The next day's afternoon
Happiness and joy had exploded around Pixie Hollow like a bomb this morning when news had spread that the Queen was on the way to a full recovery this morning. All fairies of all talents were happy to hear about it and Lord Milori of the Winter Woods was going to come over soon to check up on his lover after he had been stopped from doing so yesterday due to an incident involving one of the owls in the winter woods. After all the worrying, everyone was finally relieved the worst of the illness of Clarion had passed and soon she would be back to her old self again.
At the moment, the recovering Queen was lying in her bed, reading a small leaf card that had been given to her by one of her ministers who had brought it, along with some other things, in earlier on; wishing it her good health for the future. Clarion smiled as she read it, her gladness seeping over inside her now that she was all better. When she had woken up this morning she had felt exactly the same as she did yesterday; cheerful, fit and more alive, almost as if she had already fully recovered, and the prospect of her leaving here soon was enough to overwhelm her with joy.
A knock at the door made her look up and a smile came onto her face when she saw Lucy standing there, a smile also on her face.
"Ah, Lucy, it's good to see you. Come in," Clarion said closing the card and setting down next to her.
"Thank you, Queen Clarion," she replied, walking in and sitting next to her on the bed. "So, how does it feel to be all better?" she asked as she plonked herself down on the side of the bed next to the Queen, who smiled at the question and passed a happy smile through her lips.
"Oh, it feels wonderful," she replied softly, sitting up a bit more in her bed. "Soon I can get back to work as I should be," she leaned forward a little and placed her hand on top of Lucy's. "Thank you very much for looking after me, my dear,"
"It's fine, your Highness," the healing fairy replied brightly. "I'm just glad, and so is everyone else, that you're gonna make a full recovery. You really scared us yesterday,"
Clarion nodded. "I don't know why I suddenly perked up this morning. Last night I felt terrible, but when I woke up I felt fine, as if nothing was wrong." She paused and gazed out the window, deep in thought. "I wonder why that happened today and yesterday," she muttered to herself.
Lucy, however, was staring ahead at the wall, as if in a trance. If Clarion had seen her look this way, she would have not had the faintest idea why the healing fairy was acting like this but Lucy knew very well why she had reacted like this. Last night's encounter with that strange sparrowman had shaken her up a little more, not just in that she was unable to explain how he had been able to get inside without her noticing but in the likely possibility that he definitely had something to do with the Queen's sudden recovery. It did sound mad at first when she conjured this up, but it made perfect sense! Yesterday, for example, when the Queen had woken up fine, it had to have been because of that sparrowman visiting her the night previous, even today was another example of this sparrowman having at least something to do with her improving condition. What was it though? Some magic potion? Special healing dust? Magic spells? It had to be something.
Movement next to her snapped her back into reality and she turned her head to see the Queen putting the card that she had set down on her covers back into a small box on the floor next to her bed where all her other things that had been brought to her were, just to see her through the remaining time period she would have here in the medical ward.
As Lucy turned her head, however, she caught something out of the corner of her eye on the bedside cabinet next to the bed. Looking at it, she saw it was a small painting of what appeared to be two fairies on a stone background in a twig picture frame, one with an arm around the other and both smiling ahead of them. Leaning forward with curiosity in her eyes, Lucy picked it up and gazed at the picture to see that the picture was actually a young woman fairy with gold hair and blue eyes and dressed in a sparkly yellow dress. Next to her was a sparrowman who…
Lucy's eyes grew wide with shock when she saw the other person in the picture was. It…it was him! It was the sparrowman, she was sure of it! The clothes, the hair and the face, they all matched to when she had met him face-to-face last night! It was definitely him!
Her breath was caught in her throat and her hand holding the picture began to shake with apprehension. Now this was beginning to scare her! Who was he?! Why was he in this picture? But the more important question that had been in her mind for the last two days was suddenly resurfacing violently again; how did the Queen know him?
"Lucy, my dear, are you alright?" Clarion's concerned voice suddenly piped up, snapping her back into reality.
She turned her head to face Clarion and tried to hide the shocked expression on her face from the Queen.
"Oh, yes, I'm-I'm fine," she replied, trying to laugh it off. "I-I was j-just looking at this," she held up the picture. "Sorry, your Highness, I was just curious,"
Clarion did not seem too unfazed and managed to smile and give a nod, though there was still concern in her eyes over what she had just witnessed.
"Oh, don't worry," she replied, trying to sound okay as she took the picture from Lucy, who passed it to her and gazed at it with a sort of love in her eyes, looking as if she had momentarily forgotten that someone else was in the room with her. "This is an important memory piece for me," she said.
Now Lucy began to lean in closer towards the Queen, her mind completely set on asking the Queen about this mysterious sparrowman in the picture. Surely Clarion must know who she was talking about now after what Lucy had asked her yesterday morning.
"If I may ask, your Highness, but who is that in the picture?" she asked the Queen, who looked up at her and sighed.
"Well, not too long before I met Lord Milori I was in love with a sparrowman who was of a scout talent, hence the colours of his uniform," she explained, indicating to the picture on the last part of the sentence. "He was a very romantic person. Friendly, funny and a huge pillar of comfort for me, just as I was for him as he tended to be very quiet," she sighed lovingly and leaned back onto her pillow. "Oh, it was such an amazing time whenever we were together,"
Lucy could not help but smile at this. Even though this sparrowman was someone who had concerned her over the last few days, she suddenly felt no reason to feel that way about him. In fact, she felt relieved in finally knowing who this sparrowman was that was visiting Clarion.
"That's very sweet," she commented approvingly.
Clarion nodded. "Yes. Oh, it was like Heaven when we first met." She paused and looked down at the picture in her hand and moved her finger over it as if stroking the two figures in a loving manner of happiness for them. "I can still remember being with him now when an art fairy painted us,"
Upon hearing these words, a moment of confusion entered Lucy's mind. Why was the Queen talking about him in this kind of manner.
"Pardon me, your Highness, but can I ask why you're speaking of him like this?" she inquired intently.
Clarion's happy expression saddened a little as she looked momentarily away from the picture at her bed sheets; a silent but definitely downed exhale passing from her nose, which Lucy quickly noticed and became a little worried about what she had just said, but Clarion cut her off before she could ask what was wrong.
"Don't worry, it's fine," she replied sadly. "We were together for three years if I remember right, and they were very happy until…until they came to a horrific halt when he passed away on the mainland during the summer season," Clarion put the picture down and placed one hand on top of the other, resting them on her stomach underneath the bed sheets. "It hit me hard, very ha-Lucy are you sure you're alright?"
When she looked up at the healing fairy, she saw her head half-turned away, eyes as wide as leaves staring at the floor; her face as white as a sheet. A single chilling thought of realisation stuck out in her mind like a sore thumb.
For the last two nights, she had been seeing a ghost!
