by Elise Allen
Winter tucked the baby fox into her coat pocket and ran as fast as she could for the snow fort’s entrance. She knew how to get Flurry, but she couldn’t do it alone.
She needed her sisters.
Winter didn’t stop running until she was back outside, where her scepter had a clear shot at the sky. Without waiting to catch her breath, she pointed it into the air and cried:
She touched the scepter to the gem in her headband, sending a thick beam of rainbow-colored sparkles from the ground at her feet high into the air. At the very top of its arc, the rainbow split into three parts, diving out of sight into the Sparkledoms of Spring, Summer, and Autumn.
The Sparkles never ignored the rainbow call. Any second now, Winter’s sisters would see the light right beside them, step into it, and soar all the way to Winter’s realm.
Winter stared at the sky and whispered impatiently, “Three … two … one!”
Summer appeared right on cue. Her long brown hair whipped around her face and her green dress flapped in the wind as she dove headfirst down the rainbow. “Watch this!” she screamed to Winter. She twirled in a quadruple somersault, then leaped out of the rainbow in an explosion of yellow sparkles. She landed with her arms spread wide. “What do you think?”
“Impressive,” Winter said. “Almost as impressive as when I did that move last week.”
“Pretty sure I added one extra flip in there,” Summer said.
“Pretty sure you didn’t.”
“I’m pretty sure that you were both impressive, and astoundingly acrobatic,” said another voice.
It was Autumn, dressed as always in her orange sari, her long dark hair braided down her back. A mist of orange sparkles danced around her as she stepped lightly out of the rainbow. “I’m glad you called,” she said, taking Winter’s hands. “I missed you.”
“Since last night?” Winter laughed.
“Any time the four of us aren’t together, I miss you,” Autumn said.
“I wish I could say I just brought you here because I miss you too,” Winter said, “but I need your help.”
“On it,” Summer said. “What can we do?”
Before Winter could answer, the sisters heard a familiar tinkle-bell giggle. They looked up to see Spring sliding feetfirst down the rainbow. Her purple dress swung around her knees, and her blond hair bounced in the wind. As she glided along, she looked at every bird, every pine needle, every snowflake … every bit of nature. She was so fascinated by it all that she lost track of the rainbow’s end and spilled out in a cloud of purple sparkles.
“Tulips and turtles, I toppled!” she bubbled as Autumn and Summer pulled her to her feet. “Sorry I’m late, but I was playing leapfrog with some froggy friends and then I realized it was only leapfrog because I was leaping over frogs! I wondered, would it still be the same game if I played it with other animals?”
“Spring …” Winter tried to cut in.
“So I tried it!” Spring continued excitedly. “I played leapfrog, then leaphog, then leapdog, and then you know what I played?”
“Leap … log?” Summer guessed.
“No!” Spring continued. “Leapporcupine, of course!”
“Of course.” Autumn smiled.
“But the problem with leapporcupine was that when the rainbow came I had porcupines stuck all over me! So I had to take a minute and peel them off, and that made me wonder if porcupines ever stuck themselves together, bristle to bristle, to make something like a pyramid. And if they did, would it be called a porcu-mid, or a pyra-pine, or a—”
“Spring!” Winter interrupted.
Spring stopped, then cocked her head to the side and scrunched her face. “Winter, why is your coat telling me it needs to breathe?”
Summer and Autumn looked at their youngest sister like she was crazy, but Winter understood and quickly pulled the baby fox from her pocket.
“Awwww!” her sisters chorused.
“This is what I brought you here to talk about,” Winter said.
“Can I hold him?” Spring asked.
“Sure,” Winter replied. “So Flurry and I found him this morning, and—”
“He’s so tiny!” Autumn gushed.
“Yes,” Winter said, “and I was playing with him and everything was fine, but then Flurry started acting really weird and I didn’t understand why and I told him to sit by himself while I figured out what to do with the baby, and the next thing I knew Flurry was gone!”
“Aren’t you the cutest little thing?” Summer asked the pup. “Yes, you are. Oh yes, you are.” She looked up at her sisters. “Isn’t he the cutest little thing?”
“Yes, he’s super cute,” Winter agreed. “But listen, I think Flurry got jealous. Which is crazy, right? I mean, how in a million years could he think I’d ever love him any less?”
If her sisters heard the question, they gave no sign of it. They all bent close to the fox, snuggling him, petting him, and playing with his tiny baby paws.
Suddenly Winter understood how Flurry might have felt ignored and unloved. “HEY!” she shouted.
“What’s that, little guy?” Spring asked the fox. “You said Winter wants to tell us something?”
“I do,” Winter said. “Quick version, before you get distracted again. Flurry ran away. I need your help to find him.”
The fox puppy made some growling noises low in his throat. Spring nodded sympathetically as she listened, then said, “Snowball feels terrible. He thinks it’s his fault.”
“It’s not,” Winter said. “I was the one who hurt Flurry’s feelings. I have to find him and make it up to him. Will you help me?”
“Not even a question,” Summer said. “Of course we will.”
“Absolutely,” Autumn agreed. “And wherever Flurry is, I’m sure he’s fine.”
“Thanks,” Winter said. “Spring, I think Snowball got separated from his family in the blizzard last night. Will you stay and help him find them?”
Snowball growled and whimpered. Spring listened, then turned to Winter. “He says he wants to help find Flurry first.” She held the tiny fluffball out to Winter. “And he wants to be with you.”
Winter took Snowball, who immediately trotted up her sleeve all the way to her shoulder. He pawed at her hood until it came off her head and became a perfect baby-fox-sized basket. Snowball hopped inside.
“Awwwww!” Summer, Autumn, and Spring cooed.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m sure it’s adorable,” Winter said, “but we have a bear to find. Come on.”
Normally, Winter’s sisters would need snow-shoes, but the fort entrance was right in front of them and the snow inside was well packed.
“This place is amazing!” Summer gaped as they walked through the massive lair.
“Thanks,” Winter said. “Flurry and I make a great team. That’s why I want to find him and get him back home where he belongs.”
Winter led her sisters through the fort, all the way to the thick wall of ice.
“I made it to stop an avalanche, but then I couldn’t get past it.” Winter shook her head. “Guess I don’t know my own strength.”
“Let’s see if I know mine,” Summer said. She pulled out her scepter and pointed it at the frozen barrier.
Yellow sparkles streamed out of her scepter in a carefully aimed beam of light. Heat was Summer’s Sparkle Power, and the glow from her scepter melted a large, perfect circle in the wall. Just as she requested in her spell, the edges of the circle remained solid and strong.
“Very nice,” Winter said.
The sisters stepped through the new portal and walked down the hall. They said little. Winter was too worried about Flurry to talk, and the other sisters were mesmerized by the length and complexity of Flurry’s tunnel. It seemed to go on forever. Long passages were straight, then sometimes the path would turn sharply several times in a row. Other times it circled, or doubled back on itself. Always it went downhill, deeper and deeper into the snow.
“He must have been really upse
t,” Winter muttered. “He had no idea where he was going.”
She pulled a candy cane from her pocket and unwrapped it. If Flurry was anywhere close, maybe he’d smell it and come running back. When Snowball mewled for a taste, Winter unwrapped another and handed it over her shoulder to him.
“Hey, look at this!” Summer yelled from up ahead.
“Anthills and avalanches!” Spring winced. “You shouldn’t be so loud!”
“You don’t have to worry up here,” Summer said. “Come look.”
When the other Sparkles caught up with her, they realized she was right. There was no chance of an avalanche, because there was no more snow. There wasn’t even a bear-carved passageway anymore. The passageway had spilled them out into a giant, dirt-packed cavern. Scattered wood beams were strewn everywhere. Some of them leaned against the walls, some crossed over the ceiling as if holding it up. Others were charred or rotted and lay across the ground where they had fallen.
“We’re underground,” Autumn marveled.
It was true. Before they had been simply under snow, but at some point, without even realizing it, Flurry had dug so deep that he’d gone underground, and his tunnel had emptied out into this vast earthen chamber. It seemed impossible, until Winter realized something.
“We’re not in my Sparkledom anymore,” she said. “I can feel it.” She looked at Autumn. “Did we cross over to yours?”
“No,” said Autumn. She and Winter both turned to Spring, but Spring was already shaking her head. “Nothing in my Sparkledom would look like this,” she said. “Not even underground.”
“So if we’re not in my land,” Winter said, “and we haven’t crossed into either of yours, we have to be in …”
“The Barrens,” Summer said.
“We have to turn back,” Spring said. “Right now.”
“You can’t be serious,” Winter replied.
“I can’t?” Spring asked. She thought about it a minute, then decided, “Yes! I can be serious! We have to turn back! Now!”
Winter understood Spring’s fear. The Barrens was no place for Sparkles. It was the home of Bluster Tempest and his Weeds. Their wide land circled the sisters’ Sparkledoms. Nothing green grew in the Barrens. All the trees were old, dead, and thorny. Lightning, tornadoes, and earthquakes pummeled the land constantly. The storms popped up out of nowhere, igniting fires, throwing trees around like toys, and ripping open the earth.
Normally, Winter would have no desire to go to the Barrens, but this was not a normal occasion. “We can’t turn back. Flurry came this way. Look.”
She pointed to the ground, where large circular paw prints led across the cavern. They disappeared where Flurry had climbed over or smashed through the wooden beams, then kept going until they turned a distant corner.
“We have to follow him,” Winter said.
“Follow him?” Spring whined. “But that would take us farther into the Barrens!”
“Maybe we should think it over first,” Autumn offered.
“Think what over?” Winter snapped. “Flurry’s never been in the Barrens. He could get lost. He could get hurt. He could run into Bluster Tempest or one of the Weeds! You really want to think about what would happen then?”
“I don’t,” Summer said. “Let’s go get him.”
“Wait,” Autumn said. “I have a better idea. Let’s call Mother.”
“Yes!” Spring said eagerly. “She’ll know what to do.”
“I know what to do,” Winter said. “Besides, the call won’t work. We’re underground. There’s no path to the sky.”
Spring looked dejected. She knew Winter was right.
“Spring, you don’t have to come if you don’t want to,” Summer said gently. “Neither do you, Autumn. It’s okay.”
Autumn shook her head. “I can’t let the two of you go into the Barrens alone. I’ll come too.”
Summer and Winter smiled gratefully at Autumn. Then all three sisters turned to Spring. The youngest Sparkle scrunched her lips together and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, they were determined. “The only thing worse than going with the three of you into the most horrible place in the world is being away from you,” she said. “I’m coming too.”
Winter gave Spring a huge hug. Snowball even popped his head out of Winter’s hood to lick Spring on the nose. Afterward, Winter pointed down to Flurry’s trail. “We follow the paw prints. Flurry, here we come!”
She led her sisters through the cavern, which turned out to be far larger than just a single room. It was more like a mine that seemed to stretch on forever. The Sparkles followed the paw prints, but it wasn’t easy. A few times their path was blocked by tall jumbles of fallen wooden beams. Summer barely noticed. She took running starts and easily leaped even the highest piles. Winter made it over them the same way she imagined Flurry had. She clambered hand over foot, trusting her snow gear to protect her from sharp edges. Spring and Autumn took their time picking their way across the obstacles, moving slowly so they didn’t get splinters.
Winter would never admit it to her sisters, but she was getting a little tired. They had already walked a long way. Yet the minute she thought this, her heart started pounding with excitement. If she was tired walking this far, Flurry must have been exhausted. The walk was hard work, and he hated hard work. He’d much rather nap.
There was a corner up ahead, and Winter ran to reach it. Now that the image of Flurry napping was in her head, she couldn’t get it out. She was positive that all she had to do was turn the corner and she’d find her bear curled against a wall, fast asleep.
Winter ran faster. She pictured herself wrapping her arms around Flurry, telling him how much she loved him and how sorry she was. She leaped around the corner, so excited to see Flurry that she didn’t look where she was going. She ran as fast as she could, scanning the walls for a sign of her sleeping bear until—
“Winter, look out!” Summer shouted.
Winter stopped cold. She was inches away from a large, low wooden platform. In the middle of the platform sat a big hinge, plus a thick metal bar with angry-looking serrated edges.
“It’s a giant mousetrap,” Autumn said as she and Spring caught up to their sisters. “Mother said something about them once. Outworlders use them.”
“To catch giant mice?” Spring asked. “That’s so fun! Do they tame the giant mice and ride them all over the Outworld?”
Autumn didn’t answer. She didn’t want to upset Spring.
Cautiously, the sisters moved closer to the mousetrap. Winter noticed crumbs on it, the remnants of a snack. When something took the snack, that triggered the toothy metal bar, which snapped back onto the snack thief.
“Ooh, look at the fluff!” Spring said, pointing at the bar. Caught under it was a large puff of white fur. “It looks just like Flurry’s!”
Her delighted smile faded as she realized what that meant. “Autumn,” she asked worriedly, “the Outlanders don’t use mousetraps to tame the giant mice, do they?”
“No,” Autumn answered, “and the Weeds don’t use them to tame bears. We’re lucky it only got his fur.”
“This place is way too dangerous for Flurry,” Winter added. “We have to keep going and find him.”
“We will,” Summer said. “But stick together and keep an eye out for traps. If there’s one, there’s going to be more.”
Summer was right. As the sisters followed the paw prints, turning and branching into tunnel after tunnel, room after room, they saw several more traps. Yet just like the giant mousetrap, it seemed that Flurry had set them all off when he passed. In one corridor, for example, the sisters had to crawl under a giant wooden spike that stretched all the way across the room.
“Look,” Summer said. She pointed to a network of cracks around the pointy end of the spike. “It shot out of that wall and slammed into this one.”
“I bet this was the trigger,” Winter said. She nodded to the floor beneath the spike. The letter W was scratched into th
e ground, marred by a large Flurry-print. “Flurry set it off when he stepped on the W.”
“W for Weeds,” Spring murmured. “Flytraps and frights, I’m glad Flurry ducked.”
“And he taught us something,” Summer noted.
“That bears can duck, but ducks can’t bear?” Spring asked. “Oh wait, they can bear. They can bear water and bread crumbs and—”
“No,” Summer interrupted. “He taught us we can’t touch anything with a W on it.”
The other Sparkles agreed, and as they kept following Flurry’s path, they carefully avoided the scattered Ws scratched into the floor. Each time they saw one, they glanced around and easily found the trap. A sack of bricks hung over one trigger, the outline of a trapdoor surrounded another.
“This one’s strange,” Summer said as she noticed yet another W on the ground up ahead. “I don’t see any trap at all.”
“Maybe Flurry already set it off,” Autumn offered.
“Even if he did, we’d still see it,” Winter said.
“I don’t like hidden traps.” Spring shuddered.
“Don’t worry about it,” Winter said. “If we avoid the trigger, we’re fine.”
But Spring did worry about it. She lagged behind her sisters, moving slowly and looking everywhere except at her feet. She’d feel much better if she could at least see the trap she was avoiding. Her eyes scanned the ceiling, the wall on the left, the wall on the right …
CRUNCH.
Spring froze. Now she looked down at her feet.
One purple sandal stood firmly on the letter W.
“Oh, no!” she yelped.
Winter, Summer, and Autumn turned to see Spring frozen in place, her eyes wide and scared, her foot on the trigger of something terrible. In a flash, Summer ran toward Spring, planted the bottom of her scepter on the ground, and hurled herself into the air. She smacked into Spring and knocked them both to the floor, several feet away from the W.
“Aw, Summer, I love you too!” Spring cooed. “But sometimes your hugs hurt!”
“I wasn’t hugging you,” she said. “I was getting you away from the trap.”
