Hi everyone, here's the next chapter! Since I didn't publish anything last week, I made this one extra large :) I hope you enjoy the reading!

Old good alchemy

Watching the alchemists work was always like seeing a dance. Not only in the lab, but especially when they came out of it to actually use the powders they had been researching on. And in this occasion, with a piano as the material for experimenting, the show was surely going to be wonderful. "Almost as good as seeing James get shrieked." thought Tinkerbell, and then she looked at James, who had taken sit prudently away. Zarina had already told him that he probably couldn't dwarf much more than he already had, but he didn't seem convinced.

After some time, the three alchemists, who had been talking to ultimate the last details, flew over the piano and stood in mid-air above it's centre, ready to start.

"When you say, Tink." shouted Zarina to her friend, who was holding the rope tied to the ceiling, in case it broke. At her cue, the show began. Parting from the same spot, the three of them went in different directions. Zarina went up in circles, sprinkling the dust over the piano's top, Ria and Lonny went down, also in circles, the first one covering the keys of the instrument and the other sprinkling the powder on it's legs. The two of them whirled to the left, while Zarina whirled clockwise, and every time their paths crossed the same spot of the circle, all the dust they had thrown shone at the same time. Looking at it from where Tinkerbell was, that is to say from above, the trail that the shrinking dust left behind formed a shining spiral, coming close to it's top.

The alchemist's speed started to increase, faster and faster with each turn, and the shining that had started as a throbbing of the powder became more intense, until a dazzling light blinded the audience, a glaring flash which wrapped the piano, swallowing it.

When they opened their eyes again, there was a big void in the middle of the room, and the now small instrument hanged from the ceiling, swinging calmly above their heads. Such a big and impressive thing it had been, and now it looked more like a innocent toy. James thought that this transformation was bitterly similar to what had happened to him, and that made him feel uncomfortable, but he had to admit that the magic of the pixie dust never ceased to amaze him.

"We did it!" exclaimed Lonny enthusiastically. Terence helped Tinkerbell untie the ropes while Vidia and Iridessa flew below the piano to hold it until it touched the floor. Then they all landed and started to discuss how easy it had been. Tinkerbell was the last one to join the conversation, and she seemed far less joyful than the others, and when Zarina asked what was wrong, she said:

"It's just that I've had such a great time, and now that this adventure is coming to an end, it just feels too short."

"Well, I agree with that." thought James, who had suddenly realised that he would be back to his labours the moment they entered the Hollow. All the friends looked at each other, now with sad smiles, and then Zarina shook her head and put a hand on her friend's shoulder.

"Actually, i think that, since we'll be forced to return to our jobs once we arrive at home, it would be better if the piano was good as new for the time we get back." said she while winking conspiratorially.

"That's an excellent idea!" exclaimed Terence. "We can stay here for today, and that way we can depart when it's dark, it's always better to travel during night." They were now half laughing, as Tinkerbell started to cheer up. Iridessa was the only one who seemed worried.

"Are you serious?" asked the light fairy. "I think we should return as soon as possible. Did you forget that there are rats living here? I'm sure they don't like us wandering around their nest. And we told the Queen we would be back soon, and we haven't even thought what are we going to tell her, since we didn't actually search for the pirates…" She looked at Vidia, searching for a bit of backing, but the fast fairy seemed to have contradictory desires.

"The truth is, I wouldn't mind having a few more hours to fly around… I mean, maybe I can find something to tell the Queen within this ship…" Iridessa glared at her with a look that clearly said she felt betrayed, but Vidia wanted some more time of freedom before resuming her duties at home.

"Then it's decided!" said Tink, who had already recovered from her momentary depression. "James, help me out." Together with the pirate's help, they moved the instrument near the balloon, where the tinker's tools where, and started their work.

"See? This pieces go here, and we can attach that string there. It's in quite good shape, we only have to tie those strings, and there are a few keys loose, but it shouldn't take long." Tinker bell followed James's indications with genuine interest, it made him feel good. He liked doing manual jobs, because they were very reassuring, and he became so focused that he didn't even notice that the other fairies had approached them and were now observing their work. Even Vidia, who had sat on top of the balloon in an intent to demonstrate that she had no interest in the tinkers work, couldn't help but feel dazzled by the pirate's agility.

"We should get everything ready in the meantime." whispered Zarina to Terence, trying not to disturb the two workers. So the group split silently. Terence went to prepare lunch with Iridessa's help, whose powers were very useful to light a fire, and Zarina took her two helpers to the pile of treasures James had discovered. She hadn't been lying when she told James that she needed the gold for her experiments.

Vidia watched them from her spot, but she didn't make a move to ask if she could help. In fact, she tried to pass unnoticed, she didn't want to work, and no one called for her, maybe they thought she had already gone flying somewhere. It was true she had the intention of disappearing sooner or later to take a tour around the ship, but lying down on the cotton was good enough for now. She watched Tink and James work, until she fell asleep. That's why, apart from the rats which were watching from behind the floor's boards, no one heard the conversation between Tinkerbell and James, a conversation which was slowly moving away from it's initial subject.

"And how did Zarina end up in your boat?" This was the first piercing question, although it was far from being the first one of the conversation, and far from being the last. They had started talking about pianos, which had obviously led to James's childhood -with some of Tink's experience with instruments tangled in between- and bit by bit she had started to notice that this could be a good chance to interrogate James in more private issues. "You see, Zarina doesn't like talking about it, especially to us, and I'm curious."

"And what makes you think I feel comfortable explaining to someone how I managed to trick her friend into abandoning her home and joining the pirates?" replied James with sarcasm.

"Then simply omit as much dirty details as you can, just tell me how you met." said Think, trying to sound funny although he pissed her off. And so, James's tale started. He told her how one night, when they were still sailing the seas of Mainland, he had seen a glow at the ship's crow. He had climbed to it, and found a tiny fairy, thirsty and exhausted. Every pirate had heard almost once talk about those creatures, the same was they heard about mermaids or krakens, so he had immediately thought that having one near could be beneficial. Zarina had been unconscious at the time, because she hadn't stop flying since she parted with the trolls. When she had finally woken up, James had had time to warn all his crew and made up a fairly acceptable story about how him and his companions had been forced to sail the seas but hadn't made much of it, which he later changed for one in which their companions had chased them out of a bigger ship for disobeying the captain, this way Zarina could feel identified with them.

Tinkerbell listened to his story putting more interest into it than what she actually felt. She had already heard all that from Zarina, although it was true that she rarely spoke of it, only with Claude most of the times. What she really wanted was to see how the pirate truly felt about all of it, and to make a starting point to get a grasp of James's feelings.

"It didn't took much to convince her to be our captain after all that. The first months were the best, sailing from here to there and robbing whenever we had occasion. She continued with her investigations, sometimes she stayed awake all night, she could be very stubborn with that…" He suddenly seemed to realise he was saying too much, and stopped abruptly. "I'm sure you already know all that."

"Yeah, I suppose you had to take care of her so she didn't suspect you." He didn't answer. "Bull's-eye" thought she. "Just one thing I don't understand." James looked at her. "Why didn't you take her with you?" Now he had stopped working. "I mean, don't misunderstand me, I wouldn't want her being a pirate forever but, if you wanted her help, you could have always kept her with you."

"You mean I could have kept tricking her?" said him with his always mischievous smile.

"I mean… Did you ever think of keeping her as a part of your crew?" That was a tricky question, and James was slow to answer.

"That was the original plan, if the robbing of the blue powder went well. But since you guys intervened, we had to change it."

"Are you trying to say it was our fault? 'Cause that's not going to work."

"I'm just saying that once you knew Zarina was with us, you weren't gonna let her go like that. We didn't want you coming after us again so we had to get rid of her." Tinkerbell remained quiet for a moment, while she fixed one of the loose keys.

"So, you really planed on considering her equal to you or, at least, to your crew?"

"That's what I said." She didn't quite believe him, he sounded lie he was telling the truth, but he hadn't looked at her in the eye for a while now.

"Do you swear?" This time he looked at her. He seemed to doubt for an instant, and then he opened his mouth to answer, but in that precise moment Iridessa appeared in front of them, waiving her hand in between them to stop the conversation.

"Lunch's ready! I can't eat if you people don't come, so start walking." She was already pushing James towards the fire, ignoring her friend's words.

"Iridessa wait, I was asking him something…" but she had already dragged the pirate away.

"Does she always have to be so noisy?" asked Vidia, who had just been awaked from her nap. "Isn't she the one who's scared from the rats? It's like she's calling them."

…

Afternoon came and everyone returned to their stuff. Tinkerbell was still talking to Zarina, so James returned to the piano. He was trying to avoid the tinker in case she started asking again. He had no problem with lying, but swearing was a different thing. He had always stated that he was a man of his word, and he truly believed it.

Of course he had had no intentions of letting Zarina stay with them. The plan had been to abandon her from the start, if not something worse. To him, and to most of the pirates, fairies weren't considered people, that went without telling. He didn't even consider his men equals to him, how could they expect him to think that fairies were at his level, when they weren't even human? Zarina had always been the stupid fairy who trusted him and believed all the lies they told her, and he had only wanted her until they got the blue powder, nothing more. At least that's what he had thought back then, and it still applied to all the fairies he had met during the past weeks, to all except to Zarina. Tinkerbell and the others weren't more than steps for him to climb towards his victory, but Zarina was at a whole different level-not at his, of course- but she was taking too much importance in his story, to the point where he no longer knew how to continue it.

This change from two years ago, James was sure it was due to his size change. Zarina may have not thought about it, but by making him the same size as her, she hit a specially weak point.

"What's wrong?" Iridessa's question awoke him from his thoughts. He left the tools he had been using and turned around to see what was going on. Tinkerbell and Zarina were discussing something, and the others had just joined them.

"Nothing" said Tink. "I was just saying that we are almost finished here" she pointed at James. "so we'll be able to return before night falls."

"I would like to go visit my friends here one more time before we leave." said Zarina.

"That'll be difficult, we won't go trough the bridge this time." explained Terence.

"No, I was thinking of paying them a visit while you finish here."

"All alone?" Iridessa seemed to suddenly remember that they were in a dangerous place now that the sun was going down.

"Fine, do you want to come with me then?" said Zarina, obviously mocking her. The light fairy didn't like letting her friend go alone into a murky swamp but, in her opinion, trolls were still worse than rats, so she remained quiet. Another voice arose.

"I'll go." They all looked at Ria, who was happily standing by Zarina. She hadn't said much in the past days, even for her, so it took them by surprise, but Lonny didn't object, and Zarina had nothing to say against it, so she agreed.

They left immediately after packing a few things, just for precaution. The scenery outside wasn't as stunning as the day before, the sky was cloudy and the sea rough, warnings of storm, so they used a little extra pixie dust to fly faster.

"We won't be able to return tonight if it rains." said Zarina with worrisome.

"It won't rain." replied Ria carefully. She wasn't used to explaining herself, Lonny was the one to do it, but seeing Zarina's curiosity, she added: "This clouds look bad, but they don't bring rain. The only problem we could have is the sea fog." It was difficult to know how a fairy with no water powers could know about weather, but Ria usually made a lot of statements like that, and she was usually right, so Zarina nodded and continued to fly. "Some clouds look dangerous when they are not…" It was unusual for Ria to talk so much, but she only talked when she had something to say, so her friend listened intently. "…and some are dangerous although they look white and fluffy. Just like people."

"People are white and fluffy?" asked Zarina funnily, trying to ignore what was clearly a warning from her friend. Ria smiled for the joke, but she was serious. Zarina sighted and then she asked:

"Is James from the first or the second ones?"

"What do you think?" was the black haired fairy's response.

They reached the bridge without any further talking, Ria had already said what she had to, and Zarina was still thinking an appropriate answer. They landed on top of the bridge, but no troll appeared.

"Maybe they went to sleep." said Zarina. And then they heard a strange sound, like a squawk at first, but then more soft, as if someone was trying to sing, but they weren't really succeeding. The two fairies followed the disturbing song trough the swamp, to a small cave carved in an enormous and old tree.

"I can't concentrate if you keep screaming like that!" shouted a voice from the inside.

"Grimsley?" said Zarina. The singing stopped and the two trolls appeared, first Grimsley from the left of the entrance, then Leech from a room at the bottom of the tree.

"Zarina!" exclaimed them both.

"What brings you here?" asked Grimsley.

"Want some pudding? I'm making one right now." said Leech, who was holding a bowl full of a sticky substance.

"No… thanks. I came to say goodbye, we are departing tonight."

"So soon?" The small troll seemed disappointed.

"Don't be a pain in the ass, Leech. They have their things to do back at their island, you can't expect for them to remain here for all eternity."

"A few decades would be enough…" replied he.

"Ignore him, he's not happy until he pisses someone. Anyway, I've got something I would like to show you. You said you were an alchemist now, so you need a lot of ingredients, don't you?" The fairies looked at each other without understanding, but they nodded. "You see, there's nothing much to do around here, and it's not like we get a lot of visits, so sometimes we go search for rare plants or fruits around the island, and we have quite a collection now."

"I make so many delicious teas, you would love them." added Leech, quickly regaining his enthusiasm.

"How about you give… Ria, was it? How about you show Ria your teas, and I go check our collection with Zarina."

"Sure! You'll see, they are fabulous!" Zarina looked at her like saying sorry, but Ria seemed to find the two trolls pretty funny. Once they left, Grimsley took Zarina to the room where he had been reading. There was a table with a lot of pots and bowls full of plants, different earths, and some more ingredients. The book was half open, but it was written with strange characters.

"Trolls language, you wouldn't understand it."

…

To Ria's surprise, the tree's kitchen resembled a human alchemist' lab. There were shelfs full of books and strange utensils, a fire to heat the ingredients, and a table with bowls and all kind of foods. She had read books of human scientists in the Winter Library, and this room reminded her of one picture from old times showing a man use one of the strange instruments Leech had to mix the ingredients.

"You have a lot of containers just to make tea." pointed she.

"Oh, yeah, this are things I picked up from boats, or that the tide brought to our shores. At first I didn't know how to use them, but they proved to be fantastic when it came tea." Some pots had been heating on the fire, and the troll took them one by one, during the liquids inside in caps, one at a time. Ria approached the first cup carefully, and she found the smell was quite pleasing, so she took a sip.

"Don't drink too much, that's the tea I use to help Grisley sleep. He has a poor sleep. The next one isn't that strong, it only relaxes you, and the other is itchy. Next to I put the coloured one… I call it like that cause it made Grimsley go from green to blue. It took me a while to figure out how to turn him back to normal." He said this while laughing.

"Every tea does something different?" asked Ria, who was starting to see Leech's cooking classes in a very useful way.

"It depends on the plants you put into it. But the taste is the best, I'm telling you. That's why I say my teas are so good, but Grimsley says I waist too much time with them, as if we had something else to do beside watching that bridge!"

"And do you remember which ingredients you used in all of them?" It was the first time someone had taken actual interest in what he did, and the small troll was feeling overjoyed.

"I have a book where I keep all my recipes. Do you want to see it? You can copy them if you want."

"That'd be great, thank you." said Ria with her sweetest smile. It wasn't a fake smile, she was truly happy. Now she knew a new trick into creating new powders.

…

Grimsley's collection was incredibly vast. Not even Zarina's belt could keep so many different ingredients at once. He gave her plants, seeds, soil, a bit of everything that was exclusive from the island. And in the mean time, she answered to his questions.

"So you aim to discover all the kinds of pixie dust?" was asking him. "That's some ambitious goal, considering that almost all of them were unknown until two years ago."

"I know, but doesn't that mean that we are progressing especially fast?" said she positively.

"Yeah, but it also means that the powders you still haven't found are the most difficult ones. Now comes the hard time."

"You sound just like Fairy Gary." laughed she. "Although he's much more polite."

"Isn't that the guy who tossed you away? Is he also your friend now. You've become very popular, and from what you told me, I see your live has definitely changed for the best."

"Yeah, I've made so much progress since the last time I was here." answered she with a big smile, trying not to give it too much importance.

"So what about the pirate?" Zarina stopped choosing seeds and looked at him.

"Why do you ask?"

"No, nothing, just wandering why do you keep it with you. Wouldn't it be safer to kill him? I mean, what do you plan on doing with him?"

"I don't think killing is the right choice, even to a troll." He snorted and raised his shoulders with indifference. "That said, I don't plan on keeping him either. I'm just waiting for the Queen to notice that he's bad people so that she'll let us send him away."

"In other words, you are waiting for him to make a mistake." He seemed to like the idea. "And what if he doesn't?" One week ago she would have avoided the question, but now she started to think: "Yes, what if he doesn't?" But Grimsley's laugh interrupted her thoughts. "Sorry, but that was too absurd. A pirate can't remain good forever, that's a complete nonsense."

"Yes, what were you thinking of?" said Zarina while laughing, but it was a fake laugh.

"We're here!" Leech's voice echoed from the hall, and they left the room to join their friends.

"Look Ria, I've got a lot of new ingredients to experiment." said Zarina trying to regain some happiness.

"And I know how to use them." added the black haired fairy while showing the piece of paper where she had written all the recipes/formulas.

"I'm glad this was of some use, we don't really give them much use."

"Talk for yourself!" exclaimed Leech, who was back to his indignant mode.

"I guess it's time to go then. I'll miss you guys." said Zarina while hugging the two trolls.

"Come visit us again, and take care!" said Grimsley while the two fairies started to fly away.

"You two, my little friend!" added Leech waiving his hand to Ria. Then he turned back to his companion. "She's the only one who understands me."

"Did you notice her eye?" asked the big one with a more serious tone.

"Oh, yes, it's been centuries since we last saw something like that, isn't it? But it seems like she knows how to control it, so no problem." Leech seemed more carefree about the issue, so Grimsley let it go. They returned to their respective rooms, happy for having been able to say goodbye to their friend. But then the big one suddenly remembered something.

"Oh, crap!" exclaimed he, running to the kitchen. "I forgot to ask Zarina about that red haired fairy."

"Ah, I asked Ria." answered Leech. "She said not to worry, that she was sort of a guard or something like that."