Magic Hearts (3 page)

B
erry spread her blanket on the red sugar sand and waited for her friends to arrive. The sun was just hitting the white tips of the mountains, and she knew that soon her friends would be there.

Dash the Mint Fairy was the first to arrive. Dash was the smallest Mint Fairy in the
kingdom, but she had the biggest appetite!

“Berry, what are you doing here so early?” Dash cried as she swept down to the ground. She eyed Berry's new outfit. “You look fantastic. Is that a new dress?”

Smiling, Berry nodded. “I just made it!” she exclaimed.

“So mint!”
Dash said. “I love the colors.”

Cocoa the Chocolate Fairy and Melli the Caramel Fairy flew up next.

“Is this a special Sun Dip?” Melli asked. She looked Berry up and down. “You are wearing such a fancy dress.”

“Hot chocolate! Where did you get that?” Cocoa asked, amazed. “It's fabulous.”

Berry was enjoying all her friends' reactions to her new outfit. She stood up and spun in
a circle. “It is pretty, don't you think?”

“I do,” Melli said. “But I didn't get a sugar fly message about dressing up for tonight.”

Berry laughed. “I just wanted to show you all my new outfit for Heart Day,” she said.

“Yum!” Dash cheered. “I can't wait for Heart Day. I made the most delicious mint hearts, and Cocoa has promised to dip them in dark chocolate for me.”

“That's right,” Cocoa added. “Mint and chocolate hearts are an excellent combination.” The two friends high-fived.

Dash turned to Melli. She knew that Melli and Cocoa often worked together, but this year Melli wanted to work on her own heart candies. “What did you make?”

A smile appeared on Melli's face. She dipped
her hand in her basket and pulled out a delicate heart.

“Is that caramel?” Dash asked, coming closer. She looked at the fragile heart in Melli's hand. The dark caramel looked like fine thread, but the candy was hard and didn't break when she touched it.

“That looks like imported lace!” Berry said. She leaned in to get a better look. “Melli, that is beautiful work.”

“How long did that take you to make?” Dash asked.

Cocoa put her arm around Melli. “I told you these hearts were truly special,” she told her.

Melli grinned. “Thank you,” she said. “I've been working on these candies for weeks. I just hope Princess Lolli likes them.”

“She's going to love those hearts,” Dash told her. Then she licked her lips. “Maybe I should just try one to make sure they taste okay?”

“Dash!” Melli scolded. But then she started to laugh. “I knew you'd say that, so I brought some extra for tonight.”

Dash's face brightened. “Ah, you are a good friend, Melli,” she replied. Then she took a bite of the caramel heart. “Sweetheart, that is a
sweet
heart
!” she said, laughing.

“Thank you,” Melli said, and blushed.

“Wow, Berry!” Raina cried as she swooped down to her friends. “You have been working hard.” She settled herself down on the blanket that Berry had spread out for the fairies. “The dress is beautiful. A true original.”

Berry was bursting with pride.

“If you had time to make that dress, you must have finished your candy, right?” Raina asked.

Berry looked over at Raina. She had expected that Raina would say something like that. And she was ready! “Actually, I do have my heart candy,” she replied. She placed her basket of tiny red hearts in the center of her blanket. Though she had not worked as hard on her candy as Melli, Berry was still excited to show off the new candy.

The fairies all moved closer to the basket.

“
So mint
!” Dash shouted. “Berry, you
do
have hearts for Princess Lolli!” She turned to look at Raina. “And you were worried about Berry. See, I told you she'd come through.”

Berry hugged Dash. “Thanks, Dash,” she said.

“You managed to make a dress and these
candies?” Melli asked. She peered into the basket. “That's very impressive, Berry.”

Cocoa shook her head. “It takes me weeks to get chocolate hearts right,” she said. “Hearts are the hardest shapes to make!”

“Well,” Berry said. She was about to confess that she had found the candy, but then she held back.

Raina fluttered her wings. She peered down at the red candies. “There's something very familiar about these hearts,” she said. She took the Fairy Code Book out of her bag. She placed the thick volume on the ground and quickly flipped through the pages. “I know I've seen those candies before.” She didn't look up at her friends. She continued to thumb through the pages.

Dash reached over to the basket. “What flavor are they, Berry?”

“Cherry, of course,” Berry stated proudly. “Princess Lolli's favorite flavor!”

Dash popped a heart in her mouth. Her blue eyes grew wide, and her wings flapped so fast she shot straight up in the air. “Holy peppermint!” she cried.

“What's wrong?” Cocoa exclaimed, reaching up to grab Dash. “Are you all right?”

“Those are not sweet hearts!” she said, scrunching up her face. “Those are sour wild cherry hearts!”

All the fairies gasped. Berry's hands flew to her mouth. Her not- so-sweet hearts had suddenly made Sun Dip very sour.

B
erry shuddered. She felt awful about lying to her friends. She didn't know much about sour candy. She only knew that some was grown in Sour Orchard. While many fairies enjoyed the sweet-and-sour crops from the orchard at the far end of Sugar Valley, Berry did not. She preferred the sweet, fruity flavors of her own candy.

“Are you okay?” Berry asked Dash. She went over to her and put her hand on her friend's back. Dash's silver wings fluttered and brushed Berry's hand.

“Yes,” Dash said. “I'm fine. I like those sour candies.” She licked her fingers.

“Leave it to Dash to like just about any candy!” Cocoa said, giggling. “Even the most sour.”

Dash shrugged her shoulders and looked over at Berry. “I just wasn't expecting that from a candy
you
grew,” she said. “Those hearts looked so sweet and delicious.”

Berry hung her head. “Well, I didn't grow these,” she admitted, looking down at the ground. “I picked them from the bank of Chocolate River. They were beautiful—and heart-shaped.”

“So you have no idea where these came from?” Melli asked. Her hand flew to her gaping mouth. “You don't know what these candies are made of?”

“And you didn't even test them first?” Cocoa added, amazed. “What happens if the hearts are poisonous or something horrible!”

“Cocoa!” Melli said. She never liked when her friends argued. She could tell that Cocoa's comment was making Berry upset. She turned her attention to Dash. “She looks the same. Are you feeling okay?”

“Stop looking at me like that!” Dash cried. “The hearts were good.” She reached out toward Berry's basket.

“Dash!” all the fairies said at the same time.

Berry grabbed her basket away.

“Cool down,” Dash said. She sat on the ground next to Raina.

Suddenly Raina gasped. While her friends had been talking, she had been carefully reading the Fairy Code Book. “I knew those heart candies looked familiar,” she said. She pointed to a picture at the bottom of the page. “Look here,” she instructed.

The fairy friends all leaned over the book. There was a picture of the heart candies. And next to the picture was a drawing of Lemona, a Sour Orchard Fairy.

“Are they dangerous?” Cocoa asked.

“Don't be so dark,” Melli said. She kneeled down closer to the book.

“Maybe they are magic because they simply appear when someone wishes for heart candies?” Berry said hopefully.

“Or maybe the hearts will make me fly faster down the mountain on my sled!” Dash exclaimed. She flew up in the air and did a high dive back down to the ground. “Wouldn't that be
so mint
?”

Berry knew that speeding down the Frosted Mountain trails was one of Dash's favorite things to do. Nothing would make her Mint Fairy friend happier than being the fastest fairy in the valley. She was already the smallest—and one of the fastest. While Dash flew in circles up in the air, Berry studied the Fairy Code Book. Her eyes grew wide as she read the rest of the information. She peered back up at Dash.

Sweet syrup!
she thought.
What a sticky mess!

Why hadn't she tested the candies? How could she have been so lazy? One of the first rules of making candy was that every fairy had to know the source of the ingredients. Berry's wings drooped lower to the ground as she read more about the magic hearts.

Dash came down and stood next to Berry's blanket. Berry wanted to tell her how sorry she was for what she had done. She had never meant to hurt Dash. She turned to her friend. But when Berry saw what was in front of her, she was speechless. Her mouth gaped open, and her eyes didn't budge from the sight in front of her.

“Why is everyone looking at me like that?” Dash asked. She saw the worried expressions on the faces in front of her.