My story starts with me walking my little sister Sarah home from school. I’m Lea, and nothing has ever happened to me in my whole life. No vacations, no birthday parties, and absolutely no shopping malls.
As I arrived at home, Sarah immediately screamed, “I WANT ICE CREAM!”
That got me off the thought of eating, so I said over my little sister’s screams, “Mom, can I go to Elline’s house?” and of course she said yes. Elline is my BFF and we almost spent the whole summer together. As I knocked on her door, I heard the adorable barks of her toy poodle. “Lea, what are you doing here?”
“Uh, isn’t it obvious?” We both burst out laughing.
“Do you wanna go on a walk?” I asked. “Sure.”
As we walked and walked, I felt like we were on the wrong path. It started to get really foggy. I glanced over at Elline. “Are you sure about this?” Elline asked.
No, I don't think I was really sure, but we kept on going. Soon, we found ourselves in a pathway of curved trees and I couldn’t help thinking to myself, “Is it just me, or does the fog look a little yellow?” As we walked farther, there was a dead end. But there was a stream with a trail of lily pads. "How are we gonna get across?” I asked.
Elline tapped on one of the lily pads with her foot. “I think they can handle us.” Elline replied. Then, she said, “Are those Amazon water lilies?”
“No,” I said. “Too small. But they should be strong enough to support us.”
So we walked on the lilies and fell on a HUGE flower. Suddenly, the flower flung us up! “AAAAHHHHHH!” we shouted. I thought I was gonna get crushed when the big flower FINALLY stopped!
“Whew,” gasped Elline. “I almost got kil- GASP! Woah! Where IS this place!?” Then a flying thing suddenly appeared in front of our faces.
“Who are you?” the thing asked.
“Hey-you're a fairy!” I said in shock.
“I SAID, who are you!?” the fairy asked again.
“Uhhh… I’m Lea and this is my friend Elline. “Who are YOU?”
”Where are your wings?” the fairy asked. '
Wings? I chuckled. “We don't have wings! We’re humans!”
The fairy looked really excited and surprised. “OMG, OMG! I've ALWAYS wanted to see humans! I’m Kiwie, by the way. How can I help you?”
I knew the fairy was hiding something by the look in her eye. “Well, Kiwie… how did we get here? And why was the fog yellow?”
“Oh, you must’ve found the secret passageway. The fog was yellow because it was fairy dust. And…”
“And?” I asked.
“There's been cages appearing around Sparkle land.”
“Sparkle land?” Elline asked.
“Yes. Sparkle land. A land blossoming with fairies and pixies of all shapes and sizes. Each one has a special ability. Mine is shapeshifting, and my whole family are shapeshifters too.”
“Unfortunately, they have all been captured by these strange cages that have almost caught everyone in my neighborhood!”
Me and Elline gasped. "Whoa! That's horrible!”
Suddenly, a cage fell between us and Kiwie. “RUN!” shouted Kiwie. We took off as fast as we could, a stream of cages following us. We crashed into another fairy. “Alisha!” said Kiwie.
“I thought you were… well… yeah. But I’m so happy to see you!”
‘“Hey girl,” Alisha said. "And whoever these two are. Where’s the wings?”
This time, it was Kiwie’s turn to laugh. “Oh, Alisha… these are humans!”
“Oh, well.” said Alisha. “I like them better as fairies.” In a poof of fairy dust, we suddenly started to shrink as wings sprouted from our backs.
“We're turning into fairies!” Elline shouted. “Yeah, and you look fabulous!!” squealed Kiwie.
We were so surprised that we didn’t even notice the sound of clanging cages around us. “Oh yeah…” said Kiwie. “I forgot to tell you. When a cage falls onto a fairy or pixie, it waits for a precise time of 10 minutes before closing and lifting up.”
“The cages are being controlled by Rust, one of the most feared and unknown robots,” Alisha said.
“Wow, how do you know?” asked Kiwie.
Alisha quickly changed the subject. Something very suspicious was going on. “Rust uses the gem code to control the frequency and targets of the cages. One code self-destructs everything, including the cages and rust.”
Alisha said. “How do you know all of this?” I asked. Alisha again changed the subject. It was pretty obvious that Alisha was hiding something.
“Where is Rust right now?” Elline asked.
“Nobody knows…” Alisha mumbled.
“Well, it’s pretty obvious that it’ll be high up. So let’s go!” Said Kiwie.
"Wait!” I said. “You haven’t even introduced us to your land yet!”
“Oh, yes!” Kiwie said.
“Lemme give you a brief tour of Sparkle Land!” We flew to a joyful looking amusement park filled with little fairies and pixies. We explored the floating gardens of Sparkle Land. We swam in the pools of melted crystal. Under all the commotion, we hadn't noticed that Alisha was missing. We were about to launch a search party when a distant voice came.
“Gals, wait for me!” It was Alisha!
“Alisha! We thought the… well… thing happened to you,” Kiwie gasped.
“It’s ok, girls.” she said. “I just stopped to pick flowers.”
Pick FLOWERS? Me and Elline exchanged looks. That isn’t something Alisha would do. She’s more of a sassy type.
“Alright, back to the plan!” Kiwie said. I could see the tiny disappointed look in Alisha’s eye, though she still followed us as we flew into the clouds.
“How can you be sure that going UP is the right path?” Elline questions. “After all, fairies can fly, and if Rust wants to keep a secret, then why UP where fairies fly?”
“Most fairies are afraid of the high altitude,” Kiwie said. That's when a cage fell right on top of Kiwie. “HELLLLPPPP!” she yelped.
“We’ll get you out! Don't worry!” Me and Elline chased after the falling cage until we finally got under the cage.
“Pushhhhh!” Alisha watched us from afar. And very surprisingly, just moved on. “Alisha! Wait!” We chased her into a big thundercloud with cages falling from it nonstop. There, standing among us, was a big fortress made of pitch-black clouds. We saw Alisha fly inside and shockingly, was struck by an enormous bolt of lightning and transformed into a black fairy. “I knew she was up to something!” I said.
“Alisha!” Kiwie shouted. We followed Alisha into a dark chamber filled with cages, fairies, and pixies.
Alisha turned to see us and said, “What are YOU doing here?”
In a very cruel voice. “What are YOU doing!?” Kiwie shouts.
“You were my best friend!” Alisha looked at the rumbling door and back at Kiwie.
“Well, not anymore! You showed me all the secrets, did all the work, and now you lose it!”
“C’mon guys! I’ll shapeshift-oh, wait I can’t!” Kiwie said.
“Ha! Well that’s just your problem! When you took your little buddies on a tour, I stuck around and took away your power!”
“What did you do to my family!?” Kiwie demanded.
“Only my master knows that.” Alisha said as a wispy black cloud shot out from the door and swallowed up Kiwie into the darkness.
A cold, thundering voice rumbled from the shadow. “LEAAAAAAAAAAA!!!” “ELLINEEE!”
“What do you want from us!?” Elline shouted.
“I WANT NOTHING FROM YOU EXCEPT YOUR POWERSSSSSS!” The shadow said.
Suddenly, a giant robot stepped out of the shadow. “Rust…” I whisper.
“I AM HERE FOR EVERY SINGLE TALLLLENT OFF THE FAIRIES AND PIIXIESSS” howled Rust.
“What do you need it for!?” I shout over Rust and the storm. Elline tapped my shoulder and pointed at a control panel and a pattern of gems. “The gem code!” she whispers. We hurry over to the gems. “C’mon C’mon… What's the code!?” I mumble to myself. But then Alisha threw herself in front of the control panel with a tear in her eye.
“Sorry, Lea. It’s my job to serve Rust.” I push her off and see a slip of paper fall from her pocket. I quickly picked it up and read it. “Red, yellow, blue, purple!” I punched in the colors of the gems and a blinding light blasted in my direction.
“NOOOOOOOOO!” screamed Rust. Then, a portal the color of gold opened up and sucked up the storm, Rust, the castle…and Alisha!
Kiwie came tumbling out of the portal. And at the exact same time, Alisha was being sucked in. Kiwie grabbed her hand, saving her. “Why are you helping me? I betrayed you!”
There were tears streaming down Alisha’s face. “Because you're my friend, Alisha. You're my friend.”
“But I don't deserve this! Let go!” Alisha was totally crying now.
“No! I can’t let go! Think of all the things we did together! The ice cream milkshakes! The little balls of fur! The flowers!”
“Please, I just wanna get back to the old days! JUST BE MY FRIEND.” Alisha’s eyes filled with shock as the darkness sucked away from her into her normal self. Her mouth slowly spread into a small smile as the portal closed.
“I'm so sorry, Kiwie…” Alisha whispers.
“All is forgiven, Alisha.” Kiwie said. The thunder fortress faded away as the scenery changed to pink, fluffy clouds. Kiwie and Alisha turned to us.
“Thanks for helping us!” chimed Kiwie. “We couldn't have done it without you guys!”
When we got back down, we were greeted by loud cheers and shouts. “Thank you so much! We’ll do anything for you!” “You’re welcome,” I said. “We would like to go back home.” “As you wish.” Kiwie said as Sparkle Land faded away from our sight.
We were back. The exact same place where we went to Sparkle Land except with no yellow pixie dust fog. When I got home, Sarah greeted me with booming laughs which reminded me of Kiwie. “Sparkle Land.” I thought. I sure will miss that place.
