9

The Rowan Tree And The Kingfisher

It rained for the next few days, so Ben stayed indoors. He played his computer games, which was fun, but he missed Jess. The bad weather kept on, so the trip to the stream had to be put off for another week. He was worried that he’d never find the plants in time. Mum had some holidays from work and took him out to the cinema and the museum, and he liked that, but he still wanted to start searching.

On the following Sunday the sun was shining and there were lots of fluffy white clouds in the sky. In the afternoon Gran told Ben to fetch his coat and boots as she wanted him to walk along the lane with her to Mrs Jenkins’s house. Ben made a funny face. He liked Mrs Jenkins, but when she started talking with Gran they could be there for hours!

‘Come on,’ she winked at him, ‘it’s nice enough weather for you take Scoot into the park to play ball.’

Ben opened his mouth. He’d almost forgotten about the rowan trees in the park. Clever Gran! His hands were shaking as he went to open the door. He remembered his notebook where he’d written how to keep the plants fresh, so he unhooked his rucksack and took that as well. Scoot barked and jumped around them as they went down the garden path. When they reached Mrs Jenkins’s house Gran told Ben to go into the park, but nowhere else. She said she could see him from the kitchen window.

Ben and Scoot raced into the park and across to the fence at the far end of the grass. There were three rowan trees on the park side of the fence, and two in the farmer’s field. Ben threw the ball for Scoot and then he knelt down under the trees. He moved slowly, pushing the grass apart with his hands, but he couldn’t see anything that looked like the Fairy Wing Flowers. Scoot came back with the ball and jumped up at him.

Ben wanted to have a look under the two trees that were in the next field. He wasn’t supposed to go out of the park, but he threw Scoot’s ball so that it landed right next to the trees and the dog chased after it. Ben followed and started to look for the flowers again. He was hot and there seemed to be lots of flies on this side of the fence.

Just then a small dragonfly landed on his hand. He kept very still and watched its wings shaking. He looked more closely and saw a tiny face scowling at him. A very angry face! It wasn’t a dragonfly at all. It was a fairy, and it seemed to be trying to tell him something, but he just couldn’t hear it.

Ben looked around. He would have to use the rhyme to become small again. It was the only way that he could ask the fairy for help. He put his hand against the tree trunk and the fairy floated away. He said the rhyme and waited for the dizziness to pass.

‘Who are you?’ the fairy shouted at him. ‘Why are you here and what are you looking for?’

Ben told the fairy all about the Spider Prince and the magic potion. The fairy calmed down, and told him that, many years before, the Spider Wizard had helped the fairies to find a new home after their rowan tree had been hit by lightning. The fairies were very grateful, so she showed Ben where the flowers were. She helped him to collect the seven petals and to wrap them in a dandelion leaf to keep them fresh. Ben thanked her, said the rhyme quickly, and soon he was running back towards Mrs Jenkins’s house, with his precious parcel of Fairy Wing petals in his rucksack.

The following Thursday Ben’s dad was at home. He told Ben that they could go bird watching if he liked and Scoot could go as well. Gran had told him that Ben wanted to see the kingfishers again, so they set off for the stream in the woods. They walked for quite a long way, so everyone was tired when they reached the place where they’d seen the bird before. Dad sat down to read his newspaper and Scoot lay at his feet. Ben said that he was going to sit nearer the stream, and his dad told him to be careful and not to fall in.

Ben sat very quietly, and after about ten minutes he saw a flash of colour on the other side of the stream. He sat up straight. Yes! There it was again! The kingfisher dived into the stream and came out with a little fish in its beak. It landed on a branch and seemed to be looking straight at Ben. Then it hopped to another branch and put its head on one side.

Ben stood up slowly. He looked around and saw that his dad and Scoot were both sleeping, so he crossed the stream carefully. He stepped from one stone to another until he was on the other side, then he walked along the path until he was underneath the tree where the bird was perched. Ben whistled quietly and the bird looked down at him, then dropped the fish onto the ground. Ben went to pick it up, but when he stretched out his hand he felt a sharp sting.

‘Ouch!’ he cried. ‘That hurt.’ He thought there was a stinging nettle in the grass, but when he looked again he could see lots of insects buzzing around a small silver bush. He stepped back but the insects followed him. He was just about to hit at them with his hand when he remembered what Gran had read about the fern. It was silver and made from the breath of little green dragons. Perhaps these weren’t insects at all!

Ben was a little bit afraid to use the rhyme this time. Even though the fairy had been angry with him at first she didn’t seem as scary as the dragons. What if they attacked him when he was small? Perhaps they wouldn’t listen to him. He looked up at the kingfisher.

‘Can you help?’ he called to the bird. ‘Can you tell them that I need seven leaves of the fern to save the Spider Prince’s life?’

The bird dived down into the swarm of dragons. They circled around Ben’s head three times, then they disappeared into a hole in the tree trunk. The kingfisher flew to the bush and snapped off a small branch with his beak. He dropped it at Ben’s feet and flew away. When Ben picked up the branch he saw that it had exactly seven leaves on it. He took out some more dandelion leaves from his rucksack, and wrapped up the fern. Then he crossed back over the stream and lay down next to Scoot.

He was so excited! He had found two of the ingredients for the magic potion, but he knew that the third one would be the hardest of all to find.