10Thanks for the reviews, again! I'm glad you all are enjoying the characters; both Aurola, and my image of Vidia.
At times, Vidia might seem a bit OOC in this chapter, but that's because this one is mainly about her feelings, and some good Fairy History!
This chapter might add a new twist to the story as well; it's introducing a new character that will lead Vidia into ending an old rivalry! And rivalry that isn't even hers to begin with!
Enjoy the story!
Signed,
Aurola Seadevil
Hurricanes
Chapter 5: Spring
On the night before the Nature-talents-and majority of the Dust-keepers-left for the Mainland, they would be required to get a good night's rest for the flight ahead of them. With their clothes packed and carrier doves already to fly, they slept with excited hearts, and exciting dreams; all of them except Vidia.
The fast-flyer sat alone at the Pixie Dust Tree, directly in front of the Pixie Dust. It made her skin and wings glow a bright gold, but not all that bright, because of her mood. Truth be told, Vidia had cried; but not as many tears to be considered a Water-talent.
But she did cry.
Luckily for her, Terence hadn't come and spoke his wise words, because "wise words" only persuaded her do something dastardly, and she wasn't in the mood for that. She was upset, and this emotion could only be shown when she was completely and utterly alone; the only time she was allowed to think over her feelings was when she was alone.
Vidia sighed, and placed her chin on her knees as she brought her legs up to her chest. Another thing she did when she was alone: she let her hair out of its high ponytail. Long strands of black hair fell around her face and over her eyes, so she could barely see the Pixie Dust Well in front of her, due to the thick hair blocking her vision. The fast-flyer felt a cool breeze in the Pre-Spring air against her arms, seeing that she was in her night-clothes; her night-clothes were only a thin-silk purple top, and a purple feather skirt that reached her knees.
She spent the time she had to think about Aurola, Dale, and the up-coming training days with the strange two-talented fairy. Vidia thought Wetwings had talent; she had exceeded the Speed Standard that determines if you're a true fast-flyer. Oh yeah, she had definitely exceeded the standard. And she even had the attitude to be a perfect flyer!
With a sudden inward grunt, Vidia slammed her fist against the wood. It had only been two weeks.
Two weeks that turned her life upside down... the sudden wind-and-rain storm... losing friends... and now the strange arrival of a two-talented fairy-
"What has upset you, Ms. Featherhawk?"
...
That voice made Vidia leaped from her seated position, and to spin around to stare up into the branches of the Pixie Dust Tree. The voice hadn't made her embarrassed of her state of dress, nor was it unrecognizable.
It was just too familiar.
There, sitting on a tin branch a few feet away from her, was a Fairy. Her skin was a dark tan, about the same shade of polished oak-wood, and she had black hair fluffed around her shoulders. She wore a lake-blue sleeveless shirt and a thick grass belt around her waist. She had a thin green see-through skirt that split in the front, and she also wore blue leggings, and light green slippers that had vines traveling up her ankles.
Behind the Fairy's head were her wings, unusually small in size, and wider than Vidia's own wings.
Vidia took two steps forward, and adjusted her eyes. "...Pearl... is that you, up there?"
The Fairy's gold eyes lit up and she stood to her feet. "If that is you, down there Vidia, then I am me; but if you are not who you seem, than I am not who I look to be." She descended down to the fast-flyer calmly as Vidia met her half way.
"I knew it was you, Pearl!" Vidia could only express her joy in a hug, something she hasn't been able to stop lately. Pearl only returned the hug, and patted Vidia's hair. "Why are you still speaking in Riddle and Rhyme? I haven't heard of a fairy speak like that in years... ever since you left."
"One like me does not speak to another's rules and flows down their path. One like me speaks to their terms, and follows their road down a river of rocks, and a heart filled of laughs." Pearl stepped away from Vidia, and to the Pixie Dust Well. "How fair you, Vidia Featherhawk?"
"Nobody has called me that either in so many years," Vidia crossed her arms as she closed her eyes, and sighed. "And I've been fine... perfectly fine." The sentence ended with a whisper, and Pearl didn't even have to turn around to know that Vidia was crying.
"Have you been suffering over the lost of your friends, or over the delay of your trip to The Land Along the Main?"
The Land Along the Main was Pearl's definition of the Mainland. And the lost of friends was referring to the other Fast-flyers... the ones who drowned in the wind-and-rain storm that happened two weeks ago.
First there was Elwood-the second fastest Fast-flying Fairy-who was part of the rescue crews to retrieve Fairies from the water. There was still rain falling from the sky in separate drops here and there, and Elwood had been one of the unlucky ones to be hit by the falling drops of water. He had been trying to help a garden fairy, and he fell headlong into the water before anybody could notice he was missing.
Then there was Wisp—the third fastest Fairy- the second day of the storm. Queen Clarion had said for all Fairies to stay in the safety of the Pixie Dust Tree, but apparently Wisp had other plans. As fearless as she was, the Fast-flyer flew quickly through the rain, searching for Fairies, but was only to receive the same fate as Elwood as the wind threw her off balance, and into the raging river below her.
Vidia hadn't lost Darcy in the storm, but she wasn't as close to her as she was to Elwood and Wisp. Their lost had taken a toll on Vidia, everybody else knew it. She was in a miniature depression, and all of this—with Aurola, Dale, and the training—was not in her favor.
"I miss them." Vidia whispered, whipping her tears. "I have never seen a wind-and-rain storm as powerful as that one! It was awful."
"When wind-and-rain are together, they create such a powerful force. And they are called Hurricanes, by the other Fairies clans up north." Pearl said, reaching down into the Pixie Dust, and taking several handfuls.
Vidia, who was now watching the other fairy, exclaimed in a loud voice. "What are you doing? Are you actually stealing Pixie Dust? You're banished Pearl!"
"I was banished under the rule of Queen Margaret. For Clarion to re-enforce my banishment has never happened, though not yet." After taking her fair share of Pixie Dust, Pearl turned to Vidia. "How fair Clarion, now?"
Vidia only shrugged, not in the mood to talk about the current Queen. "Alright I guess," she smiled at Pearl, and flicked her head to the left as she did so. "You would have still been the better Queen. Margaret made a silly decision. And I always preferred Water-fairies as Queens. They make stuff run smoother."
The Water-Fairy did have a smug grin on her face as she picked up her overfilled bag of Pixie Dust. But it quickly turned into a frown. "Twas' Margaret's decision, a decision she must regret. Clarion will never be called Queen to me, for that is a title that she has not yet met."
It was decades ago, centuries ago; back in old Pixie Hollow, where Queen Margaret was in charge, and her group of Ministers. As her days of ruling came to a close, the Queen had to choose another Fairy to take her place.
As she watched the Fairies and Sparrow Men, her final choice was between Pearl, the best of all of the Water-Fairies, and a seer [1] and Clarion, a Light-Fairy, who had the ability to bend Pixie Dust into any form, since its magic was basically light.
Queen Margaret had thought over her decision for several long weeks, and she passed on the Royal Crown to Clarion without another thought. Clarion wasn't officially Queen until the ceremony, but that wasn't what had the Fairies talking.
Many Fairies were upset with the choice, saying that a seer would have been a perfect choice for a Queen; some had even died of disbelief. But none were more upset than Pearl, who spoke out against Queen Margret, and was unrightfully banished for it. The Water-Fairy then proceeded to say farewell to her friends—especially Vidia—before leaving Pixie Hollow without a second glance.
"I have been places, places than I would have never seen if I became Queen." Pearl said, walking back towards Vidia. The Fairy reached into her satchel, and held in her hand a feather headband. The feathers were already dyed a dark purple to match Vidia's Fast-flying outfit.
"Is Rosetta still alive, Ms. Featherhawk?"
Vidia snorted, "Still talking to the roses in her garden..."
"Good, good. Nice to see another friend is still around and still planting life into the ground." Pearl's golden eyes twinkled in the night before she whispered, "Tell Clarion that you saw me."
"What? Why, Pearl?"
The Water-Fairy grinned mischievously, before handing Vidia the headband. "I want her to know that I'm still about. I'm still on Neverland, living with a Mermaid, and a Merman." Pearl took a few steps back, and tightened her grip on her satchel of Pixie Dust, and other belongings. "Can you do some simple favors for me?"
Vidia watched Pearl slightly rise to the sky. "Of course; what do you need, Pearl?"
"First of all, don't give up on the new one. Her training will be hard, and it's only just begun." Vidia knew the seer was talking about Aurola, and the training that was supposed to start as soon as the Nature-Fairies left for the Mainland. Vidia was planning to fly over Neverpoint Meadow to find a clearing to practice at, but that was currently the last thing on her mind.
"And this last favor is for me, old friend. Wear your hair down more often, it'll become a very popular trend."
The sentence was barely out of Pearl's mouth before she sped away, at speeds that a Water-fairy shouldn't usually reach, even if her wings were unusually tiny.
Wasn't as fast as Vidia, or Aurola.
But she was fast.
([1] A Seer is a prophet, or an oracle, that predicts the future for a group of people, for a village, or for themselves.)
~.~
"Whoa! Is she really-? Is she actually-?"
"It must be a trick! She has to be doing something dirty to keep us from going to the Mainland!"
"Oi, are you seeing this Clanky?"
"Maybe she's just sick, Bobble."
More and more eyes turned to watch Vidia flutter along the ground, around the carrier doves, and through the group of Nature-talents. It wasn't that she wasn't going to the Mainland, it was how she looked. Instead of wearing her signature ponytail, Vidia's hair was all the way down to her knees, and she was wearing the feather headband Pearl gave her that morning.
Not only was her hair different, but she wasn't wearing her purple Fast-flying vest. Vidia was wearing the pink feather undershirt, her Fast-flying feather skirt, but decided to keep her leggings on. In her arms was a bag filled with equipment she would be using with Aurola in Neverpoint Meadow, and she clutched it tightly as she flew through Havendish Square, heading to the area where the Tinkers were packed and ready to go.
Although the Tinkers weren't Nature-talents, they are sent to the Mainland with others to set up their various contraptions across the Fairy-Camp.
Then Vidia saw her; the blonde bombshell of Pixie Hollow. Tinkerbell was surrounded by her friends, Rosetta, Iridessa, Silvermist, and Fawn. All of them were dressed in their spring best, and Rosetta was complimenting everybody on what they chose to wear.
However, as soon as Vidia came into her line of view, Rosetta charged. "Oh Vidia, I have never ever ever seen you with your hair down, sugar! Just think of all the things the hair stylist could do to it. You'll be the talk of Pixie Hollow, and it'll be the good kind of talk!"
Tinkerbell had also come over to Vidia, and she had just a smile grin on her face. "You look really nice, Vidia..."
"Yeah, right, okay." The Fast-flyer quickly recovered from all of the attention she was receiving, remembered why she came. "Listen, Tinkerbell, d-do have any extra rope? I'm going to be training Aurola in Neverpoint Meadow with the Sprinting Thistles, and I don't have an extra lasso for her to use."
"Rope? Of course I have extra rope, I have lots of rope. Hang on a second!" Tinkerbell flew off to one of the carrier doves nearby, and began searching through it for the rope.
Vidia turned her attention elsewhere, and noticed the fingers running through her hair.
"Uh, Fawn?" Iridessa mumbled, as if the Fast-flyer couldn't hear her.
"Yeah?" the Animal-talent asked.
"Why are you braiding Vidia's hair?"
Fawn shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly "Because, I personally think that she'll look good with a braid."
Vidia groaned and rolled her eyes, cursing Tinkerbell for taking so long. More people kept looking their way, majority of them with a disapproving look on their faces. Queen Clarion would be here any moment, and that would signal the start of her training with Aurola.
And speaking of the Queen, the familiar balls of Pixie Dust began to appear, and swirl magically.
"Here you go, Vidia!" Tinkerbell flew up to her with the rope, and put it in her hand.
Finally!
Fawn didn't even finish braiding Vidia's hair before the Fast-flyer flew off right as Queen Clarion begun to appear. Flying in the direction of Aurola's Beach House, Vidia heard the cheers of the Nature-talents as the Neverblossom opened, signaling the start of spring. There were more louder cheers, and the Fast-flyer looked over her shoulder.
Hundreds of the Nature-talents were in the air, flying towards the Second Star to the Right. With the Minister of Spring in the lead, the carrier doves were right behind them. Vidia had never seen them take flight from the ground. She was always with them in the air, usually flying beside the Minister of Spring, seeing she had a boat load of respect for him. Vidia usually flew beside the Minister, and the other Fast-flying Fairies...
"Ugh!" Vidia gave a frustrated cry, and she spun away from the Nature-talents. With a blast of cool air, the Fast-flyer sped off, finally seeing the Beach House in the distance.
And she didn't look back.
~.~
Vidia's life is harder than we thought, hmm? I feel sorry for her, losing the other Fast-flying Fairies to the hurricane.
BUT, was the hurricane a sign of Aurola's arrival!
And, according to Vidia, was this fairy Pearl suppose to be the actually Queen of Pixie Hollow?
Is Queen Clarion not as nice as she may seem!
Until next time!
Aurola Seadevil