Chapter 4: The Hunt is On!
"Capture all the fairies, you beasts!" ordered Jasper, the monsters charging at the horror-stricken fairies. "But, leave the royals to us."
"Evacuate the humans!" Princess Lapis told her friends. "Jasper will never be able to find them in the Enchanted Forest."
"This way, everyone!" Garnet called as she and Lapis' other friends flew towards the edge of the Enchanted Forest. The citizens of Delmarva quickly followed, except for Prince Jamie who stayed right by his wife's side to protect her.
Meanwhile, the other fairies tried to flee and hide, but the snow monsters could jump great heights. And when the monsters made a single touch to a fairy's wings, they almost instantly froze and the fairies ended up falling out of the sky. The now-grounded fairies were soon helpless to capture by the snow monsters who could put a fairy to sleep with just one icy hug.
Just then, Lapis noticed that Ruby and Sapphire were cornered by a lone monster so she and Jamie rushed over to save them, the princess using her magic to shield the two young fairies from the monster. That was when she heard a terrified shriek and saw that the fairy queens were left at the mercy of the evil fairy witch who was freezing them with her powers.
"No!" the young princess cried as she prepared to spring forth and rescue the royal sisters.
"Don't try to save us!" Pink Diamond told her. "You'll be captured too. Quick, head west! Find the Elder Guardians!"
The sinister-looking man approached Lapis with a large butterfly net gripped in his hands, the princess frightened by this adversary. But then, she saw her friends return on the scene and Peridot said to her, "We evacuated all the humans."
"We gotta get out of here." the fairy princess stated, much to the other fairies' confusion. "Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go!"
Jamie and the nine fairies bailed from the scene while trying to dodge snow monsters, but they came to the edge of a cliff, with the scary man on their heels. Lapis tried to use her magic to protect the ones she cared about, but Jasper had arrived to attack the escaping lot with her own magic. The princess's and witch's magic clashed and ended up knocking the group of ten over the cliff and into the river below screaming. The ten of them thrashed around to stay afloat in the river despite its perilously fast current, but then found themselves plummeting over a waterfall and out of sight from the male menace.
Of course what he was completely unaware of was that Lapis had created a protective bubble around herself, her husband, and her friends. Without it, the fairies and the human prince would not have survived the great fall.
"Is everyone alright?" the fairy princess asked when the bubble that protected the group emerged from the water and popped when it came in contact with the ground.
"Yeah, thanks to you, darling." Jamie answered, kissing his wife on the cheek.
"I can't believe this is happening!" Ruby said, freaking out.
"We gotta go back and put Jasper on ice for good." Amethyst proclaimed, full of confidence.
"And try to square off against those beasts and a fairy hunter?" Steven replied. "I don't think so."
"Well, what do we do now?" asked Pearl. "We can't go back after seeing what happened to the queens. And what about Lapis? With Jasper trying to capture her again, she needs protection now more than ever."
While the other eight fairies were conversing amongst each other, Lapis walked over to where the beach met the sea with her head down and her loosely clenched fists shaking. Prince Jamie joined her to silently comfort his princess.
"The Seven Prism Wand." she said, softly.
"The Seven what?" Amethyst questioned in puzzlement.
"That artifact the fairy queens talked about, the one that Jasper is looking for." the blue princess explained. "She said it had the power to do anything. Maybe if we find it, we can use it to undo all the damage that Jasper has done. So that's why Pink Diamond said to go find the Elder Guardians."
"Who are the Elder Guardians?" Steven asked.
"I honestly don't know." Lapis answered. "But, if anyone knows where to find the wand, it should be them. They're somewhere to the west."
"West?" Stevonnie echoed as the other fairies started looking tense. "But no fairy has ever gone that way before. Who knows what dangers there could be?"
"I know you're scared." the young princess said. "If you don't want to come, I totally understand. But, I also know that I can't find this wand or these guardians by myself."
"Well, you won't have to." Amethyst assured her. "We're all in this together."
"That's right." agreed Steven. "We'll be by your side every step of the way, Lapis."
The other fairies nodded in agreement, their courage glowing in their eyes. Jamie put an arm around Lapis' shoulder and the fairy princess smiled.
"Let's go find these guardians." Peridot proclaimed as the fairies started to fly west across the sea, with Jamie riding on Lapis' back.
Back in the fairy kingdom, Jasper was standing around impatiently, her arms crossed and her foot tapping. Around her, snow monsters were gathering all the sleeping captured fairies to put them in cages. Then, the fairy witch saw the frightening human return to her, shuffling his feet nervously and asked, "Well, where's the princess?"
"Gone." the human grumbled. "How could I have been so stupid? I can't believe the fairy princess escaped me!"
"I too am surprised." Jasper replied to him. "You're supposed to be the most notorious fairy hunter there is."
"Watch it, you witch." he snapped. "I'd clip your wings right now if you still had them."
"I can't let Lapis get the Seven Prism Wand or everything I worked for will be dashed." the wingless fairy snarled, malice glowing in her yellow eyes. "Help me track the fairy princess and her lousy friends or you won't get your pay. We will stop at nothing until she and that wand is in our grasp."
"Consider it done." the fairy hunter miserly. "Besides, how far can that little brat and her lackeys get on their own anyway?"