Zara the Starlight Fairy

by Daisy Meadows

  A Star is Born!

  Zara Zooms In

  Scattered Star Dust

  Glow-in-the-Dark Goblins!

  Scary Shadows

  Starry Party

  “This telescope is huge, Kirsty!” Rachel Walker said to her best friend, Kirsty Tate. “I cant 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 square, 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 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.

  Kirsty smiled. When she and Rachel had arrived at Camp Stargaze, Ava the Sunset Fairy had rushed from Fairyland to ask for their help. The girls had learned that Ava and the six other Night Fairies made sure the hours between dusk and dawn were peaceful and happy. Their job was easier with the help of their satin bags of magic fairy dust.

  But while the Night Fairies were enjoying a party under the stars with their fairy friends, Jack Frost had broken into the Fairyland Palace with his goblins. The goblins had stolen the magic bags that were hidden under the Night Fairies’ pillows. Then, with a wave of his ice wand, Jack Frost had sent the goblins and the bags spinning away from Fairyland—all the way to the human world. Jack Frost’s plan was to cause nighttime trouble for both fairies and humans, but Rachel, Kirsty, and the Night Fairies were determined not to let that happen.

  “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 also be able to see it, if you look hard enough.” Rachel and Kirsty gazed intently up at the sky.

  “Oh, there it is!” Kirsty exclaimed, pointing out the toothbrush of stars to Rachel. “And it even has bristles!”

  “Lucas, it’s your turn,” Professor Hetty said.

  Lucas, another one of Rachel and Kirsty’s friends, took Alex’s place at the telescope. He studied the sky for a few minutes and then turned to Professor Hetty.

  “That constellation near the toothbrush looks like a pair of pajamas,” he said with a grin.

  “Right again!” Professor Hetty smiled. “Did you see the slipper constellation, too, just below the pajamas, Lucas?”

  Lucas looked again. “Yes, I can see it now,” he said. “It really is like connect-the-dots!”

  After Lucas had finished, it was Rachel’s turn.

  “I’ll change the angle of the telescope a little, Rachel,” Professor Hetty told her. “Then you should be able to see something different.”

  Rachel looked through the glass eyepiece. At first, she was surprised. The stars looked so close and were so bright! Then, as her eyesight adjusted, she saw the constellation shaped like a slipper that Professor Hetty had mentioned earlier.

  “This is amazing!” Rachel gasped.

  “Can you see any other constellations, Rachel?” Professor Hetty asked.

  Rachel stared at the night sky. For a moment she couldn’t see anything new, and then all of a sudden she noticed that some of the stars seemed to be grouped together in the outline of a face. The face had spiky hair, a spiky beard, and even a pointy nose.

  “I think I see a face,” Rachel said hesitantly.

  “A face?” Professor Hetty sounded very surprised. “I wasn’t expecting that!” She gazed up at the night sky, trying to spot it for herself. Meanwhile, Rachel frowned. That face in the stars looked familiar.…

  “Aha, I see it now!” Professor Hetty exclaimed. “And look, everyone—a star has drifted away from the toothbrush constellation to be part of the face. We’re actually seeing a new constellation forming in front of our very eyes. How amazing! I’ve never seen anything like it!”

  “Kirsty, look at this!” Rachel said quickly, moving aside to let her friend take her place at the telescope.

  Kirsty took a good look at the constellation. The drifting star settled into its new place and became part of the face’s spiky beard. Kirsty’s eyes widened as she realized exactly who it was.

  The face constellation was Jack Frost!

  “Jack Frost’s face couldn’t be a real constellation, could it?” Kirsty murmured to Rachel as they followed Professor Hetty and the others out of the observatory.

  “Well, Professor Hetty seems to think it is,” Rachel replied. The professor was so excited by the new constellation that she hadn’t stopped talking about it. “But we know that Jack Frost must be using the Night Fairies’ magic to create chaos in the night sky.”

  Outside the observatory, Peter, one of the camp counselors, was waiting to introduce the evening activity. Immediately, Professor Hetty began telling him about the new constellation.

  “And look, Peter, some stars are moving from the other constellations to join it!” she explained.

  Rachel and Kirsty glanced upward. Several more stars had detached themselves from the pajamas constellation that Lucas had spotted earlier. Now they were floating across the sky! As the girls watched, the stars positioned themselves on Jack Frost’s face, forming his familiar, icy grin.

  “Okay, everyone, we’re going to have an orienteering race this evening,” Peter told them. “In orienteering, you use the starts above as your guide, just like real explorers.”

  There was a murmur of excitement.

  “Oh, great,” said Kirsty. “We did orienteering when we visited that adventure camp, didn’t we, Rachel?”

  Rachel nodded. “It’s fun,” she agreed. “And it’ll give us a chance to look arou
nd and try to find out what Jack Frost is up to!” she added in a low voice.

  “First, get into pairs, and I’ll give you a map of the constellations and a compass,” Peter explained. “You should use them to find three locations within the camp. Each location name is the clue to a puzzle. Then, when you get to the last location, there will be a surprise waiting!”

  “But you’ll have to be quick,” Professor Hetty called as she and Peter began handing out the compasses and maps. “This is a great night to be out under the stars because we can watch this new constellation forming. But if you take too long, more stars will have moved, and you may not be able to find your way!”

  Kirsty looked up at the night sky again. The outline of Jack Frost now had a neck and the beginning of shoulders.

  “At this rate, there won’t be any constellations left in the sky except Jack Frost!” she told Rachel.

  Rachel looked upset. “That would be awful!” she exclaimed, as her eye was caught by another sparkling star floating across the dark sky.

  But this time the star didn’t join the Jack Frost constellation. Instead, it suddenly plunged down toward the earth, leaving a trail of silver sparks behind it like a firework. Rachel clutched Kirsty’s arm.

  “Kirsty, I think that might be a shooting star!” she gasped.

  As the two girls watched, the star spiraled downward and disappeared behind the observatory. No one else had noticed because they were too busy studying their maps.

  Kirsty and Rachel slipped away quietly and ran to the observatory, their hearts thumping with excitement.

  “Girls,” called a clear, tinkling voice, “I’m over here!” And suddenly a tiny fairy popped out from behind the observatory.

  “It’s Zara the Starlight Fairy!” Rachel said.

  “Hello, Zara,” said Kirsty. “Welcome to Camp Stargaze!”

  Zara smiled as the girls rushed over to her. She wore an oversize T-shirt scattered with stars, black leggings, and silver shoes. She also had on a silver star bracelet and matching necklace.

  “Yes, it’s me,” she replied. “And I’m sure you’ve noticed that Jack Frost is using my magic star dust to move all the stars around?”

  Kirsty and Rachel nodded.

  “Jack Frost is so vain, he wants a big picture of himself in the sky every single night!” Zara explained. “So he’s stealing stars and ruining all the beautiful constellations. That means ships won’t be able to navigate at sea, and birds that fly at night and use the stars to find their way will get lost, too. It’ll be a mess! My bag of star dust is around here somewhere. Will you help me find it and stop Jack Frost?”

  “Of course we will!” Rachel and Kirsty cried.

  “Thank you, girls,” Zara said gratefully.

  “We can look for your bag of star dust while we search for the three mystery locations in our orienteering game,” Rachel pointed out, turning on her flashlight and shining it onto the map.

  “To find the first location, go north, and make sure you don’t slip!” Kirsty read. She placed the compass on the map and the three friends watched the needle swing around to point north.

  “Make sure you don’t slip…” Rachel repeated thoughtfully, looking up at the stars. “Oh! I think that means the first place we have to find is right underneath the slipper constellation. That’s north from where we’re standing.”

  “Luckily, the slipper still has most of its stars. Let’s go right away,” Zara suggested.

  Quickly Zara flew down to perch on Kirsty’s shoulder, hiding behind her hair. Then the girls set off toward the slipper constellation. The other kids, including Alex and Lucas, were still studying their maps, staring at the stars, and trying to figure out how to use the compass. But then Rachel noticed two boys wearing baggy T–shirts, shorts, and baseball caps also heading off in the direction of the slipper constellation. They rudely barged by Alex and Lucas, knocking the map out of Lucas’s hand.

  “Hey, watch out!” Lucas called. But the two boys didn’t stop.

  “Looks like those boys figured out where the first location is, too,” Rachel remarked as she and Kirsty made their way past the tents.

  Suddenly, there was the sound of chirping overhead. Surprised, Rachel and Kirsty glanced up and saw a flock of little brown birds flying above them. The birds were tweeting miserably. They kept turning their heads as if they were searching for something.

  “Oh, no!” Zara gasped, popping out from behind Kirsty’s hair. “This is exactly what I was worried about. These birds are whippoorwills and they fly at night, using the stars to find their way. They’re completely lost!”

  “Poor things,” said Kirsty as the birds flew on, still chirping sadly to one another. “We have to find your bag of magic dust and put the stars back in the right place, Zara.”

  Zara nodded. “We’re almost right underneath the slipper constellation now,” she pointed out.

  Rachel was shining her flashlight just ahead of them. “I can see something between the tents!” she said. “It’s a sign, and it has a number ‘1’ on it.”

  “Nice work, girls!” Zara exclaimed. “You found the first location. And just in time, too.…”

  Rachel and Kirsty looked up at the slipper constellation. They could see several more stars slide away to make up the outline of one of Jack Frost’s arms.

  “I hope everyone else is able to find it, too,” Kirsty said anxiously. “There’s hardly any of the slipper left now.”

  “There’s something glowing at the bottom of the sign,” Rachel said. “I wonder what it is.”

  “We saw it first!” yelled a voice behind them.

  Zara rushed to hide again as two boys ran out of the shadows and shoved their way past the girls. Rachel recognized them as the same boys who’d pushed Alex and Lucas out of the way earlier.

  “Look, prizes!” one of them shouted joyfully. “And they’re all for us!”

  Rachel and Kirsty could see now that there was a pile of glow-in-the-dark star stickers stacked at the bottom of the post for the sign.

  “You shouldn’t take them all,” Rachel called as the two boys grabbed the stickers. “They’re supposed to be for everyone.”

  The boys ignored her and began sticking the stars all over themselves.

  Then, shrieking with glee, they ran off.

  “That wasn’t very nice of them, was it?” Kirsty sighed as the two boys, glowing with stars, disappeared from sight again. “What’s the next clue, Rachel?”

  Rachel looked at the map. “To find the second location, go west and brush up on your orienteering skills!” she read out.

  “West is that way,” Kirsty said, staring down at the compass. “And I guess the clue means that we have to look right underneath the stars of the toothbrush constellation!” She peered up at the sky and frowned. “But where is it?”

  “It vanished!” Rachel gasped. “Look, Jack Frost has both of his arms now. He must have stolen all the stars from the toothbrush constellation.”

  “Not quite,” Zara chimed in. “I know the usual positions of the stars so well that I can see there’s still one part of the toothbrush left.

  Look at that lone star right there.” Zara pointed her wand at a single star twinkling away on its own. “That’s what’s left of the toothbrush constellation.”

  Just then the girls heard footsteps behind them, and Zara quickly fluttered out of sight.

  “Hi, you two,” Kirsty called as a sad–looking Alex and Lucas came toward them. “How are you doing?”

  “Not very well,” Lucas sighed. “We were trying to make our way to the first spot under the slipper constellation, but so many of the stars have moved that we’re lost.”

  “You’re heading in the right direction,” Rachel told them, pointing toward the first sign.

  “Thanks!” Lucas and Alex looked more cheerful and rushed off.

  “Let’s hurry, Rachel,” Kirsty said anxiously, “before the last toothbrush star disappears!”

  Fixing their
eyes on the single star, the girls headed to the west of the campsite. As they went, they met a bunch of other kids who were lost and confused because of the shifting stars. Each time, Rachel and Kirsty helpfully directed them to the first location.

  Then the girls went on their way, using their flashlights to brighten the darkness. Suddenly, Kirsty tripped over something. She gasped, staggered, and almost fell.

  “Kirsty, are you OK?” cried Zara, flying off her shoulder.

  “I’m fine,” Kirsty replied. She pointed her flashlight downward and saw that the laces on one of her sneakers had come undone. Kirsty bent to retie it, but then, to her surprise, she noticed tiny specks of glitter on the ground. “Zara, Rachel, look at this!” she called.

  Zara swooped down to see. “That’s my star dust!” she exclaimed. “But how did it get there?”

  Rachel moved her own flashlight beam slowly across the ground, picking out the specks of fairy dust. “I think they’ve been stamped into the ground by someone,” she declared. “See those big, clumsy footprints?”

  “Goblin footprints!” Kirsty gasped. “Those two rude little boys must be goblins in disguise! They’re the only ones who are ahead of us.”

  “And they have my bag of star dust!” Zara added.

  “Well, at least they left a trail of star dust for us to follow to the second location!” Rachel said with a grin. With the flashlight, the three friends could see the path of star dust sparkling into the distance. “Off we go!”

  The trail led Zara and the girls through the campsite and toward the entrance to Camp Stargaze.

  “I think the second location must be close to the camp gate,” Kirsty said.

  “Look, it’s right underneath the only star left of the toothbrush constellation.”

  “You’re right, Kirsty,” Rachel added, directing the beam of her flashlight at the camp entrance. “I can see a sign with a ‘2’ on it. There’s a big silver foil star tacked on the gate, too.”