by Katie Davidson (Virtue)
"Sentry!" Queen Gwen shouted, a sentry quickly ran up to her and bowed respectively.
"Yes, my Queen?"
"Please take these two young ladies to the guest room."
"Yes my Queen." The sentry replied and motioned to Elora and Lizzie, "Follow me please."
Lizzie and Elora followed the Sentry to a door hidden behind the platform. The room was largely decorated with tapestries, curtains, shields, and pictures of men and women wearing beautiful suits and gowns. Each picture had shimmering wings behind them (they are Fairies after all) and moved about their frames, visiting eachother, laughing, or sleeping. In the center of the room there was a large table with a white tablecloth spread over it.
"Please, take a seat. I'll send for some refreshments." The sentry said, leaving the girls to rest.
Before Elora could finish, "No, that's all right," the sentry left and a fairy half Lizzie's height walked in carrying a platter holding two cups, a jug of some thick substance, and cookies. The fairy's wings flapped violently and she raised off the ground. She hovered over the center of the table and placed the cups down by Lizzie and Elora as they seated themselves. She poured the thick substance into the cups, and placed the cookies in front of Lizzie.
"Excuse me," Elora started, pointed at the thick substance in her cup, "But could tell me what this is?"
"Surely," the fairy smiled, "It's Fairy juice. Nutritious and delicious; It takes on the flavour of your favorite drink. Enjoy yourselves, if you need anything just ring." Then the fairy flew out of the room.
"Whatever flavour of drink we like?" Lizzie asked, then took a sip of the Fairy juice. "My god!" She shouted.
"What is it?" Elora asked.
"It's... It's... LEMONADE!" Lizzie screamed, "I LOVE LEMONADE! I've been craving it for WEEKS! My mom used to make the BEST lemonade, and this tastes exactly like her lemonade! Quick, take a sip of yours, what does it taste like?"
Elora took a sip of her Fairy juice, and then she placed it down, "Hmm..."
"What! What! What!" Lizzie shouted.
Elora laughed, "Calm down Lizzie."
Lizzie tried to calm herself; "But I want to know what yours tastes like!"
"Okay, okay. It just tastes like Iced Tea... Peach Iced Tea. It's my favorite drink. Okay?" Elora said.
Lizzie sat back in her chair, sipped her Lemonade-tasting-Fairy juice and said, "Cool."
Elora giggled and took another sip of her Iced Tea-tasting-Fairy juice. "Elora?" Lizzie started, "I want to ask you something. What's it like when you turn into Luno?"
Elora blinked and sat silent for a while, "Well, Lizzie. You see; I still know what's going on, but I can't do anything about it. Luno says when he takes over my body, he'll be sure to see nothing happens. 'We exist as one person,' he says, 'So we must look after one another.'"
"Sounds scary." Lizzie sighed.
"It is in a way, but... there's just something about him I like. It's like I almost feel whole."
"Almost?" Lizzie exclaimed, "Shouldn't you always feel 'whole'?"
Elora sighed; "Yeah, but... it feels like there's one thing I'm missing. I just don't know what it is though."
Then suddenly a sentry entered the room and stood against the wall, "Please rise in the presence of Queen Gwen." Elora and Lizzie stood up from their chairs as Queen Gwen entered the room. Harry, Tsutsami, Velicity, and Cecil followed.
"Harry!" Elora shouted, running over to him and almost knocking him down in a big hug.
"Elora," Harry said, hugging her back, "I'm glad you're safe. Gwen told me what happened at Hogwarts."
Elora pulled away from him; "We survived, so all's good." She then looked over to Tsutsami and Velicity. Velicity walked up to her, Elora knelt down, and they hugged, "Hey short-stuff, how ya doin'?"
"I'm good Elora. Glad to see you again." Velicity said. Elora smiled and stood up, Tsutsami wrapped her arms around her.
"Hey girl, long time no see. What you been up to?" Tsutsami said.
"Well, let's see." Elora started, "School.. School... and yeah, saving my school from earthly tremors that just might collapse the building and kill everyone inside." A sly smile crossed Elora's face.
Tsutsami laughed, "Sounds like fun."
Elora laughed, then stopped when she saw Cecil walk up to her. "Hey," Cecil said, "Um... good to see you again, Elora."
Elora smiled and then gave Cecil a hug and whispered to him, "Good to see you too, Cecil."
"All right everyone! Enough with the mushy stuff." Tsutsami said, wiping away a tear from her cheek, "Let's get down to business and see what we can do about these rouge fairies."
"Hey, where's Iceabelle?" Elora asked.
Harry looked around, then remembered Iceabelle didn't come with them, "Yeah. Where is she?"
"Iceabelle is in Northern Canada right about now. Jack Frost caught a Florida Bug so she had to take over until he gets better." Cecil explained with a short grin on his face, "So now, let's get to business."
Cecil took a seat next to Elora, Harry on the other side of her. Velicity and Tsutsami sat on the other end of the table as Gwen took a seat at the head of the table. Lizzie looked around at all the people. Then it shot into Elora's mind, "Lizzie! I didn't introduce you to anyone!"
Lizzie nodded furiously at Elora. Elora stood up and walked around the table. Standing behind Cecil's chair she said, "Lizzie. This is Cecil, the Forest Guardian."
"Pleasure to meet you Lizzie." Cecil said. Lizzie nodded in reply.
Elora walked over to Tsutsami, who was to the left of Cecil, and said, "Lizzie. This is Tsutsami, the Water Guardian."
Tsutsami waved her hand delicately and said, "Hey. Nice to meet you, Lizzie."
Lizzie yet again nodded her head. Then Elora stood behind Velicity's chair and introduced Lizzie to her, "Lizzie. This is Velicity. The youngest and most intelligent member of our group, and she's the Ai- I mean, Wind Guardian." She smiled delicately.
Velicity jumped stood on her chair and bent over the table, extending her hand to shake Lizzie's. "Pleasure to meet you, Lizzie. I hope we become good friends!" Velicity said, shaking hands with Lizzie. Lizzie smiled.
Elora walked back to her seat. "One member is away for the moment. Iceabelle, the Ice Guardian, I'll introduce you to her some other time, Lizzie. But now, the rouge fairies?" Elora turned to Gwen, who chatted with the Sentry. The Sentry left the room.
Gwen cleared her throat, "Yes. They're not exactly 'Rouge Fairies' though, they just disappeared, and it's just a hunch that the tremors under Hogwarts could be caused by them."
"What else could it be, Gwen?" Cecil stated, "It's you and your fairies who make earthquakes. Unless for some reason the tectonic plates of the worlds are moving on its own!" He laughed.
"Well, Cecil, you're right. My fairies are the ones who move the plates to cause the earthquakes. (You do understand this isn't true, I'm just making it up about the Earth Fairies moving the plates to cause Earthquakes (which build Volcanoes because of Magma)! If you want to learn more about how the Tectonic Plates move to cause Earthquake's, consult your nearest school's Geography teacher (or a book). Thank you! ^_^)" Gwen said, "As I told Luno before -"
"Luno?" Harry interrupted and turned to Elora; "You changed into Luno?"
Elora nodded, "Just for a moment, in order to get audience with Gwen. They have a history together and he knew she'd let us pass if she saw him, well, sort of. I mean..."
"I'd know that white hair and blue eyes anywhere, Elora. Only Luno has that trait. I tell the story of Luno and I to all the younger fairies, but they think of him as only a myth, a legend, or just a story. But as you know, he his very real." Gwen said.
Elora nodded and she blushed, "Thank you Gwen. Now, you said before that when you tried to contact the fairies who disappeared you were blocked by something dark?"
"Yes, Elora. I keep a telepathic connection with all my fairies, just so I know everything's okay. If something goes wrong then I know about it, but with these fairies, when they disappeared, the connections felt cold." Gwen said.
"Like a brick wall?" Velicity shouted, "A brick wall is cold, and it blocks things. Was it like a brick wall?"
Gwen laughed, "Yes Velicity. That's a good metaphor to use."
Elora laughed as well. Harry turned to Gwen, "Gwen, how do your fairies cause the earthquakes?"
"Well Harry," Gwen started, "It's rather simple. With our magic we can cause the plates and rock and vibrate, causing a wave, which makes the tremors. We can make them large or small and even cause them to start in one area and move to another, stopping automatically. But that's just for fun." She giggled softly.
"Gwen," Cecil cleared his throat, "Don't your fairies have to be under the area to cause the tremors?"
"That's correct Cecil." Gwen replied, "But I don't see... oh!"
"If your fairies have to be UNDER the area... then they should be UNDER Hogwarts!" Elora said, "But why didn't I see them... wait! I did!"
"You did what?" Harry said, turning to Elora.
"I saw them, Harry! They ARE there!" Elora screamed and shot straight up off her chair, "Let's go!"
To be continued...