The Naughty Fairies

By Dave Gore

Rosehip lived with the other fairies in the kingdom of the fairy queen Marigold, hidden far away in a beautiful clearing that was surrounded by a small wooded area away from where the humans lived.

In the clearing there was every kind of flower you could ever ask for, like all fairies she would fly around colouring the flowers and making sure that everyone of them was the right colour, shape and size and that they smelt so good that the bees would come from far and wide to collect the nectar to make their honey and to pollinate all the other flowers so that they would keep on growing and making the clearing stay such a beautiful place to live in.

One day though things were about to change, the fairies had collected all the magic dust that they needed to keep the flowers as they should be, but when the fairies arrived where the blanket of multi coloured flowers were suppose to be all they found was the clearing covered in black flowers, not one coloured flower could be seen.

What has happened all the fairies cried as they looked around, what has happened to our clearing and the flowers, even the bees were now looking puzzled as they flew around trying to find the sweet smelling and coloured flowers that they had flown to every day to collect the nectar and pollen, in fact the flowers had no smell to them at all.

The fairies searched and searched but everywhere they looked it was the same, even the trees and grass had turned black.

Then it happened the sun disappeared and all that was left to light the clearing was the little light from the moon that was hiding on the other side of the fairy kingdom.

All the animals started to run around not knowing what they should be doing, the animals that usually came out only at night, were wandering around still feeling very tired, as they had just gone to bed and gone to sleep after being up all through the night and all the animals that came out during the day kept bumping into trees and each other, as they were not able to see very well in the dark.

Luckily the fairies had no such problem, they could see just as well in the dark nights as they could in the bright daylight.

The fairies all looked at each other and wondered what they should do, they had tried to sprinkle their magic dust onto the flowers grass and trees, to bring them all back to their right colour and smell, but no matter how much they sprinkled their dust onto the flowers, trees and grass they all stayed the same, black.

The fairies told all the animals that they would try and find out what was causing the problem and for them all to go home and wait until the problem could be sorted out.

The animals that came out at night helped all the day time animals back to their homes, with the help of the fairies and soon the only thing that could be heard in the clearing was the sound of the breeze as it made its way through the trees.

The fairies returned to the palace to tell the queen what had happened, but they didn’t need to, because as they arrived they could see that the same had happened in the fairy kingdom, all was black, even the bright colours of the palace that once sparkled in the sunlight was now black, not another colour could be seen why even the dresses of all the fairies had now turned to black.

Queen Marigold called all the older and wiser fairies to come to the palace to find out why this had happened and how they could get everything back as it should be, soon the largest room in the palace was filled with all the older and wiser fairies they were all talking to each other and coming up with their ideas on how this had happened and how the problem could be fixed.

Marigold listened to all the fairies but nearly every fairy had a different idea and answer to how this had happened and how it could be fixed, Marigold finally said this is no good, we would be trying out all your ideas for years if we were to try every thing that has been discussed, we need to work together and find out how to fix it, I want you all to go out in groups and get as much information as you can, bring back the flowers grass and leaves from the trees and find out how this has happened and while you are doing this I will get the fairy wizards to look through the magic books to try and find out how to fix it.

The fairies all went off in groups and made their way out of the palace and to the clearing and other places in and around the fairy kingdom, they were soon collecting the flowers, grass, leaves and any other thing that had turned black and that they could carry back to the palace.

When the fairies had all returned and were back together again they started to try different things on all of the items that they had brought back to the palace, they sprinkled magic dust of all kinds onto the black objects. Why! They even tried to wash some of the flowers with soap to see if they were all covered in coal dust instead, but no matter what they tried the flowers, grass and the objects all remained black.

The fairy kingdom and the clearing remained dark and black and as each day passed every fairy tried something new to try and make things all around return back to how it was, but no matter how much they tried everything remained black.

Then one day Rosehip was in the clearing with the other fairies sprinkling a new brightly coloured magic dust onto the black flowers, grass and trees that one of the older fairies said might work.

Rosehip was sprinkling some of the magic dust on some black flowers that were growing beneath a tree, when she slipped and fell against the side of the tree, the tree shook a little and as Rosehip looked up, she saw a raindrop that had been laying on one of the large leaves since it rained a few days ago drop towards her and onto her brightly coloured dress that she was wearing today, straight away her brightly coloured dress turned black.

“O my” she cried “it’s happening again”, but when she looked around all the other fairies dresses remained full of their bright colours, how can this be happening to me she said.

Rosehip flew back to the palace to change into another of her dresses, she told the queen what had happened in the clearing when she had slipped against the tree and the queen then called one of the older fairies who had been working on ways to solve the problem to come and talk to Rosehip.

Rosehip told the older fairy what had happened, the older fairy asked Rosehip if any of the other fairies had got wet, no said Rosehip just me, a raindrop that had been on the leaf dropped onto me and then my dress just turned black, the older fairy asked Rosehip to fetch the dress so he could see it, when he looked at the dress he could see that there was a small wet patch on the shoulder, he took out a magnifying glass from a pouch that he was wearing around his waist and looked very closely at the wet patch, there was a very small speck of dirt lying there, the funny thing was it looked like the speck of dirt was multi coloured.

The older fairy took Rosehips dress back to his work room and places the dress and the wet patch under one of his microscopes, he was right, the speck of dirt did have three different colours but they had mixed together and he could not be sure which three colours they were, after looking at it for a while and getting another older fairy to take a look at it they both decided that the speck of dirt was really a new magic dust, but how could that be as this kind of magic dust had never been made before and the only way to make another dust to bring things back to normal were to know which colour dusts had been used to make it in the first place.

The news was soon spreading around the fairy kingdom about this new magic dust and the fairies were all asking where it had came from and who would have made it, also who would do such a thing, the news reached two of the children fairies Timmy and Jimmy who lived with their parents, when they heard that a new unheard of magic dust had caused the problem and that it had not been made by the fairy who made the magic dust, they went and told their parents what they had done.

Timmy and Jimmy said that they had gone into the magic dust and potion room to play one evening, although this room was usually locked, that night the fairy who mixed the dust and potions had left the door open and unlocked, as he went to fetch a new bottle to put another potion in that he had just finished mixing together.

They had seen the door open and curiosity had got the better of them; they had seen all the boxes and bottles on the shelves and decided to try and make a magic dust that would turn cabbage into candyfloss if it was sprinkled onto the green cabbage leaves, they both liked cabbage but candyfloss looked and tasted better.

As they knew nothing about mixing magic dust and had a problem reading what the magic dust and potion book said they had to mix, they took magic dust from three different coloured boxes that they thought the book said that they needed and mixed them all together.

When they had finished they put the dust inside a box that they had found on one of the tables, and said that the next day they were going to sprinkle the dust onto the cabbages in the vegetable garden and turn them all into candyfloss, but when they heard the magic dust fairy coming back, they had quickly gone outside into the garden, but in their hurry had dropped the box on the lawn as they flew home.

The problem was the box had no lid on to cover the dust and a strong gust of wind blew the dust out of the box and up into the sky, the box was now empty and all the magic dust was dancing around in the wind and as the wind grew stronger the higher the magic dust flew until it was dancing high into the sky and it then settled on top of big white and fluffy clouds, all the clouds straight away turned black and not into candyfloss, as the wind died down the clouds stood still hardly moving in the evening sky.

But as the evening passed and morning started to appear the wind started blowing again and the clouds started to move around the early morning sky, they slowly turned into rain clouds and with each raindrop that they let fall to the ground a speck of the magic dust fell with them causing everything they touched to turn black, the wind grew and blew the rest of the magic dust upwards and off the clouds, they blew it so high that it landed on the sun and as soon as it did the sun turned black.

Timmy and Jimmy were taken to the palace by their parents and they told the magic dust fairy what they had done, they told him what colours of magic dust they had mixed to make their magic dust, the fairy was then able to make a magic dust to solve the problem, the new magic dust was then given to all the fairies so they could go out and sprinkle the dust all over the land to bring all the colour and scent back to all the flowers, grasses and trees, they used a big fan to blow some of the dust up to the sun as it was to hot for any fairy to get close enough to sprinkle the dust onto it and bring it back to it’s bright yellow colour once again.

Timmy and Jimmy were very sorry and promised not to go into the room again and the magic dust fairy always made sure that when he left the room he locked the door and put the key into his pocket.

The End