Hey, guys! I'll make this AN brief, but thought I'd let you all know that I recently got accepted to a college! So in celebration, I decided to write, only to realize that I haven't updated this for OVER A YEAR. Which is kinda sad, because I really like this story, out of all the ones I've written. So, I've decided to set a goal for myself, and finish this story by the summer! Wish me luck!

Chapter 10

In a dark, decaying part of the forest, Grundel was attempting to strangle Beetle to death.

"Okay, okay!" Beetle gasped, coughing loudly. "Can-Can I explain something?"

"What?!" Grundel snapped angrily.

"Look, I don't. Know. Where. She. Is. We didn't hit it off too good. So I uh, I let her go. She's not my type. She's an ugly type. I don't like ugly."

"She is beautiful!" Grundel yelled, hitting Beetle on the head, and then stepping on his foot.

"Whatever you say," Beetle gasped, trying to free his foot. Grundel lifted his own foot up condescendingly, letting Beetle stand.

"Look, I got an idea," Beetle said, back in his con-man personna. "I hear that she loves the fairy prince, right?"

"I crush fairy prince," Grundel said angrily smashing his fists together, after pounding Beetle into the ground.

"Okay, okay. Shut up and listen!" Beetle stood up, straightening his mustache. "Why don't you just nab this prince and you set up a trap for the girl, using him as the bait. You know, get her to come to you."

"Nab the prince?" Grundel rubbed his chin, contemplating the idea.

"And set up a trap."

"Nab the prince!"

"Yes. Nab the prince and set up a trap! Do you speak English?!" Beetle yelled, grabbing Grundel's collar and shaking him. "Try to keep up, Grundel, okay?"

"Don't shout!" Grundel shouted, pulling his hat down over his face.

"You're making me very nervous here!"

"You, go capture prince." Grundel grabbed Beetle, and ripped off his wings.

"Ah! My wings! You took my wings! You can't do that!" Beetle screamed, jumping to try and get them back.

"Yeah? I keep wings until you nab prince." Angrily, Beetle grabbed the arm that was holding him, and looked at the toad angrily.

"Listen, pal, this harassment has gone far enough, and I know my rights! I'll report you to the pond patrol!" Grundel's hand went back around Beetle's neck, and immediately the bug lost all his previous anger. "Okay, okay. Cool it, cool it."

The toad dropped Beetle down, but kept his fist raised threateningly.

"Where's your sense of humor?" Grundel's fist positioned itself by Beetle's head. "All right! I'll nab the prince. Come on guys! Mind the wings. I'll be back."

Grundel began smiling, as Beetle and his hiding back up dancers started leaving to do his dirty work.

Far away, in a distant part of the forest, a bear slept soundly in its cave, the leaves around it rustling with each breath. He wore a striped night cap, and clutched a jug of honey close to his chest. Silently, Jacquimo flew in, and landed on a rock near the bear's head.

"Ah, excuse-moi, Monsieur Bear?" Jacquimo loudly asked, causing the bear to stir and sleepily turn to face him, his eyes still closed.

"I am looking for ze Vale of ze Fairies-"

"I don't want no berries," the bear interrupted, having misheard the swallow.

"No, no, no," Jacquimo lifted the eyelid closest to him to look the bear in the eye. "Fair-ies! Not, bear-ies!"

Despite his attempts to get the bear to focus on him however, the bear just kept snoring, causing Jacquimo to become quite upset. Firmly grabbing the bear's ear, he shouted as loud as he could.

"WAKE UP YOU BIG LUMOX!"

This finally got the bear's attention, and he immediately sat up, causing Jacquimo to lose his balance and fall into the honey jug with an indignant "Oof!"

"I said, WAKE UP!" The swallow continued, unaware that the bear was, at this point, very much awake. Seeing the cause of his current aggravation, the bear rolled his eyes and with a strong swipe of his paw, batted the honey jug out of the cave. He then settled back down to return to his hibernation.

The honey jug flew through the air, before crashing into a tree and breaking. The shards fell down to the ground, and moans and groans echoed from the wreckage, as Jacquimo made his displeasure known.

"I am having, a very bad day." Dizzily clambering out of the intact top of the jug, he sat down on the rim. "Mon dieu! It is so cold!"

An icicle suddenly fell on his head, and Jacquimo looked up, to see the branches of the tree becoming coated with ice. Looking at the ground around him, he saw what he had missed before while distracted by his pain. Frost covered the leaves around him, even as more icicles stretched down around him.

"Winter! Winter is here!" Jacquimo breathed out, shocked, only for a strong gust of cold air to blow him off into a building storm. Snow swirled around him, as the swallow flapped his wings, trying to gain even a modicum of control, only to feel a stabbing pain from his left wing.

"Oh, this thorn!" Jacquimo cried out. "Oh, it hurts to fly!"

The storm winds drowned out his cries, as the swallow was swept away with the snow.

Nearby, hail began to fall down around the two fairy princes, who were flying through the nearly bare branches of the trees on their respective mounts.

"Don't worry Buzz! We're gonna make it!" Cornelius reassured his panicked bee, even as his brother kept calling out into the storm.

"Thumbelina!"

It was becoming increasingly difficult to see, and eventually Cornelius crashed through a leaf, temporarily blinding him and Buzzby, causing them to spiral down towards the forest floor. With a curse, Chrysanthos nudged Sniper into a dive, and zoomed after his brother.

Cornelius was able to level out of his uncontrolled fall, but his momentum was too great for him to stop, and Buzzby crashed down. Skidding through the snow on the ground, Buzzby abruptly came to a stop, throwing Cornelius from his back and into a pond of icy water covered in a thin layer of ice.

"Cornelius!" Chrysanthos yelled, his eyes wide with horror. Diving off of Sniper's back, he plunged into the water after his brother, grabbing his hand and pulling him up. They had almost breached the surface of the water, Cornelius stretching out his hand, only for the water to freeze around them. The flower necklace Thumbelina had given Cornelius blew over the ice, only for the wind to rip it apart. The storm continued to rage, leaving the princes trapped, with a single finger of Cornelius's hand sticking out of the ice.

Ivalyn ran through the storm, her sense of direction completely gone, trying in vain to find a place to take shelter. After leaving the beetles, she had returned to talk with Grandma Izzy who had reported in that her neighbors' brothers' best friend had seen someone matching Thumbelina's description near the mole hills in the forest. So Ivalyn had gone off once again to look for her missing sister, only for the storm to suddenly spring up out of nowhere as she was looking. Her cloak flapped wildly around her, as the wind continued to rage. She climbed over a rock, only to trip and fall down the other side, landing in a pile of leaves.

Climbing to her feet she looked around, trying in vain to find something, anything that could help her. It was then that she saw it. A layer of glittering white advancing towards her. The frost. Running off in the opposite direction, she struggled across the leaves of the forest floor, as the storm battered her cold form.

Daughter of Barleycorn.

She stopped. What was that?

Come, Daughter of Barleycorn.

She found her feet running towards the voice, a sound she didn't know, yet which resonated in her in such an achingly familiar way it made her want to cry. She suddenly came face to face with a tree, the biggest tree she had ever seen. It was more than twice the size of the plum tree by her mother's house, and three times as tall.

From the trunk in front of her, a hand melted out of the bark, pale and inviting. Ivalyn hesitated, biting her lip. She had no idea what she was getting into, or what that hand belonged to. Then again, it was her only escape from the frost.

Take my hand.

Looking back, for a moment, she saw that the frost was only seconds away. Taking a deep breath, she turned and grabbed the hand, and was pulled into the tree. A moment later, the frost covered the bark, and winter descended.