Chapter 3: New Friends
Jay smiled rode next to Edna down a simple trail in the mouse-drawn wagon as they headed to Springtime Square with their many deliveries. Ed was trotted along beside them, holding up the axle where the wheel was missing.
"Slow down, Cheese, I can't keep up!" Ed pleaded, but the mouse simply squeaked and kept moving.
"The mouse's name is Cheese?" Asked Jay.
"I think it must be, he always comes when we yell it." She shrugged. Jay was about to say something else, but he heard a pitter-patter behind the wagon. When he turned to find out what was making the sound, all he could see was swaying grass and a worried look on Ed and Edna's face. A very worried look. The pitter-patter sound started to grow louder. Jay peered through the weeds and flower stalks to see who, or what was out there.
He glanced at Ed again the older fairy seemed even more alarmed.
His eyes were darting back and forth, searching the landscape and peering into the weeds. Jay's heart began to pound, and he tightened his grip on the edge of his seat. He had a bad feeling that something bad was about to happen. Jay, Ed, and Edna suddenly screamed as tall, prickly plants came running toward them at full speed.
"Sprinting thistles!" Ed screamed as the running plants gouged the sides of the wagon, scratching the paint and some even poked at Ed.
The mouse was so scared that he bolted ahead, pulling the wagon on one wobbly wheel. The wagon careened wildly down the path towards Springtime Square with Jay and Edna holding on for dear life. When they were far enough away, the Sprinting thistles ran back into their cover. As they barreled into Springtime Square, Jay caught a quick glimpse of the area. He saw fairies flitting back and forth, carrying berries, seeds, pots, and baskets with piles of supplies that were neatly stacked everywhere.
The wagon suddenly hit a bump in the road and soared into the air.
Jay and Edna yelled, and fairies scattered in every direction, jumping and diving to get out of the way. The wagon landed with a tremendous thump as Jay and Edna were thrown to the ground, and Cheese squeaked in dismay. A male earth fairy that Jay recognized from before ran toward the scene of the crash with some other fairies. The raven-haired fairy grasped Cheese's bridle and stroked his nose gently.
"Easy, boy, it's all right, Cole's got you." The earth fairy, Cole, reassured and the frightened mouse immediately began to calm down. Jay slowly sat up, woozy and disoriented, as a water fairy ran toward him.
"Hey, I'm Nya, let me help up." She smiled as a plant fairy and a fire fairy flew to join them.
"You ok kid?" The fire fairy asked as Jay shakily got to his feet.
"I'm fine, I'm Jay by the way." He smiled shyly.
"Kai and this is Lloyd." The fire fairy, Kai, replied and gestured to the plant fairy, Lloyd, who gave them a wave.
"So, what happened to you, anyway?" Nya asked after Cole had finished calming the mouse down.
"Well, I..." He stammered, but he didn't even know where to begin. Just then, Ed and Edna popped up from beneath a pile of berries.
"It was the sprinting thistles!" Ed cried in answer to Nya's question and they all gasped as Kai angrily put his hands on his hips as his eyes seemed to glow brighter for a moment.
"Those weeds are an absolute menace, always trampling things, and attack people." He growled as Jay felt a rush of pride as he watched Ed and Edna straighten the wagon and organize the pots and gardening supplies in the back. The plant fairies couldn't do what they did without the help of the lightning faires.
"Gather round, kids!" Ed beamed at the group as he and Edna gathered some things from the wagon. "We've brought some selections from the new spring!"
"All right!" Cole grinned.
"Show us, show us!" Lloyd pleaded.
"What'd you bring?" Kai asked and Edna handed the fire fairy several tubes made of bark.
"Your rainbow tubes, Kai." She smiled and Kai snatched the tubes gratefully.
"Finally! Sis, could you help me?" He asked the water fairy. Nya smiled and sprayed a fine mist of water into the air. Kai flew through it, spreading his arms and creating a rainbow with his pixie dust. Then he landed, grabbed an edge of the rainbow, and rolled it into a tube. Jay was astounded when he saw this.
"What're you gonna do with that?"
"I'm gonna take it to the mainland." He chuckled and put the tube in a pile with the others.
"What's the mainland?"
"It's where we're gonna go change winter to spring," Nya replied. "The seasons change all the time there."
"When we get there I'll get to apply my artistic sensibilities," Lloyd said as he accepted a pussy willow paintbrush from Ed, dipped it in a nearby bucket, and began painting a nearby blossom. Cole took a milkweed-pod satchel from Edna's hands and dropped a handful of nuts into it.
"Yeah, but only if I clear the snow for you guys and make the ground just right for your flower seeds, and I'll have breakfast ready for all the animals coming out of hibernation." He smirked. Jay was just about to ask how to get to the mainland when Kai seemed to read his mind as he took the ginger-haired fairy's hand and pulled him into the air. The brunette pointed toward the sky towards a lone, bright star.
"We just follow the northern star, ride the breeze, follow the waves all the way across the sea, and then, there it is." He explained and Jay's eyes widened when they told him this. The whole thing sounded so exciting and so beautiful, it took Jay's breath away. He struggled to find the words.
"Wow! The mainland sounds... fantastic." He exclaimed and his new friends looked at each other and shrugged modestly.
"Yes, the glamorous lives of the nature-talent fairies, eh?" Ed chuckled.
"We would love to stay and chat, but we lightning faires have 'real' work to be getting on with." Edna joked and Jay's new friends laughed. Ed and Edna motioned to Jay to follow them, and the three lightning fairies darted back to the wagon as the others teased them lightly. Jay could tell that this good-natured back-and-forth was as much a part of the routine as the new deliveries were. He took his seat on the wagon next to Edna as Ed picked up the axle.
As they started riding away, Jay turned and waved at his new friends.
"Nice to meet you all!"...
Jay sighed contently as they neared the end of their delivery round, enjoying the scenery. Even though he loved the Pixie Vale, his mind kept wandering to thoughts about the mainland. He kept trying to ask Ed and Edna more about it, but they were too busy with the deliveries to answer any of his questions. It was irritating him to no end. It was like they didn't know what the mainland was like. The only thing stopping him from saying anything was the fact that all the fairies would be traveling to the mainland in a few days to change winter to spring.
Then he'd get to see it all for himself.
After another hour of riding, Edna pulled Cheese to a stop as the wagon rolled into Flower Meadow and she consulted her leaf-scroll list to see what was left. Jay was relieved when he heard all they had left was to drop off a pretty large order of pollen pots. He wanted to get home and make sure he had everything for the journey to the mainland. Hopefully, he would only need to pack a few things. He was about it ask Ed and Edna what he would need when suddenly, all three lightning fairies flinched as a dark green blur zipped past them with a whoosh of air.
The blur slowed for a moment and Jay saw it was Morro.
The wind fairy twirled around and around, whipping the air into a funnel of wind. The funnel hovered over a flower, sucking up the pollen, then it moved to another flower and repeated the trick. Jay was mesmerized as he watched the pollen-yellow whirlwind gather more and more dust out of the flowers. Neither Ed nor Edna seemed to pay much attention to Morro's work. He guessed they had seen all this stuff before. Jay was fascinated, however, and he wanted to learn more about this fairy and his talent.
He continued to watch Morro as Ed unloaded some pollen pots, and Edna looked at her leaf scroll, figuring out their next stop.
"The last thing is berry bushels to deliver to the glen-"
"Is it okay if I just catch up with you later?" Jay suddenly asked.
"Oh, I suppose."
"Can you find your way back?" Edna asked in concern as Ed put down the last of the pots and took up the axle again. The last thing she wanted was for the new fairy to get lost in the Pixie Vale, especially with those thistles running around.
"Yeah, I'm sure I can." He replied casually, his eyes still glued on Morro.
"Well, I… All right, then." Edna sighed,
"Just be careful!" Ed said as the wagon rumbled off. As soon as they were gone Jay flew over the flowers and followed behind Morro, who was busy guiding the whirlwind toward the pollen pots.
"Hi, there!" He greeted, but his voice startled Morro so much that he lost control of the pollen-filled whirlwind. The stray wind spun away from the two fairies, throwing pollen everywhere and knocking over the carefully stacked pots. Morro turned to glare at the younger ginger-haired fairy, pollen was swirling in the air between them. Jay gulped nervously. This wasn't going at all the way he had hoped, but he smiled sheepishly and tried again.
"Morro, right?" He asked the wind fairy violently sneezed. His black hair momentarily flipped forward then, without a word, he flew away to continue his work, but Jay was determined to make friends. "We didn't officially meet, I'm Jay." He smiled. Morro came to a stop and gave him a long look.
"Oh, yes, the new guy."
"That's right! So, what's your talent?" He asked, only to jump back in surprise when Morro began spinning again until he was nothing but a blur. When he slowed down enough to be visible, he fixed Jay with a cocky glare.
"What do you think it is?" He smugly asked and Jay bit his lips, trying to guess the answer.
"You're a pollenizer? Pollinator?" He asked and Morro's eyes narrowed. "Pollen-picker? Pollen-plucker?"
"I am a wind fairy, a truly rare talent, and this is but a small part of what I do." He smirked. "I make breezes in the summer, blowdown leaves in the fall, my winds even brought you here, dear, fairies of every talent depend on me."
"Hey, that's just like what I do." Jay smiled and Morro snorted at him.
"Excuse me?"
"I mean, lightning fairies help other fairies of every talent, too, so we're kind of the same, you know?" He explained and Morro's wings fanned slowly. He draped an arm over Jay's shoulders and leaned closer.
"Kid, I make forces of nature, you make pots and kettles." He replied in a condescending tone. "I work up in the sky, and you work down in a ditch."
"Hey!" Jay cried, insulted by the wind fairy's words.
"Don't get me wrong, being a lightning fairy is really swell and all, but I wouldn't go around bragging about your talent; it's not like spring depends on you." He laughed cruelly, but Jay refused to be put down.
"Of course it does and when I go to the mainland, I'll prove just how important we are!" He snapped, but instead of angering him, Morro looked confused.
"When who goes to the mainland?" He asked and Jay almost rolled his eyes.
"Me, of course! For spring!" He glare and Morro's confused look turned into a smile. It wasn't a very nice smile, however.
"Oh, of course, you'll prove it, huh?"
"Yes, I will," Jay stated and Morro's nasty smile got bigger.
"Well, I, for one, am looking forward to that; excuse me." He laughed before he suddenly flew off so fast, Jay could hardly see him go. Jay just glared at the spot Morro had been before flying away back home...