On the Trail Read online

  “Maybe something is wrong,” Lainey said.

  “Now, let’s not panic,” said Myka.

  But Mia was starting to worry. Where could Beck be?

  Myka paced the air as she gathered her thoughts. As a scout fairy, Myka helped protect other fairies from danger. But because of her sharp senses, she also helped look for things that needed to be found—anything from lost sewing needles to missing fairies.

  “Beck could be anywhere,” Myka said. “There’s no reason to think something bad has happened. I’m happy to go out looking for her. I’m sure she’s somewhere near Pixie Hollow. I’ll find her quicker than a blink.”

  “I’ll come with you,” said Kate.

  “So will I,” Lainey said.

  “Me too,” Gabby volunteered.

  “We can all help look for Beck,” Mia said.

  Myka considered the four girls and frowned. She was used to doing her scouting alone, or with another scout. With their dull senses and stumbling feet, she feared the Clumsies would only slow her down. But they looked so eager to help. She didn’t have the heart to tell them no.

  Mia was the last person to see Beck, Myka thought. Maybe the girls can help after all.

  “All right,” she said. “We’ll start now.”

  “I’ll get you some fairy dust,” said Terence. “You might need it.”

  He darted away and returned a few moments later with a large portion of dust wrapped in leaves. “I double wrapped it, just in case,” he said as he handed the bundle to Mia. “Fly safely.”

  Myka rubbed her hands together, ready to scout. There was nothing she loved more than using her talent. Even when she was worried, focusing on a task calmed her. “Mia, tell me where you last saw Beck. We’ll start from there.”

  “I saw her by the bramble bush near Havendish Stream,” said Mia.

  Mia led the way. When they arrived, Myka scanned the area. A fairy scout’s senses were extremely sharp. Her vision was as keen as an eagle’s and her hearing was better than a bat’s. As she flew, she checked all around the rocks. She checked the grass and the thicket. She listened to the flow of the stream nearby and the sounds of jays and chickadees in the trees.

  The girls followed her. “What are we looking for exactly?” asked Kate.

  “Anything unusual,” Myka said.

  Suddenly, Myka’s nose picked up a strange scent. She zeroed in on the odor. “Aha! Look at this!” she called as she landed on a bramble bush leaf. There was a spot of oil-like substance on it.

  Myka sniffed the leaf and felt a rush of dizziness. The oil had a strong, bitter odor.

  “What is it?” asked Lainey.

  “I’m not sure,” Myka admitted. “But I think I know who we can ask—Elixa.” Elixa was a healing-talent fairy who was always mixing up potions.

  Myka removed the leaf from the branch, being careful not to spill the oil. “Let’s go to Elixa’s workshop. Follow me!”

  Myka led the way back to the Home Tree. “Wait here,” she said when they got to the pebble courtyard. She flew through the knothole door and made her way to the lobby, past the tearoom and kitchen, and up through the trunk of the tree.

  Elixa’s workshop was on a third-floor branch. Myka gently pushed open the wooden door and nearly fell over with dizziness. The room was filled with scents. Flowers. Herbs. Oils. Salves. It was too much for Myka’s sensitive nose. She knew she couldn’t stay long or she might get a headache.

  Bottles of potions lined the shelves, each labeled in Elixa’s precise writing. Behind a wooden counter, Elixa was carefully pouring a green substance into a vial. She didn’t look up as Myka came in.

  Suddenly, Mia’s large face loomed in the window, peeking in. Elixa startled. “Oh! Fly with you, Mia.” Then she turned and saw Myka. “You too, Myka. How can I help you today?”

  Myka showed Elixa the leaf. “We found this on a bramble bush. Do you know what this oil is?”

  Elixa examined the leaf and the oily substance. “Ah, yes! Calendula, goldenseal, and oil of oregano. It’s a salve for minor wounds. Best used on woodland creatures. I just mixed some for Beck today.”

  “When?” Mia asked through the window.

  “Earlier this morning,” said Elixa, looking back and forth between Mia and the fairy. “Is something wrong?”

  “We can’t find Beck,” Mia told her.

  “Nothing to worry about, I’m sure,” Myka added quickly. “Beck must have taken the salve back to the rabbit. Do you have any idea where she might have gone after that?”

  “No.” Elixa frowned. “Wait! There is something.”

  “Yes?” Myka asked, rubbing her head. It was feeling foggy from all the different smells. She was eager to get out of the workshop.

  “I told Beck she might want to have the rabbit eat some marigolds. They’re good for healing,” Elixa explained. “There’s a big patch of them in the meadow.”

  Myka smiled. Now they were getting somewhere. “Can you tell me where?”

  “Oh, yes. I go there often.” Elixa went to the window. Myka followed, grateful for the fresh air.

  “Pardon me, Mia,” Elixa said, and Mia stood aside. Elixa pointed. “Follow that path to the big meadow, and go across. The marigolds are at the far end.”

  “That’s great! Thanks for your help,” Mia said.

  “Do you need anything else?” Elixa asked.

  “No, I better go—by window, if you don’t mind,” said Myka. “You know what this place does to my senses.”

  “Indeed,” Elixa replied. “I could give you a potion for that.”

  “No need,” Myka said cheerfully. “I like my senses just how they are.” She flew out the window to join Mia and the other girls. She was certain they’d find Beck in no time.

  Back in the courtyard, Mia and Myka explained to the girls what they’d learned from Elixa.

  “Great!” Kate said. “So we’ll start looking for Beck in the meadow.”

  “I’m sure we’ll find her soon. Come on!” Myka said.

  As she followed the scout toward the meadow, Mia noticed how strangely Myka was flying. She didn’t go in a straight line. Instead, she flittered here and there, pausing to listen, look around, or sniff the air.

  “Shouldn’t we hurry?” Mia asked finally.

  “Fast wings make slow eyes,” Myka replied.

  “Huh?” Mia replied.

  “That’s an old scout saying. It means, ‘When you rush, you miss things,’ ” Myka explained.

  “Oh. Okay,” Mia said. She tried to walk slowly and notice things, but it wasn’t easy. Her feet still wanted to go fast.

  When they reached the meadow, Mia took in how far the grass and flowers stretched and how wide the sky seemed. Myka looked tiny in comparison to their surroundings. “The meadow is so big. How will we ever find Beck?” she said.

  “The size of a place doesn’t matter if you look with more than just your eyes,” said Myka. “To help find Beck, open your ears to everything you hear. Smell. Touch. Taste, if necessary. But most of all, feel. A scout’s sixth sense is sometimes her greatest sense.”

  “I thought there were only five senses,” Lainey said.

  “Oh no!” Myka said. “Your sixth sense is your intuition! It’s helped me through the toughest scouting. When all else fails, trust your instincts.”

  As they crossed the meadow, Mia tried to follow Myka’s advice. She listened and heard the soft breeze stirring the grass. She counted three different kinds of birdcalls. She sniffed and smelled the fresh green scent of meadow grass. There was a fainter, sweeter smell, too. Mia guessed it was some kind of wildflower. She carefully studied the plants and flowers she passed, trying to guess which one it could be.

  Wait a second.

  “What’s this?” Mia noticed a trail of flattened grass and dirt running across their path. “Something’s been through here!” she cried.

  “That’s a deer trail,” Lainey said, coming to stand next to her. Lainey sometimes went on deer rides with
Fawn.

  Myka nodded. “That’s right. A deer must have crossed the meadow here.”

  “Do you think Beck might have gone that way, too?” Mia asked.

  Myka’s gaze followed the trail. “Maybe,” she said. “But maybe not.”

  “Oh. I thought it might be a clue.” Mia was disappointed.

  “It might be. But fairies don’t need to follow paths,” Myka reminded her. “Not unless they’re tracking an animal, that is. Let’s finish scouting the meadow and see if we can find the marigolds Elixa mentioned. We can always follow the deer trail later.”

  Mia thought that made sense.

  The group continued on. Before long, they came to a patch of bright orange flowers.

  “Marigolds!” Myka said. “This must be the patch Elixa mentioned.” She flew around, examining the flowers closely. “The rabbit hasn’t been here,” she said at last. “Not a single petal is nibbled.”

  “He ended up at our tea party,” Mia reminded them. “Maybe he never made it this far.”

  “But that still doesn’t answer the question, why would Beck have left him alone?” Kate said.

  “Let’s look around a little more,” Myka suggested.

  They walked on. After a while, Mia noticed the grass was getting wetter. With every step, water seeped into her shoes. Her sneakers started to make a squelching sound.

  “Why is the ground so wet?” she asked.

  “We’re entering a bog,” Myka said. “The soil is different here. It holds more water.”

  The plants were different, too, Mia noticed. The tall meadow grass had given way to a stubbly sort of moss. Here and there the ground was broken by muddy pools of water.

  Mia spied a strange pink flower shaped like a vase. She squatted down to take a closer look.

  “That’s a pitcher plant,” Myka said over her shoulder. “They eat bugs.”

  “Bugs!” Mia exclaimed. “How?”

  Myka pointed to the center of the plant. It was half filled with water. “That’s a trap. The bug flies in and can’t get out.”

  Kate leaned over Mia’s shoulder to look at the strange plant. “They don’t eat fairies, do they?” she asked.

  “Not that I’ve ever heard,” Myka replied. “Though I suppose one could if it was big enough. But don’t worry,” she added, as if she guessed what they were thinking. “Beck’s too smart to fall into a pitcher plant.”

  Kate stood up and looked around. “Should we turn back?” she asked. “Beck probably wouldn’t have come this far, would she?”

  Just then, something caught Mia’s attention. A small object was stuck in the mud nearby. “Hey!” she said. “What’s that?”

  She reached down and picked up a muddied satchel as big around as her thumb. Mia studied the bag closely. It looked familiar. “I think this is Beck’s! She took her tweezers out of a bag just like this one when she was helping the bunny.” She held the bag out for Myka to see.

  Myka opened the bag and pulled out a tiny glass bottle. She sniffed the oily green contents. “This smells just like the salve that Elixa made for Beck this morning,” she said.

  Mia’s stomach tightened. “Why would Beck’s satchel be stuck in the mud?”

  “Guys, look at this,” Kate called. She was standing a few feet away.

  The girls and Myka went over to her. Mia saw deep marks in the mud.

  “It looks like an animal was here,” Lainey said. “But I can’t tell what kind. Can you, Myka?”

  Myka shook her head. “The tracks are too smeared. But from the look of it, there was a struggle.”

  The girls exchanged worried looks. “Do you think the animal could have gotten Beck?” asked Kate.

  “I don’t know,” Myka said, frowning. “Let’s not jump to conclusions. After all, Beck is a very good animal fairy. If she was in trouble, she’d know how to handle it.” But for the first time that day, Mia thought Myka seemed worried.

  The fairy fluttered down to examine the mud again. “It’s so strange. The tracks don’t lead anywhere. It’s as if whatever was here just disappeared right from this spot.”

  Mia shivered. Vanished into thin air, she thought. Just like Beck.

  In the near distance was a small pond. Maybe she would find more clues there. Mia started to walk toward it. “Do you guys think we should— Ahh!” she yelled as the ground suddenly gave way beneath her feet.

  Mia started to take a step forward, but her feet were stuck. The more she tried to pull them out, the deeper she seemed to sink. She screamed again as her legs were sucked down into the mud.

  “Help!” Mia screamed. “Help!”

  “Mia!” Myka yelled. “Stop kicking! Don’t panic!”

  But either Mia hadn’t heard her or she was too frightened to respond. She continued to flail as she slipped deeper into the bog. In no time, the mud was up to her hips.

  “We’re coming!” Kate started forward to help her friend.

  “Wait!” Myka reached out to stop her and grabbed the first thing within reach, which happened to be a strand of Kate’s long red hair. She gave it a hard yank.

  “Ow!” Kate stopped in her tracks. She spun around and stared at Myka. “What are you doing?”

  “The ground isn’t safe,” Myka told her. “You won’t be any help if you fall in, too.”

  “But she’s sinking!” Lainey exclaimed.

  “Help!” Mia cried again.

  “Mia, whatever you do, make sure your hands don’t go under,” Myka commanded. “And stop kicking—that will only make you sink faster.”

  To Myka’s relief, this time Mia listened and obeyed. Myka turned to the other girls. “Where’s the fairy dust? The extra that Terence gave you?”

  Lainey looked at Kate. Kate looked at Gabby. Gabby looked at Lainey.

  “Mia put it in her pocket,” Gabby remembered.

  They all turned to look at Mia. Her pocket was under the mud.

  Oh no, thought Myka. No, no, no. If the girls couldn’t fly to help Mia, how would they get her out? She wasn’t strong enough to pull her out by herself.

  Stay calm, Myka told herself. Think. She looked around for a branch, or a vine—anything they could use to help pull Mia out. There was nothing.

  “You’re going to have to crawl to her,” she told the girls. “If you spread out your weight, you’ll float instead of sink.”

  I hope, she added to herself.

  “Not all at once,” Myka told the girls as they got down on the ground. “Gabby, you’ll go first because you’re the lightest. Kate and Lainey, you hold on to Gabby—tightly.”

  The mud was up to Mia’s middle now. Gabby inched toward her, crawling on her belly across the soggy ground. Kate and Lainey crawled after her, holding on to her feet.

  When Gabby got to her sister, she grasped her hands. “Now pull!” Myka shouted.

  Kate and Lainey pulled on Gabby. Gabby pulled on Mia. And Mia pulled up with all her might. There was an awful sucking sound. Then, slowly, slowly, Mia came out of the mud. A second later, she crawled onto solid ground.

  As soon as she saw that her sister was safe, Gabby started to cry. “That was really scary,” she said.

  Mia put an arm around her. “It’s okay, Gabby,” she said in a shaky voice. “I’m okay now.”

  But it had been scary. Myka blamed herself. It was her job as a scout to spot every kind of danger. How had she missed this one?

  I’ve been too caught up in looking for clues, Myka thought. She was so busy thinking about Beck that she’d missed the danger right in front of her. From now on I’ll have to be more careful, she told herself.

  “Do you think that’s what happened to Beck?” Lainey asked with a shiver. “Maybe she fell in the mud and couldn’t get out?”

  “No,” Myka said.

  “How can you be sure?” asked Mia.

  “Look.” Myka flew over and touched down on the thin crust of soil that covered the mud. “See? I don’t sink. I’m too light. I don’t know where Beck is yet. But
I’m certain she didn’t get stuck here.”

  “Well, we know Beck was here, at least,” Kate said. “We found her bag.”

  Myka nodded. It was the bag that bothered her. Why would Beck have dropped it unless she was in trouble?

  She couldn’t give up now. Myka decided she would send the girls back to Pixie Hollow and continue the search alone.

  But when she told them, they refused. “I’m not going anywhere,” Kate said. “Not until we find Beck.”

  “Me either,” said Mia. “She might need our help. What if you guys hadn’t been there to help me? It could be the same with Beck.”

  “But you can’t cross the bog on foot,” Myka pointed out.

  Then they remembered the fairy dust in Mia’s pocket. Mia’s pants were still caked in mud, so she took out the pouch without much hope. But when she opened it, the dust was dry and sparkling.

  “Clever Terence and his double-wrap leaves!” Myka said. She sprinkled a pinch of dust on each of the girls, which was just enough to let them fly.

  “Are you sure you’re okay to fly, Mia?” Lainey asked. Mia had always been a little afraid of flying.

  Mia nodded. “For once I can honestly say I’d rather fly than walk.”

  “Then let’s go.” The girls rose from the ground—Kate first, then Lainey, followed by Gabby and Mia. Mia held tight to her little sister’s hand.

  Myka and the girls fanned out over the bog. As Myka flew, she scanned the pond. “See anything?” she called to the girls.

  “All I see is moss and mud,” Kate called back.

  “Same here,” Lainey replied.

  “Nothing,” said Mia.

  “Me either,” said Gabby.

  As she flew, Myka turned over the clues in her mind—Beck’s bag, the tracks in the mud that went nowhere. She couldn’t make sense of it.

  At the back of her mind was a fear she couldn’t ignore. It was possible that an animal had gotten Beck. But I don’t believe it, Myka told herself. I won’t believe it. And I won’t stop looking until I figure out the truth.