The Fairy Without a Talent – Chapter 13
"That's it, we have to go to the Caverns at night," Nora said, laying her book down beside her as she looked up at her friends. "I've been over it for nearly an hour, it's the only thing that makes sense to do."
Looking up from watching River's concerned gaze, Teal pulled Nora away from the book to say, "Nora, you do know that this talent quest won't help you find your talent, right?"
Standing to her feet, Nora tugged on her sleeve as she met Teal's eyes.
"Look, I went to the Book Nook personally with Tink and we didn't find anything that had to do or made any mention of the legend itself. It's mainly a piece of Never myth written long before any of fairy kind came upon it to make any sense of it. Dewey even told me that he had just come upon it recently about one to two years ago when Lia found it in the Fairy Archives, and he's been trying to decipher and rewrite it for years. You're just now going over the rewritten version," Teal said, picking up the book. "That's all it is, a piece of fairy lore."
Sitting down on the edge of a sunflower close to the ground, Nora asked, "What are you saying with all of this? You're trying to tell me something and it's not completely about the legend, is it?"
Sighing, Teal said, "Nora, look, it's like this. River and I are thinking you are spending a little too much time with this then you should be. It's because of following this you almost got hurt, and you weren't the only one …"
Taken aback, Nora suddenly began to think. "Lia?"
"Yeah, Lord Milori told us why he was so worried about anyone else going out to search for the marker, but the way he described Lia's description sounded a bit different than yours …" River started to say before hers and Nora's ears perked up to hear a high screech echo up over their heads.
Cree-eek, a white peregrine falcon called as he flashed out over their heads in a hurry as Lia lowered her head down to holler, "I misinterpreted it the first time. Come to the edge of the Border and I'll explain there!"
In a flash, eager to get his mistress back into the safe coldness of winter, Casper took off straight over the tips of the cedar trees as the sun just began to sit.
"She heard us talking?"
"No, but I think she thinks what's going on because she was present when Lord Milori told us what happened," River said, whistling for Cocoa as he came romping out from under a rhododendron leaf.
"What did happen?" Nora asked as Teal and River raised her to hoist herself safely on his back.
Teal sat a hand on Nora's shoulder as she said, "Simply put that Lia can't fly."
"Look, I tried to find this stone myself once and it cost me one of the most valuable things a fairy counts on. In other words, I broke my wings while trying to find the stone, without even knowing what it was to begin with," Lia said, stretching out a hand to pet Casper on the head, who sat protectively at her side on the log.
Perched just near where winter touched spring, I hugged my knees as Bluebell fondly wrapped a blanket around my shoulders even though I wasn't cold.
Teal stood nearby as River stood right next to the snow as it fluttered gently onto her hair. At her side, Snowdust was cautiously frosting her sister's wings just in case.
"So, how did it happen?" River asked.
Flicking back her silver and white ponytail, Lia took a piece of her long bangs and started to braid it as she said, "It was about a couple of years ago, just a few weeks after I arrived. Right away I knew my talent, ice. However, instead of practicing my skills with the other ice and snow talents, I snuck off and studied every part of the Winter Woods I could before I heard about the Great Hall of Winter, where Dewey wrote down everything there was to know about Pixie Hollow. And, being the curious fairy I was, I skipped training again to sneak into the Hall, where I first met Dewey's pet lynx, Fiona. Dewey wasn't there, strangely, but under Fiona's eye, I humbly started thumbing through some of the tomes at my feet until I stumbled upon an old brash wooden knob that had rolled across the icy floor."
Looking back at us, she continued, "Did you know there was a room in the Hall that was devoted solely to the early histories and legends of Pixie Hollow?"
Watching us shake our heads, she said, "I didn't either, but what I found was only a handful of books written long ago in some ancient dialect I couldn't for one understand, let alone decipher, so that was when I sought out the Keeper. And, what we found … well, he told me it was written long ago by a small group of forgotten fairies called the Hopefuls."
"The Hopefuls?" Nora asked, feeling her ears perk up as Queen Clarion rested a loving hand on her shoulder.
"Yes," the Queen said, fluttering down to sit next to the Border. Touching the book held in Nora's hands, Queen Clarion said, "A Hopeful is a fairy born into the Hollow not knowing exactly what or who they are meant to be just yet. Eventually, through guidance and practice, they come to know who they are inside as well as on the outside. Commonly, they grow to merge into other talent guilds, but a small amount of those fairies that existed before fairy kind knew what to call them, well they introduced new talents that became reverent and representative to the very nature of both themselves and what nestled into what made Never Land."
Understanding the queen's words, Nora said, "So, you're saying that I may come to represent a whole new talent. Does that make me a Hopeful?"
"That's exactly it, my dear. But, it's not just your talent, but who you are. Hopefuls are very rare to the Hollow, especially now, but with each coming brings a new way of understanding for us to see, sometimes old and at times new," Queen Clarion said with a smile.
"Huh?" River asked, distracted with a dewdrop running over her hands.
"It means that a young Hopeful brings a lesson for every fairy to learn, and it is often always interpreted in their own unique way," Lord Milori replied, joining the rest of them on his side of the Border.
"A Hopeful comes with a lesson of morality, and their quests are often meant with questions and answers only they can find," Queen Clarion said, enveloping the pamphlet into Nora's hands. "So, the words written here are not to lead you to some talent treasure, but the quest itself is but a tool to help you unlock what's in yourself for your talent to be revealed. Sometimes, this quest helps new Hopefuls and at times not, but whatever you find will be found by you and your understanding, not just by what the book says. It is different to every Hopeful that reads it."
"At the time, I didn't understand what we had deciphered, but the part of the legend that said something about the Crystal Caverns, I remembered a part of the Winter Woods that no winter fairy rarely traveled to because it was so dangerous," Lia said, looking up at her mentor as he continued.
"The Caverns didn't use to be dangerous," Lord Milori said, fondly looking over his shoulder into his realm of wood. "Long ago, I heard tale that all sorts of fairies had come into the Winter using the passages from the Caverns; it was a time back when the Hollow was not separated as it is today. Spring was not summer, and autumn was not winter, but as the Hollow grew and stretched to accommodate the seasons, so did the fairies. Different talents arose out from those stretches and nature fairies of the different seasons became reverent to help those seasons along and out across on the Mainland."
"Then, what happened to Lia at the Caverns?" River wanted to know.
"Simply said, I wasn't sure," Lia replied. "One minute, I was off flying to want I knew of where the Caverns laid, but I wasn't aware of the trouble I would face when I got there. That's why it's so dangerous for any fairy, winter or non, to fly there. For many years, it has become barren and unkept because so many winter fairies forgot it was even there. I should've seen the rush of snowdrift overhead of me, but I didn't. All I saw was the rush …"
"It took me and a group of winter animal talents to dig her out, but she wasn't alone," Lord Milori smiled up to see Casper preening his speckled feathers as his mighty head erected itself back up to nudge against his mistress affectionately.
"Casper rescued me," Lia said gently, turning around where her right wing laid motionless against her back and where her left slashed one laid silently and elongated, touching her other wing. "He kept me safe while I was unconscious, but I didn't know I had broken a wing until Lord Milori told me. From there, he had made me his student for long as I can remember." Rubbing Casper's neck, she said, "That was then I learned I could communicate with animals, and was how my and Casper's bond grew."
"That was the main reason I was most concerned when I found out you were going on the Talent Stone quest," Lord Milori said, meeting Nora's eyes. "I know how dangerous the areas around the Caverns can be if you aren't careful. We've got winter scouts out there now, marking and observing the woods circling the Caverns, making sure it's safe. What people don't know about the Caverns was that it was among some of the many passageways for how pixie dust came to flow into the Woods in the earlier days, and that's how the Pixie Dust Falls are present today thankfully on our side of the realm."
River and Snow's mouths dropped as the word, "Wow," came from both of their lips.
Flipping absently through the pages in her pamphlet, Nora said, "I still can't help but think that the night and starlight have something to do with the clue."
Helping her young Hopeful to stand, Queen Clarion said, "Then, maybe that's where you should look into next, but remember what I said about the Hopeful quest itself. It is not simply a quest of adventure, but a test for you to find upon yourself. You are the real key to your talent, Nora, and only you can unlock it."
Alright, here's chapter 13. Overall, it's a little more history on who Lia is and her role in the story, but I've also introduced a little more on the history of who Nora will come to represent in her quest of self-representation. I'm still weighing the outcome of this story, and I promise a big and grand surprise and treasured part at the end. Hopefully, managing to write out a bit on the history of this chapter, the next ones will flow as easily.
And again, I hope all of you are enjoying the Holidays and I humbly wish you a Merry Christmas. :)