Catkin in Jewel Forest Read online

  The forest fairy collapsed to the mossy floor. Even the ground – usually a healthy bright green – was a murky brown colour. Catkin put her head in her hands and fought back tears. If the Jewel Tree was dying, then the whole of her beloved Jewel Forest was in danger! She picked herself up and flew over to the trunk of the Jewel Tree. Usually a bright sparkling pink, it was now a pasty grey colour. She wrapped her arms around it, but knew that the love of one fairy wouldn’t be enough to fix the special tree.

  As she hugged the trunk, Catkin looked up. The branches were usually weighed down with thousands of gems, but today she couldn’t see one jewel on the branches. What’s more, sparkling fairy-dust usually floated around the trunk and branches, but now there wasn’t even a speck of it.

  “I’m so sorry,” she whispered to the tree. “We’ve all been taking magic from you, and not giving anything back. I just hope I haven’t realized too late.”

  Catkin knew that without the Jewel Tree, the entire forest would be doomed. They needed its magic to keep everything growing!

  She gave the Jewel Tree trunk one last hug, then stepped away. “I’ll be back, I promise,” she said. It felt a bit silly talking to a tree – but after all, the tree was alive, just like the fairies and other creatures of the forest were. She looked up at the wilting bare branches and her heart felt like a stone in her chest. She had to act fast, or the Jewel Tree wouldn’t be alive for much longer!

  Catkin took a deep breath and fluttered upwards into the air. She beat her wings and zoomed back through the forest, towards her home in the sapphire-sycamore tree.

  As she fluttered along the fairy skyway, Catkin spotted a familiar figure up ahead. It was her little friend Pip, sitting on a branch outside her tiny tree house in the opal-oak tree. Pip’s home was small, to match her size, but very pretty, made from knotted beams that were studded with rubies.

  Pip looked up with a smile. “Hi, Catkin! I came to see if you needed any help for tonight’s walk. I’m really excited about it!” Her dark brown eyes twinkled in the afternoon sunshine.

  Catkin felt terrible. Everyone was looking forward to the walk, but they didn’t know the forest was in trouble. How could the walk go ahead now?

  Pip saw the worry in Catkin’s eyes. “Whatever’s wrong, Catkin?” The small fairy fluttered up and put an arm around her friend.

  “It’s the Jewel Tree,” Catkin began. “It’s … it’s dying!”

  Pip’s forehead creased in a deep frown. “What? What do you mean?”

  Catkin pointed at a branch of the opal-oak tree. “Do you notice anything different about the opal jewels?”

  Pip squinted at the jewels that hung on the leaves. “Hmm. Well, now you mention it, they do look rather dull. And there aren’t half as many as usual. What’s going on?”

  “It’s not just this tree – it’s everywhere in the forest. First there were no dandelions for the milkshakes at the Cavern Café this morning, then Goldie’s Groceries was closed. I went to What a Gem with Willa, and it hadn’t had its usual delivery of jewels – in fact, it had almost run out. I think I know why. We haven’t been looking after the forest, and the Jewel Tree is in a bad way – I’m worried it might be dying!”

  Pip immediately felt guilty. Only yesterday, she had been picking gooseberries for a tart, not even thinking about whether the bush she’d emptied would be able to grow more. “This is terrible.” She slumped back down on the branch and sighed.

  “I’ve got to work out a way to fix it,” said Catkin. “There must be something I can do.”

  Pip looked up at her friend. “But this isn’t a one-person problem, Catkin – I know you’re great at getting things done, but you can’t sort this out by yourself.”

  “You’re right!” said Catkin, her spirits lifting slightly as the beginnings of an idea started to form in her head. “I’ll call an emergency meeting at Toadstool Town Hall. I’ll get everyone to come. The whole forest will want to help!”

  “Yes, that would be a great start!” said Pip. “I can help spread the message about the meeting if you like? I’m not the fastest flyer, but I’ll do as much as I can.”

  Catkin shook her head. “No need!” She slung the bag off her shoulder and pulled out a sapphire-sycamore seed. “We can use these!”

  She explained to Pip how they worked, and the two fairies were soon sprinkling fairy-dust on the seeds. With each seed containing a message about the emergency meeting, they sent them spinning off into the air to every single fairy and creature in the forest.

  Seconds later, in the Tree Palace, a sapphire-sycamore seed floated through a leaf-shaped window into Princess Primrose’s huge circular bedroom.

  “What’s that?” said Nutmeg, who was helping Primrose pin her hair into a French plait, ready for the walk that evening.

  Instead of falling to the wooden floor, the seed began spinning about the room, and the sisters stared at it. As it moved, fairy-dust flew from the seed and spelt out a sparkly message in the air:

  Urgent! Please come to an emergency meeting at Toadstool Town Hall at noon today.

  Thank you.

  Catkin x

  “An emergency meeting?” said Nutmeg as she watched the magical dust float slowly to the floor and the message disappear.

  Primrose frowned. “That doesn’t sound good.” She glanced up at the pink cuckoo clock on her wall. “Oh, look, it’s almost noon – we’d better hurry!”

  The two sisters dropped the hairpins on Primrose’s dressing table and flew out of the bedroom, all thought of French plaits forgotten. Nutmeg whispered into the fairy-ear-shaped knot in the wall outside, which slid away to reveal a secret passage – the quickest way to get in and out of the palace. Holding hands, they zoomed along the skyway towards the town hall, worrying all the way what the emergency was and whether Catkin was OK.

  In Toadstool Town Hall, Catkin waited anxiously on the centre stage for everyone to arrive. What if the sycamore seeds hadn’t worked? There was no time to lose – they needed to do something to save the forest right away! Pip stood at the door and, to Catkin’s relief, was soon ushering in hordes of fairies, forest animals and creatures. Everyone had concerned looks on their faces, and although she didn’t want to panic everybody, Catkin was glad to see they’d taken her emergency meeting seriously. I really hope this works, she thought to herself as she waved at the fairies and creatures coming in.

  The town hall was one of the most impressive buildings in the forest. On either side of the entrance stood two golden statues – one of a princess fairy and one of a hummingbird. They were there to show how the fairies and creatures of the forest always lived and worked together in harmony. The circular walls were built of amber gemstones, and let in the sunshine from outside without the need for windows. The hall was filled with red-and-white toadstools, which the fairies and creatures now sat on, looking up at Catkin expectantly.

  She suddenly felt very nervous. She hadn’t prepared what she wanted to say, and although she loved organizing things, she didn’t really like speaking in front of a big audience!

  Catkin felt a tug at her elbow. She turned to see Pip beside her. “I think that’s everyone,” she said in her little voice.

  “What am I going to say?” whispered Catkin, feeling jittery with panic.

  Pip gave her a small smile. “Just be yourself,” she said. “Everyone will soon see how important it is to save the Jewel Tree.”

  “Thanks, Pip,” said Catkin, pushing her red curly hair behind her pointy ears and taking the bellflower microphone in her hand. She thought back to the sight of the wilting Jewel Tree and how much it needed their help, and began to speak.

  “Thank you for coming today at such short notice,” she said in a slightly shaky voice. “I wouldn’t have asked you all here if it wasn’t a real emergency.” Catkin breathed in deeply, preparing to break the news to everyone. “Some of you
may have noticed that the forest hasn’t been as magical as usual lately. Plants and flowers have stopped growing, and the jewels are dull and disappearing.”

  Catkin paused and looked out over the audience. She saw some nodding heads, and everybody had worried looks on their faces.

  “I went to visit the Jewel Tree today and … well, it looked terrible, with not one jewel on its branches.”

  Catkin heard everyone gasp as they took in the news. She hated to shock everyone, but she needed their help.

  “I hope it can be rescued,” she continued, “but we need to start looking after our beautiful home. We’ve been taking lots from it but giving nothing back, and the Jewel Tree is dying. Will you help me?”

  She glanced up hopefully, and shouts filled the hall: “Yes!” “Of course!” and “What can we do!”

  Thank fairyness, thought Catkin. It seemed as if everyone was willing to help.

  “Let’s go to the Jewel Tree. We need to start there – to give back its magic. Follow me!”

  With that Catkin flapped her red wings and zoomed from the stage and out of the town hall. She looked over her shoulder and saw that every single fairy and creature in the hall had already jumped up from their toadstool and was heading towards the arched doorway. Catkin let out a little sigh of relief. Now she just hoped her plan would work!

  Catkin reached the Jewel Tree first and waited at the trunk for the rest of the forest to arrive. Fairies fluttered down to land on the brown mossy ground, gasping as they took in the awful sight of the dying tree.

  “What have we done?” said Willa quietly, her eyes brimming with tears. “I feel awful, neglecting the forest like this.”

  Her fairy friend Blossom came up beside her. “Poor forest. No wonder I’ve been having trouble getting all my cake ingredients. I didn’t stop to think that something serious might be wrong.”

  Goldie nodded her head, her tight blonde curls bouncing up and down as she did so. “I closed my grocery shop because I’d run out of everything, but I thought it would get better. I didn’t realize we’d been treating the forest so badly.”

  Soon, everyone who lived in the forest had arrived at the Jewel Tree. They all look horrified, thought Catkin. Even the cheeky tree squirrels. The pink squirrels had grouped around the base of the tree, staring at the dull trunk, tears running down their fluffy faces.

  Butterflies hovered in the air, shocked at the sight of the tree, and birds circled slowly above. Frogs and toads sat on their haunches, silent, while ants and beetles stopped their marching. The forest fairies all stood frozen, their mouths gaping open.

  Pip tapped Catkin on the shoulder. “This is just dreadful. I hadn’t imagined the tree would look quite as bad as this. But what in fairyland can we do?”

  Catkin clapped her hands together to gather everyone’s attention. The fairies and creatures all turned their eyes on her, waiting to hear what she was going to say. It made her nervous, but she was determined.

  “I know the Jewel Tree looks terrible – but I think we can save it!” she began. “What it needs is love and a bit of fairy magic. We should at least try!” Catkin pulled out a handful of fairy-dust from her pocket and held her fist in the air. “Let’s use all the fairy-dust we have and sprinkle it over the Jewel Tree.”

  As everyone watched, Catkin fluttered to the very top of the tree and scattered every last speck of fairy-dust over the wilting branches.

  “And we can plant jewels around its base to help it grow again.” Catkin took a sapphire-sycamore seed out of her bag, dug a shallow hole in the ground with her hands and laid the seed inside. Then she pushed back the soil to fill in the hole. “With all of us helping, we can put some magic back into its roots to save it. Who’s willing to try?”

  Every single fairy and forest creature held up a hand, paw, leg or wing.

  Catkin smiled. “Then let’s start right away!”

  Fairies began flying to the top of the Jewel Tree and emptying their pockets of fairy-dust over it, just like Catkin had done. Pip zoomed up and took fistfuls of dust from her denim dungarees. She brought them up to her face and whispered, “Get better, Jewel Tree, please!”

  Meanwhile, some of the fairies were flying back to their tree houses to collect more fairy-dust. Every fairy had a stash at home, to pay for shopping and help with magic around the forest, but they didn’t mind giving every sprinkle of their dust to the tree – not if it would help save it.

  The forest creatures were running and scampering about, collecting jewels that could be planted around the base of the tree. “We’ll dig up all the emerald nuts we’ve hidden!” Conker told Catkin. “And we’ll bring them back here to plant. We tree squirrels must have buried thousands of nuts around the forest!”

  “Thank you,” said Catkin. “That will be a big help, I’m sure.”

  Everyone worked together. Sparrows and magpies searched for dropped jewels on the forest floor with their beaks. Each time they found one, the ants carried it back to the tree. For tiny insects, they were super-strong, able to manage even conker-sized gems on their backs. At the tree, rabbits and hares dug holes for the jewels to be dropped in, then covered them over when they’d been filled with gems.

  All Catkin’s fairy friends worked very hard, too. Primrose and Nutmeg had flown back to the Tree Palace to collect as much fairy-dust as they could find. She soon saw them flying back carrying a shiny red chest between them.

  “It’s royal fairy-dust from the palace cellar,” Nutmeg told Catkin excitedly. “This chest is full of it! Come on – let’s pour it over!”

  Primrose smiled at her little sister. “Make sure you’re very careful – it’s really heavy and we don’t want to spill it before we get to the tree.”

  “Here, let me help,” Willa offered. She flew to the top of the Jewel Tree with the two sisters and opened the lid while Primrose and Nutmeg tipped the chest over. A thick cloud of sparkling fairy-dust floated down, covering every single drooping branch.

  Over in a leafy part of the forest, Blossom and Pip flew about, helping the jewel moths look for gems that could be buried around the tree. “Here’s some!” cried Blossom, diving down to the base of a cherry-jewel tree where lots of red jewels lay fallen on the ground. She began stuffing them in the pockets of her daisy-petal shorts, but the pockets were small and she couldn’t squeeze many in.

  “Wait a minute,” said Pip in her little voice. “Let’s ask the beetles to take back the jewels for us – then we can go looking for more.”

  Blossom slapped a hand to her forehead. “Why didn’t I think of that? Great idea!”

  Soon hundreds of beetles were marching back to the Jewel Tree, each carrying a cherry-jewel on their back, while Blossom and Pip went in search of more.

  Catkin stayed near the tree, making sure the fairy-dust and jewels were scattered evenly, and giving jobs to fairies and creatures who weren’t sure what to do. The tree hadn’t changed at all yet, not as far as she could see, but Catkin tried not to be disappointed – she thought it might take some time for the fairy-dust and jewels to work. She hoped so, anyway, from the bottom of her heart. As she looked up to watch Willa scatter more fairy-dust over the tree, she noticed the sky had turned a light purple. It was dusk – the sun was setting! They wouldn’t be able to work for much longer. But Catkin had one more idea up her sleeve.

  As the crescent moon rose in the sky, Catkin gathered everyone round. “Thank you for everything you’ve done,” she said. “You’ve all worked so incredibly hard. I have one last idea to help save the Jewel Tree – and our forest.”

  The fairies and creatures glanced around at one another. What else could they possibly do?

  “Each and every one of us lives in the forest, and we’re a big part of what makes it special and magical. So I’m going to stay here and sleep next to the Jewel Tree tonight to show the forest just how much I love it. Who will stay
with me?”

  “Me! Me! Me!” everyone shouted at once.

  What a good idea, thought Blossom.

  “A camping sleepover? Brilliant!” said Nutmeg, jumping up and down.

  Catkin was delighted when every single fairy and creature agreed to join her. They all began to set up camp. The fairies made tents of leaves and beds of moss while the animals dug burrows. The birds made nests out of twigs, and the butterflies found shelter in the nearby hedgerows.

  As the stars twinkled in the inky-black sky, everyone settled down for the night. In the tent Catkin shared with her friends, Willa began whistling the sacred forest fairy song. Soon everyone joined in – even the worms and the beetles. They sang gently, hoping the song would be another thing to help heal the Jewel Tree.

  Catkin snuggled up under her mossy blanket. If the Jewel Tree hadn’t been in such danger it would have been a magical evening, but all she could think about was whether they’d done enough to save the tree. Catkin was so worried she didn’t think she would ever get to sleep. But she’d worked so hard that day, and felt her eyelids getting heavier and heavier. Eventually she drifted off to sleep as the birds sang lullaby tweets. In the morning, they’d find out whether they’d done enough to save the Jewel Tree. For now, the forest slept.

  Catkin blinked in the sunlight that streamed into the tent and rubbed her eyes with the balls of her hands. She looked around at her friends – all still sound asleep on their mossy beds. She crawled out of the leaf-tent and looked up at the sky, expecting to see rays of bright sunshine.