Chapter Text
"Goodbye, Mum!" Ennosh*ta Chikara called, waving from the mini-bus packed with Scouts as it pulled away from the church hall.
"Bye, Mrs. Ennosh*ta!" Tanaka Ryunosuke, Ennosh*ta's volleyball teammate, shouted, waving too.
As the mini-bus made its way through Miyagi, Tanaka turned to Ennosh*ta.
"It was nice of your Scout leader to let me come to your mini-jamboree!" she said happily.
"Well, my brother can't come this year so we did draw sticks over who would be able to bring a friend," chuckled Ennosh*ta. "And you used to be a Scout too, remember?"
Tanaka grinned. Both he and Ennosh*ta were wearing their Scouts uniforms.
"I'm really looking forward to this," he said eagerly. "What did you do last year?"
"We joined up with another Scout Troop —just like we're doing this time — so there were loads of us," Ennosh*ta explained. "We played games, ran races, and there were a lots of prizes. Then we had a big barbecue round the camp fire."
He grinned.
"It was just a big party in the woods really!"
Tanaka's eyes opened wide.
"A party?" he gasped. "You know what that means. . ."
Ennosh*ta clapped a hand to his mouth.
"Oh, I didn't realize!" she said. "Of course, we'll have to be on the look-out for goblins. . ."
Although Ennosh*ta and Tanaka seemed just like the other Scouts on the bus, the two boys had a special secret along with the friends that they had made during a training camp last year.
They had become friends with the fairies!
Now, whenever their fairy friends were in trouble, Ennosh*ta and Tanaka (along with their friends) tried to help.
Trouble usually came in the shape of cold, spiky Jack Frost and his goblin helpers. Now Jack Frost was doing his best to ruin the secret party for the Fairy King and Queen's 1000th jubilee. The seven Party Fairies were helping with the preparations, and Jack Frost was trying to stop them by sending his goblins into the human world to spoil as many parties as they could. Then the Party Fairies would come flying to the rescue and the goblins would try to steal their magic party bags for Jack Frost. He intended to use the Party Fairies' special magic to have a fabulous party of his own.
"Yeah, we'll have to keep our eyes open," agreed Tanaka, as the mini-bus came to a standstill in a large woodland clearing. There were already lots of Scouts milling around. The other troup had clearly arrived first.
"We can't let the goblins get away with any of the Party Fairies' magic party bags," he added firmly.
"And we won't let them spoil our day, either," Ennosh*ta declared, looking determined.
Tamura-san, Ennosh*ta's Boy Scout leader, opened the door of the bus.
"Here we are, boys," he said with a smile. "Go and put your bags under that big tree and we'll start with some races."
A cheer went up from the Scouts on the bus as they jumped to their feet. Tanaka and Ennosh*ta were the last to clamber out. As they stepped off the bus, they both looked carefully around the clearing for any signs of goblin mayhem, but they couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.
"There are lots of places for goblins to hide here," Ennosh*ta whispered to Tanaka, as they put their bags under the spreading oak tree.
"Gather round, boys!" called Tamura-san, who had been chatting with the other Scout troup leader, Chida-san. "We're going to start with an obstacle race, and we need four volunteers from each troup."
Ennosh*ta nudged Tanaka.
"That sounds like fun," he said. "Shall we volunteer?"
Tanaka nodded, and they both put their hands up.
"Jinno-kun and Endou-kun," said Tamura-san, pointing at two boys. "Oh, and Ennosh*ta-kun and your friend, Tanaka-kun — you can be our team!"
Ennosh*ta, Tanaka and the other boys watched closely as Tamura-san showed them the course. First, they had to run along a raised plank. Then they had to scramble under a net, run along a row of upturned buckets and score a goal through a netball hoop. To finish off, all four members of the team had to jump into a rubber dinghy, and row across the wide stream that flowed along one side of the clearing.
"It looks hard," Ennosh*ta said, nervously.
"Not as hard as trying to outwit goblins!" chuckled Tanaka.
As the two teams lined up, the other Scouts began cheering for their teams.
Chida-san blew his whistle, and they were off!
Jinno ran lightly along the plank first, followed by Tanaka and then Ennosh*ta and Emily.
"If anyone falls off, they have to go back to the beginning of the plank and start again!" Tamura-san warned. But both teams made it safely across.
Then they began to wriggle under the net. Tanaka and Ennosh*ta's team pulled ahead slightly, as one of the scouts on the other team got his glasses caught in the mesh.
By the time he was free, Tanaka and Ennosh*ta's team had already run along the row of buckets, and was trying to score goals through the netball hoop.
"I'm hopeless at this," Endou said anxiously to Ennosh*ta, as they watched Jinno and then Tanaka score with their first shots.
"Don't worry," Ennosh*ta replied. "Just do your best."
But after Ennosh*ta had scored, it took poor Endou six attempts to get his goal. By then, the other team had almost caught up with them.
"Quick, into the dinghy!" Tanaka shouted.
They all jumped in and grabbed the paddles. But as they pushed off from the bank, the other team came running over to their boat.
"Paddle harder!" shouted Jinno, as they made their way to the middle of the stream.
"They're right behind us!" gasped Ennosh*ta, glancing back.
Then, suddenly, he felt cold water seeping into her trainers. Surprised, he looked down. Water was pouring into the boat, and there was the hissing sound of air escaping as the dinghy began to deflate rapidly.
It had sprung a leak!
