Sparkly Rose and the Talking Rat: A Fairy Tale

Sparkly Rose was having a bad day. No, not just a bad day—a bad everything. Her mushroom house looked like a rainbow had exploded inside, and she was tired of hearing her mother’s voice echoing through the tunnels.

“Sparkly Rose! Your mushroom is a disaster zone!” her mom, Dusty Rose, called, dropping her fish and chip apron on the chair. “Wings everywhere, fairy dust in the air, and I’ve sneezed ten times already!”

Sparkly Rose scrunched her nose. Her mother just didn’t get it. She was too busy worrying about cleaning up when there was so much more to think about—like how Sparkly Rose was going to become a magical fairy who could grant wishes and make all sorts of wonderful things happen.

She wanted to be the kind of fairy who could make candy appear out of thin air or snap her fingers for a brand-new sparkly skirt. She didn’t want to clean her room like a regular fairy. No way!

“Clean it before your dad gets home, or he’ll turn into a basket case!” her mom warned before disappearing into the kitchen.

Sparkly Rose sighed. It was hard for a fairy to stomp, but she tried anyway, her purple sneakers squeaking against the mushroom floor as she shuffled into her room. She closed the door and looked around at the wings scattered everywhere, the glitter piled in corners, and the clothes hanging from her flowerbed.

She closed her eyes, lifted her hands, and whispered, “Magic, clean this room!”

She peeked with one eye. The mess was still there.

“Aw, come on!” she groaned, picking up a handful of fairy dust and blowing it across the room. “Fly into the drawers, wings!”

Instead of flying into drawers, the wings fluttered around like confused butterflies, knocking over a jar of starlight and sending a shower of sparkles across the floor.

“Oh, rats!” Sparkly Rose shouted, kicking the fairy dust in frustration.

Suddenly, with a soft pop, a scruffy-looking rat with tufty fur and bright ruby-red eyes appeared in the middle of the mess.

“Ruby the Ravishing Rat at your service!” the rat announced, brushing off a sprinkle of glitter from her whiskers.

Sparkly Rose yelped and jumped onto her bed. “What are YOU doing here?” she squeaked.

“You called me,” Ruby Rat replied, inspecting the room with a critical eye. “One minute, I was having a cheese sandwich and watching my soapie, and the next, I’m in your mushroom house, which, I might add, looks like a tornado of glitter hit it.”

Sparkly Rose’s cheeks flushed pink. “I didn’t mean to call a rat!” she protested.

“Well, you did,” Ruby said, crossing her furry arms. “And I’m missing my show, so let’s get to the point.”

Sparkly Rose crossed her own arms. “I just wanted to clean my room with magic. I want to be special, not boring!”

“What’s so wrong with being boring?” Ruby asked, sniffing a bit of fairy dust on the floor.

Sparkly Rose frowned. “I don’t want to spend my days sweeping floors and picking up wings. I want to make wishes come true, to be the fairy everyone talks about!”

Ruby Rat laughed, her ruby eyes twinkling. “Trust me, kid, you’re already special. You just don’t know it yet.”

Sparkly Rose sat down on her flowerbed. “How am I special? I can’t even clean my room with magic.”

“You can talk to me, can’t you?” Ruby pointed out. “Not every fairy can talk to animals, especially not to rats.”

Sparkly Rose blinked. “They can’t?”

“Nope,” Ruby said with a grin. “Most fairies scream and faint when they see me. You called me here without even knowing it.”

Sparkly Rose thought about the friendly spider in the corner of her room who let her decorate his web with sparkly stars. She thought about the butterflies who visited her in the mornings and the ladybugs that climbed on her fingers without fear.

“I guess I do talk to animals,” she admitted quietly.

Ruby’s whiskers twitched. “And that’s something special, Sparkly Rose. Magic isn’t always about snapping your fingers. Sometimes, it’s about who you are and what you can do that others can’t.”

Sparkly Rose looked around her room. The mess was still there, but suddenly, it didn’t feel as heavy. She stood up and picked up the wings, hanging them carefully in her cupboard. Ruby scurried around, licking up the extra fairy dust from the floor, leaving it shiny and clean.

They worked in silence until the mushroom house looked brighter than it had in weeks.

“Thanks, Ruby,” Sparkly Rose said, smiling at the rat. “You’re actually pretty cool.”

Ruby grinned back, flicking her tail. “And you’re not a boring fairy at all, Sparkly Rose. Remember that.”

“Will I ever learn to do magic like the other fairies?” Sparkly Rose asked.

Ruby winked. “Maybe one day, but for now, you have a gift that even magic can’t replace.”

With a small pop, Ruby vanished, leaving only a single ruby-colored hair on the floor.

Sparkly Rose lay down on her bed, waving at the friendly spider in the corner, and felt something warm in her chest. She might not have cleaned her room with magic, but she had discovered something far more important—she was already special, exactly as she was.

And that, Sparkly Rose decided, was the best kind of magic of all.