Anya the Cuddly Creatures Fairy (4 page)

As they drew closer, they heard loud bangs and shouts. When they reached the zoo, they stared in astonishment.

The five boys they had seen earlier were running between the animal hutches and pens, shouting to one another as they ran. Two of them were overturning bales of hay, and the others were looking under water troughs and emptying feed buckets. They seemed to be in a panic, and were terrifying the rabbits, guinea pigs, and hens. The animals had all raced to their homes in fright.

Charlie dashed over to the girls with a sad, worried look on his face.

“Why are those big boys being so mean?” he asked. “The animals will never be brave enough to come out of their pens now!”

At that moment, Jean the animal keeper marched toward the boys, looking very angry.

“Leave the zoo right now!” she ordered. “You're upsetting all the animals.”

The boys stomped past Rachel and Kirsty, grumbling to themselves.

“We've got to find it — it must be here somewhere!” the girls heard the tallest boy say.

“What a funny voice that boy has,” Rachel noticed.

“And they all have very big feet for their height. . . .” added Kirsty.

The girls gasped and turned to face each other.

“Kirsty — they're goblins!” Rachel whispered in alarm.

“Yes,” said Kirsty. “And it sounds like they're looking for something. It must be Anya's tiara!”

Jean offered to take Charlie to the playground. What a relief! Now Rachel and Kirsty could talk to Anya. They knew Charlie wouldn't enjoy the petting zoo while the animals were behaving so strangely, so he wasn't missing anything.

As soon as Charlie and Jean were out of sight, Anya flew out of Rachel's pocket.

“Those awful goblins!” Anya exclaimed. “How dare they frighten all the animals like that?”

“At least we know that the tiara is somewhere in the petting zoo,” said Kirsty. “The goblins must have dropped it here.”

“Quick, let's search for it before they come back,” said Rachel eagerly.

“It will be easier for you to look if you're the same size as me,” said Anya.

Rachel and Kirsty held hands as Anya waved her wand. A ribbon of glittering gold whirled from the tip of her wand and wound itself into a circle above them. Then it burst like a tiny firework, showering Rachel and Kirsty in silvery sparkles. They instantly shrank to fairy-size and found themselves hovering beside Anya, fluttering their silvery wings.

The girls started their search in the henhouse, where Rachel noticed something immediately.

“The hen in the far corner is sitting on something golden!” she exclaimed. “It
must
be the tiara!”

They flew toward the reddish-brown hen. She clucked at them in surprise.

“Excuse me, do you have my golden tiara?” asked Anya politely.

The hen moved slightly, and the girls saw that she was sitting on a bunch of tiny golden chicks. Although they were very sweet, the girls still felt disappointed.

“Let's keep searching,” said Anya.

They flew through a wooden gate into the goat pen. At once, they realized they were right under the nose of a young billy goat. The goat glared at them and lowered his head.

“Look out!” cried Rachel as the goat charged at them.

The fairies scattered in three different directions, and the billy goat thundered past.

“That was close!” said Kirsty, hovering out of reach.

“I don't think the tiara is here,” said Princess Anya. “The goblins would have been too scared of that billy goat to enter the pen!”

They left the goat still charging around in circles, and fluttered into the rabbit hutches. A soft gray rabbit with fluffy ears stared at them in surprise. Kirsty reached out her hand to touch it, but the rabbit turned around and jumped into a pile of straw.

All the girls could see was its quivering fluffy white tail.

The girls and Anya searched through the hutches, but all they could find were old lettuce leaves and pieces of straw.

Suddenly a ray of sunshine filtered into the hutch and made something in the far corner flash gold.

“Over here!” cried Kirsty in excitement.

The girls eagerly pulled aside the straw, but all they found was a chunk of golden-yellow corn.

“It's no use,” said Princess Anya, fluttering sadly to the ground. “We'll never find the tiara.”

Rachel and Kirsty fluttered down, too, and put their arms around the princess's shoulders.

“Don't give up,” said Rachel. “We've already found two of the missing tiaras, and we'll find yours, too, I promise.”

“With all three of us searching, we can't fail,” added Kirsty. “Jack Frost is
not
going to get away with this!”

Princess Anya looked more cheerful. “I'm so glad you're here to help me!” she said.