Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast Read online

  The lightning snapped off the tower and slammed into Gruff. Then, as with the first tower, it collapsed to the ground.

  “Two down, two to go!” Fawn shouted.

  Gruff went straight to the Summer Forest to take down the third tower.

  When he was finished there, three streams of light, one from each of the towers he destroyed, were now flowing into him.

  Fawn cheered him on. “One more, Gruff!” She led the way to the Spring Valley and the last tower.

  Fawn and Gruff were about to finish the job, when, suddenly—

  A giant pixie dust–coated boulder hit the tower at full force. The tower exploded, sending rocks hurtling through the air like missiles.

  Beyond the collapsed tower, Nyx stood proudly.

  “NO!” Fawn screamed.

  WHAMMM!! Gruff crashed to the ground, skidded to a stop, and lost control of all the energy concentrated in his body.

  Fawn rushed to the scout fairy and shouted, “Nyx! What are you doing?!”

  “Saving Pixie Hollow,” Nyx replied.

  Fawn pointed at Gruff, who was struggling to get up. He was so weak. “No, he was saving Pixie Hollow.”

  The air crackled and Nyx’s hair stood straight up on end.

  “Nyx!” Fawn shrieked as one of the bolts headed directly toward her.

  Nyx prepared for the impact, when suddenly Gruff appeared over her. He absorbed the lightning instead and saved her life.

  Nyx was speechless.

  “Nyx, we don’t have much time.” Nyx was staring at Gruff with new understanding. “Listen to me. Get out of here. Get everyone to safety.”

  Nyx took off, leaving Fawn to help Gruff with the lightning and the last tower.

  Gruff hurried to start rebuilding the tower. He was rolling boulders into place, his vision still foggy. Lightning was everywhere.

  “Gruff, it’s too late.” Fawn tilted her head. “How can we catch it all?”

  Fawn looked at Gruff, who was looking up to the center of the storm.

  They locked eyes, understanding what needed to be done.

  “Follow me,” Fawn said.

  Gruff started to run, gaining speed. His wings flapped hard, beating the air—and then he was airborne. Fawn flew close to his ear so he could follow her glow.

  Gruff took the lightning hits one after another. As they neared the storm’s vortex, he grabbed Fawn with his tail and moved her behind him, then flapped hard, up and away from her to protect her. The fury of the storm emptied into Gruff’s body.

  Gruff blasted the lightning energy off with his wings, sending a shock wave of heat and light safely out to sea, into the void, far from Never Land.

  In Pixie Hollow the fairies shielded their eyes from this explosion. No one spoke for a long time, until Iridessa asked Silvermist, “Can you see them?”

  “There!” Silvermist pointed.

  Two bodies tumbled from the sky.

  “Fawn!” Tinker Bell shrieked.

  The girls bolted into the air, racing to their friend. Nyx zoomed to their aid, too, calling to her scouts, “Help them!”

  Silvermist and Iridessa carried Fawn gently to the ground.

  Nyx and the scouts landed with Gruff.

  As the beast hit the ground, he staggered to his feet, scorched and dazed. Gruff shook his back, and his wings crumbled into ash and blew away. The nightshade had worn off. He could now see clearly. He saw the fairies. And then he saw Fawn. She was hurt.

  Gruff rushed over and circled Fawn. Tears welled up in his big eyes. He nuzzled Fawn’s cheek and one last tiny current of static electricity squeezed out through his fur. It flowed from him into Fawn, wrapping around her body.

  An instant later, Fawn’s eyelids fluttered open.

  “Hhhhuh…Gruff?” she asked on a whisper. Gruff grunted. “Hey. That’s my big furry monster.”

  Gruff roared happily.

  Fawn giggled and the crowd cheered.

  “Gruff.” Fawn hugged her friend.

  Fawn gathered everyone together. It was time for a fresh reading of the NeverBeast parchment. Fawn had rewritten the story. “Every fairy should know the true story about the NeverBeast,” she said. “He is the brave guardian of Pixie Hollow.”

  She held up a drawing of the NeverBeast. “He is our hero. And his name is…Gruff.”

  A few days later, Gruff was helping the fairies rebuild the animal nursery. It was just one of the many things he had done to help fix Pixie Hollow. Everyone loved having him around. After helping with a roof, Gruff yawned, which worried Fawn.

  She lowered her ear to his chest to listen to his heart.

  “Looks like he needs a nap,” Iridessa said.

  “A little rest’ll perk him right up,” Rosetta added, then asked, “Won’t it, Fawn?”

  Gruff sat down in the dirt, too tired to keep working.

  “His work is done,” Fawn explained to the others. “It’s time for him to go back into hibernation.”

  Rosetta asked, “How long are we talking about? A month? A season?”

  Vidia saw Fawn shake her head. “A year?”

  Fawn tried not to cry when she told them, “More like a thousand years.”

  “But that means—” Silvermist started.

  “We’ll never see him again,” Tink finished.

  Fawn didn’t say anything more to them. She flew up onto Gruff’s nose, looking him in the eyes. “It’s time.…”

  The fairies led Gruff through the woods, heading for home.

  It was a beautiful, magical procession; the path was lit by orbs of moonlight captured by light fairies and hung from branches like lanterns.

  When they reached the inner chamber of the cave, the girls gave Gruff gifts. Tink made him a comfy bed. Rosetta gave him a pillow. Silvermist added a freshwater spring. Iridessa gave him a nightlight. Vidia provided a gentle breeze.

  Nyx also had a gift. But it wasn’t something Gruff could touch or hold. She bowed in respect.

  Fawn was last. “Hey, big guy. I won’t see you again. But I know you’ll always be there when we need you. I’m really gonna miss you.” At last, she pulled back to gaze into his face. “I love you, Gruff.”

  He gazed back at her, also full of love. Then, slowly, his eyes started to close and Gruff drifted off to sleep with a happy smile.

  Beyond London, past the second star to the right and straight on ’til morning, lay the glistening hills of Never Land. Above the meadows of Pixie Hollow, graceful fairies flitted across the blue sky.

  But not Zarina.

  She walked into Sunflower Meadow, where Rosetta, Silvermist, and Iridessa were working together to grow a lush field of flowers. Each fairy has their own special talent, which tells what their tasks are.

  “There we go,” Rosetta said as she planted seeds. Silvermist watered the soil.

  “Little bit of sun.” Iridessa added her touch, then, noticing her friend Zarina, she said, “Oh, look!”

  Rosetta gazed up and, seeing that Zarina was traveling on foot instead of flying, remarked, “Hey, Zarina. Out of pixie dust again, sugar?”

  Zarina shrugged. Her red hair glistened in the sunlight. “You know me, Rosetta.”

  “I could give you some tips on conserving your supply,” Iridessa suggested.

  “I may just take you up on that, Dessa,” Zarina said as she hurried out of the garden.

  Silvermist shook her head. “A dust-keeper fairy who’s always out of pixie dust.”

  “Ironic, isn’t it?” Rosetta replied.

  Zarina walked quickly through animal-fairy headquarters, where Fawn was busy bathing a couple of baby birds.

  “Lift that wing! Right there—nice!” Fawn said to the birds. “Okay. Rinse time. Time to dry.” The birds moved past Fawn’s cleaning station to where Vidia was drying them with a soft gust of wind.

  Zarina scurried by.

  “Hey, Z! Wings okay?” Fawn called out.

  “Just enjoying a stroll, but thanks, Fawn! Nice wind, Vidia!” She hurried away.

  “Thanks.” Vidia looked up from the birdbath. Then she asked Fawn, “What’s a stroll?”

  Zarina could see the Pixie Dust Tree in the distance.

  “Oh no!” At the sound of a whistle signaling the start of her shift at the Pixie Dust Depot, she picked up her pace and jogged the rest of the way.

  After stamping her fairy card, Zarina entered the pixie dust distribution area and slid down a rope to the assembly line area. Her work smock had a large Z in the center of it. She slipped it on, blew the hair out of her eyes, and took her place in the distribution line without a moment to spare.

  Terence the sparrow man—what male fairies are called—blew his kazoo, marking the start of the workday. The assembly line began to roll. Pixie dust swirled around a central vat, funneled down into barrels, and then dropped gently onto leaves, where the measuring dust-keepers made sure there was just the right amount.

  Zarina’s station came next. As each package went by, she leaned in and studied the contents before wrapping the leaves into neat dust-filled packages.

  “Uh.” The dust-keeper next to Zarina pointed at Zarina’s bangs, which were now floating up thanks to the pixie dust she’d sprinkled on them.

  Zarina considered her hair. “We put the dust in the bags, and the bags stay there, right? And yet, we sprinkle dust on top of something, and it floats.” She put a pinch of dust on her ponytail. The hair rose up toward the sky.

  Suddenly, everyone in the line paused, pixie dust packages in hand.

  The dust-keeper said, “Well, that’s just how pixie dust works.”

  While everyone else seemed to accept that answer, Zarina didn’t. She asked, “Well, yes, I know, but why is the question…isn’t it?”

  No one answered.


  “Know what I mean? Not even a little? Never once had the thought?” Zarina asked them.

  The dust-keepers still stared at her blankly.

  Fairy Gary, the head dust-keeper, entered the factory floor, along with his assistant, Terence.

  “Good morning, dust-keepers!” Fairy Gary greeted everyone.

  Zarina shook the pixie dust out of her hair and muttered, “Oh!”

  “All right, let’s see, on Blue Dust Duty today, we have…” Gary looked at Terence. “What were we on?”

  Terence looked at his list. “Y.”

  “Ah yes, Yvette.” Gary glanced around.

  “Yvette’s out for the day, Fairy Gary. Her dust-keeper elbow flared up again,” a fairy reported.

  “That’s fantastic!” Zarina suddenly shouted, then softened. “I mean, poor, poor Yvette.”

  “Well, that brings us to—” Fairy Gary stared at the list.

  Zarina pointed to the Z on her apron. “Z.”

  “Z,” Fairy Gary echoed with a long sigh. “Zarina, you’re up.”

  “Uh-oh,” a dust-keeper muttered as Zarina left the assembly area with Fairy Gary.

  Zarina followed Fairy Gary into the Blue Pixie Dust Vault.

  “I mean, one day early. It’s so exciting,” Zarina said happily. She stopped talking as Gary opened a fancy chest with a secret combination lock.

  “Six clicks to the right…” Zarina watched him carefully, reciting the code from memory.

  “Yes,” Gary said. “Thank you.”

  The lid slid open.

  “Whoa,” Zarina gasped.

  Inside the chest was the super-rare, amazing, sparkling Blue Pixie Dust. Blue Dust strengthened the Pixie Dust Tree and helped the tree make enough golden pixie dust for all the fairies in Pixie Hollow.

  With their daily ration of pixie dust, fairies could fly and make magic. Pixie dust was extremely important, and adding Blue Dust to the tree was a huge responsibility.

  Zarina took the job seriously. She slowly collected blue flecks into a clear glass vial.

  Fairy Gary watched her. “Careful now: After last time, I am sure I don’t have to remind you just how potent and powerful this—”

  “No touching. I promise,” Zarina said.

  “Attagirl. All right, then, exactly twenty-six specks,” Gary reminded her.

  “But why twenty-six?” Zarina asked.

  Gary sighed. “And here we go….”

  “Why not twenty-five? What would happen if we put in, say, twenty-seven?”

  “Zarina, you’re the most inquisitive fairy I’ve ever known.” Gary changed his mind. “Correction: It’s a tie. Let’s just say you’re the Tinker Bell of dust-keepers.”

  “Why do you say that like it’s a bad thing?” Zarina asked.

  “Because we don’t work with twigs and acorn caps. We work with pixie dust. It’s our lifeblood.” He paused before reminding her, “There’s no room for error.”

  Fairy Gary and Zarina entered the boughs of the Pixie Dust Tree. The tree glowed as it made golden pixie dust. Zarina could see that the usual trickle of pixie dust was slow and weak.

  Zarina handed Fairy Gary the vial. Fairy Gary poured the dust into a beautiful wood-and-glass container, refilling the tree’s well with the precious blue flakes.

  “Blue Dust—one of nature’s mightiest multipliers—takes the golden dust from a trickle to a roar.…” Gary said.

  Zarina stood behind Gary and watched as the Blue Dust dropped speck by speck into the golden dust. The stream of golden dust grew bigger and brighter than before, cascading in a waterfall down the side of the tree.

  “No matter how many times I see it—just, wow!” Zarina said. She thought it was beautiful.

  “Indeed,” Gary agreed.

  Zarina knew that Blue Pixie Dust was created when the light of the Blue Moon shone through a moonstone at exactly ninety degrees. That’s why the Blue Dust was so rare and precious, but still, Zarina wondered about other possibilities.

  She asked Gary, “But, if there’s Blue Dust, why can’t there be other colors?”

  “Because there aren’t,” Gary answered.

  “And maybe those other colors do other things. What if there was—I don’t know—purple? What if there’s pink?” Zarina asked.

  Fairy Gary chuckled. “The day someone finds pink pixie dust is the day I trade in my kilt for trousers.”

  Zarina’s eyes lit up. “Well, what if we don’t find it? What if we make it?”

  Fairy Gary looked at her in a serious way. “Listen carefully, Zarina: We do not tamper with pixie dust; it is far too powerful.”

  “But if we don’t, we’ll never fully understand what it’s capable of,” Zarina said.

  “That is not our job. We’re dust-keepers,” Gary told her. “We nurture the dust, maintain it, measure it, package it, and distribute it. A beautiful tradition, day in, day out, passed from one generation to the next to the next to the next.”

  Fairy Gary continued, but Zarina wasn’t listening. She’d taken off her bracelet and dipped it into the well of golden dust. She watched as it rose into the air, and then flicked it with her finger into the path of the Blue Pixie Dust.

  The combination of Blue Dust and golden dust supercharged her bracelet! Like a torpedo, the bracelet shot up. It bounced around the tree, ping-ponging off the limbs of the tree until—WHACK—it hit Fairy Gary in the face.

  “Oh no. Fairy Gary! Are you okay?” Zarina asked.

  Gary grunted.

  “Technically, I didn’t touch it this time.” Zarina frowned.

  Gary simply took her bracelet away. He removed the empty Blue Dust vial from the tree receptacle and held it toward Zarina.

  “The cap.” He said it, and Zarina put the lid on the vial. Then Gary lectured her, “Let me be absolutely clear, Zarina: Dust-keepers are forbidden to tamper with pixie dust.”

  With that, he flew away, leaving Zarina alone at the tree.

 

 

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