Prilla and the Butterfly Lie Read Free Page A

to see Cinda tapping her water glass with a fork. A hush fell over the tearoom. That was the signal that Queen Clarion, the leader of all the Never fairies, had an important announcement to make.
    Queen Clarion, lovely and regal, as always, swept into the room. She seems a bit anxious, Prilla thought, sitting up straight in her chair.
    “My fellow fairies,” Queen Clarion said, “I don’t want to alarm anyone, but I have some rather unpleasant news to share with you this evening.” She paused for a moment. “I am sorry to tell you that there has been an outbreak of fairy pox.”
    There was a sharp collective intake of breath.
    “Several of your fellow fairies have already been infected,” the queen went on.
    The room began to buzz. Some of the newer fairies asked the older fairies to explain what fairy pox was. There hadn’t been an outbreak of fairy pox in Pixie Hollow in many years. But it was hard to miss a fairy with the pox. The fairies who got it broke out into spots. The spots could be quite pretty—pale pink, blue, and purple. But fairy pox made fairies dangerously sleepy. A fairy could fall asleep at the table and drown in her soup bowl if she wasn’t careful! Luckily, with plenty of bed rest and a daily dose of daisy pollen, fairies were almost always cured.
    Over the noise, the queen said, “Fairy pox may not be life threatening, but it is very contagious. All ill fairies have been moved to the infirmary. Only nursing-talent fairies are allowed to have contact with sick fairies. So the rest of you, please keep your distance from anyone who is ill.”
    There was silence. The fairies began to check each other for the telltale spots.
    Bess, an art-talent fairy, looked down at her paint-speckled arms. “I forgot to wash up before dinner!” she explained. The rest of the fairies at her table laughed nervously. Then they shifted away from her, just a bit.
    Iris, a garden-talent fairy who had been up all night searching for a rare shrinking violet, let out a jaw-popping yawn. She was surprised when her table-mates on both sides of her hastily excused themselves and found seats at another table.
    Queen Clarion looked around the room. “Are there any questions?”
    “Can you tell us who is sick?” a light-talent sparrow man asked.

    Queen Clarion gestured toward the nursing-talent table. “Poppy, would you like to give an update?” she asked.
    Poppy, a jolly nursing-talent fairy, stood up. “There are a dozen sick fairies so far.” She began listing them on her fingers. “Olivia, Heather, Flora, Marigold, Jordan, Zuzu, Amaryllis, Rhia, Aidan, Russell, Violet, and Primrose are ill,” she reported. “But they are all resting comfortably. They are sleeping a lot, as you can imagine! Why, just the other night, Jordan was telling a marvelous story about a battle between Captain Hook and a sea serpent. He fell sound asleep just as he got to the best part! I was almost tempted to wake him up to see what happened next!”
    Everyone laughed. Jordan was one of the finest storytelling-talent fairies.
    “So you see, your friends are in good hands. They’ll soon be as good as new.” Poppy sat down.
    Queen Clarion spoke again. “So if there are no more questions, the serving-talent fairies can bring in the first—”
    “Wait! Wait!” Jason interrupted. He stood up. “It looks like each and every one of the butterfly herders is sick! All of them!”
    Heads swung around to peer at the butterfly herders’ table. Sure enough, it was empty!
    A look of alarm crossed the queen’s face. The butterflies were important to the fairies, since they laid the eggs that became caterpillars. If anything were to happen to the butterfly herd, the fairies wouldn’t have any caterpillars—or any caterpillar fuzz.
    “Well,” the queen said, “I am sure we’ll have no problem getting volunteers to help with the butterfly herding until they are able to return to work. Would anyone like to pitch in?” She looked around