Megan Button and the Brim-Tree (3 page)

Blossom thought it best to diffuse the impending wobbler. ‘Very well, Lucy, you may come with us,’ a fleeting feature of regret lined her face, and a smidgen of unwillingness now
tinged her voice. ‘It is true all children have Magic in them, but
Megan
is very powerful as she believes in us so strongly.’

‘But it could be me who’s this Fairy Key
thing
.’

‘No, I’m afraid not, Lucy.’

‘It could be!’

‘No. It is Megan.’


Pur-lease
. Megan?’

‘Yes. But you can come along, Lucy.’

Smiling sweetly, Lucy simpered silkily, ‘Hmm.
Thank you
, Blossom.’

Turning to Megan, she snootily stuck her tongue out, and a satisfyingly mischievous grin spread across her face, then under her breath for Megan’s ears, she couldn’t help but go,
‘He he he.’

Chapter Four
The Doorway

Biting her lower lip and wringing her fingers together, Megan asked. ‘What do I have to do, too help you both get home?’

Blossom and Nugget looked from one another in disbelief. After all this time, a chance had come along for them too get back to The Enchanted Kingdom.

Nugget stepped up, and spoke. ‘Megan, with the assistance of the leaf from the Magic tree, you will be able too centre yourself to the Magic buried deep within you.’

Megan stood, fumbled her toes into her pink fluffy slippers and surveyed her room.
Is this going to be the last time I will see it,
she thought shockingly…

‘OK?’ asked Blossom.

Megan considered this for a moment. In the rush to agree and help, swarms of horrible thoughts now occurred to her: could she actually do the task in hand? Did she have the courage? What if she
couldn’t do it? What if Princess Blossom had the wrong child and she wasn’t The Fairy Key. Did she dare hope she was? Could she do this?
Could she..?

‘Are you alright?’ the Princess asked.

Megan swatted the pecking thoughts away.

She nodded.

‘Of course she’s alright! What a silly question to ask,’ Lucy said tartly, who couldn’t understand her sister’s behaviour.


Ahem
.’ Megan cleared her throat.

‘Y-yes,’ she spluttered, ‘I-I’m fine. Let’s do it.’

Blossom and Nugget flew up and he passed the leaf to Megan. ‘Too create the gateway between our world’s, we shall use your bedroom doorway to walk through.’

‘Where will we come out, when we get t-through to The Enchanted Kingdom?’ she slightly wavered still, but was trying her best to mask it.

‘The only place that I know, was the gateway created by Abraxus,’ Nugget recollected. ‘This was in the forest where the Unicorns live so we should come out there,’ he
mapped out.

Megan was then taken aback.

The leaf in her outlaid palm was crinkling out
popping
sparks, and changed from brown to bright orange, then after a second or so, it switched to a vivid purple; she gazed at Blossom and
Nugget. ‘It’s the Magic inside the leaf: it can sense the Magic within you,’ commented the Princess.

‘Think of nothing and hold on to the leaf tightly,’ guided Nugget. Like Megan, he, too, was watching the leaf-changing colour-after-colour, ‘just let the Magic in you come to
the surface.’

‘Are you OK?’ Blossom asked, still concerned.

Megan gave a saluted thumbs-up.

Making her mind blank she felt the Magic bloom within her: she was a bit scared about it at first but became aware of a very weird feeling spreading throughout her whole body, making her feel
nice and toasty.

She trudged forward and groped the handle, and with Lucy, Blossom and Nugget expectantly behind her, she wrenched open the door.

Megan’s eyes bulged.

Instead of the landing, misshapen murky layers, like rolls of compressed toffee, came foraging in.

They were ghoulishly gloomier than the middle of night-time.

Chapter Five
Bumpy Wallops

All four lunged with a lurch into the misty smog, and Megan felt as though she was being yanked and pushed through outer-space. A simmering light began to grow brighter and
brighter, and shielding her eyes as the intensity ignited, she skidded around in the air and heard wicked laughter, echoing loudly.

‘Ow! - ’

‘ - Aaaa! - ’

‘ - Eeeek! - ’

‘ - Arrrahhh! - ’

‘ - Humph.’

The last sound came from Megan, who had nose-dived in midair, dropped in a somersaulting movement then gamboled over all topsy-turvy.

Megan lay flat on her back.

‘Whoa.’ She felt groggy.

She sensed a stone was jabbing into the small of her back, and hoisting herself up, she jerked with a jolt from the overwhelming shock of it all, and knelt up on a very bumpy ground, and
realised with horror that this was
not
the forest.

Hunting round, for Lucy, she became aware of a strange sizzling hum behind her. With her heart pumping madly, Megan stole a look over her shoulder and as her eyes adjusted, she saw a very,
very
large Dragon marshalling towards her!

Turning back, she found Lucy and grabbed hold of her hand; putting a finger too her lips and signaling to Lucy to be quiet, their knees knocked closely together.

Looking upward, they saw the craggy face of a menacing Dragon with enormous wings that were at least as tall as their house, and a wretched Megan saw in his two front-clawed hands he held
Blossom and Nugget!

The Dragon then had realised that if Blossom and Nugget had managed too make it back within The Enchanted Kingdom they must have had help. Bringing its large head up swiftly, it keenly smelt the
air; there was a different smell, but it couldn’t recognise it.

Both screwed their eyes firmly shut: the Dragon was slowly swinging its salivating jaw, and its breath whispered across the top of Megan’s hair - who had hugged her arms to her chest and
daredn’t move, and whose stomach felt like jelly - leaving a lingering foul stench.

Please go away… please go away… please go away…
Megan thought, trying as she might, if possible, too will it to pass on.

With splendid timing, from finally hearing the Dragon luckily lumber away, her starry eyes pinged open. ‘Because we’re in the s-shadows, I don’t think he can see us. He must
have been able to catch them b-because of their light.’

‘A-Abraxus?’ stuttered Lucy.

‘I think it must be. I-I remember Princess Blossom d-describing what he looked like when we first met… c-can you smell that damp?’ asked Megan, attempting to control her
rattling teeth.

‘Yes, I -’

‘- I think we m-must be in a cave -’

‘ -
I
was about to say - ’

They suddenly heard huffing and bellowing.

Looking behind them they saw Abraxus outside the cave, and as he roared his reign of fire, blazes of molten jets was coming out of his mouth, while great big curls of smoke wafted from his
nostrils.

‘What is it doing, Megan?’

Then Lucy’s question was answered for her: they could see that Abraxus was forming a wall of fire where the entrance to the cave was.

They were trapped, and Princess Blossom and Nugget were captured.

Chapter Six
The Wall Of Fire

Scouring the smatter of dirt off her lilac pyjamas, Lucy jumped up. Her green eyes glared and she snapped at Megan. ‘Look at the state of me! I look a mess! This is all
your
fault!’

‘Don’t you shout at me,’ Megan was quick to retort, understandably heatedly, whilst massaging her wrist.

‘Just
look
at my hair!’ wailed Lucy, grappling her frizzy ends.

‘Don’t be so ridiculous!’

Lucy snorted.

‘You’re so spoilt!’

‘Just because
you
don’t care about
your
hair,’ Lucy heckled, scathingly.


What?

‘I mean
, seriously
, have you ever
used
conditioner?’

‘You
brat
, I’m - ’

‘ -
No
, I am
not!
Just shut up, Megan,’ Lucy screeched superiorly, with her hands on her hips. ‘Anyway, how
exactly
are we going to get out of
here?’

Looking down at the ground, Lucy noticed the leaf and picking it up, she thrust it into Megan’s face. At first the leaf was bright orange then turned neon-pink. Puzzled, Lucy muttered to
herself under her breath, ‘But how is it changing colour?’

‘Remember, Princess Blossom said it changes colour whenever it senses Magic. It must be sensing yours. I wonder if…’ supposed Megan.

‘What?’

‘Can I hold it just for a minute? I have an idea, we - ’

‘ -
No!
It’s
my
turn,’ Lucy trumpeted.

A vein throbbed in Megan’s temple.

She had, quite rightly, had enough. ‘Look, we don’t have time for a fight.
Give me the leaf, now!
’ she yelled boomingly back, beside herself from a bucketload of
indignation.

Begrudgingly, she surrendered the leaf and once in Megan’s reach, the colours shone even brighter. ‘If Abraxus used Magic to hold that wall of fire in place, then why can’t we
use the Magic inside us, and with the help of the leaf, get rid of the fire?’ illustrated Megan, who had now quelled down her anger enough to conjure a plan.

‘Oh, do you think we can?’ Lucy asked doubtfully.

‘It’s better than standing here.’

With a scream, Lucy pincered Megan’s forearm. ‘What is it?’

‘Something just ran by my ankle. It felt… hairy,’ she mumbled.

Just to left of them they glimpsed something zip by in the shadows of the caves wall.


I
want to get out of here,’ Lucy declared rather unhelpfully.

Encouragingly, Megan pointed out. ‘We will.’

‘I’ve got to get out of here! I’ve got to!’ Lucy hysterically screamed.

‘Yes! We will. I’ll get us out,’ Megan repeated.

Clasping Lucy’s hand and clinching the leaf tightly, she told her to concentrate on finding the Magic inside her, and as the leaf rocketed in brightness illuminating the whole cave, Megan
asked considerately, ‘OK?’

‘Uh-hu.’ Lucy grumbled.

Being very cautious, as they remembered their mum and dad warning them about how dangerous fire could be, they padded closer to the blazing tongues: they could feel the heat as the wall of fire
roared
across the ground, licking the flames, which guttered through the sided entrance walls swelling the ceiling.

Against her hips, Megan hoicked her pyjama sleeves up.

Immediately from her steering hand came streaks of pure white rays, which flooded out directly into the fire. The light grew bigger and the fire started to lose its fierce carroty glow, becoming
a dull reddish-ginger.

They watched it start to crumple in on itself, and then slowly diminish, until all that was left were weaves of vapours clinging desperately to the entrance.

Clutching the leaf, Megan hollered. ‘Run, come on!’

Dashing pell-mell through the towering smokey plumes, and trying not to trip over, they jogged into a forest, with large trees that were as big as four houses on top of one another.

And as Megan zoomed headlong like a greyhound chasing a robotic bunny rabbit, her hands cupped her mouth: she was horribly shocked to see the rainbows had large transparent patches.

The sky was grey. The three suns looked like dirty dishcloths, and the white, fluffy clouds, now resembled squirming bloated beetles.

Oh fiddlesticks,
she thought,
The Enchanted Kingdom is not at all like Princess Blossom described it
.

Chapter Seven
Tumble’s Horn

‘I-hope-Abraxus-doesn’t-come-back,’ panted Lucy.

‘Come… on… we’ll walk… for a bit,’ Megan shallowly puffed. ‘See… if we can… find out… where we… are.’

She then staggered with a dodder and gulped lungfuls of air.

‘Blossom-and-Nugget… should be OK… don’t-you-think?’ Lucy said, holding her side.

‘Let’s-hope-so,’ wheezed Megan, a little too certainly, and looking around, hid her nerves.

Her hands were gripping her knees and her back arched like a stretching cat.

Calming her searing chest, she got her bearings.

Eventually, and making sure Abraxus had not followed them, they did the sensible option only really open to them: using Megan’s proposed suggestion they plodded at a snail’s pace
into the dense crush of the trees, where a familiar smell hung in the air and it was hard too see the sky for the treetops grew to such dizzying heights.

At first, Megan hobbled, then with an
‘Ouch!’
she accidentally stubbed her big toe against a rough rock (unfortunately, her slippers didn’t provide much protection!),
which caused her to limp for a bit.

They rambled for five minutes, going further into the forest weaving cautiously in between the tree-trunks; trying to step round the sinuous rows of shadows, and the scent became stronger as
they ploughed onward. ‘It smells like Mum’s candle,’ registered Lucy, blinking in surprise.

‘I know. It’s strange for trees to smell of vanilla!’ agreed Megan.

Lucy stood stock-still. ‘What was that noise?’

Megan, too, had stopped in her tracks. ‘I don’t know. Let’s creep a bit further,’ she replied daringly.

In her mind, Megan tried to gauge how far they’d already scooted along:
hmm, several yards
, she thought guessingly…

In stony silence they marched on, and came upon bunches of entwined brambles, knotted thickets and large bushes. Megan gestured for them to drop on to the ground, which felt soft and almost
spongy, and worming apprehensively forward they peeped under the undergrowth, and encountered two white creatures staring at them from just a way off.

‘C-can’t
believe
just seen Unicorns!’ Lucy lisped in shock. ‘They be as big as s-shire horses!’

‘Shhh,’ Megan shushed her, and then whispered, ‘We must now be in Unicorn Land.’

Leaping up and ushering Lucy behind her, Megan started to clump the bushes together and as she skirted and shouldered through the few feet of scratchy shrubbery, she found they could all be
prised apart like tent flaps: for a split second, she even thought they had parted on their own accord!

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