Tinkerbell moped inside her house as worry and guilt began to eat at her conscious. She had overheard a group of fairies talking about how the fast flier had worked herself to the limit just to get the thistles back in their place. If only she had just accepted her own talent from the beginning! Then this surely would never have happened.
It didn't help that it had been a week already, and the scouts still hadn't found anything at all.
The tinker knew that if she didn't at least try to find Vidia, she would regret it for the rest of her immortal life. But how could she find her if even the most skilled scouts couldn't?
"If only someone had actually seen the direction that she had gone in. It would make everything much easier," Tinkerbell said out loud. Then an idea hit her like ton of pebbles. She immediately got to her feet and flew towards the palace.
The queen was out on the balcony of one of her chambers, looking out at Pixie hollow with a extremely worried expression on her face.
"Queen Clarion!" Tinkerbell called out and flew right inside, ignoring the ministers protests. Clarion turned to the tinker and gave her a tiny smile.
"What is it Tinkerbell, is there some new invention you want to show me?" she asked.
"I figured out a way to find out what happened to Vidia!" the tinker announced, earning the full attention of the queen. "We need to find the missing thistle she was chasing after. It surely knows what happened."
"Tinkerbell, the thistles don't even listen to garden fairies. How do you suggest we can get it to talk to us?" the Queen reasoned.
"I know it seems hopeless, but please let's try it. It's the only hope we have of finding Vidia." Tinkerbell begged. Queen Clarion had no choice but to agree.
It only took few hours for the scouts to find the missing Thistle and tie it up on the ground with several ropes. They were absolutely certain that it knew what had happened to the fast flier, since the weed still had a purple lasso wound around its neck.
Several garden fairies tried to coax the thistle into talking, but none of them were successful. After a few hours they all gave up.
"Tink, I am sorry but those weeds just doesn't listen!" Rosetta said walking up to her friend, who had her head lowered and was trembling all over. The garden fairy thought she was crying and went to console her, but she wasn't crying. Suddenly Tinkerbell's glow turned red. She flew to the thistle wielding a stick and began to beat it furiously.
"YOU STUPID WEED! TELL ME RIGHT NOW WHERE MY FRIEND IS, BEFORE I SET YOU ON FIRE!" she shouted out as Iridessa flew to her and tried to reason with her.
"Tink calm down, s.." she started but couldn't finish because Tinkerbell turned and accidentally hit her in face with the stick, knocking her to the ground! Fawn Silvermist and Rosetta immediately knelt beside the fallen light fairy.
"I AM COMPLETELY CALM!" Tinkerbell shouted.
"I c-can see t-that" Iridessa replied feebly only then she realized what she did, dropped the stick with horror and flew away in tears as she noticed some blood coming from the light fairy's nose. Rosetta started to go after the tinker, but stopped as she passed by the thistle and turned towards it with an expression of complete shock.
It had spoken!
The scouts immediately flew to the cave, but were met with an unpleasant surprise. The entrance had collapsed completely. They tried for days to find another way to get inside, only to realize that it was hopeless. Then the queen called them back.
A terrible announcement had to be given.
"It is with a heavy heart that I must declare the passing of one of us, Vidia of the fast fliers guild. Vidia was one of the most talented fairies I have ever meet and I can't say how much it sadness me that she is gone. Even if she didn't show it often, I know she was kind of heart. You will always be remembered." Clarion said as closed her eyes and let her tears flow.
"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" a voice shouted out. Someone was pointing at Tinkerbell, who was already crying. It belonged to Wisp, the fearless fast flier, who had been very fond of Vidia and looked up to her ever since she had saved her from a fire in the past.
"VIDIA MAY HAVE SUGGESTED IT, BUT YOU WERE THE ONE WHO DECIDED TO GO THOUGH WITH IT! ALL BECAUSE YOU WANTED TO GO TO THE MAINLAND!" Wisp shouted at her and looked ready to pounce on the fairy but was held back by Windbreak, who held her close. Wisp tried furiously to break free, but she ended up crying desperately into her friend's chest. Then Windbreak shot Tinkerbell an accusatory glare. The young fairy looked around and noticed that all the fast fliers giving her that same glare. The tinker flew sadly away.
"Tink, this is not your fault." Silvermist said as she and the rest of Tink's friends went after her.
Tinkerbell was never the same after that day. She deemed herself responsible of Vidia's death and nothing her friends said could make her think otherwise.
Somewhere deep underground was a gremlin, a male of his species and at the last twice the size of a fairy. He put some roots in a mortar and began to grind it with a pestle while humming a song. The creature's hands were big and rough. His nails were black and his skin was covered in short brown fur. His face didn't look human. it was more like an ape like but with large pointy ears and fangs jutting out of his lower jaw. His eyes were electric blue and he was dressed in mining clothes.
"Hey Kurtz, how is your little guest? I heard you had to cut her leg off. Is it true?" another gremlin with white fur asked curiously. Kurtz paused briefly, distracted from his work.
"Of course not, I am not that sloppy!" Kurtz snapped back at him with a glare, obviously offended. Then, seeing the startled expression of the gremlin, he took a deep breath.
"Sorry Wade, the poor thing is getting better. She woke up yesterday for a short time and told us her name," he answered and went back to his task.
"Really what is it?" Wade asked, excited.
"Vidia"
AN: lol Vidia got taken by the Gremlins, and let me tell you the main antagonist of the story is one of them, he had not been introduced in this chapter but you will really hate him...
I thank my Beta reader FluffyFluff