I apologize for the late chapter. I sort of drifted away from this working on a Super Smash Bros fic with the rest of the team. On the side, I tried to write this, I really did.
I didn't gain the inspiration I needed until I found Yoko Kanno. Seriously. Whereever she is, I thank her. Her music for Napple Tale is amazing. It restarted my creative juices again, and I love that! So, here it is. Don't be upset if you don't know what happened between Sayo and Zazie while they are way... I intended the story for that, because nothing really big happens during the big, and I'm a storyteller. It needs to be amazing (or character development) in order for it to work.
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Chapter Five: A Rant and Dealings
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Tinker Bell flew into the morning with a sigh on her breath and a mind filled with thoughts whizzing past her brain. It had been two days since Zazie and Sayo's strange departure, and still there had been no sign of Terence.
When she had gone off to visit him two days ago, the Queen had refused her passage and told her to not worry about it. Since then, Tinker Bell had been worried.
River was flying past high above her as she opted to walk to her workshop. Seeing her, she flew down as quickly as she could.
"Tink! Tink! Hey! Good morning!" she piped happily.
Tinker Bell looked up in shock. Watching the newest fairy fly by her happily, she couldn't help but wave back with a smile. It was a weak one, but it was a smile nonetheless.
---
"I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS!" exclaimed a frustrated Qana as she kicked the snow back into place while making snowflakes for the upcoming winter. "Why HER and not me?!"
"Qana! Be quiet!" exclaimed Yuki worriedly. Her white hair had been done up in a braid circle around her head, almost like a crown. "The Minister of Winter will hear you!"
"Not like she'd care," Qana muttered as she returned her attention to the snowflakes in front of her. "The Minister of Winter hates HER almost as much as I do... but seriously, what does the Queen see in HER? SHE's nothing..."
"The Queen sees potential in everyone," Shiver said with a smile. Shiver, a sparrow-man, was always shivering slightly, his bones on a constant jerk. He was probably the only one from the Snow talent that had a like for Sayo, but he hadn't had the guts to talk to her before. Wearing his sweater and pants all the time, the warmth did nothing to cease the shiver in his bones. The others of his guild were more forgiving of this, blaming a possible piece of his laugh breaking off. They weren't so thankful when it came to Sayo's 'incompleteness'. "Maybe there's something in Sayo that we haven't seen."
"As if," Yuki snorted. Everyone on the table snorted in reply, especially after Shiver had called Sayo by name. The Guild had made it a silent oath not to call her by her name, but Shiver was the only one that ever did.
"SHE's a complete waste of Dust in the morning."
"Why can't SHE do her talent right?"
"What does Shiver even see in HER?"
"What does the Water REJECT see in HER?"
"Oh, for the love of Neverland.... It's HER all the time, isn't it?"
"I don't like HER. SHE's always giving me strange looks. Me! Why is SHE giving me looks, when SHE deserves them?"
"How can the REJECT stand HER?"
These were things Sayo heard every day of her life. In a way, Shiver knew that it broke the girl's heart to hear comments on her and her only friend. The sparrow man stopped working, and he flew off, getting away from the comments as fast as he could.
"SHE's so pointless. Why doesn't the Queen just get rid of HER?"
"Why doesn't the Minister of Winter do something about HER?"
Qana plopped another snowflake in the bin of collected flakes. "No one appreciates this absence I guess as much as I do, despite my earlier complaining," she told Yuki. No one had noticed Shiver leave. "I have to deal with HER every day. I have to teach HER how to use HER talent, even though it's pointless. I have to tell HER how to do it right, and even after that, SHE can't do it. I'm glad. I'm no longer wasting my time on HER stupid acts of not being able to do anything."
"I understand, Qana," Yuki said with a smile. "Really... though... Don't you ever think we go too far with our comments?"
Qana looked up from her current piece of work. "Too far?"
"Sure," Yuki replied, as she held her new snowflake in her hand. She lifted it up, examining it. Qana looked at it. "We always talk about HER like SHE's never there... but... what if she is sometimes...?" There was no hate in the last 'she'... almost as if she felt happy not saying it forced. "What if she can hear the words we say... and it breaks her heart...? She may not be able to do anything, Qana... but maybe she just can't do it the same way as us. Maybe she has to do things differently. You've been pushing tradition on her, and getting mad when she doesn't do things right. Then you complain about it, badmouthing her behind her back. She may be a bit... pointless, but she's still a fairy, and so she's a sister, in a way..."
Qana raised a single eyebrow as she looked up from the new snowflake and looked at Yuki's blue eyes. "Your point...?"
"Qana... don't you see? Every snowflake we make is different, and yet every member of our guild is crafted to use the same tools, the same procedures in order to make individual masterpieces. Haven't you noticed? In a way, we're not snowflakes. We're raindrops. While we are like raindrops... Sayo's the stray snowflake."
It was then that Qana understood Yuki's point – and it frightened her.
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Fairies everywhere were preparing for the Queen's Review for the upcoming Summer Celebration. Tinker Bell was working the leaf cylinders that held rays of sunshine, and Iradessa was helping Rosetta's plants grow. Silvermist was gathering water, a bit behind with the absence of Zazie and a quarrelling Rani and Cera as her only help, as River had no idea what to do yet. Vidia and Elwood where preparing for the breezes, and Fawn was... playing with chipmunks, so she wasn't being much of a help at all.
That night, at the Review, everyone was waiting patiently in Summer Glade, the music talents fairies, being led by Lief in her beautiful green leaf knee-length A-line dress with sunflower clips in her long auburn hair. She wore simple green slipper-like shoes with no decoration. She played her harp with all her heart.
Tinker Bell hadn't met Lief, but something told her that the fairy playing the harp in the front was her. Makar stood next to her, playing his fiddle the same way he had on the day he had met Tinker Bell. Seeing her looking at him, he winked at her.
The Queen arrived then, in a puff of Dust as she always had, seeming somehow brighter and happier than she had in the past two days. She flew by everyone in the Summer Glade, stopping at the four Ministers, and turning to the fairies. She acknowledged them, reaching her hands out as if for reassurance.
"Fairies and Sparrow Men of Pixie Hollow, I am sure that for the past two days you have noticed the disappearance of two of your own," she said in her grand voice. She lowered her hands and a bright smile came on her face. "You may worry no longer, as they have returned. I just sent them out for a little venting, as they have come to me with a few... complaints about the system we hold here."
Rosetta leaned in close to the blank-faced Iradessa. "I so doubt that was it..."
"What? But everything the Queen says is true!" Iradessa said, with a fake smile and tone. "I don't doubt her words at all, nuh uh!"
Fawn crossed her arms and smirked at Rosetta. "Sure..."
The Queen nodded as the rest of the fairies and sparrow men took her word for it. "Now, let's start the review, shall we?"
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The next morning, as the fairies and sparrow men were preparing for taking leave for the coming of Summer, Tinker Bell left her home and workshop behind as she darted for Havendish Stream, hopping to see Zazie there.
She wasn't the only one that expected it, she found Fawn, Rosetta and Iradessa there, as well as the other Water Fairies. However, they were just watching, stunned as they stared at the scene before them.
Once Tinker Bell got there and turned to see what they were looking at, she was stunned as well.
It was Sayo and Zazie – and they were laughing.
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Zazie and Sayo were playing Fairy Tag. Sayo was wielding a bucket, frequently filling it with water to splash at Zazie.
"Hey!" laughed Sayo as she got hit, and she flung into a lily pad beneath her, her bucket falling into the water. "That was my only weapon!"
"Sure it was..." said Zazie, a smirk smeared across her face. "Let's call this training."
Lief showed up then, wielding her harp. "I-I came like y-you a-asked me too, Z-Zazie..."
"Thank you, Lief," Zazie said with a kind smile directed at the shy music talent. The two turned their heads towards Sayo.
"But..!" Sayo looked startled and stuck in her current predicament.
"No. Try." Zazie had an evil smirk on her face as she flew so she was in front of Sayo. "I've given you three days of break, now it's time to start again."
Sayo put on a playful pout as she flew to the middle of the lake.
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Qana and Yuki happened to be passing by with a basket of snowflakes, taking it off to the Minister of Winter, who was visiting the Minister of Summer. They stopped short when Silvermist saw them and waved them over.
"What?" asked Qana politely. She noted that the friends had been hiding behind blades of grass.
"Shh!" hissed Rosetta, as she pointed to the lake. "Just watch!"
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"You do it nice and slow..." Zazie instructed, as the two danced atop the lake.
The two did it nice and gracefully, dancing almost a waltz together over the lake. Tinker Bell figured out quickly why Lief was there – she was providing music to dance to. The two danced better than any of those watching could ever dream of doing – the moves calm and swan-like, perfectly co-ordinating to the music that Lief was playing for them.
As they danced together, Zazie summoned streams of water to dance slowly around them, and Sayo copied her movements, as she amazingly took control of one of the streams, as it slowly turned to solid, bendable ice. The water and the ice flowed around the two as they danced, the ice co-ordinating between water and ice as Sayo struggled to keep it frozen and bendable.
Lief's music was slow and calming, probably the type of music she always played for the two. The effect it was supposed to have was definitely working on Sayo, as she took deep breaths and tried her best in the dance the two were doing. Zazie's movements were automatic for her, for Sayo, it was practice.
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Qana couldn't believe what she was seeing. In this one act that she was seeing – HER actually freezing something, actually DOING something – her entire opinion on HER... no... Sayo was actually changing. What Yuki had told her, although she had understood what she meant, now was crystal clear.
In a way, it was THEM, the Snowflake Guild, that was USELESS for SAYO... she wasn't to them. They were useless because they couldn't teach her properly. That's why she was so attached to the REJECT... no... Zazie. In a way... Zazie and Sayo were connected somehow, and that's why they could teach each other how to perform the way they could only perform.
Many minutes later, when the small group hiding behind the blade of grass scattered for fear the three misfits would find them, Qana was still pondering what she had just witnessed.
They were only a handful of fairies, when an entire population of a Hollow was seeing those two as rejects and misfits, useless wastes of Dust (oh, how Qana hated that phrase now...)....
....
Speaking of Dust....
Qana flew off for the Pixie Dust Tree instantly.
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Tinker Bell was ecstatic. There, handing out Dust in the afternoon rush, was Terence, looking as healthy as he ever had, a new measuring cup in his hand. Behind him, were a chatting Zazie and Sayo, their dance over and unknown to those around them.
Tinker Bell couldn't help but notice the cold looks the two were getting. What was their problem?
"Good afternoon, Tinker Bell," greeted Terence as he poured Dust over her head.
"Hey, Terence!" Tinker Bell greeted happily as she went to the side to let the next fairy go by. "Where have you been?! I missed you..."
Terence looked sheepish as he poured Dust over Elwood's head, deserving a quick thank you and a getaway. "Sorry... I got the flu."
"Really? Are you okay now?" Tinker Bell asked, worried.
Terence nodded as he poured Dust over Rune's head, getting a slight wave in return. "Yeah, I'm fine, now."
"That's good , Terence.. you had me worried for the time you were gone!"
"... That's actually good to know, Tinker Bell..."
As Tinker Bell got ready to leave, she was stopped by Zazie. "Hey, Zaz!"
Zazie's rather calm face was replaced by a startled one. "'Zaz'...?"
"Sure! Most of my friends have nicknames to make things easier... 'Ro'... 'Dess'.... 'Sil'... I figured I'd give you one, too! Sayo can't really get one... her name's kind of short..."
Sayo flew up. "Hey, Zazie... who's this?"
That's right. Although Tinker Bell had talked to Zazie about Sayo, the two never officially met. Suddenly Tinker Bell felt a bit nervous, almost as if she was before a famous actor or something.
"Sayo, this is Tinker Bell. Tinker Bell, this is Sayo. I've had a few run ins with Tinker Bell before," Zazie explained.
"Oh, so you're the one that ruined Spring two years ago..." Sayo identified as she looked at Tinker Bell with a small smirk.
Tinker Bell's already nervous smile faltered. "You... know about that...?"
"... Doesn't everyone?"
Tinker Bell laughed, completely embarrassed and nervous.
Zazie smirked at Sayo and turned back to Tinker Bell. "I'm inviting you to the Havendish Stream tonight. You see, every year before the coming of each of the seasons, Sayo and I, and those that treat us as normal, throw a small party there."
"So, every year you throw four parties? Must be fun," Tinker Bell said with a smile.
"It's something only we do, as well," Zazie said with a small smile, as Sayo nodded.
"So... can you make it?" asked Sayo.
Tinker Bell nodded. "Definitely. Do I have to dress up?"
"Not really," Zazie answered. "Just come in any outfit that you'll be comfortable in...But I suggest a hat."
The two friends flew off without another word.
Tinker Bell pondered the advice. "... Hat...?"