Free First Aid for Fairies and Other Fabled Beasts by Lari Don Page A

It looked like a tail, not at floor level, but at the height of Helen’s waist. She’d been the only person in the library and there were only storerooms in this corridor. So who else was here? Helen stood still and listened. In the background she heard the shuffling and chatter of classes filing back in, but nearby she thought she heard breathing. Rasping, gasping breathing.
    She clenched her fists and thought about Yann running away from creatures with teeth. She took a step back towards the library, but then heard Mrs Murray shout from the new building.
    “Helen Strang! Get to your class this minute.”
    Helen called, “Yes Miss,” and ran into the bright light, straight to her classroom.
     
    There was no rehearsal after school on Wednesday, so Helen was back home while it was still light. Her Mum was at a conference at Edinburgh University, and her Dad had taken Nicola swimming in Selkirk, so she had the house to herself for an hour.
    First, she restocked the first aid kit, adding a few extra bandages and swabs just to be safe.
    Then, remembering how hungry she had been by the end of the cave adventure, she made some sandwiches. She didn’t know what her new friends ate, so she chose for them: cheese, tuna, chicken and jam. She wondered what horses would like, and added some salad leaves to the plastic box too. Finally, she hid the rucksack and the sandwiches in a bush by the back fence.
    As the sun sank lower, her Dad and Nicola came back smelling of chlorine. Helen sat in her room with her music books and tried — yet again — to find a short violin piece that she felt was perfect for her. She had been enjoying herself too much these past few days to play anything sad, and none of the bouncy pieces were serious enough for someone who was trying to save the world from an evil Minotaur.
    She found an old book of traditional Scottish dance tunes that Mr Crombie had lent her and was playing her way through those when she suddenly realized that it was almost dark outside. She put her fiddle in its case, ran downstairs and grabbed her fleece.
    She trotted through the kitchen, where her Dad was blowing Nicola’s nose.
    “I heard you playing upstairs, it sounded great,” he said smiling.
    “That was just a warm up. I should really go out to the garage now, to try some more complex music for my solo. I’ve made some sandwiches, so don’t worry if I’m not back for a while.”
    Helen had thought about her words carefully, and was pretty sure she hadn’t actually lied. She should indeed be practising in the garage, and she really had made sandwiches … and she certainly wouldn’t be back for a while.
    So she gave her Dad a big kiss, and jumped out of the way of a huge sneeze from her little sister. Then she bounced out of the back door and ran to the garage. She nipped in just long enough to put her fiddle carefully on the couch, and switch on the light so it shone through the dusty windows. From the house, it would look as if she was still there.
    She headed for the darkest part of the garden where she found Yann resting on the ground with his legs folded under him, and Rona leaning on his flank, her legs stretched out on the grass.
    Rona grinned at Helen. “Was that you playing? It was lovely.”
    Helen smiled shyly. “I was just sight-reading, trying to find a new piece to play at my school concert.”
    “Enough chatter, girls,” said Yann grandly, springing to his hooves. “We have work to do. The others are in the wood up the hill. We must join them.”
    “I made food.” Helen grabbed the box and rucksack from behind the bush. “You can eat while I tell you what I found.”
    So, as they sat round a tree stump in the old birch wood above the house, Rona ate tuna sandwiches, Yann ate all the salad, Lavender ate little bits of jam sandwiches and Catesby pecked at the fairy’s crusts. Sapphire delicately nibbled the chicken sandwiches.
    “You’d really have preferred a whole chicken, wouldn’t