Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue (9 page)

And with that, he lifted his arm. He was holding a jar. He was planning to trap Tink.

“Tink! Watch out!”
cried a familiar voice.

Tinker Bell turned around, stunned. “Vidia? What are you doing here?”

“Get out of the way!” Vidia yelled.

Just as the jar was about to come down on top of Tink, Vidia slammed right into her. She knocked Tink clean off the table and sent her flying into a pile of books.

Blam!

Vidia
was inside the jar. She had pushed Tinker Bell out of the way and let herself be trapped.

And it had all happened so fast, Dr. Griffiths didn’t realize he had captured a completely different fairy.

Tinker Bell saw Dr. Griffiths cranking up his automobile. And she saw Vidia, inside the jar, fluttering helplessly.

Vidia had put herself in danger to save Tinker Bell. Saving Vidia was now up to Tinker Bell.

“Father, you can’t do this!” Lizzy called out.

But her father refused to listen. “Lizzy, I don’t have much time. The trustees will only wait for me until nine o’clock. Please go back in the house.” The engine sprang to life with a great roar. Dr. Griffiths jumped into the driver’s seat, threw the car into gear, and drove away at top speed.

Tinker Bell zoomed out of the bedroom and down the stairs and was just entering the kitchen when Lizzy came into the room. “Tinker Bell. I’m so sorry. My father’s taking your friend to the city. I tried to stop him, but he just wouldn’t listen.”

Before Tinker Bell could say a word, there was a happy- sounding
“Meooww”
from the hallway.

Tink and Lizzy turned to see where it came from and saw Fawn, Rosetta, Iridessa, Silvermist, Clank, and Bobble come riding into the kitchen on Mr. Twitches’s back.

“Tinker Bell!” they all shouted with glee.

The group hopped off the blissfully happy kitty—still full of catnip—and sent him on his way.

“Tinker Bell. You okay, Sweet Pea?” Rosetta asked.

“What happened?” asked Silvermist. “Where’s Vidia?”

Tinker Bell was happy to see her friends, but she didn’t have time to celebrate. “Lizzy’s father trapped Vidia in a jar while she was saving me,” she told them breathlessly. “We have to hurry and rescue her!”

There was a pause while this information sank in. “It’s still raining,” Iridessa pointed out.

Tink tapped her chin, thinking. “We can’t fly, but I think I know somebody who can.”

Lizzy stood in the middle of the kitchen while the fairies flew around her. They helped her into her rain slicker and hat.

Lizzy chewed nervously on her lip. “I’m scared, Tinker Bell. Floating around my room is one thing, but flying all the way to London?”

Tinker Bell lifted Lizzy’s chin as if to say “No problem.”

“That easy, huh?” Lizzy’s tone said she wasn’t really convinced. But she managed a little salute. “Okay. Okay. I’ll be brave.”

“All right, fairies,” Tinker Bell instructed, “we need all the pixie dust we can get. This girl’s got a long journey ahead of her.”

Lizzy opened her arms and the fairies flew around her, each contributing his or her own precious pixie dust. They sprinkled and sprinkled until Lizzy’s rain slicker twinkled and shone.

Lizzy rose into the air. Tink flew up and nestled under the collar of her coat. “All aboard!” Tink told them.

The other fairies climbed into Lizzy’s pockets.

“Whoa! This better work.” Lizzy picked up speed as she headed toward the kitchen door.

Bam!

Lizzy missed the door and rammed into a ceiling beam. “Oops. Sorry, fairies.”

Lizzy corrected herself. On her second try, she flew cleanly through the door. Outside, she was unsteady at first, but her flying grew stronger and more confident as they flew through the storm and over the fields.

Tinker Bell was proud of her student, and her student was having a ball. “
Whoa!
I’m doing it! I’m flying!” Lizzy widened her arms and picked up speed, lowered her head, and went spiraling up into the stormy sky.

Tinker Bell looked down from her perch beneath Lizzy’s collar. It had taken a while to catch up to Dr. Griffiths, but now Lizzy was doing a great job following his car. They soared across London Bridge, past Big Ben, and through the twisting city streets.

Dr. Griffiths was driving quite fast, clearly in a rush to reach the museum.

“Tinker Bell!” Lizzy cried. “I can’t keep up. He’s going too fast.”

“Don’t worry,” Tink said. “I think I know how to stop him.” She darted out from beneath Lizzy’s collar and hurtled toward the car.

Tinker Bell took a couple of deep breaths, flew under the car to the engine, and balanced on it. Chugging machinery pounded around her. She saw a glass oil pot. If she could knock it over, she could probably stop the car. She reached out to topple it, but it wouldn’t budge.

She climbed down a copper tube through the maze of pumping machinery. When she spotted something sparkly, her tinker’s intuition kicked in.

Something told her that whatever that sparkly thing was, it was probably what made this huge machine go. Because if there’s one thing fairies know, it’s this:
If it sparkles, it’s important
.

Moving stealthily forward, she examined the wires leading to the sparkly thing. With all her might, she pulled on the lead wire. It gave, but not much.

Tinker Bell yanked harder.

Again, it gave. But it didn’t break.

Tinker Bell gritted her teeth. She let go of the copper tube so she could pull with both hands. She beat her wings furiously so she could hover upside down. And on the count of three, she gave a tremendous tug.

The response was
huge
!

There was a hideous, horrible noise, and a burst of electricity arced across the engine, barely missing Tinker Bell.

The car came to a skidding stop, and Tink was flung from beneath it. She turned over and over, finally coming safely out of her spin.

She saw Dr. Griffiths beating his hands against the wheel of the stopped car. “No! No! No! No!”

He realized that the automobile was out of commission. But he wasn’t finished yet. He jumped out of the car and continued down the street on foot.

Tinker Bell could see the jar in his hands.

This guy was really beginning to get on her nerves. He was as relentless as Mr. Twitches.

Tink could feel her face turning red with anger.

She followed Dr. Griffiths down the street and up the steps of the London Museum. He had his hand on the door when a voice rang out overhead.

“Father!”

Dr. Griffiths came to a surprised stop.

“Father! Father! Don’t take her in there.” Dr. Griffiths looked up and saw Lizzy soaring overhead, trailing a sparkling cloud of pixie dust.

He reeled back, amazed. “What in the world … ?”

Lizzy floated down and hovered beside him.

“Lizzy!” he breathed. “You … you … you’re …
flying
!”

“Yes, I am.”

“But how? How are you doing that?”

Tinker Bell flew up near Lizzy’s face as she alighted on the ground.

“My friends showed me how.”

One by one, all of the fairies emerged from the pockets and folds of Lizzy’s rain slicker. After their long ride under cover, they were dry enough to fly again.

“I don’t understand,” Dr. Griffiths said plaintively.

“You don’t have to understand,” Lizzy told him kindly. “You just have to believe.”

Slowly, so as not to frighten him, the fairies flew closer to Dr. Griffiths, circling him and illuminating him with the glow of pixie dust.

“I do believe,” he said softly. “I do believe.”

Dr. Griffiths opened his arms, inviting Lizzy to rush into them for a big hug. “Oh, Lizzy, I’m so sorry. So very sorry. I’ll never doubt you again.”

After a few moments, he let her go and held up the jar. He began to open it, then held it out to Lizzy. “Will you do the honors?”

Lizzy eagerly accepted the jar and opened the top. Vidia flew out at once and immediately found herself engulfed in a group fairy hug.

“Vidia!” Tinker Bell exclaimed happily.

The fairies celebrated by frolicking in a circle around Dr. Griffiths and Lizzy, turning their little orbit bright with joy.

Then the fairies began sprinkling the humans with clouds of sparkling, twinkling fairy dust.

“Whoaaaa! Whoaaa!”
Dr. Griffiths cried in alarm and wonder as he and Lizzy began to rise into the air. “
Whoooaaaa!
Careful!”

“Lift your arms!” Lizzy instructed. “And kick your feet!”

Dr. Griffiths slowly raised his arms and hesitantly kicked his feet.

Lizzy shouted encouragement. “You’re doing it, Father! You’re doing it!”

Dr. Griffiths’s face broke into a broad grin. “Why, I think I’m getting the hang of it. Yes. Why, I’m
flying
!” he shouted, his voice full of joy. This was amazing!

Soon he and Lizzy were swooping and capering through the sky over London.

Tinker Bell sat cross-legged on the edge of a red-andwhite-checkered cloth. Not far away sat Dr. Griffiths and Lizzy.

“Hey, Tink.” Vidia flew down and sat beside her. “So, you ever been to one of these before?”

“Yeah,” Tinker Bell answered. “Once. It’s pretty fun.”