Young Writers Society

Early in the morning, after Kaelin’s last night at Geppetto’s workshop, the Blue Fairy came to take her away. She said a long goodbye to Jiminy and Geppetto and a short one to Pinocchio, who she hadn’t known very long. Then the Blue Fairy took some fairy dust and sprinkled it on Kaelin’s paws. As soon as the dust hit Kaelin’s paws, she started floating up in the air. She squeaked in alarm.

“Don’t worry,” the Blue Fairy said with a tinkling laugh, “You’ll be able to control it if you try. This is what you need to come to the fairies’ realm with me.”

Kaelin concentrated and found that, by moving her paws as though she was running on the ground, she could scurry through the air in the same way. It felt weird. She giggled with excitement. “Look at me, Jiminy!” she called, “I can fly too now!”

Jiminy fluttered up to her level and hovered there. “So you can,” he observed.

“I bet I can go faster than you,” Kaelin teased.

“It’s time to go,” the Blue Fairy interrupted, “That spell will wear off after a time, and we should get to the fairies’ realm before it does.”

Reluctantly, Kaelin took her leave of them and followed the fairy up into the sky. They climbed higher and higher until the air began to grow cold, and they neared the clouds. Her little heart racing in amazement, Kaelin looked down at the landscape beneath her. Yes, there was Geppetto’s little seaside village. The glinting, blue-gray sea reached all the way to the horizon on one side of the village. On the other side, there were trees, and beyond that, fields. Silvery olive trees grew in rows on a hillside, and there were also fields of grapevines and golden wheat.

Kaelin remembered that Sofia had come from one of the little farmhouses outside the village. She had grown up combing the olives off their branches in the autumn. Once every year, she had taken Geppetto, Kaelin, and Jiminy out to the olive groves so they could see the olives being harvested and ground up to make oil. Despite the tension still between Geppetto and Jiminy back then, those were happy memories.

“Kaelin, wake up!” came an exasperated sigh from the Blue Fairy. Kaelin shook herself back to reality and followed her farther into the sky. Finally, they popped right through the fluffy, silver clouds and came out on the other side. Kaelin shivered a bit as the cool dampness of the clouds clung to her fur. It was like going through a heavy fog or a very light drizzle.

Above the clouds was like a whole new land. Kaelin gazed around in wonder at the cloudscape, all white and gray and soft and shining—and with so much variety! She wanted to go explore every fluffy little nook and cranny in this kingdom of the sky. Yet she had business to do, and the Blue Fairy wasn’t going to wait for her to look around. Kaelin scampered to catch up.

After a while, Kaelin caught sight of a flash of pink in the clouds. “There she is,” the Blue Fairy muttered. As they drew closer, she called, “Nova!”

The pink fairy started, then raced toward them through the air. “Yes, Blue Fairy?” she said breathlessly, scooting to a halt in front of them.

“Will you take over with Kaelin for me?” the Blue Fairy requested.

“Yes, Blue Fairy,” the pink fairy repeated. She turned and waved at Kaelin even though they were hardly a foot apart. “Hi, Kaelin,” she said, as the Blue Fairy glided away, “I’m Nova.”

“Have we met before?” Kaelin asked curiously, because Nova seemed familiar, and she thought she recognized the name too.

“Well, I—I’ve seen you a lot, but I don’t know if you’ve ever seen me,” Nova began uncertainly.

The magic in Kaelin’s paws suddenly gave out, and she dropped with a shriek. Fortunately, the clouds must have been enchanted because she didn’t go through them, bouncing a bit as she landed on them.

“Ohh, sorry! Are you all right?” Nova fretted, flying down to her, “I think I was supposed to give you more fairy dust before that happened!”

“It’s all right,” Kaelin said, standing up on her hind paws and brushing off her dress, even though there was nothing to brush off. She looked up at the fairy’s concerned face and wide, anxious, brown eyes, and suddenly remembered where she had seen Nova before. “Oh! You’re the fairy I met when I was trying to reach the stars!” she exclaimed.

“What…?” Nova frowned curiously and tilted her head to one side, “But I don’t remember…” She landed on the clouds in front of Kaelin.

“I wasn’t a mouse then,” Kaelin explained, “I was just a little girl. You were the little pink fairy who told me to dance in the grass to get stardust, because you thought there was stardust in the grass!”

“Oh—and Blue Fairy scolded me because it was just dew,” Nova giggled, “I remember now! Wow, to think—that was you!”

“So why did the Blue Fairy entrust me to you just now?” Kaelin asked, “Are you Cinderella’s fairy godmother?”

“Oh—” Nova looked down, clasping her hands together. “Noo, I’m still not a fairy godmother yet,” she said in disappointment. Then she smiled hopefully, “But I am doing a more important job than before,” she continued, “It’s my job to watch over certain animal friends, like you. I started watching over you when you moved to the village where Geppetto’s workshop is. Now I’m going to help you and Gus become animal friends for Cinderella!”

Kaelin frowned. “Gus? Who’s Gus?”

“You mean the Blue Fairy didn’t tell you about him?” Nova asked in surprise, “He’s the other mouse who’s going to be helping Cinderella!”

“Another mouse?” Kaelin exclaimed, horrified, “B-but she told me that Cinderella needs me! That’s why I decided to leave Jiminy and Geppetto and help her. If there’s another mouse, I don’t see why I’m needed! I should—I should just go home…”

“Kaelin, I’m sure if the Blue Fairy said Cinderella needs you specifically, she meant it. She must have reasons,” Nova said earnestly, taking her paws.

“All right, well, where is this ‘Gus-Gus’?” Kaelin demanded grumpily.

“I’ll have you know,” panted a voice nearby, “That it’s Gustave, not ‘Gus’, and certainly not ‘Gus-Gus’!”

Kaelin turned the face the speaker. He was another mouse, who had just run around a bump in the clouds to the relatively flat place where Kaelin and Nova were standing. The mouse had slightly darker fur than Kaelin. He was wearing a pointed, green cap, brown cloth shoes, and a light brown shirt. He straightened up, folding his arms and frowning at Nova. “You could’ve…at least given me…a little more of that flying magic…before you went zipping off like that! I thought I’d…never be able to find you!” He still seemed rather out of breath.

“Sorryy,” Nova replied, wincing. She tried to smile and bounced on her toes a little, making a gesture toward Kaelin. “This is the other mouse who will be helping Cinderella. Her name is Kaelin. Kaelin, this is—”

“Yes, I know. Gus-Gus,” Kaelin grumbled.

“It’s Gustave!” Gus squeaked, stamping his shod hind paw, though it didn’t make a sound on the cloudy surface.

“It’s okay to use different names, Gus,” Nova said optimistically, trying to make peace, “In fact, Kaelin even called herself ‘Suzy’ at first, though that was only for a couple days, I guess.”

“Nova! I didn’t even like that name!” Kaelin cried in dismay, “I was just afraid to say my real name at first, and that was the first thing that popped into my mind.”

A mischievous grin slowly spread across Gus’s face. “I see what you’re saying, Nova…” he began, sidling toward Kaelin. He stopped right in front of her. “I can call you Suzy, then, right?” he presumed.

“What? No!”

“Hey, it’s only fair!” He shrugged. “If you’re going to call me ‘Gus-Gus’…I’m going to call you ‘Suzy’.”

Kaelin glared at him. “All right, Gus-Gus.” And she stuck out her pink tongue at him.

“Fine! Suzy!” Gus stuck out his tongue too.

Suddenly, Kaelin realized how childish they were being, and a giggle broke out of her. Gus stifled a snicker too, accidentally spitting in her face.

“Sorry!” he exclaimed in alarm, but Kaelin only giggled again, hurriedly wiping her long nose with her paws. Then they both broke down in squeaky laughter, practically unable to control themselves. Even Nova had to laugh. From then on, Kaelin and Gus could no longer see each other as rivals. They were sure to become good friends.