Disclaimer: All recognizable story material does not belong to me.

Stand Your Ground

Chapter 2

Escape from the Pirate Ship

"Got it – I've got it. Tuck the rope underneath something really heavy – a cannon or something."

Scruffy hurried to obey her, and Vidia slid down the rope to meet him. She shaded her eyes from the nearly setting sun as she gazed up at the ropes holding the yard in place.

"What next, Vidia?" Scruffy asked.

"We need to untie the braces." Vidia said, determined.

"What're braces?"

Vidia paused. "Ropes on either side of the yard."

"What's the yard?"

"The horizontal post holding the sails up." Vidia pointed, impatiently. "See those ropes tied to the hooks on the rail on either side of the ship?"

"Yup." Scruffy answered.

"Those are the braces. We need to untie them, cut them, or chew through them. I don't care which, as long as we get them undone. You take that one, I'll do the other." Vidia ran across the deck toward the rope. She paused to snatch up a stray pirate knife almost as big as she was. She climbed up onto the rail and used the knife to saw at the rope.

"I untied it, Vidia!" Scruffy called.

"Get to the hat – I'll be there in a moment." the knife Vidia had picked up wasn't very sharp, and had only cut through half the rope, but the yard was pulling it taut.

A pirate climbed up the stairs from the lower deck and across to the grating. He paused when he saw the rope, then reached for his knife to cut through it. Vidia froze, trying to think.

SNAP!

The rope next to her had completely snapped. Her knife went flying overboard, barely missing her. The yard swung around, wrenching the grating out of it's hinges and breaking the latch. The pirate gave a yell as the grating knocked him backwards and then went swinging around the mast at the end of the rope.

Vidia dropped onto the deck and ran across to the hatch. She jumped down, letting her pixie dust fall onto the hat, which then floated up to meet her. She landed with a thump next to Scruffy.

"Wow! We're flying!"

"That's what pixie dust is supposed to do." Vidia pulled the brim upward, steering the hat toward the hatch.

Scruffy stood still as she directed their vessel up out over the deck and into the sunlight. "What shall I do?" he asked, after a moment.

"Sit still right in the middle. I'll steer." Vidia instructed. "Next stop, Pixie Hollow."

But things didn't go according to plan. Not at all.

Stand Your Ground

Vidia leaned forward, making the hat fly a little faster. She peered over the edge and looked down at the water below. Suddenly, it didn't seem such a great escape idea.

"Are we going to make it to the beach?" Scruffy noticed her expression.

"Of course. We're going to Pixie Hollow." Vidia shook off the strange feeling of helplessness.

A gust of wind threatened to make the hat flip. Vidia stumbled forward to the front of the boat, and clutched the thick seam. The hat zoomed forward and down.

"Ahh! Vidia, what are you doing?" Scruffy shrieked, terrified.

"I'm not trying to! Move back!"

Scruffy pulled himself up into the other end of the hat.

Vidia sighed in relief as the hat straightened out.

Scruffy looked back at the pirate ship. "That got us way out very fast."

"It was the wind, actually. When I do something like that, it works better." she twirled a finger and made a whirlwind that she used to direct them toward land.

Another gust of wind caught her off guard. Scruffy shifted his weight and the hat again dived downward. Vidia tugged his fur until he got back to a balanced position, and the hat straightened inches above the water.

"That was close." were Scruffy's words just before a wave hurled over the brim, soaking them both.

Vidia spat out some water. "The hat's too heavy – it'll sink!"

"Pixie dust has a weight limit?" Scruffy started to panic.

"Get in the middle of the hat." Vidia ordered. "We need to get to shore."

She created a wind to blow them high in the air, but nearly fell overboard when the hat tipped. Scruffy tried to dig his claws into the fabric, but it was too tough, and he skidded into Vidia. Vidia shoved Scruffy roughly into the center of the hat, preventing it from spinning. The wind caught the brim and blew them higher and toward land.

"Stay where you are!" Vidia warned as she stepped forward. The hat tilted and started going down.

"What're you doing? We're going to crash!" Scruffy eyes rounded in terror.

"No, we aren't." Vidia shot back. "Let me handle this."

"Look out for the tree!" Scruffy yelled,

Vidia stepped to one side and then back. The hat dodged the tree and moved right back on course.

"See, not hard at all." Vidia glanced back at him over her shoulder. "We'll get a fair distance -"

"Vidia – look out!"

Vidia turned just in time to be thrown out of the hat as it crashed. She landed softly on the a palm branch and pushed herself to her feet. "Scruffy! Are you okay?"

"Stubbed my nose, but I'm all right." he rubbed his nose with one paw.

Vidia walked out on the palm branch she had landed on. "Oh, great."

"What?" Scruffy looked around. "Hey – If we crashed, what are we doing in a palm tree?"

"I think I managed to crash onto a palm tree." Vidia admitted.

"Well, we'll be in plain sight when the other fairies start looking for you."

Vidia remained silent.

"They will be looking for you, won't they?"

Vidia climbed onto the brim of the hat. "I'm not exactly – popular."

"Why am I not surprised?" Scruffy sat down.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Vidia took offense.

"I finally meet a fairy who could get me off the pirate ship, we crash our flying hat into a tree, then I find she doesn't have any friends, so the other fairies won't rescue us. Just my luck."

"Well, as I said, I'm not popular, but I'm pretty sure they'll make an effort to find us. Tink and the others will try, anyway."

"Who's 'Tink'?"

"Tinkerbell. Friend of mine. Well . . . we're kind of friends. Not enemies anymore. I guess we are friends."

"So you do have friends. But only a few." Scruffy seemed more hopeful.

"We don't need their help, anyway. We can get home on our own." Vidia peered down toward the beach. "It's too dark to start climbing down now. We'd better sleep a bit and try in the morning."

"Okay." Scruffy curled up. "Goodnight."

Vidia didn't reply.

Stand Your Ground

Vidia was awakened by the noise of seagulls. She reached for her pillow to cover her ears, and just then rolled off her bed onto something fuzzy. Thoroughly awake and very confused, she stood and looked around.

She'd just landed on Scruffy, who hadn't even twitched.

She yawned and stretched. "Hey, Scruffy, wake up. It's morning." Vidia jumped out of the hat. "We need to get started or we won't get far today."

"Right." Scruffy shook himself. "So do we get to use the pixie dust on the hat again?"

Vidia paused. "No, it's all worn off."

"Don't you have more?" the rat was disappointed.

"It all got washed of when that wave splashed us. I'm not a pixie dust tree." Vidia retorted. "We'll have to climb down."

"I can't."

"I thought rats could climb walls."

"We can when we have all four feet."

"Oh." Vidia studied the hat. What would Tinkerbell do? She wondered. "Vines. I'll get vines. You poke some holes in the brim of the hat."
"You're going to lower me in the hat? You'll have to get some very long vines." Scruffy pointed out.

"It's only a very young palm tree – it's only about four feet tall."

"If you're sure you can." Scruffy responded, dubiously.

"We'll find out." Vidia climbed through the palm branches. "I'll be back in a bit." She climbed down the palm tree and walked to the forest. She saw a few vines hanging from a low branch, pulled one down, then put it in a pile on the sand

She walked further into the forest, then spied a very long vine draped over a low branch. She grabbed the end closest to her with both hands and started pulling it toward her. It took her a while to pull it all, but when she got to the end, it had eyes.

She dropped it and stepped back. The snake was moving threateningly. His tongue flickered creepily in and out.

Vidia turned and ran. Her breath came faster, and her heart pounded in her chest. She didn't hear anything behind her, but when she glanced back saw it had followed her silently.. It took only moments for her to get out of breath. She ran out of the woods and down to the water. The soggy sand got all over her shoes. She snatched up a sharp piece of broken shell and brandished it as she turned slowly in a circle, looking for dangers.

The snake had stopped following her and was watching her from far away. He stayed there, frozen, for a few moments, then went away.

Vidia let out a terrified breath and whirled as she heard scraping in the sand. A small crab was staring at her. She glared fiercely at it, and it scuttled away.

Vidia grabbed a vine and wrapped it around her waist. She stuck the broken shell in her belt to use later on.

She noted vaguely that a flock of seagulls had settled down on the beach. None of them paid much attention to her. She took a deep breath.

Concentrate. She chided. And don't pick up any more snakes.

"Vidia!"

"Scruffy." she gasped. Seagulls would really enjoy to find food sitting there on a tree. She snatched up some more broken seashells and ran to grab the vines she had collected earlier.

"I'm coming, Scruffy!" she shouted, sprinting across the sand.

She scrambled onto the brim of the hat. "Are you okay?"

Scruffy sat up. "NO! I'm stuck in the top of a palm tree – however stubby and short it is, and there are seagulls all around. I'm even in a hat that looks like a soup bowl. I am not OKAY!"

"Calm down, sweetie, you aren't soup yet." Vidia noticed he had managed the holes around the hat brim and she threaded the vine through them.

"You look pale."

"You're imagining things." Vidia rolled her eyes, tying the vine off.

"What happened?"

"I got vines." she paused. "Ran into a snake."

"And it didn't eat you?"

"Course not! It went its' way, and I went mine." Very quickly. She added, in her head.

A seagull called loudly from nearby.

"Ahh!" Scruffy dived back down into the bottom of the hat, then peeped up. "It didn't see me?"

"No, it didn't see either of us." Vidia tied the other end of the vine around a few palm branches. "All right, Scruffy. Ready?"

"No! Wait, I'm not ready -"

"Too bad." Vidia yanked the hat so it started to slide off the edge, then grabbed the vine and braced herself against a branch.

The vine held well, and the hat bent, but didn't rip. Vidia lowered the hat until she'd run out of vine.

"How close are you to the ground?" she asked, pushing enormous leaves out of the way, trying to see down.

"Close enough I don't have to jump." Scruffy stepped out of the hat. "I'm on the ground."

Vidia grabbed the vine and slid down.

"Finally. It feels like that took hours." Vidia smiled, then glanced up at the sky. "We need to go . . . that way." she pointed into the forest. "But then, you asked me to take you with me – did you mean pixie hollow? Or do you want to stay here?"

"I don't think it's safe for you to travel alone." Scruffy said, seriously. "Snakes and all sorts of other things are in the woods."

"I'll manage."

"It's safer for me, too. There are seagulls all around the beach. I at least need to find somewhere else to stay." Scruffy continued. "But then – do you want me with you?"

"Doesn't matter."

"But do you want me to come with?"

Vidia muttered something, then spoke up. "I wouldn't mind company."

"Then I'll come with. It'll be good for both of us."

Vidia started off without replying.

Vidia had just gotten to the edge of the woods when Scruffy stopped her. "Hey, Vidia!"

"What?" Vidia turned.

"Look, the grass has been crushed over there. Like a rabbit trail. It's going the right direction – we can use it."

"All right." They started down the path.

They had walked for quite a while silently on the path when Vidia heard something and stopped. Scruffy didn't notice, and kept walking.

"So not a rabbit trail." Vidia said aloud, watching the enormous figure over her in astonishment. "Scruffy!" she screamed, just as the Indian child reached down and grabbed Scruffy by his tail. "Scruffy!"