Rescuing
the Fairy Princess
The Fairy Hunter’s Handbook: Volume 1
T.K.
Garner
Copyright © 2011
by T.K. Garner
tkgarner0@gmail.com
Smashwords
Edition
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Table of Contents
Chapter
One: The Surprise
Chapter
Two: The Message
Chapter
Three: Harriet Meets Orion
Chapter
Four: To the Fairy Castle
Chapter
Five: The Professor
Chapter
Six: Trouble at Home
Chapter
Seven: Making a Plan
Chapter
Eight: The Valley
Chapter
Nine: The Spriggans
Chapter
Ten: The Race to Orion
Chapter
Eleven: Running Fast
Chapter
Twelve: The Reward
Acknowledgements
About
the Author
Harriet took a deep breath, looked at Mum and said, “I’m not going to Dad’s on Sunday.”
“It’s Friday already and your father hasn’t called.” Mum leaned across the kitchen table and patted Harriet’s arm. “I know he’s not reliable, but he usually calls.”
“It’s Peggy’s birthday,” Harriet said, shaking Mum’s hand away. Peggy was her half-sister.
“But that’s good, isn’t it?”
“You and Dad should talk more!”
“Speak to me,” Mum said, frowning. “What don’t I know?”
Harriet sighed. She wished her family was simple like Jemima’s. Just Jem, her brother and her Mum and Dad. They all lived in the one house, they all liked each other… and talked to each other!
Harriet sighed again; this time more heavily and longer than the first.
“Come on, Harry, spit it out.”
“I’m going to Connie’s on Sunday for lunch for Peggy’s first birthday.”
“Well, that’s okay, isn’t it?”
“You’re-supposed-to-come,” Harriet mumbled.
“What! I’m to drive you over and stay for lunch!”
Harriet avoided Mum’s glare by fiddling with the corner of an old leather-bound photograph album that sat on the table.
“Connie’s invited you. Something about letting stuff go and forgiving or something… I don’t know!” She glanced up, saw Mum’s reddening face, and snapped, “Ask Dad!”
“I most certainly will,” Mum replied, snatching up her empty coffee mug and marching to the sink. “How dare he leave you to tell me!” She banged down the mug. “It’s just like Connie to make me look bad.”
“Mum, honestly, Connie’s nice.”
“Harrumph,” said Mum as she clutched the edge of the sink and stared out the window. “I’m sorry. It’s not your fault. How about you take that present your Nan dropped off to your bedroom and I’ll cook dinner.”
Not needing to be told twice, Harriet grabbed the old album from where it lay next to the box her Nan had delivered earlier, and sprinted to her room. She closed the door and collapsed backwards onto her bed, groaning.
Why’s it always so hard? Harriet thought, her mind turning to Dad. He was an artist and Harriet loved Dad and his paintings but sometimes—like right now—she wished he had a regular five-day-a-week job like Jemima’s father and he lived with them.
Harriet tossed the old album to one side. It flicked open to reveal the first page.
Harriet jumped up. She rubbed her eyes. She looked again. Yep, she wasn’t seeing things.
She scooped up the album, placed it on her lap, and ran her hand over the black first page. She couldn’t feel anything but she could certainly see words, shimmering in gold, vibrating out of the blackness.
The Fairy Hunter’s Handbook
With a yelp of surprise, Harriet clutched the album to her chest and rushed to the kitchen.
“Mum! Look, look!”
“What’s the matter?” Mum asked, spinning around from the sink.
“It’s not blank!” Harriet flung the album onto the table.
When the album landed, the golden words rippled like water does when a stone drops into a pond.
Mum frowned and shook her head.
“What am I looking at?”
“The words! The album’s got a name.”
Mum sank into the chair and stared at the black page. She ran her hand over it.
“I don’t see anything,” she said, peering closer.
“You must…”
The hair on the back of Harriet’s neck prickled, cutting her words short. She leaned over Mum’s shoulder. The writing stood out as plain as could be.
The Fairy Hunter’s Handbook
Harriet flicked the page. The next page was blank. She flicked again. Those pages were blank too. She turned back to the title page and sucked in a breath.
The page was as black as night.
The gold lettering had disappeared.
“Sorry. Must be imagining things.”
“Not to worry.” Mum gave her a relieved smile. “I almost forgot. I’ve got something else for you.”
She rummaged in the box that still sat on the kitchen table.
“For some reason my long lost, and now deceased, Great-Aunt Charlotte–your great-great-aunt–thought I’d want this.” Mum placed a lump of rose quartz on the table.
“Awesome!” Harriet said reaching for the pale pink crystal.
The rock felt as smooth as ice, and stood as tall as a large glass and as round as a tea cup. The base was flat but the top was carved to a point, like a pencil after it had been sharpened but not quite so pointy.
The cat flap banged and in scampered Alfonso, Harriet’s tabby cat.
“Meow,” he piped, crashing into Harriet’s legs.
“Careful, Fonzie.”
Mum went to the fridge, pulled out a bag of mince, and held it out to Harriet.
Harriet rolled her eyes.
“He’s your cat,” Mum said, jiggling the bag.
Harriet took the mince, and Fonzie watched her for a moment before he sprang onto the table and sniffed the album.
He yowled, his fur standing on end.
“Down!” yelled Harriet.
“Off the table,” Mum ordered.
Alfonso screeched as he leapt onto the floor.
“What’s up with him?” Mum asked.
Harriet shook her head, confused.
“Here Fonzie,” she called, as she placed mince in his bowl.
Flicking his tail, Alfonso trotted over, gobbled down a few mouthfuls, glanced at the album, flattened his ears and dashed outside through the cat flap.
“Weird,” Mum said.
Weird, Harriet echoed to herself. Yep, something was definitely weird.
“I think I’ll play outside,” Harriet said as she washed her hands.
“Change out of your school clothes first.”
In her bedroom, Harriet placed the crystal on her dressing table. She slipped into jeans, a T-shirt and sneakers, and hung her school clothes over the chair near her desk.
She eyed the old leather album on her bed, hesitating before she reached over and opened it.
The first page was blank.
Harriet breathed out her disappointment.
“I must’ve been imagining things,” she said to the empty room.
She turned to the next page. Shimmering light seemed to flicker around the edges.
Harriet blinked.
The shimmering grew brighter until Harriet could have sworn the page had an intricate gold border of zigzagging lines that joined elegant lilies etched in gold in each of the four corners.
Writing appeared in the center.
Harriet gasped.
Her heart beat faster as she read,
Help us!
Chapter Three:
Harriet Meets Orion
Harriet glanced around her room. All seemed normal. Nothing appeared to have disturbed her bed. Everything on her desk was where it should be. Her wardrobe doors were closed, her dolls and toys were lined up in the bookshelf where she had left them, and the curtains hung unmoving. The only new addition to her dressing table was the rose quartz crystal.
For a moment she thought of showing the album to Mum again but something stopped her. A little voice inside her head told her that Mum couldn’t see the words.
Harriet shivered.
Oh no! The words are meant for me! Only I can see them!
She looked again.
Help us!
The message vibrated off the page as though someone was yelling it at her.
Harriet slammed the album shut, sprang away from her bed and paced.
“Calm down,” she told herself.
She looked at the album. Her fingers trembled as she flicked open the cover.
“Eeeeeek!” she squeaked as the pages turned furiously as though they had a mind of their own.
They stopped.
Out of the black cardboard shimmered another elaborate gold border. This time it wound its way across the album to take in two pages.
Harriet watched, mesmerized.
Words swam up through the darkness.
On the first page was written:
Go outside.
Rub
the crystal.
On the second:
HURRY PLEASE!
Harriet spun around.
There was no one else in her room.
What should she do?
Maybe she should phone Jemima. She nibbled her bottom lip and glanced down at the album.
HURRY PLEASE!
The words flashed like warning lights.
Harriet moaned, grabbed the crystal from the dressing table and hurried through the kitchen.
“Off outside?” asked Mum.
“Yep,” replied Harriet, anxious to find a place in the garden where she could rub the crystal before she decided she was going totally mad and changed her mind.
The back door banged behind her.
Where? Where? She wanted somewhere private, where neither Mum nor anyone else would see her.
She rushed along a gravel path, pushing aside the overgrown shrubs and camellia trees. Three paths wound through the backyard, past the clothesline and the rusting garden shed, deep into the garden.
The path Harriet hurried down took her beneath an ancient frangipani tree smothered in creamy blooms that filled the air with a sweet, cloying scent.
Harriet hugged the crystal.
She scurried faster until she arrived where all the paths converged at the rickety old gazebo, shrouded in wisteria.
Harriet crept inside, breathing so fast she was almost panting. She dropped onto the seat and looked down at the crystal on her lap.
Her pulse quickened.
Ignoring the flip flop of her stomach, she grabbed the crystal in one hand and rubbed it with the other.
She looked up in anticipation.
Nothing happened.
Harriet sighed.
What was she expecting? A flash of light? A puff of smoke?
She rubbed the crystal again.
Harder.
She glanced around.
Nothing.
“Aaaah fooey!” Harriet dropped the crystal onto the bench beside her.
She was surprised to discover she was more disappointed than relieved. Remembering how afraid she had felt only minutes earlier, she burst out laughing.
“What is it you find amusing?” asked a male voice.
Harriet jumped. She spun around and peered into the gloomy rear of the gazebo.
It was empty.
Then something occurred to her. It wasn’t as though she had heard the voice out loud. The words had formed in her head.
“Oh gosh! I am going mad!”
“If I am to introduce myself you will have to come outside.”
Harriet balled her fists to prevent her hands from shaking and dashed out of the gazebo.
Nothing!
She sprinted around the corner and stopped in her tracks.
In a small clearing where the paths met, stood a creature that took Harriet’s breath away.
It was so white and gleaming, it seemed as though it had been carved from a giant pearl. As the sunlight hit its rump, the silvery whiteness gave off a sheen reflecting the softest of pinks, the lightest of blues and the palest of yellows. Its flowing tail and mane shimmered as white as fresh snow, while its long, elegant horn gleamed silver.
Horn! This creature has a horn!
The animal turned his face towards her. His pink nose twitched, revealing even pinker lips and two rows of even, white teeth.
“I am Orion.”
The words weren’t spoken. Instead, they registered inside Harriet’s mind.
Harriet pinched herself. Yes, she was awake.
“Aaare, aaare, are you a unicorn?”
“That is correct. I have been sent to carry you to the Fairy Castle. Hurry please, we must leave now.”
Chapter Four:
To the Fairy Castle
Harriet stood gawking.
“Quickly, Miss Harriet,” Orion said, pawing the ground. “The King and Queen await you.”
“I, I, I, don’t understand. You know my name?”