3. Goblin Discovered

The fairy's bright green eyes sparkled with laughter. She wore a pretty yellow top and a matching skirt with a little green leaf on it. Her long brown hair was tangled and windswept, and she held an emerald- green wand with a shining golden tip. Little bursts of golden leaves swirled from the tip of her wand. Rachel's eyes widened. "Kirsty! Over here!" she whispered. Kirsty hurried over. "It's Abigail the Breeze Fairy," she said happily. She and Rachel had met Abigail and all the other Weather Fairies in Fairyland.

"Hello, Rachel and Kirsty!" Abigail said, smiling. She twirled in the air in a cloud of gold-green dust and tiny bronze leaves. "Thank goodness we've found you," said Rachel. "We think there's a goblin nearby." Abigail's tiny face paled. "Goblins are nasty things— so big and scary! But we have to find this one," she said bravely, "before he causes any more trouble with the Breeze Feather." She fluttered her glittering wings and swooped onto Rachel's shoulder to hide underneath her hair. "Well, the goblin isn't in this tent," said Kirsty. "Let's go outside and check the booths."

"Good idea," Rachel agreed, and the two friends left the tent, struggling against the blustery wind. They hadn't gotten far when they heard a loud creaking noise. Suddenly, the tent behind them collapsed! The girls saw Kirsty's gran rushing to help others, who were crawling out from beneath the canvas.

"Oh, what a mess!" said Rachel. "At least it doesn't look like anyone's hurt," Kirsty pointed out. The wind moaned loudly through a group of oak trees nearby. The branches thrashed back and forth, and green leaves rained down. Abigail's tiny mouth drooped. "Poor trees. It's too soon for them to

lose their leaves," she said sadly. "This is more goblin mischief!" fumed Kirsty. "If that goblin keeps using the Breeze Feather, he'll tear the leaves off all the trees." Quickly, the girls searched the tents and some of the stalls, but they didn't have any luck at all finding the goblin— or the Breeze Feather. Then, Kirsty heard a dog barking. "It's Twiglet," she said, pointing at a cute Jack Russell puppy next to the raffle booth. "His owner is one of our neighbors, Mr. McDougall." "We haven't searched the raffle booth yet," Rachel said. "Let's go and check there for goblins." The girls hurried over. "Hello," Kirsty greeted her neighbor. "Hello, my dear," said Mr. McDougall. "I don't think Twiglet likes this windstorm." Kirsty nodded. She bent down to pet Twiglet, and the puppy jumped up from beside his empty food bowl. He wagged his tail and wiggled his little nose. Kirsty stroked his soft, floppy ears. "You're gorgeous," she said, smiling. "What's that?" Rachel asked, pointing to a torn piece of material in Twiglet's mouth.

Kirsty pulled the material away from Twiglet. It was brown leather and it smelled moldy. Rachel and Kirsty looked at it closely. "I'm sure I've seen something like this before," Rachel said thoughtfully. "I wonder where Twiglet got it." Suddenly, Twiglet began barking again. He was staring up at the sky, and jumping up and down. "That's odd," said Mr. McDougall. "He keeps doing that. I wonder why." "Maybe he's hungry?" suggested Rachel. Mr. McDougall shook his head. "Can't be. His dish is empty. He must have eaten all of his food when I wasn't looking." Twiglet snapped and growled, still looking upward. The girls and Abigail followed the puppy's gaze toward the sky.