High up in the evening sky, the Second Star to the Right glows brightly. If you follow that star, you’ll find the magical island of Never Land. It is a wonderful place, filled with tall mountains, flowing rivers, and deep forests. And in the very heart of Never Land is Pixie Hollow, the home of all the fairies.

Pixie Hollow is very different from the mainland, where the humans live. For one thing, all four seasons occur in Pixie Hollow at the same time. There’s Spring Valley, where flowers always bloom. And Summer Glade, where it’s warm and sunny every day. In the Autumn Forest, leaves turn colorful shades of red, gold, and orange. And just over the border, where no warm-weather fairy is permitted to go, are the Winter Woods. Shimmering white snow blankets the world there, and ice-topped mountain peaks overlook frozen valleys, brooks, and streams. Warm-weather fairies live on one side of the border, and cold-weather fairies stay on the other. A winter fairy cannot survive the heat of spring or summer. And the icy temperatures of the Winter Woods would freeze a warm-weather fairy’s wings. So the fairies stay in their seasons and keep busy with their work. They know that the rules are there to protect them, and that crossing the border can be very dangerous.

One bright and busy morning in the Autumn Forest, Silvermist, a water-talent fairy, flew along the river. A handful of dragonflies buzzed around her. They were collecting dewdrops to place on spiderwebs. Not far away, a garden fairy named Rosetta was coaxing flowers to bloom. Vidia, a fast-flying fairy, zipped overhead. The wind from her wings pushed the autumn leaves through the air. Each fairy had a job to do, and they were all happily finishing their morning tasks. But perhaps no fairies were quite as busy as the tinkers. They were expecting a very special arrival in Tinkers’ Nook!

“Look sharp, everyone!” Fairy Mary, the head of the tinker fairies, called. “The snowy owls will soon be arriving to take the snowflake baskets to the Winter Woods.” She looked around and noticed that a tinker fairy named Lucinda was not focused on her job. “Lucinda, stop noodling and start tinkering!” she scolded. Then she flew off to check on the basket production.

Nearby, a friendly gray mouse named Cheese was struggling with his wagon. It was filled with bundles of reeds, and it was a bit too heavy for him to pull. Suddenly, a lasso appeared out of nowhere and picked up a bundle of reeds from the cart, making the load lighter. Cheese looked up and saw that his friend Tinker Bell was holding on to a pole attached to the rope. Leave it to Tinker Bell to create an invention like a pole with a swinging lasso to help a friend in need!

“Is that the last load?” Tinker Bell asked the mouse with a satisfied smile.

Cheese replied with a happy squeak to say “Yes!”

Tinker Bell waved and flew off to help her other friends.

“Morning, Clank! Morning, Bobble!” she called when she reached the basket depot. The two tinkers were busy weaving long reeds into sturdy baskets. She placed the new bundle on a pile in front of them. “That should be enough to finish the snowflake baskets,” she said.

Bobble looked up. His thick dewdrop goggles made his eyes seem enormous. “Aye, that’ll do her,” he agreed.

“Thanks,” Clank added. He smiled at Tinker Bell and didn’t watch what he was doing. He accidentally wove the reeds right over Bobble’s hands!

“Clanky!” Bobble complained, trying to free himself.

“Sorry,” Clank apologized. Tinker Bell giggled. Her friends were always getting into funny mishaps like this. Granted, Tinker Bell had a way of getting into tricky situations herself. One time, she had almost ruined the preparations for bringing spring to the mainland. And just this past summer, she had accidentally been captured by a little girl in the human world. But each time, her friends had helped her find a way to fix the problem. And right now, Tinker Bell couldn’t get into any trouble at all because she was doing her very favorite thing: tinkering!

She looked around at the towering piles of baskets that were ready to be collected by the snowy owls. “I can’t believe we make the baskets but don’t get to take them to the winter fairies,” she said. “I mean, wouldn’t you want to go into the Winter Woods?”

Both Clank and Bobble stopped their work and stared at Tinker Bell in disbelief. “We wouldn’t last a day in that cold,” Bobble said, shivering. “You’d get frostbite on your fingers, your face would freeze, and…Tell her, Clank.”

Clank nodded in agreement. “You’d get pounced on by a glacier!” he finished.

Bobble raised an eyebrow, and Tink looked at both of them in confusion.

“They’re known for their stealth,” Clank insisted.

Bobble turned to Tink. “He’s never actually seen one,” he said.

“You never do,” Clank said ominously. “Until it’s too late.”

Suddenly, a loud horn sounded. All the tinker fairies looked up to see a flock of snowy owls rapidly approaching.

“Places, everyone!” Fairy Mary called.

Instantly, the fairies began operating a large pulley that hauled the freshly woven baskets up to a delivery tower.

One by one, each of the snowy owls dove down and snatched a basket in its talons. Then, together, the flock soared back into the sky. Tinker Bell watched, her eyes wide with excitement. The large white birds were so graceful and strong!

A young owl approached the basket pickup. He swooped down to grab one of the baskets. But it was a little too heavy for him. He wobbled as he lifted back into the air.

“Oh, newcomer,” Fairy Mary said knowingly.

After struggling for a moment, the young owl gained speed and flew to join his brothers. Before the flock left, one of the owls dropped a note made of ice down to Fairy Mary. It floated softly on a frozen parachute. The second it touched Fairy Mary’s hands, the ice began to melt. So she had to read it quickly.

“The final shipment order,” Fairy Mary said. “Goodness! They need twenty more baskets for tomorrow’s pickup!”

But Tinker Bell was only half listening. She couldn’t help watching as the owls headed for the horizon. They were flying back to the cold mountain range of the mysterious Winter Woods.

“There’s a whole other world over there,” Tinker Bell said wistfully to Clank and Bobble. She couldn’t explain it, but Tink felt drawn to the Winter Woods. It was as if there were a secret buried there, deep in the snow, just waiting to be discovered.