A good 80 years since Peter Pan and Tinkerbell met Wendy & her brothers, and even longer since Tinkerbell arrived at Pixie Hollow, a tiny baby was born in Queens. She and her sororal twin were clinging to life, surrounded by other babies like them. Babies that had arrived too early. This baby-whose name was Mary Elizabeth-was still alive three months later as the hospital was decorated for Thanksgiving. Her sister Sheila Jane was in an incubator nearby.
Today, she was being visited by her parents, John and Sabrina, while her older brother John Jr. stayed at home with a babysitter. A smile spread across her little face as her parents appeared in her vision, smiling down at her. Mary's father smiled warmly as her mother talked softly. The baby opened her mouth and laughed. But unlike any other infant's laugh, this one was silent. Due to the baby's throat problems, her one remainig vocal cord was still too fragile to make sounds. Even so, there was energy from the laugh.
As little Mary was entertained and loved by her parents, the power from her laugh made it outside. In the grass near the hospital parking lot, a dandelion-one of the last remaining this year-was about to release its seeds. As a wind blew, the seeds flew into the air. One was struck with the laugh and, thusly, moved in a different direction than the other seeds. It moved past the clouds, heading towards the stars. Magic prompted it to go to the second star to the right, continuing until morning.
Meanwhile in Pixie Hollow, Vidia was bored. She was on seed watch duty. But most of the time, it was watching the outskirts of Neverland for hours until another fast-flyer relieved her of duty.
'Ugh, this is so boring...'
The purple-clad fairy perked up upon seeing a single dandelion seed floating in the air. Vidia used wind to keep it afloat, calling to the other fairies & sparrowmen nearby.
"We got a live one!"
Soon, fairies from all over Pixie Hollow gathered at the Great Tree. It had been several months since the last arrival, Moira-an ecology talent-and the Hollow's residents were all too eager to welcome a new member to their family.
When Vidia guided the dandelion seed to the Tree's main, huge courtyard, she wasn't surprised to see that almost all of the Hollow's 50,000 residents were already there. She could see Terence-now not the only pixie dust talent-bringing the obligatory cup of magical dust over. He poured it onto the seed and a soft golden glow enveloped it.
And then the female faerie newborn opened her eyes.
