THE PUDDLE PIXIES - CHAPTER 1 - MEET THE PUDDLE PIXIES

The Puddle Pixies are little folk who like to live near puddles. Compared to you or I, they are smaller than the smallest ant, and, like the ants, their lives are very busy indeed.
Their land is called Puddledom, and New Puddlington is the largest town. Puddledom is part of the Pixie Kingdom ruled over by the Pixie King and Queen, the good King Jershom and his beautiful Queen Caroline. There are many other Pixie folk in the Kingdom, who all live in different kinds of places and have very different lives.
For example, there are the Forest Pixies, the Flower Pixies, the Tunnel Pixies, and many more besides, all doing their very own special jobs and singing their own special songs.
The job of the Puddle Pixies is to make fantastic rainbow-coloured macs and sou’westers as well as other items such as wellies and umbrellas, which folk come from far and wide to buy.
For these are not just any old rainbow coloured things – they are made out of
REAL RAINBOWS!
On most weekdays, the younger pixies go to Pixie School, where they learn to read and write and other useful subjects such as Pixieology and Magicmathics (which is when they learn the basic spells which will enable them to make good use of Magic Pixie Dust when they are adults).
The older pixies spend the time working on the wonderful rainbow garments, umbrellas and other things for which they are famous, not just because of their beauty, but, as I have said, because they are made of REAL rainbows.
Nobody else in the world knows how to do this, for only the Puddle Pixies possess the secret magic needed to bring the rainbows down to earth and use them to make their fine goods.
On those days when the sun breaks through the rain, the pixies on watch round the puddles jump into their puddaloes, which are little boats made specially for collecting rainbows, and call all the others to join them.
They push the boats out into the puddles and sit and wait for the rainbows to appear.
Just at that magical moment when the rays of the sun shatter the raindrops into showers of sparkling diamonds, the glorious rainbows appear, and the Puddle Pixies all pedal as fast as they can to the edge of the water where the rainbow curves gracefully towards the earth.
They throw their silver nets over the side of the puddaloes to catch the rainbow’s end, and pull it gently into their boats, until the puddaloes are as full as full can be of the amazing magical coloured material.
Then they take their precious cargo home and pack it carefully away into the store-rooms, to be made into whatever the Puddle Pixie Elder and the Council decides is needed.
Now, everyone knows there is a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow; but the Puddle Pixies would never dream of taking this; instead they leave if for their friends the Happy Leprechauns, who will collect it later, and use it to do good around the universe.

The Puddle Pixies are not the only folk living around the puddles; there are for example the Puddle Spiders, who live quietly in the mud; jolly little creatures who do no-one any harm. From time to time visitors come to the Puddles, which makes life more interesting for the Puddle Pixies, and helps them to understand that there are many different folk in the great wide world that they can make friends with, and learn from each other.
There are many families of Puddle Pixies living around the various Puddles – such as the Fairpuddle, the Salty Puddle, the Brown Reed Puddle and so on and so on. So many pixies in fact that it is difficult to remember all their names, but this is made a bit easier by the fact that the Puddle Pixies each like to wear different coloured outfits made of the special rainbow material.
For example, there is Lucy, who lives near the Chestnut Puddle; she likes to wear a bronze-coloured mac and matching wellies.
Then there is Jack, who lives by the Fairpuddle and loves to wear green. You can often see him sitting by the Fairpuddle in his clothes of the brightest possible green, singing and playing his guitar. He has a big brother called Billy whose favourite colours are blue and yellow. He likes to play football.
Jo and Joe are twins who live near the Brown Reed Puddle. Jo likes to wear pink and her brother Joe always wears blue. They are so close that they go everywhere together and often finish each others’ sentences.
Natalie is another pixie who adores Pink; she likes to wear absolutely everything in this colour. She has a brother Alexander, who is a very kind and quiet boy, who wears gold and red, and a big brother George who already works on the puddle and wears black and brown. And there are many, many more Pixies to be met, along with all the other special creatures in this magic Kingdom, all with their own very special story to tell………………...