"I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning." –J.B. Priestley

Chapter 2: Meet Bolt

Bolt stood humming and hawing over his clothes. It reminded him sometimes of looking at a rainbow since he had so many colors. "Tink! Do you know where I am supposed to go today?" Bolt called out. He rubbed his pointed ear and started to hover as he waited for Tinkerbell to answer him.

"Fawn said the eggs were supposed to hatch today!" she called out in reply.

"Thanks!" Bolt called out as he grabbed his orange pants and shirt. Sometimes it was hard keeping track of where he was supposed to go because there was no real set schedule to his unique workload. It helped having Tinkerbell tell him what he was supposed to do because she had an easier time remembering what each of her friends were up to than he did. He grabbed an orange hat he just made on the way out of his tiny room and he hoped Tinkerbell liked it.

Tinkerbell smiled when she saw him, "That's a great hat Bolt! Did you make it yourself?" She said as she flittered over to him.

Bolt smiled and swelled with pride, "Yeah! What do you think?" he said twirling around for her. He had based it off of a hat he had seen on the mainland, a fedora, if he recalled correctly.

"I love it!" Tinkerbell said, "But it needs a little something," she said as she fluttered over to her collection of feathers. She plucked a small black one from the lot and tucked it into his hat.

"Thanks!" Bolt said smiling.

Life as a fairy was relatively simple, each fairy had a calling they were most suited to and every fairy did their own jobs according to their talents. It wasn't so simple when you had more than one talent and that was where Bolt had the most trouble. Queen Clarion said when he first arrived here all the talent totems had reacted to him. Not that Bolt remembered much about his arrival, he was the only fairy so far that had not been born of a baby's laugh and so his situation was a bit odd to say the least.

Bolt wished Tinkerbell a good day before he flew off to meet up with Fawn to see if he could help her with the eggs. Bolt loved flying, it was one of his most favorite things to do and along the way he ran into Vidia. Vidia was a fast flying fairy, so she wore purple of course, and her main element was the wind. Vidia smiled at him and they twirled around each other at hypersonic speeds for a bit before he had to spilt off to go see Fawn.

Most of the other fairies were always surprised to see how well Vidia treated him since she wasn't known to be the nicest fairy around. But Bolt wasn't so surprised since Vidia was a very good friend of Tinkerbell's. Vidia had been one of the few fairies in charge of him when he had been really small. That was another odd thing about fairies, at least in comparison to humans; fairies didn't keep track of things like years or age. Fairies typically lived a very, very long time and unless the child whose laugh they were born from said they didn't believe in fairies…well fairies didn't usually die. At least not very often.

Tinkerbell had kept track of how many season cycles in the main land had come and gone since he had arrived. She was odd like that. According to Tinkerbell, Bolt had been in Pixie Hollow for eight cycles. He wasn't sure what that meant to him but Bolt thought it was nice to know nonetheless. Fawn was talking to one of the Snowy Owls a first time mother, Snowflake, if Bolt guessed right.

Bolt fluttered down slowly beside Fawn so as not to startle the nervous mother. Fawn was an animal fairy, readily seen by her orange clothing and calming demeanor. In Bolt's opinion animal fairies had the most dangerous job in pixie hollow, because their talent relied mostly on their ability to help animals…even the carnivorous ones. It was a dangerous business coaxing a snake to hatch or getting a shattered piece of bone from between the teeth of a wolf.

Mostly the animal fairies relied on trust, trust that the animal they were helping would decide not to eat them when they were done. Not a very fun aspect all things considered. Fawn was one of the best, she was fearless, and was one of Tinkerbell's close friends. This of course meant that she was one of the fairies that had helped raise him when he was much smaller. "Hey there Fawn, how's Snowflake doing?" Bolt asked.

Fawn smiled at him, "She and the three eggs are great. The two bigger ones looked ready to hatch any minute now but I was wondering if you would mind helping the little one out? She's nervous I think." Fawn said happily.

Bolt hadn't quite gotten good enough to tell what gender an animal was without it being hatched but Fawn was experienced enough to know from a glance. Bolt took her word for it and fluttered over to the smaller egg. The new mother went off to hunt for the new chicks and Fawn was watching over the other two.

He fluttered over to the smaller egg and sat down beside it running a soothing hand over its warm surface. "Hey in there," he said, "I know it's a scary thing leaving the only place you've ever known but I promise you'll like it out here." He watched as the egg rocked nervously and smiled. "When you see the sky for the first time it'll take your breath away, it the prettiest blue you've ever seen all stretched out before waiting for you to come fly in it." He said happily.

"That's right you haven't seen colors yet! They're really nice and there are so many! Blue, green, purple, red, and so many more! Wait until you see a rainbow for the first time! It's amazing!" Bolt said smiling as he watched a tentative beak crack open a small hole in the egg. It pulled back and a small pretty yellow eye blinked at him. Bolt smiled at her, "See it's not so scary out here." He said.

It took him all morning to talk her out of her shell but once he had Bolt was so happy he did. She was beautiful, and small. "Well, aren't you a pretty one! You're gonna need a name now that you decided to come out!" Bolt said as he looked at Fawn in askance. Fawn giggled at him and made a go ahead motion with her hand. Bolt smiled, this was the first time he got to name someone and he looked back at the new chick excitedly.

She was a very pretty snowy owl, and she came to him happily rubbing her head lovingly under Bolt's hands. He smiled, "Okay what am I going to name you beautiful. Hmmm," he said as he scratched her on her fuzzy head. Bolt looked at the sky for inspiration, "I know! I'll call you Sora, I think you'll be the best flyer we've seen yet!" he said as he patted the ecstatic newly dubbed Sora.

Bolt spent the day getting Sora settled and learning some new tricks from Fawn about how to tell what the gender was while they were still in their eggs. It was as hard as Bolt that it would be, and at the end of the day he left promising Sora he would visit her often. The next day Bolt pulled out his pink clothes and got dressed quickly. Tinkerbell passed him a muffin on his way out the door wishing him a good day.

Rosetta was waiting for him in the sunflower meadow and she hugged him tightly when he arrived. She peppered his face with kisses, "It's been too long Sugar," she said as she tried to smooth his wild hair into something more manageable with little success. "Have you been washing your hair in ice water like a told you honey bee?" she said seriously.

Bolt blushed, "Yeah, it makes my hair really nice and shiny like you said it would. It hasn't helped with the wildness though," he said.

Rosetta just smiled, "Well the meadow wasn't grown in a day," she said as she hugged him again. Bolt liked Rosetta she was always very affectionate with him and though he didn't like wearing pink much he enjoyed his days with her. Rosetta was a garden fairy; she loved fashion and creating new flowers. One of the things Bolt loved about working with Rosetta was that she was always something new and exciting. Today they were working with Rosetta's favorite flowers, Roses, and she was letting Bolt try his hand at making a new color.

Bolt had been trying to make a blue rose for two seasons now and so far he hadn't had much luck. He had made some deep red ones, a few purplish ones, and one magenta one. He was feeling luck today and thought that maybe today he would get his sky blue ones that he wanted. Rosetta was patient with him, helping him test the soil and helping him pick the best spot for his rose. Luckily for Bolt he had talents with sunlight and water so growing flowers was a bit easier for him than normal.

They spent the whole day gently growing the rose from nothing but a seed. Rosetta stepped back towards the end to let Bolt be the one that unfurled the rose from its tight bud. He slowly coaxed the rose to bloom and closed his eyes tightly at the last moment so the color would be a surprise. When he nervously opened one eye he saw the color and crowed flying up twirling happily. He barreled into Rosetta laughing and she petted his head indulgently.

"Do you see?! It's deep blue! Not quite the shade I wanted but its blue!" he said bouncing happily. The rose bloomed full and beautifully as the other garden fairies came to see what the fuss was about. They clapped when they saw Bolt's rose, it was a deep velvety blue like the color of deep water, and it was lovely. Bolt bowed happily to the clapping masses getting a few laughs in return.

Rosetta flew home with him that night and bolt got a happy surprise when he arrived. Tinkerbell, Vidia, Fawn, Iridessa, Slivermist, Terence and Periwinkle were all waiting for him. Tinkerbell wrapped a ribbon around his eyes and they flew with him to someplace. When the blindfold was finally untied the sight before Bolt was a real surprise, it was a new fairy house. He looked at Tinkerbell questioning, she smiled and said, "It's all yours! You're old enough now that you should have your own house! All the tinkers helped me build it!"

When she saw Bolt get a bit nervous she giggled and pointed behind her, Tinkerbell's house was right next door. Bolt smiled then and got really excited flying over to the house eager to see the inside. It was awesome, the tinkers had given him everything he would need, tools, pots, pans, dishes, furniture, and everything else they could think of. Bolt flew around in the house looking at all the new things. Tinkerbell had moved his things for him, Bolt found his wardrobe full of his clothes, all his instruments, all of his inventions, and the bed he had made last season. It was perfect.

When he was done exploring, for now, Bolt flew into the group of fairies smiling at him resulting in a big group hug. These were the fairies that had been with him almost every day of his life, the ones that had raise him, and he loved them all. Bolt thought that in human terms these women were his mothers and Terence was his father. They guided him every day, they helped him learn, and they were always there for him. He felt very happy and safe here in Pixie Hollow.

Later that night as Bolt was tucking himself in for bed he thought about how different his life would have been had Tinkerbell left him on that doorstep. It wasn't a happy thought. He had turned himself back to being big a few times since Queen Clarion insisted he try to do it and it wasn't an enjoyable experience. He never managed it right, his ears stubbornly remained pointed, and Tinkerbell said humans had round ears. Being that big made him feel clumsy and slow…it didn't feel right.

He could still understand his family, he had been afraid of that since Tinkerbell said that humans couldn't seem to understand fairy speech well. Bolt was always scared that while he was that big he might step on a bug by accident and he didn't want that to happen. Bolt, like all fairies, was a vegetarian and a pacifist, not wanting to harm anything he helped create. Oh, he wasn't naïve Bolt knew that the animals he helped grow sometimes ate some of the other animals he helped raise.

Every fairy knew the cycle of life and death. They viewed it as a simple part of life; flowers grew, wilted, and died to make room for new flowers. Animals grew, gave birth, died, sometimes a few lives were cut short to help feed another. It was natural. Death was a sad thing but it was a necessary thing. Bolt ran a finger over his lightning bolt scar and felt it warm underneath his fingers. The piece of soul within it had been quiet lately and Bolt wondered why.

When Bolt had been told by Queen Clarion that he had a piece of another person inside of him, he had been so curious. How does one get a piece of another person inside of them? He had tried talking to it for days with no response, at least not any he could tell, but then one day he felt it. It was like a having another heart beating in time with his own, the piece couldn't talk per say, it was more like the shard gave him impressions of feelings. It was a bit like talking to plants to be honest, never perfectly clear but the important things come across easily enough.

The shard liked him; Bolt felt that the easiest, so sharing his body wasn't so bad. Mostly he felt curiosity from the shard and Bolt tried his best to tell it what he was doing throughout the day. It was bit like having a friend that was always around and Bolt enjoyed that. Still Bolt had so many questions that he wished the shard could answer. Like how it had gotten into his head, where it came from, if its owner was missing it and what the person it came from was like. Endless questions that Bolt hoped to get the answer to one day.

A.N. lol here's another chapter! Read and Review! This is so fun to write! Hope you like it! XD