Vidia and the Fairy Crown

  Copyright © 2005 Disney Enterprises, Inc.

  All rights reserved. Published by Disney Press, an imprint of Disney Book Group. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. For information address Disney Press, 114 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10011-5690.

  ISBN 978-1-4231-5825-7

  Visit disneyfairies.com

  Table of Contents

  All About Fairies

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  IF YOU HEAD toward the second star on your right and fly straight on till morning, you’ll come to Never Land, a magical island where mermaids play and children never grow up.

  When you arrive, you might hear something like the tinkling of little bells. Follow that sound and you’ll find Pixie Hollow, the secret heart of Never Land.

  A great old maple tree grows in Pixie Hollow, and in it live hundreds of fairies and sparrow men. Some of them can do water magic, others can fly like the wind, and still others can speak to animals. You see, Pixie Hollow is the Never fairies’ kingdom, and each fairy who lives there has a special, extraordinary talent.

  Not far from the Home Tree, nestled in the branches of a hawthorn, is Mother Dove, the most magical creature of all. She sits on her egg, watching over the fairies, who in turn watch over her. For as long as Mother Dove’s egg stays well and whole, no one in Never Land will ever grow old.

  Once, Mother Dove’s egg was broken. But we are not telling the story of the egg here. Now it is time for Vidia’s tale.…

  EVERY FAIRY AND sparrow man in Pixie Hollow had received the same invitation. It was handwritten on linen in blackberry juice.

  It was going to be the biggest celebration Pixie Hollow had seen in a long time. So, on the day of the party, the Home Tree was abuzz with activity. The Never fairies went all out getting ready to celebrate the Arrival Day of their beloved queen, Clarion, whose nickname was Ree.

  In the kitchen, on the ground floor of the Home Tree, the cooking- and baking-talent fairies were whipping up the seven-course royal Arrival Day dinner. The menu included dandelion leaves stuffed with rice, pine nuts, and spices; oven-roasted minipumpkin soup; and potpies filled with dwarf mushrooms and mouse Brie. Dulcie, a baking-talent fairy, was churning out batch after batch of her specialty, the most delicious poppy puff rolls in all of Never Land. And for dessert, she made a ten-layer raspberry-vanilla cake with buttercream frosting.

  Meanwhile, the polishing-talent fairies were hard at work in the Home Tree lobby and the dining hall. Every brass plate, every doorknob, mirror, window latch, and marble floor tile was polished until the fairies could see their reflections just about everywhere they looked.

  The decoration-talent fairies and the celebration-setup fairies zipped about the dining hall. They moved the tables and chairs. They draped the tables with gold tablecloths and delicate lacy spiderwebs. They sprinkled flower-petal confetti on every table and across the floor. They hung colorful balloons in the arched doorway.

  The light-talent fairies did double duty. Some of them set up the firefly lanterns that would fill the room with thousands of dancing points of light. Others did a practice run of the light show they would perform for the queen at the party. They skillfully flared and dimmed their fairy glows to create a dazzling display.

  The sewing-talent fairies were putting the finishing touches on the queen’s dress. It was a full-length masterpiece of the finest silk, decorated with pale pink rose petals, the softest green leaves, and freshwater pearls.

  Even Tinker Bell, a member of the pots-and-pans talent, was helping out. The cooking-talent fairies needed every pot and pan they could get their hands on. So Tinker Bell had risen early that morning. She finished fixing all the broken pots in her workshop on the second floor of the Home Tree. Then she returned them all, making several trips between her workshop and the kitchen.

  On her last trip down to the kitchen, Tink met up with her friend Rani, a water-talent fairy. Rani had been working in the kitchen all morning long. She was using her talent to help out with lots of little tasks, like getting the water to boil faster on the stove.

  “Rani!” Tink called. “Do you have time for a break?”

  Rani looked around the kitchen. Things seemed to be running smoothly. She didn’t think she’d be missed if she stepped out for a few minutes.

  “Yes,” Rani replied. “I do have time. Let’s go out back and whistle for Brother Dove. Maybe he can fly us down to the beach.”

  Rani did not have wings, you see. She was the only Never fairy who didn’t. She had given them up to save Mother Dove’s egg—and Pixie Hollow itself. Ever since then, Brother Dove had been her wings. Whenever she wanted or needed to fly somewhere, Rani just whistled for him, and Brother Dove came to her.

  Tinker Bell and Rani left the kitchen through the back door. They stepped out into the late-morning sunshine. It was a glorious, clear day.

  Tink took a deep breath of fresh air. “It’s going to be a beautiful—”

  “—evening,” said Rani, finishing the thought. She had a habit of finishing others’ sentences. “The perfect night for a party.”

  Just then, there was a rustling in the brush overhead. Both Tink and Rani jumped.

  “Is it a hawk?” Rani cried in alarm. Hungry hawks were the greatest threats to the Never fairies’ safety.

  Instinctively, Tink flew in front of Rani, shielding her. She strained her eyes and gazed up into the brush. She wanted to get a better look.

  Then, as she made out the shape of a fairy among the leaves, Tinker Bell relaxed. She put her hands on her hips.

  “That’s no hawk,” Tink said with a laugh. “It’s Vidia.”

  A dark-haired fairy zipped down from above. She landed next to Tink and Rani. “Hello, darlings,” Vidia said. She flashed them a sly smile. Vidia threw around words like “darling,” “dear,” and “sweetheart.” But the way she said them made her fellow fairies wonder if she meant the opposite. “Why aren’t you two inside getting ready for the big party—just like all the other good fairies? Hmm?” Vidia asked them.

  “We were,” Tinker Bell replied shortly. “We’re—”

  “—taking a break,” said Rani.

  “What’s your excuse?” Tinker Bell asked Vidia.

  Tinker Bell knew all too well that Vidia wouldn’t be caught dead helping out that day. Vidia’s relationship with Queen Ree was…complicated. In fact, Vidia’s relationship with everyone in Pixie Hollow was complicated. She was the fastest of the fast-flying-talent fairies. But one day, Vidia had decided that being the fastest was not fast enough. Greedy for even more speed, she had done something cruel. She had plucked ten feathers from Mother Dove. Then she had ground those feathers into extra-powerful fairy dust that gave her extra flying speed.

  After that, Queen Ree decided that Vidia couldn’t be trusted around Mother Dove. She banned Vidia from Mother Dove’s company. Over time, Vidia had become more and more distant with the other fairies. She was the only fairy in Pixie Hollow who didn’t live in the Home Tree. Instead, Vidia lived on her own in a sour-plum tree. Truthfully, most of the fairies and sparrow men thought that a little distance between them and Vidia was not a bad thing.

  “Are you even coming to the party tonight?” Tinker Bell asked Vidia.

  Vidia smiled. “To the queen’s party?” She laughed mockingly. “Of course not, dear. Why, that’s what I’d call a waste of a perfectly good evening.
” Vidia paused and seemed to consider a new thought. “Oh, unless you need someone to fly in and snatch that gaudy crown off high and mighty Queen Ree’s head,” she said. “Now, that sounds like fun. In fact, that’s quite a tempting idea—party or no party.” Vidia shrugged. “Ah, well. You two dears have fun tonight!”

  With that, Vidia took to the air. In a flash, she was gone.

  Tinker Bell and Rani looked at each other and shook their heads.

  That evening, as the sun inched its way toward the horizon, the activity in the fairy queen’s chambers inside the Home Tree kicked into high gear. The queen’s four helper fairies—Cinda, Rhia, Lisel, and Grace—were laying out the clothes, shoes, and jewelry that Ree would wear to the party.

  Lisel gently carried the queen’s fancy new gown from the closet and put it on the queen’s bed. She unbuttoned the five pearl buttons to make it easier to help the queen dress later.

  Grace picked out a pair of pointy-toed, rose-colored silk heels for the queen to wear. She placed them near the foot of the bed.

  Rhia opened the queen’s jewelry box. She chose a pretty shell charm on a silver chain that went nicely with the queen’s dress.

  Meanwhile, Cinda entered the queen’s sitting room and crossed to the crown cabinet on a side table. Naturally, the queen would wear her crown to the party. Not only was it incredibly beautiful, but also, it was tradition for the queen to wear the crown to any celebration. The crown was the most special fairy treasure in all of Pixie Hollow. Except for Mother Dove’s egg, it was the only item that the fairies still had from the earliest days of the Never fairies. It had been passed down from fairy queen to fairy queen throughout the ages. It was priceless and irreplaceable.

  So when she opened the cabinet, Cinda froze.

  The crown wasn’t there.

  WHEN QUEEN REE heard the news of the missing crown, she called an emergency meeting. Twenty-five message-talent fairies zipped out of the Home Tree. They fanned out in all directions to ask every fairy and sparrow man in Pixie Hollow to gather immediately in the Home Tree courtyard.

  Queen Ree waited patiently. She watched as, by ones and twos and threes, fairies flew into the clearing. Many of them looked worried and whispered to one another nervously.

  “What do you think is wrong?” whispered one fairy.

  “It must be an emergency,” whispered another, “or it wouldn’t be called an emergency meeting.”

  “The queen does look very serious,” whispered a sparrow man.

  They gathered in a wide circle around Ree. Some fairies hovered in midair. Some found standing room on the mossy ground. Some sat on toadstools or small pebbles. Everyone had his or her eyes fixed on the queen, who waited silently as the crowd and the hubbub grew.

  Soon the courtyard was bright with the glows of hundreds of Never fairies and sparrow men. Even Vidia was there. She lurked in the shadows of a mulberry bush. At last, when Ree judged that everyone was present, she cleared her throat. All of the fairies and sparrow men fell silent.

  “Fairies! Sparrow men!” the queen called out. “I have called this meeting to let you all know that there will be no celebration tonight.”

  A murmur arose from the crowd. The fairies exchanged puzzled glances. No Arrival Day celebration? After all the planning and preparation?

  “I need your help in finding my crown, which has gone missing today,” the queen went on. At that, the crowd’s murmur became a cry of alarm. The crown…missing! Every Never fairy and sparrow man knew the crown’s history. But what did this mean? What had happened to the crown?

  “Do you mean that someone has stolen the crown?” Tink called out from her perch on a tree root.

  “Now, now,” said the queen, trying to calm the crowd. “Let’s not jump to any conclusions. There’s probably a good explanation for why the crown isn’t where it’s supposed to be. And if we all work together, I’m sure we’ll find it.”

  “Well, where was it last seen?” asked Terence, a fairy-dust-talent sparrow man.

  “Who was the last fairy to see it?” added Tink.

  “How long has it been gone?” asked Iridessa, a light-talent fairy.

  Queen Ree held up her hands to quiet the crowd. “Those are all good questions,” she said. “Not all of them have answers yet. But maybe I should ask my helper fairy Cinda to come forward. She is the fairy who noticed that the crown was missing. After you hear what she has to say, you will know as much about all of this as I do.”

  Cinda sat with her talent in the front row of the ring of fairies. Her glow flared with embarrassment as she met the queen’s eyes. “Don’t be afraid, dear,” the queen said. She waved Cinda over. “Just tell everyone what you told me.”

  Slowly, hesitantly, Cinda flew to the center of the courtyard and stood at the queen’s side.

  “Well, there’s not much to tell,” she said quietly. She told everyone how shocked she’d been when she found the crown cabinet empty earlier that evening. “I thought maybe another fairy had beaten me to it—had already taken the crown out and laid it on the queen’s dressing table. But when I asked the others if they knew where the crown was, no one did!” Cinda looked up at the queen. “We didn’t know what to do! Nothing like this has ever happened before! So we told the queen about it right away. She called the emergency meeting…and here we are.”

  Queen Ree smiled at her. “Thank you, Cinda,” she said. Then, as Cinda retook her place in the circle of fairies, the queen looked up at the crowd. “Now I have something to ask all of you,” she said. “I would like you to think back over the last couple of days. Has anyone seen or heard or done anything that might have something to do with the missing crown?”

  No one spoke for a long while. The fairies all looked expectantly around the circle. Their eyes darted this way and that, following the smallest noise—the slightest cough, rustle, or sigh—only to find that the fairy who made it didn’t have anything to say after all.

  Then, at last, a tiny voice piped up from a cluster of toadstools near the Home Tree front door.

  “Queen Ree,” said Florian, a grass-weaving fairy, “I saw the crown yesterday.”

  “You did?” the queen replied excitedly. “Where? When?” Every fairy and sparrow man held his or her breath, waiting to hear Florian’s reply.

  “Well, you were wearing it,” she said, “at afternoon tea in the tearoom.”

  The crowd let out a sigh of disappointment.

  “Yes, yes, Florian,” snapped Vidia. “Who didn’t see her wearing the crown yesterday at tea? That’s not the kind of information we need.”

  The queen turned to Vidia. “That’s quite enough, Vidia,” she scolded. “Florian was only trying to be helpful.”

  “Yeah, Vidia,” said Rani. She hopped off her seat on a pebble and put her hands on her hips. “Besides, I remember you making a certain nasty comment about the crown this morning. What was it you said, exactly?”

  Tink chimed in before Vidia could answer. “She said she was planning to fly into Queen Ree’s party and snatch the crown off her head.”

  All eyes turned toward Vidia, who crossed her arms and shifted her weight from one foot to the other. She scowled across the fairy circle at Rani and Tink.

  “Well?” said Queen Ree, turning to look at Vidia. “Is that true? Did you say that, Vidia?”

  “I said that I wasn’t coming to the party,” Vidia replied. “I think my exact words were ‘unless, of course, you need someone to fly in and snatch that gaudy crown off high and mighty Queen Ree’s head.’”

  The crowd gasped. To say such a thing—and right in front of the queen herself! But then again, Vidia had never been one to mince words.

  “That’s not all,” Tinker Bell said. “Then you said that the idea of snatching the crown sounded like fun—that it was something to consider—”

  “—party or no party,” said Rani, finishing Tink’s sentence. “It’s true. She said that, too.”

  The crowd gasped again.

  Vidia
forced a laugh. “Oh, this is ridiculous,” she said. “Yes, I said those things. But, really, what would I want with your crown, Ree? What would I do with it? It’s not like I could steal it and then fly around wearing it, could I?”

  Queen Ree looked troubled. “No, Vidia,” she replied. “That doesn’t make sense. Honestly, I have no idea what you would want with the crown. And honestly, I don’t want to believe that you had anything to do with its disappearance. But these are serious charges.”

  The queen looked around at all the fairies and sparrow men. “Does anyone else have any other information to share?” she asked. “Anything that might help us figure out this situation?”

  Queen Ree and the crowd waited silently for several moments, but no one spoke. No one had anything to add.

  “Well, then,” the queen said. She turned back to Vidia. “I have no choice. The crown is special to all of us. It doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to Pixie Hollow. If we should find that anyone here has taken it, that would be very serious.” She took a deep breath before continuing. “I think we would have to call it an act of treason,” she said sadly. “And the only fitting punishment for such a crime…is lifetime banishment from Pixie Hollow.”

  Vidia’s mouth dropped open in shock. “This is unbelievable!” she cried. “This is so unfair! Don’t I even get a chance to defend myself? Can’t I prove that I didn’t do it?”

  “Of course you can,” Queen Ree replied. “But not tonight. It’s late. We’re all tired.” The queen took to the air. She hovered above the crowd. “Let’s all gather again the day after tomorrow,” she added. “We’ll hold Vidia’s hearing then, midmorning. Everyone who wishes to come may do so. And, Vidia, you will have the chance to speak to the charges against you.” Queen Ree nodded solemnly and brought the meeting to a close. “In the meantime, if anyone learns anything that might help us find the crown, please let me know. Thank you all for coming. Good night.”

  With that, the queen flew off and inside the Home Tree.