DAWN RISING?
"What happened," Tinker Bell asked Bobble. She had just arrived in Tinker's Nook and found it a bigger mess than yesterday.
"Vidia happened," he replied. "She flew in here earlier and started destroyin' everything. During her tantrum she kept screaming that it wasn't fair and that she wasn't the criminal. Whatever that means."
Tinker Bell sighed. "She was sentenced earlier today," Tinker Bell announced to her friend. "She must not have taken it very well. Vidia must still be blaming me for everything that has happened to her."
"Well don't you believe a word of it, Miss Bell," Bobble told her. "She's to blame for everythin' that's happened to her."
Tinker Bell picked up a broken acorn cup and looked at where it was nearly split in two. She also saw a damaged mouse cart. Silvermist sat in a corner, weeping and appeared shaken. The tinker fairy flitted over to her water talent friend.
"Sil, what happened?" she asked.
"Vidia happened," the water fairy replied.
"Yeah, so I've heard."
"Vidia just came in here like a crazed maniac and started to destroy everything. She flipped over the mouse cart I was about to drive away in. It scared me seeing just how uncontrollably angry she was. Then she flew into the workshop and nearly destroyed it outright with her wind talent."
"What?! The workshop?"
Silvermist nodded.
"First my house then the workshop, what is she going to try and destroy next? The Pixie Dust Tree?"
"Well she sure looked angry enough to do it."
"Where is she now?" Tinker Bell asked.
"Scouts took her away in wing cuffs," Silvermist told her.
Tinker Bell spent a few more minute with her friend. Keeping her calm and helping the young water talent to recover from the trauma of Vidia's rampage. The tinker talent then flitted into the workshop and was floored by how complete the destruction was. Tools, projects, acorns, broken pots and pans, lost things, all of it was scattered, damaged or destroyed. Even some of the mushroom tables where the tinkers worked were cleaved in half or torn from their roots entirely. Light rattles and hanging flowers where fireflies lit up the shop after dark were torn from the ceilings and were left in tangles on the floor, hanging from outcroppings or irrevocably wrapped around vines, mushrooms and branches. It would take weeks to restore the workshop its previous state.
Fairy Mary is not going to like this, she thought to herself. She always says we're behind even when we're ahead of schedule. Now we really are going to be behind schedule. I see plenty of double shifts in the weeks ahead. Tinker Bell flitted to her worktable. She looked for her hammer, but it too appeared to have been swept away. Somewhere in all this mess, she thought, were her beloved workshop tools. Tink preferred them because each was the perfect size, weight and balance for her. The tinker fairy also noted some small dings in her mushroom worktable. Bobble, who had quietly followed her, explained that this was where Vidia had pounded a hammer into the table before being restrained and taken away to confinement.
"Here," he said, "we saved your tools for ye." Bobble then proceeded to hand her a small satchel containing all of her favorite tools, including the hammer.
"Thanks," she told him while taking the satchel from her workmate and friend. "But it won't help. I can't do any work."
"None of us will, Miss Bell," Bobble answered.
"No, you don't understand, Bobble. I have a special project, but I can't build it with the workshop like this." Tinker Bell stepped away from him, wings drooped and her head held very low and looking terribly grim.
"Well what is it?" he asked. "Maybe I can help."
"Thanks, but I need to make a large mill, or a grinder. Something that can grind grains and seeds into powder."
"Whatever for, if'n you don't mind me askin'," he continued gently, realizing just how important this was to her.
Tinker Bell sighed before she explained what happened to all of the mice and how Roquefort was in such bad shape because of her actions. Bobble was understandably disappointed by what she had told him. However, Tinker Bell was still his friend and no matter how foolish she may have been, he was going to help and protect her like he always had before and always would in the future.
"It sounds like you could use a mortar and pestle," Bobble told her.
Tinker Bell's head cocked up. She turned around with a very confused look on her face. "A what and a what?"
"Aye, a mortar is a hard or heavy bowl made for grindin', and a pestle is a rough and heavy object used to do the grindin.' That should do the trick."
"Where would I find one of those?"
"Well, the healin' talents use 'em for makin' their medicines," he suggested. "And the cookin' and bakin' fairies would use 'em for grindin' down seeds for spices or grains for making flour. Say, if you're just lookin' for ground up grains, maybe all you need is the flour."
"No, it has to be whatever mice eat. I want to grind up their food into an easy to eat slush so that Roquefort will be able to swallow it with as little difficulty as possible."
"Oh, I see. That's why ye wanted to build a mill, so ye could grind up as much as possible."
"Yes," she replied.
"Okay, well draw up the designs and Clankie and I will make it for ye," he offered. "In the meantime, ye use that mortar and pestle to do the work until its ready."
"You don't mind? Even after everything I've done?"
"Miss Bell, we all make mistakes in our lives. Turnin' your back on a friend won't help matters; but it will make things worse because it will cost ye that friend. We'll be glad to help in yer hour of need."
"Thanks, Bobble. You truly are a wonderful friend." Tinker Bell gave the skinny tinker sparrow man a big, friendly hug before hunting down a piece of papyrus and a writing instrument to draw up her plans.
Vidia was in her confinement cell, yelling and screaming at the top of her lungs while she yanked, pulled and shook the large twigs that formed the secured door of her cell.
"You have to believe me," she said to the scout who was acting as a guard, "she is the real villain. If the queen is so smart and wise then why didn't she change that law in the first place? What is her excuse for holding a double standard like that?"
The scout talent didn't respond or even look at her. He simply stayed at his post watching the sunbeams that broke through the leafy canopy above slowly track across the ground and up the walls. They signaled mealtimes, break times and, of course, end of his shift.
"Okay, then answer me this," she continued, "Why is it every time I am involved in a tiny fracas with someone I get the blame for everything and the other person is practically treated like royalty?"
Vidia said this while conveniently forgetting that Silvermist had indeed been punished for provoking the fast flyer in the first place and had lost her water talent privileges. On a broader level, though, Vidia was indeed correct. Even when the queen didn't handle the infraction personally, the authority figure involved would usually hand down a severe punishment to Vidia while giving the other party a light slap on the wrist.
"You see, that is how I know everyone here in Pixie Hollow is out to get me and the queen willingly lets them get away with it. She is unfair to me all the time," Vidia claimed, trying to say anything to garner sympathy from her guard, although to no avail. Despite not gaining any ground on the scout talent she continued to spin her webs of conspiracy theories all of them describing her as the victim of suppression by the queen or by other talent guilds jealous of her great talent. Whether right or wrong, she truly did feel betrayed and rejected by Queen Clarion. Vidia believed it because she had convinced herself it was true long ago, but it was Tinker Bell, the first real threat to her place as the most talented fairy, that sent Vidia slowly over the edge into madness. Only strong intervention could bring her back from the precipice of total insanity. That intervention, however, was waiting in the Pixie Hollow Tree for some insight into that law Vidia claimed as her inspiration.
Queen Clarion stood by the gaping windows again. She had been floating there ever since Snowflake left for the Winter Woods to visit the mysterious Keeper. The queen had sent her regards to the Lord of Winter with the Minister of Winter, the only fairy, along with her small band of assistants, who could survive in both the warm and cold climates of Pixie Hollow with no ill effect.
Centuries before Clarion and the Milori, the Lord of Winter, had carried on a private romance which ended in such tragedy that the queen forbade all fairies (including herself and Milori) from ever crossing the border again. It isolated the winter fairies from the warm seasons and also ended the affair with her beloved sparrow man.
After the pronouncement took affect she would send love notes to him via one of Snowflake's assistants and he would reciprocate with his own letters of deep affection. However, even that became so emotionally torturous that Clarion eventually stopped. Now she would only occasionally send her regards, a courtesy between rulers. She had hoped the Lord of Winter didn't think she had stopped loving him. She never did, but Clarion recognized that she could not be an effective ruler if she were in a constant state of emotional trauma and upheaval.
Please do not forsake me, Milori, she thought wondering if somehow her thoughts and feelings could reach out across the vast expanse between them and find their way into his mind and heart. For I have never forsaken you. No sparrow man could ever be your equal in my heart.
Sitting on her desk was a book, a diary from a previous monarch. She should have been pouring over ever page with diligent attention to detail. Instead she was standing at the window with wistful longing. This moment was precisely why she could not afford to think about her lost love. This moment was also precisely why she couldn't help herself but to think about him. At challenging times like this Clarion wished Milori were at her side so he could offer her his support, reassuring comfort, strength and counsel. Instead she was to face this test alone.
For more than an hour she stood and waited in private thought even as the other three ministers and Fairy Mary, along with the queen's helpers and even some of the staff of the Pixie Dust Tree were pouring through every book of laws and court cases that were available to them. Viola had been sent to the public library to try to find any additional information, but all that was available was a law book which listed the rule, but offered no background or reason for it to exist.
Eventually Queen Clarion was able to focus herself enough to begin reading through the private law books, journals and dairies of past monarchs to try and find something that would enlighten her as to why the law was enacted and left uncontested for so many centuries. However by the evening hours she could find nothing of relevance. When the others returned from their exhaustive task they too revealed that they had found nothing.
"Then there are no records?" she asked her advisors.
"None that are written down," Snowflake answered. "However, it may predate our written language."
"In which case no record would ever exist," the queen said, finishing the thought that Snowflake was reluctant to say herself. She took in a deep breath to clear her mind. Clarion knew there was only one duty left: a vote by the ministers.
"Ministers, you are hereby tasked with deciding if the Queen of Pixie Hollow has committed a high crime. Did I knowingly and or willingly violate a talent guild's right to equal treatment under the law? You are to sequester yourselves in chambers and decide if I am to be relieved of my crown. Do not vote by your heart, but only according to the law."
"You cannot be serious?" Sunflower asked astonished by the queen's request.
"I am quite serious, minister. You must consider all available evidence and determine if I have committed a crime worthy of dethronement."
"Isn't there anything else we can do?" Hyacinth asked.
"Is Vidia worth losing your crown over?" Redleaf asked. "This is probably just another one of her attempts to flout your authority and avoid any punishment for her actions."
"That no longer matters, the question has been raised and it is a critical one. None may be above the law, not even the queen," Clarion said. "You have your duty to perform, ministers, please carry it out."
The four ministers looked at each other and their queen. She was indeed quite serious, but they didn't have the heart to go through with what she had demanded of them. For a moment each just stood there, almost dazed, hoping someone or something would intervene and prevent them from having to carry out this horrid duty. Each of the ministers greatly admired Clarion. Hyacinth, the Minister of Spring carried a torch for her, though his was an unrequited love as it was clear her heart belonged to another. Thus far she had been the greatest monarch Pixie Hollow had ever known and none wanted to take part in toppling such a beloved figure.
Several seconds went by before they slowly began to file out of the queen's private office. It seemed no reprieve would present itself..., until.
"Wait a minute," Fairy Mary spoke up.
"What is it, Fairy Mary?" Hyacinth asked.
"Please not now, Mary," the queen said, not wanting to delay her own misery.
"We searched all the written records, but what about the unwritten ones."
"Mary," the queen said a bit frustrated, "there are no unwritten records."
"Oh, but there are, and we have own archivist right here in the warm side," the tinker replied.
"And exactly how does one archive unwritten record?" Snowflake asked.
"Before our written language emerged," Fairy Mary explained, "our history was passed down through a rich oral tradition by the performing talent fairies. And that tradition still exists in the form of Fairy Tale Theater where many of the plays are concerned with our history. I never miss a show and I can tell you for a fact that some of the historical reenactments that I see there were never part of our written history. Lyria is the fairy who performs most of the reenactments because she is a history buff. If anyone can help us it would be her."
Upon hearing this, the queen promptly sent Viola to fetch the performing talent Lyria. She and her ministers suddenly looked revived, as if hope had been restored to a hopeless situation, which it may very well have been.
Will things turn out okay for both Tinker Bell and the Queen?
Tune in next time as this story FINALLY begins to wind towards its (hopefully) epic conclusion.