Selena is a little fairy. She lives in the Enchanted Forest. She is gentle and brave. She likes to help.
One morning, the forest looks dull. The red berries look gray. The blue flowers look pale. Selena blinks. “Oh no,” she says. “The colors are gone.”
A Monkey swings down. He is small and funny. He loves to copy sounds. “Gone! Gone!” he chatters, then makes a silly boop noise.
Selena smiles, but she feels worried too. “Monkey, will you help me bring the colors back?”
Monkey taps his chest. “Help! Help!”
They walk past tall trees. Leaves whisper. A stream goes plip-plip. Selena listens. She hears a tiny crackle, like a candle.
From behind a fern, a Phoenix appears. Big wings. Bright eyes. But today the Phoenix looks tired, not scary. A warm wind puffs.
Phoenix flaps once. WHOOSH. The air smells like smoke.
Selena steps back. Monkey hides behind her skirt and peeks.
“Did you take the colors?” Selena asks.
Phoenix shakes its head slowly. “I did not mean to,” it says in a low voice. “I sneezed. My ember-sneeze blew the colors into the air. Now they are stuck in bubbles. I cannot reach them.”
Monkey giggles. “Achoo! Bubble!”
Selena tilts her head. She is curious, not angry. “We can help,” she says.
They follow the Phoenix to a clearing. Above the grass float round bubbles. Each bubble holds a color: green, yellow, pink, orange.
But the bubbles drift high. Too high.
Monkey jumps. Boing! He misses.
Selena thinks. She is small, but she is clever. She taps her wand, a twig with a silver leaf. “Soft wind,” she whispers.
A gentle breeze comes. The bubbles wobble and drift lower.
Monkey claps. “Lower! Lower!”
Selena and Monkey pop bubbles one by one.
Pop! Green splashes onto the leaves.
Pop! Yellow lands on a daisy.
Pop! Pink sprinkles on berries.
Pop! Orange paints a mushroom cap.
The forest starts to glow again.
Then one bubble floats away fast. It holds the brightest blue.
“Blue!” cries Monkey.
Phoenix beats its wings to chase it, but stops. “If I flap hard, I will blow it farther,” Phoenix says sadly.
Selena nods. “Slow,” she says. “We go slow.”
She and Monkey tiptoe to the stream. The bubble hovers over the water.
Selena whispers, “Mirror water, hold it.”
The stream goes shhh. The bubble pauses, looking at its own shiny face.
Monkey reaches with a long stick and gently taps.
Pop!
Blue sparkles fall into the water, then rise like little lights and stick to the sky.
Now the whole Enchanted Forest is bright.
Phoenix bows its head. “Thank you,” it says. “I was afraid you would be mad.”
Selena shakes her head. “We help,” she says.
Monkey does a funny bow and falls on his bottom. “Wee!”
Phoenix laughs, a warm crackle. From under one wing, Phoenix gives Selena a gift: a tiny pouch of rainbow dust.
“For you,” Phoenix says. “One pinch can color anything.”
Selena’s eyes shine. She sprinkles one pinch on Monkey’s tail.
His tail becomes striped like candy.
Monkey gasps, then giggles. “Pretty tail!”
Selena giggles too. They wave goodbye.
That night, Selena keeps the pouch safe. The forest is colorful. Selena feels proud. She helped, and she has rainbow dust for tomorrow.