Читать книгу Darcey Bussell’s World of Magic Ballerina - Darcey Bussell - Страница 11

Delphie stared at the twinkling shoes and then leapt out of bed. She was about to run out of the room to get her mum when Madame Za-Za’ s voice came back to her: They are special shoes, Delphie. I hope that one day you will find out just how special they are.

Something seemed to be telling Delphie to stay – not to go. She reached out and touched the shoes. Her fingers seemed to spark with a tiny electric shock and suddenly she felt as if she just had to put them on.

She picked up the left shoe. As she slipped it on, her foot felt light and sparkly. She put the other shoe on and as she tied the ribbons, the tingling spread through her whole body. Delphie stood up and then gasped as suddenly the shoes began to make her pirouette round and round…

Delphie whirled, her bedroom blurring into a sparkling haze of colours. She cried out. What was happening?

Then the colours faded and she found herself on a seat. She looked around in astonishment. She was in a large empty theatre. In front of her there was an enormous stage with red curtains, shut tight. The lights began to go down and before Delphie’s eyes, the curtains rose.

A scene of a village street appeared with a large mountain behind it. On the slope of the mountain, a dark castle was painted. Feeling sure that she must be dreaming, Delphie looked at the stage. A fairy in a pale lilac tutu was sitting on a tree stump, her hands covering her face.

Behind her there were dancers dressed as multi-coloured flowers, two people in Russian costumes, a girl in a long red Spanish dress and a clown. Delphie wondered if this was the beginning of some sort of show, but as she looked more closely, she realised that the fairy was crying.

Delphie got to her feet and went down the aisle that led up to the stage. “Hello!” she called. Her voice sounded loud in the silence of the theatre.

The fairy jumped in surprise. “Who are you?”

“My name’s Delphie,” Delphie replied. “Who are you?”

“I’m the Sugar Plum Fairy,” she said.

“You mean you’re dancing the part of the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker,” Delphie said, feeling confused.

“No, I really am the Sugar Plum Fairy.” The ballerina stood up, her sparkling tutu catching the lights on the stage. “People call me Sugar for short. This is the entrance to the Land of Enchantia – the land where the characters from all the different ballets live.” She looked curiously at Delphie. “Where have you come from?”

“From… from my bedroom,” Delphie stammered. “My ballet shoes started to sparkle and so I put them on and I ended up here.”

“You’ve got the magic ballet shoes!” Sugar breathed. “I’ve heard about those. Every so often they are given to someone who really loves ballet and they bring them to Enchantia. It happens whenever there’s a problem here.”

Delphie stared at her. “Madame Za-Za – the person who gave them to me – said they were special. She must have meant they were magic.” Delphie’s eyes widened and she looked around wonderingly. “So this is all real. It’s not a dream.” She remembered something the Sugar Plum Fairy had just said. “You said the shoes work when there’s a problem.”

Sugar nodded. “Yes, and we have a very big problem right now. The people in Enchantia usually live happily together and dance all day. But not any more.” Her blue eyes welled up with tears. “Evil King Rat has stopped everyone from dancing.”

“King Rat?” Delphie echoed, thinking back to the villain of the ballet she’d been reading about before she went to bed.

Sugar nodded sadly. “He hates dancing. He’s captured the Nutcracker and turned him into a wooden toy. Without the magic of the Nutcracker no one in Enchantia can dance – all the toys have become lifeless, the sweets have become just sweets again and the snowflakes have frozen. I can’t dance either. Look at this!” She stood up and with a graceful lift of her arms, she rose on to her pointes but she only managed to dance three steps forwards before she wobbled over. “The magic of the dance has gone. The only way to stop King Rat is to free the Nutcracker and bring him back to life again but King Rat is keeping him prisoner in his castle and everyone’s too scared to go there.”

Delphie thought how awful it would be not to be able to dance. “I’ll help you,” she said eagerly.

“It could be very dangerous,” Sugar warned. “The castle is guarded by King Rat’s army of mice. They’re big and carry swords and are very fierce.”

“I don’t care,” said Delphie bravely. “I want to help you free the Nutcracker!”

“Oh, thank you!” Sugar grabbed Delphie’s hands. “Thank you so much!”

“So, how do we get to the castle?” Delphie asked.

Sugar smiled. “By magic of course!”