The sounds of muffled voices were the first thing Vidia heard after what felt like only a few seconds of total blackness and silence. It was rather a disapointing feeling, actually. For those few seconds, it had been total bliss. She had been free of the troubles of the world around her. Deep down she had hoped that she would never have to wake up again. She had actually hoped that she had somehow been killed during the reverse growth, and that she would now be at peaace for all eternity.
But the voices around her were becoming more and more pronounced. It was starting to become easy to make out what they were saying. Vidia mostly heard stuff like "Is it an Animal-Talent?" and "50 smidges of Dust says it's a Scout." The rest remained unitelligible.
During the whole time she was out, Vidia had never lost her awareness of what it was she was doing. She had always remembered that her goal was to infiltrate the enemies ranks, become one with them, and then kill there Queen. She thought it would be much more like a coma state or something along those line, and when she came out of it, her memories would slowly come back to her. But she had always retained a bit of consiousness during her journey. It had still been relaxing and all, but she thought she would've been out cold for it. She supposed it was better this way, though. Now she didn't have to try and remember at all. That part was taken care of.\
Then, Vidia could feel her arms a legs beginning to expand from her, and a wave of terror swept over her. She had crealy broken all her limbs when she was being reversed. Would they still be broken when the grew back? As she began to feel her arms and legs take form, her terror melted away. They felt fine. Better than ever as a matter of fact. They felt stronger, more limber. It was as if she had been made more powerful by this whole process. Maybe she would look different too. She supposed that wold be a bit of a long shot though. She wasn't being reconstructed, after all. She was being reborn.
'Born again evil.' She thought to herself.
Shortly later, she felt her wings push through her back. They felt stronger as well. Maybe she would be able to fly even faster now. Then, she felt her mouth take form, and her nose and ears expanding from her. She opened her mouth and sucked in her first batch of fresh air. She felt two hole form in her nose. She sniffed the air, which was musty and stale. She was definitely indoors. Most likely she was in the Home Tree. Then, she felt her eyes bulge though her skull. She felt her hair flowing down from the back of her head, down past her mid-section to the ground. She could feel the soft floor beneath her. It was significantly more comfortable than the hard wooden platform that the Rebels had. She supposed that was good enough thing to keep her going... for now.
Soon, she felt completely formed. Every inch of her body ahd been recreated. Now, it was time to open her eyes. What was she going to see? Just how horriffic would things look here? Her eyelids slowly parted and the first thing she saw was a blur. It was just like the first time she was born. It would take a few seconds for her eyes to adjust. As the blur began to fade, she noticed several tall, imposing figures standing around her. They all seemed to be wearing black. They were obviously gaurds and soldiers. Vidia could still barely make them out and they were already very intimidating.
The blur cleared more and more, and soon she was able to see as well as she possibly could. She looked around the room, knowing that she had to try and pass herself off as curious, and at the same time full of wonder and amazement. She had to act like she had no idea what was going on or who these fairies were,like she had during her first birth. She tried to force a smile, but she felt it came out more as a herpa-derp smile than a full of excitement smile.
One of the guards stepped forward, and Vidia turned to look at her. The guard looked down at Vidia with a stern scrutinizing expression, as if she were trying to figure her out. Vidia glanced around at the other guards, and they were all giving her similar looks. She figured they were probably wondering if she was an Animal Talent, so they could enjoy themselves as they murdered her. They seemed to take pleasure in those kinds of acts, and that idea gave Vidia a chill that ran down her spine, which no longer had the aches and pains that her bed back at the Rebel camp had given her. It was like she had a new one.
Then Vidia took a glance around at her new home, and she had some serious trouble believing what she was seeing. She was in a very elegant, very large hollowed out area of the massive Home Tree. It was well lit and had beautiful decorations carved into the wood. They almost appeared to be as old as the Tree itself. Vidia had hlaf expected this place to be as gloomy and depressing as the rest of Pixie Hollow. She thought these fairies were the kind that liked creepy gothic settings, or anything else along those lines. But what she was seeing was not only beautiful, but relaxing as well. It set her mind at ease, and made her feel more comfortable. Maybe this wouldn't be as emotionally taxing as she thought it would be. With a nice setting like this, it was kind of hard to feel depressed. Vidia was so mesmerized by her surrounding that she didn't hear the guard, who had been asking for her name for the past half-minute.
"NAME!" She eventually had to shout, and it was enough to make Vidia jump a bit.
"What? Oh, um, name..." Vidia stuttered.
"Search your mind!" The guard snapped at her.
Vidia thought for a moment. Clarion had told her that she didn't need to change her name, but at the same time, it seemed like a pretty good idea. If she wanted to be called something different for the rest of her life, now was the time to make sure that could happen. She must've been the first fairy that ever got the oppertunity to do this kind of thing. But truthfully, she quite liked the name "Vidia." Something about it just really clicked with her. It sounded like the perfect name for the fastest fairy who ever lived. She would stick with it.
"Viida. My name's Vidia." She answered after a while.
"Talent?" The gaurd asked in her highly irritable voice.
"Fast-Flyer." Vidia answered instantly.
Some mumbling came from the gaurds surrounding her, who numbered more in the hundreds. Some of it was hard to make out, but Vidia could easily hear some disgruntled groans in the crowd. Probably angry that she wasn't an Animal Talent. But a majority of the mumbling sounded much more intrigued than angered. As if they were impressed by thee fact that they had a Fast-Flyer.
The guard looked over Vidia a bit longer. She still appeared to be evaluating her. After a few minutes, she spoke again.
"Stand." She oredered sternly.
Vidia slowly rose to her feet. Her legs didn't feel as wobbly as they had during her first birth, but she tried to pretend that they were. She didn't want to take any chances of arousing too much suspicion. The gaurd didn't even bother to exdtend a hand to help her up.
"Turn around." The gaurd ordered once Vidia was stable.
Vidia did as she was told. She felt the gaurd grab her wings and give them a slight tug. She felt as though she were testing them, looking them over. Vidia hoped that would be the only part of her body that this fairy would be "testing."
After a few more tugs, the guard grabbed Vidia by the shoulders and forcefully spun her around. She continued to look over her new arrival, eyeing her up and down. Vidia glanced around at the other guards and soldiers, who were all watching with slightly amused expressions. Vidia couldn't help but feel a tad embarassed by all this. Honestly, did all new arrivals have to put up with this? It was almost insulting! And the fact that this had to be done in the presence of a large group, the majority of which were made up of sparrow-men, made it even worse! Vidia swore that the second she heard any cat calls or hooting from the crowd, she was gonna lose it and massacre every last one of them!
Eventually, though, the gaurd turned from her and walked away.
"Follow me." She said over her shoulder.
Vidia followed. The crowd parted for them as they made there way out of the area. Vidia gauged their expressions, and they were all giving her the same looks that they had been since she first opened her eyes: curiosity and confusion, or, at least she thought it was confusion. They somehow seemed perplexed about something, but it was impossible to tell why.
Once they were clear of the crowd, the guard flittered her wings and was airborne. Vidia was worried for a moment that she would not be able to follow since she had just been born, and her wings might not be ready for flight just yet. But surprisingly when she flittered her wings, she was instantly in the air. Maybe the guard tugging on them earlier was what gave the ability to fly so soon.
Vidia followed the guard up through the brightly lit branches of the Home Tree, ducking and weaving them as she went. Behind them a few more guards followed, probably as curious to see what was going to happen as Vidia was. They soon reached their destination: a large branch which seemed to be in the upper echelons on the Tree. When Vidia landed next to the guard, her breath was nearly taken away but what she saw. The view of Pixie Hollow along with the raging storm above it was among the most awe-inspiring things she had ever seen.
Pixie Hollow, though it was dark and gloomy looking, stretched farther than she thought she could see. She could easily make out all the different villages and living areas that made it up. There seemed to be hundreds of them, most likely one for each talent guild. It made Vidia wonder just how many different talents there were in the fairy world.
She wasn't able to enjoy the view for long though, because her attention was quickly snapped back to the guard, who had stepped up in front of her and forced her to make eye contact.
"Your name's Vidia and you're a Fast-Flyer. Is that correct?" The guard asked.
Vidia couldn't find her voice. A slight wave of painc rose in her. What if they had seen her when she was escaping Tinkers Nook, and now they were going to throw her off the tree or something. Hesitently though, she nodded, praying that she hadn't just sealed her doom. The guard simply nodded back and began to pace in front of her.
"Welcome to Pixie Hollow then, Vidia." She said. "My name's Maria."
She didn't pronounce it as 'muh-re-ah' though. It was 'mar-ey-ah', like Mario, but with an 'ah' at the end. She didn't give Vidia a chance to say anything though as she continued speaking.
"I take it you were expecting to be taken to a nice little home and use your talent to make the seasons come and go and live a happy care-free fairy life or something, am I right?"
Vidia, knowing she had to play her part convincingly, gave a sheepish smile and nod. Maria gave her a disgusted look in return.
"Well I've got news for you, Vidia," She said nastily. "I'm afraid you've managed to arrive at a very dark time for our beloved home. These tasks of changing the seasons are simply not an option at the moment. In fact, it's been centuries since we've changed the seasons over on the Mainland, though the mainlanders don't seem to care much considering they're having similar problems over there. I'd explain to you what the Mainland is, but it's not important. What is important is what's happening here. Unfortunately, I'm not really the right person to be explaining it to you due to the fact that I haven't been here too long, myself. There is someone here who could explain better than I can, but before I take you to him, I want to see just what you're capable of."
"Oh-okay." Vidia said a bit shakily.
She did feel much more relieved though. Apparently they hadn't seen her before, so she could now rest easy in that thought. Maria pointed out into a random direction over Pixie Hollow.
"You say you're a Fast-Flyer? Well now we want to see just how fast you are." She said. "You're going to fly out to that tall elm tree at the edge of Winter Woods there. Do you see it? Good. Now as I was saying, you're gointo fly to that tree and back here as fast as you can. understand?"
Vidia stared out at the area Maria was pointing at. She could barely make out an elm tree that appeared to be taller than the others. It was covered in snow, so Vidia assumed that she definitely looking towards this Winter Woods place. She didn't know if it was exactly where she was pointing, but it seemed to be in the general area, so she figured she'd make that her destination.
"Um, alright then." Vidia said nervously.
She moved into position at the edge of the branch and prepared to take off. But before she could, Maria grabbed her arm and pulled her towards her.
"You seem rather nervous. Is there a reason why?" She asked cooly.
"Oh, it's just uh... I wasn't exactly expecting this." Vidia answered, trying to hide the fear in her voice.
Maria gave an angry sigh when she heard this.
"We get that same story from every new arrival, and to be honest, I'm getting sick of it!" She groaned. "You have nothing to fear at this moment! Just do what I say, when I say it and we can get this over with!"
"Alright! Alright!" Vidia shouted back.
A collection of gasps came from behind her after her small outburst. the group of guards that had followed them seemed quite shocked by what she had just done. Maria had a look on her face that gave Vidia chills, but it wasn't enough to completely dispell the annoyance that was still inside her.
"You would do well to watch your tone when you talk to me, Vidia," She hissed. "You have no idea of the things I'm capable of, what the others here are capable of. Until we know how much you will come in handy to us, you, my dear, are our bitch. NOW DO WHAT I SAID!"
Vidia could barely contain the urge to knock this fairies jaw off. If there was one thing she WAS NOT going to put up with while she was here, it was being treated like this. Still, she managed to control her emotions by telling herself that they would all pay dearly in due time. She at least managed to give Maria a defient look before she turned back to the edge of the branch, and when she saw the beautiful view again, she instantly forgot the whole nasty affair.
Vidia took a few breaths before she took off. Now she would find out for she if she was any faster than she was in her first life, and it was her chance to try and earn a place in their army. She sucked in one last breath of air and took off.
She had to keep her eyes open for this flight as she needed to see where she was going. But that was proving to be impossible. The wind was pushing against her face so hard that it was forcing her eyelids shut. She had to stop so she could find out where she was. She managed to, and when she saw where she was, her heart lept. She was all the way down by the coast again. She had completely overshot her destination, and she had only been flying for about five seconds. She had to have been about at least twenty times faster than she had been before. Now there was no doubt that she indeed the fastest fairy who had ever existed. She turned herslef back in the direction she had come and took off again. She counted to five in her head and stopped. By pure luck, she was right next to the Home Tree branch that she had taken off from.
She landed and took a moment to gauge the reactions of the guards. It was almost comical. They were staring at her slack-jawed and bug-eyed. A lot of them had had their helmets blown off and their hair was all unkempt. She gave them all a satisfied smile before turning to Maria. Though her expression wasn't quite as over the top, she still looked genuinely impressed, and even managed to give Vidia a small smile in return.
"I think we may have lucked out with you, Vidia." She said. "Now, if you'll come with me, we can get you properly aquainted with our little land mass. Her Highness will definitely want to know about you as well, an I'll see to it that she does."
Maria took off for the lower section of the Tree, and Vidia followed. As they moved through the large crowd of guards and soldiers that had followed them, she could easily make out some of their ramblings.
"Fastest thing I'd ever seen!"
"A flash! Thats all I saw! A flash!"
"Those Rebels are in for it now!"
Vidia could barely contain her smugness. But it was short-lived. She reminded herself that these people were evil, and that she didn't want to take their opinions of her to heart. She was going to end them, after all. Sure she would have to pretend to be them, but she wouldn't lose herself to them.
'Born again evil.' She thought to herself again.
Creed's last words to her echoed through her mind as she continued onwards. Playing by the rules of the life one chose to lead. She was about to break those rules. Even though it wouldn't be for real, it would only be an act, it still got to her.