It was now deep in the night as Tinkerbell was now miles away from Pixie Hollow. She looked out to the horizon and saw that the Forbidden Hollow was not any closer and to top it all off, she was getting sleepy. By now, she figured it was as good a time as any to get some rest, so she stopped the boat and did just that.
As she went to sleep, she began to miss her friends and the thought of everyone in Pixie Hollow being so sick, especially Vidia, made her feel like the weight of the world was on her shoulders. But despite this, she realized that it was up to her to cure her home of this curse.
Tink woke up to find that it was still night and still did not seem to be any closer. It wasn't long before her frustration started to grow. The ocean seemed to go on for miles. Hours had gone by and still no sign of land.
At the moment, she decided to go back to sleep; figured it would pass some more time. But just as she was about to sleep, a green light caught her attention, a light that appeared directly in front of her balloon.
Tink inched her hand close to the light that seemed to move back and forth. From the way it was moving, she thought it might be a firefly. Suddenly, the light moved a few inches away from her and then stopped, continuing to gesture at her. Tinkerbell wasn't sure what the deal was, but something was telling her that possibly, this light wanted her to follow it as it continued to move further and further away.
With her curiosity getting the better of her, Tink took her balloon in the light's direction.
For a while, she followed the light to wherever it was going. As she did, she began to think that maybe it would lead her to the Forbidden Hollow and the Dark Berries. After continuously following it, Tink was elated to see something she had not seen in a long while now: dry land.
Tink landed her balloon, got off and got a good look of where she was. There appeared to be nothing but sand for miles as she continued to follow the light.
Soon, her travels took her to an enormous cave. The light moved faster as it went inside. Tinkerbell flew as fast as could to keep up with it, following it inside.
For the longest time, there was nothing but darkness. The only bit of light that Tink knew was the light that she kept following until it finally stopped. Tink looked around and stamped her foot in frustration as there was nothing around.
"There's nothing here," she said in frustration.
She then looked at the light which had nestled on the ground. The golden light was now replaced with a green glow that was all too familiar to her.
"Blaze?" she said looker closer at the light.
Suddenly, the light dimmed down, revealing itself to be a firefly.
Tink was in shock as the firefly turned around and stared her right in the face. It was in fact Blaze, but something was different.
Blaze was pale white and his eyes were blood red. Tink backed away as Blaze opened his mouth, revealing a row of sharp teeth. The very sight of Blaze terrified her.
Suddenly, four figures slowly emerged from the shadows. Tinkerbell backed away further until she heard one of the figures talking.
"Tinkerbell..." one of the figures moaned.
Tink lowered her eyebrows as the voice of one of the figures sounded familiar to her.
"Tinkerbell..." the figure said again.
As the voice got closer, Tink smiled as she suddenly recognized it. It was Fawn. But her smile quickly disappeared when Fawn revealed herself to her. Fawn was suffering from the effects of the black pixie dust and slowly hobbled towards Tinkerbell like a zombie.
Tink backed away in horror as more of the figures emerged and Blaze dissapated in a cloud of dust.
Each of the figures slowly emerged beside Fawn. Rosetta, Iridessa, and Silvermist. As Tink looked at their faces, she felt a combination of horror and sadness.
"Guys...wh-what happened to you?" Tinkerbell asked meekly.
"Tink...why didn't you protect us?" Iridessa moaned.
"You didn't help us..." Rosetta said.
"You failed us..." said Fawn.
"You should have been there for us..." said Silvermist.
The harsh words of her friends cut through her deeper than any sharp thingy she could ever find in Pixie Hollow. Looking upon the condition of her friends and the realization of what her actions had done to them, she fell to her knees and tears came out of her eyes.
"I'm sorry. I tried, but I couldn't find the Forbidden Hollow. I'd been traveling for days, but..." Tink said when Rosetta cut her off.
"That's no excuse, Tink!" she snapped.
"We trusted you..." Iridessa said.
Just then, the four of them walked towards Tinkerbell. Tink turned and ran as fast as she could.
Suddenly, all the fairies of Pixie Hollow appeared before her one by one, all of them sick from the dust. Everyone Tink ever knew was now sick. Her friends, Fairy Mary, Fairy Gary, the ministers, Queen Clarion, even Terrence.
"We all trusted you..." the fairies said.
'You failed'
'You failed'
'You failed'
'You failed'
'You failed'
'You failed'
These constant words rattled through Tink's brain, eating away at her. This combined with the regret and frustration made her tears pour uncontrollably down her face.
To make matters worse, the ground underneath her began to recede, causing her to sink. As hard as she could, she could not get out. Deeper and deeper, she sunk. Then suddenly, another figure approached her, it was Vidia, who didn't seem to be sick anymore.
"Vidia? Vidia! Help me! I can't get out!" Tink exclaimed.
However Vidia did nothing. She just stood there, eying Tink with a cold stare.
"What are you doing?! I need your help! Vidia! Vidia, help me!" Tink shouted, but nothing got through to her.
Suddenly, Vidia was once again sick from effects of the dust. Tinkerbell screamed in terror as she continued to be sunk beneath the ground.
"Vidia! Vidia! I'm sorry! Please help me! Vidia!" Tink shouted before she was completely sunk.
Just then, Tinkerbell woke up to find she was once again in her boat. It was all a dream. Sweat covered her face as she panted vigorously, pressing her hand against her heart.
She realized it was a dream, but it didn't really make her feel much better. Siure it was a dream, but felt it could somehow happen. All of Pixie Hollow was depending on her and still she was not near the Forbidden Hollow. Her food was running out and so was time. She placed her head to her knees and cried in frustration. She began to think that she was never going to get to the Hollow. And if she couldn't get there, all of Pixie Hollow would be doomed.
Meanwhile at Pixie Hollow, the Healing Talent Fairies were still tending to the sick fairies.
Queen Clarion and the ministers looked on in concern.
Every day, every hour, every minute, every second that Tinkerbell didn't come back felt like an eternity.
One healing fairy checked on a patient by checking the pulse in his neck. There was nothing...the fairy was dead. A pair of garden fairies also died from the sickness. Water, tinker, light and all other types of fairies were dying by the full. There were casualties left and right. Never before in Pixie Hollow had anything like this happened, not since the Red Fairy almost destroyed Pixie Hollow.
Time was short. Wherever Tinkerbell was, Clarion and the ministers knew she needed to hurry and hurry fast.
Rosetta, Iridessa, Fawn, and Silvermist looked on at the increasing dead bodies that were infesting the room.
Rosetta gasped in shock and horror. "Oh my, this is terrible!" she said.
"Tink, where are you?!" Fawn said. She could feel her heart beating rapidly.
At the far end of the room, Iridessa could see a sick light fairy. It wasn't just any light fairy, it was a close friend of hers.
"Shine?" Iridessa gasped.
Iridessa and Shine had been friends since the first day Iridessa came to Pixie Hollow. They were almost like sisters. Iridessa looked on in tears as Shine struggled to keep herself alive. She was coughing and coughing, gasping for air. Unfortunately, she didn't make it. All that was left was a pair of dead eyes lying on a bed.
For a moment, Iridessa was frozen. Her eyes wide.
Rosetta, Fawn and Silvermist tried to comfort her, but Iridessa quickly flew to the now dead Shine.
"NO! NO! Shine! SHINE! PLEASE WAKE UP! PLEASE! PLEASE!" Iridessa screamed, shaking Shine back and forth.
Clarion sadly hovered over to Iridessa. "I'm sorry, Iridessa...she's gone," she said.
A river of tears poured down Iridessa's face.
As Silvermist looked around, the sight of those who were dead and those were sick, but hanging onto life, made her usual optimistic persona start to slowly fade away. "Tink! WHERE ARE YOU?! PLEASE COME BACK!" she shouted to the air.
Right now, Pixie Hollow was on pins and needle. Everyone close to everyone was dying one by one. Hope seemed lost. Even the ministers were having their doubts. But Queen Clarion tried her best to keep her faith, for she knew that somehow, someway, Tinkerbell would come back and rid Pixie hollow of this terrible curse once and for all.