Traveling by pixie dust had made him dizzy before, so he closed his eyes. His skin began to tingle. His head began to spin. And then, something licked his face.
Sprite opened his eyes. A gray kitten licked Sprite’s face with its sandy pink tongue. Another kitten batted Sprite’s wings with its tail. Behind him, he heard Hazel wail.
“Sprite, you took us to the Queen’s kittens, not the Queen’s kitchens!” Hazel cried. An orange striped kitten had knocked her on her back.
Sprite wasn’t sure what had happened. The queen owned the only cats in the Otherworld. Sprite had never seen them up close before. They looked cute from far away, but up close, they were a little bigger than Sprite and full of energy.
“Sorry!” Sprite said. Why couldn’t he have got it right? “I’ll come help you.”
“Don’t bother!” Hazel said. She reached into her pocket. Then she sprinkled pixie dust in the air.
“To the Queen’s kitchens!” Hazel cried.
Sprite closed his eyes again. When the tingling stopped, he saw that Hazel had got it right. They were in the kitchens. So was the orange striped kitten.
“What a dear little thing you are,” said a sweet voice. “How did you get down here?”
The voice belonged to Granny Sprite. She hovered above the kitten, stroking the top of its head. She smiled when she saw Sprite.
“Sweetpea, what are you doing here?” she asked, squeezing him in her arms. “Did you come to say hello to your old granny?”
“Sweetpea?” Hazel said.
Sprite blushed. “Granny, this is my friend Hazel. “We’re on assignment for Royal Pixie Tricker School. We thought you could help us.”
Granny Sprite put an arm around each of them. “I’ll see what I can do. But first, let’s get out of the way.”
Sprite realized that the pixie dust had taken them right to the middle of the busy kitchen. Above them, sprites flapped their wings as they stirred bubbling pots. Dwarves and pixies scurried about, carrying baskets of fruit and vegetables. Granny Sprite led them to a bench next to the swinging kitchen doors. They all sat down.
Seeing Granny Sprite made Sprite feel like he could do anything. Her long, braided hair was as white as cotton, but her wings still shimmered like rainbows after a fresh rain. And Granny Sprite had a smile like no other. One smile from her could make your troubles vanish.
Sprite and Hazel took turns telling Granny Sprite about Stinky the Elf.
“So you see,” Hazel finished. “I think that there must be some kind of food that will make Stinky give up his cheese. There has to be.”
Granny Sprite looked thoughtful. “I don’t know,” she said. “My granny always told me that you can’t get a bee to change its stripes. I suspect that goes for Stinky and his cheese, too.”
Sprite felt so disappointed. He had hoped that Granny had the answer they were looking for. Granny Sprite saw the look on her grandson’s face.
“I’ll see what I can do, Sweetpea,” she said. “Let me ask some of the chefs if they have any ideas.”
But before they could stand up again, an angry dwarf came bursting through the swinging doors.
“Those miserable mice have done it again!” he wailed. “They’ve nibbled through a stack of honey cakes taller than an elf!”
Granny Sprite shook her head. “Oh dear,” she said. “Not again.”
“What’s wrong, Granny?” Sprite asked.
“We can’t seem to keep the Otherworld mice away from the kitchens,” she explained. “It used to be under control. They’d take a nibble here, a bite there. But now there are so many of them. They eat the food as fast as we can make it!”
“Can’t the queens cats take care of the mice?” Hazel asked.
“They’re much too friendly for that,” Granny Sprite said. “They’d rather play with the mice than eat them. Besides, Queen Mab does not want the mice harmed in any way.”
“So you have a problem, too,” Hazel said. “You need to get the mice to leave your kitchen food alone.”
“Too bad they can’t eat Stinky’s cheese,” Sprite said. Then he froze as he realized what he had said. He turned to Hazel. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
Hazel grinned. “I think so, Sweetpea!”
.
