The Magic Book series, book 1 (6 page)

“This penned
message will not last,

Read with care
and read it fast!

Your fairy
friends have fled in fear

And dare not
wait to meet you here.

Today at one,
they will wait for you,

Amongst the
Great Oak’s boughs, hidden from view.

Come with haste
but take great care,

Watch out for
The Wicked One who may find you there.”

As she’d read
it out, it was as if just the mere act of passing her eyes over the
words was enough to melt them back into the very page upon which
they had appeared, until it was left barren once more.

“What’s the
time Sophie?”

“10.30, so at
least we have a little while to think this through.”

“The ‘Wicked
One’ mentioned in the poem - do you think it could be the same
horrid fairy that cast the spell, trapping our first fairy in the
book?” recollected Felicity.

“I was thinking
the same thing,” Sophie agreed. “Our first fairy did say they were
in trouble. Maybe the other two have gone to help her.”

“Who do you
think wrote the note?” asked Felicity.

“Do you know, I
think the book did. And if the book left a message,” Sophie’s big
brown eyes grew even larger as an idea formed in her mind, “perhaps
we can ask it a question!”

“What shall we
ask?” queried Felicity.

“Erm, how about
asking which oak tree, as there are a number of them around the
school,” Sophie suggested.

Felicity nodded
vigorously in agreement, her eyes glinting with excitement. “Book,
could you tell us
which
oak tree please?” Nothing happened
for a few long seconds. Then all of a sudden the pen shot out of
its home in the spine of the book and stood on end, hovering just
above the blank page.

“Wow! Look at
that! It must want us to write something Sophie.” Felicity took the
pen and wrote the question out on the page. As soon as she had
written it the words disappeared, but others appeared in their
place which read:

“Within the
playground opposite the door

It has stood
300 years, but how many more?”

And then these
words too, faded to nothing.

Sophie picked
up the pen and scribbled another question. “Should we take anything
with us?”

The answer came
and went as before…

“Take me with
you, but keep me close.

The Wicked One
wants me the most!

My powers are
for good – in the right hands

But he wishes
to rule ALL the lands.”

“We will,”
Sophie responded out loud, and with that she quickly but carefully
stowed the book inside her blouse. “We’d better keep this with us
all the time from now on. This ‘Wicked One’ sounds desperate to get
it back, and that means he’ll be looking for us!” she added
nervously.

The girls were
almost too excited and nervous to eat their lunch and kept glancing
at the time. At last the clock read 12.55.

We’d better get
there a bit early,” said Felicity, putting her lunch box away, back
on the trolley.

As they stepped
out of the door into the playground, there stood the oak tree
before them. It seemed obvious to them now which one the book
meant, as it was indeed ‘Great’ in stature, as it had
described.

The sun, which
had been bright all morning, was suddenly blocked out by dark
clouds beginning to cover the whole sky, driven in on an
increasingly brisk wind, whipping up dust and leaves and sending
last autumn’s acorns scudding along the ground. With each step they
took towards The Great Oak it grew darker, the wind stronger. All
the children in the playground quickly ran for cover, expecting
rain to follow imminently. The girls linked arms and leaned into
the wind, willing themselves forward. It was blowing so hard now it
was as if the wind itself was trying to stop them.

Now, almost
there, they heard faint voices coming from up in the tree.

“Come girls,
quickly – The Wicked One is close, run! Hold the tree,” the almost
musical voice urged, distinctive over the hostile roar of the
storm.

Encouraged,
knowing that it must be the voice of the fairies, they pushed just
that bit harder against the wind. As they reached the tree, the
clouds burst and hail stones thudded through its branches, tearing
its leaves and bouncing on impact with the ground, then melting on
the still warm earth.

The girls
reached out and hugged its rough trunk, bowing their heads from the
hail stones. They began to feel strangely giddy and looked up to
find that the tree was starting to spin, and them with it. As it
sped ever faster, their grip began to loosen and they started to
slip from its mighty girth.

“Just hold on!”
came a small wispy voice above them again.

The tree
gathered pace, turning impossibly fast, until everything was a blur
and it was only with immense effort that the girls were able to
stop their heads and bodies being pulled from the tree by the sheer
force of it. Then there was a loud CRACK! At that very moment they
finally lost their grip and were hurled to the ground.

Sophie and
Felicity helped each other up. Both were shaking, scared and a
little winded, but otherwise unharmed. As they took their first
wary glances around them, they saw that everything had changed. The
tree was still there, but they were somewhere else entirely. No
school, no playground. Even the wind, hail and clouds had gone. It
was in fact a very peaceful place on first impressions, but not
quite Earth-like.

“Where are we?”
breathed Felicity, slowly turning on the spot whilst absentmindedly
dusting herself off.

“I’ll tell you
later, but first we must find a safer place to talk.” To the girls’
surprise, the voices they’d heard belonged to the two fairies they
had drawn at home.

Fluttering
swiftly down from the tree, they took hold of one twin each.
Felicity stifled a shriek as they were flown back up with them,
nimbly dodging through the oak’s boughs.

As Felicity
rose, she had a good view of this new land. The Great Oak they were
ascending took pride of place in the centre of a beautiful lush
green landscape. Red and yellow poppies bobbed their heads amongst
meadow flowers and lush green grasses, as a warm skittish breeze
played chase amongst them. The air was sweet with the soothing
aroma of lavender. In the middle distance was a lake, the sun
glistening off its surface, the sky reflecting back up from it like
a mirror.

But right over
near the horizon, in stark contrast, it was dark. Not as if night
were descending, but ominously dark. The skies were so laden with
rain that the clouds were blotting out the sun. As she watched,
lightning lit the sky, tearing through them like a knife through
black velvet and forking to the ground. It briefly lit up a castle
that she hadn’t been able to pick out before - its tower seeming to
be engulfed by the atmosphere itself. It was like watching a
chilling, silent, black and white movie. She shivered involuntarily
and felt in the pit of her stomach that it was a bad place. Sophie
was looking that way too, horror etched on her pale face.

“Nearly there.”
The voice of Felicity’s fairy cut through her thoughts.

A second later
they were disappearing into a knot in the tree trunk. Then it
dawned on them, they were the same size as the fairies!

Now walking,
they continued further within the tree itself and presently came to
a door. Felicity’s fairy stopped and knocked, then added,

“Your Majesty
Queen Tara, it’s me, Bryony, with the girls.”

The door sprang
open and they were hastily ushered into the large room in front of
them. At the centre stood a long wooden table, surrounded by chairs
occupied by other fairies, all of whom had turned to see the new
arrivals. The anxiety on the children’s faces was obvious, so they
all tried to smile to put the girls at ease.

“Thank goodness
you came!” Sophie’s first doodle fairy gushed, rising from her
chair, which would be better described as a throne, and strode
purposefully round the table to meet them. “Our Kingdom is in grave
danger and we need your help.”

“I’m terribly
sorry, but there seems to be some misunderstanding. We don’t see
how we could possibly be of any help to you,” Sophie declared
apologetically, more than a little taken aback to see her doodle
fairy must in fact be royalty!

“Your Majesty,
let me explain,” Bryony cut in. “They still seem completely unaware
of their importance to us. I feel spending a little precious time
explaining is essential.”

“I don’t even
know your names….” interjected Felicity shyly, feeling a little
teary at the bizarreness of it all.