Hello to all the readers, both old and new! Reviews have already arrived and it is so nice to hear from you all! Everyone is being so encouraging and polite. A quick word to any former readers: I've done a tiny bit of editing since this was last posted, so there may be a few changes here and there. But it's the same tale, through and through. Enjoy reading, everybody!

Chapter Two: Aftermath

It had happened so fast…

Vidia stayed on her hands and knees, too dazed to speak, cry for help, or make full sense of it all. Voices of the lookout fairies called out for her. They sounded muffled and distant—she must have fallen quite a ways into the trees. She was wide-eyed and shivering from the shock. She had been attacked by a hawk; that much she knew. Pain pulsed through her entire body but her voice didn't seem to be working.

She sat back on her heels to examine the wounds. There wasn't much time—she could tell she was going to faint.

With horror, she realized she was squatting in a pool of her own blood. Gashes ran along each arm and along her face. Her hair had come undone and was stained red. Her legs seemed to be alright, but her torso was so mangled…every inch of her back and shoulders had been slashed. Many cuts ran all the way around onto her abdomen, bleeding freely. The worst were three huge tears across her back. She couldn't see them, but they ran very deep, drenching her.

Vidia acted fast. There was so much blood…she was fainting quickly. Her clothes had been very torn up. She pulled her feather skirt apart and used them as makeshift bandages. The worst of the wounds she bound as tightly as she could, given her lack of strength. It was too painful to bear! Before she was finished, she gave a weak cry and collapsed. This couldn't be happening…

The woods went black.

…

News of a hawk attack was never welcome in Pixie Hollow. They killed several fairies a year. Queen Clarion had attended every one of the memorial services personally, for every fairy in Neverland was dear to her; never before had there been a survivor.

The lookouts had found Vidia's mangled figure in the branches. Bloody, ragged and literally ripped apart. But she was alive. They had wrapped up the wounds with leaves and used a scrap of bark as a stretcher. The fast-flyer had been brought to the hospital in no time at all.

Word quickly spread to all ears.

Among the first to know were Fawn and Tinkerbell. They arrived at the hospital's waiting area not long after Vidia's admittance. Other patients who were waiting outside to get in included a fellow who glowed with excess sunlight (not an emergency) and two others who were hopelessly tangled in sticky spider webs (also not an emergency).

"Tink, this is a nightmare!" Fawn gasped as they flew down, breathless. "It must've happened right after I met her in the woods. I saw her less than an hour ago!"

Tink rang the buzzing beetle to call the receptionist. "Calm down, calm down. I'm sure she's all right—she's a tough fairy…" but even brave Tinkerbell was scared. During that summer on the mainland, she and Vidia had finally put aside their rivalry and become friends. She would hate for anything bad to happen to her.

The spectacled receptionist drew back the leaf curtain to see them. "Hello, dears. Patient's name?"

"Vidia." Fawn and Tink chorused.

With that, the receptionist grew grave. "Oh, my. The poor thing is in Room 12 being attended to." She lowered her voice. "She's lost a lot of blood. I don't know how bad the damage is, I'm afraid, but your friend is lucky to be alive."

"Can we see her?" Tink begged.

"Not yet. Wait here and I'll check in on the healers."

The two friends stumbled in shock over to the waiting area. It was outside, amongst the shady grass with some flowers towering overhead. The hospital itself consisted of an entire tree. The rooms could be found down around the roots. Medics, nurses and doctors in uniform fluttered from room to room, tending to all the patients. However, more seemed to be heading up to the higher rooms—one in particular—with anxious faces.

The receptionist returned a minute later. Her face was very white. "The patient won't be receiving visitors—"

"Until when?!" Tink interrupted. "We have to go in and see her!"

"You can see her when the doctors have finished tending to her. Not her several hours, at least. There's been…a lot of damage."

"How much? What happened to her?"

But the receptionist would tell them no more.

Silvermist, Rosetta, and Iridessa arrived. At first they didn't notice the others and approached the desk, but Tink stopped them. "It's no good, you guys. We can't get in for a few hours."

Dess clasped her hands. "Fawn, you were in the woods this morning; did you see what happened? Were you there?"

"No; just heard about it after the lookouts found her. If they hadn't been there…I can't imagine! They used slingshots on the hawk to scare him off, and he dropped her into the branches then. That's all I know."

The group was too worried to say much more. The day had started out so wonderfully. Just doing chores or playing out in the meadows or down by the river. Sil had finally perfected a trick involving a fish inside a hovering orb of water. Rosetta had begun plans for a new flower garden by her house. Dess's morning had been very busy up in the clouds with the other light fairies; it was hard aiming just the right amount of sunshine into a newly seeded field. Dess gave a shudder—that field had been the one Vidia helped sow earlier.

Tinkerbell tried to offer a bit of comfort to everyone. She suggested solemnly, "C'mon. Let's find some get-well gifts for her. She'll enjoy them, I'm sure of it. We can come back later."

They all agreed with a silent nod. None of them had expected such a horrifying event to end the morning. Vidia was always so sarcastic, short-tempered and rude; always going on about how rare fast-flyers were or showing off her own speed. Despite her faults, they had all come to love her.

…

An entire day passed before Vidia woke up.

The first thing she saw was a large leafy curtain across the entrance to the room; a privacy screen that she didn't understand the reason for. Why was it there? Why wasn't she waking up in her own house? It took another minute to realize where she was…The hospital? Why was she here, of all places?

Sunlight penetrated through a slight gap in the curtain. It lit up the room pleasantly. Without moving, Vidia looked around at the shelves full of medical instruments, rolls of ribbon bandages, bottles of colorful liquids, and a huge magnifying glass. On the wall were some coat hooks. A basket of blankets was on the floor. She twisted her head to see some nature paintings on another wall—done by some of the art talents, no doubt. This was when she realized she was propped up on her side by many cushions. She moved a hand to grip the edge of the bed, which was fashioned out of a large seashell. The movements made her head spin and forced her to lie down again.

"Miss Vidia?" an accented voice whispered.

To her surprise, Bobble and Fawn poked their heads in. Bobble's glasses magnified his eyes alarmingly; it was easy to see the extreme worry in them.

Carefully, Vidia twisted around on her back. Pain coursed through her torso like aching fire. She gasped in agony. Everything about the attack came rushing back in an instant. She remembered it all.

Seeing her discomfort, Fawn rushed in to help her sit up slowly. "Whoa, take it easy…don't tear anything else."

"How are you?" Bobble asked, lingering near the door.

"Ugh…it hurts…what happened?"

They told her about the previous day. How all of Pixie Hollow was scared for her and trying to visit, and how the doctors had saved her and stitched up all the torn skin. Some parts of her back had had exposed bone. As Fawn became more distraught and Bobble just went on talking, Vidia managed to fully sit up and examine herself. The soft flower petal blanket was not very comforting right now.

In place of her clothes, there were leaf and ribbon bandages covering her. A few were wrapped around each arm as well. Her torso was the worst of it, though. She felt lots of padding underneath it all. Things must be very shredded up; the pain she was really becoming more aware of now. The fire spread deep down into her back, right into her spine and shoulders. It was almost embarrassing, wearing nothing but bandages. She hastily tried to cover up more with her hair. Someone had left it unbound, having washed it clean so that not a trace of blood remained.

"…and hawk attacks always end so tragically! I can hardly believe it." Fawn was saying. She looked as if this was the most sorrowful day in existence.

"Now lass…" Bobble addressed not to Fawn, but to Vidia herself. "You must not be scared."

"The hawk is gone now, you two! You're both overreacting a little. I just need some rest and time to heal up." Vidia tried to lie back, but sat up again upon learning this caused too much discomfort. She gritted her teeth. "I won't be flying above the forest anytime soon; what a stupid idea! I should have thought of hawks."

"Well…there's a wee bit of a problem now, Miss Vidia," Bobble spoke softly; almost inaudibly. He was wringing his hands and his over-sized eyes were sad. "Haven't you realized?"

Vidia stared at him, then at Fawn with a frown.

Fawn hung her head, while he managed to stammer the words. "Your back…when the hawk…erm…"

A sick moment of understanding came. Ice cold fear polluted Vidia's veins. She shuddered in terror. Her grey eyes closed to try and stay calm…with one hand, she reached behind her. Hopes and prayers zoomed through her head. What they were suggesting couldn't be true. It just couldn't! She was a fast-flyer…

Her hand felt the wrappings of bandages. Nothing more. The hawk's talons had taken her precious wings.