The Wing Spell Read online

  “What in the world is that?” Dash whispered.

  “I think it’s a wild boar,” Cressida whispered back.

  “Can it fly?” Dash asked nervously.

  “I don’t think so,” Cressida said.

  The wild boar looked up. When she saw Cressida and Dash, she grinned from tusk to tusk. She snorted, oinked, and sniffed with excitement. And then she rolled over on her back, with her legs sticking straight up into the air and her tongue hanging out the side of her mouth. Cressida laughed. The wild boar was acting just like a large friendly dog.

  “What is she doing?” Dash asked, looking alarmed.

  “I think,” Cressida said, “she’s trying to be friends with us. Why don’t you fly to the floor? We can always dash back out into the hallway if she’s not so friendly after all.”

  Dash glided down to the rug. She kneeled, and Cressida slid off her back. The boar smiled even more broadly and made an enthusiastic sniffing noise. Cressida let the boar sniff her hand. And then she rubbed the boar’s belly. Immediately, the boar closed her eyes and began to make a happy snorting sound.

  After a few seconds, the boar sighed in contentment. She rolled over. And then she began to snort, sniff, and oink as though she were telling a story.

  “What is she doing now?” Dash asked, looking confused.

  “I think,” Cressida said, “she’s trying to tell us something. You don’t happen to know anyone who speaks the same language as wild boars, do you?”

  Cressida was certain Dash would shake her head no. But to Cressida’s surprise, Dash’s face brightened. “My sister, Princess Rosetta,” she said. “We call her Rosie for short. Her magic power is that she can speak and understand any language.”

  “Really?” Cressida said. “Is there any chance you could dash to the flying competition and then dash back here with Rosie on your back? I think we could use her help.”

  “Good idea,” Dash said. “I’ll be right back.” The arrows on Dash’s tiara glowed and flickered. And then, she vanished.

  The wild boar made a sad noise and looked longingly at the place where Dash had been standing. Cressida scratched the boar’s head, right between the ears. “Don’t worry,” she whispered in a reassuring voice. Then, she walked over to Dash’s bedroom door and opened it to find Flash and Feather standing in the hallway with wide, nervous eyes.

  “Where’s Dash?” Feather asked.

  “And what kind of animal is that?” Flash asked.

  Cressida explained everything that had happened. Just as she finished telling Flash and Feather about Princess Rosetta, Dash and a pink pegasus appeared in a heap on the floor of the room, their legs tangled together.

  “This is my sister, Princess Rosetta, but you can call her Rosie,” Dash said, as she and Rosie slid apart and stood up. “I’ve told her everything. She can’t wait to help.”

  “You must be Princess Flash and Princess Feather,” Rosie said, grinning. “We’ve been hearing about our cousins in the Rainbow Realm since we were born. Now, finally, I’m getting to meet you. I’m so glad Dash came to get me from the flying competition.” Then she looked at Cressida. “And I’ve never met a human girl. You look sort of like a fairy. But without wings.”

  Cressida giggled.

  Just then, the wild boar began to frantically whimper, oink, snort, and sniff. Rosie pricked up her ears. Her tiara, which had a design that looked like a jumble of letters made of pink gemstones, sparkled. She nodded as she listened to the wild boar. And then, to Cressida’s amazement, she began to snort, sniff, and oink back.

  Relief and joy came over the wild boar’s face. She began to make excited oinking noises.

  Rosie oinked back.

  The boar sniffed and snorted.

  Rosie sniffed and snorted back.

  They went back and forth—snorting, smiling, sniffing, nodding, and oinking—for several minutes. Then, Rosie looked at Cressida, Dash, Feather, and Flash. “Allow me to introduce you to Winifred the wild boar,” she said. “She’s friendly and kind, and she says she’s sorry she knocked over your bookshelf. She desperately wants to go home to the Wild Realm.”

  “How did she end up here?” Feather asked.

  “Winifred said that this morning she was on her way to dig for mushrooms and roots in her favorite spot when suddenly, even though the sky was completely clear, there was thunder and lightning. Light and wind swirled around her. And then, the next thing she knew, she was in Dash’s bedroom,” Rosie explained.

  “Why would that happen?” Dash asked, furrowing her brow.

  In a quiet voice, Flash admitted, “I know what happened. When I asked Ernest—he’s the wizard-lizard who lives with us in our palace—to make my wings this morning, he misremembered the words in the spell the first time he tried to cast it. I’m pretty sure he accidentally sent Winifred to Dash’s bedroom.” She looked at Winifred and tears formed in her eyes. “Now I feel so guilty for asking Ernest to make my wings.”

  Cressida wrapped her arms around Flash’s neck. “I understand how you feel,” she said. “But it’s not your fault. And besides, I’m sure we’ll come up with a way to get Winifred home.”

  Feather nodded. “We’ll all work together to come up with a plan.”

  “Definitely,” Dash said.

  Rosie nodded. “So,” she said, “what should we do?”

  For several seconds, they were all silent.

  “I don’t have any ideas,” Flash said.

  “I don’t either,” Feather said.

  “Me neither,” Dash said, frowning.

  Rosie bit her lip.

  Cressida took a long deep breath. She had thought of creative solutions to problems caused by Ernest’s magical mishaps enough times to know that the last things she should do were give up or panic. “Do any of you know where the Wild Realm is?” she asked.

  Dash and Rosie shook their heads. “We’ve never left the Wing Realm,” Dash said.

  “I’m not sure,” Feather said. “I’ve never been there, though I’ve always wanted to go.”

  That’s when Cressida remembered the map Ernest had given her. She pulled it from her skirt pocket, unfolded it, and put it down on the floor so they could all see it.

  Cressida, Flash, Feather, Dash, and Rosie huddled around the map. In the middle of the paper was a black dot, and next to it were the words “Rainbow Realm.” In the far right corner was another dot, and next to it were the words, “Wing Realm.” Cressida put her finger on the Wing Realm dot. “This is where we are now,” she said.

  In between the Rainbow Realm and the Wing Realm were two dots labeled “Reptile Realm” and “Aqua Realm.” Cressida read the labels next to the other dots on the map, searching for the Wild Realm. There was the Cloud Realm, the Flower Realm, the Glitter Realm, the Snow Realm, the Dinosaur Realm, the Insect Realm, the Beach Realm, the Rain Realm, and the Jungle Realm. Then, she stopped. There it was: a dot halfway between the Wing Realm and the Glitter Realm with the words “Wild Realm” right next to it.

  “I found it!” she said, pointing to the dot.

  Feather looked at the map and grinned. “I was worried the Wild Realm was so far away it wouldn’t even be on your map. Phew.”

  Flash’s face brightened. “Is there some way we could carry Winifred while we fly? We could drop her off on our way back to the Rainbow Realm.”

  “Good idea,” Cressida said.

  For a moment, Flash and Feather looked excited. But then, their faces fell. “I don’t think there’s any way I could stand, let alone fly, with Winifred on my back,” Feather said. “She’s just too big.”

  “Me neither,” Flash said.

  Cressida half-smiled and looked at Dash and Rosie. “You don’t have another sister whose magic power is to fly with heavy creatures, do you?”

  Rosie and Dash laughed and shook their heads.

  Winifred began to whimper, snort, and sniff.

  Rosie nodded sympathetically before she snorted and sniffed back. “She real
ly wants to go home right away,” Rosie explained. “I just told her we’re doing everything we can to help her, but that we don’t have a plan quite yet.”

  Winifred frowned, looking frightened and discouraged.

  Cressida saw Flash’s bottom lip quivering and her eyes starting to fill with tears. Cressida put her hand on Flash’s shoulder and gave her unicorn friend a gentle, reassuring squeeze. “There has to be a way to get Winifred home,” Cressida said. She thought for a moment about all the ways there were to carry things that were heavy. And that’s when she remembered exactly how she had carried home her 25 library books. Halfway through the walk back to her house, Cressida had found her bag so heavy that she had had to stop walking and put it down on the sidewalk.

  “I’ll carry it,” her brother, Corey, had said, but when he lifted it up he immediately put it back down. “This weighs about three tons,” he added.

  The two of them paused, looking at the bag.

  “We could each try holding one of the handles,” Cressida suggested.

  They each slid a light blue handle over a shoulder and began to walk. The bag had still felt heavy to Cressida, but when she shared the weight of it with Corey, she had been able to carry it. And, Cressida thought now, as she stood in Dash’s bedroom, the bag would have been even easier to carry if it had had more handles, and if her friends Gillian and Eleanor had been there to help out.

  Cressida looked at Dash and Rosie. “You don’t just happen to have a bag big enough to carry Winifred, do you?”

  “I don’t think so,” Dash said.

  Rosie shook her head.

  “Didn’t you say you have a sister named Stitch who can magically sew anything? Is there any chance she could make a huge, super-strong bag?”

  Dash nodded. “She could do that.”

  “I’m sure she’d love to help,” Rosie said. “Though I don’t honestly see how having a boar-sized bag is going to make a difference. It won’t make Winifred any smaller or lighter.”

  Flash smiled. “One thing I’ve learned about Cressida is she has some of the best creative ideas for solving problems.”

  “In that case, I’ll be right back with Stitch,” Dash said. The arrows on her tiara lit up. And then, she vanished.

  Thirty seconds later, two pegasus princesses appeared in a pile on the floor. This time it was Dash and a mint-colored pegasus with a tiara with green gemstones arranged in the shapes of scissors, needles, and thread. The green pegasus smiled as she stood up.

  “This is our sister Stitch,” Rosie said.

  “Dash has told me everything,” Stitch said. “I’m thrilled to meet my long-lost cousins, and I’m glad to make the acquaintance of a human girl.” She leaned in toward Dash and whispered, “You’re right that she looks just like a wingless fairy.” Cressida tried not to giggle. Then Stitch said, “I can’t wait to help. What do you need me to sew?”

  “A giant bag that’s big enough and strong enough to hold Winifred,” Cressida said. “Instead of handles, would it be possible to make it with five ribbons attached to the top?”

  Stitch nodded. “With pleasure,” she said. “Let me just go get some fabric from my bedroom.” She galloped out of Dash’s bedroom and reappeared after a few seconds, balancing a pile of thick, rainbow-striped cloth and a roll of matching ribbon on her head. She bowed her head down so the cloth and ribbon landed on the floor. “I chose this cloth and ribbon for two reasons,” she said, her eyes twinkling. “The first is that the rainbow stripes remind me of our special visitors from the Rainbow Realm. The second is that they’ve both been magically charmed to be extra-strong. It’s nearly impossible to break or tear them.”

  “That’s perfect,” Cressida said, thinking that she wouldn’t mind having a pair of leggings made out of exactly that cloth. Her leggings were always getting holes and tears in them when she climbed trees and slid down giant rocks.

  The scissors, needles, and thread on Stitch’s tiara glowed. Magic gold scissors appeared in the air above the cloth and, in a blur of gold and rainbow stripes, cut the cloth into pieces. Next, a magic gold needle with silver thread appeared and whizzed back and forth between the pieces of fabric at a dizzying speed. To Cressida’s amazement, after only a few minutes, there on the floor next to Winifred sat a giant rainbow-striped bag with five long ribbons trailing off the the top.

  Cressida looked at Dash, Rosie, Stitch, Flash, and Feather. “If my idea works, would you all be willing to fly together to the Wild Realm to drop off Winifred?”

  “Absolutely,” Feather and Flash said.

  “For sure,” Dash said.

  “Definitely,” Stitch and Rosie said.

  “Super,” Cressida said. “Let’s go down to the front hall of the palace. Rosie, could you ask Winifred if she’ll join us?”

  “Of course,” Rosie said, and she began to snort, sniff, and oink.

  Winifred oinked in three loud squeals and ran toward the door.

  “That means ‘yes,’” Rosie said, laughing.

  Cressida picked up the giant bag, and they all walked out of Dash’s bedroom, along the hallway, down the stairs, and back to the front hall. Cressida saw that Lucinda was still fast asleep on one of the couches, making a noise that sounded like a cross between purring and snoring. “Will you tell Lucinda goodbye for us?” Cressida asked.

  “Of course,” Dash said. “But you’ll come back, won’t you? I need to finish your tour of Feather Palace.” She smiled. “Please know you’re invited to the Wing Realm any time.”

  “And you’re invited to the Rainbow Realm any time,” Feather said to Rosie, Dash, and Stitch. “What we really need to do is plan a family reunion with all the pegasus princesses and all the unicorn princesses. And Cressida, of course.”

  “What a great idea,” Rosie said, just as Winifred began to make an impatient, whimpering noise.

  Cressida patted Winifred’s head and put the bag down on the floor. “Could you ask Winifred to get in?” she asked Rosie.

  Rosie snorted, sniffed, and oinked at Winifred. The boar, with a giant grin on her face, leaped in and immediately lay down on her side. She closed her eyes, looking very comfortable.

  Cressida turned to Dash. “Would you mind opening the front doors?”

  “No problem,” Dash said. She galloped over to the double doors, pulled them wide open, and galloped back.

  “Now we need to see what happens if you each hold a ribbon in your mouth while you fly,” Cressida said. “I’m hoping that if all five of you are working together and sharing Winifred’s weight, you’ll be able to carry her back to the Wild Realm.”

  “Let’s try it!” Feather said, kneeling as Cressida climbed onto her back. “I remember the way from looking at the map.” Then, Feather, Dash, Rosie, and Stitch each grabbed one of the ribbons in her mouth. “Just a moment,” Flash said. The diamond on her pink necklace sparkled. Silver, glittery light poured from her horn. And then she galloped across the room, running faster and faster, until lightning crackled around her horn and hooves. She flapped her wings, climbed a few feet into the air, and then swooped down to collect the end of the last ribbon in her mouth.

  “On the count of three, try flying upward,” Cressida said. She bit her lip, feeling both nervous and hopeful. “One. Two. Three,” she counted.

  Pink, glittery light poured from Feather’s horn as Flash, Feather, Dash, Rosie, and Stitch all flew upward. To Cressida’s amazement and relief, Winifred, in her rainbow-striped carrier, lifted right up off the floor. “I know you can’t talk because you have a ribbon in your mouth,” Cressida said. “But swish your tail if you think you could fly all the way to the Wild Realm carrying Winifred.”

  Feather, Flash, Dash, Rosie, and Stitch all swished their tails. And then they flew out the doors of Feather Palace and up into the sky.

  They wove through crowds of flying creatures, passed through a thick blanket of clouds, and emerged into the iridescent lavender sky. Cressida smiled at the twinkling yellow and pink stars a
s she tightened her arms around Feather’s neck. As they flew, she saw stars arranged in the shapes of a snowflake, a ladybug, and a stegosaurus. She figured those were the star-pictures marking the Snow Realm, the Insect Realm, and the Dinosaur Realm. After several minutes, off in the distance, Cressida saw stars arranged in the shape of a tree. “I think that’s the sign for the Wild Realm,” she said, and the unicorn and pegasus princesses all swished their tails in agreement. When they were right next to the star-picture of the tree, they glided downward, through the clouds and the blue sky, and into a forest.

  As soon as their hooves hit the ground—and Winifred’s carrier gently landed on the soft, mossy forest floor—Flash, Feather, Dash, Rosie, and Stitch dropped their ribbons.

  “Phew!” Feather said.

  “I have to admit I was getting a little tired,” Flash said.

  “Me, too,” Dash, Stitch, and Rosie said.

  Cressida slid off Feather’s back, walked over to Winifred’s bag, and peered inside. The wild boar was fast asleep, snoring with a smile on her face. Rosie made soft snorting and sniffing noises as she gently nudged Winifred with her nose. “I just told her she’s finally home,” Rosie explained.

  Winifred blinked and opened her eyes. She leaped out of the bag, looked all around, and squealed with delight. As she began to run in excited circles, five more wild boars appeared from behind a tree and rushed over to Winifred. When Winifred and her friends saw each other, they snorted, sniffed, oinked, and squealed. “They’re all saying how happy and relieved they are to be back together,” Rosie whispered. “And now Winifred is telling them the story of what happened to her.”

  After a few minutes, Winifred grinned at Cressida, Flash, Feather, Dash, Rosie, and Stitch. She snorted and sniffed. Rosie snorted and sniffed back. “She’s thanking us for helping her,” Rosie explained. “And I said it was our pleasure.” Then, Rosie’s eyes twinkled. “She’s about to run off with her friends. Would you like to learn how to say goodbye in wild boar language?”