“Now’s our chance, come on!” Lexi whispered. She, Kirsty, and Rachel tiptoed toward the castle. Rachel held her breath as they crept silently up to the doorway.
Would Jack Frost see them? And what would he do if he did?
Rachel, Kirsty, and Lexi pressed themselves against the walls as they snuck into Jack Frost’s Ice Castle. They could hear his booming voice from inside the castle. He kept yelling for the lights to be turned on. Somehow, the three fairies made it down one of the hallways without anyone noticing them.
The three friends flew silently along the hall, struggling to see in the dark. They fluttered into every room they could find and opened the lanterns, setting the fireflies free. “Quick, back to the fairy houses! You’ll be safer there,” Lexi whispered to the fireflies.
It was tricky, trying to work quickly in the darkness—and nerve-racking, too. All the while, they could hear Jack Frost yelling in the background. “What’s wrong with this fire dust? Why did the fireflies stop shining? I don’t want it to be dark!” he yelled.
“Hurry, hurry,” Lexi encouraged Kirsty and Rachel. “We have to be as fast as we can!”
As the fireflies flew out of the castle windows, they turned their flickering lights back on. It was lovely to see them jet through the darkness like tiny shooting stars, twinkling in the night sky one after another.
On and on the fairies flew, from room to room, releasing the fireflies. The goblins had obviously told Jack Frost that the fireflies were escaping because the three friends heard him shout with rage. He ordered his goblins to chase after the fireflies and catch them again. “I will not put up with this darkness!” he thundered.
“He’s so silly!” Lexi sighed. “The fireflies would happily light up his castle if he just asked them. Why did he have to try to trap them? They’ll stay far away from him now.”
“At least they can still glow from the magic dust Jack Frost sprinkled on them,” Rachel pointed out. She opened another lantern and set free the firefly inside. “They can fly back to the toadstool houses now—and hopefully to the Twinkling Tree, too.”
“Yes,” Lexi agreed, “but the fire dust on them won’t last forever.” She opened another lantern to let out the firefly, and watched as it flew away. They were at the very top of Jack Frost’s castle now, and the firefly soared into the air, its light gleaming. “There,” she said. “That’s the last one. The fireflies are all free!” She put her hands on her hips. “Now we just need to get my bag of fire dust away from Jack Frost, and we can get out of here.”
Kirsty swallowed nervously. “How are we going to do that?” she wondered aloud. Sneaking into the Ice Castle and setting the fireflies free had been scary enough, but the thought of trying to get Lexi’s bag of fire dust from Jack Frost was even scarier!
There was silence while they all thought. It was hard to concentrate when they could still hear Jack Frost shouting at his goblins. “I need those fireflies back NOW!” he bellowed.
His words gave Rachel an idea. “Jack Frost really wants the fireflies … so maybe we could trick him into thinking we’re fireflies,” she suggested.
“Yes! If you could use your magic to make us look like fireflies, Lexi, we’ll be able to get close to him—close enough to grab the bag of fire dust!” Kirsty added.
“That’s a great idea,” Lexi said, waving her wand in a complicated pattern. Streams of bright magic spiraled from its end, swirling all around.
Seconds later, Kirsty and Rachel felt themselves shrinking smaller and smaller, until Lexi seemed like a giant next to them. “Now to make you glow, glow, glow!” Lexi smiled, waving her wand again.
Rachel giggled as she felt a fizzing sensation all over. When she looked down, she could see that her legs and feet were shining brightly. “Cool!” She laughed.
The three of them flew through the open window. Kirsty and Rachel gleamed just like two little fireflies! They swooped low over the goblins who were gathered outside with Jack Frost. Jack Frost saw them and gave a shout. “There are two more! Catch them!”
Rachel and Kirsty zipped away in different directions with goblins chasing after each of them. Rachel flew in big figure eights, while Kirsty flew in a zigzag pattern. The goblins puffed and panted trying to keep up. Soon Rachel was getting dizzy with all her figure eights, so she decided to zoom straight ahead with the goblins still chasing her. But Kirsty had had the same idea. She was also flying along in a straight line—headed straight for Rachel! “Watch out!” Lexi called in alarm. “You’re going to crash!”
At the very last moment, Rachel swerved out of the way, and Kirsty zipped high in the air. But the goblins who’d been chasing them weren’t as lucky. They ended up crashing into each other—and knocking over Jack Frost!
Just then, the moon slid out from behind a cloud, casting a silvery light over the grounds of the castle. Rachel was excited to see that Jack Frost had three or four goblins piled on top of him and couldn’t move. Even better, she could see Lexi’s bag of fire dust sticking out of his pocket!
She darted down, her heart thumping, and managed to pull out the bag of dust. She held it tightly and flew into the air.
It was heavy! Luckily, Lexi had seen her. The fairy quickly waved her wand to make the bag light enough for Rachel to carry.
Then Lexi soared over to Rachel, and gratefully took the bag from her. “Nice work!” she exclaimed. “Come on, let’s get out of here before the goblins untangle themselves!” The three friends flew over the moat and landed so Lexi could turn Kirsty and Rachel back into fairies.
They were just about to take off again when Lexi noticed a group of fireflies, including Glimmer, on a thorny bush. Strange! Why hadn’t they flown away with the others?
“Are you all right?” she asked the fireflies.
“We’re fine,” Glimmer replied, wiggling her antennae happily. “In fact, we’re more than fine. We found a pretty patch of night rose plants with plenty of delicious nectar, so we’re going to make a new home here together.”
“Oh, OK,” Lexi replied. She smiled at Kirsty and Rachel. “At least Jack Frost and the goblins will have some light now. That’s nice, I guess.”
Once they were back in the Fairyland village, Lexi gathered all the fireflies that had come from the human world. She waved her wand and sent them back to the Whispering Woods, together with Kirsty and Rachel.
As the sparkly whirlwind vanished, Kirsty and Rachel found that they were still fairy-size. They were fluttering at the top of the Twinkling Tree, along with hundreds of flickering fireflies!
“Wow!” cried the kids below. They gazed up at the tree that was now twinkling and sparkling all over, thanks to the fireflies’ lights.
“They’re back!” Peter shouted in delight. “There—doesn’t it look amazing?”
Up in the tree, Lexi hugged Kirsty and Rachel good-bye. “Thanks for everything,” she said. “Now I’d better turn you back to your usual size, so you can see how pretty the tree looks from the ground, too!”
With the last wave of Lexi’s wand, Kirsty and Rachel felt their bodies tingle with fairy magic. Seconds later, they were at the back of the group of campers, gazing up at the Twinkling Tree.
“Oh, wow.” Rachel sighed. “It’s beautiful!”
“The fireflies look like fairies,” said a little girl nearby, and Rachel and Kirsty turned to smile at each other.
If only the girl knew that they had been fairies up there in the tree just seconds earlier!
“That was really exciting,” Kirsty said happily. “Definitely the most de-light-ful adventure yet!”
“This telescope is huge, Kirsty!” Rachel Walker said to her best friend, Kirsty Tate. “I can’t wait to look at the night sky.”
“It’s going to be amazing,” Kirsty agreed as they stared up at the enormous silver telescope.
The girls were spending a week of summer vacation with their parents at Camp Stargaze, which had its very own observatory for studying the stars. The observatory was a sq
uare, white building with a large dome on top and charts and pictures of the night sky hanging on the walls. In the middle of the observatory stood the gigantic telescope. Professor Hetty, the camp astronomer, was explaining to Rachel, Kirsty, and the other kids about the stars and constellations.
“As you know, this area was chosen for Camp Stargaze because we can get really clear views of the night sky from here,” Professor Hetty reminded them. She was a happy, round-faced woman with twinkling blue eyes and a mop of red hair. “Have any of you ever done a connect-the-dots picture?”
Everyone nodded.
“Well, a constellation is a lot like a connect-the-dots!” Professor Hetty explained with a smile. “A constellation is made of individual stars that you join together to make a picture, just like with connect-the-dots. Even though the stars look close together to us here on Earth, sometimes they’re really millions of miles apart! Let’s take a look, okay?”
Professor Hetty pressed a button on the wall. There was a noise overhead, and Rachel and Kirsty glanced up to see a large section of the domed roof slide back smoothly. This revealed the dark, velvety night sky. Sparkling silver stars twinkled here and there like diamonds in a jewelry box. Everyone gasped and clapped.
“Wonderful!” Professor Hetty said eagerly. “I never get tired of looking at the night sky. It’s so magical.”
Rachel nudged Kirsty. “Professor Hetty doesn’t know just how magical the nighttime really is!” she whispered.
“I wonder if we’ll meet another Night Fairy today,” Kirsty murmured to Rachel as they all lined up to look through the telescope. “I’m so glad we found Ava’s and Lexi’s magic bags, but we still have five more to go!”
“Remember, we have to let the magic come to us,” Rachel reminded her.
The girls’ new friend, Alex, was first to use the telescope, and Professor Hetty showed her how to look through the eyepiece. Alex peered into the telescope eagerly.
“Everything looks so close!” She gasped.
“Can you see any pictures in the stars, Alex?” asked Professor Hetty.
“I think I see something….” Alex leaned in closer to the telescope. “Oh!” She burst out laughing. “I can see a constellation shaped like a toothbrush!”
“Good job,” said Professor Hetty. “And those of you who aren’t using the telescope should be able to see it also if you look hard enough….”
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e-ISBN 978-0-545-54957-8
Copyright © 2010 by Rainbow Magic Limited.
All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc., 557 Broadway, New York, NY 10012, by arrangement with Rainbow Magic Limited.
Previously published as Twilight Fairies #2: Lexi the Firefly Fairy by Orchard U.K. in 2010.
SCHOLASTIC and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc. RAINBOW MAGIC is a trademark of Rainbow Magic Limited Re. U.S. Patent & Trademark Office and other countries. HIT and the HIT logo are trademarks of HIT Entertainment Limited.
First Scholastic printing, July 2011
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