Once upon a time there was a Little Fairy who lived alone in an enchanted forest. Every morning at dawn she rose from her bed of a single rose petal, bathed in a crystal goblet, sipped dew from the flowers in her window for breakfast, then flew out the window to greet her mother the sun with a Little Fairy dance.

As soon as her dance was done the Little Fairy would fly straight-away to the Lake of Crystal Clear Waters. Everyone in the forest knew by now that she spent most of her time there. The water in the lake was so clear she could see the lobsters who scurried around way down at the bottom of it. The ancient trees encircling the lake extended their long arms to each other. Their reflection in the water made it look to her like the trees were trying to hold hands. But there was something very particularly special about this lake.

Sometimes when the Little Fairy dove into the water and then popped her head out to breathe, she would find herself swimming around in another world. She would fly from here to there playing little fairy tricks on the people who lived in it. When she tired of her little games she would dive back into the lake and return to the enchanted forest.

The morning in which our story begins, she was thinking about checking on the bluebells growing on the east side of the lake, and visiting Robin's nest, full of screeching new babies, and then maybe taking a little dive. She wasn't at all prepared, in fact she hadn't the slightest idea yet what awaited her this morning. But as she flew in the direction of the lake she started to notice some very unusual things.

First it was the strange smell. Every inch she got closer to the lake it grew worse. The Little Fairy had never smelled anything quite like it and she wished she never had. This smell was like something growing out of control, something you wouldn't want to eat, or even touch, or smell at all. It was worse than a skunk smell because right away she knew when she smelled it that nothing could live at all anywhere near the thing that could make a smell like that.

As she got closer she could see the vapor floating in the air. Then she saw a moldy, slimy looking ooze flowing in little rivulets away from the lake. Everything the little streams of ooze touched wilted and died. An amazingly fast growing mold was climbing the trees. The Little Fairy saw the animals who lived by the lake running away from there. She asked them what was the matter but they were in such a hurry to get away, they did not stop to answer her.

The Little Fairy was so worried she flapped her wings as hard and as fast as she could to get to the Lake of Crystal Clear Waters and see for herself what was happening. When she finally arrived she was horrified. The ooze was coming from her beloved lake! It was bubbling and glurping, sending up a smelly vapor and spilling ooze which was running off into the Enchanted Forest in every direction.

Who was doing this to her lake? The Little Fairy knew that there was only one way to find out. She would have to go through the horrible mess to find out where it was coming from. But she was frightened. She couldn't even see into the lake. What if she dove into that frightful mess and could never come out again? She decided to ask her friend Ersha the Spider for a little help.

Ersha the Spider has been spinning her web, by the side of the Lake of Crystal Clear Waters, in the oldest tree in the Enchanted Forest, since the beginning of time. The Little Fairy flew up and up to reach her. Even though she had climbed to the very top of it, Ersha didn't appear as though she was planning to leave her tree. But she was annoyed by the terrible smell.

The Little Fairy respectfully asked Ersha to allow her to tie a bit of the thread she was spinning, around her wrist, so that she might have something to lead her back to her own world, in case she was gone for a very long time and had trouble finding her way back again. Ersha warned the Little Fairy that what she was attempting was very dangerous, but she allowed her to take a bit of thread and tie it around her little wrist. Not wanting to waste any time the Little Fairy respectfully thanked Ersha and flew away.

The Little Fairy hovered over the surface of the lake, her ears plugged with some grass, holding her nose shut, squeezing her eyes closed, and her little heart beating faster than a hummingbird's. She dove into the lake. As soon as she was submerged she felt a hot, burning, sensation that took all her energy away from her. With all the strength she could muster she flew up again, her poor wings wilted and dripping with the ooze. She shook herself, reciting all the blue fairy spells she could remember, turning herself around and around in circles in the air, until she was once again shiny and bright in an otherwise very dismal world.

Everywhere she looked she saw ooze and slime. A vast river of it flowing downward. Nowhere did the Little Fairy see a living thing. She flew in the same direction the river was flowing for a very long time. Finally she spotted a group of people way off in the distance who seemed to be traveling on foot together. As she got closer she saw that many small groups of people were joining together and going to meet an even larger group of people all marching in the same direction. The Little Fairy finally reached the people who were the furthest behind. It was a little village. The Little Fairy saw the adults rushing to pack baskets and stack their belongings on little pushcarts and in backpacks they were hoisting on to each other's shoulders. She saw a little girl hanging on to her teddy bear and crying.

The Little Fairy finally decided to rest her weary wings. She landed on the girl's shoulder. The little girl was so surprised she stopped crying. The Little Fairy asked her what her name was. She said her name was Clarissa. She asked her why she was crying. Clarissa told her that the river of death for her people was coming. The entire village was packing up what little unpoisoned food they had in store and going to meet their Queen.

The Little Fairy asked Clarissa where the river was coming from. Clarissa told her "a giant named SlogSlime moved into the Magic Mountain. He started building a SlogSlime factory right away. This factory had no purpose to make anything but SlogSlime. The giant loved it. All the time the Magic Mountain was shaking with SlogSlime's laughter, like an overgrown child that nobody could control. The queen had gone to request SlogSlime not to allow his games with his SlogSlime factory to poison all the water and food in the valley. But he only laughed at her, and frightened her loyal army away, weak with hunger and thirst. So now she is leading her entire kingdom to find a new place before we run out of food entirely."

The Little Fairy told Clarissa not to despair. She would find a way to change the situation. Clarissa asked her "do you really mean it?" The Little Fairy told her to help her mother and stay by her side until she came back. Then she flew away, up and away, toward the Magic Mountain.

Down below she saw more ooze than she ever could have imagined if she ever had wanted to. She was so angry her little body was shaking with indignation. To think that this giant, this SlogSlime was just playing a game for his own amusement! She had a long distance to cover with her little wings, but a strong wind was blowing at her back which sped her along her way. She flew steadily up toward the peak of the Magic Mountain. The SlogSlime River came cascading down the side of the mountain like a waterfall from a nightmare. Finally she saw the factory, coughing up big puffs of smoke. A fresh stream ran into it from above, and out the other end came the endless river of slime. The deadly smelling vapor floated around everywhere. The Little Fairy held her nose and flew upward. She saw SlogSlime himself sitting on a big rock, watching his factory at work, and giggling so that all his blubber jiggled and shook, and a lonely bird stranded at the top of the mountain flew away to another tree. He didn't notice the Little Fairy way over his head.

Suddenly the Little Fairy was blown by such a strong gust of wind, she lost control of her wings. She was blown wildly about. She was frightened she might get blown into a rock, but just when she thought she would surely get knocked senseless she found herself blown into a little cave in the side of the mountain.

She lay on the floor of the cave for a long time, until she felt she had some of her strength back. Then she looked around. She could see that the cave went way back into the mountain, so she started to follow it and see where it would lead her. The further she went the further the cave seemed to go. There was no end in sight. After awhile she couldn't see, but she felt the passage going downward, and getting narrower and narrower. It was very quiet inside the Magic Mountain. The Little Fairy kept flying downward through a crack that only the Little Fairy could have called a path, because it wasn't much wider than a finger or a toe. Suddenly she heard a sound that echoed up the crack in the stone. It was the sound of a single drop of water.

The Little Fairy followed the path, which gradually became wider. She heard more drops of water and then the sound of a running stream. She rejoiced, drinking as much as she wanted. It seemed like a long time ago that she had sipped the dew from the flowers in her window, back home in the enchanted forest. When she had her fill she took a little vial which always hung about her little neck. It held exactly three drops of water. She screwed the cork in tight, to make sure she wouldn't lose any of the precious water. Quickly she flew back up through the crack inside the mountain, out through the cave entrance, down the side of the mountain, and arrived at Clarissa's camp site a couple of hours before dawn.

Clarissa was sleeping next to her mother. The Little Fairy buzzed around her ear until she woke up. Then she told Clarissa that she could show her how to help all her people if she would follow her instructions. Clarissa jumped up, anxious to do anything to save her people from their terrible plight.

The Little Fairy led her one step at a time, against the rivertide to the foot of the Magic Mountain. Clarissa looked up and was dazzled by the height, not realizing that the Little Fairy wanted her to climb the Magic Mountain. The Little Fairy told her it could be done in three days. Clarissa did not believe that she could ever reach the top of the Magic Mountain, but she said to herself that she could not say for sure that she could not do something which she had never tried to do.

The Little Fairy encouraged Clarissa every step of the way. She hovered around her, telling her about some of the little fairy tricks she had played on other people in other worlds, in order to amuse her and keep her mind off her aches and pains. At the end of the first day Clarissa dropped to the ground, too exhausted to care whether she had a blanket or a pillow.

The Little Fairy watched over her, and woke her before sunrise. Clarissa was so tired and sore and hungry she didn't think she could move. The Little Fairy took the vial from around her neck and offered Clarissa one drop of the clear fresh water from the depths of the Magic Mountain. It was so little that Clarissa hardly felt it on her tongue, but she swallowed anyway, and was surprised that when she stood up she did have the strength to keep climbing.

Clarissa and the Little Fairy got closer and closer to the SlogSlime factory. They steadily climbed past it to the west, almost reaching over its highest smokestack by the end of the second day. Clarissa looked down below and couldn't believe she had climbed so high all by herself. She hoped briefly that her mother wasn't too worried about her. She had scribbled a note for her saying that she would return in three days and that she should continue to travel with the rest of the village until she returned. Thinking of her mother she was overcome with sleep while sitting up against the side of the mountain. The Little Fairy watched over her while she slept.

Once again she awoke Clarissa before dawn. The second morning was worse than the first one for Clarissa. Her back was bruised from leaning against the mountain all night. Her stomach was empty and wouldn't let her forget it, growling like a hungry tiger demanding to be fed. Her feet were swollen inside her shoes, which she had forgotten to take off. She knew she had blisters, but she didn't want to look at them. She stood up and felt pain slice through her left leg like a knife. It had fallen asleep, and the returning circulation was like an extra punishment for sleeping in the wrong position for a few hours. Clarissa groaned and fell to the ground. Once again the Little Fairy offered Clarissa a single drop of water from the vial hanging around her neck.

Clarissa climbed for a third whole day, getting dizzy from the altitude, her whole concentration, every ounce of her strength and determination, helping her to take each upward step. As the sun was setting, and the wind blew in her face and made each step a little harder to take, Clarissa and the Little Fairy finally arrived at a clearing not far from the entrance to the cave near the peak of the Magic Mountain. When the Little Fairy told Clarissa that they had finally arrived she collapsed in a heap on the ground, having no idea why she had struggled so hard to get there.

The Little Fairy offered her the last drop of water from her vial. The drop fall between her parched lips. Then the Little Fairy told her she must take a stick from the ground and drive it through the side of the Magic Mountain at precisely a certain spot in the middle of a big rock stuck in the side of the mountain near the cave entrance. Clarissa couldn't imagine how she could drive a rock through the side of any mountain.

But the Little Fairy urged her to do as she asked her to do. Finally Clarissa gave in, thinking there was no harm in at least trying. Clarissa picked up a stick, and with all the strength she had left in her little body she raised the stick above her head and thrust downward.

To her amazement, as soon as the stick touched the rock it seemed to take on a life of its own. It started spinning around so fast that it drilled its own way right through the rock. Clarissa watched it drill downward until she couldn't see it anymore. But she could still hear it working its way deep into the mountain. Then a truly wonderful thing happened. Water came spurting out of the same hole so forcefully that it dislodged the rocks all around and Clarissa had to scramble above the cave for safety.

The water kept rushing out of the hole, until it became a giant waterfall. The force of the water caused the rock around the hole start to crumble. Finally big boulders became dislodged and tumbled down the mountainside. The water and rocks poured over the SlogSlime factory and completely destroyed it. The angry yells of SlogSlime as he ran away to look for another mountain were drowned out by the sound of rushing water. Clarissa danced with joy, all her aches and pains completely forgotten.

The huge waterfall coming from deep inside the Magic Mountain became the source of a new river. A beautiful lake was created in the valley below. The Queen resettled her people around the edge of the lake and named it after Clarissa. Clarissa tried to tell people about the Little Fairy who had helped her, but it turned out that nobody but Clarissa could see her. They thought she must be making up the story because she was so modest and couldn't stand all the praise. Maybe that was one of those little fairy tricks which the Little Fairy liked to play so much.

She sat by the lake every day. Even though Clarissa visited her often, the Little Fairy started to miss the Enchanted Forest. Finally one day she saw a little insect skittering across the surface of Lake Clarissa, and a little fish jump up to try to catch it. She looked into its depths and could see a few prettily colored stones. She knew it was finally time. So she gave a tug on the almost invisible thread which was still tied around her wrist, and she dove headfirst into the lake.

When she poked her head out of the deliciously cool water she found herself back in the Enchanted Forest, in the middle of her beloved lake, which was once again the Lake of Crystal Clear Waters.

THE END