Chapter 10
Note: the phrase "green collar" is used as the fairy version of "blue collar" in this chapter.
When Tinker Bell took the hammer during her arrival ceremony and it glowed brightly, the assembled fairies were stunned that her talent was greater than the talent of any other fairy in Pixie Hollow. From that moment on Vidia immediately and correctly perceived the little tinker as a threat, a threat to her title as the greatest and most talented fairy in all of Never Land. Vidia's highly inflated ego and sense of superiority could not accept this change in the reality and was lashing out at the tinker fairy to maintain Vidia's status quo.
Her machinations were leading Vidia down a path of self induced madness which resulted from her long standing cognitive dissonance, the unwillingness to accept the difference between how she perceived herself and the reality of who she really was. It was what drove her competitiveness, her vindictiveness and her isolationism. She simply could not and would not accept that some other fairy might be better than her. Vidia would look for some excuse or take some action to avoid having to accept the reality.
Vidia had moved directly against Tinker Bell by destroying the tinker's house, but was unsatisfied by the result. Tinker Bell did not wilt under Vidia's assault and left the fast flyer with the same problem she had before. So now Vidia was going to take extreme action against the tinker fairy to force Tinker Bell to accept Vidia's pecking order and allow the fast flyer to maintain her delusion.
"Well, well, well," Vidia taunted the captured tinker fairy, "I guess you aren't as talented as you think you are."
Tinker Bell reached out to grab the fast flyer, but Vidia stayed just out of reach. "Come here you home killer, I've got a few choice words for you."
"Oh, well, please, do tell."
"How could you do that?" Tinker Bell asked. "Why would you do that?!"
"I already told you," Vidia replied with irritation, "because of you I had to round up all the thistles."
"You did that to yourself, Vidia," the tinker fairy replied. "You set me up to fail. Fairies are supposed to help each other."
"Oh you bet I set you up to fail, Tinker Bell," Vidia said with a sneer. "I was the one who released the two you corralled."
Tinker Bell was shocked by this admission. She had always thought that the two thistles had gotten out by themselves and that she had made a mistake in the design. "You mean, my idea worked? I could have captured the thistles? That's great."
What? Grrr…, why does she keep turning things the other way? She really is a goody two-wings.
"No, I mean that you were always supposed to fail," Vidia said. "That's what I wanted you to think of yourself: that you were an epic failure. And do you know why? Because I'm the greatest, most talented fairy in all of Pixie Hollow and Never Land."
"It must really eat you up inside that I have more talent than you."
"YOU AREN'T MORE TALENTED, TINKER BELL! I DON'T CARE HOW BRIGHT YOUR HAMMER GLOWED."
"I am more talented than you, Vidia, get over it."
"YOU DON'T COUNT! You're just a lousy tinker and tinkers don't count. You're not even a real talent," Vidia finally admitted.
"Then why bother?"
"Because everyone else thinks you're so special." Vidia began to flit back and forth as she started to describe to Tinker Bell just what she thought of the tinker guild and its membership. "Tinkering is not a real talent. Fairy talents use magic and inherent skills to do something that no other guild can do. Tinkers, my dear, don't fit that description one bit."
"We are a real talent, Vidia. Why else is there a hammer whenever a new fairy arrives?"
Vidia answered by continuing her diatribe. "All you do is swing a hammer around, or tie knots. You cut, you saw, you mill, you weave, you do things that any fairy in Pixie Hollow can do. That's why you aren't a talent. That's why you shouldn't even be counted as a fairy."
"What?! We are fairies. Look at our wings. We use pixie dust just like you."
"Don't make me laugh, Tinker Bell," Vidia answered with a fearlessly indignant tone. "Fast flyers use magic to create breezes and winds. Garden talents use pixie dust to grow and talk to plants. Water talents use magic to draw water out of the air and to help fish and tadpoles learn to swim. Animal talents use magic to help them talk to and manage the animals. Light talents use magic to capture sunlight and create rainbows."
Tinker Bell continued to turn darker and darker shades of red. "Don't make me angry, Vidia," she said, "you wouldn't like me when I'm angry."
Vidia paused for a second so she could pinch Tinker Bell's cheek and said, "Well aren't you just the cutest." This was a gesture meant to be demeaning and dismissive.
Then she resumed. "But you would know all about that, Tinker Bell, wouldn't you? You tried all of those talents yourself and couldn't do any of them. You know why? Because those guilds need magic, tinkers don't."
"Yes we do!"
"No you don't. Those clumsy humans on the mainland can do the same things your guild can do. They don't need magic to cut things down or hammer something together. They don't require pixie dust to weave baskets or tie knots. So, do you know what that makes you, Tinker Bell? A clumsy human with wings; which is why you and your guild don't matter." This was one the excuses Vidia had made up decades ago so she could alter reality to match her self perceptions.
Tinker Bell was appalled and outraged by what Vidia was saying. No fairy had ever voiced such utter contempt for another guild. Hearing these rants against her tinker friends only made Tinker Bell more livid. She clawed and flailed and pushed against everything and anything to get loose from that tree bark. Her feet would finally gain some traction, but then slide off. Her wings were pinched in the knot hole and she couldn't use them to free herself. Tinker Bell then tried another approach to her problem.
"If anyone can do it, then why don't you try it, Vidia?" Tinker Bell spat out.
"Because I have better things to do with my time then lowly manual labor," she said. "That's what creatures like you are for. You do the dull, menial, mindless work in your little hole below the ground while the rest of us use our talents to do important things above the ground."
"So you do need us," Tinker Bell said with a smile. "I guess we're more important than you care to admit, just as important as yours or any other talent guild."
"You're nothing but green collar manual labor, Tinker Bell, and don't you ever forget that," Vidia roared. "But you don't know when to take a hint, do you? I've been trying to keep you in line since you got here, but you don't seem to want to stay put. So now I'm going to try a different tactic."
Vidia flew down and flitted around the tree trunk examining the bark. She found what she wanted; a piece of bark with one end that was narrow, but widened on the other side. Vidia took hold of it and pulled it until the chunk snapped off. She checked it over to make sure she got what she wanted. Satisfied Vidia flew back up to Tinker Bell and put the piece of bark right in front of her as if on display.
"You see this?" Vidia asked with a wicked smile on her face. "Clumsy human parents use something just like this to put their disobedient children in their place. Well now I'm going to use it to put you in your place."
"Are we getting any closer?" Clank asked the others.
"Let me take a look on ahead," Terence said. He flew out of view for a few seconds. When he came back he looked terribly distraught. "It's the boundary to spring; we've been going in circles."
"Oh no, now what'll we do?" Rosetta said with a tremble in her voice.
Silvermist flew above the foliage and started to yell. "Tinker Bell, Tinker Bell where are you?"
Moments later her friends joined her.
"Tinker Bell, Tinker Bell where are you?" Tink didn't hear Silvermist, she was too worried thinking about what Vidia intended to do with that piece of broken tree bark. The fast flyer suddenly zipped out of view.
"Where are you, Vidia? What are going to do?"
"You'll see," she replied. "Or rather, you'll feel it."
Vidia landed just inches away from Tinker Bell's unprotected bottom. "All too easy."
"Vidia, stop," Tinker Bell protested.
"Oh no, I haven't even started yet." Vidia spat into her hands then took the narrow end of the tree bark chunk and took a few practice swings with it, lining up the arc with her target: Tinker Bell's rump.
"Vidia, don't do this!" Tink yelled out. She began to push harder to get out, apparently having figured out what Vidia intended.
"When you got me stuck catching all those thistles you also confined me to this island," Vidia spoke. "You went to the mainland when I should have gone. Instead I got scratched and cut and poked in every place possible while trying to catch those awful weeds. So here is my payback."
"You've already destroyed my house and wiped out my life's work what more do you want?"
"I want you to admit that I'm better than you!" Vidia bellowed. "And I don't want you to show me up ever again."
"I can't do that. I have to be what I am, the best tinker I can."
"Well then, I hope you don't mind not sitting for a week."
"VIDIA, NO!"
"This is for going to the mainland in my place!" Vidia stepped forward and took a huge swing.
WHOOMP!
"VIDIA, STOP, VIDI-YAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" the tinker fairy cried out when she was struck squarely in her bum.
"This is for making me catch all those thistles!" Once again she swung. WHOOMP!
"VIDIA! STOP! DO-AAAAAAAAAAAAGGH!" Tinker Bell started moving and squirming trying to get free. "Vidia, stop what you're doing. Just stop."
"And this, my dear," Vidia continuned, "is for thinking that you're better than me!" Vidia took a HUGE swing, gathering all her speed and strength into the bark turned paddle and smacked the tinker fairy right in her backside. WHOOOMP!
This time Tinker Bell didn't scream or make a sound. She was eerily quiet.
Vidia set the tree bark down and flitted around to confront her rival, hoping to find her pouting and ready to concede. What she saw was the complete opposite. Tinker Bell had turned an intensely deep shade of red. Not just in her face, but her arms and body and legs. The bark holding her in place literally began to smolder.
She had pushed Tinker Bell beyond anger, beyond rage, beyond fury and into the stratosphere of unhinged blood-lust. This was a point where Tinker Bell's anger so completely overrode her moral compass that it made Tink capable of any act of violence toward anyone no matter how potentially dangerous or lethal. Never had Tinker Bell been so impossibly furious (and she wouldn't be again until, when flying with Peter Pan some years later, he would invite that Wendy girl back to Never Land).
Vidia simply went numb. She began to flit backwards, away from Tinker Bell whose eyes were burning holes right through Vidia's soul. The fast flyer couldn't run and couldn't look away. She felt like prey staring down a predator. Unwilling to leave or turn away for fear that it would strike at the first opportunity.
Tinker Bell's feet finally found solid purchase, the knot holed bark began to crack and pop. Vidia moved further and further away from the monster she had created.
"Tink," she tried to say in a calm and appeasing voice. "I was only kidding. Okay? Don't take it personally."
The tinker fairy didn't care to hear it. Instead she could only growl out the words, "I'm going to tear the wings right off your back!"
The tree bark exploded, releasing the captured Tinker Bell and prompting Vidia to hurry out of the forest and across the sky, flying as fast as her fast flyer wings could push her. Tinker Bell followed screaming like bloody murder at the top of her lungs.
The small band of fairies heard the screeching from above and looked up to see a yellow light streaking across the sky leaving a pixie dust trail in its wake. At an increasing distance behind it was a ridiculously bright red light following behind. It was screeching and screaming and cursing as it did.
"What is that?" Silvermist asked.
"It's Tinker Bell," Terence answered with an astonished tone. "I've never seen her so angry."
"She looks like she could kill poor Vidia," Rosetta said.
"Poor Vidia?" Silvermist replied in disbelief. "When did she suddenly become 'Poor Vidia?'"
"That doesn't matter right now, we need to stop Tinker Bell before she does something she'll regret." He flew off to try and intercept the red glowing light. The others followed his lead.
The fast fairy was indeed fast this day, her body piercing through the air at speeds even Wisp could only dream of. Vidia then dove into the trees to conceal her movements. She sliced through groves and forests, slid between branches and leaves before finally coming to a distant pasture. Here Vidia opened the grass covered trap door to a hawk shelter and zipped into the darkness. This is where she waited, curled up against the far wall watching the tiny pin pricks of light that were created by closed trap door and hoping that Tinker Bell wouldn't find her here. Even an irate Queen Clarion would be preferable by a factor ten.
So Vidia waited, her heart filled with dread and anxiety, her arms and legs shaking, sweat beading down her face and neck. She waited and waited and waited some more, tracking the time by the slow crawl of light on the shelter floor. All the while hoping, even praying to the second star that Tinker Bell would never find her.
After the queen had heard every detail she remained oddly silent for several minutes. Fairy Mary could see just how disturbed and upset she was.
Finally, Queen Clarion spoke, taking action to end this pointless rivalry once and for all. "Ministers," she called out to them.
"Yes, your highness," each one said as they approached her.
"Vidia has done something most terrible and I need your help to assess the extent of her actions. I require each of you to go to your respective jurisdictions and learn all that she damaged in each season."
The ministers bowed and left for their regions. "Well, so much for a pleasant cup of tea," Hyacinth, the Minister of Spring said under his breath.
"Viola, attend me at once." The queen announced.
Viola, the queen's summoner, flitted in right away. "Yes, your highness. How may I serve you?"
"Find Lockheed of the fast flyers," the queen instructed. "Question him for every name of every fairy and sparrow man he knows who encountered or saw Vidia during the last two weeks. Then search each one of them out and have them report to me for witness testimony. Finally, bring me Rosetta, Silvermist and Terence. Gather the other summoners to complete this task."
"Yes, your highness, right away." Viola slipped out of the audience chamber and set off to complete her royal assignment.
"Fairy Mary," she said turning to her oldest and best friend, "I want you to question every tinker and bring me thorough witness testimony. I will also want a full accounting of everything that was damaged in Tinker's Nook."
"Yes, your highness." Fairy Mary left right away to collect all the information the queen requested.
Queen Clarion was left alone with her thoughts. Nothing I have done has been able to return my wayward flyer to our harmonious fold. Perhaps it is time to take far more drastic action. It may be time to show her the full consequences of her actions.
Hoo boy. I'm sure this will be the make or break chapter for this story. I do hope everyone has enjoyed reading this story thus far. There is plenty more to come.