Author's Note: As promised, here's a new chapter. I just love watching a romance bloom. :D
The Summer Fair came upon them more quickly than they anticipated. It was a time of gaiety as they prepared for the coming of Fall and the changing of the seasons. For now, they would celebrate the remaining weeks of summer.
The Summer glade was smattered with flags and banners of bold colors. Booths made of twigs and leafy tents speckled the grass, boasting their novelties. The tinker fairies had outdone themselves with the contraptions and games they had created. All the fairies from all over Pixie Hollow came to enjoy the fair. Even the winter fairies made a special appearance. The smell of honeycomb cakes, roasted sesame seeds, and caramel poppy seeds filled the air. Laughter rung out and skipped along with the wind as it ruffled the tents and the clothes of the fairies.
Silvermist was perched on a seat above a small tank of water. A sparrowman approached. He was thin and had sunburnt cheeks. "What is this supposed to be?"
"It's a dunk tank," Silvermist smiled. "Just throw one of those seeds at the bullseye and… down I go."
The sparrowman looked at it suspiciously, and then when he finally seemed to understand the concept, smiled excitedly. "Alright I'll give it a try." He picked up a seed and on his first try, missed completely.
"You get two tries," Silvermist held out a two on her fingers and then went back to holding her nose.
Tinker Bell flitted by. "How you doing, Sil?"
Silvermist tried to answer Tinker Bell. "Oh fine. I was just telling-" but the sparrowman hit his mark and she went plunging into the tank. The sparrowman cackled gleefully. Silvermist stood up in the water, which came to her shoulders. She was spluttering and dripping, but she held her thumb high for Tinker Bell to see.
Tinker Bell chuckled and then flitted off. She went down a row of booths aways and then found Zarina. She was holding elaborate wooden puppets and was moving switches on the sticks to make their arms and legs move. She held them aloft in the window of the puppet theater that Tinker Bell had made for her. She had a crowd of people around, enthralled in her story about a friendly pirate and an evil dragon. Tinker Bell smiled fondly at the scene for a moment. Then she noticed Zarina wince and drop one of the puppets. Tinker Bell dropped quietly down from where she hovered to help.
"You ok, Zarina?" Tinker Bell asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine, Tink," Zarina smiled slightly, favoring one of her hands. "It's just this hand hasn't healed all the way yet and I keep forgetting."
Tinker Bell smiled and handed her friend back the puppet. "Please do try to take it easy though. We want you to get all the way better."
"Sure, sure, Tink," Zarina rolled her eyes and smiled good-naturedly. "Now let me get back to my audience."
"Oh, of course," Tinker Bell winked and flitted off again.
She continued to check up on the booths and the games until someone pointed out to her that she had a crowd waiting. "Oh right!" Tinker Bell hurried over to the giant structure standing in the middle of the fair. It was huge, at least 10 fairies tall, and covered with a purple fabric so that it remained a mystery to the fairies gathered around it. She cleared her throat and smiled. "Fairies and Sparrowmen, may I present you with what I like to call the Fair Wheel!" She pulled off the cover and fairies 'ooh-ed' and 'ahh-ed' at the sight. A giant wheel stood before them, with 4 small wagons hanging from it. Tinker Bell asked for volunteers. Clank and Bobble poked their heads through the crowd.
"I will! I will!" They each cried. They hurried up to the car, and Tinker Bell put Clank in the first one, then rolled the machines until Bobble could easily step into the next one. She hopped over to her pedal system and began pumping the pedals. The wheel began to turn slowly but steadily. The fairies cheered and clambered to line up for their own rides.
Further away, Iridessa could hear the cheering and knew it was for that new dangerous contraption that Tinker Bell had come up with. She was happy manning the hall of mirrors. In here, she could use her light talent to trick people into going through the mirror maze the wrong way. They would get confused and flustered, and that was usually her territory. Something about actually being able to make others nervous for once made her feel slightly giddy.
Towards the entrance of the fair, where the giant banner which read "SUMMER FAIR" hung, Rosetta was painting beautiful patterns on fairies' faces. She did butterflies and ladybugs, rabbits and cats. She laughed with the fairies that she painted and didn't even mind if paint got on her dress.
Towards the back of the fair, where fewer fairies bustled, a separate tent said, "Rare and mysterious creatures."
The few fairies that were brave enough to venture in found Fawn wearing bear face paint and smiling heartily as she announced her exotic animals. One of these few brave fairies was Vidia, who had definitely not come to see the animals. When she entered through the striped tent flaps, she found a large tent, one of the biggest in the glade. There were small pens and one cage lined up with a wide aisle running through them. She saw Fawn hovering near the last pen, engaged in enthusiastic conversation with a nervous polishing-talent sparrowman named Slick and a sick-looking wing-washing-talent fairy named Glenda. Fawn hovered above a frog with translucent skin and pointed out each organ that they could see through the glasslike skin. "You see, that's why it's called the glass frog! That's his stomach, right there! I mean… you might as well be looking through a window! Isn't it fantastic?" Vidia smiled slightly at Fawn's adorable fervor. Slick and Glenda didn't seem nearly as impressed and hurried out. Vidia saw the way Fawn's face fell, and even though she had zero desire to see the frog's intestines, she wanted to see Fawn's smile again.
"Fawn," Vidia spoke, moving from her place by the door to closer to Fawn. The animal talent's sad frown sprung into a smile when she caught sight of Vidia. She rushed over.
"Vidia!" Fawn threw her arms around the fast-flyer before backing off slightly. "Oh.. I'm sorry." Fawn's eyes were nervous as they looked up at Vidia through messy bangs. "I know you're not much of a… hugger."
Vidia understood Fawn's hesitance. She had been caustic in the past and didn't like to be touched. But that's because no one's touch did for her what Fawn's did. "You can hug me… anytime." Vidia extended her arms to Fawn, and Fawn jumped into them willingly. For a moment they hovered there, content to just listen to the joyful sounds outside the tent. "Look Fawn," Vidia moved to look in Fawn's eyes, running her fingers through Fawn's hair. "I'm sorry we haven't had a chance to go on that date."
"Oh, it's fine," Fawn waved her off. "I spent so much of the past two weeks tracking down these animals, that I hardly ever got to see you anyway." Fawn paused. "Hey! Do you want to see them? My animals?"
"Oh these animals? Uhm…" Vidia hesitated but then saw the look in Fawn's eyes and nervously answered, "Suuuure. Real quick."
"Fantastic!" Fawn grabbed Vidia's hand and dragged her to the first pen. Vidia walked up slowly, while Fawn leapt onto the wooden rail fence that kept the animal in. "First we have a Hummingbird Hawk-Moth."
Vidia could see the large moth sitting on a small flower, tied loosely to a stake in the ground so he wouldn't fly away. He seemed quite content to flit around the flowers. "So is it a bird or a moth?" Vidia raised an eyebrow at the strange creature. It looked very much like a hummingbird as it zipped around the flower. But… she couldn't see a beak or talons, and even the wings looked off.
"It's a moth," Fawn explained. "But it's long proboscis and hovering behavior make it look remarkably like a hummingbird. Different from other moths of it's kind, it flies around at daytime, nighttime, and even in rain."
"Pretty impressive," Vidia shrugged. This wasn't so bad. Maybe, even slightly interesting if she were honest with herself. "What's next?"
"Ok, next is this big guy," Fawn motioned to a pen with a small shelter of shrubs she had rigged for the strange brown lump nuzzled beneath it. "This is a Philippine Tarsier. It's a primate."
"Wait… like a monkey?" Vidia asked stepping back from the pen.
"Sort of… this one is special though," Fawn made a clicking sound with her tongue and a large ear shot up from the brown ball. The head turned and two large yellow orbs peered back at them. The eyes were nearly as big as the head.
"Damn," Vidia said under breath. "What big eyes you have…"
"Now, over here," Fawn flitted to the cage in the back. She walked right up to the door. "This is something really special." She peered into the cage, squatting down closer to the ground. Vidia followed suit, straining to see what was in the cage. She got a weird sense that she probably didn't want to be this close. Suddenly a large flash of blue buzzed by. It was a large insect with red hind legs.
"What is that?" Vidia asked startled.
"It's an Emerald Cockroach Wasp," Fawn seemed almost overcome with wonder as she gazed at the bizarre looking creature.
"Why is it called a cockroach wasp?" Vidia asked.
"That's the really special part," Fawn beamed at Vidia. "This particular type of wasp, when ready to reproduce, captures a cockroach and stings it precisely enough to not kill it but to keep it in a sedated, controlled state. It then drags the cockroach back to it's burrow by the attentae and lays its egg on the roach. It then buries it in the burrow," Fawn didn't seem to notice Vidia's growing discomfort. "When the egg hatches, the sedated, unmoving roach, is then eaten slowly by the larvae who hollow it out in just the right way to keep it alive for the maximum amount of time. The larvae then makes a cocoon out of the hollowed out roach, and hatches out of the body of the roach as a full grown wasp." Vidia backed away from the cage slowly. Fawn didn't notice and continued, "That's why they are so amazing. I mean, the amount of precision that it takes to plan that! It's… amazing."
"Fawn," Vidia looked at Fawn with a disturbed look on her face. "That is… terrifying. How in the world did you track this monster down?" It was then that Fawn noticed how far Vidia was from the cage.
"Oh it was easy," Fawn stood up and brushed dust off her boots. "I just found the burrow with the roach cocoon and dragged it here and waited for the wasp to emerge."
Vidia stared at Fawn in disbelief for a moment before scoffing at the gall the animal fairy had. She could respect that. "Fawn, you're a beast."
Fawn looked at Vidia in surprise. "Is that… good?"
Vidia snickered. "Sure it is. I don't know anyone as brave as you." It was at that statement that Vidia got a clear image of Fawn's trembling figure the day that Nyx had told them Phoenix was in Pixie Hollow. The way her skin had paled and her knees had shook. Vidia felt something rising in her chest. That horrible man took the bravest fairy she knew, and he did that to her. And he was still in Pixie Hollow.
"Oh, psh," Fawn seemed bashful. "I wouldn't say that."
Her words snapped Vidia out of her angry mind and back to the present situation… and the scary monster wasp.
Fawn looked at the slightly dazed Vidia, and grabbed her hand, "Thanks for looking at the animals… I know you don't really like animals the same way I do. This is more of an animal talent exhibit. You should have seen Buck. It was like he'd seen a real life dragon or something. He was really impressed."
Vidia didn't really like hearing about Buck. Something about him just made her uneasy. "I'm impressed too. No, animals technically aren't my thing but… these are pretty badass." Fawn laughed at Vidia's compliment. "Besides," Vidia continued, "this just meant that I got to spend some time with you. I mean… this was kind of like… our first date."
Fawn seemed surprised. She hadn't thought of that. "Are you telling me that we spent our first date at my animal exhibit? That's hardly a romantic date." Fawn looked aggravated.
Vidia raised and eyebrow and crossed her arms, "Are you saying that kneeling in the dirt and talking about hollowing out roaches is not a romantic date?"
Fawn chuckled at Vidia's sarcasm. "I just… y'know… want to do something special with you."
Vidia smiled warmly at Fawn, "Oh, we will." Vidia gave Fawn a quick wink. "Don't worry about it. I got this."
"Oh you do?" Fawn looked skeptically at Vidia and then giggled. "Ok… I'll leave it to you. I… can't wait." Fawn finished in a sort of breathless whisper that was highly feminine and made Vidia's heart skip a beat.
"Well…" Vidia said nervously. "I should really get back to my Thimblerig table, but… come by my area when the fair ends, ok?" Fawn nodded. She looked so adorable and Vidia didn't want to leave. She knew she needed to, though, so she took a deep breath and quickly placed a quick kiss on Fawn's lips. It was the first time that she had gotten to kiss her since that moment on the terrace, and it was just as good as she had anticipated. Fawn was taken off guard but returned it earnestly once she came to her senses. Before things could get too heated, Vidia pulled away, fighting with all of her being to do so. "Ok... I really have to go."
"Right… of course," Fawn put a hand to her chest as if to ease the fluttering inside. "I'll see you tonight, Vidia."
"Oh, yes, you will," Vidia winked back at Fawn and sped out of the tent.