4. A Confused Goblin

Kirsty, Rachel, and Goldie held their breath and listened to the strange new sound. It was a loud, wheezing, rumbling noise, somewhere between a grunt and a hiss. Grumble-sshhh, grumble-sshhh, grumble-sshhh… The sound was coming from the direction of the mudhole. Kirsty and Rachel crept back to the tree and peeked out from behind it, wondering what sort of terrifying creature had appeared. When Rachel saw what was making the noise, though, she had to clap her hand over her mouth to stop herself from laughing out loud. The wheezy rumble was coming from the goblin—he was snoring!

"At least he isn't singing anymore," Kirsty whispered, laughing. Goldie fluttered her wings hopefully when she saw that the goblin was asleep, and she flew a little closer to the Sunshine Feather. But her face fell when she saw just how tightly the goblin was clutching the feather to his chest. Goldie flew back to the girls, shaking her head. "If I try to pull it out of his hand, the goblin is sure to wake up," she told them. "How are we going to get that feather?" Kirsty smiled. "Maybe we could…" she began thoughtfully. Then she grinned from ear to ear. "Yes! That could work!" she said.

Without another word, Kirsty began running back toward her house. "I'll be back in a minute," she called over her shoulder. Rachel and Goldie watched her go. They were both dying to know what Kirsty was up to. Luckily, they didn't have to wait very long. When Kirsty came back, she looked quite different! "What is she wearing?" Goldie whispered to Rachel as Kirsty ran toward them. "Her dad's sunglasses," Rachel replied, staring at her friend in disbelief. She was starting to wonder if Kirsty had been in the sun for too long. Why had she brought the enormous sunglasses back with her? And why was she carrying a fishing pole?

Kirsty grinned at the confused expressions on her friends' faces. "I'll explain everything," she promised, propping the fishing pole and sunglasses up in the tree branches. "But first, Rachel and I need to shrink to fairy size." Both Kirsty and Rachel had been given beautiful gold lockets by the Fairy Queen. Inside each locket was magical fairy dust. A tiny pinch of the sparkling dust turned the girls into fairies in the blink of an eye!

Kirsty and Rachel both pulled out their lockets and sprinkled themselves with fairy dust. It glittered a bright sunshine-yellow in the light and then— whoosh— they shrank smaller and smaller and smaller. The tree next to them looked enormous as the girls shrank to Goldie's size.

Kirsty and Rachel fluttered their wings happily. They both loved being fairies! "Now," Kirsty said. "Let's fly up into the tree and I'll tell you my plan." The three friends all perched near the fishing pole, and Goldie and