Pixie Hollow had always had one thing to fear: pirates.
While to the other creatures and people living in Neverland disliked pirates, they could still see them as something they could fight. They were only human, after all, it wasn't as though they had superpowers. But to a fairy, a pirate was doom.
Since fairies could remember, Neverland had had pirates. And the pirates would hunt the fairies, utilizing their magic and knowledge of Neverland like no other creature. Some horror stories that were spread about the Hollow (mostly to keep fairies in line) was that a pirate could (and would) drain a fairy of its magic and its life force. Doubt about this ran deep through the Hollow but the meaning was still very much alive: stay away from pirates.
If Tinker Bell could tip over a tree, she might have.
Scratch that, she tried it anyway.
She turned red from cheeks to ears, frustration running rampant through her as she tried her hardest to get this stupid pulley system to work. The old one had broke and it was up to her to design a newer, faster one. The dust fairies needed it and they couldn't go about doing everything for the pulley system by hand forever. Rations for dust were slower this week because of it and thus work production was slowed, which was bad because it was nearly summer and the fairies needed to make the seasonal transition in the Main Land.
They couldn't do that without this stupid pulley system and-aha! Tinker Bell scoffed loudly at the obstruction in the ropes, removing a small stem of leaves that she had missed on cutting off from the stem support beams. The darn things were slowing the rope's movements. She was hoping this new flower stem, tree sap, and root made system would be better than the last one. It seemed to be working just fine.
She could always ask Terence for help. He was pretty good with giving her advice on her creations, and he was the Dust Keeper. This design would have to get to him faster if they wanted to make up for lost time. And who better to judge the work speed than the guy who distributed the fuel?
The green-clad tinker fluttered her wings and decided that she would have Terence look at it before having the other dust fairies try to use it. "Fairy Gary," she said as the larger fairy walked in, "it's just about done. What do you think?"
He stroked his beard in thought. He was a thick fairy, resembled Tink's own Fairy Mary in that he had big red cheeks and work ethic that could go for miles. He seemed a little older than Fairy Mary, though, and Tink wondered just how much older, or when he had taken Terrance in as the Dust Keeper.
"It looks great, Tinker Bell! Even better than the last one!" he said happily, "Think it'll work as good as it looks?"
"I dunno, I'll have Terence help me test it. If he gives me the all good, it'll be ready to go!"
"Perfect, we need to make up for all the time we had to manage without it. This is really gonna help us out, Tinker Bell. Thanks!"
"No problem, Fairy Gary. I'll be right back!" and with that, she fluttered out into the open Hollow.
Finding Terence usually wasn't so hard, he had very few places he went to when he wasn't working. One of the places was Tink's own house, and she knew he wasn't there because she wasn't. She'd already checked the top of the Pixie Hollow tree and found he wasn't there, so he was likely out on his daily runs.
Her search didn't last long, he was doing exactly what she thought he was. He was in the gardens, in the middle of his route judging by his little clipboard and pouch of supplies he may need. Little did she guess though was his talking to the Minister of Summer. The man seemed frantic, fearing the late arrival of his respective season due to the slow work production in the dust fairy department. Of course, Terence would be the one to get the heat for that part. If not him then it would be Fairy Gary, and most of the Ministers knew better than to try and talk down on Fairy Gary in his work. So they got the next best thing, the Dust Keeper.
Sometimes Tinker Bell felt bad for Terence. There were very few dust talent fairies and fewer with Terence's talent as one. No fairy in Pixie Hollow emitted so much dust, nor glowed so brightly aside from the queen herself. While Tink knew dust fairies were "extra dusty" and had a lighter glow than other fairies, she always thought Terence was the brightest. But because of his talents, a lot of the burden from the higher-ups came down on him.
She approached them quickly, hoping to intervene and save Terence from a ranting Minister. "Terence!" she said excitedly. The blond turned and sighed in relief. She must have saved him at a particularly good moment. "I've fixed the system back in the tree, I'd like you to come and look at it before we get it working."
Terence mouthed a 'thank you' to her and turned to the Minister of Summer. "Just as I told you, Minister. Tink has it all under control. Summer will be here on time, don't worry." The Minister sighed, apprehension still obvious on his features but he also showed signs of a burden having been lifted. Sometimes Tink also felt bad for the Ministers, because they had a lot of unneeded stress that Tink knew she wouldn't be able to handle.
The two fairies took off towards the tree and entered, being greeted with excited dust talent fairies who couldn't wait to stop doing everything by hand and actually get more work done. Terence did a quick once-over before giving Tink a thumbs up, and she started the system up. She put a test bag on the rope and watched as it traveled down the line into its own compartment, down to where the fairies would place it in the storage compartments, faster than the last one had been for sure.
Excited fairies cheered and immediately went to work, hoping to help the nature talent fairies in their summer rush.
Terence flew down to Tinker Bell's level, smiling at the sudden boost in progress his fellow workers were making. "You're amazing," he told her. She blushed and playfully pushed his shoulder. "Hey, it's no big deal. It's my job, remember?"
He untied his satchel from his hip and set it in a little hook set where the workers could place their personals. "My routes for the day are done, I'm free now. What do you have to do?"
"Nothing, that was my only job for the day. Is there something you wanted to go do?"
"I dunno, let's go look around. The nature talent fairies probably aren't going to have time to do anything until they get back from the Main Land, so maybe the story telling fairies have some gossip or something?"
The story telling fairies were truly something else. They could tell any story, false or not, and anyone could think it was true. They were great at telling stories of old Neverland, gossiping about the latest scandals, anything they could get their hands on. Even if half of the things they said weren't true, they were at least interesting to listen to. It gave bored fairies something to do.
Tink had to admit that she had more than once indulged the story telling fairies and since she had brought Terence along once, they enjoyed hearing the old myths of Neverland and gossip about what they swear they saw the Minister of Spring and the Minister of Fall doing the other night.
The story telling fairies almost always grouped with the music talent fairies. Many a time they would collaborate in the theater, so may of them were good friends.
There was already a circle of about four other fairies and one story talent fairy in the middle, talking about something that the others seemed on the edge of their seats for. Terence and Tinker Bell joined the fray, going virtually unnoticed by the rest of the group.
"The pirates searched far and wide for the hidden treasure. For years they wandered, high and low they looked but the Moon Dust was no where to be found. Where could it possibly be? After countless dead ends and fruitless searching, the pirates realized something. To find fairy dust, one needed a fairy. Specifically, a dust talent fairy."
Terence thought he'd gone unnoticed but suddenly he felt the eyes of all the listeners turn to him for a split second. His wings fluttered in shyness.
"A dust talent fairy would have the power to find the Moon Dust. Some say that a fairy had told them that, that a fairy among their ranks had spilled the talent secrets to the dreaded rats. I don't believe it. But they had the knowledge, and they searched. No stone was left unturned, they were out for the power of a dust fairy. And when they found one, they forced her to lead them to the precious Moon Dust, the dust that could make an island float." The story talent fairy flicked her braid over her shoulder, pausing as though she were thinking. Any regular to the story talent fairies' cove knew she was just being dramatic; all in a good story.
"No one knows if they ever found the dust, or if they gave up trying. All we do know is that after that day, that fairy was never seen again."
The other fairies leaped at the end of the story, storming the girl with questions. Terence and Tinker Bell moved back some. Tink rubbed her arms, "Ugh, pirates. They give me the chills. Wish we could have heard the beginning, though."
"Yeah. But as far as I know, Moon Dust is just a rumour," Terence said. He felt a playful push from behind. "Hey you better watch out, Terrance, or the pirates much come and getcha!" a passing fairy said. Terence laughed back, "I'll be sure to sleep with one eye open."
Tink turned to Terence once the other fairy left. "Is it really a rumour? I've never heard it before."
He shrugged. "Yeah supposedly it's this powerful dust that rubs off of falling stars. It's strong enough to lift Neverland out of the water. The rumour was that if a dust fairy sprinkles some on their wings, the supply is worth a lifetime. They could fly faster, stronger, higher than any fairy in the Hollow."
"I wouldn't even want that if I were you!" said a sing-song voice.
Tink and Terence turned sharply. The story talent fairy from before approached them, smiling with a hand on her hip. "I've heard that rumour, too. But I've also heard that the price for that power is your sanity. You'll lose your mind with that dust."
"Really?" Tink inquired.
The other fairy nodded. She was one of the more gossipy-type story tellers in the cove, and usually her stories were the most resourceful. "So I'd just steer clear of that story all together. If it's true, your Dust Keeper friend here can surely find it." She glanced at Terence for a long moment before speaking again. "A dust talent fairy glows brighter than any other talent, and you emit the most dust out of all of them. If a pirate were to come for a dust fairy like they did in that story, they'd surely grab you. So just don't meddle with that story at all. The less you know, the better."
Terence swallowed thickly. Tink shook her wings. "Well, you don't have to worry about us. It's just a story, right? C'mon, Terence," she said, pulling at his arm. He looked at the ground with a frown. Would pirates really pick him over other fairies? It was believable. "Terence?" Tink urged.
He shook his thoughts away and turned on his heel, flying off into the open Hollow air with Tinker Bell.
Whatever... he thought, it's just a story.
A quick little jotted prologue, just to see if this piques anybody's interest. I remember reading in a Disney book about the Disney Fairy series when I was a little kid that the dust fairies had the brightest glow because they were "extra dusty," so to speak. They always had excess dust over them (they also never sneeze and that's kinda cute). I'd imagine that as Dust Keeper, Terence would be covered in it not only because he's a dust fairy, but also because he's constantly knee deep in the stuff for work.
The idea here is just to expand on the talents of dust fairies, since the movies don't really express what their talent includes other than distributing dust to the other talents. This story will play with the idea that dust talent fairies are attracted to heavy dust collections, like the dust mill, and that there are dusts in Neverland that can render a fairy's mind completely useless.
What do you think? Keep going or...?
**EDIT
1.) I'd love it if you guys weren't on anon, I love talking to my readers.
2.) Regarding the most recent review, I do apologize. When I wrote the rough draft, I realized I'd been spelling Terence's name "Terrance" the entire time and tried to go back and fix them all. Obviously I didn't get all of the little buggers but ah well, I try.
3.) Regarding the title Dust Keeper, I'd actually always thought that was a title. I dunno if it actually is, for all I know it's probably not. But I thought the idea of Terence having a special place in the dust mill was interesting, even as a kid reading the stories; he came off as the kinda guy who did have a special spot but he didn't really think of it that way because if not him, it'd just be someone else. If it's not, I suppose for the sake of the story it is for now. No harm done, I would think. Sorry for the confusion, readers!