  “Not the tub, the mist!” Summer clarified. “If we work together and coat the mirrored fortress in mist, everything on it will stand out—including the door!”

  “I love it!” Winter crowed. “How do we make it work?”

  “Winter,” Summer began, “you create freezing water. I’ll heat the air around it to make mist, and Autumn, you blow the droplets so the mist swirls all around the fortress.”

  “What can I do?” asked Spring.

  “Look for the door,” said Summer. She pointed her scepter into the air. “C’mon, girls, let’s make some mist!”

  Winter and Autumn lifted their scepters and they all chanted together:

  Following Summer’s plan, the three Sparkles used their powers to create a fine mist. As Autumn blew it around and around the space between the boulder “teeth,” a pointy structure with towers and columns emerged.

  “I see it!” Spring cheered. “Keep misting! I’ll find the entrance!”

  She furiously zipped her bike around the fortress. Its mist-coated spikes and fang-like overhangs made Spring shiver even in the desert heat. She had held her own with Bluster yesterday, but that was in Mother’s Sparkledom, where she felt safe. Did she really want to see him in his own frightening fortress?

  Then she turned a corner and all her worry gave way to excitement. The mist clung to the outline of a door! “Sparkles!” she called. “I found the entrance!”

  Within seconds, Spring’s sisters were at her side. Together they turned the knob, pushed open the heavy door, and slipped into Bluster’s lair. There was a resounding BOOM as the door closed behind them.

  Inside, the fortress was bone-white, and clean as a skeleton picked over by a pack of hyenas. Staircases that looked like rows of jagged teeth spiraled up and down, leading to wide-mouthed darkened hallways.

  “I think I liked it better when it was invisible,” Spring quavered.

  “There are so many floors,” marveled Summer. “So many places to look. We should probably split up.”

  “Do we have to?” Spring asked.

  “Only if we want to get Mother’s scepter in time for the Ceremony,” Winter said.

  Spring looked down at her feet. Of course she wanted to get the scepter in time for the Ceremony. She just didn’t want to explore Bluster Tempest’s fortress alone. Being in his secret lair made her jittery as a leaf blowing in a fall wind.

  “How about this?” Autumn offered. “We’ll explore, while you stay and guard the entrance.”

  “And if you see anything sketchy, call out like a bar-headed goose,” said Winter. “Honk! Honk!”

  The honk made Spring smile, but she was still nervous. She didn’t want to be by herself, but at least she wouldn’t have to go deeper into the fortress. She nodded, then her sisters gave her a quick hug before zooming off along three different staircases. Spring hoped they didn’t fall into any traps. The Weeds loved booby traps, so it made sense that Bluster would too.

  Spring stared at all the staircases. If there was a trap around, maybe she’d see it herself. Then she could honk to her sisters and warn them.

  Spring didn’t see anything, but the more she concentrated on the staircases, the more she realized that they rose in an ever-widening funnel. The pattern continued when she looked down. Here the stairs narrowed, swirling to a darkened point. In fact, the more Spring studied the fortress, the more it seemed like even the walls spiraled slightly, just like the staircases.

  Willows and windstorms! Spring thought to herself. Bluster’s fortress is shaped like a tornado! She considered this a moment. If I were hiding in a tornado, where would I go?

  Suddenly the answer seemed so obvious she said it out loud. “Where would I go? The eye of the tornado!”

  Spring almost honked for her sisters, but she stopped herself. If she was wrong, she didn’t want to pull them away from their explorations—not when one of them might be about to find Mother’s scepter.

  No. She’d check for herself. She’d be careful and stay hidden, and if she did see Bluster in the “eye of the tornado,” then she’d get her sisters.

  She tiptoed to the nearest downward staircase and placed her foot on the step.

  CRRRREEEEAK!

  Spring jumped back. The staircase was no way to stay hidden. She needed to be stealthy, like when she and her sisters slid down from Sammy and surprised the Weeds. She pulled a maple seed pod—a whirlybird—out from the pouch around her neck. She placed it in her open palm, then pointed her scepter at it as she whispered:

  Violet sparkles coated the seed, and it grew into an enormous whirlybird, so large it stretched up above her like a helicopter’s rotor.

  “Now for a little light to show the way,” said Spring. She pulled out her moonstone necklace from beneath her nightgown and whispered, “Little moon, shine bright. Give me comfort in the night.”

  The necklace cast a brilliant glow over the walls of Bluster’s lair. She took a deep breath, then, holding tightly to the whirlybird stalk, she leaped over the edge of the stairwell. The giant seed pod spun her gently down to the ground, where she landed on a round metal disc. The disc had handles—it looked like some kind of cap in the middle of the floor—and carved into it was a single eye.

  The eye of the tornado! Spring had been right! She again wanted to call her sisters, but the eye didn’t mean Bluster or the scepter was here. She needed to keep exploring. She lifted the cap by its handles to reveal a hole, and a golden slide that dove into its depths.

  Spring set aside the cap and stretched her moonstone into the hole. She saw that the slide took a sharp turn, then continued beyond the light’s glow.

  If Spring wanted to know what was down there, she had only one choice. She eased her way onto the slide, then pushed off and plummeted down its slippery slope.

  Down and down she went. The spinning ride down the slide was even longer than her whirlybird trip into the eye of the tornado. And even scarier! Lodged into the walls were golden statues of frightening sea creatures poised to attack. Giant squid statues reached out their tentacles, schools of great white sharks bared their razor teeth, and immense anacondas twisted around the slide as if they were about to squeeze the life out of their prey. Spring screamed the whole way down.

  THUMP.

  Spring landed on her seat. She was afraid to open her eyes, but when she did, she found herself in a greenhouse. It was bright, warm, quiet, and filled with the kind of plants some thought were dangerous, though Spring knew they were simply equipped to defend themselves. Poison ivy drooped from the roof, giant flytraps swelled out of planter boxes, and flowered poison snakeroot blossomed in ghostly white patches.
She noticed the greenhouse windows were patterned like a spider web, and she was marveling at their beauty when she realized that right in the center was Bluster Tempest himself, sneering at Spring like a spider who had just caught a wee fly.

  Chapter 11

  Bluster tilted the black rim of his top hat. “Salivations and salutations, Spring!” Over his regular black suit and cape, Bluster wore a white gardener’s apron and gloves. He held a tiny pot containing three Venus flytraps. He petted them affectionately, and Spring could hear their pleased purring.

  “I must say, my dear,” Bluster continued, “you look as fresh as a pile of hay after it’s been eaten, consumed, and deposited by a camel.”

  Bluster gingerly placed the tiny pot of flytraps on a high table next to him, then removed his gloves and pulled an impossibly large black walking stick from one of his apron pockets. He wasn’t acting mean. He was polite and even nice, but that frightened Spring all the more. She had no idea what to expect.

  “I’m sure you’re aware that if I wanted to, I could do away with you immediately,” he said. “I suppose you’re remarkably terrified.”

  Spring was, but then she remembered how Bluster had acted when she stood up to him at Mother’s. He had been impressed with her then. Maybe she could impress him again, and buy some time while she figured out how to find and rescue Mother’s scepter.

  “Knock, knock,” blurted Spring.

  Bluster’s smile flickered. “I’m sorry, perhaps you didn’t understand. I just threatened you. Are you actually telling a joke?”

  “Knock, knock,” Spring insisted.

  “Fine.” Bluster smiled again, his shark teeth even sharper than Spring remembered. “Who’s there?”

  “Spider.”

  “Spider who?”

  “Spider what everyone says, I like you!”