Chapter 1

Summer was nearly over, and Mum was doing the laundry.

“Tom and Louise! Where are you!”

She sounded cross, so the children came running.

“What have you done with your socks? How many times have I told you to put them in the sock bag, so they don’t get lost? And here we are again with four odd socks and no sign of their partners. Well, I have had enough. You find them or you will have to start wearing odd socks. And that’s a promise!”

“It’s not our fault,” said Louise. “Look, there’s a hole in the bag. The socks must have wriggled out and got lost in the wash.”

“And then I suppose the sock monster ate them. Socks don’t disappear just like that. Up to your rooms and don’t come down until you have found them!”

Tom and Louise went back upstairs where they had been talking about their holiday in the Lake District. Something magical had happened in their holiday home. A dying ember from the fireplace had come to life and turned into a fire fairy. She took the children on an adventure to the Land of the Fire Fairies. They could hardly believe it had happened. But the magic wands the fairies gave them were real enough and had the power to take them back to the fairy world whenever they wanted.

Upstairs the children wondered if there really was a sock monster. If there was it would have to be a magical creature. So perhaps the fire fairies could help them. But there was a problem. To enter the Land of the Fire Fairies you had to find a fireplace and their house was all central heating. It did not even have a chimney!

Then Tom remembered. “Grandma’s!”

Of course! Every weekend they went to stay with Grandma and Grandad, who still had an old fashioned fireplace with a hearth and a grate. On Friday afternoon they set off in the car. Summer was nearly over, and the weather was getting colder. So instead of shorts and sandals they had coats and cardigans, shoes and socks – odd socks of course – and two magic wands.

Chapter 2

Grandma was very pleased to see them and when they walked in they could smell apple pie baking in the oven – their favourite – made with apples from the tree that grew at the bottom of the garden. But it would not be ready until teatime, so the children were sent into the garden to play while the grownups chatted over a cup of tea in the kitchen.

They were still sat there chatting when Tom and Louise came back in to watch TV. They looked at the empty fireplace in the living room. It might be getting colder, but it was not yet cold enough to light a fire in the daytime. Would the magic still work? Tom and Louise took out their wands and holding hands, stepped onto the hearth.

The magic worked. The children shrunk until they were small enough to fly up the chimney. But where were the fire fairies? They squeezed their hands tight to slow themselves down before they flew out of the chimney and looked around.

“Hey, you! It’s too soon to wake up. Get back to your nooks and crannies and glow to sleep before you turn into ash.” It was one of the guardians. The guardians lived in the chimney pots, and it was their job to catch young fairies in case they flew out of the chimney and turned to smoke before their time.

In Summer, when nobody lit their fires, the fairies’ flames became a warm glow, and they curled up to sleep and keep the glow alive until people began lighting fires again. The guardians were very old fairies who never got properly hot, but they never got properly cold either. So they stayed awake to guard the Land of the Fire Fairies while the rest of the fairies were asleep.

The children laughed. “It’s alright. We are not fairies. We are the fairy friends, Tom and Louise, and we have come to ask for your help.”

Everyone in Fairyland had heard of them and how they had saved the fire fairies in the Lake District house. The guardians took them up into the chimney pot for a meal of cinder toffee washed down with gunpowder tea and asked the children how they could help. When they heard about the sock monster they went very quiet and whispered amongst themselves.

“Is the sock monster very dangerous?” asked Louise.

One of the guardians said, “We don’t know. All we know is that we cannot help you. Washing means water, and fire and water don’t mix. You need to talk to the water sprites.”

Tom and Louise were upset. “Oh no! what do we do now? These are fire fairy wands.”

The Guardians smiled. “You are fairy friends and that means your wands can take you anywhere in Fairyland. The water sprites are fairies just like us. They are bound to help you. But to find them you must first find a waterfall or a fountain or a bubbling spring.  

Tom and Louise thanked the guardians and as they slowly descended to the empty hearth they could just make out the glowing outlines of the fairies sleeping in the nooks and crannies. They got back just before Grandad came into the room with a full coal scuttle.

“Time to light that fire, I think. Tom, go and get some firewood, please. Louise, can you take that old newspaper and crumple it up into balls.”

Grandad showed them how to set a fire with balls of rolled up newspaper and bits of wood. He lit the paper, and the paper lit the wood. Then Grandad  added a few coals. When the coals began to glow he added more and then took the coal shovel, wedged it in the grate and spread a single sheet of newspaper across it to draw the fire up the chimney. When the paper began to scorch  he quickly moved it before it began to flame. He set the shovel aside and there, before their eyes, was a roaring fire, filling the room with warmth.

When it was time for mum and dad to drive home Tom and Louise said goodbye and spent the rest of the evening staring at the fire and watching the fire fairies dancing in the flames. But when they went to bed their dreams were filled with sock monsters and water sprites.

Chapter 3

The next morning was cold and miserable. Grandad decided to light the fire early and Tom and Louise helped him.

“At least the fire fairies will be happy,” said Tom.

“Oh yes,” said Louise. “They will all wake up and dance in the flames. What a shame that we won’t be able to watch them.”

The children had other plans. Their grandparents lived close to the seaside and down by the seashore was a promenade with all the usual attractions: crazy golf, cafes, souvenir shops and ornamental gardens. One of the gardens featured a waterfall that tumbled over rocks into a pool. It wasn’t a real waterfall. The water was pumped back to the top in a never ending cycle. But it was their best chance of finding the water sprites.

Grandma was surprised to see them in their coats ready to go out in the wind and rain.

“It’s alright. We just want to watch the waves crashing down.”

“Just you mind they don’t crash down on you. Stay on the promenade and don’t go down the steps to the beach.”

The children promised to stay off the beach and set off for the waterfall. There were very few people out and when they reached the waterfall there was nobody around to see them take out  their wands, hold hands and step into the pool. The magic took them behind the rocks where they could look out through the watery curtain at the people who hurried past.

They could not see any water sprites.  But the water sprites could see them. The sprites made themselves invisible by slipping and sliding into the wave patterns made by the water. You could only see them when they stopped moving.

Then one of them stepped forward out of the water and spoke. “Welcome, Fairy Friends. I am Aquilene. We are glad you have swapped fire for water. Come with me.”

Tom and Louise followed the sprite into a great cavern, with pools and waterfalls and fountains that were far more wonderful than the little waterfall through which the children had entered this magic land. And, although they would never tell them, it was far more splendid than the fire fairies’ dark and smoky kingdom up the chimney. As the children gazed in amazement it was as if the water sprite could read their thoughts.

“Welcome to Fairyland! Much better than a dirty old fireplace, don’t you think?”

It was much better. But Louise felt obliged to stick up for the fire fairies, especially their friends, Queen Ember and King Flamingo. “If it was not for Ember we would never have discovered the magic in our hearts and we wouldn’t have the wands that brought us to see you,”

“Bravo! Your loyalty does you credit. But we are water sprites. Water fills the earth. It can turn to ice or steam and back again. It flows in vast oceans and tiny streams. It rises into the sky and forms mighty rain clouds. It goes on forever and so do we. We love the fire fairies too. Their lives are precious. But their lives are oh so short. They do not have the time to build great palaces like these. They spark, they flame, they flicker and then they turn to smoke and are gone.

Tom and Louise were suddenly very sad for the fire fairies and began to cry. The sprite caught their tears and placed them in a crystal bottle. “Tears of loving kindness are the greatest treasure in the world. May I keep them?”

The children agreed and began to feel better. Aquilene sat them down and gently asked them why they had come to Fairyland. When he heard their story he laughed out loud and then apologised. He had not meant to sound rude.

“Sorry, but sock monsters? Why do parents make up such silly stories to tell their children?”

“So why do our socks go missing in the wash? And how can we get them back?”

Aquilene’s answer surprised them. “I honestly don’t know. But then, I don’t know everything. Why don’t you come back tomorrow while I try and find out. But now, all the other sprites want to meet you. They will show you our kingdom and you will tell them about your adventures with the fire fairies.”

And with that Aquilene was gone and a whole crowd of sprites gathered around them. They were having such a wonderful time together when Tom remembered that they had to go home before their grandparents got worried. He look at the watch his grandad had given him.

“Oh no! It must have stopped!”

Louise looked at her watch. Hers had stopped as well. What was going on? One of the sprites explained that in Fairyland time went by more slowly than in the human world. The watches had not stopped. They just ticked and tocked more slowly. But it was probably time for them to go anyway, and all the sprites wished them good bye and looked forward to seeing them tomorrow.

Tom and Louise held hands and took out their wands. They were back behind the waterfall on the Promenade.  After looking around to make sure nobody was watching they squeezed hands and stepped into the pond.

Tom looked puzzled. “I’ve been thinking.”

“Oh no! not again!” Louise started laughing.

“No. I mean it. How come we have been in and out of ponds and waterfalls and we haven’t got wet?”

It was true. They weren’t even damp. And even the raindrops all around managed to miss them.

Louise winked. “We never got burned by the fire fairies either. You don’t think it could be magic?”

And two laughing children went home for lunch.

Chapter 4

Aquilene was puzzled. This seemed such a trivial request from Tom and Louise. They were fairy friends and entitled to his help. But was this really a magical problem? He went to find his friend, Hippo, who had often dealt with problems in the human realm. People did use a lot of water and sometimes they wasted it. And if water was lost, so were the sprites who lived in it. That was when Hippo and his crew stepped in to carry out search and rescue missions.

Hippo laughed when he heard the story. If there were sock monsters living in the humans’ waterpipes he would have known about it.

“Mostly it’s their own fault. Humans are always losing things and leaving their rubbish everywhere. They should look after our world instead of spoiling it.”

Hippo carried on like this for quite some time. A lot of fairy folk like Hippo were losing patience with humans for messing up the world and some of them did not just moan about it. They wanted to get their own back and so became mischief makers, causing trouble for the humans. These were water sprites who had turned into spites. They had lost all the joy in their hearts and just wanted to make trouble.

Aquilene asked Hippo if this was the spites up to their tricks again.

“Could be. But they shouldn’t be causing trouble for fairy friends. If they are, my crew will soon put a stop to it.”

The next day, when the children went to visit Aquilene, he told them about the spites. Tom and Louise wanted to know what they could do about it.

If it is the spites you will have to use the magic in your hearts and the power in your wands to go down the water pipes in your house and investigate. But be careful. Spites are mean and nasty, and they all have powerful fairy magic – too powerful for you. If you find anything get out fast and come back and tell me. Then I will come with Hippo and his crew to sort them out.

This was very scary advice. Tom and Louise looked at each other. Then Louise asked, “We are only children. What happens if we decide not to do it?”

“Then you will have to go back to school wearing odd socks!” Aquilene laughed and the children joined in. But they already knew what they were going to do. So did Aquilene and he was worried for them. He reached into his pouch and took out the crystal bottle with their tears of loving kindness.

“Here. Perhaps the greatest treasure in the world will help you if you do get into trouble. And if you don’t need it you can give it back to me next week when you visit your grandparents.”

The children thanked Aquilene for his kindness. Louise put the bottle in her bag and promised to return it to him next week. Then it was time for the children to go home and start another adventure.

Chapter 5

Back home the children made their plans. Tomorrow was wash day. But how could they magic themselves into the waterpipes?

“Remember that film were the wizards flush themselves down the toilet to enter the magic world?”

“I am NOT going down the toilet!” said Louise. “We will have to go down the plug hole.”

Then they got stuck with a big problem. Mum! She would expect them to help with the washing. How could they get away without being seen?

“We could try telling her the truth – about the fire fairies, the sprites and everything. She would have to believe us when we showed her our magic wands.”

Tom was having none of that. “She would never believe us  and then we would be in trouble for telling lies. Even if she did believe us do you think she would let us go down the drain to face the spites? No. She might even take our wands away to keep us safe. We will have to wait until Mum’s not there.”

Louise had to agree. Ever since Queen Ember had granted her wish and turned Tom into a boy who thinks, most of the time he was usually right. That was very annoying for his sister. But it did come in handy sometimes. As it turned out, they needn’t have worried. The next morning, just after Dad had gone to work, the phone rang. It was Grandma. Her washing machine had broken down. Could mum come and collect her washing, please?

Mum turned to the children. “I have to go to Grandma’s and bring her washing back here. I am trusting you to get our washing done before I get back. And do try not to give everything to the sock monster!”

As soon as she left the children loaded up the washing machine, making sure that all the socks went into the bag. Tom remembered the laundry liquid and Louise remembered the fabric conditioner and they started the wash programme. Then it was hands held tight, wands at the ready and pointed at the sink and down the plug hole they went!

The squeezed their hands tight to slow down and stop themselves from going straight down the drain. Under the sink it was like a busy crossroads with pipes going in all directions. Which way should they go?

“Sockety sock. Sockety sock.” They could hear the sound of the washing machine. Then the sound of the water. “Slippity slop, Slippity slop.” So they followed the sound until they came to the washing machine drum which churned backwards and forwards, making soap suds and washing all the clothes inside. The children decided not to go inside the drum. The magic might keep them dry, but would it stop them going round at a hundred miles an hour when the spin cycle switched on? Best not to risk it.

The machine stopped with a mighty whoosh. There was a clicking and clanking and whirring as the machine geared up to start its spin. Then a long thin snake wriggled out of the drum and into the pipe. As it got nearer it fluffed up into a sock! Tom and Louise could not see the spite, but it could see them. The sock wriggled towards them with the spite inside.

Then, out it leapt! Both children raised their wands at once and aimed at the spite. It was too quick and powerful. Their wands sparked and then went out as it soaked them with its watery magic. Then it bundled Tom and Louise into the sock and hurtled along the pipes to its home in a dark and smelly drain.

“What have we here?” Its voice was harsh and hateful, and its eyes stabbed them with the sharpness of its gaze as they crawled out of the sock. Tom and Louise tried to be brave.

“We are Tom and Louise. We are Fairy Friends and with Love in our Hearts and Power in our Wands we command you to release us!”

They pointed their wands at the spite and held hands, waiting for the magic to happen. The spite clutched at its throat, made a strange gurgling sound and fell to the floor. The children were worried. They had not meant to kill the spite. As they stepped forward to help the creature it jumped up and laughed out loud.

Fairy friends? I am a fairy fiend! Your magic cannot hurt me!”

This is when their courage left them. Tom and Louise began to cry. The spite came closer, and just like Aquilene, collected their tears in a crystal bottle.

Then it began to drink them. “Tears of fear and sorrow, so salty and so sour. I love this taste.”

Tom whispered to Louise, “Did you remember to bring the other bottle?”

Louise told him to shush. But the spite had heard Tom. “Give me the bottle!”

Louise turned on Tom. “How could you be so stupid! That was our last chance, the greatest treasure in the world, and now you’ve blown it!”

“It’s no good,” said Tom. “We are beaten. Just give it the bottle and it might let us go.”

The spite seized the bottle. “The greatest treasure in the world? This is what I think of your treasure. And no, I am not going to let you go.”

With that it uncorked the bottle and drank it in one gulp.

Chapter 6

Then a peculiar thing happened. The spite dropped the bottle and sank to its knees. Its voice croaked, then softened and crooned, a low moaning sound of remembering and regret. Its eyes opened and its gaze was gentle.

“I had a name once. Melissa? Nerissa? Yes! That was it, and I lived in the ocean. When the ocean creatures began to die I was so sad. And then I got angry and wanted to make people feel my sadness so they would stop hurting the ocean and killing my friends. After a while I forgot my sadness and all that was left was anger, a silly, spiteful anger that was no help at all.”

Tom and Louise hugged Nerissa, and they all cried tears of loving kindness that filled both the crystal bottles and overflowed into the pipes where other spites tasted them, remembered their sorrow and their names and lost their spitefulness.

They all gathered around Nerissa, Tom and Louise, and even more tears of loving kindness were shed, flooding the pipes until all the spites were saved, including the ones who had blocked Grandma’s washing machine.

Then Louise remembered why they  were there. The sorrow of the sprites and the suffering of the world made Louise nervous about raising the issue of the missing socks. But it was just the right thing to do. Laughter is the best cure for sadness, and when Louise told the sprites about the sock monster, boy did they laugh. And off they rushed to restore all those missing socks to their rightful owners.

Nerissa approached Tom and Louise. “I think these belong to you,” she said, handing over a bag of odd socks. The children thanked her and urged her to visit Aquilene and maybe return to the sea that lapped upon the shores of his realm. Then it was time for them to return home and surprise Mum with the washing all done and a bag full of missing socks. They were relieved to discover that their wands had recovered their magic and whizzed them back to the kitchen in no time at all.

Chapter7

The rest of the week was very busy, making sure that everything was ready for the start of the new school year. By Friday the whole family were ready for a break and Tom and Louise were looking forward to visiting Grandma and Grandad. When they arrived the sun was shining. There would be no fire in the grate that weekend and the fire fairies would all be sleeping in their nooks and crannies.

“Typical,” said Grandad. “The holidays are nearly over so the weather improves. Tomorrow we will all go down to the beach and make the most of it.”

On Saturday morning they made up a packed lunch – sandwiches, crisps and slices of grandma’s homemade apple pie with lemonade to wash it down. Then it was down to the beach. Tom and Louise made a sandcastle and went paddling while the grandparents sat in their deckchairs enjoying the sunshine.

After lunch Grandma and Grandad wanted to go to the café for a nice cup of tea. Tom and Louise stayed on the beach. Then Louise fished in her bag and brought out two magic wands and the two bottles full of tears of loving kindness. A couple of minutes later they were up the steps and by the waterfall. The promenade was very busy, but no-one paid them any attention. They stepped into the pond and vanished in a flash. It is easy to disappear in a crowd and nobody saw them go.

But all the water sprites saw them coming and welcomed them into the great hall of their palace behind the waterfall. Aquilene was there with his friend, Hippo. And so was Nerissa! She had told everybody about their adventure. It had been hard remembering her nasty spiteful self, but she had left nothing out.

Then Louise remembered her promise and gave Aquilene his crystal bottle. He thanked her kindly and said they had already given him a greater gift because Nerissa was his long lost sister. And now she and Hippo were going to get married!

“Well here is a wedding present from us. Another bottle full of loving kindness.” Louise gave the other crystal bottle to Hippo and told him most of the tears were from Nerissa.

Tom wanted to stay there forever but he knew they had to get back to Grandma and Grandad.

Hippo spoke. “Remember, Tom, times slows down in the fairy realm. We just want to take you on one more adventure. Put your wands away. We will use my magic.”

All the sprites rose up, carrying Tom and Louise with them. The people on the promenade thought it was a trick of the light when the sky above the waterfall sparkled with countless water droplets as they rushed out to sea. They danced upon the waves and the people on the beach thought they could see real white seahorses as the waves broke upon the shore. And the lucky ones who were swimming in the sea felt as if they were flying as the magic carried them with it.

Finally the sprites all came together in a mighty wave that crashed down on the sandcastle the children had built that morning.  

“Oh dear,” said Aquilene. “I hope we haven’t upset the sand fairies.”

“Sand fairies?” The children spoke at once.

“Oh yes. Next time you build a sandcastle you should go inside and visit them. Maybe that will be next summer’s adventure. Here come Grandma and Grandad. I think we better go.”

So, with the sound of rushing waves, the water sprites were gone. Meanwhile, Grandma and Grandad were wondering had they really seen their grandchildren riding a giant wave that dashed upon the shore and broke into a thousand silver streams?

“There’s something magic about those children,” said Grandma, and Grandad nodded in agreement.