Fairy Dust, Pt. 1

“Pssst! Adelina!” Adelina, who was just coming from the community kitchen with clean dishes, jumped in surprise, dropping a pile of acorn caps onto the floor. It was not common for paintings to whisper her name, even here in the enchanted forest.
“Pssssssst! Adelina, behind the painting!” Adelina frowned, and lifted a painting of Guinevere the Second off its hook. There was nothing there but the same floral wallpaper that covered the rest of the passage walls. She paused, and then blew a small puff of fairy dust onto the wall. The wall shimmered, and suddenly Aileen, Adelina’s younger sister popped out of the wall into Adelina.
“Aileen! What on earth was that for?” Adelina demanded.
“Wasn’t I great? Bet you would NEVER figure out how to do that!” Giggled Aileen.
“Aileen, focus! What were you doing in…in the wall?” Adelina sighed, fairies rarely made much sense till they had reached their teen years.
“Well, as I was dusting Lady Amber’s bookshelves, I came across a small card wedged in between two books. On it were the instructions on how to dissolve into a wall without leaving a trace. I am not very good at it yet, so I had to do it behind the painting so no one would notice till you came, is that not the coolest thing ever?” Aileen’s eyes danced with pleasure.
“Yes, very cool. You will have to show me how to do that...later. Right now, we need to finish our chores before Lady A. wrings our wings! Help me pick up these acorn caps.” The two young fairies cleaned up and hurried off down the passage till they reached the center of Pixie Palace, the largest tree in the whole forest.
Pixie Palace was home to the majority of the fairies in the enchanted forest, including the King and Queen, and all the fairy nobility. It sheltered them against the weather and any dangers that might be lurking outside. A small minority of the forest fairies chose to live on their own in the forest, and avoid living under the strict rule of the King and Queen, but most preferred to live in the safety of the tree. After their parents died, Adelina and Aileen began serving as maids for one of the more powerful fairies in Pixie Palace, Lady Amber.
“Where on earth have you lazy girls been? I am expecting company in two hours, and you two haven’t finished cleaning my apartment!” Exploded Lady Amber when Adelina and Aileen returned to at her lavish quarters. “When I come home, I will be excepting everything to be spotless. After you have finished everything, you may go home. I don’t want you around when my guests get here.” With that, Lady Amber whirled around and walked out the door to go shopping. For the next seventy-eight minutes, Adelina worked hard at scrubbing, polishing and wiping, while Aileen labored at dusting, sweeping and general tiding up. Even by using their limited magic, it was hard work cleaning up Amber’s 15 spacious rooms. Once the apartment was spick and span, they still had over half an hour before Lady Amber and her guests arrived. Given that they rarely had the house to themselves, they took the opportunity to search through her bookshelves for magic spells. After some careful examination, Aileen stumbled upon a faded folder filled with old magic spells written in messy handwriting. They both set to deciphering them.
“Let’s see…here’s one for making apple pie out of nothing at all. Looks complicated though.” Muttered Adelina after a while.
“Oh who cares about pie, I am trying to find one on mind reading.”
“Mind reading? You know only the most advanced magic will let you do that!”
“I don’t care, if I can just get the basics down, then that’s fine.”
“What would you even do with that?”
“Nothing…” Adelina gave up. Obviously Aileen had her own silly reasons, and wasn’t going to tell.
“Sisters can be a real pain.” She thought, and turned her attention back to looking through the cards. Unexpectedly, they heard a key turn in the front door.

What will happen to Adelina and Aileen?

Will Lady Amber catch them?

Will they escape?

Tune in next time to find out!