Ruby the Red Fairy

**Ruby the Red Fairy** is the first fairy in the Rainbow Fairies.

## Plot

The seven Rainbow Fairies are missing! Rachel and Kirsty search for one in each RAINBOW MAGIC book. Read all seven books to help rescue the fairies and bring the sparkle back to Fairyland!

Fairyland is home to seven colorful sisters. Together, they are the Rainbow Fairies! They keep Fairyland dazzling and bright. But when evil Jack Frost sends them far away, the sisters are in big trouble. If they don't return soon, Fairyland is doomed to be gray forever!

Rachel and Kirsty discover Ruby the Red Fairy in the pot at the end of the rainbow. Can they help find the rest of her Rainbow sisters . . . before it's too late?

## Character Description

*Ruby the Red Fairy brings the colour red into all parts of Fairyland. She's the one who makes sure fruits and vegetables grow juicy and ripe. Beautiful red flowers appear on the ground wherever she waves her magical scarlet wand.*

## Profile

*Red is the color of passion, courage, and energy. It follows that Ruby is feisty and exuberant, and she shares Rachel's speed demon tendency (it's no coincidence red is a favored color for sports cars).*

## Appearance

Ruby has slightly-tanned, flushed skin. Her hair is long and strawberry-blonde in colour, braided into two standard braids, and threaded with red roses and green leaves. Ruby wears a silky, off-the-shoulder, red dress. On her feet are delicate, red ballet shoes, with red ribbons lacing up her legs. She also wears red crystal rose earrings and a red rose necklace around her neck. Ruby's wings are round in shape and are tinted golden, with red edging.

## Magical object

Ruby's magical object is her wand. According to the official Rainbow Magic website and the book, Ruby's wand is scarlet-red. (The book covers, however, feature Ruby and the other fairies' wands as simple black lines.) Her special fairy dust symbol is a red, five-petaled flower.

As Ruby has no special object like many other fairies do, she relies solely on her wand to create the colour red. Her wand is the source of her power and without it, the colour red would disappear from Fairyland entirely. (It is never made clear whether the human world would be affected, though.) It also appears that Ruby must be present in Fairyland for her magic to work, as red (among other colours) disappeared from Fairyland, even though she still had her wand with her when she was banished by Jack Frost.

## Personality

Ruby tends to overdo things. It is also possible that she is the oldest out of the Rainbow Fairies, as she tends to care for the other fairies and is willing to protect them no matter what.

## Story Summary

The book begins as Rachel Walker and her parents stand on the deck of a ferry headed for Rainspell Island, where the Walkers are spending a week-long vacation. Rachel is admiring the island when she feels a few raindrops - surprising, as the sun is still shining. While sheltering under the ferry’s roof, Rachel spots a dark-haired girl her age looking at the sky and slips back outside to see what the other girl is looking at: a bright and beautiful rainbow. The girl introduces herself as Kirsty Tate, and says she and her parents are vacationing on the island for a week, just like Rachel’s family. The girls quickly become friends, chatting about mermaids and other magical things as the rain stops, and introduce each other to their parents, at which point they discover their vacation cottages are right next door to each other.

At Mermaid Cottage, where the Walkers are staying, Kirsty invites Rachel to explore the nearby beach, which turns into exploring the whole island once the girls see that the rainbow is still there and decide to follow it. The rainbow leads to a small wooded area, and the girls follow a winding path to a small clearing where they find the end of the rainbow pointing to an upside down black pot. It takes both girls pushing to tip the pot at all, as it’s very heavy. They hear a faint tapping from inside the pot, and then a tiny voice calling for help, and push harder until the pot finally turns over. A burst of red sparkles comes out of the pot, followed by a tiny, winged girl - a fairy. She flutters over the amazed girls’ heads, then thanks them for freeing her, introducing herself as the Red Rainbow Fairy, Ruby. After learning the girls’ names, Ruby lists her six sisters and explains that they bring color to Fairyland, however something bad has happened. She uses her fairy dust to show the girls a picture in a nearby pond.

In the picture, Ruby and the other Rainbow Fairies send out invitations to the Fairyland Midsummer Ball, which happened yesterday. But the Ball was interrupted by Jack Frost, whom the fairies had forgotten to invite. With an icy spell, he banished all seven Rainbow Fairies from Fairyland. As the spell began to blow the fairies away, Queen Titania sent the pot to catch them and keep them safe on Rainspell Island until they could be rescued. Unfortunately the wind blew all the fairies but Ruby out of the pot just before it landed. She knows they’re somewhere on the island, and asks Rachel and Kirsty to help find them, since they believe in magic enough to have found her.

The girls agree, and Ruby turns them into fairies for the first time to bring them to Fairyland, which is chilly and gray without the Rainbow Fairies there. Three other fairies greet them with several questions, but Ruby insists she and the girls talk to the King and Queen first. In the palace, the King and Queen thank the girls for agreeing to help, and assure them they should be able to find the other Rainbow Fairies easily. King Oberon has a frog footman hand each girl a small silver bag, which the queen says to open only if they need help, and a magical tool will be available. At that moment, Ruby’s color begins to fade from the effects of Jack Frost’s spell, which cannot be undone unless all the Rainbow Fairies are together. She and the girls return quickly to Rainspell Island, where Ruby turns Rachel and Kirsty back into humans and uses her magic to move the heavy pot under a willow tree, where she will hide until all her sisters have been found. The book ends with both girls promising to look for the other Rainbow Fairies throughout the week.

## Trivia

* In the movie *Rainbow Magic: Return to Rainspell Island*, Ruby is voiced by Emily Dormer.
* Ruby's dress is made from hundreds of tiny rose petals.
* Ruby's favourite foods are super sweet strawberries and jam tarts.
* Admitted by the publishers to be the most popular fairy, she is featured in her own Choose Your Own Magic activity book.

### Etymology

Ruby's name comes from the gemstone, ruby. A ruby is a red coloured gemstone, the colour caused by the element of chromium.