Treasure Hunt (5 page)

I've
got
to find that ring
,
Twink thought, slinging her petal bag over her shoulder.
I've just got to!

.

Chapter Six

‘Bimi, are you sure about this?' whispered Twink as the two friends spiralled down the shadowy trunk. Her best friend rarely broke the rules – and here she was sneaking out of Violet Branch with Twink after midnight!

‘Yes, definitely,' said Bimi softly. ‘Chirpy, be
quiet
,' she urged her cricket. He sat in his cage squeaking happily to himself, clearly thrilled to be out on an adventure.

‘Here's the tuck shop,' said Twink, swooping to land on the dark ledge. ‘Now, how do we get in?' she wondered. The bark shutters over the counter were firmly locked.

Bimi's pretty face creased for a moment, and then she smiled. ‘Easy! Watch.' Taking hold of the bottom of the shutters, she pulled them towards her until a small gap appeared underneath them. ‘In you go, Chirpy,' she said, freeing the cricket. ‘Open the shutters for us from the inside!'

The gleaming brown insect scooted easily through the hole, disappearing from view. Several seconds passed. Twink nibbled her thumb as she hovered. ‘Do you think he understood?' she asked.

‘Chirpy!' hissed Bimi, cupping her mouth with her hands against the shutters. ‘Let us in, it's important!'

In answer there was a pattering noise, like several sweet seeds falling on to the floor. The distinct sound of munching floated out.

Bimi tapped her foot in the air. ‘
Chirpy
–'
she started. With a faint
click
,
the shutters suddenly swung open.

The two fairies shot inside. Hastily, Twink closed the shutters again. ‘Glow-worm on!' she said.

The tuck shop came into view. Chirpy blinked at them from the floor, surrounded by crumbs. ‘You bad thing!' scolded Bimi lovingly, picking him up and cuddling him.

‘How do we do this?' wondered Twink, gazing down.

When Twink had shown Bimi her gran's journal and explained where she thought the ring might be, her best friend had had the idea of using Chirpy to find it for them – but there was still the problem of how to get him under the floorboards!

Walking slowly across the floor, Bimi paused as one of the boards squeaked. ‘There!' she said. ‘That one's loose! So if we just –'

Crouching down, Bimi inserted her fingers into one of the board's knotholes and tugged. It groaned in protest. Twink added her strength to Bimi's, pulling as hard as she could.
Pop!
All at once the board flew out, sending the two fairies flying.

‘Brilliant!' cried Twink, staring into the dark hole. ‘Look, it goes right under the floor!'

‘Right, Chirpy, in you go,' said Bimi, scooping him up. ‘And if you find the ring, I'll buy you candied nuts for a year!'

Twink and Bimi listened tensely as the little insect crept about under the floor. Once or twice he paused, and Twink's pulse quickened – but he always continued.

Suddenly her ears perked up. ‘Listen!' she breathed.

It sounded as if Chirpy were dragging something towards them. Twink stared at the hole, hardly daring to move. All at once the cricket's sleek brown head popped out. In his mouth he held a gold ring with a shiny blue stone.

‘He found it!' shrieked Bimi. She clapped her hand over her mouth and glanced towards the closed shutters.

Twink's heart had leapt when she first saw the ring . . . but now she shook her head sadly. ‘No, that's not it,' she said. ‘Gran's ring was silver, she says so in her journal.' She took the ring from Chirpy and examined it. ‘Besides, look – it's got initials inside it.
GH
.'

‘Geena Honey!' realised Bimi. ‘It's Miss Honey's ring – she must have lost it working in the shop.'

‘Was that the only ring down there, Chirpy?' Twink asked the cricket.

He nodded morosely, and Bimi patted his dusty head. ‘Never mind, you tried,' she soothed. ‘You'll still get your candied nuts.'

‘Well, that's that, I suppose,' said Twink as the two friends replaced the floorboard. She managed a smile, though she felt more like crying. ‘And it seemed like such a good idea, too!'

‘It
was
a good idea,' insisted Bimi. As they turned to leave, she laid the gold ring gently on the counter, so that Miss Honey would see it when she arrived the next morning. ‘And we'll think of another one, Twink. We'll find your gran's ring somehow, I promise!'

But in the days that passed, this began to seem more and more impossible. Twink and Bimi looked everywhere in the school they could think of – the Great Branch, the library, all of Gran's old classrooms. They even managed to search her old branch, with the help of some of the Foxglove fairies.

There was no ring anywhere.

‘Oh, this is hopeless!' moaned Twink several weeks later, flopping on to her bed. ‘Why did I ever think I could find it? It's been lost for
years
.
It could be anywhere!' It was the half hour before glow-worms out, and the two girls were getting ready for bed.

Down below, the other Violet Branch fairies were talking eagerly about the treasure hunt. The solstice was now the very next day, and Pix and Jade were wing and wing, with nine clues each. Only one clue remained to be found – but by which fairy?

‘Pix, of course!' laughed Sooze, flipping back her lavender hair. ‘But either way, tomorrow we get to dance the night away at our disco – I can hardly wait!' She wiggled and twirled down the length of the branch.

‘
And
we get the day off, too,' said Mariella with great satisfaction.

‘Anyway, are
we having a vote, or not?' teased Ivy with a mischievous expression. ‘Because Jade will win, you know, not Pix!'

Rolling over on to her stomach, Twink peered down to the main floor. Though she knew Ivy was only joking, Pix wasn't laughing. In fact, she looked rather quiet and tense.

I can't believe she's so worked up about a stupid contest!
thought Twink. It seemed very unfair when Twink herself had such real things to worry about.

She had finally received a letter from her mum a few days earlier, and it hadn't contained good news. Gran hadn't improved. The doctor was worried, and was talking about sending Gran to a special fairy hospital many miles away.

After receiving this letter, Twink had crept away to the old caretaker's stump behind the school to have a good cry. She had told only Bimi about its contents. Thank goodness the other fairies were too involved with the treasure hunt to notice anything was wrong!

It's hopeless
,
Twink thought again, struggling against tears.
I wanted so much to help Gran . . . but I can't do anything after all.

Bimi had been combing her long blue hair in thoughtful silence. ‘I don't know, Twink,' she said suddenly. ‘I've been thinking . . . it really is very odd that you found your gran's journal, isn't it?'

Twink nodded, remembering the wing-tingling moment when she'd first spotted it. ‘Yes, but I don't see what that has to do with it.'

Bimi put her comb down. ‘Well, maybe – maybe the ring has some sort of magic to it, and it
wants
to be found. I don't see why else you would have discovered that journal, just when you were looking for drawings of your gran! It's too strange.'

Twink sat up, turning the idea over in her mind. ‘Maybe,' she said slowly. ‘Or maybe it's just a coincidence.'

Bimi pulled a face. ‘Coincidence is what humans say when they don't understand magic! No, I reckon you came across that journal for a reason: to help you find your gran's ring, because it might get her out of the Doldrums.'

Twink stared at her. ‘But Bimi – if that's true, then the answer to where the ring is
has
to be in the journal somewhere!' she cried. ‘The ring wouldn't have bothered leading us to it otherwise.'

Bimi nodded. Quickly bouncing on to Twink's bed, she grabbed the journal up from Twink's bedside mushroom. ‘Come on, let's look through it now – we must have missed something!'

But no sooner had they opened the journal than there came a screech from below. ‘
Bimi!
'
called Sili. ‘Your stupid cricket's got under the floorboards
again –
I can hear him scuttling around down there!'

A quick glance at Chirpy's empty cage showed that Sili was right. With a groan, Bimi flitted down to the main floor.

Twink followed, rolling her eyes. Chirpy was becoming very tiresome with his new hobby! Ever since they'd returned from the tuck shop, Bimi's cricket had crept off at every opportunity to explore under the floorboards of Violet Branch.

Bimi crouched in the corner, where the floor didn't quite meet the uneven wall of the tree. ‘Chirpy!' she called into the hole. ‘Chirpy, come out of there!'

Pix shook her head. ‘Crickets
love
dark places,' she said. ‘Once they get a taste for them, they always want to return. And you know how forgetful crickets are. Sometimes they even forget the way out again!'

‘Well, he'd better not forget the way out while he's crawling about under my bed,' said Sili crossly, tightening the belt of her dandelion-fluff dressing gown. ‘He kept me awake for hours last night!'

Twink stood very still as several ideas crashed together in her head. Crickets loved dark places, and always wanted to return to them. Gran and Aurora had taken Aurora's cricket with them when they sneaked down into the roots. And Aurora's cricket had been a trickster, who liked to hide things . . .
and then forgot where he had put them
!

‘Ha! Got you!' said Bimi, dragging Chirpy from the hole. The cricket chirped in protest, kicking his long dark legs.

‘Bimi, listen!' hissed Twink once they were back in their loft. Quickly, she shared the thoughts that had occurred to her.

‘So maybe Aurora's cricket took your gran's ring for a prank,' said Bimi slowly, latching Chirpy back into his cage. ‘And he went back to the roots with it, because he liked it down there.'

‘Yes!' cried Twink. She snatched up the journal, leafing hurriedly through its pages. ‘Because look at this – Aurora's cricket went
missing
around the same time Gran noticed her ring was gone! He came back the next day, but everyone was so upset that they didn't make the connection. Bimi, I bet you anything that he took the ring down there and then forgot about it!'

Bimi nodded eagerly. ‘It all makes sense. Your gran first
noticed
she'd lost the ring in the tuck shop, but that doesn't mean it's actually where she lost it! It could have been gone for hours already, couldn't it?'