Chapter 2 - An Enchanted Evening
"My gosh, what on earth were you doing?! Two minutes longer in that cold and you would have broken a wing!" exclaimed the voice of her saviour.
Clarion sighed with relief as she felt the warm sun caress her skin, yet she was still shivering, and fought to regain her composure. "I-I'm sorry..." was her reply, "I only meant to be there for a m-m-oment, b-b-but, I lost my w-w-way. All the s-snow looks the s-same," she stammered.
The sparrowman sighed. "It's alright. But don't do it again, for your own good! Heaven knows we don't need another Ayaz happening again. The tips of your wings are blue…" he trailed off as he noticed the sheer majesty of the young fairy's wings. "Oh my goodness, you're the Queen, aren't you. My lady…" he said as he sank to his knee.
"Oh no, get up, please," said Clarion, standing up as the sun warmed her.
"No, please, accept my apology for berating you. I'm Milori, Lord of Winter," he said.
Clarion smiled. She wasn't the only royal one here, it seemed. "Well then, Milori," she said with a small curtsey, "Your humble servant. What can I do to repay you for saving my life?" she asked.
Milori smiled. "I'd settle for your name?" replied the young sparrowman.
"Clarion." she replied.
"Clarion?" questioned the young Lord as he took the Queen's hand, "That's lovely." he lightly kissed the top of it, and Clarion blushed.
"If I may ask, your Lordness," Clarion began, "What were you doing in the forest saving me instead of doing, I don't know, lord things?" she asked.
"Oh well, you know..." replied Milori, nervously. "Just trying to escape being bossed around and duties and all that. It's too much pressure." he said. Clarion's face lit up. "That probably sounds foolish…" Milori said, turning his head away.
"Not at all!" said the Queen, reaching for his hand. "I know just how you feel…" the two held hands for a moment and looked into each other's eyes.
Clarion had opal shaded blue eyes and gorgeous, long auburn hair that tumbled down her shoulders in waves. Everything about Milori was icy blue or white, including his hair, and honey brown eyes. Milori was extremely pale and Clarion a lovely shade of olive. The two made a handsome couple, so different from one another yet glowing in each other's presence.
"Will I see you again?" Milori asked after a little while.
"Well, I suppose if it's just at the border…" said Clarion.
"And we don't have to cross…" said Milori.
"I'll be here at 7 tonight!" the two said in unison, before bursting into a fit of laughter. How had they been so mentally in-sync?
"Your majesty?" came a voice from off in the distance, "Queen Clarion!" called the minister of Spring.
"Oh no, that's Hyacinth! He's looking for me!" said Clarion, her eyes widening at the thought of the minister of Spring himself of all people finding out that she'd gone to the winter side.
Another voice was heard far behind the winter fairy, faint but, annoyingly audible nonetheless. "Milori? Where have ya gone off to now?" it called.
Milori's face fell. "That's Dewy, he's after me too," he said. "I'd better go…" the two said at the exact same time, leaving a small smile on both of the teen's faces. Milori grasped the Queen's tiny hand. "Until this evening," he said, "My queen." He kissed the top of Clarion's hand again, and she blushed.
Hyacinth came into view and burst into a fit of frustration when he saw the young girl. "Clarion, what are you doing? How could you just take off like that!" he ranted and raved.
Dewy came flying into view as well, equally eager to bring his rogue monarch-in-training back home. "There ya are, Lord Milori! We gotta go, we have to finalise chapter titles!" Dewy said and grabbed his hand, much to the young Lord's dismay.
The two looked back and forth between their superiors and each other, each one reluctant to leave.
Hyacinth rambled on as he attempted to drag Clarion away from her daze. "I've told you that those books need to be studied for a reason! Redleaf's orders!" he blabbed to the Queen, but Clarion wasn't listening. She couldn't take her eyes off the spot where she saw the winter fairy vanish from view.
"Your majesty?" asked the minister.
"What?" Clarion replied, snapping out of her daze.
"Who was that blue looking boy with you, Clarion?" asked Hyacinth.
"No one, just someone I met, that's all." she replied.
Hyacinth placed a shielding arm around her. "You know what I've told you about winter fairies, Clarion, they're not to be trusted!"
"Oh stop it, Hyacinth." she snapped back, shedding herself of his grip.
The minister only frowned as if he'd just been sprayed with flower paint. "Mmhmm…" he muttered as he led the young queen away. A winter side scum… he thought. Hyacinth's twisted and misguided mind knew that Clarion had seemed to get on well with that winter fairy back there, and he would do anything to put a stop to it. Clarion is mine... he thought. No one else's...
As Clarion was escorted back to the pixie dust tree, her best friend, Fairy Mary, poked out from behind a tree. "Don't you think I didn't see that, missy!" she giggled and playfully nudged the Queen and flew alongside the duo.
"Fairy Mary, delightful as ever." Hyacinth said with a tone practically dripping with sarcasm.
Mary ignored him, and Clarion blushed with embarrassment. "Mary, you hush. I just met him today!"
Fairy Mary giggled. "Too bad he had to be a winter." she said, knowing that warm and winter fairies had to stay apart for a reason. "He looked like quite a catch, if ya ask me. Don't worry Ree, we'll find you a nice, warm side fairy for ya someday."
And with that, the short Tinker fairy flittered away, leaving behind a melancholy Clarion, and a delighted Hyacinth.
When the time came to meet that evening, both fairies were there on time. They sat on the very end of both their worlds, where red touched white and warm brushed against cold. They talked for hours and hours, for so long that the moonlight made reflections on the snow. They agreed to meet again the following eve, and as the two young rulers sat watching the sunset together, a spark lit up inside their very souls. They were meant to be together. Eventually, the two fairies began to feel tired, as they had been awake for nearly an entire day, as it was well past midnight. They held hands and stayed in each others presence for as long as they could, until their wings eventually drifted them apart, neither one of them wanting to look away for a second.
They had to avert their gazes eventually, and when they did, it left Clarion in a world of her own where all she could think about was the boy who seemed to be made of the snow itself. Her mental bubble was popped however when Fairy Mary suddenly appeared behind her.
"Clarion?" she asked, making the Queen jump in surprise.
"Mary, don't sneak up on me like that! You scared the petals right off of me!" she scolded, but Mary only stared at the Queen with a look of all seriousness. "Mary? What's wrong?" Clarion asked.
"Listen," the tinker fairy began, "I know what you've been up too." Clarion's eyes widened. She had feared being found out. "And what you're doing is dangerous. It's only a matter of time before the two of you can't stand this... this… divide anymore! This divide between warm and cold is gonna become too great for you two to bear. And when that happens, someone's gonna break a wing. I suggest you end whatever's going on while ya can."
And with that, Mary flew off into the early hours of the morning, leaving behind a conflicted young queen.
Meanwhile, in the icy heart of winter, behind the north mountain, Milori and Dewy were pacing the library floor.
"Milori, I'm a' tellin you, it's too dangerous!" the keeper of knowledge pleaded, "I've studied the fairy mind. Love is a... strange thing, and it can get in the way of what's safe!"
Milori stopped pacing and looked Dewy in the eye. "Love? Who said anything about that! We're friends, good friends, that's all!" he said in denial, not sounding genuine in the slightest.
Dewy, however, knew better. "Right. Sure, I believe a' you." the short sparrowman crossed his arms over his chest and raised a brow at the teen.
Milori only blushed. "Alright, you got me Dewey, but don't worry! Me and Clarion will not be tempted to do anything unwise," Milori argued.
But Dewey was unconvinced. "Whatever you say, my friend. But please," said the small sparrowman, "be careful."
The two fairies met each other again the following night, and the night after that, and the one after that, and before long, the two were growing up together.
A year had passed and both had celebrated each other's birthdays, which were acknowledged by a trading of flowers; one, a lily from Clarion and the other a periwinkle flower from Milori. The two fairies had fallen madly in love with each other, yet were forbidden to be together due to their seasons. A warm fairy's wings were far too delicate to handle the freezing temperatures of winter, more than a few minutes in the cold and their wings would freeze over and snap. The wings of a winter fairy relied on constant cold in order to function; more than an hour in the heat and their wings would wither and break.
However, the minister of spring had grown aware of the young royal's nightly meetings at some point along the way, and was secretly hatching plan to make sure that the winter nuisance stayed away from his queen forever.
But one night, the two lovers decided they had had enough.
"Milori..." Clarion said as she desperately gazed into the eyes of the wintery sparrowman, "I can't take this anymore. I need to be closer to you, I need to be with you!" she pleaded. "I want you to come to the warm side, with me," she pleaded, looking serious. She knew this was coming, Fairy Mary had been right. What she had gotten herself into, she didn't know, and she didn't care. All she knew was that she wanted to be with Milori and no one but Milori for as long as she lived.
The winter fairy looked taken aback. Oh no... he thought. Dewey was right!
"But… why?" he asked.
Clarion turned her head and sighed, taking a deep breath and bracing herself for what she was about to say, "Because I love you…" she replied nervously.
There was a short pause, and the young queen and the young lord could feel and hear their hearts pounding in their chest the entire time.
After a while, Milori replied, "Well that's convenient… because I love you too..."
And with that, the two fairies shared their first kiss. Their hands slid into each other's, and their lips touched as their eyes closed dreamily. Milori fluttered his magnificent wings as he took Clarion by the waist and flew into the air, descending back down in a small spiral.
"How can I cross?" he asked when they finally landed. "My wings… It's simply impossible..." he said.
"Nothing is impossible!" exclaimed the Queen. "What if you come to autumn? The coolest season of the warm ones. At night, when it's coldest and the others won't see us?"
Milori sighed deeply. "I will meet you here at midnight tomorrow," he kissed the top of her head, "Until then, my Queen." Queen Clarion's eyes never left the trail of pixie-dust in Milori's wake as he flew away.
However, the two fairies did not know that they were being watched. Hyacinth had heard the whole thing, and decided to put his plan into action.
Just a bit more time… He quietly laughed to himself. And that repulsive winter worm will be out of the picture for good!