Rescue Princesses #5: The Snow Jewel (4 page)

“There’s a kitten cavorting around this castle!” said the king sternly. “Did you move the animals from the shed? Tell me the truth, Freya!”

But before Freya could answer, Greta hurried along the passageway. She was wearing a white apron and carrying a laundry basket. “It’s all my fault, Your Majesty,” she said breathlessly. “I tried to keep the laundry-room door shut so they couldn’t escape, but one spirited little
thing sneaked past me when I came in with some washing.”

“It is
not
your fault, Greta,” said King Eric. “The kittens should not have been inside the castle at all. I had forbidden it! Freya, it
must
have been you who moved them!”

“Yes, I did move them,” said Freya. “But only because they were so cold in the shed last night. There was a hole in the roof and —”

“Last night!” barked the king. “You went wandering outside in the middle of the night! You are NOT allowed to do that, Freya!”

“We only went out into the garden,” said Lulu. “And we took a snow shovel with us.”

The hallway fell silent. King Eric’s face turned deep red.

Freya was desperately wondering how to explain the whole thing and make her dad understand why she’d moved the kittens. If only he would listen! Then she heard little paws scampering along the wooden floor of the Great Hall.

“That’s the kitten!” exclaimed the king. “Now I’ll catch the silly creature! Then they’ll all go back in the shed where they belong!” He darted through the doorway.

By now, many of the kings, queens, and younger princes and princesses had reached the castle. They poured into the hallway behind Freya. A murmur of astonishment rose from the crowd as they looked at King Eric.

The king was running up and down the Great Hall, his arms outstretched. Ahead of him skipped a tiny black-and-white kitten.

Minky paused now and then to meow at the king as if urging him to run faster. Then she scrambled under the chairs and appeared on the other side of the long table. Her tail was pointed into the air and her ears were pricked up. She looked as if she was enjoying the chasing game enormously.

The crowd of kings and queens smiled in amusement at the little kitten.

“Minky! Come here!” called Freya. If she got to Minky first, then maybe she could talk to her dad and explain everything.

But Minky swished her tail and scampered away.

Just then, King Eric sneaked around the table and made a grab for the kitten.

Frightened, Minky jumped onto the table and dashed along it, sending plates and napkins flying. Then she leapt off the
end and ran straight between the king’s legs and across the hallway.

“No!” yelled the king.

Freya ran through the crowd and stopped at the open door. Where was Minky?

Now that the show was over, the crowd of kings and queens began to move into the Great Hall, talking about coffee and lunch.

A gray-haired queen tapped Freya on the elbow. “The little animal escaped, my dear. Out there.” She pointed at the snowy garden.

Freya stared across the snow in dismay. How had Minky disappeared so fast? Was that a black-and-white kitten scampering down the hill?

She stepped out into the freezing garden, not caring that she didn’t have her coat on. She still couldn’t see any sign
of Minky. An icy fear grew inside her. Minky was in danger, out here all alone. It wasn’t a good place for a kitten to be.

“Freya!” Emily hurried over to her. “Are you OK?”

Freya looked at the kings and queens walking away. It felt like they were deliberately turning their backs on Minky. “Where are they all going?” she cried. “Don’t they know that a kitten can’t survive for long out in the snow?”

King Eric reached the doorway. “Freya! I would like to talk to you!”

Freya turned pink. “I can’t! I have to find Minky right now! What if she gets lost or stuck in a snowdrift?” She darted back inside, grabbed her coat from the house, and then ran out across the garden and through the castle gate. Freya raced down the hill, only stopping at the bottom
to search the snowy ground for signs of the kitten.

The snow had stopped falling, but the air felt colder than before. Freya’s breath hung in front of her in a little misty cloud.

She scanned the hillside again and looked closely at the ice rink. She couldn’t see Minky anywhere.

“Hold on, Freya!” said Lulu, as the other princesses ran to catch up with her.

“We’ll look for Minky, too,” said Emily.

Clarabel put her arm around Freya. “You’re a Rescue Princess now! That means you’ve got friends to help you.”

Freya’s eyes filled with tears. “Oh, thank you! I’m just so worried about her. She’s so small and she doesn’t know about all the dangers out here. What if she meets a wild animal?”

“Look! This will help us.” Jaminta pointed at a patch of ground.

The others ran over to look. Tiny marks zigzagged across the snow in front of them.

“Paw prints!” exclaimed Emily. “Good job, Jaminta! That means Minky must have come this way.”

“Are you sure those tracks were really made by a kitten and not a snow rabbit or something?” said Lulu.

Freya crouched down next to the tracks and traced a finger around one print with its circle and four little pads. “These paw prints were definitely made by a kitten,” she said. “Quick! Let’s follow them!”

The princesses ran at full speed, following the tracks in the snow. The paw prints led them right down to the place where they’d ice skated that morning. They looked around anxiously. On one side was the glittering ice rink and on the other was a forest of fir trees. But there was still no sign of Minky.

“Look at these tracks. She must have run around in circles!” said Emily, pointing to the scrambled-up paw prints.

The girls ran this way and that, trying to follow the direction of the tracks. But they crisscrossed in so many places that it was hard to figure out which way the little cat had gone.

“Stop, everyone!” called Freya. “If we keep running, we’ll end up trampling over all the marks in the snow. Then we’ll never find Minky.”

The princesses stood still, looking anxiously at one another.

Freya caught a flash of movement near the fir trees and stepped toward it. But it was only a squirrel, darting across the snow and running up the trunk of the nearest tree.

“Let’s split up and look for Minky in different places,” suggested Jaminta. “Some of the tracks go down to the ice rink. Lulu and I could look there, while you three search those trees.” She pointed at the forest of fir trees.

“All right, then! Let’s meet back here in a few minutes,” said Emily.

Freya, Emily, and Clarabel hurried into the trees, following the paw prints closely. Nothing moved in the forest, and the crunching of their boots sounded loud in the silent woods.

“We should look up into the trees as well as on the ground,” said Freya. “Maybe Minky’s climbed onto a branch and gotten stuck.”

The girls peered up at the fir trees, which were covered with a thick blanket of snow.

“Can you hear anything?” asked Emily.

They all listened for a moment, but heard nothing except the birds singing.

They followed the paw prints, which circled around and led them over to the edge of the forest again.

“Now we’re back where we started!”
Freya cried. “Why can’t we find her?” Tears filled her eyes and she rushed out of the forest.

As she ran out of the trees, Jaminta and Lulu ran toward her from the opposite direction.

“We couldn’t find her down by the ice rink,” said Lulu. “Did you have any luck?”

Freya shook her head and sniffed.

Clarabel and Emily ran out of the trees behind them.

“I don’t think Minky is in there,” panted Emily. “I’m sure we would have heard her meowing.”

“What should we do?” asked Clarabel.

“Let’s look at the paw prints again,” said Jaminta.

“No! That didn’t work before,” said Emily urgently. “The paw prints are too messed up and they just go around in circles.”

“I think we should try following them one more time,” said Jaminta. “What do you think, Freya?”

Freya tugged at her braid anxiously. But before she could decide, a large snowflake drifted down and landed on her coat. Then there was another and another, until the air was full of dancing flakes.

Freya pulled up her hood. “This snow will cover up the paw prints, anyway. So I think we should keep looking for her and calling out, and hope she calls back.”

“Let’s go toward the river,” said Emily, pointing straight ahead. “We haven’t looked over there yet.”

They hurried along the side of the ice rink, scanning its shiny surface and calling Minky’s name. Freya trudged on, her heart sinking with every second. Minky would be cold and scared by now,
and the falling snow made it so much harder to see.

They reached the end of the ice rink, where the river curved past and wound away into the distance like a great glittering snake.

“Minky?” bellowed Lulu. “Can you hear us?” Her call bounced off the hills and echoed back at her.

“Did you hear that?” asked Freya, suddenly.

“It’s a good echo, isn’t it?” agreed Lulu, wiping snow off her black hair.

“No! Not the echo,” said Freya. “Listen!”

The princesses listened carefully. At last they heard a tiny meow drifting across the ice and snow.

“That
must
be Minky!” breathed Clarabel. “We’ve found her at last!”

The princesses grinned at one another.

“We’re coming, Minky!” called Freya. “Don’t worry!”

Another meow drifted over to them, a little louder this time.

“I think she knows it’s you calling, Freya,” said Clarabel.

“But where is she? Where’s the sound coming from?” wondered Lulu.

They all listened again.

“It’s over here!” Freya rushed excitedly down the slope to the riverbank. Her blond braids bobbed up and down as she ran. She passed a small rowboat that lay on the bank, covered with snow, and stopped right at the edge of the river.

The other princesses followed her, holding their hoods up against the falling snow.

“Minky? Where are you?” Freya peered through the swirling whiteness.

“Is there something in that tree?” asked Emily.

“Yes! I can see something, too!” cried Clarabel.

Freya’s heart lifted as they sprinted over to the birch tree. It grew right on the edge of the riverbank and the snow lined its thin branches. As they got closer, a branch halfway up the tree began to wobble, and a whiskery face peered down.

“Meow!” Minky gazed sadly at them from a narrow branch that stretched out over the icy river. She crouched down low and the branch swayed with every swish of her tail.

“Oh, Minky!” said Freya. “Why did you go up there? Were you trying to chase a bird or something?”

The snow stopped falling and the clouds disappeared, making way for bright sunshine. The princesses pulled back their hoods and looked up at the little kitten.

“Jump down, Minky! You can do it,” called Lulu.

Minky’s tail swished harder.

“She’s too scared to jump,” said Clarabel. “Don’t worry, Minky. We’ll get you down.”

Freya stood on tiptoe, stretching up as high as she could, but Minky’s branch
was on the other side of the tree trunk, a long way out of reach.

“She’s too far away,” said Freya. “Come closer, Minky.”

But Minky just stared at them, unblinking. Her little paws gripped tightly onto the thin branch.

“I know!” said Lulu. “I’ll just climb up onto these lower branches and grab her.” She put her foot on the lowest branch. But as soon as she tried to pull herself up, the whole tree shook alarmingly and Minky let out a frightened yowl.

“Sorry!” Lulu backed away hastily.

Freya bit her lip. This wasn’t going to be easy.

Emily picked her way down the sloping bank to the edge of the ice. “If I walk out onto the river, I should be able to reach up to her branch.”

“But Freya’s dad told us that the river ice is really thin,” Lulu reminded her.

“I’ll only stand on it for a few seconds,” said Emily. She went to put a foot on the ice when Freya’s voice made her jump.

“Stop, Emily!” called Freya. “It’s much too dangerous!” She pulled her friend back. “I’ll show you how thin it really is. Watch this!”

Freya picked up a pebble and threw it onto the river. As it landed, lines split across the surface as the ice began to break.

“You’re right!” gasped Emily. “I didn’t realize how easily it would crack.”

“We’ll have to find another way to reach Minky,” said Jaminta.

“But what
can
we do?” said Clarabel. “We don’t have time to get a ladder.”

Minky swished her tail, sending snow sprinkling down.

Freya stared at Minky’s branch, which was now bare of snow. “Oh, no!” she gasped. “Look at where the branch meets the tree trunk!”

“What’s wrong?” asked Lulu.

“There’s a split there.” Freya pointed up to the branch.

As the princesses watched, the crack widened and the branch sagged as if it was tired of holding up Minky’s weight.

“Minky’s too heavy,” cried Clarabel. “If that split gets any bigger, the branch will fall….”

“And Minky will land on the ice just like that pebble,” finished Lulu.

Freya put her hand to her mouth. She had to get Minky down before the branch broke. But how?