“I am here, my love!” he called. He was now wearing an ornate crown with emeralds in. “Let us get married!”

“First it’s got to be a sunny day,” Delphie reminded him.

King Rat pulled a glass globe out of his pocket and strode outside with Delphie, Griff and Skye following him eagerly. Inside the globe, just as Skye had said, there was a little model of Enchantia. A few snowflakes were drifting around the model just as they were outside.

King Rat put the globe down in front of him and clapped his hands. “Break!” he commanded sharply. There was a loud cracking noise and the glass shattered.

Immediately, the grey clouds parted and the sun shone through. The air grew warmer, the snow on the ground began to melt, the ice on the moat cracked and the bare branches of the trees burst into green leaf.

“It’s spring!” Delphie cried, looking round as the snow melted quickly and bright blue, yellow and pink flowers pushed their way up through the grass.

“Hrumph! I suppose it is,” said King Rat grumpily. “Still never mind that. I am going to get married now!”

“To a toad,” Delphie whispered to Griff and Skye, with a giggle.

King Rat turned round and headed back towards Priscilla. “Come along, my love. We will be married straight away.”

Delphie, Griff and Skye dashed away. The sky was blue and the sun was shining. Birds swooped through the air, twittering and singing. Looking at the woods, Delphie saw brown rabbits poking their noses out of their burrows and squirrels appearing from holes in tree trunks.

Suddenly there was a flash of light. Delphie blinked as Sugar, Princess Aurelia, King Tristan and Queen Isabella appeared at the edge of the woods.

“Delphie!” the Princess gasped, running forward. “You’ve done it! You’ve made King Rat break his enchantment!”

“We saw winter change to spring and knew your plan must have worked,” said Sugar. “So I used my magic to bring us here.”

“We can’t thank you enough!” said King Tristan.

Delphie glowed. She was so glad she had been able to help! “I had to do the dance that you did,” she told Sugar eagerly. “The magic started to fade and Priscilla began to turn back into a toad.”

“You must have danced it really well to make the magic happen,” said Sugar. “But if you weren’t dancing on your pointes, the magic might not last as long as last time.”

“I wonder just how long it will last?” Delphie said anxiously.

Suddenly there was an ear-splitting yell from inside the castle. “What? My princess is a great big, green slimy TOAD!”

7
Springtime!