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

Stand Your Ground

Chapter 4

How Scruffy Speaks

"Scruffy!" Vidia stepped forward, but couldn't reach him. The water was deep enough he was swept downstream.

"Don't get pulled in!" Scruffy shouted, trying to swim against the current.

Vidia ran along the stream to get ahead of him, then reached out toward him again. She instinctively jerked away as a raindrop torpedoed down to explode next to her, but reached out toward Scruffy again. Her fingertips barely brushed his fur.

"Get a stick – or grass – or something!" Scruffy yelled, panicked. She grabbed a blade of grass that she hoped was strong, then trusted it with all her weight. She leaned all the way over to the middle of the river and seized Scruffy's paw as he was swept by.

"I've got you, Scruffy." Vidia pulled him to the side. He climbed out and Vidia jumped back as he shook himself vigorously.

Vidia sighed. "Let's find a nice dry plant to sit underneath 'til it's over."

Scruffy gestured to one nearby.

They sat down and watched the stream go rushing by. "I'm sorry, Scruffy." Vidia said, suddenly.

"It wasn't your fault."

"You wanted to stop and I wouldn't let you." Vidia shrugged. "I should've."

"It was my clumsiness."

"I distracted you."

"How could the fairies ever do without you? You're such a rude, unlikeable, irresponsible and cowardly sort of person." Scruffy said kindly and sarcastically.

Vidia snorted a laugh. "Thanks."

They were silent for a while, watching the raindrops fall, denting the ground and exploding like missiles.

"I thought fairies' wings couldn't be fixed." Scruffy suddenly braved a lonely topic.

"Why do you think that?"

"I was on the pirate ship when they had the fairy as captain. I learned a lot about fairies. So can wings be fixed?"

"I don't know a lot about healing fairy wings." Vidia admitted. "A tear can't be fixed. I've heard that – oh, who am I kidding." she sighed. "Nothing can be done. Tink will find some kind of delicate mechanical device so that I can fly again, and it'll break, then she'll apologize and get me a new one. Whether I'll be alive at that point is uncertain. I'm sure she'll find you a nice wooden leg that'll work really well."

"Can you do your fairy work without flying?"

"You know about fairy talents, right? Garden, water, tinkering, fire . . ."

"Yeah, of course."

"I'm a fast-flying fairy. Other fairies might be able to cope, but I'm just no use."

"You made that whirly thing to get us over the ocean when we were in the hat. That wasn't useless."

"But other fairies could've done it better." Vidia pointed out. "I'm going to be a handicap for as long as I stay in Pixie Hollow. I'll never go to the mainland again, and I'll never compete in the Pixie Hollow Games. It'll be useful for going over to see the Winter Fairies, though."

They both sat silently.

"Shouldn't we have some kind of signal out in case other fairies are flying around?"

"They can't – it's raining. Fairy wings get heavy when they're wet."

"Oh, so that's another advantage you'll have over the others."

"Yeah." Vidia agreed, halfheartedly. "Advantage. Look, since we can't go anywhere, I'm going to take a nap."

"Goodnight."

"Hm." Vidia was almost immediately asleep.

Scruffy frowned, but then saw how unhappy she looked. "That response changes – tomorrow." he predicted, speaking to himself.

Stand Your Ground

Vidia woke up with something fuzzy poking at her face.

"Stop it, Scruffy, I'm awake." she sat up. "Ahh! Get away!" She scrambled away from the curious caterpillar and glared at it until it went on its' way.

Suddenly she realized she was missing something. "Scruffy? Scruffy!"

She stood. "Scruffy, are you here?" she looked around. "Scruffy!"

Any paw prints were indistinguishable from hers as they had sunk into little depressions in the ground, however there was only one set of footprints leading away, and that was toward Pixie Hollow.

Vidia jumped across the stream and followed the footprints.

The rain had stopped completely and the sun was shining behind thin clouds, but enormous drops of water fell from the grass and trees, hurling through the air to explode on the ground. Vidia looked around her hair slapping her shoulders. Something hit her head very hard. She realized she was soaked in water, and lying facedown in the mud. Her purple outfit had turned purplish-brown, and her faithful purple hairband was lying, broken, in the mud. But Scruffy came first.

Vidia's bare feet thumped across the soft ground as she ran. Suddenly there was a clearing where there was no grass at all. Over the top of the hill she could see smoke rising.

She stepped behind a blade of grass. The paw prints clearly showed that Scruffy had gone that way.

"Scruffy?" she called quietly.

"Vidia, is that you?" Scruffy bounded up to the top of the hill. "Come on."

"What's that fire?" Vidia asked.

"I saw a couple more fairies and thought I'd try to attract their attention." Scruffy explained.

Vidia sighed in relief, amusement, and worry. "Scruffy, what else is attracted by fire?"

"Salamanders?"

"What're Salamanders?"

"Legendary lizards who breathe fire."

"Like to meet one of those . . . But no."

"Moths?"

"Try again."

"Uh . . ."

"Let's see . . . someone who likes to pick up rats by their tails?" Vidia suggested

Scruffy shuddered. "Indians."

"And/or pirates." Vidia pointed out. "I hear from the fire fairies that if you put a wet leaf on a fire it'll smoke for a while. You grab a wet leave, and I'll leave a message in case the fairies do see it, then we'll move on."

"All right." Scruffy moved off.

Vidia grabbed a blade of grass and tore it into strips, arranging it on the ground to spell VIDIA.

"VI-DEE-UH" Scruffy read out. "You sure that's enough?"

"The scouting-talent fairies can track us from here." Vidia stepped back.

Scruffy dumped the damp leaf on the fire and it started smoking.

"That'll do very well." Vidia grinned.

"They can't miss that." Scruffy agreed, watching the thin line of smoke ascend to the sky.

"If they come near here. There's only a few fairies free to search for a missing fairy, probably dead – and I wasn't supposed to go anywhere near here."

"You really are a killjoy, aren't you?" Scruffy scolded. "I'd really like to take a look around your head – what happened to your head-fur?"

Vidia felt her head – her hair was loose. "A big water drop landed on me and I lost my hairtie. I lost my last shoe, too."

"Let's go look." Scruffy suggested.

Vidia shook her head. "We need to get moving. If they don't see this message, we'll have to get close to Pixie Hollow before they'll see us."

"Why are you in such a hurry?"

"Pixie Hollow is my home."

"You've been in a hurry ever since you left. I suspect there's a bit more to it than that."

"What do you know about hawks, sweetie?" Vidia put her arm around the rat's neck and addressed him in her best 'Vidia' voice.

"They eat rats."

"And fairies. And they are extremely fast. I can usually outfly a hawk until I find a way to outthink him. Hawks aren't as stupid as people think, and they remember fairies who've outsmarted them. I don't want to get attacked by a hawk while I'm stuck on the ground without wings."

Scruffy considered that. "That makes sense." he decided. "I'm ready to leave whenever you are."

They started off.

For lunch break, she and Scruffy ate the last of the nutmeat they'd stolen at the base of a mountain.

"We can go around, but that would involve climbing, because this mountain kind of mushes into the one east of here." Vidia consulted her considerable store of Neverland topographical information. She flew around the island more than any other fairy.

"I'm pretty sure it would take less time to just go over." Vidia decided.

"If you think we can."

"Oh, sure." Vidia smiled. "It isn't too steep."

Stand Your Ground

"Vidia, can you grab my tail?"

"Will it take the weight?"

"What's it going to do? Snap off? You're lighter than you look and you look like a feather." Scruffy replied. "Just grab it."

Vidia grabbed his tail and held on for dear life as she stepped from one ledge to another. "It's a lot steeper from down here." she muttered.

"What's that, Vidia? I can't hear you." Scruffy called down.

"We should probably stop soon – it's getting dim. We don't want one of us to fa – ah!"
Vidia grabbed onto his tail again as a rock broke loose and bounced down the mountainside.

"Good idea. I see a level spot just ahead – above, I mean."

Vidia released Scruffy's tail and continued climbing.

Stand Your Ground

That afternoon was the first where Vidia and Scruffy had near smooth sailing.

"We didn't get crushed, smushed, eaten, drowned, and we didn't fall . . ." Vidia smiled. "That, sunshine, was a good day."

"Well, my feet are tired." Scruffy was curled up near her.

"Come on, you have twice as many – you've got more feet than me."

"Which means I have to make more effort to move more feet to move the same distance."

"But you don't use your -" Vidia frowned. "That doesn't make sense."

"Neither do you."

There was a pause.

"Scruffy, when did you start to talk?"

"I couldn't talk when you came . . . actually, I think it was just a few days after I met you and your rainbow-colored friends."

"Did you get fairy dust on you? Kind of sparkly, yellowy stuff?"

"No, but I remember being confused because my apple core had some orange sparkly stuff on it."

Vidia frowned. "Are you sure it wasn't gold?"

"It was very orange."

She snapped her fingers "Zarina!"

"And Zarina is . . .?"

"She made different types of pixie dust and switched our talents. We were all confused then because we had the wrong talents. Rosetta must have somehow gotten some dust on your snack."

"So I'm an animal-talent fairy?"

"I think that you're a fairy-talent animal." Vidia nodded. "Fawn's going to be delighted to meet you."

"Doesn't fairy dust wear off?"

Vidia frowned. "I don't know about what happens if you eat it." she admitted. "Maybe the effects are permanent."

Scruffy yawned. "Good. Permanent fairy-talent animal. Sounds great. I'm sleepy. Goodnight."

"Hm."

"Goodnight."

"Hm."

There was silence for a minute.

"Hey, Vidia?"

"Yes, Scruffy?"

"Goodnight."

"Okay."

"No. Goodnight."

"Yeah, I hope so."

"Come on, Vidia."

"Look, Scruffy, I'm tired."

"Then say it. Goodnight . . ."

"Oh, come on." Vidia groaned.

"Pleeeease!"

"Go to sleep."

"Viiiiidiaaaaa."

Vidia put her arm over her ear to stop the noise. Scruffy uncurled his tail and tickled her.

"Ah! Scruffy!" Vidia sat up, irritated.

"Say it. Goodnight, Vidia."

"Fine! Fine. Okay. GOOD NIGHT." Vidia rolled over and went to sleep, but Scruffy noticed she had cracked a very small smile.