Sparkly Rose and the Rat in the Mushroom

Sparkly Rose was tired. Not the kind of tired you get from playing in the meadow or racing dragonflies. No, she was tired of being told what to do. From the moment she fluttered back home from helping at the forest’s fish-and-chip shop, her mother, Dusty Rose, had been fussing nonstop.

“Sparkly Rose! Your mushroom home looks like a tornado spun through it! There’s fairy dust everywhere, I’m sneezing rainbows, and the smell of fried fish is bad enough already. And look at these wings all over the floor! Choose a pair, and put the rest away before your father gets home, or he’ll faint when he sees this chaos!”

Sparkly Rose rolled her eyes. She marched off to her mushroom home and tried to slam the door. The trouble was, fairies were light, and even with her sparkly purple sneakers, her stomp was more of a whisper than a thud.

She plopped onto her petal chair with a heavy sigh. “Nag, nag, nag,” she mumbled. Didn’t her mother understand she didn’t want to be just any fairy? She wanted to be a magic fairy. Not the scary, wart-growing, frog-turning kind, but a fairy who could conjure up sweets when they ran out, create new pink sneakers to match her wings, or summon a floating silver-star skirt just by wishing for it.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and waved her hand over the mess, willing it to vanish in a swirl of shimmering light. She peeked with one eye, hoping the mushroom room would sparkle clean.

Nothing. The mess remained.

Frustrated, she grabbed a handful of fairy dust and blew it toward the scattered wings. “Fly into the drawers!” she commanded.

Instead of cleaning, the fairy dust exploded into a glittery cloud, leaving the room even messier. Sparkly Rose stamped her foot. “Oh, rats!” she exclaimed, kicking a puff of dust away.

In that instant, with a small pop, a large, scruffy-looking rat appeared in the middle of her room, blinking in confusion. The rat wore a tiny vest, had whiskers that curled like question marks, and eyes that sparkled like rubies.

“Ruby the Ravishing Rat, at your service,” the rat announced with a tiny bow.

Sparkly Rose jumped back onto her flowerbed. “What are you doing in my mushroom?” she squeaked.

Ruby the Rat brushed off a sprinkle of glitter. “You tell me! One minute I was enjoying my dinner and my soap opera, and the next, I’m here, in a fairy’s messy mushroom. What are you? A fairy tornado or a messy tokoloshi in disguise?”

Sparkly Rose blinked. She had never spoken to a rat before, especially one that talked back and complained about missing its soapie. “I… I was trying to clean my room with magic,” she stammered, “but it didn’t work, so I got mad and kicked the dust.”

Ruby chuckled, showing tiny teeth. “And in the process, you called me here. Do you always try to skip the hard work?”

Sparkly Rose crossed her arms. “I just want to be special. Magic would make everything easier.”

Ruby Rat tilted her head. “What’s so special about skipping the work? You think magic makes you special?”

Sparkly Rose scowled. “You wouldn’t understand. You’re just a rat.”

Ruby nibbled a fingernail, her ruby eyes glinting. “Rude, aren’t you? For your information, I’m not just any rat. I’ve helped more fairies and even a wizard or two with real magic.”

Sparkly Rose narrowed her eyes. “You expect me to believe that? You and Harry Potter?”

Ruby laughed. “Let’s not waste time. You need to clean this room before your mother has a fairy meltdown.”

Sparkly Rose sighed. “Fine. But it’s so boring.”

“Sometimes,” Ruby said, “the boring things make the best magic.”

They worked together, Ruby sweeping up fairy dust with her tail while Sparkly Rose carefully folded wings and lined up her glitter jars. She even chatted with the friendly corner spider, promising to bring him extra sparkles for his web later.

After a while, Ruby stood back, paws on her hips, surveying the now-tidy mushroom home. “You know, you’re pretty special, Sparkly Rose.”

Sparkly Rose paused, mid-fluffing her flower pillow. “No, I’m not. I can’t do spells. I’m just a boring fairy.”

Ruby Rat tapped her whiskers. “You can talk to spiders and rats, can’t you?”

“Can’t everyone?” Sparkly Rose asked.

Ruby’s eyes softened. “No, only the fairies who are truly special can. Most fairies run screaming from spiders and shriek at the sight of rats. You? You talk to them.”

Sparkly Rose felt something warm bloom in her chest. She had never thought of it that way. Maybe she was special, just not in the way she expected.

“Thank you, Ruby,” she whispered.

Ruby winked. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to return to my soapie before the dinner gets cold.”

Sparkly Rose nodded, giving Ruby a wave as she vanished in a twinkle of light.

Sparkly Rose flopped onto her tidy bed, glancing around her sparkling mushroom room. She waved to the spider, who wiggled his legs in return. She wasn’t the magic-wand-waving fairy she had dreamed of, but she was something even better—a fairy who could speak to creatures others ignored.

And that was pretty special.

🌼 Moral of the Story:

Sometimes, your true magic lies in the small gifts you take for granted. Helping others and embracing who you are can reveal the specialness you already carry within you.