Gabby and the other girls had almost reached the Home Tree when they heard the whistle. It was a thin piping sound, faint, but urgent, coming from across the meadow.

From all over Pixie Hollow, fairies came fluttering. They emerged from the tiny doorways that lined the Home Tree’s branches and dropped their thimble buckets and pine needle brooms to the ground. They left behind their herds of caterpillars and field mice and flew toward the meadow.

“What’s happening?” Mia called out to a fairy as she darted past.

The fairy barely paused. “It’s a scout’s alarm. Someone needs help!”

A fairy was in trouble! Gabby set down her great-grandfather’s boat between the roots of the Home Tree and ran after the fairies. The other girls were right behind her.

They followed the whistle all the way through the meadow to the orchard on the far side. The orchard was usually one of Gabby’s favorite places in Pixie Hollow. Plum, apple, and cherry trees grew there, and the grass was soft and green. Gabby loved to lie in the shade of an apple tree and watch harvest-talent fairies buzz back and forth, picking ripe fruit.

But today the orchard was still. The harvest fairies hovered next to their trees. They looked as if they were under a spell. As other fairies flew into the orchard, they stopped, too, and stared at something on the ground.

At first Gabby didn’t see it. As she ran forward, Mia suddenly grabbed her arm and pulled her back. “Gabby, watch out!”

Then Gabby saw. A snake lay in the tall grass. It was long and green and as thick around as a jump rope. A few feet away, a lone fairy cowered at the base of a tree.

The whole orchard seemed frozen. Everyone watched the snake. The snake watched the fairy.

Slowly, the snake lifted its head and tested the air with its tongue.

“Why doesn’t the fairy fly away?” Gabby whispered.

“I don’t think she can,” Kate whispered back. “She’s too scared. She has no glow.” The fairy’s glow had gone out completely. She looked no brighter than a mouse.

“She’s afraid to move,” Lainey agreed. “A snake can strike much faster than a fairy can fly.”

Two animal-talent fairies, Fawn and Beck, had flown as close to the snake as they dared. They were talking to it in low voices. Gabby hoped they were telling it to go away.

But the snake took no notice of them. It seemed to be in a trance. Its head swayed a little, and its tongue flickered again.

Gabby couldn’t stand it. “Somebody do something!” she begged.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kate’s hand creep into the air and twist an apple off the tree above them.

Kate’s wrist snapped forward, lightning quick.

The apple struck the ground right in front of the snake, startling it. The snake coiled in on itself.

The movement broke the spell in the orchard. Two scouts swooped in and whisked the petrified fairy away. Other fairies flew at the snake, shouting and clacking pebbles together.

The girls joined in making a racket. They stomped their feet and hollered. They banged sticks together.

The snake coiled tighter. It looked annoyed. There went its lunch, and now all the noise was making things worse.

As the clamor grew, the snake decided it had had enough. It uncoiled and slithered away.

The fairies and the girls cheered. Fairies swarmed around Kate. They pinched her cheeks and patted her head. The air rang with their praise.

Kate blushed beneath her freckles. “It was just a fastball,” she said.

The terror of watching the fairy, followed by the burst of relief, made Gabby feel fizzy with energy. As they followed the fairies back to the Home Tree, she couldn’t stop talking. “Kate, that was so neat. You threw that apple so fast. I want to learn to throw like that. Will you teach me? Promise?”

Kate laughed. “I’d be glad to teach you, Gabby.”

“And I helped scare away the snake, too! I stomped my feet really hard. I think that helped!”

“It definitely did,” Lainey agreed.

“That fairy was really scared,” Gabby babbled on. “I think we should do something nice for her. Like maybe we could pick some flowers for her. Or make something— I know! We can make her a card! It can say ‘We hope you feel better soon.’ I can even draw a picture on it!”

Mia grinned. “That’s a great idea, Gabby.”

They walked on, Gabby bursting with energy and ideas. She passed right by her great-grandfather’s little wooden boat without even noticing it.