Queen Clarion called Terence, a dust-keeper fairy, to the laugh. As other fairies began arriving, Terence poured fairy dust on the laugh. The dandelion fluff changed. A head rose up and wings sprouted. The laugh had become a fairy.
The fairy had brownish-red hair and freckles. All of the other fairies murmured, "Hello."
"Hello?" asked the new fairy.
Queen Clarion fluttered over. "Born of laughter, clothed in cheer, happiness has brought you here. Welcome to Pixie Hollow."
The new fairy smiled as the queen coated her wings with fairy dust. They began to flutter. The fairy turned an aerial cartwheel. Flying was wonderful!
Gently, Queen Clarion pulled the new fairy to the ground. Mushrooms began to pop up. One fairy from every talent placed an item on the mushroom.
"What are those?" the new fairy asked.
"They will help you find your talent," the queen responded.
The fairy went to a drop of water first. She touched it, but it went dark and fell to the mushroom. The new fairy was disappointed. The queen pointed to all the other items. But each item was not the talent for the new fairy.
Finally, there was only one item left. It was the snowflake the snowflake-talent fairies had put out.
"We haven't had a new snowflake fairy in thousands of years," Queen Clarion said quietly. She was just about to welcome the new fairy to the snowflake talent when the new fairy touched the snowflake. It fell and broke.
All the fairies gasped in horror. There were no more items left. The new fairy looked around fearfully. Had she done something wrong?
"Well, Prilla," the queen said gently, for Prilla was the new fairy's name, "it appears you don't have a talent." The queen's face looked quite worried.
The fairies above her stared down at her. They had never seen a new arrival have no talent before.
"Greetings," Prilla said in a small voice. "I'm so glad to be a fairy. Thank you for having me." Her knees were trembling.
Several fairies raised their eyebrows. Did this newcomer think they'd picked her?
Prilla noticed their expressions and faltered. "Ah, I'll try to be a good fairy, even though I seem to have done something wrong."
A fairy said, "My, she's freckled!"
Terence said, "Pleasantly plump, though."
These were the sort of things one said at a new arrival, ordinarily, after she had found her talent.
"I swear they look younger every year," an animal-talent said.
A few fairies nodded.
Prilla wouldn't look young to a human. She'd look grown up, just about five inches tall, the height of most other fairies, and perfectly proportioned. The fairies, however, knew that Prilla was a youngster, because her nose, and the lower halves of her wings, hadn't yet reached their full growth. They don't grow very much, and a human wouldn't even notice.
Most grown-up Clumsies wouldn't see Prilla at all. He might see the air shimmer, he might smell cinnamon. He might hear leaves rustle or bells jingle. But he'd have no idea he was in the presence of a fairy. Some adult Clumsies can't see fairies, but they can feel them. If a fairy pinches a grownup Clumsy, the Clumsy will slap the spot, thinking he's being bitten by a mosquito.
Tinker Bell landed on the tinkers' spot. When she'd seen Prilla blow by her workshop window, she'd dropped her leaky ladle and come.
Terence smiled his most charming smile at Tink. He admired her enormously. He liked her bounce when she landed. He liked the arch of her eyebrows, the curl to her bun, and her bangs were the perfect length, whatever length they were. He even liked her scowl, which was both fierce and pert.
Tink ignored the smile. Her heart had been broken once, and she didn't want to endanger it again.
"Welcome to Pixie Hollow," she told Prilla. "What's your name, child?"
"Prilla," Prilla held out her hand to shake.
Tink hesitated, and then shook. Fairies didn't usually shake hands.
"I'm Tinker Bell."
Prilla said, "Pleased to meet you, Miss Bell."
The bystanders exchanged glances. Tink frowned. Prilla blushed. She knew she'd said something wrong, but she had no idea what.
It was this. Never fairies call each other by their names, except for a few odd ones, just their names, no Miss or Mister about it. And only Clumsies said "Pleased to meet you." Never fairies said, "I look forward to flying with you," or for short, "Fly with you."
"Call me Tink. What's your talent, Prilla?" Tink waited, barely breathing.
Prilla stopped seeing and hearing what was around her. Instead, she heard the strains of a waltz, and Clumsy voices. She was back on the mainland, standing on the shoulder of a Clumsy girl, who was riding a carousel horse. The girl felt Prilla's wings beat against her neck, and reached up to brush away what she thought was an insect. Prilla flew around to face the child, who turned slack-jawed with astonishment. What fun! Prilla executed a perfect split, and a double somersault.
Tink felt ignored. "Prilla, what's your talent?"
Prilla's grin faded. "Pardon me, what did you say?"
Tink tugged on her bangs. "Nobody says pardon me. I said," she spoke louder, "What is your talent?"
"Talent…" Prilla trailed off.
A helping-talent said, "Maybe she is incomplete?"
This happens sometimes. A piece of the fluff can crack off on its way to the island, and the fairy would arrive incomplete. Some incompletes had no ear-tips, or they glow on only half their bodies. Some looked complete, but they had a speech problem, or they thought the word "chicken" rhymed with "mattress". Some of them didn't have the bottoms of their wings, or they had only one leg or arm. Some looked perfectly well, but they could not see, or they could not hear.
In Prilla's case, the opposite was true. When Sara Quirtle laughed her first laugh, some of Sara stuck to it, and went into Prilla. Prilla was fully a fairy, but she was more as well. She had a bit of human stuck to her. That was why her ears were rounded, like a human's.
"Well, ah, well the thing is I don't think I have one. When I touched all the items, they all broke apart," Prilla continued.
"That's strange," Tink said. "That's never happened before. Maybe the mushrooms are broken."