A/N You guys! You're all so sweet! I'll answer your reviews soon but I'm going to something called the HOBY conference in a couple days, so I'm a little busy. As requested, I have gone back and named each chapter, so take a look if you want. But anyways, here's the big reveal for the cliffhanger! (And fair warning, you all are probably not going to like the end of this chapter very much...)

A Find, A Loss

Madame Grey reeled in shock, steadying herself against the wall. "Whatever do you mean, you can't find her? I called everyone inside!"

In between sobs, Sunny blubbered, "She hada get da bawww!"

Madame Grey raised an eyebrow at Red.

"Sunny was playing a soccer game with Fern, Sky, and Amber," Red explained. "Apparently the ball rolled away and Sky went to go get it right as you called everyone inside."

The headmistress shook her head in disbelief. "But how did I not...? Never mind. I am afraid there is nothing we can do until the fog clears. We shall have to leave Sky outside and hope for the best."

At this, Sunny burst into a fresh wave of tears. "Nooooo! You gah go get huh!"

Red knelt down and stroked Sunny's fuzzy blonde head. "It's alright, Sunny. The fog will clear up in a few minutes. Besides, we don't really think the fog will hurt anyone. We're just staying inside to make sure."

This wasn't very comforting and Red knew it, but thankfully Sunny only sniffled and remained quiet.

"Well then," Madame Grey went on. "Strawberry, take Sunny back to the dormitories. Gather together some of the senior fairies and be prepared to search outside once the fog clears. And above all, keep the little ones quiet."

Red nodded, too preoccupied to object to the use of her real name, and left with Sunny in tow. Madame Grey stared after them for a moment, then shaking her head, hurried into her office and closed the door behind her.


Down in the basement, Roy was dusting a bookshelf and whistling. As Madame Grey's secretary, he usually never set foot in the majority of the Academy, since most of his jobs only required access to Madame Grey's office; as well as the basement, which, conveniently enough, could be entered from the office. So he spent nearly all of his time filing papers, fetching whatever items the headmistress required, paging senior fairies on the wand-based intercom to relay information from Madame Grey, and dusting and cleaning her office and the basement, like he was doing at this moment.

Now as you should have realized by now, Roy is one of the few male fairies that exists in Fairyland today. Most fairies are, of course, female, hence the gender stereotype that we humans have fashioned in regard to fairies. This includes all of the lower class (fairies born out of the pot for specific jobs and live for only 200 years, referring to the Rainbow Fairies and all other Academy fairies), most of the middle class (fairies that are born for long-term jobs and can live anywhere from 500 to 1000 years, like the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Fairy Godmother), and about half of the upper class (essentially meaning Fairyland's royalty, they can live up to and even longer than 10,000 years; among the royalty are King Oberon and Queen Titania, Madame Grey, and Jack Frost—yes, he is indeed part of the royal family, but we'll get to that much later.) Like all human royal families that have existed in the past and present, it is necessary for the royalty to have an equal number of males and females in order to preserve the royal family lineage and to ensure that there will always be both a king and queen on the throne. In regard to the middle class, some of Fairyland's vocations are better suited for a male fairy rather than a female fairy, so a male fairy is born every now and then to fill these needs. The middle class is what Roy was born into. (He was actually originally the Fairyland Architect, but on his 100th birthday he requested the king and queen's permission to live an alternative lifestyle. Shocked, Oberon and Titania refused and instead banished Roy from Fairyland. However, Madame Grey was only too happy to take him in as a secretary, rationalizing that, due to his interests, there would be no chance of him fancying her and thus creating a scandal.) As for the lower class, these fairies spend the most time in the human world in addition to Fairyland, and are all female because that is what humans expect them all to be. After all, should a human stumble upon a fairy, it would be much less shocking if that fairy were female rather than male. There are, naturally, several other older and more logical reasons for this, but they are so long and complicated that I will do you a favor by not explaining them all to you.

So, back to Roy. As he moved on from the bookshelves to dust the boxes, Roy stopped whistling and began muttering to himself in his half-crazed fashion. "So I figgers, them king and queen oughta be nice enough so's to understand my condition, see. T'ain't my fault I wuz born that way. So I goes up to that there royal palace and I tells 'em, your majesties, sez I, I been livin' a lie since I wuz born, an' I gotta come outta that there closet sometime, so I figgers maybe—whoopsies!" Roy interrupted himself as he tripped over a toy train lying on the ground, the very same that Inky had broken nearly half a year ago. Snorting, he picked it up and began to dust it. "'Course you gotta get in me way, now doncha. Might as well dust ya. Now where wuz I...? Oh yeah! So I sez, maybe you be kind 'nuff to gimme leave to live as I may please. And what sez they? Them majesties sez, oh no, that's not legal, we gotta get poor ol' Roy outta here...whoa..."

Roy trailed off as he happened to look up at the basement window. Setting down the train on top of a box, Roy slowly walked as if in a trance over to watch the swirling blue mist. Even a partially mentally impaired fairy such as Roy understood that this was a spell and should be avoided, but that didn't mean it wasn't pretty to watch.

Then without warning, the mist slowly began to dissipate. Roy could now barely make out the evening sky, the opposite dirt wall, what might have been a soccer ball—and a figure, slumped over against the window pane.

"Oh deary dear," Roy gasped. "Somebody's got themselves caught out in it. I's best be telling the Ma'am!" Quickly he turned around to make for the other room in the basement where the staircase was. "Ma'am Grey—oof!" he slammed right into Madame Grey herself.

"Ah, I see you have discovered the fog," she said, nodding at the window. "Well done on shutting the window tight. It was a rogue spell by Jack Frost, but the Academy is safely sealed shut."

"Yeah, but Ma'am Grey, lookie here!" Roy pointed at the window pane. The mist had almost completely gone by now, and Sky's slumped figure was clearly visible alongside the soccer ball.

Madame Grey let out a little cry and hurried forward. "Oh no, that is why I did not see her!" She turned back to Roy. "Sky was trapped outside when the spell came, and I did not know! Here, Roy, the fog is long gone. Help me to open the window and get her inside!"

"Yes, Ma'am Grey!" Roy replied with a salute. Going to either side of the window, the two fairies each grabbed an edge of the sill and pulled. (In her panic, it did not occur to Madame Grey to use her wand, and Roy had had his taken away in his exile.) Finally the window popped open, and Sky tumbled down into Roy's open arms. She was uncomfortably light, he noticed, and it was no trouble at all to hold her in one arm while he used the other to grab the soccer ball and set it on a nearby box.

"Come, we must take her to the infirmary," Madame Grey called over her shoulder as she bustled away. Roy trotted after her.


"Can we go see Sky now?" Ruby asked Madame Grey the next morning after breakfast. "You said we could after we're done eating."

Madame Grey pursed her lips. "Yes, so I did," she answered, deep in thought. "Sky still has not awoken yet, so if you were expecting to talk to her, I am afraid you will be disappointed."

"That don't matter!" Inky interjected. "We still gotta go see if she's alright!"

The headmistress glanced at Red, who nodded. "Very well," Madame Grey said, tucking a loose strand of silver hair behind her ear. "Red will take you to the infirmary."

Eagerly the little Rainbow Fairies hopped out of their seats and got in line behind Red, who led them out of the dining room. Only Amber hung back uncertainly.

"You too, Amber," Madame Grey sighed. "You must stay with the group." Sulking, Amber hurried after her sisters, Madame Grey behind her.

Down in the infirmary, the little girls and their mentors clustered around the sickbed where Sky was lying, still unconscious. Sunny looked especially worried, but she managed to hold herself together, squeezing Lemon's hand for support. After the fog had cleared the night before, Madame Grey and Roy had rushed into the dormitory hall on the way to take Sky to the infirmary. Red was then given the exhausting task of getting the rest of her mentees to bed: "Yes, Roy is a boy fairy. Yes, they do exist, remember King Oberon? Yes, that's Sky, and yes, she's unconscious. That means she can't wake up. No, Sky will be alright! No, I don't know what the fog did to her. No, you'll be able to see her in the morning. Right now, you all need to get to bed. Come on, into your room. No Sunny, I told you, you can see her in the morning. Look how Amber's obeying and getting ready for bed. Now come on, you've had a long day. In you go." Once she had tucked them into bed and shut the door behind them, Red immediately started off toward the infirmary, but had to stop when she heard a click behind her. "Inky, what have we told you about sneaking out of your room? Get back to bed. Look, I know you're worried about Sky, but I promise you can see her in the morning. Right now it's way past your bedtime. You are too sleepy, I just saw you yawn. Now go to sleep. You'll see her in the morning."

When Red had finally managed to get Inky back to bed, she had immediately flown to the infirmary to find Lemon, Autumn, and Silk the Mouse Fairy (A/N Forgot to mention earlier, but she and Satin are senior Pet Fairies, like Velvet. The types of pets vary from generation to generation, so sometimes you'll have Mouse and Parakeet Fairies rather than, say, Bunny or Hamster Fairies.) bending over a thin, pallid figure lying on a sickbed. Blueberry was kneeling on the floor, clasping Sky's pale, dainty hand in hers. Lemon had looked up and said, "The spell's going to take some time to wear off. We don't know how long, but there's nothing else we can do but wait."

"Bertram went back to Fairyland to try and figure out exactly what kind of side effects the spell will have," Silk added softly, stroking her pet mouse Cashmere worriedly. "I think he said he'd be back in the morning."

Well, it was morning now, and sure enough there was Bertram standing off to one side, talking quietly to Blueberry. Red went over to him. "Did you find out anything more about the fog?" she whispered, not wanting her mentees to hear.

Bertram nodded and took off his spectacles to polish them, exposing his bloodshot and dark-circled eyes. "I did, as a matter of fact. As I was just explaining to Miss Blueberry here, the king and queen contacted Jack Frost while I was here last night. As it so happens the whole incident was completely an accident. Jack Frost was merely intending to, as he put it, 'teach two of his goblins a lesson for being disobedient'. He said he was trying to cast a spell that would permanently physically deform them, but the spell got out of control and spread throughout his realm as well as all of Fairyland."

Red snorted. "Bet anything he's lying. But accident or not, it's still his fault."

"Yes, Miss Stra—er, Red, I made sure that he was aware of that. Now, when I contacted the Sugar Plum Fairy to see if the fog had reached the Land of Sweets, she said no it hadn't, so we know it did not spread past the Lemonade Ocean." He put his spectacles back on and added wryly, "One good thing that comes out of this is that all of the goblins were affected. Remember how much of a nuisance they were because of how silently they could sneak around and cause pranks? Well, the spell gave them all oversized feet and hands, gangly limbs, and enormous ears."

"So not only do they have trouble walking, but now they're sensitive to loud noises?" Red laughed quietly as Bertram nodded. "That is funny." But then she thought of Sky. "You said the spell would cause physical deformities. Were any fairies affected?"

Stroking his froggy chin, Bertram replied, "No, not in Fairyland. We had enough advance warning to get everyone inside the palace. But about Miss Sky over there, I would not be terribly concerned. Spells always affect different creatures differently, so it would not give Sky large feet or ears. And the fog was much thinner here than it was in Fairyland, so if Sky does become physically deformed in some manner, it will be temporary and not nearly as severe."

"But this is Sky we're talking about!" Blueberry protested in a barely-controlled whisper. "This is the girl who vomited day and night from the common cold—at the age of two! Everything is always more severe for her than it is for the average fairy!"

Bertram laid a webbed hand on the senior Blue Fairy's shoulder reassuringly. "Miss Sky will be alright, Miss Blueberry. You will see."

As if on cue, Inky suddenly shouted, "Look, I think she's waking up!"

Red whirled around and rushed to the bedside. Sure enough, Sky blinked her eyes open and groggily reached for her pillow, then promptly whacked Inky in the face. "Stop shouting," she mumbled, rolling over and clamping the pillow over her head. "I'm twying to sleep."

Everyone laughed. "Welcome back, Sky," Lemon said.

Sky raised her head and propped herself up on one elbow. "Blue fog...what happened?"

"You were caught outside in a dangerous spell," Madame Grey explained. "Do you feel well?"

"Mm, I think so," Sky responded, sitting up. "Nothing feels whong."

"Yay!" Sunny exclaimed, lunging forward onto the bed to give her sister a hug. As if to check to make sure that all of Sky was there, Sunny patted Sky's arms, legs, and back, while Sky laughed and told Sunny to stop tickling her. Then Sunny reached up and tousled Sky's hair.

Everyone blinked and gasped. Sunny jumped back as if her hands had been burned and scampered off the bed, then slowly looked down at the half ponytail that was caught in her fingers. "I din' do it!" Sunny cried, her eyes filling with tears. "I din' mean to! Honis'!"

Sky, meanwhile, hadn't reacted. Slowly reaching a hand up to her head, she barely tugged a lock of hair and silently watched as, painlessly and effortlessly, it pulled free of her scalp. With a blank, almost curious, expression on her face, Sky ran her fingers through the remainder of her hair and watched as it drifted down to rest on the pillow.

Red clapped a hand over her mouth in horror. A temporary physical deformity, she thought with dread as Blueberry rushed to Sky's side. So this is it. The most embarrassing deformity a girl could have, and it had to be Sky.

At the back of the group, unnoticed by anyone else, Amber smirked.

A/N Yeah, poor Sky. You all probably didn't like that, did you? Well, I had to make Sky lose her hair somehow, it'll explain something at the very end of the story. Also, speaking of Sky's hair, I haven't yet found a way to explain this yet in the story, so I'll just say it right now: as of right now, Sky's hair was NEVER curly. Not in the least bit. It has always been poker-straight, thin, and limp since she was born. Obviously that's going to change by graduation time, but for pretty much the whole of this story you all have got to picture her with straight hair.
Ta-ta for now!