nine

“Sylva! Look what I found!”

Sylva was busy arranging the copper pots in the kitchen of her downstairs fairy house. “Just a minute, Poppy,” she said. “I need to fix this handle. I wish Tink were here right now. Mending pots and pans is her specialty.”

“Ooh, Sylva! It is so cute!” Poppy cried. She was at the back of the dollhouse, looking very closely at something on the windowsill of her upstairs rooms.

Sylva came around and looked with her. “What is it? I don’t see anything.”

“It’s a kitten, Sylva,” said Poppy. She pointed to the tiny lump of gray fur on the windowsill of the fairy house attic. “A teeny tiny kitten.”

“Ooh! A doll kitten! She’s so pretty!” said Sylva, carefully petting the kitten with her pinky finger. “I wish it were a real kitten,” she said. “Wouldn’t you like to have a pet of your very own?”

“More than anything!” said Poppy.

“You should come to Queen Mab’s petting zoo more often, Poppy,” said Sylva. “I’ve learned so much about animals there.”

“I will . . . sometime,” said Poppy. Truth be told, Poppy was a bit nervous around animals. That’s why she was so happy to find this little doll kitten, curled up and still, and no bigger than the button on her jacket. “But now I do have my own little kitten. Even if she is a doll.”

Don’t you think that finding a tiny doll kitten in a magic dollhouse is enough excitement for one chapter? I do, which is why I’d better stop this chapter right here. (Because if I went ahead and told you the astonishing thing that was to happen to that kitten . . . I’d be worried you might faint!)