by RH Disney
Kate stared at the bright pink flowers. How many times had she seen Mr. Johnson watering them with the garden hose? Or Mrs. Johnson snipping blossoms to put in a vase? It seemed as much a part of the couple as their smiles.
Suddenly, Kate felt furious. She didn’t like the idea of strangers living in the Johnsons’ house. It didn’t seem right that people who didn’t even know the Johnsons should get to enjoy those flowers.
Setting down the paper, Kate marched across the street. She stopped in front of the azalea bush. It was in full bloom, each flower a brilliant burst of color next to the empty house.
Kate picked up a stick and began to whack at the flowers, sending the petals flying. She kept at it until she was breathing hard. When she was done, the ground looked like it was covered with pink confetti.
Looking at the ruined bush, Kate felt a strange satisfaction. Serves them right for making the Johnsons move, she thought.
As she crossed the street, she tossed the stick away. Then she picked up the newspaper and went back into her house.
That same morning, in Pixie Hollow, Silvermist was ready for a break from the kitchen. She’d been up since dawn watching Necia light fires and squabble with the cooking fairies. As the cleaning fairies cleared up from the morning meal, she slipped into the tearoom.
The room was almost empty. Soft light filtered through the tall sea-grass curtains. Silvermist poured herself a cup of blackberry tea and sighed. It was nice to be somewhere calm after the heat and clamor of the kitchen.
Across the room, she saw Tinker Bell, Rosetta, and a caterpillar shearer named Nettle lingering over their own cups of tea. She fluttered over to join them.
“He thought we’d unchain him,” Tink was saying, shaking her head. “As if we’d be fooled so easily.”
“You can’t trust anything Kyto says,” Rosetta agreed.
Somehow word had gotten out about Spring and Myka’s visit to Kyto. It had been the talk of Pixie Hollow ever since they returned.
Nettle dunked a poppy puff into her tea. “Well,” she said between bites, “what if it was true? What if there was another dragon?”
“What a horrible thought!” Rosetta said.
“Don’t be silly, Nettle,” Tink replied. “The scouts would have spotted it by—”
CRASH!
The sounds of pots and pans clattering to the floor echoed through the tearoom. A moment later, the door to the kitchen swung open. Necia, soaking wet from head to toe, stomped across the room, leaving a trail of watery footprints behind her.
Silvermist and the other fairies stared. Necia glared back at them. Then she lifted her chin and marched through the door that led outside.
“She’s got quite a fiery temper, doesn’t she?” Nettle remarked when she was gone. “Guess Dulcie must have tried to cool her off with a pot of water.”
“I heard she burned Dulcie’s chestnut roasts to a crisp,” Rosetta said.
“I heard she torched a whole batch of tea cakes,” Tink added. “Is it true, Silvermist?”
Silvermist nodded unhappily. Necia’s time in the kitchen had been one cooking disaster after another. “I can’t imagine why Queen Clarion thought she’d be any help.” She finished the last of her tea and stood up with a sigh. “I guess this means my break is over,” she said, starting for the door.
“Good luck,” Tink called after her.
Silvermist walked slowly to the door, dragging her feet a little. She wished she could have at least a few more moments of quiet before chasing after Necia.
In the bright sunlight, she shaded her eyes and looked for the fire fairy. But Necia wasn’t in the courtyard.
Silvermist circled the Home Tree, but there was no sign of her. Could she have gone to her room? Silvermist wondered. But why hadn’t she passed her on the way in?
Silvermist went once around the Home Tree again. Then she flew in wider and wider circles, looking everywhere.
The fire fairy was gone.
Later that day, in Never Land, Kate waved good-bye to her friends and set off alone into the forest. Lainey had plans to help the butterfly herders that day, and Mia and Gabby were collecting strawberries with the harvest fairies. But Kate was determined to get another look at those animal tracks. If Kyto didn’t make them, she wondered, what did?
She followed a deer trail in the direction she remembered. When the trail ended, she pushed on, making her way slowly through the tangles of trees and vines.
Before long, she came across the charred remains of a tree. The bushes around it had burned as well. But was it the same place they’d been before? The burned area looked bigger than Kate remembered. And there hadn’t been a tree before, had there? Could there have been another small forest fire?
Kate walked toward where she remembered seeing the tracks, scanning the ground carefully. At the edge of the burned area, she found an indentation in the soft dirt. It might have been a print of some sort. But it was hard to say for sure.
She stepped backward, searching for more.
CRUNCH!
Kate looked down and saw that she’d stepped on something brittle and dry. As she bent to get a better look, she felt a sharp sting.
Ouch! She slapped at her forearm. A little red welt was forming on her arm. She heard buzzing.
That was a bee’s nest! Kate realized, just as a cloud of bees rose around her.
Run! Kate took off at a sprint. She frantically smacked at her arms and face, but she felt another sting, and another. Kate vaulted over a log. She splashed across a brook. She trampled through leaves and swatted away tree branches. But no matter how fast she ran, she couldn’t outrun the swarm.
Kate pumped her legs, running faster and faster…until suddenly she was running through a fog of thick white smoke.
Kate coughed and slowed. She spun around, expecting to see the forest in flames.
Instead, she saw Necia! The fire fairy was hovering above a nearby palm tree. One of the fronds was smoldering. Necia fanned her wings, sending plumes of white smoke wafting toward the bees.
As the smoke hit them, the bees slowed and seemed to grow confused. The swarm began to quiet down.
Kate looked on in awe. “You’re a bee charmer!” she gasped when she finally managed to catch her breath.
“Not really.” Necia fanned her wings a few more times. “It’s the smoke. I’m not sure why, but it calms bees down.”
The bees flew in sleepy circles, ignoring Kate and the fairy. When it seemed safe, Necia left the palm branch and flew over to Kate. “Are you all right?”
“I think so.” Kate’s arm was throbbing. She shakily counted up the bee stings. Aside from the one on her arm, she had two on her right hand, and one more on the back of her neck. But Kate knew it could have been much, much worse.
“You saved me!” Kate had an urge to reach out and hug the fairy.
Necia’s glow brightened. “I’m glad I could,” she said.
“But…what are you doing out here all by yourself?” Kate asked.
At once, Necia’s face closed off. “Nothing. I just want to be alone.”
“It’s all right,” Kate said, sensing a secret. “I won’t tell.”
Necia hesitated. She looked around as if to make sure that she and Kate were truly alone. “Promise?”
Kate nodded.
“I’m practicing,” Necia whispered.
“Practicing what?” Kate asked.
“Watch.” Necia snapped her fingers, and once again a spark appeared. With her breath and hands, she coaxed the spark into flame.
Kate looked on in awe. The fire sat right in Necia’s cupped hands, but the fairy didn’t seem to feel any pain. She raised one hand, as if pulling a needle through cloth. The flames followed.
As Necia pushed and pulled, the flames took shape. A head appeared, then a beak, then a pair of wings. She flung her hands upward, and the fire-hawk flew into the air. It hung there for a moment, blazing against the blue sky.
Necia called up anoth
er flame and formed it in the shape of a rabbit. With a wave of her hand, the fire-rabbit went hopping through the trees. The fire-hawk soared after it, then swooped. The moment they touched, both vanished.
“Wow!” Kate whispered. “Can you make anything out of fire?”
In answer, Necia snapped her fingers again. In moments, a fire-fairy was hovering in the air. The flames of her wings flickered as if they were fluttering. The curl of fire then made her head bob. She looked like she was nodding.
Kate clapped her hands with delight. “Have you shown the other fairies?”
“No.”
“Why not? It’s amazing!”
Necia waved her hands, and the fairy dissolved into the air. “Queen Clarion says I’m not supposed to be making fires without supervision.” She made a face. “I sneak into the forest whenever I can to practice. Queen Clarion would be upset if she knew I was here. She wants me to spend all day lighting cooking fires.”
“But you can do so much more than that!” Kate said.
“The other fairies don’t think so. And you can’t tell them! They don’t understand my talent.” Necia paused and looked down. “I think they’re all afraid of me.”
Kate remembered the horrified looks on the other fairies’ faces the day of Necia’s arrival. She didn’t know what to say. After all, she hadn’t understood how amazing Necia’s fire talent could be, either.
“Sometimes I think my laugh must have gotten lost,” Necia went on. Her voice was so quiet Kate had to strain to hear her. “Maybe I was supposed to arrive somewhere else, someplace where there are other fairies like me. It’s hard not having any friends.”
Kate was stunned. Necia seemed so strong and confident and powerful. It had never occurred to Kate how lonely she might be.
“I’ll be your friend,” Kate said.
Necia looked up. “Because I saved you from the bees?”
“Because you saved me from the bees. And also because you’re nice and fun and your talent is the coolest of all the fairy talents.”
“Do you really think so?”
“Of course! And Mia and Lainey and Gabby will be your friends, too. I know they’ll like you.”
Necia’s glow had gradually grown brighter. Now she shone like a hot coal. “In that case, friend, should we go back to Pixie Hollow? I’d love to meet them all. Maybe we can have the midday meal together. It would be nice to have friends to eat with for once.”
The change in Necia was remarkable. Her sullen expression was gone. She seemed to be bubbling over with excitement. She just needed someone to be friendly to her, Kate thought. “Actually, I’m hungry, too,” she told the fairy. “Let’s go.”
Kate and Necia headed back in the direction of Pixie Hollow, around the thickets and streams, chatting and laughing the whole way. But when they reached the edge of the woods, Necia stopped and turned to her.
“Please don’t tell anyone what I showed you. And don’t tell them I was practicing my talent in the woods,” she said. “I’ve had enough trouble as it is.”
Kate tapped her shoulder, indicating for Necia to catch a ride. “Your secret is safe with me.”
Silvermist hovered in the orchard. She looked around at the burned grass and the scorched tree trunks and shook her head. Another fire had broken out in the forest, and this one had spread all the way to the fairies’ orchard.
Luckily, the water fairies had been able to get the flames under control before they got out of hand. They had only lost two peach trees and a large patch of marigolds. But Silvermist was furious. She was sure the fire was Necia’s fault.
That fiery temper! Had she set the blaze on purpose? Silvermist wondered. Just like she’d burned Dulcie’s chestnut roasts?
And I was supposed to be keeping an eye on her! Silvermist put her head in her hands. She knew Necia had deliberately given her the slip. And now Silvermist would have to take the blame for letting the new fairy out of her sight.
“You look tired,” Rani said, putting a hand on Silvermist’s shoulder. “The other water fairies and I can finish here. Why don’t you go get some rest?”
Silvermist was exhausted. “Are you sure?”
Rani nodded. “You’ve had a rough few days, with all the firefighting and the fairy-sitting. You should take a break.”
Silvermist thanked Rani and started for her room in the Home Tree. But as she flew, she couldn’t calm down. Her mind kept going back to that morning, when she had lingered in the tearoom.
If only I had followed Necia instead of sitting with the other fairies, maybe I could have prevented another fire, she chastised herself. Queen Clarion would no doubt be livid.
The realization stopped Silvermist in midair. I should go back. If the queen found out she’d gone off for a nap and left the work to the other water fairies, what would she think? At the same time, Silvermist was in no rush to get back to the fire.
As Silvermist hovered there, she saw Kate emerging from the woods. And who was riding atop her shoulder but Necia! Kate and the fire fairy were laughing over some shared joke. In fact, Silvermist noted angrily, it looked like they were having a grand time.
The nerve! Silvermist fumed. How could Necia be laughing and having fun when so many fairies were cleaning up after another one of her fires?
Silvermist started toward them, getting madder by the second. She stopped right in front of Kate’s nose, exclaiming, “Necia! Where have you been?”
Kate drew up short, and Necia nearly tumbled off her shoulder. “What do you mean?” Necia asked when she’d caught her balance.
Silvermist folded her arms. Her foot tapped furiously in the air. “How could you start another fire and fly away without telling anyone? All of Never Land could have burned!”
Necia stole a quick glance at Kate. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said.
“The fire in the orchard, Necia. Just now. If some water fairies hadn’t been close by—”
Necia fluttered forward. “The orchard? Silvermist, I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about.”
As the argument continued, more and more fairies came out from the Home Tree and the surrounding bushes to gawk.
Silvermist put her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes. “So you’re claiming you didn’t start that fire?”
“Yes,” Necia snapped through clenched teeth. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. Are you calling me a liar?”
“Enough! Everyone calm down.”
Silvermist dropped her hands from her hips as Queen Clarion flew through the crowd. She couldn’t remember the last time Pixie Hollow had been so quiet. Even the birds had stopped chirping, and the breeze had gone still.
“Now,” the queen said, taking a deep breath, “someone explain to me what is going on.”
“Necia started another fire in the orchard, and she pretends to know nothing about it!” Silvermist exclaimed.
“I did not!” Necia cried.
The queen held up her hand to silence them. “Silvermist, did you see this happen?”
“No,” Silvermist admitted.
The queen raised her eyebrows. “But you were with Necia, weren’t you?”
“I don’t need anyone to watch me,” Necia interjected.
The queen held up her hand again. Instantly, Necia closed her mouth.
“Silvermist?”
“I was with Necia in the kitchen, Queen Clarion,” Silvermist said, wishing she could disappear into the ground. “But then she left, and when I went looking for her, I couldn’t find her. I’d fly backward.”
The queen sighed. “All right. Necia, can you tell me what you’ve been doing since then?”
Silvermist watched as Necia fiddled with her dress. “Nothing.”
“Nothing?” the queen said. “Where were you doing nothing?”
Necia was silent.
“Necia, if you can’t tell me where you’ve been or what you’ve been doing, I’ll assume that you’re not being truthful.”
; The queen waited for a response, but Necia only looked away.
Queen Clarion sighed and shook her head. “Then you’ve given me no choice. You are hereby forbidden from making fires ever again.”
The crowd erupted in gasps. A fairy’s talent was her greatest joy! This was serious punishment indeed.
“Excuse me, Queen Clarion?”
To Silvermist’s surprise, Kate was stepping forward. “I…I really don’t think this fire was Necia’s fault,” Kate said.
Another round of murmurs broke out. Why was Kate getting involved? Silvermist wondered.
“Why is that, Kate?” the queen asked.
Kate glanced at Necia. The fire fairy frowned and gave a slight shake of her head. “Um…it’s just…,” Kate stammered. “I…don’t think she did it.”
“I appreciate your opinion,” the queen replied. “But if Necia can’t tell me where she’s been, or how the fire in the orchard started, I have no choice but to suspend her talent. I’ve made up my mind.”
A gasp burst from Necia, and she darted away toward the Home Tree. The crowd began to break up.
Silvermist watched, feeling confused. She should have been pleased. Necia had broken the rules and gotten what she deserved. But instead she felt even more troubled.
There had been tears in Necia’s eyes. It surprised Silvermist that the fire fairy who hated water so much was crying.
Kate looked up at the sky, which was turning gold, orange, purple, and blue. The sun was setting behind Torth Mountain. She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. It was almost always warm in Never Land, but the air had grown chilly. A gust of wind whipped through the tall grasses and shook the trees. She headed toward the hollow tree that held the portal back to their world, feeling terrible.
