Fikri was a smart pixie. He learnt how to make pixie dust quickly and was one of the fastest workers in Pixieville. He took great pride in the work he did. If others took two hours to make one ounce of pixie dust, he took just an hour! Robert who was the head pixie at the Pixie Union was very pleased with Fikri’s work.
The Pixie Union decided to hold an exciting competition! The pixies were asked to create a different sort of pixie dust that could levitate large toadstools. They would use the best dust to transport toadstools from Pixieville to the fairy castle! The Union was going to award the winner 100 pixie gold coins as the prize. Robert announced to the excited crowd gathered at the Pixie square, “Good morning, dear pixies. As you know, we are going to have a competition soon! You need to make the most powerful levitation dust possible! In case you’d like to work in teams, feel free to do so! In that case, the prize will be distributed equally amongst all the team members. You have three days! Good luck”.
Everyone was very excited! They immediately started forming teams. Fikri, on the other hand, thought to himself, “I’m as fast as two pixies! If I work harder, I’m sure I will be able to do as much as three pixies all by myself. I don’t need to form a team!”
Pinky, the pixie who knew the secret of the roses said to him, “Hello Fikri! Would you like to form a team? I’d love to work with you! I know the secret of how to make things light like a rose petal! We can use that while making the levitation dust!”
“Hello, Pinky! I’ve decided to do this by myself. But thank you for offering”, said Fikri.
Next, Flighty, the pixie who knew the secret of the birds, came to him and said, “Fikri, would you like to form a team? I know that you can make pixie dust very fast and I can add the secret of birds’ flight to it! We can easily make the levitation dust! What say?”.
Again, Fikri refused! He said, “Thank you for offering, Flighty. I’d rather do this on my own, though. Good luck!”.
Fikri was a nice enough chap, but was rather overconfident in his ability to do this on is own! He went home and brought out a large book called, “Secrets of Things” and started reading. He needed to find the ingredients that could help him make the pixie dust levitate objects!
On the third evening, Fikri had still not found the right ingredients! He had tried the lightness of dandelions, the kiss of the west wind, and the rage of a tornado. None had worked correctly! The lightness of dandelions had made the table he was trying to levitate so light that it floated right to the ceiling! The kiss of the west wind had nearly blown the table out the window, and the rage of the tornado had broken the poor little table, much to Fikri’s dismay.
He was trudging up the hill to capture the flapping of a hummingbird’s wings when he met Pinky who was taking a batch of pigeon feathers to Flighty’s house.
“Oh, hello Pinky!”, he said.
“Hello, Fikri”, said Pinky in an excited voice. Then she looked closely at Fikri and said, “Whatever happened! You look really tired and sad!”.
“I am tired and I am sad!”, said Fikri. “I’ve tried and tried to make the ingredients work but none seem to do the trick!”
“Oh!”, said Pinky. “Poor Fikri. Flighty and I have just finished finding the right ingredients. Now all we need to do is make 100 kg of the dust!”
“That’s wonderful”, said Fikri. “Can I see it? I might as well abandon my attempt to work on my dust. I’d love to offer any help in case you need a hand.”
“That would be really helpful. Come along!”, said Pinky. They went to Flighty’s house where Flighty was waiting impatiently for Pinky to return with the feathers.
“Oh there you are, Pinky!”, said Flighty. “Hurry up and grind up those pigeon feathers. We need to be very quick if we want to have this ready by tomorrow morning! Oh, I don’t know how we’re going to do so much in so little time!”, he said, wringing his hands.
“Flighty! Look who has come to help us out!”, said Pinky. Fikri smiled sheepishly at Flighty and said, “I’d love to help if you let me, Flighty. I love that Pinky and you have found the right ingredients! If I give a hand too, I’m sure we will have the dust ready in time for tomorrow!”.
“Yes of course I’d love to have your help, Fikri!”, said Flighty grinning ear to ear. “You’re the fastest in making pixie dust! I’m sure we’ll be able to do this!”, he added in excitement.
So Fikri, Pinky, and Flighty got to work. They had to precisely grind 2 pigeon’s feathers, a pinch of the breath of autumn wind, and an ounce of lightness of dandelions together to get the right mixture. Flighty made this mixture painstakingly. He had to make many batches of this mixture to be enough for 100 kg of the levitation dust. Pinky and Fikri made the pixie dust. They had to add an ounce of this mixture to an ounce of pixie dust to make the levitation dust!
They worked and worked. By midnight, they had 100 kg of the levitation dust ready! How thrilled they were!
They went to the Pixie Union at 10 am where the judges were testing each of the samples brought by the participants. While a lot of pixies had done a good job, none were as good as Fikri, Pinky, and Flighty’s! As soon as Robert added a handful of the dust on a small box, it rose gracefully into the air, ready to be floated along! To no ones’ surprise, they were awarded the 100 pixie gold coins.
Fikri learnt a good deal about teamwork that day! These days he always works with others while doing an important project and has so much fun doing it! He understands that working as a team is far more powerful – and fun – than working by himself!