I'm ba-ack.
*Looks around*
Hey, where did everybody go?
Tinker Bell arrived at Rosetta's garden home so she could rest. Rosetta opened the door with sleepy eyes and seemed almost miffed at the tinker fairy for showing up so late. But the garden fairy quickly turned her frown into a smile and let her young friend into the house. "I thought you weren't goin' to show up tonight," Rosetta said groggily.
"I'm sorry, Ro," Tinker Bell replied contritely, "I've been at the mouse stables grinding up food for Roquefort."
Rosetta cocked an eyebrow. "Remember? The mortar and pestle you loaned me?" Tinker Bell added.
"Oh, yes, yes. I'm sorry, Sugarplum. I'm just so very tired." Rosetta yawned deeply. "How did it go? Did Roquefort eat the food you made for him?
"He was a real champ. Ate every bit of it," Tinker Bell said quite excited. "But now my arms have no feeling in them. I've been grinding food all night long."
Rosetta sat the tinker fairy down on the couch where Tinker Bell would sleep, "Now stay here, Rosetta's got just the cure for your painful problem." She took a small acorn made container out of a cabinet that was hung from the wall. When she opened it there was a smell that was quite peppery and it tickled Tinker Bell's nostrils just a bit. Rosetta sat next to her friend and began to rub in small amounts of the peppery smelling cream on Tink's left arm. "This will help calm those achy muscles," she told the blonde tinker. "I'll put a little more on in the morning. Come back later if you need to, I'll leave it in my medicine cabinet."
Tinker Bell felt her arms getting warm, then hot. "What is in that stuff?" she asked.
"Capsaicin," the red headed fairy replied. "It is oil extracted from the pepper plants the garden fairies grow in the fields. It makes food hot and spicy, but it can also relieve pain. This is my special recipe. It's far less pungent then the stuff the healin' talents use."
"Whoa!"
"Yeah, the stuff they'll give you will make your eyes red and your nose run. It's not a pretty sight." Rosetta shook her head about, fluttering her hair. "I prefer to look my best at all times."
"I've noticed," Tinker Bell said with a laugh.
Rosetta then moved to Tink's other side and began to rub in the cream on the right arm. Tinker Bell remained oddly silent for a moment before broaching the subject of Vidia's past.
"Oh that flyer is nothin' but trouble, Tink," Rosetta told her. "She's always lookin' for a way to embarrass you or make your day miserable. Her given talent maybe fast flyer, but I think her real talent is bein' as rotten as possible."
Tinker Bell looked disappointed when she heard this. The tinker fairy had hoped she could reform Vidia, but if the fast flyer's personality was truly that rotten, befriending her might be a wasted effort. Tinker Bell was anything if not stubborn and wasn't going to give up just yet. She decided to prod Rosetta for a little more information about Vidia. Even the slimmest glimmer of hope would be enough to set Tinker Bell on her task.
"What else has she done?" the tinker fairy asked coyly.
"It might be easier to ask what he hasn't done," Rosetta replied. "But I will tell you about somethin' that happened to another garden fairy years ago."
Rosetta told Tinker Bell a story about a garden fairy that Ro named "Flora."
"That's not her real name," Rosetta added. "It's still a sore subject for her and I want to protect her privacy." Tinker Bell nodded.
Years ago Flora was a sweet young thing and was friends with a then recent arrival, a sparrow man which Rosetta named only as "Shad." The two started as friends, but Flora found herself thinking about Shad all the time. Their friendship eventually developed into a full blown romance. The two were always seen together after hours and were considered inseparable. They were the perfect couple.
Vidia, for reasons known only to her, couldn't stand to see the lovey-dovey couple together. Every time she saw them she made a gagging sound to express her displeasure in having to witness their gooey public displays of affection. One day Vidia invited Flora to a secluded area of Springtime Square for a supposed "surprise date" with her sweetheart. But when Flora arrived she found her Shad on a romantic date with another fairy. Worse, Flora came across them as the two were engage in a passionate kiss.
The sparrow man lied by saying that the other girl meant nothing, which greatly offended the other fairy. Shad's date left, but Vidia stayed to watch the fireworks. Flora got into a serious shouting match with her now ex-boyfriend. The argument ended with her slapping him and leaving quite a bright red mark across his face. Vidia broke into peals of laughter. Flora's sparrow man had been cheating on her and Vidia used this knowledge to humiliate Flora and to amuse herself. Vidia never even bothered to try and tell Flora about the boy's cheating beforehand. Vidia just cold heartedly brought the young Flora right into that awful situation and had fun watching the poor garden fairy have her heart crushed.
"Oh my gosh, that is so awful," Tinker Bell replied sadly.
"You see, Tink? That flyer is as heartless as they come," Rosetta told her. "Why I'll bet the baby who bore her probably grew up to be a pirate."
"Is that all she did?" Tink asked, looking for a little more.
"Oh no, sugarplum," Rosetta said, astonished that Tinker Bell still wanted to know more. "Ask Fairy Mary about the dam incident. If that doesn't convince you that Vidia is rotten to the core, nothin' will."
Queen Clarion woke to the pleasant aroma of freshly brewed chamomile tea. When she lifted her head, Clarion realized that she had fallen asleep in her office last night reviewing the scripts that Lyria had left for her to study. She had wanted to learn as much as she could about Pixie Hollow's history from its oral traditions, particularly as it related to the current situation with Vidia and the prohibition against Tinkers. She had already sent word to the scouts on the mainland to locate and retrieve human books about fairies to gain a better understanding of how fairies were thought of before the current rise of scientific exploration.
"Are you well, your highness?" asked Rhia, one of Queen Clarion's personal assistants. She was the one who had brought in the tea along with a honeycomb, fruit and an assortment of pastries fresh from the Pixie Hollow kitchens.
"I am fine, Rhia," Clarion replied. "I was up all night studying some old texts and must have fallen asleep."
"You work too hard, your highness, you should take a break," Rhia suggested.
"Thank you, Rhia, I will consider it." The young helper fairy rested the tray of food and tea on Queen Clarion's desk and walked to exit the office. "We are ready to assist you in the royal bedroom. A bath has been drawn and your clothes for the day have been selected. Whenever you wish we will be waiting."
"Thank you, I will be along soon," Clarion told her helper. Rhia then departed the room, closing the door behind her. Clarion sipped her tea and ate her breakfast as she read through more of the scripts. Upon finishing her morning meal, the queen returned to her bed chamber for a hot bath and fresh clothes.
"C'mon, Fairy Mary, please tell me what happened with the dam incident," Tinker Bell pleaded with her supervisor. "I really want to know what Vidia did."
"Oh all right, Tinker Bell. But I have so much work to do you will have to follow me while I tell you the story."
Fairy Mary told Tinker Bell of a great storm that struck Never Land several decades ago. Vidia had barely reached her fifty first arrival day anniversary and had already gained a reputation as a mean spirited fairy. What happened that day cemented her as a heartless creature to be avoided.
Scouts had reported a large and powerful hurricane approaching Never Land. It was a rare hurricane that ventured that far north to strike the island and the mainland. The tinker fairies were tasked by the queen to build a canal, a dam and a series of levies that would divert runoff that would normally drain into Havendish Stream to prevent the flooding of Pixie Hollow. Garden fairies cut down twigs and collected stem twine while animal fairies gathered the bunnies, squirrels and other animals to dig up the canal along the route settled on by the queen.
Fairy Mary assigned Clank and Bobble to build rafts that would float the twigs, twine and pebbles for the dam down Havendish Stream to the construction site where more tinkers were waiting to begin construction. The dam, levies and canal was finished just in time as the hurricane's first rain storms arrived only hours after construction was completed. As expected, the dam, levies and canal diverted the heaviest runoff away from Havendish Stream. When the hurricane died out suddenly (or so they thought, Fairy Mary told Tinker Bell it was actually the eye of the hurricane passing overhead, but they didn't know it at the time) the tinkers went to the dam site and inspected their work. It was holding up fine. The dam was holding back the runoff and was diverting it into the canal which sent the water towards the coastline.
Vidia, who had done as little as possible during construction, now arrived to sneer at the hardworking tinkers as they made minor, but essential repairs to the dam. The fast flyer suddenly unleashed a powerful wind that pushed huge amounts of water into the dam, overwhelming it. Only an alert animal fairy saw the huge wall of water and cleared out the tinkers before they all would have drowned. With the dam destroyed Pixie Hollow flooded when the heavy rains suddenly began all over again and fell for hours after the calm (it was just the back side of the hurricane once the eye passed). The ministers and Fairy Mary wanted Vidia banished for her actions, but Queen Clarion refused. Instead she confined her to Never Land to help with the cleanup. Fortunately, Pixie Hollow survived the flooding, but no one ever trusted the fast flyer after that.
"That's when she moved out of her assigned housing with the fast flyers and into the hollow of the sour plum tree where she lives now," Fairy Mary told Tinker Bell.
"I can't believe Vidia would do something so terrible," Tinker Bell said.
"Oh believe it, dearie," Fairy Mary told her charge. "She even lied about it, telling me that she was trying to stop the wall of water, but I knew better. We all did."
Tinker Bell was leaving Tinker's Nook feeling more depressed than ever that Vidia was indeed irredeemable. How could she be friends with someone who actually tried to drown tinkers. Vidia's opinions of the tinker talent guild didn't help matters. Before finally exiting the Nook she saw Clank and Bobble and talked to them for a while. They confirmed what Fairy Mary had told them. Vidia had sent a giant wall of water into the dam and smashed it. Clank and Bobble were the ones who testified that they had seen Vidia near the dam when the wall of water had struck.
"We were lucky that none of our guild were lost," Bobble told her.
"Why would would she do that?" Tinker Bell asked them. "Why would Vidia destroy the dam, Pixie Hollow is her home, too. It makes no sense."
"Aye, that was what Queen Clarion said when she kept Vidia on Never Land," Bobble said. "No one actually saw Vidia blow the water against the dam, but how else could it have happened?"
"How indeed?" Tinker Bell said, her mind racing to try and solve the problem. "Bobble, do you still have the plans for the dam?"
"Aye, that we do, but Fairy Mary kept all of that in her office. You'll have to ask her about it."
"The queen has a copy of it in her archives, too," Clank added. "She keeps copies of everything for the history records."
"Thanks." Tinker Bell flitted out of Tinker's Nook, hope once again in her heart that she could help Vidia.
Sorry it has been so long since my last update. I've been distracted, confronted with major housing repairs, busy with studies and other stories and suffered a bout of writer's block. Hopefully the next update won't be so long in coming. Enjoy and please review.