Not to the castle, she decided. It looked so forbidding. Instead, she made her way cautiously through the trees towards the lake.

Suddenly, she saw a flash of pink ahead of her. There was someone dancing in the trees. She hurried forward and stopped in amazement as she saw that the dancer was a fairy! The fairy had a tutu made of layers of brown and pink silk and a pale pink bodice with sequins embroidered over it. Her wavy chestnut hair was tied back in a bun. She had delicate wings and in one hand she held a wand. As she saw Rosa, she stopped with a gasp. Her gaze flew to Rosa’s feet. “You’re the girl with the red shoes! The new girl!” She ran over, her brown eyes shining with excitement. “Oh, I’m so glad to see you!”

“You are?” Rosa said in bewilderment.

“Of course!” The fairy seized her hands. “You’re here to help, aren’t you? Sugar told me you would come.”

“Help?” echoed Rosa. “Who’s Sugar? And where exactly am I?”

“You’re in Enchantia, of course!” said the fairy breathlessly. “The magical land of ballet. Oh dear, I’m sorry,” she said, looking at Rosa’s bewildered face. “Sugar said you wouldn’t have been here before and that I had to tell you everything from the beginning. It’s just I’m so excited to see you. I haven’t been doing proper magic for very long and I’ve never met a human before!”

Rosa smiled cautiously as the fairy’s words tumbled out one after another. “So who exactly is Sugar?” she asked.

The fairy took a deep breath and spoke a little more slowly. “She’s my older sister – the Sugar Plum Fairy – she knows lots about magic. I’m Nutmeg by the way. Whenever we have a big problem in Enchantia the red ballet shoes bring someone from your world who can help us, a girl who loves to dance,”

Rosa stared at her. So she was in a magic land and she was there to help! “Will…will I get to go home again?” she asked.

Nutmeg nodded. “Of course. The shoes will take you back when the problem is solved. No time passes in the human world while you’re here so no one will even know you’ve been gone.”

Rosa breathed a sigh of relief. For a moment she had thought about her mum waiting for her and getting really worried. That would have been dreadful!

“What’s your name?” the fairy asked.

“Rosa.”

“It’s so lovely to see you, Rosa. We really need your help,” Nutmeg said. “King Rat’s causing dreadful trouble again!”

“King Rat!” Rosa breathed, remembering Delphie’s words. So that must have been what Delphie was talking about. She must have come here too!

“Yes,” replied Nutmeg. “You see everyone in Enchantia loves dancing except for that horrible rodent. He keeps coming up with mean plans to stop us and now he’s taken the King and Queen’s niece, Princess Cressida.”