Lara Bergen: Disney Fairies : Art Lessons by Bess

Scarlett nodded. “I understand. He could teach me about working with the metal, even if we do different things with it. Right?”

“Exactly,” Aidan said. He pointed to a small bar of silver on his work bench. “The mining-talent fairies brought this yesterday. Would you like me to melt a bit for you? You could try making a chain, or a ring.”

The idea clearly appealed to Scarlett.

Still, she hesitated. “I wouldn’t — I couldn’t — break the silver, could I?”

Aidan laughed gently. “You can’t break silver. Even if it gets dented or scratched, I can always melt it all over again.”

Scarlett took a deep breath. “Okay. I’ll give it a try.”

Swiftly Aidan went to work. He pumped the bellows so that the flames in the fireplace leaped higher. Then he held the silver bar in a pair of tongs and dipped it into the fire. Within seconds, the metal began to melt. Aidan quickly held the bar over a clay plate, and the liquid silver drizzled onto it.

“There,” Aidan said. “Let it cool for a few seconds.”

As Bess and Scarlett watched, the liquid silver started to take form. Scarlett picked up one of Aidan’s tools and prodded a corner of the silver puddle. She managed to nudge the silver into something like a shape.

“That’s it!” Bess said. “That’s how you start.”

Encouraged, Scarlett started to mold the silver. Bess’ excitement instantly vanished. Scarlett wasn’t creating a ring, a bracelet or any other sort of jewelry. She only managed to nudge the metal into a roundish sort of saucer.

Without looking up, Scarlett said, “I’ve got it wrong, haven’t I?”

“I’m afraid so,” Bess answered quietly.

Everyone was silent for a second.

Then Aidan, trying hard to be cheerful, said, “Well, no harm done.”

Scarlett groaned. She walked away from the silver toward the fireplace. Bess followed her. Behind them, Aidan carefully collected the silver.

Scarlett asked, “Bess, are you sure that every art-talent fairy finds her specialty eventually?”

“Absolutely positive,” Bess said uncertainly.

“I hope you’re right,” Scarlett said. “At least this time wasn’t a total disaster — whoa!”

She had tripped over one of the pots waiting to be fixed, and fell down sideways onto one end of Aidan’s workbench. The other end tilted upwards sharply. Everything on the workbench flew up in the air — and Queen Clarion’s golden bracelet fell into the fire!

“Oh, no!” Aidan cried. “The queen’s bracelet — it’s melting!”

“I’ve got it!” Bess tried to grab the bracelet, but the flames were too hot.

“Don’t get burned!” Scarlett pushed past Bess with the tongs. She made a grab at the bracelet with them, but she had never used tongs before. As soon as the bracelet was lifted, it slipped down into the ashes. Soot billowed out, blackening their faces.

“Let me,” Aidan said. He took the tongs and quickly fished the bracelet out. It was still in one piece, but some of the fine scrollwork had blurred when the gold had started to melt.

“Oh, no!” Bess cried, coughing. “Scarlett, are you all right? What about you, Aidan?”

“I’m okay,” Aidan said.

Scarlett rose from the floor and brushed herself off. “I didn’t mean to make such a mess, Aidan.”

“That’s okay,” he said. “I’ll have to redo the engraving, but that’s just a chance to try something new.”

“Looks like I’ll have to try something new too,” Scarlett said. Her sooty face was downcast.

Scarlett must be able to create some kind of art, Bess thought. But can we figure out what it is before she burns Pixie Hollow down?

FIRST THING NEXT morning, Bess started visiting other art-talent fairies to see who might try teaching Scarlett that day.

All the fairies agreed that Scarlett should still explore her creative ability. However, nobody would volunteer to work with her next.

“Glass breaks very easily,” Jax said in the glass-blowing studio. “If she trips into our shelves, she could ruin weeks of our work!”

“I’ve been working on this seaside mural for more than a month,” Leo said. He was painting the choppy waves Scarlett had suggested. “If she made a mistake, it might take me another month to fix it.”

“Oh, no,” Jolie said, throwing her hands in front of her papier-mache stars. “Scarlett can’t come in here. No, no, no.”

Bess sighed in discouragement. She couldn’t blame the others for wanting to protect their work. Already she knew she would have to start her baby-skunk portrait over from scratch.

If only there were some safe place for Scarlett to experiment.

Then Bess’ face lit up in a smile. She’d had an idea!

What if Scarlett had a studio of her very own? Then she could explore any kind of art she wanted, for as long as she wanted, and nobody else’s work would be at risk.

The more Bess thought about the plan, the more she liked it.

Of course, first she would need a lot of help.

“Everybody — push!”

Bess pushed as hard as she could, along with a half dozen other fairies. Slowly, the pumpkin shell lifted from the ground. They had it!

“This way!” Tinker Bell cried. “Follow me!”

Laughing, Bess and the others began flying the pumpkin shell across the meadow. Above them, Terence showered down a bit of pixie dust to lighten the load.

Bess glanced downward. Fluttering beneath them were several cooking-talent fairies, each carrying a pot of scooped-out pumpkin. Tonight everyone would share pumpkin muffins!

They had selected the perfect place for Scarlett’s new studio — a shady glen not far from Bess’ tangerine crate. The fairies settled the pumpkin shell beneath an elm tree.

“Perfect,” Tink said as she picked up her saw. “What this studio needs now is a door and some windows.”

As Tinker Bell cut a door and windows into the pumpkin shell, other fairies worked on projects to help. The weaving-talent fairies wove a soft hammock for Scarlett to rest in. Fira enchanted a lantern that would burn throughout the night, as brightly or as softly as Scarlett wished. All the art-talent fairies brought different supplies, so Scarlett could try each kind of art in turn.

When they were almost done, Lily said, “One more charm, and we’ll have the perfect studio. Ready?”

Everybody nodded. Lily flew over the pumpkin shell, scattering pixie dust — but where it landed, it turned into glitter and made the pumpkin shell hard.

“There!” she said. “Now the pumpkin shell will always stay fresh. Scarlett can use this studio forever.”

Bess said, “I can’t wait to show her. Come on, let’s find Scarlett!”

Everyone raced through Pixie Hollow, calling Scarlett’s name. Bess and Lily found her in Lily’s garden.

“I was trying flower arranging,” Scarlett said. The flowers she had picked didn’t match, however. The colors of the petals clashed as terribly as the clothes she wore. “Looks like that’s not my talent either.”