The Treasure of the Sand-Fairies

One hot June day, a little girl called Caroline was at the seaside with her mother. Her mother was lying on the sand, sunbathing and snoozing and Caroline was busy digging a deep hole with a plastic spade and filling up a bucket to make a sand-castle.

But then, all of a sudden, at the bottom of the hole she had dug, Caroline noticed a little sea-blue leather bound box and, using her hand to scoop up the box and prying its lid open with her fingers she saw that it was full up with tiny golden trinkets and gemstones not much bigger than drops of rain.

“Look mummy”, she said, trying to show the box to her mother, “Look at what I’ve found”.

“That’s nice dear”, yawned her mother, only half paying attention.

“What do you think it is?”, asked the little girl.

Caroline’s mother turned and looked, fleetingly, at the little box and its shimmering contents.

“It looks like a little jewel box to me”, she said, “For a doll. Another little girl must have left it, by accident”.

Caroline was doubtful.

“It does have jewels in it and they are very small”, she thought, “So it could be a dolls jewel box but it looks very old and worn and not like box, more like a tiny treasure chest”.

All the same, Caroline thought she would take the box home and see if any of the tiny pieces of jewellery fit her dolls and, when they got back from the seaside, she rushed with the box up to her room.

There were so many lovely things inside the box; golden chains and pendants and tiny rings set with miniature gemstones; bracelets and anklets; crowns and tiaras; even doll sized golden cups and plates.

She picked up one of the tiny bracelets, covered in glittering specks of blue that she took to be sapphires and was about to place it onto one of her plastic dolls when she thought she saw something engraved on the inside.

Fetching a magnifying glass from her writing desk, Caroline examined the inscription on the inside of the bracelet more carefully.

“She shall, who wears this bracelet,”, she read, “be queen for ever more of Bladderwrack and Spindrift and all the kingdoms of the shore”.

“How strange”, thought Caroline, “And what peculiar names; Bladderwrack and Spindrift. Those aren’t real countries, are they?”.

But then she slipped the bracelet over the wrist of one of her dolls and, as she did, she was sure she could hear a sound, like waves crashing against the seashore and flocks of cawing seagulls and then, into the room, blew a strong gust of wind that smelled of salty sea air and seaweed.

She went out onto the landing and called downstairs to her mother who was in the kitchen.

“Mummy?”, she asked, “We don’t live by the seaside do we?”.

“No”, said her mother, surprised by the question, “It’s a 10 mile drive to the nearest beach, why?”.

“Oh, no reason”, Caroline replied, going back into her room.

But when she re-entered her room, Caroline got another strange surprise for now the doll that she had left sitting on her floor was not only wearing the odd bracelet but also dressed in a flowing dress of sea-blue silk and satin and on her head she wore a crown of silver and gold seashells.

“It’s magic. It must be.”, thought Caroline, laughing,”But what does it all mean?”.

Just then, however, as if in answer to Caroline’s question, her bedroom curtains parted and her bedroom window flew open and, in through the open window, came four little, winged fairies dressed in clothes made of seaweed and with scallop shell helmets upon their heads.

“Fairies!”, exclaimed Caroline, her eyes lighting up with wonderment and her mouth growing wide, “I knew it was magic”.

“Sand-fairies, if you don’t mind”, said one of the fairies as they made a comfortable landing upon her bed.

“Sand-fairies?”, asked Caroline, “You mean fairies made of sand?”.

“I mean fairies who live on the seashore”, replied the fairy, “Not all Fairies are the same you know”.

But then the Fairy, who introduced himself as Periwinkle, told Caroline that they had come to fetch their new queen.

“Someone has put on the bracelet that is destined to be worn by none but the Queen of the Sand Fairies”, he said.

Caroline realised then what had happened to her doll.

“Oh dear”, she said, “But it’s not a someone. It’s my doll. Dolls can’t become queens, can they?”.

“Doll?”, asked Periwinkle with a confused look upon his tiny, fairy face.

“Yes”, said Caroline, pulling off the dolls crowned head, “Look, she’s not real. She’s just made of plastic”.

But the moment she pulled off the dolls head she heard the Sand fairies cry out in horror and anger.

“She’s murdered our queen!”, cried one of the fairies beside Periwinkle, his face turning red with rage, “The Giant has murdered our queen”.

“Kill the giant”, said another, drawing a tiny sword.

“Oh no”, said Caroline, putting the head back onto the doll and backing away towards her bedroom door, “You don’t understand. She’s not real. She’s just a doll”.

But the Sand-fairies wouldn’t listen and now, all of them drawing their little swords that were as small as sewing needles they flew, like a swarm of angry bees, towards her.

“Help! Help! Mummy!”, she cried out.

However, just then, the doll in her hands opened its mouth and started to speak.

“Stop!”, it said, “This little girl is my friend. While I was her doll, she combed my hair and gave me nice clothes to wear and other dolls to play with. You mustn’t harm her”.

Hearing their Queens words, the Sand fairies obeyed, putting away their swords; kneeling on Caroline’s bedroom carpet and bowing to her.

“Wow!”, said Caroline, looking down at the living Doll in her hands who then smiled up at her, “I didn’t know you could speak”.

“I couldn’t”, explained the doll, “Not until you put that magic bracelet upon my wrist but the moment that you did, I started coming to life”.

But the Fairies were impatient to return home with their new queen and so, then, Caroline said goodbye to her doll and she flew away, out of the window, with Periwinkle and the others.

“You can keep the treasure chest and all the treasure, if you like”, said the Doll as she was leaving, “And if you’re ever at the seaside, please do pop in for an ice-cream cone”.

Then, just like that, the window was shut; the curtains were drawn and the queen and her sand-fairies were gone; almost as if they had never been anything more than a dream.

But Caroline knew she hadn’t been dreaming because she still had the treasure chest and all she had to do was look at it to remind her of her amazing, magical Sand-fairy adventure.