Disclaimer: I acknowledge that Disney Fairies & associated content are owned by Walt Disney Company. I am not interested in profiting from this document. It is for the enjoyment of fans only.
Author's Note: Thanks reviewers, for the interesting suggestions on Lizzy's possible talent. I didn't want to go too strange; just use what's in the movies & books. Besides, (spoiler alert) I'm working on getting fairy-Lizzy back to her journal.
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Lizzy's Sunset - Chapter 8 - London Baby
After pixie dust the following morning, Prilla told Lizzy it was time for the next step of Lizzy's training.
"Take my arm," said Prilla, "And hold tight." The instant Lizzy did so, she felt the world spin as she seemed to be squeezed through a dandelion stem, then they were standing near Havendish Stream.
Lizzy jumped away from Prilla in shock, asking "What was that?"
"Lesson 2; Side-Along Apparition." Prilla grinned. "How does it feel?"
"Creepy." shuddered Lizzy.
"So I've been told, but it's very useful for transporting fairies in a hurry. You'll need to learn it. Want to try again?"
"A-alright." Lizzy linked arms and braced herself. This time it was much easier, as they appeared in Tinker's Nook. "Oh, that's better."
"You were helping that time." commented Prilla, "I could feel it. I thought that might happen, so I brought these." She produced a cotton ball and a dark kerchief from a pocket. As she put the cotton in her ears and tied the kerchief over her eyes, she explained "It's your turn to try. I'm hoping these will distract me from helping you."
When Prilla had finished, she spoke a little loudly, "There, now I'm blind and deaf. The thing with Side-Along Apparition, is that you need to convince yourself the other fairy is part of you. The simplest way is to create an emotional bond or love for the fairy, but you also need to focus on Apparating. It's tricky." Prilla raised a hand, "Ready to try?"
Prilla felt Lizzy linking arms with her. Nothing happened for about half a minute, then Prilla felt the world spin for a fraction of a second. Then again. The world really spun the third time, as she felt herself squeezed through a dandelion stem, then she was staggering next to Lizzy.
"Fly-through-water!" shouted Prilla. "So THAT'S what it feels like." She took a deep breath. "Good work, Lizzy. Do it again." Nothing happened for 10 or 15 seconds, then she felt the jump.
"Oh, that's weird!" cried Prilla. "Again." She felt the jump 5 seconds later.
"Oh, oh... doing great Lizzy! Do it again." After 5 minutes of this, Prilla was shaking. She broke contact with Lizzy and pulled off the kerchief & earplugs. "I think I need to lay down and just breathe for a while." Prilla staggered to the nearest patch of mossy ground and collapsed there.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" Lizzy apologized profusely, looking terribly distressed.
"No, no." Prilla said slowly, with her eyes closed. "You need to learn this. Besides, can you imagine practicing this with any other fairy?" she smiled weakly.
"I suppose not." chuckled Lizzy.
"The most I can manage is 3 other fairies. More than that, and either I can't Apparate or someone gets left behind." Prilla opened her eyes. "You find out those things during emergencies."
When Prilla's head settled down a bit, they got up and just walked along the wagon-path.
"You should also practice while in motion," said Prilla "And jumping to a moving location. The easiest way is to do it while flying. After that, try Apparating onto & off-of a moving wagon. You can do that yourself." She stopped and looked at Lizzy. "When you travel to new places, always look around. Familiarize & memorize. Are you ready for a trip to the mainland?"
"The mainland? Oh, yes!" chirped Lizzy. She took Prilla's arm and moments later they were standing before the Fairy Camp Tree in central England.
Prilla took Lizzy into the sheltered area and introduced her to any fairy who had a spare minute. Lizzy was also shown the pixie dust concession, cafeteria, dormitory, and medical clinic.
"We can Apparate," said Prilla "So we don't really need dust, food, or sleep at the Fairy Camp, but it's nice to hang out with different fairies. I've found a lot of the ordinary working-fairies to be just as interesting as the well-known fairies." Prilla chuckled, "Sometimes I don't go back to Pixie Hollow for days."
Lizzy gazed in wonder at the busy fairies and their small-scale version of Pixie Hollow.
"How do you feel about a trip to London?" inquired Prilla.
"Sounds fab!" laughed Lizzy.
"Let's see if they need anything." Lizzy followed Prilla to the cafeteria, where kitchen fairies quickly assembled 4 large carry-bags of food. Prilla & Lizzy each slung 2 bags across themselves, then lugged them to the dust concession where they were given enough pixie dust bags to over-fill the carry-bags.
"No fairy could fly all this to London alone," explained Prilla "But we take the short-cut." As they staggered their way out into the open air, Prilla continued. "London is about 100 miles to the south-east. When you enter human territory, ALWAYS be on your guard. Always keep a safe location in the back of your head, just in case you need to Apparate in a hurry."
As they paused outside the Fairy Camp, Lizzy looked around again. "Okay, got it." Prilla raised her arm, Lizzy linked up, and they vanished.
They appeared on a large branch of a huge oak tree. At the root of the branch, around the trunk, was a large fairy-built structure which would have been impossible to see from the ground. This was a fairy regional base.
Lizzy looked around, commenting "I thought you said we were going to London."
"This is Richmond Park, the biggest in London." responded Prilla. Two fairies fluttered out to take part of their loads. "There are smaller fairy bases and stations at almost every park in London. The water talents like Bushy Park, and you'll find garden talents in Regent's Park and Kensington Gardens." She started toward the main entrance. "Let's drop this baggage."
The fairies inside were glad to receive the full carry-bags and greeted Prilla warmly. She introduced Lizzy to everyone in sight and they all happily welcomed the new mainland-visiting talent. Prilla took Lizzy to the record-keeping fairy who provided a map marked with green, red & blue dots. They stepped outside.
"All the fairies keep an eye out for babies and children." Prilla told Lizzy. "These maps make my job a lot more efficient. The green dots are babies, the red ones are girl children, and the blues are boys." She looked at Lizzy with a twinkle, "For your first day in the field, how would you like to visit a baby?"
"A real human baby? Yes!" Lizzy bounced. Prilla studied the map and pointed to a green dot.
"There's one I've never been to. We'll fly there, since you'll need to know how to navigate around a large city." She handed the map to Lizzy and they took to the air.
Prilla stopped once to pick a flower bloom which was just a little past its prime and took it with her.
"What's that for?" asked Lizzy.
"We might get lucky." replied Prilla with intrigue.
Prilla explained that all of the scouts, most of the fast-flyers, and even some of the nature talents in London wore grey-brown camouflage outfits. She showed Lizzy how to hug the buildings and stay in the shadows while flying.
"If you can find a pigeon flying in your direction, stick near him. If you ask nicely, sometimes they'll even take you all the way there."
"I think we're getting near." said Lizzy. Prilla checked the map.
"Yes. Should be down here somewhere." she agreed, flying lower to some row houses. They flew along the fronts, looking into windows as they passed, but found nothing. They flipped over the roof and checked the rear windows.
Suddenly Prilla stopped. "There! Smell that?"
"Yes! What is it?" asked Lizzy.
"Baby-smell." She glided over to the nearest window and landed on the ledge, with Lizzy just behind her. They peeked through the window at the furniture and toys inside.
"Looks like a baby's room." declared Prilla, dropping the flower bloom on the ledge.
"It's closed. How do we get in?" Lizzy looked at Prilla, who winked and vanished. Lizzy heard a tapping on the window beside her. Prilla was on the other side of the glass, beckoning her.
"Oh!" Lizzy said to herself, and Apparated through the window.
"Still thinking like a regular fairy." Prilla chuckled. "First, let's check on Mum." They floated cautiously to the open bedroom door, looked out, then continued along the hallway.
"You can't often go wrong by hiding "high"." whispered Prilla. "Humans never think to look up. Light fixtures are a good hiding place, but sometimes dusty. I've even hidden by hovering over a human's head."
They found the mother asleep in front of the telly, on at a low volume.
"Ah, poor Mum's catching a nap." decided Prilla. "We should be safe for a while." They flew back to the baby's room and perched on the crib railing.
"It's a boy. He's adorable." sighed Lizzy.
"Yeah," agreed Prilla "But look, he's sleeping on his stomach. Sometimes that's not good. Help me turn him over." She floated into the crib. They pushed the baby's legs together and swung the arm which was away from his face, up past the shoulder.
"You handle his head and neck, while I pull his shoulders over." directed Prilla. She grabbed the baby's shirt near his face and pulled upward & over with all her strength. "Push his hips over." grunted Prilla. Lizzy shoved the hips and the baby flopped onto his back.
"Good work." said Prilla, as they fluttered back to the crib railing. "He looks near the right age, about 3 to 5 months. If he hasn't laughed already, he should soon."
"Oh look, he's waking up." noticed Lizzy. "Hi, baby!" she cooed, while turning the crib mobile with her hand.
"He still looks a bit groggy, but let's see if we can get a laugh out of him." Prilla pushed into the air and slowly circled the mobile. "Follow my lead." Lizzy circled the mobile on the opposite side.
"We've got his attention." said Lizzy.
"That's good. Try this." Prilla swooped down near the baby's face, then back up to the mobile. Lizzy followed. They took turns. The boy gurgled and made "ma-ma-ma" noises.
"He's smiling!" cried Lizzy.
"Watch his hands," advised Prilla "You don't want to end up in his mouth! Now try this." She quickly landed beside the baby's face, slapped his cheek with open palms as if playing bongos, then flew up to the mobile. To the baby, this was a great tickle. He thrashed his arms and legs.
They took turns at that, until Lizzy hovered out of sight above the boy's head. She slowly hovered into his view, upside-down to him, and cried "Hi, baby!"
The baby laughed.
Both Lizzy & Prilla watched the shock-wave bounce about the room, then out through the closed window.
"That's a good one!" yelled Prilla. "Congratulations Lizzy, you may have just created a fairy!"
"Yippee!" Lizzy did loops in the air. They heard heavy footsteps in the hallway.
"It's Mum!" warned Prilla. "Go for the ledge outside!" she pointed to the window. They both vanished as the baby's mother entered.
"What's all the noise, funny boy?" she cooed, smiling at her happy baby and reaching to pick him up.
Prilla and Lizzy watched Mum pick up her baby, from just outside the window.
"O-oh." bleated Lizzy. "I wish we could play with him some more."
"So do I." admitted Prilla, picking up the flower blossom she left on the ledge. "Look, there's a petal missing." Lizzy looked at her quizzically. "It could be on its way to Pixie Hollow."
Lizzy beamed at Prilla. "So we did well?"
"I'd say so."
They both Apparated to the Richmond Park base to drop off the map, then the Fairy Camp Tree to drop off empty carry-bags, then Pixie Hollow.
As they walked together towards Dulsie's tearoom, Lizzy declared "This is the best job in the world!"
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Author's Post Notes:
I was going to place the fairy base in Kensington Gardens (mentioned in "The World of Fairies - At the Dawn of Pixie Hollow"), but after some Internet research, I decided it didn't seem right; too many open areas, not enough high ground cover, and the trees are meticulously kept, so humans would find the fairies. Richmond Park seems much better for them; 2500 acres, 1000 large oak trees, 650 deer, and it's left semi-natural.
I borrowed the clever idea for a fairy "teasing" a laugh out of a baby from the fanfiction story "Talents" by "Kyra the animal fairy". It would be easy for a fairy to get a baby's attention; they're bright, colorful, animated, and make a jingling sound. The fairy can flit around, and tickle the baby if they must. I later found another more detailed example in "The new fairy" by "ginika".
After I wrote that section, I realized it also had a completely unintended subliminal angle. I decided to leave it as-is, rather than twist my head into a pretzel trying to re-write it. Once again, this is just a work of fiction for your entertainment. Please don't read anything deeper into it.
Where's the end of this story? I'm just about out of ideas for it. Chapter 10 should be the last one.