A light to the West

The day woke up sunny and in Pixie Hollow there was plenty of work. Autumn had come. Everyone was busy with the preparations, and all the fairies waited anxiously their turn to go to Mainland. All the fairies except the tinkers, of course, although they were not missing work. The tinkers and the dust fairies. Because, with the exception of some few, like Terrence, light keepers had to guard it and, therefore, they were not traveling. Some fairies might have preferred to break with routine, but not Zarina. That's because the alchemist of the dust loved to try out her boldest experiments when nobody was around. And although nearly all her friends were travelling back and forward, she still had Tinkerbell.

After her return two years ago, her friends had received her with the greatest enthusiasm ever, and after the spectacle of the Four Seasons Festival, everyone had been fascinated with her mastery of fairy dust. She had even discovered, to her surprise, that Fairy Gary had felt very guilty after her departure. As a reward for having dismissed her back then, he wore pants a whole week, as he had sworn that he would do if someone discovered pink powder. Since then the two of them had become close friends, and he had offered to create a new section within the guardians of dust, so Zarina had help in her experiments and could transmit her knowledge to the other fairies. That's how she became, under the supervision of Fairy Gary, the first alchemist in the history of fairies.

Zarina was, and she was very happy to be so, the director of the fairy dust factory that Queen Clarion had commanded to install next to the mill. All those guardians of dust who felt curiosity and passion for Alchemy and had talent in it were invited to work in the factory as Zarina's helpers. At first she had only had four workers, but little by little, with the arrival of new fairy, the number of alchemists had been increasing and different colored fairy dust had gone from being a curiosity to being a very useful tool. The factory consisted of three parts: the main hall, where colored powder was made, the warehouse, where it was kept, and the library, where all the books in which Zarina had been documenting her findings were, and where anyone could find information about the operation of each color, obtaining, or its potential. But where Zarina really spent most of her time, and where she carried out her experiments, was in the new house-laboratory that Tinkerbell, together with other tinkers, had built for her as a welcome gift.

In the top of the Pixie Dust Tree, above a large platform of walnut, stood the new home of Zarina. A path scratched into one of the branches leaded to the entrance of the house, which consisted of two rooms. The first one, which gave to the road, was the house itself, with bed, kitchen, bathroom and everything else. And the second was a large laboratory equipped with rare tools and the most valued books of the alchemist, where only the most trusted helpers could work. This last room opened to the backyard of the house, which was also accessed following a path that surrounded the building and connected to the main road. The courtyard was actually the rest of the platform of walnut, one large terrace two times greater in surface than the house and surrounded by a beautiful railing Zarina herself had grown. There was where she liked to conduct her experiments, and it was very practical if she needed the collaboration of other fairies or an animal, since it was spacious and you could access it flying. But if the terrace was Zarina's favorite place, it was not due to its practicality, but because of the views. There was no higher point in all Pixie Hollow than the platform at the top of the Great Tree. And there was nothing Zarina liked more than sitting on the railing and watching what couldn't be watched from any other point: the sea .

Yes, Zarina missed the sea. The nostalgia she felt was nothing compared to how much she had missed her friends during her year of absence, but she could not help but remember how much fun she had had when she was still captain, when she still believed that the pirates were her friends. Whenever she remembered her life aboard the pirate ship, she felt a weight on the chest that grieved it and when, despite her efforts, she could not stop thinking about the betrayal of those who had believed her friends, the sadness was so great that it was able to turn off the joy of the most exciting discovery. Unfortunately, she had not found another explanation for this sadness than the fact that she missed them. After all, her encounter with the pirates had been like a salvation to her, and with them she had felt understood for the first time in her life. And yet, the great reception her return had received, and seeing the joy reflected in the faces of fairies and sparrow men for having her with them again, had made she understand that this was her place. With the pass of time she had learned to see the positive side of her pirate experience and, as weird as it may seem, contemplating the sea did not grieve her with bad memories anymore, instead it gave her a great feeling of calm and peace.

That morning Zarina had woke up earlier, almost at night. She had dreamed that she was sailing with her companions above London, singing and dancing a pirate song. Although the dream had been cheerful, it did not seem so to her once she was awake. It was the first time that James appeared in her dreams in this way. She had already dreamed with him before, but the now captain had never figured as one of her friends. In fact, whenever she could she avoided remembering her second on board because it made her feel stupid and furious, a combination which more than once had led her to blow some of her experiments. Also that day she had work to do, and she had to finish it before her guests arrived, so she decided not to think about it.

The storm fairies had asked her to invent a powder which could produce thunder and lightning, and one of them would come that morning to practice. She had also asked Tinkerbell to bring a catapult to test the new powder. A few months ago she had discovered that by mixing different colors you could obtain not only dusts with specific powers, like the one she had used to wake the fairies after putting them to sleep with poppy pollen, but also powders with other talents, like the snow powder if you mixed purple dust(wind) and turquoise dust(water). This time she was going to try mixing purple and orange, with the hope of getting the talent of the storm. Since the accident with the blue powder that fell into the bowl of dust from wind, which's consequences are better not mentioned, Zarina had no blue dust in her laboratory, so she had to go pick some whenever she wanted to do an experiment. She dressed, picked up her bag with a box to save the blue powder and prepared to get off.

Despite having a beautiful staircase leading to the entrance of the shaft, Zarina had found a funnier technique to descend. She climbed on top of the railing that gave to the inside of the tree and jumped. She had discovered that, on that point, there wasn't any branch which stood in the way of the free fall to the central room, where the powder to fly was created. She loved free fall, and it was much faster than the stairs. Arriving at the dust source, she only had to lean right so that her wings were sprinkled with yellow dust, and she could already fly. Normally Terrence was there to greet her, or her friends if they were receiving their ration, but it was still too early in the morning.

Getting a piece of blue dust didn't cost anything, because she knew the combination of the box, but she left a note to the Fairy Gary just in case, knowing that he did not like surprises. Then she flew back to her home and began to prepare it all. She would need the help of a fairy of storm, so she decided to prepare it all in the terrace, because the idea of having rays in her laboratory didn't seem safe. She left the box with the speck on the side of the table and set out two bowls besides it, one with purple powder and another with orange powder, and a larger bowl to mix them. She still had some time left so she sat on the railing to watch the sea.

It had been a quiet night and the surface of the water was calm. The sun had not risen but the stars where starting to banish on the horizon. And then she noticed something unusual. To the West from where they were she thought she saw a little light that was blinking, like a fire. "That's impossible", she thought, "because the only island that is towards the West is...". She did not need to finish the sentence to realize that a light on the Skull Island could only mean one thing, a bad thing. It had been more than one year since no one had seen light in the cave, so it was impossible for them to be there… no? The sun was beginning to look out over the sea and soon everyone would wake up. What should she do?

"Hi Zarina!" The call startled her so much that she fell from the balustrade and if it had not been for her trip to the source of pixie dust, she would have had problems. She turned to look at the terrace still scared, but luckily it was only Tinkerbell. "I thought I would come earlier because I have to fit the catapult and all..."

"Hi Tinkerbell", Zarina answered turning to sit as if nothing. "Sounds good, but where are the pieces?" A funny smile appeared on the fairy's face, and suddenly a great wind arose and Vidia appeared on the other side of the railing holding a huge whirlpool in top of which where the pieces.

"Bringing material to your home is not easy, you know?", said the fairy of the wind with a mocking smile.

"Luckily the purple powder that I provided to you seems to work", said the alchemist, funny.

While Vidia brought the rest of the material, Tinkerbell put hands to work. Zarina returned to observe the horizon, but the mist had begun to rise and she couldn't distinguish any light, or any island.

"Zarina, are you listening? Is there something in the sea?"

The voice of Tinkerbell awoke her to reality. "No, it's nothing, sorry. What did you say?" Her friends watched her expectantly, but they did not give it importance.

"I was asking, why do you need a catapult in this experiment?."

An enigmatic smile appeared on her face.

"You'll see."