Pixies of the Ferns: Fernella's Magic

By M. C. Arvanitis

Fernella, the Mayor’s seventh daughter, must find her magic before he will give his blessings to her marriage with Freddie, the village inventor, but Fernella doesn’t care about magic, all she wants is to be a married woman like her other Pixie sisters. When humans develop the land near Fernville, she and Freddie take off in Freddie’s flyer to find a new place in the foothills of Mount Hood where the Pixies can live in safety. A crash leaves Freddie badly hurt. Fernella, Injured herself, strikes out alone and braves the imp infested Oregon forest to find help. She meets the mischievous shape-changer, Puk-Wud-Jie, who promises to help her find her magic. When Imps attack Fernella, she escapes by jumping into a mole hole, only to become imprisoned in their underground dungeons. Can Fernella escape in time to get help to save Freddie? And does she ever find her magic?

• Language: English
• Publisher: M. C. Arvanitis
• Release date: Jan 3, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311511041

M. C. Arvanitis

M. C. Arvanitis resides in Freemont, Nebraska. She has a degree in Early Childhood Education. She taught preschool and early elementary for over thirty years until her retirement two years ago. She now spends her time writing elementary chapter books and Young Adult novels. Her short stories have been published in Skipping Stones Magazine, Totline Teaching Tales (Warren Publishing Co.), and Building Blocks for Bright Beginnings.

Book preview

Pixies of the Ferns

Fernella’s Magic

M. C. Arvanitis

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All rights reserved including the rights of reproduction in whole or in part in any form without permission of author, M. C. Arvanitis.

Copyright 2015 M. C. Arvanitis

ISBN 9781311511041

License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only, and may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author

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Cover design by Mariah Matthews

Dedication

To my grand and great grand Pixies in real life: May they pass this fable on to their little Pixies.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to my beta reader, Helen Worthington, to Mariah Matthews, cover designer and artist, to Open House Editing, and especially to my critique group, the Oregon Coast Writers Focus Group, for helping shape my books with their wise and timely suggestions.

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1: On the Humans' Road

Chapter 2: The Council Meeting

Chapter 3: Disaster Comes to Fernville

Chapter 4: A Family Gathering

Chapter 5: Freddie’s Flyer

Chapter 6: Proposal in the Air

Chapter 7: Crashed

Chapter 8: Puk-Wud-Jie

Chapter 9: Captured by Moles

Chapter 10: Nightmare

Chapter 11: The McGregors

Chapter 12: The Flood

Chapter 13: Imp Attack

Chapter 14: Farley Comes to the Rescue

Chapter 15: Fernella Finds Her Magic

Chapter 16: Quail Eggs

Chapter 17: New Fernville

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The Pixie’s Road

Be careful where you tread my child

When you walk near woods so green.

Keep your feet upon the path.

They say Pixies can’t be seen

But if you listen you may hear

Laughter that makes your heart feel free.

While walking in the woods, believe,

And a Pixie you may see.

M. C. Arvanitis

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Chapter 1

On the Human’s Road

Fernella Fabrizio strolled along the edge of the Human ‘s road brushing her short, unruly brown curls away from her green eyes and behind her tiny pointed ears. Her shadow blinked in and out on the ground as the sun filtered down on her through the branches of the great ponderosa pines. She loved the forest smells in the spring. The cinnamon fern plants that grew by the Sandy Waters were just starting to grow, and their fiddleheads were perfect for brewing. She was on her way to collect them for Papa.

Her reflection followed her in the small rivulet that flowed beside the road. She was tall for a Pixie girl, slightly over two feet, taller than her petite sisters whose long straight hair flowed neatly to their waists. She felt gangly and out of place when they were all together, but Freddie Faber, the village guard, had assured her he liked her just the way she was. They had been best friends since childhood and had been dating for several months. Only last night he had scolded her for complaining about her looks. Teasingly pulling on one of her curls, he hugged her. Sugar Plum, who cares if you’re tall? I like curly hair, and you know how I love your pointed ears. When are we going to set the date for our wedding, anyway?

She had no answer for him. When she brought the subject up to her father he always frowned and answered, Fernella, you are too young to think about marriage.

She had reminded him. But Papa, I am almost eighteen.

You were born the seventh child. I was the seventh child in my family. That makes us magical. I don’t want you to think about getting married until you find your magic. When you do that we’ll see about your wedding.

Fernella didn’t want to be disrespectful but she had to ask. Father what have you done to be special besides having seven daughters?

Why girl, I found the magical ingredients for the famous cinnamon tea. That’s why they elect me Mayor year after year.

How can drinking tea make you magical?

Tea made from the cinnamon’s fiddleheads keeps those who drink it healthy and relaxed. But I found that the tea affected me in other ways. After drinking it I saw things that would happen in the future. Thus my magic as a seer came to me when I discovered cinnamon tea.

Can you see into my future? Fernella had asked.

I can only tell you that within the next year there will be big changes in our lives. He looked at her with raised eyebrows. And yes, I see you finding your magic, although I can’t see what it is. It seems rather abstract to me.

Abstract? What do you mean?

Papa closed his eyes for a moment than shook his head. Something about a great wisdom, some knowledge you will have, but that is all I can see. It may come to me later.

Fernella sighed thinking back on that conversation. She wondered if she even had magic. A movement in the ferns startled her, but when a caterpillar wiggled into the path she giggled to herself. It’s just a bug, silly. She watched it crawl in front of her. Better get off this road, big fellow, she warned, "or you’ll get smashed by the Human’s monster.

The wide smooth road had been there as long as she could remember. It ran from the Sandy Waters through the village of Fernville where she lived and onward through the forest of North West Oregon. Papa had warned her to use the deer trail that led through the forest, but she had ignored him. Since the Humans’ Brown Monster, as Freddie called it, only traveled this path early in the morning and back again in the evening she