Flora Rosewood measured her hair against the chasm every morning, and every morning it fell short. She lived alone at the top of a tower, a grand palace of living vines, glowing crystals, and whimsical mushrooms. Her hair was pink and woven through with flowers, and it was her only way down. If she could grow it long enough, it would reach across the deep gorge to the forbidden kingdom below. Today the rope of hair dangled past the balcony rail and stopped halfway. The far cliff stayed out of reach. Flora pulled her hair back up and coiled it in her lap. She knew the reason it grew so slowly. Her meals came plain and thin—dry bread, weak broth, a little water. The palace fed her enough to live, but not enough to bloom. Her hair needed richness to stretch, and she had none. She searched the balcony gardens for something better. Among the mushrooms she found a seed pod, pink and shimmering, tucked under a crystal. She pressed it into the soil of her flower box and waited. By afternoon a beanstalk climbed from the box. Its leaves shone bright pink, and its pods glittered like glass. Flora broke one open. Inside sat a cluster of sweet beans, fat and fragrant. She ate them all. Her scalp prickled. She felt her hair stir and lengthen, inch by inch, the flowers in it opening wider. The rich food worked where the broth never had. Flora rushed to the rail and dropped her hair again. It fell farther than before. But it still did not reach the other side. She had eaten every bean, and the beanstalk held no more pods ready to pick. The plant had given her a burst of growth and then gone bare. She stood with her longer hair swaying over the gorge, closer than ever, and still stranded. Then the air began to sparkle. A pink shape rose from the mist below the tower. It was a pegasus, her coat soft rose, her wings shimmering with light. The creature beat those wings and hovered level with the balcony. She studied Flora with calm, dark eyes. "You keep reaching across," the pegasus said. "That gorge has swallowed longer ropes than yours." Flora gripped the rail. "My hair almost made it. One more stretch and I could climb down." "Hair breaks," the pegasus said. She folded her glittering wings and landed on the rail. "Wings don't." Flora looked at the sweet beans' empty pods, then at the strong pink wings close enough to touch. Her hair had carried her this far and no farther. She could keep feeding it and keep falling short, or she could trust something that already flew. Flora climbed onto the rail beside the pegasus. "Then carry me across." The pegasus knelt. Flora wound her long flowered hair around one arm and settled onto the warm back. Wings spread wide. They lifted off the balcony and turned toward the forbidden kingdom below.

The pegasus set Flora down on a mossy ledge across the gorge. Flora slid off and stood on the forbidden kingdom's soil at last. Before her rose a wooden path toward a treehouse wrapped in moss and crystals. She took one step forward. The air grew thick, and a light flared across the path, blocking her way. A small fairy dropped from the treehouse rail and hovered in front of Flora. Her purple wings beat fast, and her brown hair sparkled with tiny flowers. She was no taller than Flora's hand, but she planted herself in the air like a locked gate. "Stop there," the fairy said. "No one crosses into this kingdom. That's the rule, and I'm the one who keeps it." Flora raised both hands. "I didn't come to break anything. I only wanted to see what was down here." "Everyone says that." The fairy crossed her arms. "Then they pick the crystal blooms and the kingdom withers. I'm Blossom Petalwing. I guard this ledge, and I don't move for strangers." Flora looked past her at the treehouse and the glowing flowers around it. She had spent weeks growing her hair, then given it up for wings, all to reach this exact ground. She would not turn back now. "I'm not a stranger to flowers," Flora said. She knelt and touched the moss. A ring of pink buds opened under her fingers. The flowers in her long hair had taught her how. "I grow them. I don't pick them." Blossom's wings slowed. She drifted closer and watched the new buds bloom. "You made those," she said. "Without tearing anything up." "I live in a tower with a garden," Flora said. "Everything I love grows there. I'd never strip your kingdom bare." The fairy hovered a moment longer. Then she flew to a cluster of crystals and mushrooms by the path. She gathered flowers, small caps, and shards of light into one bundle. It sparkled in her arms like woven glass. She held it out to Flora. "Take this," Blossom said. "It proves you came as a friend. Carry it, and the kingdom will let you walk." Flora took the bright bundle. The light faded from the path. The way ahead stood open. "But know this," Blossom added. She rose level with Flora's eyes. "The deeper roads have their own guardians, and they don't trade in flowers. Something has been taking the blooms here. The queen will want to know who sent you." Flora held the glittering bundle close and looked down the open path. She had crossed the gorge and passed the first guard. Now the forbidden kingdom pulled her forward, toward a queen she had never met and a thief she did not understand.