Chapter 34

“How about Princess?” Charlie asked. “That’s a good name.” She looked over at her new friend Katrinka who was walking beside her leading the small mare. The mare’s recovery was little short of miraculous, so much so that Aunt Mandy had decided that she could be out in the north pasture. The two girls were leading her there, trying to figure out a good name for her.

“It’s okay, I guess. Do you think Papa Lachlan will let us name her? She’s his horse, isn’t she? Maybe he wants to name her.”

“Katrinka,” Charlie said in a small voice, “do you think your Papa Lachlan will get to like me? Mama said he was my uncle, but he never came to see me.”

“Oh, I bet he’ll like you fine. And wait till you taste the waffles he makes. Uncle Gus says that they are the best. And he likes to take me for ice cream, I bet he’ll take you too, if we ask him. I bet he’ll let us name her. And if we do it before he gets back, she’ll already have a name. It’ll be too late to change it then. And he likes me, I can tell, so he won’t be mad.”

“I like Princess okay, but how about Princess Jasmine?”

“Hello girls,” piped a voice that came out of the blackberry bushes by the fence.

“It’s a fairy,” Charlie gasped.

The two girls stared as the little creature emerged from the blackberry bashes.

It was five or six inches high. One hand was withered. It had bright blue eyes and a merry smile.

“Do you live in there? How come you don’t get stuck with all the stickers. I don’t think I would like to live in a blackberry bush?”

“No,” the faerie waved his hand airily. “I’m magical so they don’t bother me.”

“I don’t think we’re supposed to talk to strangers,” Katrinka warned. Given the last couple of days, she was suspicious, even if the little person was right out of a fairy tale. “I think we should go back.”

“Oh, I’m not going to bother you. I’m just looking for my treasure.”

“Really did someone take it? What is it?”

“Well, there are diamonds and rubies and gold, and magical things too. I’ll give you some if you can help me. I have another friend helping me too. Would you like to meet her, I bet you already know her.

“Sure,” said Charlie. “We can help you look. Where is your other friend?”

“Oh, she’s over there, He pointed to a woman waving at them from the other side of the wooden fence.

“It’s okay, Katrinka. it’s Auntie Babbitt.”

“Auntie Babbitt,” Charley yelled. “Look, we got a new horse and her name is Princess or Princess Jasmine. We haven’t decided.”

“Well, she is a pretty horse for sure. Come a little closer so I can meet your new friend.

The girls walked to the fence.

As she got closer, Katrinka immediately saw through her glamour. “Wait, Charlie, that woman...” She didn’t manage to finish before the compulsion spell took them both.

The faerie waved his hand and all that was left in the pasture was the little horse grazing by itself.

(Many thanks to Mr. Wolf for lending his invaluable editorial skills to make this readable).