The Fairy Without a Talent – Chapter Seven
Knock-knock, a soft sound was heard at Nora's door as she lifted her petal pillow off the side of her head. Sighing and stretching her hands above her head, Nora sat up to see a curious little tan face peeking in at her from her bedside window.
"Cocoa?" Nora laughed, sitting up on her hands as she heard another and harder persistent knock at the door.
Knock. Knock-knock. "Nora, are you up?" River called as she hovered outside the door.
Zipping out of bed, Nora flew over to her wardrobe as she pulled out a white buttercup shirt and a blue leaf winter sweater as she called out, "Yeah, I'll be right out, River. You can come in if you want, I'll be out in a minute."
Hearing the shuffle outside the door, Nora pulled on the sweater as she tucked a light blue aqua green cap on over her long brown hair. However, as soon as she opened her bedroom door with her boots in hand, she was almost immediately thrown back as a tan furry face sniffed up towards her chin.
"Cocoa, wait till I come out the door before you say hello, ok little guy?" Nora said, laying a hand down against his little ears to give him a little scratch.
"I guess he couldn't wait to see you, he followed your scent all the way here," Nora heard her friend say as River felt around to sit down on the grassy trimmed blossom couch near the door.
"He led you here, huh?" Nora asked with a smile as she bent down to pull on her white boots over her green leggings.
"Well, actually he bumped into me on the way over here and pretty much led me the rest of the way here. I wasn't sure where your house was yet, but I just figured that I'd follow him since he was going my way," River said, tilting her eyes up at Nora. "I sensed that he wanted to see you."
Nora giggled as Cocoa curled around her feet. "I guess I still have the scent of the blue violet flower on me."
River folded her arms simply as she said, "Didn't Rosetta give you a seedling or two yesterday?"
"I don't think so," Nora said as she looked up. "Why?"
"I felt one or two of them outside your door when I came in," River said, slipping a pair of black fingerless arm warmers on over her wrists.
"What?" Nora exclaimed, flapping over to the door. But as she opened her door, a sudden thump was heard as a dust cloud scattered up outside. Cocoa tried to hold back a sneeze as a small cluster of dust settled down over his nose. Ahh-aaa-aaaa … coooo, he sneezed as River instinctively covered her nose and mouth with the edge of a leaferchief.
"Hey, which one of you sat that purple 'dandelion' in my flight path?!" a cranky voice said as she got off the ground and dusted herself off.
"It's not a dandelion, sugar," Rosetta said as she fluttered above the tripped up violet, caressing a petal adoringly. "It's one of my prized blue violets."
"Then how did it get here, darling," Vidia said, folding her arms and holding her sharp wings high. "It couldn't have got up and walked away from your garden."
"Well, not one this old, but one minute I'm watering my gardenias and I turn about to see one of my most treasured blooms a missing from my sights," Rosetta said, perched on it. "After flitting around for about a moment or so, I come across a small trail of footprints, and the next time I look up past my garden, I see it being dragged away into a crumple of bushes past the stream. And then another second, it's gone."
"Then, how did it end up here in middle of the meadow?" Vidia asked, challenged Rosetta.
Giggling, Nora sat a hand on Cocoa's head as he innocently peeked out the door with River behind him as she said, "I think I may have found the culprit."
Cocoa just squeaked as he brushed his nose up at Rosetta, and with a push from one of his hind legs, he pushed until the blue violet was leaning up against the house, again.
Hmm, Vidia sighed as she flapped her wings with a hidden chuckle. "Are you Nora?"
"Yes, you must be Vidia," Nora said with a smile. "It's nice to meet you."
River ambled out to stand next to Nora as Vidia noticed her, too "There's something off about you, dear, and it's not your talent."
Hearing where she was going, River just grimaced with a quiet growl as she clenched a hand behind her back.
"Vidia, didn't you come here for something, or what?" Tink said protectively, stepping out of the leaves wearing her winter jacket.
"Queen Clarion sent me to tell you two she'll meet you at the edge of the Pixie Dust Tree in one hour. I don't why I agreed to do this, I'm not a messanger-talent fairy," Vidia said, turning away to zip off. However, stopping mid-flutter, she turned her head to say, "I'll see you all later, then. Later, slowpokes," before she vanished in a blink.
"Is she like that all the time?" River asked as Tink came over. "I thought you said you and her were on good terms."
"Like I said, we are, but, honestly, that was just Vidia being Vidia," Tink said, brushing her words with a shrug. "She's often that way with new fairies, believe me."
"She was actually jealous of Tink at first," Rosetta said with a familiar thought. "She wasn't happy when she had to chase down those sprinting thistles, that's for sure. Of course though, they aren't that fun."
"Hey, Vidia was the one who roped me into doing it in the first place," Tink said in defense.
"Well, you were the one who went to her asking about what it took to be a garden fairy when all you had to do was accept your talent …" Rosetta started to say, catching sight of Tink's scowl.
"Hey, hey … girls, that's all in the past. And, besides, I believe we all have time to grab something to eat before we head to the Winter Woods," Silvermist said, walking over with Fawn.
Both Fawn and River perked up as River said, "Let's go."
"Oh, there you two are," Queen Clarion said with a smile as she waited for them by the Border, where spring touches winter.
"You made it," Teal said, flying up to hug her friends as they landed.
River sneezed as some of the feathers from Teal's furry coat tickled her nose. "Teal, what are you wearing?" Stepping back, River rubbed a finger next to her cheek. "Something tickled me."
Teal giggled as she spun around to show off her multicolored coat. "Of course, silly, it's made of feathers."
"Feathers?" River asked as Nora innocently hid a laugh.
"Oh, I find them everywhere at Feather Den, it's quite close to my house actually. And, oh, you should see all the colors … Uh …" she started to say as she caught River's unmoving eyes.
"That's ok, I'll take your word for it," River said with a smile, slipping away a leaferchief.
"Girls, this is the Border. It's where Winter touches Spring, and just beyond this log, you will enter into a cold part of Pixie Hollow. This is why I told you to dress warmly, but you'll soon see for yourself."
"Tink actually crossed the border quite recently, but it wasn't until after she and her sister found out a way to protect our wings from freezing, that now all of us can cross the Border as long as our wings are frosted. If they aren't, they'll freeze," Teal said, watching as Queen Clarion stepped closer to the Border as a tall and slender sparrow man came flying into sight on a winter owl.
"Sister?" Nora asked at the same time River exclaimed, "Freeze?"
"Yeah, there used to be a law set that warm fairies couldn't cross the Border, as which was the same with the winter fairies, because our wings would break."
"Wait a minute, then," River said, pulling her shawl on tighter.
"Hello, Milori," Nora heard Clarion say as she paused at the Border facing the sparrow man.
"Clarion, it's a pleasure as always. It's good to see you," he whispered, taking her hand.
Nora and Teal smiled as they watched their Queen smile with a light blush coloring her cheeks.
"Race you across the border," came a cry as Fawn and Tink came racing above them from the Autumn Woods.
"Whoa," Milori called out with a chuckle as he personally frosted the Queen's wings. "Careful you two."
"Tink," a voice that sounded a bit like Tinker Bells called from the edge of the Winter, where she was followed by three more frost fairies – one silver, one black haired, and the other having white hair as well.
"Periwinkle!" Tink shouted, recognizing her sister immediately. Landing right behind the royal couple, Tink embraced her sister as their wings glowed to show their magical origin.
"Tink and Peri are actually sisters of the same laugh, that's why their wings glow," Teal said proudly.
"Now, that would be a sight to see … Hey, that's cold," River said, feeling an icy hand along her wings.
"That's Snowdust, she's frosting your wings so you go on and cross the border," Spike said, crossing her arms with a grin.
With a light shiver, River reached a hand back to touch one of her double edged wings as frost touched her fingers. "Hey, actually it feels pretty … ok," she said, turning to head to say, "Thank you."
Nodding her head, Snowdust gestured over to the crossing, where Milori was helping Clarion on the back of his owl friend. "Have fun, I'll check on you girls in a little bit," she said, rapping both arms through Milori's as they took off.
"Come on, there's plenty to show you," Gliss said, stealing Teal's and Nora's hands as they iced their wings in a flurry. Spike stayed behind in case any other fairy tried to cross the Border.
As they flew past some snow trees, Nora looked over her shoulder to see that Snowdust was guiding River. Next to her shoulder length silver hair, Snowdust was dressed in a bodice crystal belted top over an aurora embedded skirt with light blue leggings. And on her feet were a pair of blue crystallized boots that resembled hers only in royal purple.
"I guess she's taken with you, River. She must see something in you that's special to her. Usually she's so shy," Gliss admired, watching her friend.
"Why is that?" River asked.
"Snow can't speak, so it's been kind of hard for her to make friends," Gliss said, leading the way with Tink and Peri following close behind her.
River couldn't help but smile when she heard Snow's quiet laughter as a snowball hit her in the back of her head. Stopping mid-flutter, Snow picked up a snowball and threw it straight at the newcomer, who was no doubt Fawn.
"Uh oh, everyone take cover," Tink said with an experienced smile. "It's a …"
"Snowball fight!" Sled called out from out behind a snow hill, ready with a ball in hand, no doubt part of Fawn's prank. Rosetta merely sighed with a giggle as she peeked out from behind his shoulder.
"Rosetta, you planned this," Tink called out as a snowball went flying over her head as she ducked down after her sister. Periwinkle just laughed as Tink reached into the snow.
"Maybe I did, and maybe I didn't," Rosetta said sweetly with her own split of giggles.
"Maybe … it was a winter thing," Vidia said, popping out of a snow cloud, with two snowcap snowballs in hand. "You're just in time to see my new trick. Here comes the snow," she called, crunching the two snowballs in her hands, where they were immediately swiped into snow particles by her wind and swept into a snow blizzard mist that she released over our heads.
Buried over the toes of their feet, echoes of laughter were heard as they all just fell flat back into the snow in the midday winter sun.
Well, here's chapter 7, as promised. Sorry it took me a little long, besides school and thinking a new character to introduce, I was a bit sad with Pixie Hollow closing. But, here it is, my latest chapter of Nora's story. Enjoy. :D
One of my fairies was named Sky on Pixie Hollow, and next to her, I had five more, but I plan to use what I have encaptured from my adventures and experience in the Hollow to incorporate into my Tinkerbell stories. Fly with you later. :)
On to the next chapter ... more Winter Woods fun coming up.