Magical Mayhem (3 page)

To his relief, he spotted a small hole in the ground, not quite covered by a drift of snow. The dragon scuttled over to it, his spiked tail lashing back and forth. Fresh snowflakes began to cover the bare patch of ground behind him, coating it once again in white.

The dragon felt better the moment he was in the tunnel. It smelled faintly of rabbit, but he could tell that no rabbit had lived here for many years. Pointing his snout downwards, the dragon crept deeper and deeper underground, until finally he was in a small chamber lined with tree roots.

With an unhappy sigh, the dragon curled himself up tightly, tucking his nose under his tail. His heart ached as he thought of his parents. Even with their magic, how would they ever locate him down here? Yet he knew he'd had no choice but to take shelter. He'd just have to hope that they found him, somehow.

Closing his eyes, the dragon slowly drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

And began to dream.

.

Chapter Three

The storm continued for two days – and then abruptly, on the morning of the third day, it ended. The students awoke to soaring blue skies, with sunshine sparkling on the snow like diamonds.

Like everyone else, Twink was relieved to hear that the glow-worms had finally recovered, and that the fairies could return to their branches. Sleeping in the Great Branch had been fun, but it was good to get things back to normal again!

‘Brr, it's cold!' said Twink later that afternoon, rubbing her chilled wings together. She and Bimi were outside with Sal, measuring the temperature for their Weather Magic project. The salamander seemed unimpressed with the snow, sniffing at it disdainfully.

Bimi wrapped her thistledown scarf tightly about her neck. Like Twink, she was wearing a dress made of violet petals, with the bright yellow sash that showed they were third-year students. ‘It's freezing!' she agreed. ‘Do you have the temperature pad?'

Twink brought out the special petal pad that Mrs Starbright had given her. ‘These results are going to be very different from the ones I took at home,' she said, flipping through the pad. ‘I think the only thing our project's going to show is that the weather's gone completely topsy-turvy!'

She tugged on Sal's lead, and the salamander came scampering over. ‘Here, Sal,' said Twink, showing him a fresh page. ‘What's the temperature?'

Though salamanders couldn't live in fire as humans had once believed, they
did
love heat – and were experts on temperature! Sal stood very still for a moment, closing his eyes and twitching his tail. Finally he touched his nose to the pad.

There was a swirl of golden light, and then the page turned a pale, icy blue.

‘That's the coldest I've ever seen it!' exclaimed Twink. ‘It looks like winter's properly here, all right.'

Bimi nodded. ‘I checked on the mice this morning, and most of them have gone into hibernation already. I thought it would take
weeks
yet.'

‘So did everyone else,' said Twink, tucking the pad back in her petal bag. ‘It's strange how not even Mrs Starbright saw the snowstorm coming.' She frowned, remembering what Sooze had said.
Had
there been something unnatural about the storm?

Twink started to ask Bimi what she thought – and then saw that the salamander was standing stockstill, sniffing the air. Suddenly he took off at a run, jerking the lead from Twink's fingers.

‘Sal! Come back here!' she shouted, flitting after him. Bimi followed close behind.

Sal's black tail disappeared around a low hill. Putting on a burst of speed, Twink jetted over the hill's crest – and then stopped in confusion.

‘Bimi, look at this!' she cried.

The salamander was on a large, circular patch of ground with no snow on it. All around the circle, snowdrifts stood higher than the fairies – but where Sal had stopped, there was only grass.

Bewildered, Twink touched down beside him. What on earth did it mean?

‘Oh, it's warm!' burst out Bimi as she landed. Twink blinked as she realised that her friend was right. The ground felt toasty under their feet!

The two fairies gaped at each other. Sal was trotting this way and that about the warm grass, sniffing excitedly at the ground. ‘What
is
this?' said Twink. ‘I thought that the school's dance circle was the only bit of enchanted ground nearby!'

Bimi shook her head. ‘Maybe there's an underground hot spring here? We've never had such a heavy snow before, so that could be why we've never noticed it.'

‘Maybe,' said Twink uncertainly. The patch was almost a perfect circle – would an underground hot spring do that? Even so, Bimi must be right, she thought with a shrug. It was the only explanation that made sense.

Just then the magpie's call came from the tree. ‘It's almost time for Flower Power!' exclaimed Twink. She grabbed the salamander's lead. ‘Come on, Sal, I've got to get you back to your log.'

But Sal didn't seem to want to leave. He dug his feet into the ground, straining against the lead as Twink tugged. ‘Come
on
,' huffed Twink. ‘We're going to be late!'

Finally, with Bimi's help, they hauled the reluctant salamander away. Once back on the snow, he walked sulkily, dragging his tail behind him. As Twink shut him into his pen in the Creature Kindness log, he gave her a grumpy look and turned his back on her.

‘I wonder what's got into him?' said Twink, once she and Bimi were speeding their way up the tree trunk to class. ‘I've never seen him act that way before!'

Bimi shrugged as they landed on the Flower Power ledge. ‘I suppose he just liked the warm ground over the hot spring,' she said. ‘You know how salamanders love the heat.'

Twink's pink eyebrows drew together. ‘Yes, but how did he even know it was there? It was really strange the way he –'

She broke off as the magpie's call shrieked again. They were late! Hastily, Twink pushed open the door.

Miss Petal, the young, pretty teacher who taught Flower Power, shook her head as they dashed in. ‘Take a mushroom, girls.'

Once Twink and Bimi were settled, the teacher went on, ‘As I was saying, I'm going to teach you a spell today that you can use on a single plant to learn the health of a whole forest. Ivy, would you help me pass these out?'

With the help of the green-haired fairy, Miss Petal gave an acorn pot to every student. In each one was a drooping plant. Twink's was a wilted fern, and she touched a curling frond with sympathy. Oh, the poor thing!

When everyone had a pot, Miss Petal continued. ‘Now then, I'd like you to do a cheering-up spell as usual. Once your plants are feeling a bit healthier, I'll explain what comes next.'

Eagerly, Twink rested her hands on the fern's leaves. A cheering-up spell was one of the first she'd ever learned, but she never tired of doing them – it was lovely to see plants perk up!

Closing her eyes, Twink started to think happy thoughts.
Bright yellow sunshine. Birds singing. Laughing and sharing jokes with Bimi.
Her hands tingled as magic flowed from them into the fern. After a moment, she smiled and opened her eyes. There, that should do it!

‘Oh!' she gasped. The fern was worse than ever! Ugly black spots had appeared all over its fronds, which hung limply over the pot's rim. As Twink gaped in shock, one of the fronds fell completely off, landing on her mushroom desk with a
plop
.

Sooze burst out laughing. ‘Opposite, what did you
do
to it?'

‘Nothing!' protested Twink. ‘I just did the spell as usual!' She turned the pot around, but the fern looked just as awful from every angle.

‘Oh dear,' said Bimi, biting her lip. ‘It doesn't look very good, does it?'

Miss Petal came over. Her mouth twitched as she held back a smile. ‘Twink, I don't think you could have had your mind on the spell,' she said gently. Putting her hands on the fern, she performed the magic herself. The black spots vanished as the fern burst into green, vibrant life.

‘But – I'm
sure
I did it right,' said Twink in confusion. ‘Honest, Miss Petal. I've done that spell a hundred times!'

Miss Petal nodded understandingly. ‘Yes, but it's still easy to get it wrong, if your thoughts wander even just for a moment. Here, why don't you try again?' She produced another pot, this time with a drooping blade of grass.

As the class watched with interest, Twink placed her hands on the grass and redoubled her efforts, bombarding it with every happy thought she could think of. Sudden laughter made her eyes fly open. Oh, she didn't believe it! The grass had withered until it was dried and brown!

‘You must have something on your mind that's keeping you from concentrating,' said Miss Petal, quickly healing it. ‘Never mind, Twink. You can take notes while I explain the technique; I'm sure you'll be able to try it out for yourself next time.'

‘But –' Twink stared in frustration at the now-healthy blade of grass. Though she knew Miss Petal must be right, she could have sworn she'd performed the spell exactly the same as she'd always done!

Later at lunch, Sooze regaled the Violet Branch fairies with the story. Even those who had been present in the class were soon howling with laughter.

‘And then . . . she killed the SECOND one,' finished Sooze, waving her arms dramatically. ‘Ker-plop! Dead! With the sheer power of her thoughts –'

‘Sooze, it wasn't dead!' protested Bimi with a smile. ‘Miss Petal was able to heal it.'

Sooze's eyes sparkled. ‘Well, it's a good thing she was there, with Twink the plant-killer around!'

Twink laughed despite herself. She supposed it
was
pretty funny – though she still had no idea how she'd managed to mess up the spell so badly!

Just then Jade, Ivy's twin sister, stopped by their table. Ivy and Jade both had curly green hair, and looked exactly alike. If it wasn't for their different uniforms, Twink often thought that she couldn't have told them apart at all.

‘What's so funny?' Jade asked, taking a seat beside her twin. She lived in Carnation Branch, and wore a frilly pink dress made of carnation petals.

‘Oh, Jade, you missed it!' giggled Ivy, wiping tears of mirth from her eyes. ‘Go on, Sooze, tell the story again.'

Sooze grinned, leaning forward.

‘No,
I'll
tell it,' groaned Twink, pushing her back. Briefly, she told Jade what had happened.

‘Oh,' said Sili, blinking. ‘That wasn't funny at all, the way you told it.'

‘No, she hasn't got my magic touch with stories,' commented Sooze, taking a bite of seed cake.

Jade was frowning, ignoring the banter. ‘But Twink, that's really weird,' she said slowly. ‘The same thing happened to me in Fairy Dust class today!'

The table fell silent as Jade explained how she'd tried and tried to do a simple fairy dust spell, but it had gone wrong every time. ‘Finally Miss Sparkle wouldn't even let me try any more, after I melted a hole in my mushroom desk,' she finished sheepishly.

Everyone burst out laughing. Pix grinned. ‘You just need to pay more attention next time, Jade,' she said.

Glancing at her, Twink thought that Pix looked a tiny bit smug. She and Jade were friends, but there was a good-natured rivalry between them to see who could get the best marks.

Jade tapped her wings crossly. ‘I
was
paying attention. I knew exactly what I was doing, but I still couldn't make it work. It was like the spell had gone wrong or something.'

‘But Jade, magic isn't like that,' said Pix, sounding maddeningly reasonable. ‘Either you do it right or you don't, that's all.'

‘I
was
doing it right!' insisted Jade. ‘And I thought it was just me, but if the same thing happened to Twink –'

Pix snorted. ‘Oh, come on, Jade! Isn't it possible that you and Twink just made mistakes?' She spun on her mushroom seat. ‘Twink, there wasn't anything strange about it, was there? You just made a mistake, that's all!'