Simple Princess. Natalie Yacobson

they had fallen under the sorcerer’s power and had become his puppets. Empty wineglasses were lying around the barracks. Even the pixies who wanted to finish their wine felt sick.

      “Don’t drink any more, Virgil,” Estella advised the dragon, calling his first name for suggestion. “Or else Reason will get his claws into your head, too.”

      The dragon did not understand her. The princess’s singing made him so happy that he couldn’t think of anything to say. Estella, on the other hand, thought about it. In her own head Reason has not run its claws?

      Star Fairies

      Golden grapes grew on the walls and columns. Estella was dumbfounded when she saw its glow in the darkness of the evening garden. Normally the rockweed and fuchsia bloomed here. There were no grapes in this part of the garden at all.

      “Is this a decoration for my coronation?” She looked around for those decorating the garden, but it was empty. Even the gardener and his young helpers were long gone to the servants’ feast. So who had strung the columns with metal vines? Estella touched the tinkling leaves.

      “It is pure gold!” She determined.

      Where could it have come from? For the treasury was almost empty, not counting the treasury, which could never be opened. Locksmiths, smiths, and even pickpocket thieves, who had been caught by the guards in the square and were good at picking keys, had already been summoned to the gilded doors. No one was able to break open the locked doors. A spell had indeed been cast upon them.

      But the night garden blossomed with golden leaves, like an entire treasury. With joy Estella tugged at Reason’s tail.

      “Look, we are rich!”

      “I don’t think so,” he muttered doubtfully.

      “The vines stretch everywhere, and the grapes on them are golden. You see how they shine! It took tons of gold to decorate them like that.”

      “Don’t rejoice too soon! It cannot be melted down.”

      “Why is it not? It’s not gilding, that’s for sure.”

      “The grapes are all gold,” agreed Reason, who somehow didn’t touch the berries. Either he’d run out of room in his cache, or he was afraid of burning his paws, for the gold grapes glittered so brightly.

      “Was the gold enchanted?” Estella admired the grapes. “Even if it is some magic trick, I like it better than holiday fireworks.”

      “It is a typical Star Fairy’s gift,” Reason determined, squinting unkindly at the glittering golden berries and leaves. “It is very pretty, but you can’t spend them unless the fairy says you can. She won’t give me permission to spend it, because it’s for you.”

      “So it’s from my mother?”

      “Don’t get excited. Star fairy’s gold is most often a trick.”

      “What if it isn’t?”

      “Why don’t you check it out? Or better yet, let me do it,” he asked slyly.

      “You can if you want.”