The Secret Place

By Leslie Anne Veinot

Imagine a special place where only one human can travel through. A special place inside a magical waterfall. Yes, a magical waterfall where fairies live. But the fairies depend on children's imaginations to ensure they stay alive. Even the waterfall needs the children. This is where a special fairy, Pixie, lives.

Author Leslie A. Veinot's The Secret Place follows Pixie, a tree-born fairy, on her adventure to save her friend from the rival sprites who invaded their land. Also, about a special human girl, Gypsy, who comes through the waterfall, makes friends with Pixie and two of these rival sprites who are always looking for adventures, good or bad.

The Secret Place is an entertaining and sometimes humorous story. With every turn of its pages, you will feel as though you are part of the tale.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Aug 21, 2019
• ISBN: 9781480881433

Leslie Anne Veinot

Leslie Anne Veinot has written other amazing stories, but this is her favorite. As a young girl, she loved Nancy Drew. And at bedtime, she read the stories by flashlight under a blanket. That is how the title, The Secret Place, came to be. She has two sons, Dwayne and Ryan. Ryan and Andrea who gave her two wonderful Grandchildren, Brooklyn and Nolan. She lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Book preview

THE

SECRET

PLACE

Leslie Anne Veinot

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Copyright © 2019 Leslie A. Veinot.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Archway Publishing

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-4808-8144-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-8143-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019911326

Archway Publishing rev. date: 8/19/2019

CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Epilogue

CHAPTER

1

P IXIE IS STANDING ON THE SMALL BRANCH of an old oak tree, looking out over a meadow with red and yellow flowers blowing in the breeze. It’s a beautiful day, but Pixie does not enjoy it. She is worried for her friend and the other scouts who did not come back from scouting duty like they said they would.

The small branch beneath her would’ve cracked under the weight of a different kind of fairy, but she is a tree-born fairy—born for climbing trees and bestowing good luck on whoever might be fortunate enough to see her. Thousands of her kind remain now. They are small, even for pixies. The tree-born fairies, who possess feathered wings, come in different shades of blue, white, and green. Of course, the color of their eyes tells the story of their homelands. The green-eyed tree fairies hail from Ireland, those with blue eyes are from Scotland, and those with yellow eyes are from England.

These fairies live all over the world, but most of them stay in a beautiful valley in Cornwall, England.

Pixie, who is light green and who has very small white feathers on the tips of her wings, sports yellow eyes, which scan the meadow for the scouts. The frown on her forehead grows deeper with each passing second. She knows she should have gone in place of her friend to do this scouting, but she is outranked and her superior ordered her to stay behind. She flexes her wings and sighs. Why did I have to be born with faster wings? It means I can’t go anywhere. I’m always having to stay behind to protect the village. She hopes that one of the scouts, her friend Dot—named for a dot on her left cheek—comes home soon.

The scouts should’ve been back from the waterfall by now with news about what was going on in the land of humans. They went to investigate the rumors of a strange noise coming from the waterfall, but they haven’t returned.

Some fairies said the noise came from humans. But everyone knew no humans could cross over the barrier of the waterfall. Of course, if a fairy were to go beyond the waterfall and bring back a human, the human could then enter but could not go back across the barrier. If that were to happen, the only way for a human to get back would be for the fairy queens from both lands to use their magic together. This setup is not only for the safety of the fay but also for the safety of the human.

It is written in the Cave of Life that, thirty-eight years ago, humans found the entrance to the waterfall and came over. They brought disease and great stress to the fay, and many died in quick order. Those who survived were lucky the humans realized their presence seemed to be killing these beautiful beings and decided to go back to their own land. The waterfall was closed by magic created by each of the tribes’ queens. And so far, their secret place had been kept a secret for forty years now.

Some of the scouts have gone to the cave to check the waterfall now and again to see if the barrier is holding up, but lately it seems to be getting weaker. The general has sent a scouting party every couple of days to see if it is getting worse. Pixie’s friends are among those who’ve gone to perform these checks, but now they’ve taken too long to return, and she is worried about them.

Pixie looks at the horizon and thinks of her friend Dot, but she can’t wait any longer. She knows it’s time to go back to the Main Circle and report in for work. The Main Circle, a hut in the middle of the village, contains the safety unit’s headquarters. Pixie uses her faster flight to get her to the Main Circle’s sign-in area, which every fay has to do before they go on duty. She takes time to put on her vest and keep her arrows in place and then picks up her bow and arrows, as she is now on duty. She just makes it on time! Then she goes to the center of the hut, where everyone else has gathered to get briefed on the news of the waterfall.

Her supervisor, who is now standing at the podium, looks at the audience and begins to speak. The scouts who were sent ahead of the others checked in with me a couple of minutes ago. They still hear the noise beyond the falls, but so far, the entrance has not been breached—although it is still getting weaker. They still do not know what the sound is.

Then he looks at Pixie and shakes his head. She knows this means that her friend and the others have not come back yet.

Suddenly, a scout runs in and yells, They’re back!

The leader of the scout party follows him in and climbs to the podium. Out of breath and anxious, he looks around at the crowd.

We were attacked by sprites, he announces.

What happened? Pixie cries.

The scout leader takes a deep breath before continuing. At the edge of the meadow, near the waterfall, a couple of our scouts got hit with arrows. Before we knew it, arrows were flying everywhere. Half of our scouts were either injured or killed. But luckily for us, sprites cannot fly. We flew to the trees a short distance away and fought back with our arrows.

Pixie frowns. She doesn’t like sprites sometimes.

Sprites are usually not a bother. But once in a while, they will come in to cause mischief or take things that do not belong to them—like turtle pots, some of the fruits that they especially like, and anything else they think will help them do things better. This time, they’ve done something that surprises everyone by attacking the fairy scouts for no apparent reason. They live beyond the meadow, in Sprite Land, a few miles past the smaller lake on the other side.

Sprites are opposite from tree-born fairies in that they happen to be a little bit taller and bigger in size, and their colors are dark brown, black, and dark gray. Their eyes are very black but can turn silver when they’re threatened. Sprites also glow in the dark at night during practice duty, so they