“Step right up, step right up! Professor Puck’s Fantastic Fairy Fair is in town. You will be amazed! You will be astonished! You won’t believe your eyes!”

Gurglefin the Gillman rubbed his webbed hands together with glee. He’d been waiting for this moment all year. Professor Puck’s fair was famous throughout Skylands. Everyone knew about it. The crazy games, the fin-raising rides, the strange sights. And the delicious smells. Oh, the smells. Doughnuts, popcorn and pretzels, toffee apples, cotton candy and gingerbread. Just thinking about it made his mouth water.

The only problem was choosing what to try first. Everywhere he turned, Gurglefin was presented with fresh treats and new opportunities for fun and excitement: Lights flashed, music played, and carnival folk called out, trying to entice him to their various stalls.

Then something caught his eye. There, behind the spiral slide and the Hook-a-Chompy game, stood a small, modest-looking red tent with a hand-painted sign hung over its dark entrance:

MADAME DESTINY:

FORTUNES TOLD,

FUTURES PREDICTED

There, thought Gurglefin. That’s the place to start. Madame Destiny can tell me what I’d enjoy most.

He waddled over excitedly, coins ready to cross Madame Destiny’s hand. There she was, sitting at the mouth of the tent, hunched over a crystal ball. She was wearing a dark crimson scarf around her head and a pink sequined veil across her face. As he drew nearer, Gurglefin slowed. There was something sinister about the old woman. Something not quite right. Maybe it was her piercing red eyes or the stubby fingers she waved over the crystal.

But, after coming this far, Gurglefin was in no mood to be a scaredy-catfish. This was just a harmless bit of fun, a harmless old woman. Nothing to be afraid of at all.

He crept closer to the stall and cleared his throat.

“Um, h-hello?” he croaked. “Madame Destiny?”

The hag didn’t look up. He tried again.

“Madame Destiny, I was wondering if you could—”

“What do you want?” the woman snapped, throwing her arms around the crystal ball, as if trying to hide it from view.

“J-just to have my fortune told,” stammered Gurglefin.

“And why should I do that?” she shrieked.

“Um, because you’re a fortune-teller?” he suggested, holding out two coins with his shaking hand.

The old woman growled, looked at the coins, and then looked at Gurglefin. Without warning, she shot out a hand, snatched the coins away, and snarled at the nervy Gillman.

“You want to know what the future holds?” she barked, fixing him with a wicked glare.

Gurglefin just nodded, wondering if he really did.

“Are you sure?” she teased, her veil shifting as if she was smiling underneath.

“I g-guess so . . .”

“Then I predict you’ll come to a STICKY END,” Madame Destiny screamed. “NOW SLING YER HOOK, FISHFACE!”

Gurglefin did just that. He quickly scampered out of the tent and into the crowd, not looking back. Madame Destiny had been so angry. But why? And what did she mean?A sticky end? He didn’t like the sound of that.

Gurglefin paused to catch his breath, his gills flapping and his heart racing. Perhaps coming to Professor Puck’s Fantastic Fairy Fair hadn’t been such a good idea after all.

Then he smelled something that made him all but forget his horrible experience with the fortune-teller.

“Cotton candy!”

Gurglefin followed his nose until he found a robot producing stick after stick laden with wonderfully sweet-smelling cotton candy from a door in its chest.

“Hello, sir,” the robot chirped happily. “I am Sweet-O-Tron 3000. Can I help you?”

“Cotton candy, please,” Gurglefin said eagerly, pressing a coin into the robot’s outstretched metal hand.

“Certainly, sir,” Sweet-O-Tron said, handing over the biggest stick of cotton candy Gurglefin had ever seen. “You enjoy the rest of the fair.”

“I will now,” said Gurglefin, grabbing the stick and wandering away happily. Mmmmmmmm. This was the best cotton candy he’d ever tried. It smelled fantastic, tasted even better, and sounded like . . .

Hang on. It sounded like a clock. Since when did cotton candy tick?

No, Gurglefin realized with a start. It sounds like a bomb!

“Oh my Cod!” Gurglefin exclaimed, suddenly holding the treat at arm’s length. “My cotton candy is going to explode!”

What was he saying? Of course it wasn’t going to explode. It was cotton candy. Ticking cotton candy, yes, but candy doesn’t generally explode in your face.Does it? Gurglefin laughed at his own panic. What a silly sardine he was.

Then he remembered Madame Destiny’s words: “You’ll come to a sticky end!”

Gurglefin screamed, and the cotton candy went bang in his face.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about!” Terrafin the dirt shark punched the air as he appeared in the middle of Professor Puck’s Fantastic Fairy Fair. Behind him, Sonic Boom and Hot Dog also flashed into existence, deposited in the middle of the field by one of Master Eon’s magical Portals. Usually the sudden arrival of a walking shark, a griffin, and a flaming lava hound would have drawn a crowd, but here they were just one wondrous sight among many. Not that Terrafin minded—the dirt shark had been looking forward to this for a long time.

Terrafin, like his two companions, was a Skylander—a sworn protector of Skylands, a vast realm of floating islands and endless skies. Recruited by Eon, greatest of the Portal Masters, the Skylanders spent their days defending the vulnerable, fighting the forces of Darkness, and generally being pretty amazing. But today was special. Today they were getting a day off! The last few months had been crazy. Their archenemy—the evil Portal Master known as Kaos—had been trying to find an ancient artifact called the Mask of Power. Long ago, the mask had been split into eight segments and scattered throughout Skylands, but now Kaos was trying to put it back together. He had one segment, but the Skylanders had found two others. No one really knew what would happen if Kaos completed the mask, as the secrets of its true power had been lost in the mists of time. But the Skylanders didn’t want to find out. Kaos was bad enough on his own. Kaos with a super-duper mystical object from the dark times was too much to even think about.

But for today, Terrafin didn’t have to worry about evil Portal Masters, ancient magical artifacts, or even the safety of Skylands. Today, all Terrafin and his Skylander buddies had to worry about was having fun with a capital F-U-N!

“Test your strength!” bellowed a voice nearby. “Make the bell ring and claim your prize!”

Terrafin’s toothy grin spread even wider. Test your strength? No problem. He was so brawny that even his biceps had biceps. Flexing his muscles, the dirt shark hurried over to the strong-man stall.

“Hey,” Terrafin said, brandishing a gold coin. “I’d like a try!”

“Certainly, sir,” the dog-faced carnival barker said, regarding the Skylander with shifty eyes. “If you could just wait your turn?”

In front of the Skylander, a tiny Mabu was struggling to lift a massive, oversize hammer.

“That’s it,” the carnival barker said with a sneer. “Hit the target and ring that bell.”

Hit the target? It was all the Mabu could do to pick up the hammer. Finally, with a grunt, the little fellow managed to swing the thing over his head. It thudded onto the base of the Test Your Strength machine . . . but the bell didn’t ring. In fact, the marker that was supposed to shoot up to the bell didn’t even budge.

The carnival barker snickered at the disappointed Mabu.

“Never mind. Better luck next time.”