by Kiki Thorpe
For a while, they trudged in silence. Though their loads were light, the air between them felt heavy. Kate couldn’t help but notice the sour mood.
Why had she grabbed the fairy dust like that? Kate didn’t know. Something had just come over her. She hadn’t stopped to think about it until it was done.
There’s no use crying over spilled fairy dust, Kate told herself. Someone had to take charge. We weren’t getting anywhere by just talking.
Still, their search wasn’t fun with everyone moping. She wished she could do something to lighten the mood.
Kate stopped and turned to the group. “Hey, why don’t we take a break and have something to eat?”
“Great idea, Kate,” Mia said. “But you’re forgetting one thing—we don’t have any food.”
“Oh no?” Kate reached inside her backpack. She pulled out a banana.
Seven mouths fell open in surprise. “Where did you get that?” Lainey asked.
“The lunch boxes!” Kate said with a grin.
“You got that out of somebody’s old lunch box? Ew!” Mia wrinkled her nose.
“Not old,” Kate said. “Some of them must have been lost pretty recently. The food was still fresh.”
Gabby spread her baby blanket on the ground, and the group happily sat down for a picnic.
Mia and Lainey split a peanut butter sandwich, while the fairies helped themselves to a small box of raisins. Gabby shared bites of her banana with BowBow the stuffed dog.
“Couldn’t you find any cookies, Kate?” Gabby asked through a mouthful. “Or a chocolate bar?”
Kate shook her head. “Not a single one.”
“No dessert? That’s weird,” said Lainey.
“No, it isn’t,” Mia said. “Think about it. What’s the first thing you eat from your lunch box?”
“Dessert!” the other girls chorused.
Listening to their laughter, Kate smiled. How smart she’d been to look in the lunch boxes! No one else had thought of that.
As they ate, Silvermist told them about her encounter with the troll. “He was a funny fellow. He couldn’t even tell me his name. He said he’d lost it.”
“Sounds to me like he lost his marbles,” said Kate.
“He swore he’d seen Tink’s boat,” Silvermist went on. “He took me to the exact spot, but it wasn’t there. When I asked where it could have gone, he said, ‘It hasn’t gone anywhere. It’s been found.’ ”
“What does that mean?” Rosetta asked.
“I’m not sure,” Silvermist admitted.
“Maybe Tink landed there, then decided she didn’t want to stay and sailed on,” Lainey said.
Mia narrowed her eyes. “Or maybe we were the ones who found it.”
Everyone looked at her. “What are you talking about?” asked Kate.
Mia gestured to their toys. “Everything in this place is something that’s been lost and forgotten about. The boat Tink was sailing was forgotten, too—but only until we found it.”
“We found it in our basement,” Gabby reminded her.
“Exactly,” said Mia. “Once we found it, it wasn’t lost anymore. And once it wasn’t lost, it wasn’t here.”
“Mia, nothing you say makes sense,” Kate told her. “How could the boat have been here if it was in your basement the whole time?”
“Do we know it was always there?” Mia asked. “How do you know something is there if you can’t see it? Maybe the boat was here until we were ready to find it.”
Lainey rubbed her temples. “Just thinking about that makes my brain hurt.”
“Whether or not Tink was ever on the beach, what we know for sure is that she’s not here now,” Iridessa said. “We’ve searched this whole beach, and there’s no sign of her.”
“Except one.” Silvermist hesitated, as if she wasn’t sure she should tell them. “I thought I saw Tink. But she ran away from me.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “And the strangest thing was, she didn’t have a glow.”
The group fell silent. What could it mean?
As they’d been talking, the fog had turned from white to gray. The daylight was fading. Iridessa fluttered up from the blanket, brightening her glow. “We need to get off this beach. It’s going to be dark soon. We can spend the night in the forest. The trees will shelter us.”
They quickly collected their things. The fairies led the way. The fog had grown even thicker, but the fairies’ light made them easy to follow.
They hadn’t been walking for long when Kate realized that Gabby was no longer beside her.
“Gabby?” Kate stopped and turned. She went back a few paces and found Gabby. She was searching for something on the ground.
“I dropped BowBow!” Gabby cried.
“Don’t worry. I’ll help you find him.” Kate cast an anxious glance toward the bobbing lights. She didn’t want to fall too far behind. “Wait for us!” she called.
Kate kicked her feet through the sand. The fog made it difficult to see the ground, but she finally glimpsed a bit of dingy fur. “There he is!” Kate plucked BowBow out of the sand and handed him to Gabby.
Gabby hugged the dog tightly.
“Come on,” Kate said. “Let’s hurry and catch up.”
But when she looked back the way she’d come, she could no longer see the fairies’ glow.
Kate spun around. In the opposite direction, she spied a glimmer in the growing darkness.
“I must have gotten mixed up. This way!” she told Gabby.
The two girls hurried toward the spots of light. There’s something odd about the way they’re moving, Kate thought. They looked as if they were dancing. Why would the fairies be dancing?
The sand grew wet beneath their feet. The sound of the surf was louder. Kate could tell they were close to the water’s edge. But still the lights danced on.
“Silvermist?” Kate called. “Iridessa? Wait for us!”
She heard murmuring. The words were unclear, but they had the silvery tones of fairy voices.
“Why aren’t they stopping?” Gabby asked.
“They must not hear us,” Kate said. “Come on.”
They had come to a pile of boulders that formed a natural jetty. The lights hovered just beyond it.
“Rosetta?” Kate called. “Fawn? Mia? Where are you going? Can you hear me?”
In reply, she heard more fairy jingles. What were they saying? Why didn’t the fairies come back for them?
Kate and Gabby began to climb toward the lights. The rocks were wet and slimy with seaweed. Twice Kate’s foot slid.
“Take my hand,” she told Gabby.
Together they inched across the slippery rocks. A wave crashed against the boulders, soaking their sneakers. Another drenched their legs in spray.
Then Kate heard a voice as clear as a bell. “Kate! Gabby! Stop!”
The girls froze. A second later, a wave crashed across the rock in front of them. If they’d been there, the water would have swept them away.
They heard the beat of tiny wings, and a fairy appeared. In the mist, her glow looked like a halo.
“Silvermist!” cried Kate. “But I thought…” She looked back at the waver-ing lights and felt a shiver of fear.
“They’re sea wraiths,” Silvermist said. “Nothing good comes of following them.”
“But they sound exactly like fairies!” Gabby said.
“They can mimic sound,” Silvermist replied. “They probably heard us on the beach. They imitated our voices.”
“Will they hurt us?” Kate was suddenly aware of how far they were from shore.
“Not now,” Silvermist said. “But many people have gotten lost at sea chasing after them. It’s a good thing we came looking for you when we did.”
With Silvermist guiding them, Kate and Gabby slowly made their way
back over the rocks. They found Mia and Lainey plus the other fairies waiting on the beach. They all looked worried.
“We’d better stop for the night,” Iridessa said. “It’s too risky to keep going in the dark. We’ll try again in the morning.”
Kate didn’t like the idea of sleeping there, with the sea wraiths so near. But she was too tired to argue.
The girls bedded down, using stuffed animals as pillows. The fairies dug little holes in the sand. They folded their wings over themselves like blankets.
Kate’s body felt exhausted. But even cuddling Ellie didn’t help her fall asleep. Something was bothering her.
“Mia?” she whispered.
“Mmm?” came her friend’s sleepy voice.
“That thing you were saying before, about Tink’s boat. You said only lost things end up on the Lost Coast, right?”
“That’s right,” Mia said.
“I just realized something,” Kate said. “Tinker Bell isn’t here. But we are.”
That night, Kate tossed and turned in her sleep, dreaming of dancing lights. In the morning, she awoke to a new world. She sat up with a gasp, blinking.
The fog had finally lifted. Sand stretched far in either direction, ending at tall cliffs. Sunlight sparkled on the waves of the greenish sea.
As the sun warmed her skin, the day before seemed like a bad dream. Today will be better, Kate told herself. Today they would discover something new. Maybe they would find Tink and return to Never Land. Their journey would become the adventure it was supposed to be.
“Oh geez,” said Mia.
Kate glanced over. Mia was awake, but she wasn’t taking in the view. She was watching Gabby.
The little girl lay asleep on her blanket. One arm was wrapped around BowBow. The thumb of the other hand was in her mouth.
“She looks sweet,” said Kate.
“It’s not that,” said Mia. “She’s sucking her thumb. She hasn’t done that since she was four.”
“She’s probably just tired,” Kate said.
“I guess.” Mia frowned. “It’s just that she worked so hard to stop.” As if she couldn’t stand to watch any longer, she gave Gabby a little shake. “Gabby, time to wake up.”
“Mami? Oh.” Gabby sat up, blinking as she remembered where she was. “Did we find Tink?”
Kate laughed. “Not yet, Gabby. But today may be our lucky day!”
They woke up Lainey and the fairies, who took in their surroundings one by one.
“That’s strange,” Fawn said, gazing at the tall cliffs. “Where’s the forest?”
“What do you mean?” Mia asked.
“We came here through a forest,” Fawn said. “But there’s no forest now. The only way out of here is over those cliffs.”
Kate saw what she meant. The cliffs hemmed them in like the walls of a fortress. Kate had the strange impression they’d sprung up overnight.
But of course, that wasn’t possible. “We must have come around a point or something,” Kate said. “Maybe we passed them in the fog without realizing it. The question is, where to next?”
“I think we should retrace our path,” Rosetta said. “We can talk to the sprites who live in the forest again. They know the island better than we do. Maybe they’ll have another idea where to look for Tink.”
Bor-ing! Kate thought. She didn’t want another day of plodding through the forest. “Any other ideas?”
Gabby had moved to the edge of the water. She pointed toward the horizon. “What’s that?”
In the distance, towers and spires rose above the water.
Mia gasped. “A castle!”
“A huge castle,” added Lainey.
“A magic castle,” whispered Gabby.
They all gazed at the strange building. It seemed to shimmer in the morning light.
“Who lives there?” Gabby wondered.
“There’s only one way to find out!” Kate said.
Iridessa looked surprised. “You don’t think we should go there?”
“I do!” said Kate. “Maybe whoever lives there can help us.” It’s a magic castle! she added to herself. How could they not go?
“What if they aren’t friendly?” Rosetta asked.
“We’ll fly in from above,” Kate said. “If it looks dangerous, we’ll retreat.” This adventure was looking better by the minute.
“But what about the sea wraiths?” asked Fawn.
“We know to watch out for them now,” Kate said.
“It looks far,” Iridessa argued. “It would take a lot of fairy dust to fly there.”
“I agree with Iridessa,” said Fawn. “We’d be better off sticking to the shore.”
Kate gritted her teeth in frustration. Why were the fairies being so difficult? She could feel her chance at adventure slipping away. One look at the other girls told her they felt the same.
“Let’s vote on it,” Kate said. “Who thinks we should go to the castle? Raise your hand.”
The four girls’ hands shot up.
“And who thinks we shouldn’t go?” Kate asked.
Iridessa, Rosetta, and Fawn raised their hands. Silvermist raised her hand. Then she lowered it. Then she raised it halfway.
Iridessa rolled her eyes. “Silvermist, make up your mind.”
“Okay.” Silvermist raised her hand.
“It’s a tie.” Mia sighed. “So now what do we do?”
“I know how to settle this.” Kate dug a coin from her pocket. “Heads, we go to the castle. Tails, we stay on the shore. Fair enough?”
The girls and fairies glanced at each other. One by one they nodded.
Kate flipped the coin. They watched it rise in the air, spinning end over end.
When the coin fell, Kate caught it.
Everyone leaned in. Slowly, Kate opened her hand.
“Heads!” she declared. “We go to the castle.”
“I still think we’d be better off in the forest,” Rosetta grumbled.
“Time for fairy dust!” Cheerfully, Kate pulled the bag from her pocket.
She paused before opening it. There was much less dust than she’d thought. Kate remembered that was her fault.
“Is everything okay?” Mia asked.
“Oh. Sure,” Kate said. She took a tiny pinch between her fingers, letting extra grains of dust fall back into the bag. “Here, Mia. You’re first.” She sprinkled the bit of dust over Mia’s head and shoulders, then doled out equally small pinches to the rest of the group.
“Save some for the trip back,” Iridessa warned.
“Mm-hmm.” Kate cinched the bag closed and returned it to her pocket. There wasn’t much fairy dust left. But surely they could make it last.
Kate put the problem out of her mind and focused on the trip ahead. The fairy-dust magic was already working. Her feet started to rise off the ground.
She picked up her backpack. It was heavier than the day before.
The fairy dust must have worn off, she thought. Oh well. It’s nothing I can’t handle.
As Kate swung the backpack onto her shoulder, she realized she was still holding the coin. It was an old tarnished piece of silver. The features of the face on the engraved head were worn away.
Kate turned it over. The profile of a woman decorated the other side.
The coin had two heads! It hadn’t been a fair coin toss after all.
“Hey, guys…?” Kate began. But the fairies had already lifted off. They were too far away to hear her.
Oh well, Kate thought. We made a decision. That was the point, wasn’t it?
Pocketing the coin, she rose into the air and flew after them.
High over the water, Kate took a deep breath of salty sea air. This was where she was happiest, up soaring on the wind. Not plodding along the ground like some old donk
ey.
The sun beat down on her head. But the breeze off the water was cool. For a while, Kate led the way. A tailwind helped her along. At this rate, we’ll be there in no time, she thought.
An ache started between Kate’s shoulder blades. At first it was just an annoying pinch. But as the heavy backpack dragged on her, the pinch soon turned into a cramp. Then the cramp turned into a burn.
How much farther? Kate scanned the horizon. Far off, the castle wavered in the air. It didn’t look any closer than when they’d started.
Kate was sweating now. The sun glared in her eyes. She began to fly slower. If they didn’t find a place to rest soon, she was going to be in trouble.
Just then, she spotted a small island below in the water. Kate beelined toward it. The other girls landed, too, tossing down their things with groans of relief. The fairies fluttered down to join them.
“Flying seems harder than usual today,” Lainey remarked.
“I feel extra heavy,” Mia agreed.
Kate said nothing, and instead looked around the small island. It wasn’t much more than a large, dome-shaped rock. Wind and sea had carved an odd hexagonal pattern into its surface. Other than that, there was nothing to be seen. Not a house or a tree, not even a bush.
“How much farther?” Gabby asked. “I don’t think I can fly much more.”
Mia squinted at the faraway castle. “It doesn’t look any closer than when we started. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear it was moving away from us.”
Iridessa jumped up as if she’d been stung. “Wait—what did you say?”
“I said it seems as if it’s moving away from us,” Mia repeated, confused.
Iridessa clasped her tiny hands to her cheeks. “Oh no! Why didn’t I think of it before?”
“Think of what?” asked Lainey.
The light-talent fairy didn’t reply. She zipped high into the air over their heads and hovered there. Then she swooped down toward the sea. She flew a slow circle, skimming the surface of the water.
