Bahamut: A story... about fairies?

Mewtwo: Specifically, Tinkerbell?

Me: (Shrugs) Hey, if my child turns out to be a girl, I want to have at least one shojo-type story for her to read and enjoy.

Poupoko: (And what if it's a boy?)

Me: ... Why do you think the main character's a sparrow man? That, and the story with the thing at the place with the what?

Mewtwo: Yes, that one did sound good...

DISCLAIMER: OWN SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALADOCIOUS. NOTHIN' ELSE.

Overrated

By Corvus no Genmu the Prince of Slumberland

There are many lands out in the vastness known as the World; so many that I can only name three that best fit the situation that's about to transpire. There is the world of dreams and wonders, known to us as Nightopia but to its residents, it is simply called Slumberland. Slumberland is, essentially, a realm where dreams are born and given to the night-thoughts of humans outside its rainbow-colored realms. Then there is the realm of ideas and madness, the confuzzling and confounding Wonderland where madness and oddity reigns supreme. It is in this land where creatures that shouldn't and couldn't be, simply are being. Finally, there is the everlasting realm of Neverland that exists both on the World and off it all at the same time.

Time, what a funny thing to talk about in cocern to Neverland. Why you ask? Well Neverland, much like the other lands, is a sentient being as is Time and, aside from a few residents over in Wonderland, Time is a friend to everyone in the three lands in the sense that time the object has no meaning for many of them. In the case of Neverland, Time had given one of its avatars a token in the form of her egg that would prevent His effects from affecting the residents of Neverland. Neverland itself did not need to worry about Time for it, like Wonderland and Slumberland, were completely immune to Time's effects.

However, it is in the Neverland where our attention must focus for now. In fact, we must focus as much as Neverland itself is focusing for something is coming that, while good in its own sense, brought a strange tingle in Neverland's nonexistent heart. A laugh was coming across the waves of the oceans with speed and determination that, for a moment, Neverland thought it was the first laugh of an adult human. Despite such thoughts, the laugh was obviously that of a newborn child for its intensely innocent glow as well as its reoccurring trait of suddenly stopping and spinning about in place before setting off towards Neverland.

Even as the laugh crossed over its sandy shores and made its way to the heart of Pixie Hollow, Neverland still hesitated in allowing complete entry. For once Neverland has given its permission, it can never be revoked and the strangeness of this laugh bothered it far more than the fairy Prilla had when she first Arrived. While Prilla's talent was deeply needed for the welfare and continuation of the fairies in Neverland, the island felt that this laugh's talent was something far more different than Prilla's.

And by far the most dangerous of them.

In its thoughts, Neverland almost missed seeing the laugh hover about near the canopy of the Home Tree as it searched for the right place to be born. The laugh could not be seen by any of the other denizens of Neverland nor could it see them, all it saw was the Home Tree which only strengthened its desires to be alive in the purest sense possible. Feeling somewhat resigned in the matter, Neverland decided to keep a close watch over the fairy that came from this laugh even as it allowed the laugh complete access.

By now, the fairies were alert and eagerly awaiting for the laugh to appear and were quite joyous at seeing the sparkling orb of light suddenly appear above them. The flying-talent fairies hovered about excitedly even as the dust-talent fairies waited below to sprinkle the new fairy with its first dust. However, instead of immediately crashing into the ground and appearing as a fully-clothed pixie or sparrow-man, the laugh began to circle the tree in wide arcs before shooting down and up like a mad roller coaster. The fairies exchanged worried looks; was the laugh broken in some way? Would a incomplete fairy be born from it?

The laugh ricocheted off the ground and bounced upwards even as its light exploded outwards with a golden brilliance. The vague form of a sparrow man could be seen as his Arrival Garment formed about him from the remnants of the laugh that created him. The sparrow man landed lightly on his feet and stretched his arms back with a rambunctious cry.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—" CRACK. "OY!" The sparrow man fell backwards even as Terence, a dust-talent fairy, hurried forward and sprinkled fairy dust upon him. The sparrow man clutched his neck in pain for a second before suddenly shooting upwards into the air.

"I'm here? Am I really here?" He shot down and landed in front of Tinker Bell. "Am I in Neverland?"

Tinker Bell quirked an eyebrow in confusion. Most fairies knew everything there was to know about themselves and Neverland. Then again, Prilla hadn't known that much either at first… Perhaps this sparrow man was a similar case and it was Tinker Bell's job to fix him. "Yes," she smiled. "You're in Neverland. In Pixie Hollow if you want to be specific."

"Then I guess there's only one thing to do then," said the sparrow man with a calm air. He stood before her for just a moment's time before rocketing upwards with a joyous crow that brought painful memories to Tinker Bell's mind. "COCKA-DOODLE-DOOO! I'm here! I made it! Oh yeah, who's the sparrow man! I'm the sparrow man! Uh-huh, uh-huh, YEAH!" The sparrow man landed once more and began a wild dance before noticing the strange looks he was receiving from his fellow fairies and sparrow men.

"What…? Oh! The Announcement!" The sparrow man took another serious face and stance, which was effectively ruined by what he proclaimed to be his name. "I am Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, but you can call me Cali, or Fragi, or even Expi! I don't care, I'm just too happy to be here!" Cali grinned a mad grin and shot upwards again and began to do a wide array of twists and turns before suddenly coming face-to-face with Vidia. While Vidia wasn't exactly the nicest of fairies, she was by far the fastest, a fact that she was not afraid to boast or demonstrate at every able opportunity.

"I believe you've forgotten something darling." The way she normally spoke 'darling' or 'dear' would sound much like a sneer to most fairies, but Cali wasn't like most fairies. In fact, he thought it was kinda cute.

"Forgot what?" He cocked his head to the side. "I Announced my name."

"Ah, but not your talent."

"Talent?" he asked. "Oh yes, the talent! … What is my talent?" He tapped his chin thoughtfully as Vidia and the other fairies stared at him.

"You mean you don't know what your talent is?" asked Prilla, feeling some sympathy for the sparrow man having gone through a similar dilemma when she first Arrived.

"I have a vague feeling…" Cali glanced at Vidia. "Could you demonstrate yours? What is it anyway?"

Vidia smirked, seeing another open opportuniy. "I'm the fastest fairy in all of Neverland, darling."

"Really?" Cali sounded innocently curious, but to Vidia, he sounded disbelieving, which highly offended her sense of pride.

"Yes really!" Vidia glanced over her shoulder and smirked slightly. "See that tree over there?" Cali looked past her and saw a hawthorn tree, the same tree that the most important avatar of Neverland resided.

Mother Dove.

However, while Cali was aware of Mother Dove's importance as well as her deep connection to Never Fairies, he was completely unaware of Vidia's punishment of not being allowed to be near Mother Dove nor what she had done to deserve an awful thing.

"Mother Dove's hawthorn tree?" he asked.

"Yes. Be back in a flash, darling." And she sped away before any of the other fairies could stop her. Cali only had enough time to land before she had returned, her hands empty much to her fellows' relief.

"That was fast?" asked Cali, sounding immensely confused. Vidia glared at him, her eyes hardening into coldstone.

"Yes it was." Her tone as cold as ice but sharper than a wasp's sting.

"But…" Cali glanced at Vidia to the hawthorn and back again. "I can go faster than that…"

"Then please demonstrate, DARLING." The darling sounded much like Tick-Tock's growl, and no one could hear such a crocodilian growl without some sense of fear.

Too bad no one told that to Cali.

" Okay." With a quick shrug, Cali began to stretch his arms and legs for preparation's sake when a sudden cry came from one of the scout-talent fairies.

"HAWK! HAWK FROM THE EAST!" The open grounds around the Home Tree became suddenly bare of fairies except for Cali who had either not heard the warning or was paying it no heed.

He mumbled something under his breath even as the hawk spotted him from where he flew high above. Diving down, the hawk let loose a screech of victory. Finally, after going for so long without food, he would finally dine on something! Even if the something was as small and as unappetizing as a Never Fairy. The hawk's talons were just above his head when Cali suddenly took off into the horizon, leaving a large cloud of dust and debris in his wake as well as a boom of thunder from his small form suddenly breaking the sound barrier.

The hawk was hit point blank by the blast and was thrown into the side of the Home Tree before sliding down onto the ground. While not seriously injured, the hawk was, nonetheless, injured in the worst possible way. While many different types of prey had escaped it in the past week, no fairy had once escaped from its sight much less within grabbing range! How was such a thing possible?! The fairy had to have used magic of some sort to have escaped, it just had to have! An illusion perhaps? To hide the thunderclouds above?

The hawk started to turn his head to look up into the sky when it sudden spotted the flicker of fairy-light. Turning about, the hawk saw that nearly every nook and cranny of the vast Home Tree was taken by a fairy lying in hiding, their eyes wide with fear as the hawk stared at them. The hawk would never have seen their hiding places in the sky, but here, on the ground of all things, he could see them plain as day. The hawk's eyes narrowed, could he really demean himself to such a level as to peck at the tree like a common bird? His stomach's fierce growl was his answer; self-preservation came first, pride came second.

With a quick flash forward, the hawk grasped a fairy by the wings and stepped back. The fairy screamed and cried in fear but not for her life, the hawk's beak was sharp enough to cut her wings. While a Never Fairy's wings feel no pain, a fairy can feel enough about them to worry about sharp objects cutting them off for without their wings, a fairy could never fly and such a thing to this fairy was a fate far worse than death. Thus it is not that hard to figure out just which fairy the hawk had managed to grab.

Vidia.

The hawk released his grip on Vidia, dropping the surprised pixie to the ground. Before she could even think to fly away, the hawk had placed a its foot down upon her, his talons forming a living cage. The hawk reared back his head, in preparation for the strike when another boom like before sounded not far off from the Home Tree. The hawk stopped and stood as still as stone, his eyes and ears alert for the fairy that had humiliated him so. Even if it meant losing this fairy, the hawk would still kill the wounder to his pride.

However, no sound of fairy flight or foot reached the hawk's ears. Instead, there were sounds of grass and plants being slightly bent upon themselves as a thin form swam above the dirt. A snake, the hawk realized, it's just a snake. The large grass parted as the snake slithered forward before the hawk who blinked in confusion. The snake was pitch black and was much thicker than other snakes it had eaten before and though he could not tell why, the hawk felt a strange tingle down his back. The snake glanced at the fairy held in the hawk's grip and slowly rose upwards to match the height of the hawk before passing it twice over. A threatening hiss escaped from it as a large hood spread out from the back of its head. The hawk was right in assuming this snake wasn't like any other snakes, it was above them in the strictest sense possible for it was, in the world of the serpents, their god and their devil.

A King Cobra.

The hawk raised his wings slightly before steeling himself. This was a snake, a snake! He would fear no snake, no matter the size!

That would be the hawk's biggest mistake for his entire life.

The cobra shot forward and bit the air in front of the hawk's beak, causing the bird to screech in surprise and flap backwards a ways, the fairy still in his talons. Do not be mistaken in thinking that the King Cobra had missed, far from it. The attack was a warning to the hawk; to let it know just where it stood in the food chain. The hawk did not need nor want to be told twice and began to fly away, his prey in talon when the cobra was suddenly right in his face. It hissed at him and, for reasons that frightened him further, the hawk understood what the King Cobra whispered to him.

"Leave me the fairy… or elssssssse you ssssshall find yoursssssself with a fate far worsssssse than hunger…" The hawk maintained his grip and took off into the sky without so much as a backward glance. The snake may be large in length but there was no way it could reach him if he was high enough into the sky. The cobra hissed angrily and coiled itself into multiple tight circles, before jumping up into the air, its body acting like a spring. The snake whacked its tail across the hawk's face even as its coils wrapped around the fairy the fell from the hawk's talons. Landing without a scratch, the King Cobra stared up at the angry hawk and hissed.

"I warned you." With no hesitation, the cobra shot upwards again and bit into the hawk's wings. When it landed once again the cobra glared up at the hawk. "I am different than my brethren, hawk… My fangssssss do not injure… they poisssson… You will die in an week'ssssss time unlesssssss you find a sssssilver trout along the inland rivers…" The hawk screeched once more, this time in fear, before shooting off back towards where he had came. He did not care if he had to search through all the rivers in Neverland, the hawk would not allow itself to die by a snake's poison!

The King Cobra watched as the hawk vanished into the sky before looking down at the little fairy captured within his coils. "Well that was fun! When can we do that again?" asked the snake in perfect fairy-tounge. Vidia's eyes widened and she openly gaped up at the cobra even as the other fairies gasped in astonishment. Another surprise came in the flash of light that generated out from the snake and Cali the sparrow man was suddenly standing there with Vidia being held in his arms.

Setting her down gently on her feet, Cali looked up towards the hawk and smiled a mad grin. "Boy that idiot is going to be busy for quite a while. Not only are there no silver fish in the inland rivers, but I couldn't poison him if I tried!" Cali laughed quite uproariously as he started to float towards where he had emerged from as the king cobra when a mob of fairies suddenly surrounded him.

"How did you do that?"

"Can you show me how to do that?"

"Do it again so I can paint you!"

"How does it feel to move without arms and legs?"

"Do you need fixing or something?"

"Peace, everyone! Peace!" Queen Clarion floated down before Cali. "Let the man breathe a little." Once calm had been restored, the Fairy Queen turned to the sparrow man who looked rather sheepish to suddenly have her attention focused on him. "Now, Fragi." Cali's eyebrow quirked; he had meant the last few names to be a joke but he wasn't about to correct the queen. "How did you do all that? Is it in connection to your talent?"

"Maybe…" Cali's eyes wandered of to the side, towards the tall grasses from which he had emerged earlier as a snake. "Could we put this conversation on pause for a sec? I grabbed something that could be a really cool ornament for my house!."

Queen Clarion quirked an eyebrow. "What sort of thing?"

Cali grinned and took off into the tall grasses before emerging with a large curved object. "This little shiner here! I knicked it off some grumpy old pirate on my way back from the western coast." The fairies all stared in shock; the object in question wasn't a knife, or a sword, or even a dagger. It was a hook.

The hook of the notorious pirate Captain James Hook.