Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue (3 page)

“Judging from an epidermal membrane, it’s clearly an
Apatura iris
. But the wings have two entirely different patterns. That’s … nearly impossible.”

Lizzy smiled. “Well, I guess that’s just the way the fairies decided to paint it.”

“Lizzy,” her father chuckled, “fairies do not paint butterfly wings. Because, as you know, fairies are not real.”

Tinker Bell drew in her breath with a gasp.
Not real?
What nonsense!

Tinker Bell watched as the man produced a pen and a journal from his pocket and began to sketch the butterfly.

“It does look like paint dripped on its wing,” the little girl insisted.

“Really, Lizzy. Rational people consider a belief in fairies to be quite … foolish.”

Enough was enough. It was time to teach Mr. Know-It-All a lesson. She would fly around his head, do a series of figure eights, and then land right on his nose.

But just as she was about to take off, Vidia grabbed the back of her dress and held on tight.

The man’s eyes moved back and forth between the butterfly and his sketch. “The wings are so fresh. Its chrysalis must have been in the meadow.”

“The meadow! Oh, Father, that’s where I am going. Would you like to come?” The butterfly fluttered away as the little girl walked to the car. She reached into the trunk and pulled out something large.

The father responded with a preoccupied tone. “Not now, Lizzy. I have to update my field journal for my meeting tomorrow.”

Tinker Bell watched Lizzy run off alone into the meadow, carrying her mysterious package.

“Have fun,” the father said as he wandered off after the butterfly.

As soon as the humans had gone, Tinker Bell popped up and spread her wings. “All clear. Come on, Vidia.”

But Vidia remained on the ground. “I can’t fly. My wings are wet.”

Tinker Bell touched down beside her. “Oh! That’s right. Sorry! Guess you’ll have to walk back. But don’t worry, I’ll keep you company.”

Tinker Bell tried to walk beside Vidia, but she was so full of enthusiasm, it was hard to keep her feet on the ground. So she flitted and flew around Vidia as they traveled.

Tink’s efforts just seemed to irritate Vidia. “Tinker Bell, maybe if you spent less time causing disasters, you wouldn’t have to
help
everybody so much.”

Tinker Bell hadn’t even heard Vidia’s cutting remark. Her eyes had spotted something gleaming on the ground. A button from a human’s shirt. She flew past Vidia and picked it up. “Look!”

Vidia rolled her eyes. “So?”

Tinker Bell spotted another button. And another. “We can use these back at camp.” She eagerly spun around. “Wow! These will be perfect for the new wagon prototype I’ve been working on.”

One by one, Tink picked up buttons and handed them to Vidia. “I bet if I took two or three and tied them together, I could make one really strong wheel. It’s a good thing we’re walking or we might never have seen these.”

She turned and saw that Vidia’s hands were empty. “Hey!” Tink looked past Vidia and saw a button trail. Vidia had tossed them, one by one, back on the ground.

Vidia folded her arms. “Tinker Bell. I’m not carrying this human junk back to camp.”

But again, Tinker Bell hardly heard her. She had caught sight of something else. Something totally, indescribably, unbelievably
unbelievable
!

Vidia continued heading down the path that led to the fairy camp, while Tinker Bell charged in a completely different direction, determined to check out what she had just spotted.

It was a house. A tiny house. A house that was exactly the right size for a fairy.

Tinker Bell started toward it.

Meanwhile, Vidia had turned her head and seen Tink headed for trouble.

Once again, Tink felt a hand grab the back of her dress. “Tinker Bell, we’re not supposed to go near human houses!” Vidia warned. She ran nervously behind Tink. “Please tell me you’re not going in there.”

Tinker Bell thought it was funny that, for once, brave and fearless Vidia was scared and she wasn’t. It made Tink feel good to be braver than Vidia. She pushed the door open and stepped inside. She could hear Vidia muttering, “She went in there!”

Tinker Bell clapped with delight when she saw a dented upside-down thimble made into a table. Whoever had designed this house was somebody who thought like a tinker fairy.

She picked up a tiny mint from a candy dish and was just about to pop it into her mouth when Vidia’s voice brought her up short. “Tinker Bell, don’t eat that! This could be a trap!”

Tinker Bell turned and saw Vidia framed in the doorway, looking at the inside of the house as if she expected snakes to come dropping from the ceiling.

“Oh, come on, Vidia. It’s perfectly safe.”

“Oh, really?” Vidia tested her wings, which were dry now, and began to twirl. She raised a small whirlwind that caused the door to slam shut.

“Not so safe now, is it?” Vidia asked from outside the door.

“Nice try, Vidia. But you’re not scaring me.” Tinker Bell went to check out a fairy-sized clock. Unable to resist, she reached forward and fiddled with the hands. “Gosh! This thing is amazing.”

“You just don’t know when to stop, do you?” Vidia’s voice sounded muffled and small outside the door.

Tinker Bell heard the loud snap of a twig. Then she heard Vidia struggling with the door. “Tink! Someone’s coming and the door is stuck.”

Tink rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on, Vidia. You can do better than that.”

“Tink, I’m serious,” Vidia insisted. “Get out of there.”

“Just a second, just a second.” Tink wasn’t going to give Vidia the satisfaction of hurrying. After thoroughly admiring the inner workings of the clock, she went to the door and turned the handle. It wouldn’t open. She jiggled the doorknob. “Oh, Vidia, come on. Open the door. You’ve had your fun.”

But there was an eerie silence outside the door.

Tinker Bell rattled the doorknob insistently, beginning to feel nervous in spite of herself. “Okay, Vidia. Not funny anymore.”

Suddenly, a giant shadow fell over Tink. Something was blocking the window. Tink turned and saw a giant eyeball looking in.

Tinker Bell shrieked and the giant eyeball grew large, as if whoever was peeking in was just as surprised to see her.

Tinker Bell heard a voice outside the house. Lizzy’s voice. “A … a … fairy!” she cried. “A real fairy!”

The next thing Tink knew, the house was being lifted into the air as if by a cyclone. Tink was thrown from one wall to the other as Lizzy ran through the meadow carrying the house. “Father!” Lizzy shouted. “Father! Father!”

Tinker Bell held on as tight as she could and groaned.

She had a bad feeling. The kind of feeling you get when you know you’re in trouble. Not just a smidge of trouble.
Big
trouble.

Vidia chased Lizzy through the meadow and back to the house. Unfortunately, Lizzy got to the door ahead of her and kicked it shut, slamming it in Vidia’s face.

Vidia peeled off and began checking the windows, flying from one to the other, hoping to find one open.

She found a window that was open just a crack. On the other side of the glass, she could see the little girl’s father. He sat at a desk with his journal and looked very busy.

Lizzy ran into the room. “Father!”

“Yes, Lizzy.”

“You’re never going to believe what I’ve found.” Lizzy plopped the fairy house on the desk.

“Maybe later, Lizzy,” he said.

“But, Father—”

“Just a moment, dear. I’m very busy with my project.”

The little girl shifted from one foot to the other in her impatience. “But, Father—”

“Lizzy, please. I am just adding this extraordinary discovery to my field journal.” He scribbled quickly and finished with a flourish. “And here it is.” He put down the pen and held up the journal so she could see. He had drawn a very detailed picture of the butterfly.

“Is that the butterfly we were looking at earlier?” she asked, her voice uneasy.

“Yes. Quite a specimen, isn’t it?”

“You’re not going to take it to London, are you?”

“Yes, of course. The Board of Regents would never believe me if they didn’t see it themselves. Now I’m sure to get that curatorship at the museum.”

Vidia watched the little girl’s eyes move up to the walls of the room. It was lined with boxes in which lots of beautiful butterflies had been mounted for display, with pins.

“As a member of the scientific community, I’m obligated to share significant findings like this with my colleagues. I know it’s unfortunate for the specimen, but really, there is no other way,” said Dr. Griffiths. “Now, what did you want to see me about?”

Vidia’s stomach churned. If this man got hold of Tinker Bell, would she wind up in one of those boxes, too?

It was clear that the same thought was dawning on Lizzy. Her eyes were sad and full of worry. She moved the fairy house slightly and held it behind her. “Um … never mind.”

Lizzy exited the room in a hurry. Vidia let out her breath with a sigh of relief. But the good feeling didn’t last long. Because following close on Lizzy’s heels was
the cat
.

Vidia flew from window to window until she found herself looking in on the upstairs landing. She saw Lizzy arrive at the top of the stairs carrying the fairy house. The cat slunk along right behind her.

The little girl turned and disappeared into one of the bedrooms. Again Vidia zipped around the corner of the house, peering into windows until she found Lizzy’s bedroom.

Vidia watched Lizzy put the fairy house down and look inside. She looked in one window, then another, as if trying to find Tinker Bell. “Where have you gone?” she said aloud.

Hmmmm,
Vidia wondered. Where was Tink? Had she somehow managed to escape?

Clearly, Lizzy was wondering the same thing. And as Vidia watched, Lizzy lifted off the entire roof of the house so she could look down inside it.

She reeled back when Tinker Bell came rocketing out.

Tinker Bell shot up so fast, she smacked right into the canopy of the bed and fell back down on the blanket, dazed.

The cat pounced on the bed. Tink jumped up and made a run for it, diving under a pillow. The cat dove under the pillow, too, and Tinker Bell ran out the other side.

Before he could snatch her, Lizzy grabbed Tinker Bell and swooped her out of harm’s way. She quickly stuffed Tink into a birdcage and yelled at the cat. “Mr. Twitches.
No!
Out! Out! Bad cat. No! No! No!”

Lizzy turned back to the cage. “Don’t worry, little fairy. Mr. Twitches won’t bother you as long as you’re in there.” She grabbed the cat and went to the door. “Naughty cat. You’re going downstairs.”

As Lizzy left the room with Mr. Twitches, Vidia struggled to open the window, without success.

Inside the birdcage, Tinker Bell was really worried now, red-faced and puffing. The latch was firmly locked from the outside. The door wouldn’t budge.

Vidia realized there was no way she could rescue Tinker Bell on her own. She would have to go back to the camp for help. She looked up at the sky with a worried frown.

Dark clouds were gathering. That meant rain. Rain meant wet wings. And wet wings meant she might have to find her way back to camp on foot.

Vidia spread her wings and took to the sky.

She had to hurry. Tinker Bell’s life depended on it.