Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast Read online

She continued to follow the beast, darting back and forth and taking cover when necessary. She hid under a mushroom, then behind a tree, until the beast stopped at a pile of large rocks.

  Balancing on his hind legs, the beast dug at a large red boulder. It was stuck. He dug harder, but his paw slipped, and he fell forward—right onto the injured paw.

  He roared in pain.

  “Hmmm…” Fawn was thinking of a way to help.

  The beast smelled her scent and turned. She quickly escaped into a tree.

  The beast sorted through stones, putting aside gray ones and choosing the red ones.

  Fawn knew what she could do: She pushed a red boulder forward. “Come on, big guy, over here.” The beast followed it.

  As the beast walked over to the rock, Fawn released a branch attached to a rope that pulled the boulder up into the air. The beast got up onto his back legs, trying to reach the dangling rock.

  This was Fawn’s chance. She took a deep breath and flew right at him. As he chomped down on the rock with his teeth, she landed on his paw, grabbed the thorn, and pulled it free.

  Fawn fell to the ground and rolled away, but her foot got caught in the rope, which was now pinned under the large rock. The beast saw her. She tugged at the knots, trying to get free, but the beast stood over her, snorting hot breath.

  He opened his mouth. Fawn stared at his dagger teeth. “Wait! I was only trying to help!” she said, panicking.

  The beast lowered his head and chomped down…on the rock. He picked up the boulder in his teeth and carried it away.

  “Huh? Hmmm.” Fawn watched him lick his paw and stomp on the ground. It looked like he was agreeing to let her live. Fawn stood up and took a deep breath. “Huh, those thick forelimbs are ideal for digging.” Then she tried to convince herself to leave, saying, “Nope. No, no, no, no, you’re all fixed up, so—off I go!”

  The beast went back to collecting rocks. But Fawn didn’t leave. She continued to study him. “And that massive jaw is perfect for supporting those heavy rocks.” She stepped into his way. He glared at her and she moved aside. “Y’know, it’s like you’re a cross between Didelphis Marsupialis and Bison Occidentalis…”

  The beast then spit out a twig of snodgrass sap.

  “…that spits. I don’t know what that’s about.” She sighed.

  The beast added another rock to the pile. He was clearly building something.

  “And I don’t know what that’s about,” she muttered.

  The beast wrapped his tail around a branch and hung upside down, using his tongue to pick up a red rock from a deep cavern below.

  Fawn hung by her knees on an opposite branch nearby, thoroughly confused, yet fascinated. “I really don’t know what that’s about. What are you building?” She paused, then told herself, “Y’know, it is my job as an animal fairy to understand and study animals. And the queen did say I should listen to my head.”

  The beast didn’t reply. Fawn was forming a plan.

  “You’ve convinced me. I’ll do it,” she told herself. “For the queen.”

  The beast kept moving rocks.

  “Now, stay here, okay? I’ll be right back. I just need to get my stuff. Don’t go anywhere! Just stay.” She flew off, but popped right back. “Stay.”

  Fawn rushed home to gather tools. When she arrived, Nyx was standing in her doorway.

  “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” Nyx leaned her spear against the door frame and stepped inside. “So, where ya been? Off hiding a hippo?”

  “Yep, he’s bunking with the bobcat,” Fawn replied.

  “Did you hear that roar this morning?” Nyx asked her.

  Fawn paused. “Can you describe the roar in question? What kind of roar was it?”

  “The loud, hair-raising, monstrous kind,” Nyx told her.

  Fawn began piling tools in Nyx’s arms. “Animals make all kinds of roars. I mean, you’ve got your growls, howls, whoops, hollers, shrieks, and rumbles. Was it…like this?” She shrieked like a cat.

  “No,” Nyx said. “A roar.”

  “Oh. Sort of like a…” Fawn trumpeted like an elephant.

  “No.”

  Fawn whined like a hyena.

  “No.”

  Fawn howled like a wolf.

  “No.”

  Fawn shrieked like a chimp.

  “Fawn—” Nyx started.

  Fawn jumped in. “Yeah, if you hear that one, run. Would you hand me that?” She pointed to a ball of twine.

  “Look. This thing might be a threat to Pixie Hollow.” Nyx shoved the tools back into Fawn’s arms. “If you find out what made that roar, I need to know.” When Fawn didn’t reply, Nyx added, “Are we clear?”

  “What will you do if you find it?” Fawn asked.

  Nyx picked up her spear, spun it, and headed to the door. “My job,” she said.

  Fawn frowned, then added the ball of twine to her pile, muttering to herself, “And I’ll do mine.”

  Back outside the NeverBeast’s cave, the creature was still hard at work sorting stones. Fawn landed in one of his giant footprints and measured its width by walking across it.

  After that, she snuck in from behind, dropping a measuring tape over his ear, checking his size. She made a note on her clipboard.

  Suddenly Fawn shrieked as the ground rumbled. The beast was rolling another rock.

  Fawn slid under him to snip off a piece of his fur. She ducked in a hole to hide, but when the beast rolled a rock on top of her hole, she was trapped inside. “Hello?” she called out.

  She found a way to free herself and began working on sewing clumps of the beast’s fur together to make a beast costume. With a mighty roar, she jumped out of the brush.

  The beast ignored her.

  When night fell, Fawn created a bed from brush and sticks, just like the beast was doing, but the beast rolled a rock over her bed, crushing it.

  The next day, Fawn began stomping in a circle, exactly like the beast.

  When the beast rolled a giant boulder with his snout. Fawn did the same with a small pebble and her nose.

  The beast was building a mighty tower. Fawn added her pebble to the rock pile, but the beast carelessly flicked it away.

  Fawn sighed. She simply wanted to understand.

  She sat down and tried to draw a picture of the beast. He turned away from her. Fawn’s drawing was a mess. The day was getting away from her, and she hadn’t learned much about him yet.

  Day turned to night. Fawn flew near the beast’s head and suddenly his eyes lit up when she glided past. Her glowing pixie dust trail caught his attention and he looked up, captivated. It was a breakthrough! Fawn grinned and took a note.

  As she wrote in her notebook, the NeverBeast abruptly nudged her with his giant nose. Fawn and the beast had connected! His expression was soft and gentle. She smiled back at him.

  Fawn began sprinkling pixie dust on top of a boulder. The rock began to levitate, and she gracefully placed the rock on top of the beast’s pile. He allowed her contribution to remain.

  Hours passed, Fawn and the beast’s tower continued to grow, but Fawn was getting tired. This time, when she got into her makeshift bed, the beast walked around it. Fawn yawned and fell fast asleep.

  The next morning, the beast nudged Fawn awake. She muttered, “I cleaned out the skunk pen yesterday.…” Then Fawn realized where she was. The beast was right in front of her! “Oh! Good morning!” she said happily.

  In the distance was the finished tower. It was a giant structure, curving into the sky, tapering to a point out of view. It looked dangerous, sharp, and yet beautiful.

  “Looks like somebody’s a night owl,” Fawn said. She circled the tower, examining it. “What is this?” The beast suddenly grabbed Fawn and put her on top of his head. “Oh. Okay.” Fawn went along for the ride, asking questions as they went. “So, where to? Anywhere but scout headquarters…Look, if I’m gonna cover for you, I need to know—what’s the tower for? This one beaver I know, Bob—great g
uy—he makes dams big enough to store food for three winters!”

  The beast didn’t answer, so she went on. “And of course marmots build these terrific burrows out of rock piles for hibernation. And then you’ve got your northern orioles and those hanging nests of theirs—talk about brilliant! But I’m thinking you’re not storing food. Or preparing for hibernation. Or nesting.” The beast grunted as if to agree.

  “Seriously, what’s the tower for?” Fawn asked.

  The beast snarled.

  “Well, you don’t have to be so gruff about it.” She paused, thinking about what she’d said. “That’s it. Gruff. Yep, Gruff suits you to a—”

  The beast, now Gruff, whipped his tail around, yanking Fawn off his back. She looked around. They were now in the Summer Forest. Gruff immediately began to stomp the ground for a foundation.

  “Guess we’re building another one,” Fawn said.

  Gruff dug out a boulder.

  Fawn was about to help when suddenly she had an idea. She flew up next to him. “But before we start, I was just thinking: Why not enjoy yourself a bit while you work?”

  Gruff grunted.

  “Just hear me out. No reason I should have all the fun with the pixie dust.” She showed him how she could sprinkle dust on the boulder he was rolling. It floated up. “Come on!”

  Gruff found he could easily push the boulder with his tail. He grunted.

  “Now we’re talking.” Fawn raised a few rocks.

  Gruff used a snout, tail, paw combo to sail them into formation. It was so much easier this way. Fawn flew back and forth, setting up rocks for Gruff. They all landed in the right spots.

  Fawn pretended she was a sports announcer. “Fairies and sparrowmen, presenting the three-time defending champion of the Pixie Hollow Games tower-building event—the amazing, incomparable Gruff!” Fawn cheered. “Will he hold off this year’s pint-sized yet feisty challenger?”

  Gruff’s nostrils flared as he took the rock challenge and slammed three floating rocks into the pile.

  “And he nails it!” Fawn announced.

  Until…the boulders hit the pile with so much force, the tower fell over.

  “But it’s too much!” Fawn claimed victory. The rocks she flung to the pile stayed put. “The fairy wins! The fairy—”

  An instant later, Fawn’s smile faded as she realized Gruff’s rocks had gone over a cliff and fallen onto Sunflower Meadow below. “Oh nooooo…”

  Down in the meadow, the garden fairies had just finished blooming the last sunflower.

  “And done. This may be our best spring yet…” a fairy was saying when Fawn’s voice boomed from above.

  “INCOMING!!!”

  The garden fairies looked up. In a flash, a field of sunflowers and several nurseries were destroyed. The garden fairies barely made it out alive.

  Nyx and her scouts came to examine the damage.

  “The boulders came from that direction?” Nyx pointed up at the cliff above.

  “Affirmative,” Fury said.

  A garden fairy said, “If Fawn hadn’t shouted that warning, we’d be flatter than a pumpkin seed.”

  Nyx paused. “Fawn?” She glanced up at the top of the hill.

  From the ledge, Fawn saw Nyx looking at her. She turned and said, “Hey, Gruff, I think it’s time we make like a tree and get…” But Gruff was gone.

  “Oh,” Fawn said, wondering where he went.

  Fawn raced through the forest, following Gruff’s prints. “Come on, Gruff! Where are you?”

  She was moving so fast, she ran right into him. He ignored her as he gathered more red rocks.

  “Gruff! No time for rock collecting! You gotta get outta here. GRUFF!”

  In the distance, Nyx and the scouts came over the ridge to find Gruff’s pile of rocks above Sunflower Meadow.

  Fury noticed a mangled shrub in the background. “Nyx…” She called the leader.

  Nyx examined the leaves. “Snodgrass.” Then, using her tracking skills, Nyx followed a trail of soft paw prints. She signaled her crew. “Knock it out with the nightshade powder!”

  Fawn caught up with Gruff. She needed to get him away from the scouts.

  Desperate, Fawn flew in front of him and did a loopty-loop, shaking pixie dust everywhere. “Okay, new game, Gruff. It’s called ‘Chase the Fairy’!” She took off and Gruff sprinted after her. “Now follow me!”

  Fury and Chase spotted Gruff and Fawn speeding through the forest.

  Chase whistled to Fury and she pulled three pouches of nightshade powder from her bag and tossed them in the air. Then Chase launched an arrow at the pouches, which burst, but the wind shifted and the smoke made all the scout fairies sleepy. They fell out of the sky.

  Nyx bolted forward, expertly dodging the flying branches and leaves. She blasted out of the forest and pulled up at the edge of a cliff. There was no sign of Fawn or the beast anywhere.

  Directly below Nyx, Fawn hid Gruff in the camouflage of a rock wall. She sighed as Nyx moved off in another direction. “That’s my big, furry monster.…” she whispered to Gruff. “Maybe it’s time to make proper introductions.”

  Nyx returned to Pixie Hollow and entered the Book Nook.

  Scribble was there, absorbed in his research.

  Nyx interrupted. “Get me every animal volume you have in here immediately—”

  “Please. I’m in the middle of a high-level, special royal project. Oh, did I say royal? Oops, top secret—” Scribble put her off until he saw who was there. He didn’t think there was a lovelier fairy than Nyx. “Oh. Hello. How may I help you?”

  Nyx repeated her demand, and Scribble got to work immediately on piling up the animal books, carrying so many at a time they made him look as if he had muscles. “And this is just the As. Y’know, books are a workout for the brain…and the biceps.”

  Knowing she needed him, Nyx tried not to glare. She flipped through each book, not finding what she needed. Scribble kept bringing more texts to her. When she reached the Zs, she buried her head in her hands wearily.

  The whole time Nyx was looking, Scribble had been talking to her, but she wasn’t listening. Then she heard him say, “And so I said, ‘Listen, QC—Clar, most sparrowmen couldn’t stomach this kind of pressure, but then again, I’m not most sparrowmen. And besides, that mysterious green comet isn’t going to analyze itself.’”

  Nyx looked around the room as she listened, her eyes drawn to a piece of parchment on Scribble’s bulletin board. On it, there was a beast drawn with a distinctive tail and fur markings, and a comet drawn above the creature’s head.

  In a flash, Nyx flew across the room, swiping the fragment off the board.

  “Hey!” Scribble shouted.

  Nyx got in his face. “Tell me everything you know about this. Everything.”

  “Over dinner?” he asked hopefully. She didn’t blink. “Oh, okay. I see. I’ve misread this situation entirely, haven’t I?” He sighed to himself. “We’ll always have the As.”

  That evening, Fawn gathered her friends near Gruff’s Summer Tower.

  “First, thank you guys so much for meeting me here. I’m sure you’re wondering what this is about.”

  Tink, Vidia, Silvermist, Iridessa, and Rosetta were all there. Rosetta was already dressed for bed.

  Fawn told them, “So, as you know, I really learned my lesson about being smarter when it comes to dangerous animals.”

  The girls all nodded.

  “We know.”

  “We’re really proud of you.”

  “Oh, honey, you are doing great.”

  “Yeah, you’re doing really good.”

  “I never thought you’d make it this far,” Vidia said.

  “However—” Fawn began.

  “And here we go.” Vidia rolled her eyes.

  “Fawn…” Tink braced herself.

  Fawn took a deep breath and moved aside. “Ladies, say hello to Gruff.”

  The NeverBeast was hanging upside down in the tree behind Fawn. He d
ropped down from the tree branch.

  Iridessa fainted.

  “What. Is. That?” Rosetta asked.

  Fawn shrugged. “I actually don’t know. I’ve never seen any animal like him before. Ever.”

  “What does he eat?” Tink asked.

  “Not fairies,” Fawn said.

  “Oh, well, that’s a relief!” Silvermist said.

  “So I’m gonna take him to the queen and show her he’s harmless,” Fawn told them. “Then I’ll tell her how he destroyed Sunflower Meadow. Well, how I destroyed it. You know what, maybe it was both of us.” The NeverBeast grunted and Fawn corrected herself. “It was an accident, okay?”

  Gruff agreed and went back to work.

  “And what do you call that?” Vidia asked about the tower.

  “Again, I don’t exactly know…but I’m working on it!” Fawn said.

  Rosetta frowned. “I’m hearing a lot of ‘I don’t knows’ in this conversation.”

  “Umm…uncertainty makes me uncomfortable,” Iridessa complained.

  “C’mon, have I ever put you guys in danger?” Fawn asked, seriously.

  Rosetta answered honestly. “Uhh, yeah.”

  Silvermist said, “Yep.”

  Iridessa said, “Frequently. Remember Peter the Porcupine? I still can’t sit up straight.”

  Vidia waited a beat before saying, “HAWWWWWWWWK!” She was reminding them about Hannah, just to prove a point.

  “Oh, yeah.” Fawn remembered it all. “The point is—I want to do the responsible thing this time, just like I promised.”

  The girls looked at one another, then Tink turned to Fawn. “I’m guessing you already have a plan in mind?”

  She did. “Operation Gruff-a-Go-Go.”

  A little while later, Fawn and the others had coated Gruff in pixie dust and flown him through the sky. Fawn sat on his head as the girls guided them toward the Pixie Dust Tree. Gruff landed softly.

  Fawn hopped. “Open up, big guy!” She used his own spit to smooth his fur.

  “Eww! My skin is gonna break out!” Rosetta shivered.

  “Okay, so I’ll go in and set the stage. Then on my signal, get him in position, and I’ll bring her out,” Fawn said, then whispered to Gruff, “Don’t worry. She’s gonna love you.”