28.


"How could our queen lie to us?" Iridessa asked.

"She's done it before," Tinker Bell corrected her. "Remember the border?"

"Tinker Bell, are you sure you're reading that correctly?" Zarina asked again.

"I think so," she answered.

"She's right," a voice announced. A black cat, the Sorcerer's Apprentice turned familiar, leapt to the table. The fairies hid behind the book, shaking with terror. Their last encounter with a cat, Lizzy's pet Mr. Twitches, didn't go very well. He chased them around the house like they were mice. This feline, however, was more hospitable. "Don't worry, I won't harm you."

Zarina, who was the only one not slink away in terror, sunk to the table in disillusionment. "I can't…, I can't believe this was an empty trip. Why send us all this way for a spell that won't work?"

"To make us stop looking," Vidia deduced.

"Looking for what?" Rosetta asked.

"That there wasn't a counter spell. There never was," Zarina said, finally understanding what it all meant.

"She could have just told us that there wasn't a solution," Tinker Bell protested.

"Queen Clarion did," Periwinkle reminded her. "We just weren't listening."

"Actually, it was Tinker Bell who wasn't listening," Vidia clarified. "As usual, Tink, you were so determined to work the problem and find a solution that you overlooked the simple fact that maybe no solution ever existed. And the worst part of it all, the very worst part of it, was that you got our hopes up. And we were all foolish enough to follow you."

"Don't be so mean, Vidia," Periwinkle defended. "We all wanted to believe. We all wanted that hope that one day our land, and our people, could finally be reunited."

"Agreed," Fawn gulped, effectively speaking for everyone in the room. "None of us was listening very well that day. And now that we know better, we can all go home. And it's not like life for us is miserable. We can cross the border easily with Zarina's talent dust which is actually a more attractive option than the previous one. No offense, Tink. We may be coming back empty handed, but we had a great adventure and learned an important lesson about ourselves. So really you can't count this as a failure."

"Speak for yourself," Rosetta complained. "What about Sled and me? I don't want my little Sledikins to be a different man every time he comes a callin'."

"Sledikins?" Vidia repeated with equal parts disbelief and disgust. "I think I'm going to throw up."

"Oh please, get a boyfriend and see how you start talkin'," Rosetta spat.

"Hey, guys, enough. I need some quiet," Tinker Bell yelled. She invited the apprentice turned familiar, whose name was Roland, to help her translate the page. Roland informed her that the curse originated in one of the Western Slavic nations. Near a town where stood a mountain whose top was barren, nothing could live there. Not flora nor fauna. The nearby residents lived in fear as legend held the mountain to be a place of evil. Some believed the spirits of the dead would rise from their graves during certain nights to haunt the living. The locals, who were Catholic (their territory was once held by the Holy Roman Empire), built a church at the base of the mountain to contain these spirits and ghosts and protect the nearby residents.

"Wait! Ghosts and spirits?" Iridessa sputtered. "You can't be serious."

Roland just laughed. "It is just a legend."

"No one can be certain that this curse originated here, can they?" Zarina asked.

Roland shook his head.

"Guys we have to go and find out for ourselves," Tinker Bell told her friends excitedly.

Vidia and groaned. Zarina shook her head. "Not this again. Tink," Vidia replied, "we've come far enough. It's just a legend."

"But legends have some basis in fact," Tink reminded her friends. "Is the curse that separates our world a legend? No. It is very real. It had to come from somewhere. This is it."

"Tink. Stop and think for a moment. If Queen Clarion knew where this curse originated then why did she send us here?" Vidia asked in response. "She is protecting us from something."

"You mean like how she kept my sister and me apart for our protection?" Tinker Bell curtly answered.

"Don't do that," Vidia hissed.

"No! That's it," Periwinkle shouted. "Queen Clarion does know. That is exactly why she sent us here to get a phony spell. It proves Tink is right. This is the place. This is where we go to save our world."

"To save our world from what?" Vidia admonished. "From having to change our talents when we cross the border? Or frosting our wings if we don't want to?"

"Wing frosting only works one way, Vidia," Spike said. "If I want to spend some time in the warm seasons as my own natural talent I'll need the snow making machine."

"And I would like to visit my sister in Tinker's Nook as a frost fairy, not a something else fairy," Periwinkle confessed.

"I'm in," Rosetta announced. "I want Sled and me to be together like we were meant to be: au naturel."

Iridessa, Gliss and Silvermist stifled a laugh.

"Sorry, that didn't come out right," Ro added sheepishly.

"No, no. That's correct," Roland said. "It can mean nude, but also in a natural state. And since I am not in my natural state, I can sympathize."

"I'll go," Fawn said. "Tink has overcome worse. We all have. I think it's worth the risk."

The other fairies all debated and eventually decided to join Tinker Bell. All except for Vidia and Zarina. Vidia had had enough of this voyage and was eager to get home. She was convinced that going further would be totally unproductive. That Queen Clarion knew what she was doing when they were assigned this empty quest.

Zarina was uncertain if she wanted to continue because she didn't think she could handle another disappointment. This entire adventure started as merely a way for everyone to move back and forth across the border with greater ease than before. Now somehow it had turned into a lengthy voyage with the fate of the Pixie Hollow on the line.

Tinker Bell, sensing that Zarina was feeling the weight of being captain offered to take over command of the ship. Zarina, however, understood that their best chance of finishing this quest was if she stayed on as captain. "Thanks, but I can make it."

Vidia, though, refused to give in. "No. I'm done with it. We can live just fine with the way things are."

"What will it take to convince you to come with us?" Spike asked.

"It won't be same without you," Silvermist told her.

"We'll need your help," Tinker Bell said.

"And you're the best helmsman, er, helms woman, the ship has," Periwinkle stated.

"Do it for me and Sled," Rosetta pleaded.

Vidia just harrumphed.

"Then do it for Pixie Hollow," Iridessa said.

"Do it for Queen Clarion and Lord Milori," Fawn said. "They deserve to be together more than any of us. They gave up everything to keep us safe. Now it's time for us to take a little risk for them."

Vidia grumbled, rolled her eyes and finally dropped her face into her open palms. "No. No, because if we find nothing, and I'm sure that's all we'll find, Tinker Bell won't give up. She'll just show us some clue that she is convinced is where we need to go next. And do you know what we'll find there? Nothing. But will she turn around? Never. Somehow there will be another piece of evidence that she is absolutely certain points the way to where this curse started. It never ends with her and we will all be stuck on that ship forever. We don't have enough pixie dust to travel the world looking in vain for something that doesn't exist. So count me out. I'm going home, even if I have to take one of the quarter boats and sail alone."

Tinker Bell felt badly. She hadn't thought about what her enthusiasm was costing others. "Okay, Vidia. You win. If you come with us and we find nothing I promise to give up looking, accept defeat and we can all go home."

"And you'll never say another word about this ever again?"

"I promise to never say another word about it ever again. Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye."

"Ew!"

"Why would you want to stick a needle in your eye?"

"Gross."

"It's something that Lizzy makes her friends say when she wants them to promise something. What it means is that on my honor I'll do as I say."

"Tink, I want to believe you, but you just can't stop working a problem," Vidia sighed. "It's just part of who you are. We go home and one day you'll get us all riled up again and away we'll go on some other half-baked scheme of yours."

"Then I'll go alone," Tink said. "If that makes you happy, I'll never bother any of you again and I'll go searching alone."

"Why?"

"Because I believe, Vidia. I have hope that somewhere out in the world is the answer. I need to have hope. We all do. It's what keeps us going, what makes life worth living day in and day out."

Vidia took in a deep breath and then let it out with an even deeper sigh. "Okay. I'm coming. If only because the rest of you would end up lost or dead without me."

"Yay! The gang's back together!" Gliss shouted.

"Do we have enough pixie dust to make the trip?" Iridessa asked, ever the worry wart.

"Don't worry, I brought a few extra blue dust chips," Zarina told her, revealing a tiny vial she held around her neck. "We'll be fine."

"You know, Dessa, I'm surprised you're coming what with all these talks of ghosts and spirits," Spike asked.

"You heard the cat, they only come out at night," Dessa answered. "As long as we only go out during the day, I'll be fine."

The gaggle of fairy friends, now a crew again, began to flutter towards the stairwell when Roland jumped in front of them, his eyes glowing with anger. "Stop!"

Iridessa nearly fainted. "I knew it, he is going to eat us."

"Which one of you used the Master's hat?"

"She did!" Silvermist shouted, pointing readily at Vidia.

"Hey!"

"You did what?" Zarina asked, furious.

Fawn told both Zarina and Roland what had happened with Silvermist, how she accidentally turned herself human and the results which followed when everyone else tried to undo the spell she had cast upon herself. "Vidia somehow got the hat to follow her orders. She even fixed the ship."

Roland chuckled to himself. "Yes, the hat. It has what you might call a mind of its own. It can read your thoughts and your intent, but it will choose an outcome which will give it the most amusement. Unless." Roland then padded in front of Vida and stared directly at her. "You are different. You made the hat obey your command by sheer force of will. That's the only way to make it work properly. My dear Vidia, you have what it takes to be a sorceress. If you should ever tire of being a fairy, I'll gladly take you under my wing as an apprentice. Er, that is, once I'm ready to take on a student, that is."

Vidia cocked a snarky eyebrow. "Thanks, but no thanks.

"Well, if you ever change your mind, you'll know where to find me."

Iridessa eyed the cat, distrustfully. "So, you aren't going to eat us, after all?"

"Of course not. My dinner is upstairs."

"Dinner? What kind of dinner?"

"French onion soup, Salisbury steak, steamed vegetables, pumpkin basil gnocchi and red wine. We're not savages, you know."

Iridessa laughed uncontrollably, looking greatly relieved.

~O~

The Pirate Fairy never looked so good. It was ship shape and Bristol Fashion. The entire vessel looked as if it had just been launched from dry docks for the very first time. Every seam was tarred water tight, the sails were freshly stitched and every plank look freshly laid. "Girls, I think we're going to make great time to our next destination," Zarina declared, her energy for this trip having returned.

Inside the galley was fully stocked with coal for cooking and food for eating. The water casks were scrubbed clean and fresh water poured into them. It was if the frigate was about to embark on its maiden voyage. Zarina carefully broke her blue pixie dust chips into even smaller portions and used half to refill their dwindling supply of yellow pixie dust. Now, with their cargo unloaded, the quarter boats returned to their mounts and the anchors secured the vessel got underway, it's new direction was East / Northeast toward the Austro Hungarian Empire and what everyone hoped was the final destination before heading home.