PART 4
It was early Saturday morning and everyone in the house were asleep including Rufus who was curled up on Sally’s bed. Ronnie was asleep in his room, sprawled across his bed with the covers kicked off, while Mummy and Daddy slept soundly even though Daddy was snoring but not keeping Mummy awake because she always wore cotton wool ear plugs.
It was daylight outside but nothing stirred. There were the odd crows calling in the distance, but other than that everything was still.
Sally felt a tickle under her nose. She gave her nose a scratch and turned over. She felt it again. ‘Stop it Rufus’ she said but didn’t open her eyes. Again she felt a tickle under her nose and this time she opened her eyes. What she saw made her wake up VERY quickly. It was a fairy hovering right in front of her face! She rubbed her eyes in case she was dreaming, but when she looked again it was still there. Unlike the first fairy (that Sally had rescued) this was a tiny man. He had the same wings and was able to zip about like a dragonfly but he was dressed completely differently, (which is hardly surprising as the first fairy wore a dress!) He had on a tiny black tracksuit which was stretched quite tightly across his fat belly and he wore a sporting hat back-to-front on his head. A cigar hung from the corner of his mouth and the general impression Sally had was that this fairy had some VERY bad habits. ‘Of course’ she thought, ‘this must be a bad fairy!’
‘Is there something I can do for you?’ Sally said, quite prepared to disappear under her bed covers.
‘We need your help Mate’ he said in a rather silly voice.
‘My help? What can I do to help?’
‘You need to come with me immediately, the Queen of the Fairies commands it!’
‘There is a Queen of the fairies?’ Sally was beginning to get a bit dizzy trying to keep her eyes on the fairy as it dashed about in front of her face.
‘Of course, and she doesn’t like to be kept waiting!’
‘Okay okay but can you stop whizzing about so much, you’re making me quite dizzy.’
The bad fairy settled onto her bed rather clumsily as Sally climbed off her bed and began to get dressed. Rufus stood up and stretched and said to Sally, ‘Is it time to get up?’
‘No, it’s still very early. You stay here.’
‘Oh gooood’ said the cat and made a rather half hearted swipe at the fairy who (like a fly you try to swat) was much too quick for him. Rufus settled down and curled his front paws underneath himself. ‘I’ll just rest for a moment’ he said yawning before instantly falling asleep.
Sally tip-toed into Ronnie’s room and gave him a shove.
‘What do you want?’ he said when he finally focused his eyes and saw it was Sally poking him in the ribs.
‘We have to go back into the wood.’
‘Go back!’ he said rather too loudly.
‘Shhhhhhush’ Sally said and pointed to the bad fairy who was sitting on Ronnie’s bed-head trying to light his cigar. ‘We’ve been summoned by the Queen of the Fairies. We HAVE to go!’
Seeing the bad fairy Ronnie decided to hurry and jumped out of bed, pulling on trousers and shirt. After tying his shoelaces he stood and looked at Sally. ‘Ready?’
‘You need to comb your hair, you can’t meet a Queen looking like that!’
Ronnie licked both his hands and wiped them over his hair, ‘Happy now?’
Sally got a brush and gave his hair a quick once over before stepping back. ‘Okay, lets go!’
They tip-toed down the passage way and into the kitchen with the bad fairy hovering behind them blowing out tiny puffs of smoke from his cigar and coughing tiny coughs. As they stepped into the garden Sally closed the back door very quietly so as not to wake Mummy and Daddy. Soon they were through the hole in the fence behind the shed and struggling through the brush before finding the path.
When they arrived at the grass circle Sally put her hands around her mouth and called out the good fairy’s name, ‘********’ (I can’t write it down because it’s SO secret). Only a second passed before the good fairy appeared.
‘Oh I’m so glad that you are here’ she said in a tiny voice. ‘We need your help and the Queen wishes to speak to you as soon as possible.’
‘Lead the way’ said Sally who was getting quite used to speaking to fairies (whereas Ronnie was still very shy of them).
As the good fairy led them down one of the paths she said, ‘You are very privileged to be allowed to visit fairyland, I can’t remember any other human going there EVER!’ As she spoke she screwed up her face as the bad fairy’s smoke got up her nose causing her to sneeze. ‘Ashew!’ and with that she waved her hands and the bad fairy’s cigar disappeared!
As they went further down the path the trees above them closed in and it got darker and darker as the sun struggled to penetrate the dense foliage. Ronnie was beginning to get a bit frightened when suddenly the fairies came to an abrupt stop causing Sally to stop and Ronnie to bump into her. Before they had a chance to speak a small glow appeared in front of them. As it got closer it got brighter and both Sally and Ronnie realised that this was the Queen of the Fairies!
She hovered in front of them so they were able to get a good look at her. She was very beautiful although older than one would imagine a Queen to be and she was dressed in the most wonderful gossamer dress.
‘Welcome to Fairyland’ said the Queen and as she spoke the whole area lit up as if someone had suddenly turned on the lights!
Sally and Ronnie were speechless. They were surrounded by hundreds of fairies who each shone just a little bit of light but together lit up the whole wood. They looked around at all the fairies that hovered around them. Most were good fairies but there were a number of bad fairies who sat on branches of trees scratching their fat tummies and occasionally letting out tiny fairy farts. (as they did, the closest good fairies would move away holding their noses!)
‘We have asked you here because we need your help.’ said the Queen looking very regal. She came closer to the two children, ‘We have discovered that human’s plan to destroy the wood and build houses.’ As she said this there was a collective sigh from all the fairies gathered around them.
‘That is terrible’ said Sally.
‘This wood has been left untouched for hundreds of years. Once there were woods everywhere but slowly humans have been tearing them down and the fairies are running out of places to live.’ (All the fairies whispered ‘Oh no!’)
‘I’m not sure what two children can do but we’ll think of something,’ said Sally.
‘You must stop them. If this wood is destroyed then all the fairies will disappear.’ (All the fairies whispered ‘Disappear, oh no!’)
‘There’s no time to waste, we must get back and work out a plan,’ said Sally and Ronnie nodded in agreement.
The Queen hovered closer to them. ‘You are good children. You have been given extraordinary powers,’ as she said this she looked sideways at the fairy who they had rescued, ‘..much to my annoyance, I have to say. However, you have used these powers only for good so this is why I have asked you here. You need to do all you can to stop this tragedy from happening.’
‘We will, we promise!’ Ronnie said.
‘If you need our help you know how to find us. Now go!’ As the Queen said this, the whole area suddenly turned dark as the fairies stopped glowing and all Sally and Ronnie could see were the tiny glows coming from tiny little cigars.
They returned home just as their Mummy was making breakfast. It was Saturday and Daddy was enjoying a lie-in.
‘Mummy Mummy they’re going to destroy the wood, we need to stop them!’
‘Who’s going to destroy the wood Darling?’ her mother said rather absentmindedly as she lifted the milk out of the fridge.
‘I don’t know’ said Sally, ‘but we need to stop them.’
‘Of course we do Darling, but lets have breakfast first shall we?’
Sally didn’t hesitate, ‘Come on’ she said to Ronnie and raced upstairs to Daddy, who was fast aslee
p when they both landed on the bed.
‘Daddy Daddy, they’re going to destroy the wood, we need to stop them.’
‘We MUST stop them!’ Ronnie added to emphasise the point.
Their father groaned as the two children jumped up and down on the bed, he knew that this was the end of his treasured lie-in.
‘Who told you this?’
‘Errrr, I don’t know. I think I heard it at school.’
‘Well I’ve not heard that story and I’m sure if anyone was going to touch that wood it’d be all over the news.’
‘But it’s TRUE-OOOOO!’ shouted Ronnie, they’re going to build houses all over it!!! We’ve got to stop them NOWWW!!’
‘Look kids, you go and have your breakfast and let me get showered and dressed. When I’ve had some breakfast, we’ll find out if there is any truth in this story. Okay?’
‘Okay Daddy, but hurry!’
As he was eating his breakfast they explained the urgency once more. He didn’t think there was anything in it because neither he nor Mummy had heard anything about any building where the wood stood. Eventually, he did agree to take them both to the local council office.
‘If anyone is planning to build around here the council would have to approve it.’ He was certain this would settle the matter.
An hour later they were pulling into the Council car park. Walking towards the big building with its broad flight of steps across the front, Ronnie was the first to see the big silver Rolls Royce limousine.
‘Crickey, look at that!’
Sally looked through the drivers window and noticed on the front seat a folder with DEV ESTATE DEVELOPMENTS written on its cover. ‘Hmm,’ she thought, ‘bit of a coincidence.’ The she saw the dog on the back seat. It was an old German Shepard and it was panting with its tongue handing out.
‘You poor thing’ said Sally and tried to open the door but it was locked. Her father was climbing the stairs so she looked at Ronnie and gave him wink.
Ronnie grinned and taking hold of the door wrenched it open with his amazing strength.
Inside the car it was like a furnace and the old dog looked like it could hardly move. ‘Woof woof woof’ she said (which means ‘Come on old boy, we’ll get you a drink of water’).
The dog’s ears picked up when he heard a human speaking dog language. He climbed out of the car saying ‘Woof woof’ (which means ‘Phew, thats bloody hot in there!’). Just then a voice shouted out.
‘Hey you, what do you think you are doing?’
They looked up and saw a big fat man with a bald head stumbling down the steps. ‘Get off my car you ragamuffins!’ He yelled which only attracted the attention of their father who turned and hurried back to them.
The fat man reached the car and seeing the damage to the door he grabbed Sally and shouted ‘Call the police, I’ve caught a thief’.
Just as the security man appeared at the top of the stair, Sally’s Daddy arrived and grabbed Sally just as Ronnie kicked the fat man in the shin!
‘Whats going on here?’ said the security man.
The fat man was hopping on one leg and holding his shin. ‘These kids broke into my car, I want them arrested!’ he shouted.
The security man recognised the builder, ‘Ah Mr Dev, I’ll get the police.’
‘Hang on a minute before you go rushing off to call the Police’ said Daddy. ‘If you take a look at the extensive damage to the door you’ll realise that it would be impossible for children to do!’
The security man and the fat man looked at the badly buckled door and saw the point Daddy was making. ‘However,’ said Daddy, ‘I think you should call the Police because it’s a crime to lock dogs in cars that are sitting in the sun.’
‘But but but’ said the fat man.
‘No buts Mr Dev, this dog needs a drink as soon as possible’ and with that the security man dashed off to get a bowl of water.
When they got into the Council Offices they met the local Mayor leaving his office.
‘Ah, just the man’ said Daddy as the Mayor gave him a creepy smile. ‘Can you tell me, are there plans to develop the wood?’
‘Who told you that?’ said the Mayor looking suddenly nervous.
‘Is it true?’
The Mayor took on a sheepish look, ‘We did ask for people’s comments at the public meeting.’
‘What meeting?’
‘The one we held last week before the council voted.’
‘How many people attended?’
‘Errr, I can’t remember exact numbers...’
‘Roughly!’ Daddy was getting pretty angry.
‘Two’
‘I don’t believe it, this is a disgrace! Now I know why that awful Mr Dev was here. I bet he’s got his fingers into this.’
‘It’ll be a lovely development. A beautiful flat golf course surrounded by exclusive homes.’
Just then Sally interrupted, ‘What about the rare and endangered animals that live in the wood?’
Daddy, Ronnie and the Mayor all looked slightly surprised at Sally’s statement before the Mayor explained, ‘Little girl, we’ve had experts look at the wildlife in the woods and NOTHING is rare OR endangered!’
‘I’ll show you!’ shouted Sally before storming out the door followed by Ronnie and Daddy.
On the drive home Daddy wanted to know where Sally had got the idea that anything rare or endangered lived in the wood. ‘I think we’ve lost this one if they’ve had experts looking at this.’
Sally looked at her brother Ronnie and said to her Daddy, ‘We’ll show them, experts or no experts we’ll PROVE it!’
The only problem was, Sally had absolutely NO IDEA how she was going to find any rare or endangered animals at short notice!