WILDSIDE

CHAPTER 12 - Nightmares

“An application has been received…if you have any objections…objections should be sent to the above address within twenty-one days…well, we don’t need twenty-one days,” said Sally. “We’re ready. Did you bring the print-out of the nature survey, David?”
“Yes, here it is.”
Everyone looked at the beautifully printed survey, with a picture of Gentianella campestris on the front. The elves were very interested in how he’d done it.
“You type it on a keyboard, then it appears on the screen, then you print it. The picture I downloaded from the internet.”
“Screen?” said Will. “D’you mean that television you’ve got in your bedroom?”
David laughed. “That’s not a television, it’s a monitor. Why don’t you come and have a look? The image on the screen keeps still, it won’t boggle your eyes.”
“Just a minute!” shouted Clover. She turned to Ace and Will and frowned at them. “Sit down! Just for once, concentrate, OK? We’ve worked for this all summer, so just keep your minds on what we’re supposed to be doing.”
Will and Ace were struggling not to laugh. David was pulling faces at Clover behind her back.
“It’s really good, David,” said Sally peaceably. “When the planning committee see it, they can’t fail to be impressed. Look, we’ll pack everything into this box and send it all together. Get the petition, Rowan.”
The petition was even thicker than the nature survey.
“You’ve all worked so hard,” said Sally. “And there are your false figures, too. When they see the plans, they’ll think the building’s too big for the site, which will make them suspicious of Mr. Pearce. And here’s my letter, objecting on the grounds of damage to a protected species, and pointing out that the horse chestnut is now subject to a preservation order, and pointing out that the whole site will shortly be investigated as a site of biological importance!”
“Twenty-one days?” said Madge. “More like twenty-one minutes!”
“I think we’ve cracked it!” said Clover. “We’re going to win!”

She and Rose started whizzing round the room, making Laura dizzy from watching them. Not to be outdone, the elves started jumping across the kitchen, and Tony sat Dan and Hogweed on his shoulders and marched them round in triumph, with Dominic in front of him, blowing an imaginary trumpet. David was banging the table in time with them, going yes, yes, yes!
Sally and Madge looked at each other, bemused, then with concern at Rowan, who hadn’t moved. She just sat with a smile on her face and her chin in her hands, gazing at Ace.
“Oh, dear,” said Madge.
“I know,” sighed Sally. “Don’t worry, she’ll get over it. Would you like a cup of tea?”
Sally sat on a cupboard with Madge beside her, smiling at all the joyful celebrations. When they’d calmed down a little, she set out six big glasses and seven little mugs, and got a bottle out of the fridge.
“I don’t usually get this stuff,” she said, “but this is a special occasion. I think you’ll like it.”
Ace watched with fascination as bubbles surged through the glasses.
“It’s alive!” he said. “What is it?”
“Coca-cola,” said Tony. “It’s great, it makes you burp, listen.”
He did a huge burp, which impressed the elves enormously. They couldn’t get the hang of it, but Hogweed did, and he and Tony burped at each other until Sally and Madge said that was quite enough, thank you very much.
“Right then,” said Sally. “I’ll take this parcel to the Post Office.”
“Oh, my mum gave me this for the postage,” said David, handing Sally a five pound note. “Our letter came this morning, as well.”
“That’s very helpful,” said Sally. “Thank you, David.”


It was David’s computer that finished it for Dan. Madge had taken Rose and Clover to visit Heather, where she was working, and the elves spent every moment they could with David, playing games and surfing the Internet. When they weren’t with him, they talked non-stop about Tomb Raider and Tiberian Sun. Dan thought she’d never heard anything so boring in her life.
“Why don’t you tell them who you are, Dan?” Hogweed asked her.
“I don’t know,” she sighed. “I used to think fairies were all soppy, I hated being one. But Rose and Clover and Madge aren’t soppy. They’re funny, and kind, and brave. And it’s true, I would like to join in with them more. But how can I suddenly say, oh, by the way, I’m a fairy? And what about the band? Would the elves still let me play lead guitar? I can’t live without my guitar, I can’t!”
Hogweed looked concerned. “I dunno, Dan. Them questions are too hard for me. But it does seem a shame.”
“Never mind,” said Dan. “I can handle it. Let’s go to the shed, and you can have a go on Phil’s drumkit. He won’t mind.”
Dan was happy to spend time with Hogweed, but she was gladder than she would ever have thought possible when the fairies got back. It was Friday morning, the first day of September, and Dan was out on her own, sniffing the air and smelling autumn on its way, when she saw them coming from the west. They’d been flying all night, and they were tired and dirty. Dan was shocked to see how grim Rose and Clover looked. It made her wonder what they’d been doing, but she didn’t get a chance to ask. Madge bundled them off to their beds, and on Saturday there were just too many people around.


It was the last weekend of the holidays, and the children and the sprites spent every moment they could together. They’d worked so hard all summer, it was as if they all felt it might be their last chance just to play, for ages. David brought his guitar out, and played along with the band, while the others played hide and seek right under Joseph and Adam’s noses. Ace and Dominic had a jumping across the brook and see who falls in first competition - Ace won, but it took him a long time - while Will and Tony sat nattering about microchips and how computers worked. Rose and Clover stayed the night with Rowan and Laura. Dan stayed with Gemma, and they had a great time, playing music as loudly as they could on Gemma’s old cassette player. David didn’t even bother going home, he stayed out all night with the elves, listening to strange stories.
Late on Sunday when it was starting to get dark, and even Sally was beginning to fuss about baths and early nights, reluctantly they all said goodnight.
“Your last year,” whispered Madge to David. “Make it a good one.”
“You don’t know how lucky you are,” said Will to Tony. “You’re going to make a great scientist. Just keep reading, OK?”
It was David who managed to find the words to express what all the children were thinking.
“I thought that old chap, Cyril, was a loony, but now I know how he feels. Even when I’m as old as he is, I’ll never forget this summer, and what it felt like to talk to sprites.”


Next morning, the sprites gathered to watch them going off to school.
“Don’t anybody say they wish we were going too,” said Clover. “We’ve learned far too much human stuff. It’s time we learned more about what’s going on in our own world.”
“What are you on about?” said Ace, looking at her in amazement.
“I’d have thought you might care a bit now, Ace. You’ve got responsibilities now you’re the senior sprite. We’re not the only sprites in the world, you know.”
Madge closed her eyes. If that was Clover’s idea of being tactful, she wouldn’t like to hear her being tactless. She hurried to intervene.
“Goodness, it’s chilly this morning,” she said. “Windy, too. I’m going indoors. Phil, didn’t you want some help strengthening your drumskins, now you’re sharing them with this heavy-handed goblin of ours? Shall we go and do it now?”
Phil agreed, cheerfully, and Madge told Rose and Clover to come with her, just with one glance.

No-one noticed that Nightshade was watching them. His eyes narrowed as he looked at Ace, and then he smiled to himself. Ace was moodily kicking stones and muttering about responsibilities and bossy fairies that could all go and drown themselves for all he cared.
“She’s right, you know,” said Will.
“What? Have you gone crazy?”
“Not Clover, you halfwit, Madge. It’s windy. Look at the trees.”
Nightshade gathered all his hatred and malevolence and imagined them pouring into Ace’s mind, as a nightmare. Ace was already angry, and through that chink the nightmare flooded in.
He didn’t realise what had happened to him. He felt a sickening thud of misery, but that was no more than he would have expected, thinking of his own tree that hadn’t lived to feel the autumn winds. He turned to Will, with a reckless glint in his eyes.
“Where shall we start?”
“How about the silver birches?”
“Too small. Let’s go on the horse chestnut.”
Will looked at him. The horse chestnut was over eighty feet tall. They couldn’t have chosen anything more dangerous. He smiled.
“Go on, then. Race you to the top.”

To Dan and Hogweed, watching from the ground, they looked like tiny dark specks, so high above them, flying effortlessly across the top of the tree. In one way, they were safer; on such a big tree, they were almost bound to land on something. But the drop, if they missed, didn’t bear thinking about. At first, all was well. The rush of the wind and the exciting danger almost blew the cobwebs from Ace’s mind, and he was surfing well, thinking what he was doing and choosing the right gusts to let go on. But then the nightmare suddenly got a firmer grip, as Nightshade reinforced it.
Ace felt he was hearing that chainsaw again, and over that dreadful haunting sound came other voices, Cory predicting doom, that strange voice calling him in the wind on the night his tree had said goodbye, Clover taunting him with all the things he didn’t know anything about, a whole world of them. He lost control, and let the wind fling him where it would. He couldn’t think any more what was safe, he was being tossed around, letting go on the fiercest gusts, and he was getting closer and closer to the edge.

Will could see what had happened, and cursed himself for agreeing to come so high.
Of course he doesn’t care, he thought. I ought to be doing his thinking for him, not letting him throw his life away. How can I get to him, though? This is impossible.
He tried shouting. “Ace, stop, will you? Just stop a minute!”
Useless. The wind just carried the sound away. Desperately, he tried to jump, but he was stumbling across the thin sprays, there was nothing solid enough to stand on. Then, suddenly, it was too late. Ace was thrown clear of the canopy, and the wind caught him, he was spiralling down like a falling leaf.
Far below, Dan and Hogweed stood horrified. Then, with a deep breath, Dan threw her jacket off, flexed her out-of-practice wings, and took off to the rescue.

It felt as if it was taking forever as she flew slowly higher. Clover or Rose would have been so fast; Dan lumbered like a bumble bee. But once she’d got him, she did well. She was braced and ready for the weight, and she was very strong. She grasped him firmly round his waist, and guided them both into the wind, and used it to help her get him down safely. The landing was hard and clumsy, but neither of them was hurt. Hogweed and Will came running over. Will was so relieved, he was angry.
“Clover?” said Ace. “Dan? What? Will, I’m going mad. What’s going on?”
“Don’t you ever do that again, are you listening?” He shook Ace hard until the dazed look cleared from his eyes. “You lost it, didn’t you? You could have thrown your life away! If it wasn’t for Dan you’d be lying there, dead, now! And it would have been my fault - for letting you.”
That did the trick. That echo of Cory’s words, that Will hadn’t even heard.
Dimly, he tried to explain. “Couldn’t think. Didn’t care.”
He turned and looked at Dan, who was sitting with her head in her hands. He crouched beside her and gently pulled her hands away.
“Dan,” he said, “what’s happened? Why have you got wings? Did Hogweed do it so you could rescue me?”
“No, Ace. This is me. I’m a fairy. I’ve always been a fairy.”
Ace stared at her, walked off a few paces, and stood shaking his head. This was all too much. He could hardly take it in. Someone had just tried to kill him, in a very clever way. He’d think about that later. Right now it seemed more important to understand what Dan was saying. He was still too bemused to notice that Will and Hogweed didn’t seem surprised. Taking a deep breath, he turned and walked back to her.
“Thank you,” he said seriously. “Thanks for saving my life. It must have taken some doing, that, after living as an elf so long.”
“I couldn’t do anything else,” said Dan. “And I’m not sorry, really, that the secret’s out. I was beginning to get fed up of pretending.”
“Let’s go in,” said Ace. “I could murder a drink. And I want to hear the whole story.”


“I was born in a garden in Cheadle Hulme,” Dan told them, sitting on the table in the elves’ house, with a drink in her hand. “You know that, I said that when I came here. But I pretended we all had to leave. That wasn’t true. It was only me. They drove me out.”
“Why?” asked Hogweed. “What had you done?”
“Nothing,” said Dan, “except be born a dandelion. It was nearly all fairies, that garden, all from gorgeous flowers. When I was twenty years old, they told me I’d have to go. They said I was old enough to look after myself now, and I had to leave, because they couldn’t have weeds in the garden.”
“That’s sick,” Ace whispered. “So you came here?”
“It took me a long time to find a place that looked welcoming,” said Dan. “And when I did, I was so glad. But I was determined never to be a fairy again. I wasn’t going to let anyone do that to me again. And I thought pretending to be an elf would be easy. I’d only met elves from blossom trees. They’re not exactly as strong and tough as you two.”
Ace tried hard not to laugh.
“Well, it was hard enough that first summer,” Dan continued. “I said I was a laburnum, and told you that was why I was rubbish at jumping, and you believed me. But I was always having to pretend that I didn’t want to do things, so you wouldn’t guess I couldn’t. Then in the spring, Nightshade caught me out. He blackmailed me into working for him. Said he’d tell you all if I didn’t.”
“I was mean to you too, then, Dan,” said Hogweed. “I’m really sorry about that.”
“Forget it,” said Dan. “You were only copying the others. Somehow I knew you didn’t really mean it, like they did.”
“But you must have known by then that Rose and Clover wouldn’t drive you away,” said Ace. “Why carry on so long? You could have been learning all the cool stuff they’ve been doing with Madge.”
“I know,” sighed Dan. “It must sound really stupid, but it was the band. I couldn’t bear the thought that you might not want me in the band any more if you knew I was a fairy.”
Ace stared at her. “You’re right,” he said, “that does sound stupid. You’re a guitarist, Dan, that’s all that matters. And you’re a good one. How could you think it would make any difference?”
Dan shrugged, helplessly.
“Listen, Dan,” said Will, “d’you want me to transform you into an elf? Change completely, lose your wings, be able to jump? I could, you know. It’s your choice.”
“That’s a good question,” said Ace. “You have to decide what you really want.”
They watched her thinking about it, making her mind up. It didn’t take long.
“I was taught to be ashamed of who I was,” she said. “But I’m a dandelion, and I’m not ashamed of it any more. I’ll stay a fairy.”
“Brave, Dan,” said Ace approvingly. “Good for you. Right then, we change the name of the band. Not ‘Wildside Elves’ any more. Just ‘Wildside’, no more, no less.”
“Stronger,” said Will. “I like that. Hey, Dan, you’ll still wear black leathers, won’t you? You’re not going to start wearing pretty clothes?”
“As if,” sniffed Dan.
“You might have to,” said Ace, winding her up. “There’s probably a law about it.”
Dan was horrified. “You don’t think so, do you? That’d be awful! Let’s go and find Madge!”

They knew the others were still next door in the shed, they’d heard the drums now and then, so they all went piling in, forgetting what a shock Dan’s wings were going to be. They heard four gasps, then a stunned silence.
“Ah,” said Madge, putting down a bent cymbal. She walked over to Dan and hugged her. “Welcome home,” she whispered in her ear. Rose and Clover hugged her too, and teased her for wanting to be an elf.
“What we want to know is, is there a law about what you have to wear if you’re a fairy?” asked Will. “Dan can still wear black leathers, can’t she?”
Madge smiled. “No law, simply convention. Most fairies wear the colours of their flowers because those colours suit them. But if Dan likes wearing black, no-one’s going to stop her.”
“That’s a relief,” said Dan.
Ace had noticed how glad they were, but also how unsurprised.
“You all knew, didn’t you?” he said to the fairies.
As they nodded, smiling, Will started to get worried. That meant Ace was the only one who hadn’t known.
Whoops, thought Will. He’s not going to like that.

But Ace was already thinking of something else.
“Madge,” he said, “does everyone think like that? That some plants are more important than others?”
“Not everyone. But some do, no point denying it. And it’s getting worse than ever, these days. There are some places where the only thing that matters is how much your plant would cost in a garden centre.”
They all looked shocked and horrified, except Phil. He just covered his face with his hand.
“I see,” said Will, watching him with sympathy. “And how much does a Phillyrea latifolia cost in a garden centre?”
“An absolute fortune. You wouldn’t believe how bad it is. From some people, you get this sickly sort of flattery. And from other people, just nastiness and jealousy.”
“Are you sure it was an accident, when you got injured?”
“Oh, yes. But them leaving me behind for dead, that wasn’t. I never really thought it was. That would make someone else the most valuable plant, you see, if I was gone.”
Rose was nearly in tears. “Didn’t anyone look for you, Phil? Not even the other young sprites you were telling us about?”
“No,” said Phil. “I thought I had one real friend. But I was wrong.”
“You’re well out of that, Phil,” said Ace. “And I get what you were on about this morning, Clover. Point taken.”
“I shouldn’t have said it like that,” said Clover. “I’m sorry.”
“Shake,” he said, and she did, then looked at Madge.
“Tell them,” she said.

“Yes, I think you’re right. The thing is,” sighed Madge, “when we went to see Heather, we never mentioned where we were going. That’s because she’s working in Delamere, where Phil’s people are now. I didn’t want to worry him.”
“Why, what’s going on?” said Will.
“Sprites are disappearing in Delamere, and Heather’s trying to find out why. She’s in the Intelligence Squadron. We told her everything we’d heard you mention, Phil, in case it was any help. Because there’s no pattern to it, that she can see. But she’ll get there, I know she will. It was very hard to leave her.”
“Why did you have to?” asked Dan. “Didn’t you want to stay?”
Hogweed suddenly chipped in. “It’s not a question of wanting, or not wanting, when you’re under orders.”
“Exactly,” said Madge. “My work is here.”
Ace was just watching Phil, and Phil felt it. He looked at Ace defiantly, with misery in his eyes.
“It’s nothing to do with me,” he said. “I don’t belong with them anymore.”


In a while, Madge went to see Sally, and Ace, who had been very quiet, got everyone together.
“Listen,” he said, “I’ve got an idea. These snobs in Cheadle Hulme, that chucked our Dan out when she was only twenty. What about a nice little bombing raid?”
“When I said we weren’t the only sprites in the world, I didn’t mean go and bomb the others,” said Clover.
“Oh. Don’t you want to, then?”
“Of course I do. I’m sure it’s wrong, and we’ll probably all be arrested, but someone ought to teach them a lesson.”
“D’you mind? Don’t talk about being arrested. Now Dan, whereabouts in Cheadle Hulme is this garden?”
Dan looked embarrassed. “I’m sorry, Ace, but it’s…well, it’s behind the police station.”
Ace shuddered. “Well, we know where that is now. It’ll take a couple of hours to get there, so we’ll….”
“A couple of hours!” shrieked Rose. “It’s only two miles across country!”
“Have a heart, Rose, that’s top speed, that is.”
“Why don’t you get off now?” said Clover. “We’ll make the bombs and bring them, and meet you near this police station in a couple of hours.”
“Can you make bombs?” Ace demanded. “Good ones? I don’t want showers of jelly babies.”
“Don’t worry about that, Ace,” said Hogweed. “I can make bombs. Wonderful bombs.”
“Thanks, Hogweed. It’s a shame we can’t take you too.”
“It doesn’t matter. Doing the bombs will be my share.”

So Will, Ace and Phil set off, down to the main road, across a playground, and a cemetery, and a playing field, then over the golf course and onto the main road into Cheadle Hulme. They did the last part jumping through people’s front gardens, until they came to a great road junction. Phil gasped when he saw it.
“We can’t cross that!”
“Yes, we can,” Ace told him. “Look at the pattern, when that light goes red, those cars will stop and we can jump across.”
“We’ll be seen!” said Phil. “It’s all open!”
“No, we won’t,” said Ace, taking his jacket off. “At least, if we are, they’ll think it was a strange bird. Look, get in the middle, and hang on tight. Jump high and climbing, aim for the roof of that bank on the corner. Got it? Get ready, the lights are going to change.”
As they jumped, Ace and Will trailed their jackets to imitate a bird’s wings, and held Phil between them. They crashed onto the roof.
“Good trick, isn’t it?” said Ace breathlessly. “That’s how we cross the motorway.”
Phil was speechless, thinking of the long, slow journey he’d taken from the Wirral to Chester, cautious and boring.
“We may as well wait here, Ace,” said Will. “No need for you to go any nearer to that place. They’ll see us as they fly in.”
Back on Wildside, Hogweed was enjoying himself, raiding dustbins and rummaging in the elves’ shed. He made a couple of dozen bomb cases from light plastic that would shatter on impact, then filled them all with messy and disgusting things. Finally, he chalked on the cases what each bomb contained, while the fairies shrunk them really small and packed them into bags they could carry on their backs. Just before they left, they pinned a note for Madge on the shed door. It said, GONE ON A MISSION. Hogweed waved them off, then made himself scarce. He didn’t want to be the only one around when Madge got back.


“You’re late,” said Ace, as the fairies spotted them and landed on the roof of the bank.
“Sorry, it’s my fault,” said Dan. “I’m so slow, I’m out of practice.”
“Oh, sure. Should have thought of that. Right then, Dan, which garden is it? Can we see it from here?”
“Not quite. See that Kanzan cherry? That’s at the bottom of it. Huge borders of flowers running in that direction.” She waved her hands to show them. “There are sprite houses hidden at the back of the borders, and in other gardens nearby.”
“Easy,” said Ace. “Aim for the cherry, then, and stop there to share the bombs out.”
Quickly and quietly they crossed to the cherry, and the fairies unpacked the bombs and expanded them to the largest size they could hold. Will was looking at Hogweed’s writing.
“He can’t spell very well, can he? Great contents, though.”
“Is there anything noisy?” asked Ace. “To lure them out?”
“Rustie Nayles?” said Clover.
“Excellent. Go on, Dan. You first. Get it on the path, so they’ll clatter.”

Brimming with excitement, Dan took the bomb and dashed it down onto the path, and hovered there watching as all the familiar faces came into sight, gorgeously-dressed fairies and languid elves. Rose and Clover came fast behind her, and the sprites on the ground found themselves wading through paint, creosote, curdled milk and cold porridge. The garden was full of the sound of shrieking.
“It’s that stupid dandelion, and a gang of hooligans!”
“Oh, my shoes! They’re ruined!”
“Oh, what a dreadful smell! Someone, do help me!”
Ace could hardly jump for laughing. He landed badly and skidded himself, but not before he’d dropped a bomb labelled, ‘Bownes and Cabbidge’ onto a group who were stuck in the paint. Will did a spectacular jump the full length of the garden, and got a few who were cowering out of the way, with slimy custard skin. One of the garden elves, whose tree they were in, jumped up to try to stop them, but Phil flattened him with one good shove, and jumped out to throw the mouldy cheese. Again and again, they all returned to the tree for fresh ammunition, until all the bombs were spent and the garden sprites were completely demoralised and dripping with filth.
“Rose!” called Ace. “Whistle me everyone back, will you?”
Rose put her fingers in her mouth and gave a piercing whistle, and everyone rushed together.
“The final touch,” said Ace. “Land beneath the tree, and walk right through the garden, like an escort for Dan, then head for home.”
At those words, all the bitterness and pain Dan had carried for so long evaporated for ever, and she felt only pity now for the sad snobs she used to envy. As they landed, Phil came up to Dan and put an arm across her shoulders. She did the same to him, and smiling at each other, they led the way across the garden. Will was looking at the garden sprites.
“Look at their faces,” he said to Ace, quietly. “They’re into this valuable stuff, you can tell. They can’t believe a dandelion’s friends with an expensive thing like Phil.”
Ace shook his head angrily. “Dan!” he called. “You’re worth more than this lot put together.”


They kept together on the way home, with the fairies flying slowly, and stopping now and then for the elves to catch up. Maybe they were beginning to wonder what Madge would say. They soon found out. When they got back, she was waiting for them with a face like thunder.
“What under the canopy have you been doing now?”
“We’ve only been to bomb the scum who chucked Dan out of their precious garden,” Will explained.
“Only!” said Madge. “I don’t blame you for wanting to, but honestly! Unprovoked attack, unlicensed weapons, travelling through a built-up area in broad daylight! You can’t pass that off as playing!”
She glared at them all, and at Ace in particular.
“I told you, we have to keep the laws! And you do a crazy thing like that! They’ll pass your descriptions on to the police, and I imagine the police will recognise them, don’t you? Honestly, Ace, I don’t think you’ve got any sense at all.”
Ace was very hurt by this.
“First, is there anything interesting that isn’t illegal? Second, the plan went perfectly, no-one was seen, no-one was injured, including the ones we bombed, we didn’t hurt them, only made them look stupid, and third, it depends what you mean by sense. Look at Dan’s face, and tell me it wasn’t sense!”
“Ace, don’t get mad,” said Rose. “It’s worry that makes you snap. Madge was worried. We should have said where we’d gone. Sorry, Madge, that was thoughtless.”
Rose’s gentle voice calmed things down, and saved the argument from getting any worse, but things were very edgy all evening, and Nightshade’s malice found Ace a very easy target that night.


Next morning Ace was in a bad mood. He’d been tossing and turning all night, racked with awful dreams full of the sound of that chainsaw, it wouldn’t go away. He crawled out of bed and got dressed. Will had already gone out. Then he slumped listlessly back on his bed. He couldn’t be bothered. There was nothing he wanted to do. He pulled his photograph out from under his bed, and lay there staring at it, hopelessly. Then Phil came in, and perched on the table.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“Nothing.”
“Come on out then, it’s a nice day.”
“What’s the point? There’s nothing to do. Everything’s illegal.”
Phil hesitated, not sure what to say.
“Come and see Dan learning to fly properly, it’s very funny.”
Ace sat up a bit. “Is she OK?” he asked, yawning.
“You haven’t slept, have you?” said Phil gently. “I know those dreams.”
Ace just looked at him. He didn’t want to talk about it. Phil tried again.
“She’s fine, she looks so happy, honestly, I’ve not seen her look so happy since the day Will told Nightshade to stop bullying her.”
There was an awful silence. Phil winced guiltily as he realised what he’d said.
“You mean he knew? All this time? He knew, and he never told me? I’ll kill him.”
“He only wanted to see how long it took you to realise! Lie down again, you’re worn out!”
“This is nothing to what he’ll be when I’ve finished with him. Get out of the way, Phil!”

Ace banged out of the house, lips set and eyes blazing. When he saw Will, he was laughing and joking with Rose as they came back from the brook together with water. Somehow, that made Ace even angrier. He marched up to them.
“You sod!” he shouted, shoving Will hard on the shoulder. “Why didn’t you tell me? Treating me like one of your damned scientific experiments!”
He kept shoving, and Will shoved back.
“Stop it, Ace. You could have noticed for yourself, couldn’t you? I had no more to go on than you did.”
“But to carry on even after all this trouble started! You let me put her in danger! I sent her to the top of that lorry, and you let me, when you knew she couldn’t really jump!”
“Don’t be so protective! Dan’s tough. I knew she could cope - and she did!”
“You always know, don’t you, you always have to be right. Well, next time you want to make a fool of me, remember this!”
He swung his fist back and punched Will on the side of the head, a really vicious blow. Will crumpled to the ground, and Ace stormed off, still furious. Gasping with shock, Rose knelt down by Will to see if she could help him. It felt like the world was coming to an end.

Ace didn’t care where he went. He jumped recklessly across the railway line, across the park and down to the motorway, where he sat for hours moodily watching the cars, a cold lump of misery inside him. He felt that Will had betrayed him, let him down, he just couldn’t believe it. It took him a long time to calm down. Fresh bursts of anger kept breaking out. But when he did manage it, he began to wonder. What had he done? Punched Will? Had he really done that? And when he came to think of it, Will had stayed very close to that lorry. He’d known exactly what he was doing. He could have helped Dan in a second if anything had gone wrong. Ace groaned. It was no use. He was going to have to go back and apologise.

When he got back, Wildside seemed strangely quiet. Then he saw Rose. He couldn’t believe the bitter look she gave him.
“Where is everyone?” he asked.
“Oh, you’re back, are you? Well, you can make yourself useful. Help me carry this water to your shed. Madge has commandeered it for a hospital. We’ve got more injuries than we can cope with.”
“What d’you mean?” faltered Ace.
“Dan’s run away, and Hogweed went to look for her. He fell off a fence and broke his ankle. We helped him here, Clover and I.”
“Where was Phil?”
“Tackling the hodgepig single-handed. He’s badly bitten. We needed you, today.”
Her sad eyes were telling him something awful, something he knew he didn’t want to hear.
“Single-handed?”
“Yes. Will’s still unconscious. You’ve broken his skull. Madge is afraid he’s going to die.”
Fear like he’d never known filled Ace. He stared at Rose, eyes wide with shame and horror, then ran past her to the shed. Quietly going in, he took in the scene.
This is all my fault, he thought despairingly. How am I ever going to put this right?
Clover was sitting by Will’s side, watching closely for any change, as Madge had told her to. When she saw Ace, she got up and went outside. She didn’t even look at him. Ace went straight to Will. He was very pale, his eyes were closed, and he was breathing heavily. Ace knelt by his side.
“Don’t die,” he whispered. “Oh Will, please don’t die.”
Tears began to fall on his hands. How long he stayed there he didn’t know. But finally Clover came and touched his arm.
“Madge is back,” she murmured. “Go outside. I’ll stay with Will.”
Bewildered, he did as she asked. As soon as she saw him, Madge, who had been fulminating about him all day, just hugged him.
“Oh Ace, don’t despair. Come and sit down, and I’ll tell you what’s happening. You’re shaking like a leaf. Calm down, Will needs you to be brave.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“I’ve been to send a message for help. A sprite who is a surgeon will come. He or she will explain to you exactly what’s wrong inside Will’s head.”
“Explain to me? Oh, I see. How long do we have to wait?”
“I don’t know. But you’ve got to save every scrap of strength you’ve got, to do the job. You can’t spare an ounce on despair, or regrets, or self-pity, or anything. Conserve every drop to help Will. D’you understand?”
Ace responded magnificently.
“Yes, Major. Excuse me, will you. I have to go and wait quietly.”
And that, thought Madge, for all your jumps and fights and goblins and hodgepigs, is probably the bravest thing you’ve ever done.


It was three o’clock in the morning before the surgeon arrived. She was a captain in the army. She wore a wristband like Madge’s, only blue, and she was in a hurry.
“Sorry it took me so long to get here,” she said. “Calls coming in from all over, and we’re short-staffed as it is. Where’s the patient, ma’am?”
Madge led the way to the dimly-lit shed.
“We’ve got three,” she explained. “In here. But this is the urgent one. It’s a head injury, and we’ve no-one who knows anything about the inside of heads.”
“Right. Who’s going to be doing it?”
Ace stepped out of the shadows, looking calm and resolute.
“You are?” she said approvingly. “Come on, then.”
The surgeon knelt down by Will and felt his head. She drew her breath in sharply as she realised the extent of the injury.
“Good grief, I wouldn’t like to meet the thug who did this!”
Ace didn’t waver for a second. Don’t waste an ounce, he told himself.
The surgeon turned to Ace.
“Right, the bone is thin here - that’s why it broke - as thin as egg shell, from here to here. Don’t make it too thick. Underneath, are dozens of tiny blood vessels, all broken. Underneath that, we have soft tissue injury. Look, I’ll draw it for you.”
She whipped out pencil and paper, and drew exactly what she wanted Ace to see. He asked a couple of questions, then said he was ready. Putting every bit of his strength into his imagination, Ace saw into Will’s head, saw the tissues unmangled, the blood vessels join, the thin bone uncracked, the skin unbroken and unbruised. Then, gasping for breath, he opened his eyes, just as Will opened his.
Madge hurried everyone away.
“Leave them alone a minute,” she whispered to the surgeon. “He’s the one that did it.”
“He did? The one who’s just healed him? I don’t believe it!”
“They’re twins.”
“Oh, I see. Let’s have a look at your other patients. Oh, a hodgepig bite. That looks nasty. I’ll tackle that myself, or he’ll end up looking like a jigsaw puzzle. Now then, my dear, what on earth are you?"
“Phillyrea latifolia,” said Phil resignedly. “Haven’t you found Dan yet?”
“No,” said Madge. “And Hogweed won’t let anyone else touch his ankle.”
“Well, I’ll be glad for you to help me,” Phil told the surgeon. “Then I can go and look for Dan.”


Ace and Will just looked at each other for ages. Then they both spoke at once.
“I’m sorry.”
“You shouldn’t be sorry,” said Ace. “I could have killed you.”
“I am, though,” said Will. “You were dead right. I never once stopped to think how you would feel about it. I deserved everything I got.”
“I reckon we’ve both learned a lot today.”
“That’s right.”
Ace took a deep breath, and said,
“I know now how Rose felt when she told Clover she’d come to Norway. She said, ‘I can’t live without you, so I’ll come with you’. If you’d died, Will, I’d have come with you before the night was out.”
“Oh, Ace,” Will sighed, a bit embarrassed, but very moved. “Don’t say that. But…thank you.” Then he smiled, and tried to slip out of bed without anyone noticing. “D’you think they’ll let me get up?”
“What under the canopy do you think you’re doing?” thundered Madge. “LIE DOWN!”
“Don’t think so,” grinned Ace.


After the surgeon had gone, they all dozed off where they were, but as soon as it was light, everyone was stirring, to go out and look for Dan. Rose took one look at the elves’ disgusting kettle and slipped back to her own house to make some tea for everyone. She kicked the door open and edged in with a tray of steaming cups. Will seemed to have won his argument with Madge, he was up, too. Clover took a drink through to Hogweed in his nest behind the shed, and said he still wanted to wait for Dan. As they drank their tea, Phil seemed to make his mind up about something, and spoke to Ace.
“They weren’t just bad dreams, were they? Someone’s put a nightmare on you, and it isn’t hard to guess who.”
Ace rubbed his face, thinking.
“Yeah, Nightshade, you mean? Probably.”
“When did this start?” said Madge. “And why on earth didn’t you say so?”
“No point fussing,” said Ace. “But yeah, day before yesterday. When we went windsurfing.”
“What d’you mean?” asked Clover. “Is that an elf-thing? Putting nightmares in people’s heads? No wonder you’re all mad.”
“It’s not funny, Clover,” said Phil. “It only works if you’re angry to start with. If you hadn’t got him in a mood that morning, none of this would have happened.”
“That’s not fair,” said Rose.
“It is a bit,” said Madge. “I’ve told you, Clover, about being tactless.”
Clover looked horrified.
“You mean it was my fault? That Ace got angry with Will?”
“No,” said Will. “That was my own fault. But you know, Ace, you could have told someone. There’s probably something you can do to get rid of them.”
“I’d still have got angry.”
“I know, but you’d just have shouted, not decked me.”
“True. Well, how do you get rid of them? Does anyone know?”
Everyone looked at Madge, but she shook her head.
“Why don’t you go and talk to Cory?” she suggested. “I should think he could help you.”
“Of course,” said Ace. “Good idea. As soon as we’ve found Dan.”


They searched her house, and all her favourite places, but there was no sign of her. They were beginning to think she must have left Wildside, and were wondering where to start looking next, when Gemma came running onto Wildside, in her school uniform, obviously looking for the sprites. Rose whistled to her, and Gemma headed straight over.
“Is Will better?” she asked. “Oh, there you are, you must be, then.”
“How did you know?” asked Madge. “Is Dan with you?”
“Yes, but she said I mustn’t say so. She’s so upset, she’s going away, but she wouldn’t go until she knew Will was better. She said her pretending to be an elf has caused so much trouble, she wishes she’d never done it, she’s crazy with unhappiness.”
“Where is she now?” said Madge.
“Hiding in my bedroom. She won’t come out. What can we do?”
“Gemma, do your mum and dad both go out to work?” asked Ace.
“Yes,” she said. “Are you going to try something while they’re out?”
“We’ll try to show her that we want her to stay. Don’t worry about it any more. D’you think you could try to leave a window open in your bedroom?”
“Yes, I can manage that,” said Gemma. “I hope it works.”
She ran off, and the sprites waited until the house was quiet.
“We can’t all go up there,” said Ace. “How about it, Phil? Do you want to try?”
“Sure,” said Phil, “but it might take a while. You know how stubborn she is.”
“You’ll manage it,” said Ace. “Just don’t hurt yourself getting in. Those windows open at a terrible angle for jumping.”
“Let’s all wait out of sight,” said Clover. “She won’t come out if everyone’s staring.”
“Good thinking, Clover,” said Madge. “Very tactful.”

While the others slipped away into cover, Phil jumped up carefully onto the window sill and down into Gemma’s bedroom. He looked around him. This room was the same size and shape as David’s, but it looked very different. Brighter colours everywhere, and far more clothes on the floor.
“Dan?” he called softly. “Can you hear me?”
“Go away, Phil. It’s no use.”
“Where are you? Come out and say goodbye, at least.”
There was a little rustling noise, and Dan crawled out from under a chest of drawers, looking woeful with her face covered with dust and dried tears.
“Where are you going?” said Phil.
Dan didn’t answer.
“Don’t go,” he said. “Everyone wants you to stay.”
“I’ve caused too much trouble.”
“None of this was your fault! Try to understand, Dan. If it hadn’t been one thing, it would have been another. Ace was spoiling for a fight. He couldn’t help it, Nightshade put a nightmare on him.”
“Why?” asked Dan.
Phil stared at her.
“That’s a good question,” he said. “I don’t think anyone else has got round to that yet.”
“Is Ace all right now?”
“No,” said Phil. “Not quite. Realising what he’d done to Will brought him back to his senses, but the nightmare’s not gone away. You can see it in his eyes.”
“How’s Will?”
“Healed up and back on his feet. A surgeon came, and told Ace how to do it. D’you know what, he sat quietly for twelve hours with a nightmare in his head, to save his strength to heal Will.”
“That’s awesome.”
“Isn’t it? And that surgeon, she patched me up too. Had an argument with the hodgepig. But Hogweed wouldn’t have her help. He’s waiting for you.”
“What’s the matter with Hogweed?”
“Broke his ankle. Looking for you, yesterday.”
“I’ve caused even more trouble! Phil! Did you have to tackle the hodgepig on your own?”
“Yep,” he said cheerfully. “ ’Cos where was Dan when I needed her?” He shook his head and smiled at her affectionately. “You really wimped out, didn’t you? Not what we expect from a Wildside fairy. The thing is, have you got the guts to get out there and tell everyone you’re sorry?”
Dan got to her feet, and determination crept back onto her dirty face.
“Yes,” she said. “I’m really sorry, Phil. Where are the others?”
“In the garden. Come on!”

One by one, trying not to overwhelm her, the sprites came out and said they were glad to see her, and were astonished when she started apologising.
“Phil told me I was a wimp,” she said. “He’s right.”
Ace looked at Phil in amazement. He would never have thought of doing it like that, but it had obviously done the trick.
“Are you all right now?” asked Ace. “You’re going to stay?”
“I’ve had a strange time, the last couple of days,” said Dan. “And I’m not the only one. But yes, I want to stay. For a while. At least - Madge! Do they let dandelions in the army?”
Madge smiled. “Of course they do, Dan. Another one for Norway, then?”
“Yes!” shouted Clover. “Oh, brilliant!”
Dan looked embarrassed.
“I must go to Hogweed,” she said. “Where is he? In his nest?”
“Yes,” Clover told her. “But don’t hang about. When you’ve fixed his ankle, get back out here and come flying. You’ve got a lot of catching up to do!”
“OK!” called Dan, as she flew off.
Rose and Clover did a joyous vertical take-off, leaving Madge to face the stunned elves.
“I know,” she said. “You hate change. Give yourselves time. Maybe it will be the right thing for some of you, too - who knows? But if it is, you’ll know when the time comes. Just follow your hearts, and in the meantime, don’t worry about it.”
“Thanks, Madge,” said Ace quietly. “It does all seem weird. I’m going to see Cory now. You two coming?”


Madge told Clover to teach Dan the things she’d just been learning herself. It was all right for Rose, she had amazing natural talent and could do anything Madge showed her, but Clover struggled with some manoeuvres, and Madge explained that if she showed Dan, it would help her understand her own mistakes. They worked hard for a while, then just flew in patterns for fun. There was a lot more you could do with four, and they were all enjoying themselves, but when they saw Will and Phil watching them, they landed to ask how Ace was.
“Much better,” said Will. “He’s gone off on his own, to play his guitar, he needs to be alone for a while after what he’s just been through.”
“Why? What was the cure?” asked Madge.
“He had to say them all out loud, the nightmares, I mean,” said Phil. “To get rid of them. Honestly, he’s so brave. To have all that on your mind and not even mention it!”
That was the trouble with elves, thought Madge. That struck them as brave, not monumentally silly.
“And he’s got to knock off doing it to Bill Pearce,” said Will. “That really miffed him. But Cory said the more you do it yourself, the easier it is for other people to do it to you.”
“That makes sense,” said Madge. “Did Cory know why Nightshade picked on Ace?”
“I think so,” said Will. “But he didn’t tell us.”


When Ace came out of the shed a couple of hours later, his fingers were aching from all the practising he’d been doing, but he felt better in his mind. He wandered slowly across Wildside, without thinking where he was going, just looking at everything, bleached grasses in the wind, conkers swelling on the horse chestnut. He thought it smelled like rain. Then he stopped abruptly, every nerve suddenly jangling. There was a car on Wildside, parked right where his tree had been. The insult of that infuriated him, his first instinct was to go and let their their tyres down, or something, but he stopped to think first.
Get a grip, he told himself. You’ve been in enough trouble lately.
Then he noticed there were two strangers on Wildside, it must be their car. And they were looking at the gentians, very closely indeed. Using every bit of cover, Ace got as close as he could to listen to what they were saying.
One of them was a man with a beard. He seemed very excited.
“Definitely, definitely,” he was saying. “This is absolutely astonishing. How can this site never have been noticed before?”
His companion shook her head. She was trying to make notes, but the pages of her pad were flapping in the wind.
“We’d better check just how many there are. They appear to be spread over the entire site.”
I know who you are! thought Ace. Will said something about this, that people would come to look at the gentians. Greater Manchester something-or-other.
Will was right at the other end of Wildside, he could tell. On the railway embankment, probably. Too far away.
He tore back to see if he could find anyone else, but he could only find Madge, who was picking blackberries.
“Come and see!” he called. “People are looking at the gentians!”
Madge stopped at once and wiped her sticky fingers on her skirt.
“Where? Oh yes, I see. Come on!”
Dogging the botanists’ footsteps, Ace and Madge strained their ears. They couldn’t catch everything, it was too windy, but what they heard sounded very good.
“…most extensive gentian site in England, probably…”
“…this site must be registered with the utmost urgency…”
“…it’s amazing, and extremely beautiful…”
But then they began to hear snatches that didn’t sound so good at all.
“…nature reserve, keep people off it…look at the damage caused already. Dogs, probably, and children playing.”
“Yes, it must be securely fenced off. We’ll need to speak to the landowner.”
“Access must be severely restricted…can’t have just anyone on here. The gentians must be protected.”


Ace just stood there with his mouth open. Madge tugged his sleeve and drew him away to the brook.
“What have we done?” said Ace. “This is awful!”
“I never thought of this,” said Madge. “To fence it off, and turn it into a nature reserve! That’s nearly as bad as building on it!”
“I know, it would be like living in a prison. And the children! They won’t be allowed to play on it, or anything! Shall we transform everything back into ‘Common in waste places’?”
Madge frowned. “I’m not sure. They’re our strongest weapon, the gentians. Without them, it’s possible that the planning permission could go through!”
She looked up at him. “But it’s your decision. What are you going to do?”
Ace looked at her in amazement.
“Talk to the others, of course. You don’t think I’d decide a thing like that on my own, do you?”
“Just testing,” grinned Madge.


Everyone crowded into David’s bedroom to talk it over. The boys hadn’t heard yet what had been going on, and were startled to see Dan with wings, but they were too concerned about Wildside to say much about it, much to Dan’s relief. Madge was inclined to be pessimistic, saying that if they left the gentians, they’d be fenced in, and if they didn’t, they’d be built on. Clover said it might not be that bad. They should leave them, so Mr. Pearce would go off and build something else, and then quietly make Wildside back to normal, and most of them agreed that sounded sensible. Dominic and Tony took a robust view of nature reserves anyway, saying the botanists wouldn’t be there all the time, and fences were made to be climbed. Will didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to, Ace would know what he was thinking. These people would leave his tree alone. Bill Pearce wouldn’t.
“That’s it, then,” said Ace. “The gentians stay. There’s nothing else we can do now but wait.”