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Valentine’s Day for fairies is a lovely affair, as fairies like to send and receive valentines more than anything else. (Anything else in February, that is.) And Valentine’s Week on Sheepskerry Island is better than anywhere else, because Queen Mab enchants Lady’s Slipper Field and turns the dark of winter into the fresh breath of summer. All the Sheepskerry fairies gather in the meadow to exchange gifts and cards. They smell the orange blossoms and the roses. They throw off their heavy coats and scarves and mittens and wear their light summer dresses. They kick off their shoes and turn their faces to the warm sun.
Also, gnomes come.
Gnomes?
You didn’t think there were only trolls in the world of the fairies, did you? (Trolls hibernate through the winter, by the way.) Gnomes are terribly different from trolls. Gnomes don’t have warts, for one thing. They’re not smelly. And they can talk properly, though they have a bit of a lilt to their speech as a result of living on the faraway Outer Islands. I know you may have seen garden gnomes with long beards and fishing poles, still as statues at the bottom of a garden. That’s what gnomes look like when they get old and grumpy. But when they’re young—
“When they’re young, gnomes are lots of fun,” said Clara Bell as she knotted a warm purple scarf around her neck. It was a very cold February day, and all the Sheepskerry fairies were bundled up tight, especially Tinker Bell’s little sisters.
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I’m fairly certain you’ve met Tinker Bell’s little sisters, but if you have not, let’s please make their acquaintance now. Here are:
Clara Bell
Rosy Bell
Golden Bell
Sylva Bell
and baby Squeak
The five Bell sisters—and their friend Poppy Flower—were making their way back from fairy school, which had let out early today, as the snow was falling fast and thick. They darted between snowflakes as they flew.
“Gnomes are lots of fun,” said Goldie, “even if too many of them wear those awful pointy hats.”
“I like their hats!” said Rosy.
“Tutu!” said Squeak.
“Me three!” said Sylva. “And I don’t mind what they wear as long as they’re not too good at sports. Because I want to beat them all at the Valentine’s Games.”
That’s another thing the fairies love about February: the Valentine’s Games. I won’t tell you about them now, as Rosy will tell us about them in a moment or two, if you can be patient.
“The only way you’d beat all the gnomes in your very first year of competition,” said Goldie, “is if you used magic, which unfortunately we don’t have much of yet.”
“Not true!” said Sylva. “I’ve been training! Besides, I’ll have lots of magic soon.”
“Not too soon, I hope,” said Rosy. “We still have some growing up to do before we get our magical powers.” Rosy gave Sylva a hug on the wing. “But I’m sure when you do you’ll be as magical as Tink herself.”
That made Sylva smile. And though none of her sisters saw it, Rosy’s words made Clara smile, too. She wasn’t ready to tell her sisters—yet—but she knew her magical powers were growing. She had been practicing her fairy charms since her last birthday, and she could already make a bell ring without touching it. (She was a Bell sister, after all!) Just last week, she’d taught herself how to make a rose bloom in the snow. Right now, she was working on her sparkle charm. That was a tricky one.
As Clara flew toward home, she thought about something that had happened long ago, when she was a very young fairy. She had noticed a tiny grasshopper in the tall grass near Lupine Pond. Its leg was broken, so it could not hop or even sing a grasshopper song to summon help. (Grasshoppers use their legs to make their songs!) Clara had known she didn’t have a hope of helping the grasshopper—she hadn’t even started learning charms yet at school. But she couldn’t bear to see the injured insect. Then all at once, she recalled a charm she’d heard her big sister, Tinker Bell, recite once, long ago. How did it go?
Clear as crystal, Clara heard Tink’s voice in her head. She closed her eyes, stretched out her arms, and said:
Harm and hurt
And pain no more.
Feel this power,
From my core.
May you be
Sound as a bell.
May my magic
Make you well!
Clara had felt faint and dizzy, and it took a few moments before she was well enough to open her eyes again. She steadied herself and looked at the grasshopper. It hadn’t hopped away. It was exactly where she had first seen it. Her charm had failed!
But the very next moment she heard a tiny little chirrp coming from her grasshopper friend. That could only mean . . .