She was in the middle of reviewing the spring restorations when the Minister of Autumn came flying over frantically.
"Queen Clarion! Queen!" he screeched and stumbled into a landing.
Fairy Mary startled and Clarion caught her arm. "What is it, Minister?" Clarion asked calmly.
His hands fluttered about nervously. "The fall...the leaves...fire!"
"What?!" Clarion spun around to her guards. "Bernard, quickly." Bernard scooped her up, and they followed the minister.
She could smell the smoke before she saw it. It was on the border. And winter was melting quickly. Milori and other fairies were building stone and ice walls frantically while the warm water fairies were trying to pour water from the river onto the flames unsuccessfully.
"What happened?" Clarion called to Autumn.
"We don't know!" he screeched.
They landed and she instantly assessed the situation. Several trees were engulfed in flames, threatening to spread through autumn. Milori met her eyes, and she saw that his own and his fairies' skins were damp from the heat as they worked.
"Water fairies!" she called. They all flew over, their own brows damp from effort. "Soak the other trees and grasses so it doesn't spread!" she yelled over the roaring fire.
The fairies redirected the river to become a sprinkler around the lapping flames.
Clarion ran across a log to where Milori was directing the winter fairies. She touched his back. "You must take them deeper into winter."
He turned, his skin almost as pink as hers. "We need everyone to contain this. It's spreading." He pointed to where evergreens were catching on fire. "This is not a normal fire," he said with troubled eyes.
"Untie me." She presented her back to him where her wings were tied down yet.
"What?"
"Untie me!"
"No! You-"
"Do not argue with me!" she practically shouted.
He cursed, to her surprise, and pulled out a knife to slice the ropes.
She bit her lip as her stiff wings opened for the first time in weeks.
"Queen Clarion!" Bernard yelled. Warm fairies were collapsing from the smoke, and cold fairies were dropping from the heat.
She turned to Milori. "I'm not strong enough. Get in ice water. I need you to get me up-you have the strongest wings."
He didn't question her but jumped into what was left of the icy river and crawled out with the help of Sled and Gliss. They worked quickly to frost Milori, and then he shot at her. He soared with her into the sky, as close to the flames as he dared and held her around her waist.
Summoning a hoard of Pixie dust from the tree, the air glistened as the dust came toward them. "Let go!" she called over the crackling roar of the flames.
"No, you'll-"
"I'll get too hot! Let go!"
He released her and her wings started beating in slow, powerful strokes, gradually speeding up the closer the dust came to her. Milori dropped down lower, ready to catch her if she fell.
She lifted her arms, the dust spreading out like a gorgeous thin blanket.
The fairies looked up, and the Queen was later described as a light as bright as the sun when she took all of the pixie energy from the tree into her body.
Clarion struggled to control the power, waiting for it to peak at it's greatest strength. And then she flung her arms down, the Pixie dust slamming onto the flames to smother them instantly.
The force carried her down with it, slamming her down into Milori. They hurled through the air toward the icy river. He flapped frantically but the velocity was too much. He flipped under her, working to untangle with her and held onto her waist, trying hard to stop them. "Flap!" He held her back in hopes of supporting it.
She was only able to give one hard flap before he flung her sideways through the air, and he crashed through the ice of the river.
She slid across the snow on her side, instantly creating ice because her body was so hot yet. Clawing at the snow, she finally gained traction and was able to stop. She scrambled to her feet and ran toward the river where everyone was gathering, her wings too exhausted to fly again. She dropped to her knees and looked into the hole.
"Sled dove in after him," Gliss said from beside her.
"But water is good for winter fairies, right?" She looked at Gliss with wide eyes.
"Unless if he crossed into the warm side," she said, pointing over a handful of inches to the right of where Milori crashed in.
"Water fairies!" Clarion called. "Raise the river. Now!"
The warm water rose, leaving only the frozen half in the ditch.
In the mud at the bottom lay Milori, unconscious on his back.