Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast (2 page)

Below her, Tinker Bell was getting the animals into a space to hide. “Go! Get inside! Hurry, go!” A baby bear got stuck in the small hole, and Tink tried pushing his backside.
“Come on!”

Suddenly, Tink felt a shadow fall over her. She turned to find the large hawk hovering above her. She was trapped. The hawk opened his beak wide—

WHACK!

Nyx swooped in at the last second and wedged her spear into his beak and propped it open. Then Chase dove in front of him and threw a weighted rope around his legs. Shade and Fury swooped in and
helped drive the last adult hawk away.

With the three adult hawks gone, Chase trapped Hannah in a net.

“Wait!” Fawn rushed forward. “Everybody calm down! I promise, she doesn’t even like the taste of scout fairy.”

“Babies are such picky eaters,” Silvermist whispered to Rosetta.

Nyx stepped forward. “Get away from the hawk, Fawn. Let us handle this.”

“There’s nothing to handle, Nyx,” Fawn said.

“I said stand down, Fawn!” Nyx ordered.

Just then, Queen Clarion arrived. “Is everyone all right?”

“Yes, Queen Clarion—this time,” Nyx reported. “But how am I supposed to keep us safe if Fawn keeps bringing dangerous animals into Pixie Hollow? Last time it was rats and
a snake!”

Fawn corrected her. “Actually last time it was a vampire bat—”

“Fawn’s just got a big heart, that’s all,” Tinker Bell cut in. “Hannah needed her help.”

Fawn squeezed Hannah’s face and said, “Does this look like the face of a dangerous predator to you?” No one agreed. “C’mon, back me up, guys,” Fawn
begged.

The animal fairies said nothing. Queen Clarion moved in close to Fawn. “Fawn…” she began.

Fawn sighed. “I know, I know, Nyx is right—I’ve done this once or twice…or several times…before.”

“Yes…” the queen began again.

“Maybe harboring a baby hawk…wasn’t the best idea,” Fawn said.

“Fawn, I know you,” added Queen Clarion. “You’ve always let your heart guide you, which is admirable, but—”

Cutting her off, Fawn finished the thought. “But…I also need to listen with my head.”

The queen nodded.

“Next time, I promise I will,” Fawn said as she moved quietly toward the net. “Well, Hannah-Banana, I’d say come back and visit, but probably best to keep this a
long-distance thing. Now let’s give that wing a try.” Fawn yanked away the net and Hannah flew free.

T
he next day, Fawn was back at work. “Good morning, students! Beautiful day for a fresh start, don’t ya think?” Her students were
three baby bunnies named Calista, Nico, and Paige. “All right then, let’s see that hopping.”

The bunnies began to hop around as Fawn playfully tossed them a couple of berries. “Nice work, Nico! Perfection, Paige!” Calista needed some more practice. “Ooh,
Calista—remember, it’s hopping, not walking.”

Calista looked at her teacher.

Fawn said, “What, haven’t you heard? I’m strictly by the book now. Yep, we’re talking model citizen all the way. Looking for the definition of responsibility? Look no
further than this girl!”

Fawn was interrupted by a loud moan echoing through the forest. Fawn’s head swiveled.

“Well, that was…interesting.”

Fawn turned back to her class to find that Nico and Paige had already run away. And before Fawn could speak, Calista darted off, too.

“Now that’s hopping,” Fawn said, watching her go.

But she couldn’t forget about the noise. Cautiously, Fawn followed it. “What was that?” She looked down the path toward the mysterious sound. “Hello?”

When she pushed through a bush into an area of broken branches, she saw a rock with fur stuck under it. Fawn bent down, examining a patch of the odd fur on the ground. Then she noticed that she
was actually standing in a gigantic paw print!

Bravely, she followed the trail of prints through the forest. Up ahead, she heard another distant groan of pain.

Following the sound, Fawn entered into a clearing and stopped.

The landscape was strange, moonlike, stripped of vegetation. The ground was pockmarked and cratered. In the center of this clearing was a strange cave with jagged rocks around the
entrance—as if something pushed its way out from underground.

Fawn slowly crossed and peeked into the blackness of the cave. “C’mon, Fawn, listen to your head. Heart gets you in trouble; head is your friend,” she said to herself.
“And yet, head is making me talk to myself…out loud…in the forest.” She started to back away. “No, no, no, model citizen—starting first thing
tomorrow.”

And with that, Fawn flew forward and disappeared into the darkness.

Slowly, she moved deeper and deeper into the cave. The passage was strange and twisted. She ducked under an overhang, and as she stood, she gasped, staring ahead with a look of wonder.

A strange, hairless tail snaked around a corner. Fawn followed it. She went deeper into the cave each time she saw the shadow move.

“What are you?” she asked, trying to get a better look.

All she could see of the creature was a paw the size of an elephant’s foot. And in that paw, there was a painful thorn.

Fawn took a steadying breath, flew straight to the thorn, and pulled on it with all her might. It wouldn’t budge.

Just then, a pair of menacing green eyes blinked open and the beast stood up, revealing himself. He was as big as a buffalo, with a thick snout and a jutting jaw full of razor-sharp teeth. There
were strange swirls covering his matted fur.

Fawn was terrified, but she tried to keep her cool, unsure what was going to happen next. “Okay, think—territorial, possibly carnivorous…unspeakably big. What to do? What to
do?” She dropped to the ground. “Play dead!”

Then she changed her mind. “No, no—freeze.” Fawn popped back up and froze in place.

Another idea. “No, the opposite—make myself look big.” She waved her arms, growled, and tried to appear larger than life. The beast stared at her.

“RRRRROOOOOOAAAAAARRRRRRRR!!!!”

The earth-shaking blast went out like a shock wave, bending everything in its path as it tore across the landscape!

The cave spit Fawn out.

She crash-landed in the Thorny Thicket. The smart thing to do was leave, but then the beast moaned again. This time the wounded creature sounded even more in pain than before. She had to
help.

Fawn didn’t know it yet, but she’d discovered the NeverBeast.

At the scout tower, Fury saw the sound wave rumbling through the forest. “What was that?”

Nyx glared toward the sound. “Trouble…”

In the Animal Den, the baby birds were chirping. Fury called out to the animal fairy who was conducting the birds in their song. “Did you hear it?”

“Hear what?” the fairy asked.

“The roar,” Fury said. “Did you hear the roar?”

The fairy pulled cotton out of her ears. “Sorry, did you say something?”

Chase asked a fairy named Buck, who was working with the squirrels, about the roar.

“You bet I heard it,” he told her. He turned to the squirrels and said, “A little faster. Visualize the acorn right in front of you.”

Chase said, “Excellent! What was it?”

Buck shrugged. “No idea. But let me know as soon as you find out.”

An animal fairy named Morgan was coaching a baby skunk how to spray. “Gently now: to the left! The other left!”

Nyx dropped in front of her, pulled the skunk’s tail down, then asked Morgan, “That roar…”

“This morning?” She’d heard it.

“What was it?” Nyx asked.

“Oh, I don’t know. I don’t specialize in roars. Now, grunts and growls on the other hand—” Morgan was going to explain more, but Nyx cut her off.

“Who would know?” Nyx asked.

“Well, if it came from anything big—” Morgan said.

“Loud—” Buck said.

“Scary—” the bird fairy added.

“—and dangerous. Try…” Morgan was about to say the name when Nyx finished for her.

“Fawn.” Nyx frowned. She had to find Fawn.

Fawn was hiding behind a rock, watching the beast. He came out of the cave, limping. She whooshed past him. He grunted before moving forward again.

She continued to follow the beast, darting back and forth and taking cover when necessary. She hid under a mushroom, then behind a tree, until the beast stopped at a pile of large rocks.

Balancing on his hind legs, the beast dug at a large red boulder. It was stuck. He dug harder, but his paw slipped, and he fell forward—right onto the injured paw.

He roared in pain.

“Hmmm…” Fawn was thinking of a way to help.

The beast smelled her scent and turned. She quickly escaped into a tree.

The beast sorted through stones, putting aside gray ones and choosing the red ones.

Fawn knew what she could do: She pushed a red boulder forward. “Come on, big guy, over here.” The beast followed it.

As the beast walked over to the rock, Fawn released a branch attached to a rope that pulled the boulder up into the air. The beast got up onto his back legs, trying to reach the dangling
rock.

This was Fawn’s chance. She took a deep breath and flew right at him. As he chomped down on the rock with his teeth, she landed on his paw, grabbed the thorn, and pulled it free.

Fawn fell to the ground and rolled away, but her foot got caught in the rope, which was now pinned under the large rock. The beast saw her. She tugged at the knots, trying to get free, but the
beast stood over her, snorting hot breath.

He opened his mouth. Fawn stared at his dagger teeth. “Wait! I was only trying to help!” she said, panicking.

The beast lowered his head and chomped down…on the rock. He picked up the boulder in his teeth and carried it away.

“Huh? Hmmm.” Fawn watched him lick his paw and stomp on the ground. It looked like he was agreeing to let her live. Fawn stood up and took a deep breath. “Huh, those thick
forelimbs are ideal for digging.” Then she tried to convince herself to leave, saying, “Nope. No, no, no, no, you’re all fixed up, so—off I go!”

The beast went back to collecting rocks. But Fawn didn’t leave. She continued to study him. “And that massive jaw is perfect for supporting those heavy rocks.” She stepped into
his way. He glared at her and she moved aside. “Y’know, it’s like you’re a cross between Didelphis Marsupialis and Bison Occidentalis…”