Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, followed or read this story. You all are the best!
Well, so much for not taking so long to update (though I did technically update twice this July, even if there was almost a month in between them). I'm taking an online class and I thought it would take maybe 2 or 3 hours a day, probably less. Sadly, that's not the case. It takes forever, and there have been a couple days where that class is literally all I've done besides eating and stuff. So I guess I was misinformed when I said I'd have short update times. Maybe I should just stop saying when my next update time will be, so then I won't feel bad when it takes a lot longer. (Though the class ends soon, so I should actuallyhave shorter update times- I hope. My predictions of these things haven't been too accurate lately. So don't hold me to that).
Okay, so just in case I wasn't clear in the last chapter, Elsa pretty much did the same thing to Peri that she did to Olaf in the end of Frozen (making a flurry of snow that would follow them around). So just picture Olaf's flurry and imagine it over Peri. Also, the flurry goes away when she's in snowy weather like in the Winter Woods, because it would look sort of odd if she had a private little flurry there.
Also, I just realized I've pretty much stopped calling Tink and Peri by their full names (because their nicknames are so much easier to type, and now all four main characters have four letter names), though you may have noticed I still have Anna and Elsa refer to them as Tinker Bell and Periwinkle because I guess they haven't heard their nicknames enough. Yeah, that was just a random thing I thought about... I don't know why.
Last chapter I mentioned that there was a Disney reference, though I'm not sure I actually did a good job with it. Anna's explanation to Tink and Peri about the lynx was supposed to be like Flounder telling King Triton about the shark in The Little Mermaid (with the whole "grr...woah" thing). Well, that's what I was thinking when I wrote it, though I was just doing it based on my memory of what he said, and I'm not sure how accurate it was. Oh, well.
On to chapter 13! (A tiny bit of this chapter overlaps with chapter 12).
Before they set off to find the Mirror of Incanta, Tink stopped by her room and pulled off her winter clothes (her ice coat could be taken off like a normal coat, much to her surprise), so all that was left was her traditional outfit- a sleeveless green leaf-dress that ended with a zigzag-edged miniskirt and green shoes with a white pom-pom on each toe. She tossed her winter outfit into her wardrobe and, after rummaging through a stack of parchment and leaves, grabbed her map of how to get to the Pirate-ship-wreck where the mirror was. She stuffed the map into a leaf-bag, along with a fairy-sized compass, and strapped a fairy-sized sword to her belt, just in case she needed to fight something. She grabbed another sword for Peri, even though the frost-fairy didn't really know how to use one at all. Still, it would be better for Peri to have some defense than none at all.
Tink flew out of the door and kicked it shut with her foot. She darted towards her companions, smiling when she saw their excited expressions. Peri and Elsa managed to stay still. Anna, however, was hopping up and down, still holding her coat by the sleeve. After giving Peri the second sword, Tink asked Anna if she wanted to put her coat somewhere so she wouldn't have to drag it around. Anna nodded and simply opened her fist so her coat fell limply to the ground. Tink rolled her eyes and said "That's not what I meant."
Anna grabbed the coat and followed the fairies to the shed where the balloon carriers were, which was another large fairy building. They shoved the coat into the back of the shed and Tink grabbed the cord to a medium-sized carrier, which was meant to carry small contraptions around. They were going to use it to store food and supplies. Tink dumped her bag in the basket tied to the balloon before she went off with the others.
Their first stop that morning had been the Pixie Dust Depot, where they got enough Pixie Dust to last a couple days. They got thirteen separate bags of Pixie Dust, each holding a daily allotment. Tink gave one to Peri and the fairy twins both dumped a bag on themselves before pouring the contents of two more bags onto Elsa and Anna. They saved the other nine bags, and deposited them in the balloon carrier along with Zarina's extra edible "Life Dust". The extra Pixie Dust was just a precaution because they'd probably only be gone for a day, but just in case this trip took multiple days, they'd be prepared.
Next they put some food in the basket, both Neverland-exclusive foods, like Neverberries, and things you could find on the mainland, like cherries. By now, the basket was getting rather heavy, especially since Anna and Elsa needed more food than fairies did. Eventually, it was decided that they could pick up various fruit along the way to eat, and could use the edible Pixie Dust if they couldn't get food. So they removed some of the food from the basket. Currently, Peri was munching on a grape, which was about as big to a fairy as a watermelon was to a human.
By the time they finished packing, they'd already been awake for an hour and most of the other fairies were awake. A crowd had gathered around, simply because there was something different and interesting to watch. Most of them still kept away from Elsa and Anna, though a couple approached Tink and Peri to wish them luck.
Vidia kept as far away from the girls as possible when she approached Tink to discuss their plan for stealing the wand from Kyto, which they'd carry out once they got the Mirror of Incanta. As Vidia nervously edged away from the human girls, Tink sighed. She could get how Vidia didn't like Clumsies after being kidnapped by Dr. Griffiths years ago, but this was ridiculous. Anna and Elsa hadn't hurt anyone so far, and Vidia would have to put up with them when they were getting the wand. However, Peri had noticed Vidia casting somewhat approving glances at the girls' ice wings, and thought maybe the wings would help Vidia accept Elsa and Anna more; Vidia liked wings because she was a fast-flying talent fairy.
Terence had also stopped by to wish them luck. The dust-keeping talent had urged Tink and Peri to each keep one of the bags of Pixie Dust on them at all times. As Tink stuffed a sack of Pixie Dust into the bag with the map and compass and hung said bag over her shoulder, Terence half-teasingly told her not to lose it this time. Tink blushed- the last time she'd gone to get the Mirror she had accidentally knocked her Pixie Dust out of her home-made balloon carrier. She had later proceeded to unintentionally let the balloon carrier float away without her and had been forced to make the rest of the journey on foot. That had not been one of her prouder moments.
Back in the crowd of lingering fairies, several fairies thought about Peri's situation. The news of Peri's talent-problem had spread quickly, but not through Rosetta this time. After unsuccessfully trying to pry more details from Lord Milori, whose lips had remained figuratively sealed, several fairies ,including Gliss and Sled, had gotten together and had compared observations about Peri's talent, including what had happened in Arendelle. They had figured out that Peri's talent frequently left her, and although they'd tried to keep it quiet, obviously some other fairies must have heard them and the information had spread throughout the entirety of Pixie Hollow (both the warm and cold parts).
Russel, an incomplete fairy who had no glow in one of his wings, felt that Periwinkle was being a bit selfish for using a lot of time and resources to complete herself. Russel had come to accept his incompleteness, so why couldn't Peri do the same? Then again, being stuck without a talent almost daily was far worse than not glowing fully, and part of Russel felt guilty while the other part still felt Peri was being selfish.
Meanwhile, Prilla was remembering her arrival to Neverland. At first she'd thought that she didn't have a talent, and it had taken her a couple days to figure out that her talent was blinking to the mainland. Those days when she believed she didn't have a talent had been awful- Prilla totally understood why Peri would want to fix her talent problem so she wouldn't be without her talent, even temporarily.
Prilla wished she could go on the quest, but she knew she wouldn't be able to. She had agreed to help the tinker-fairies rebuild the machines that they'd left in Arendelle in their panic to escape the blizzard. Even though she wasn't a tinker-talent, she could still fetch materials and tools and place things where they needed to go, which was still helpful even though it wasn't actually "tinkering" and didn't require any talent. So she was sort of taking over for Tink while she was gone.
After double-checking to make sure they had everything, Tink stuck her hand out, palm down, and said "Faith..." Peri grinned, placed her hand on Tink's, and continued "Trust...". The fairy sisters shot into the air and laughed "aaaaand Pixie Dust!", leaving a trail of it that fell down onto Elsa and Anna, just for kicks. Peri giggled; she loved that phrase. Faith, trust and Pixie Dust. It pretty much summed up the fairies' existence into five words, and it had a nice little rhyme.
Returning to the ground, Peri grabbed the cord to the balloon carrier while Tink sprinkled one of their bags of Pixie Dust onto the balloon, causing it to inflate and float upwards. Peri tugged on it and realized that it wasn't very aerodynamic. Testing it out a bit, Peri discovered that the balloon carrier couldn't make sharp turns quickly without throwing everything in the basket around and potentially causing them to lose some cargo.
Peri motioned for Elsa and Anna to follow them, and both girls attempted to take off by jumping and flapping their arms, thwacking their ice wings by accident a couple times. The princesses eventually steadied themselves, and flew over to the balloon carrier a bit more gracefully. After a couple minutes of refreshing their memories on how to fly, Elsa and Anna flew rather steadily, like they had at the end of their flying lesson the previous day.
The foursome set off on their quest. Tink scanned her map briefly, just to refresh her mind on the route. It had been years since she'd gone to the pirate-ship-wreck with Blaze the firefly to try to fix the moonstone using one of the Mirror of Incanta's wishes. Tink didn't think it would be that hard to find the shipwreck again, since she had already gone there once. Neverland rarely changed, so she could easily recognize the landmarks she'd followed years ago.
Tink joined Peri at the cord to the balloon carrier and helped her pull it. Meanwhile, Elsa and Anna soared around, exhilarated with the freedom of flight. They were starting to get a bit cocky with their flying, attempting aerial stunts that they were unable to pull off successfully. However, their overconfidence wasn't even close to the overconfidence some fairies, and birds, were known to possess.
The group flew above the treetops, so they wouldn't have to worry about the balloon carrier getting punctured by twigs or tangled up in branches- and it was easier for Anna and Elsa because they couldn't exactly dart through branches like fairies could. The one downside to flying above the treetops was that if a hawk appeared it would be harder to get to safety. However, all four of them kept their eyes out for hawks, so it probably wouldn't be too much of an issue.
Even as she pulled the balloon carrier, Peri spun around as she flew, gazing up at her magical flurry of snow. If she stuck her arms out, she was still completely under the flurry, but it wasn't much larger than a Clumsy's hand.
It didn't take long for Anna and Elsa to ask where they were going. Tink sighed; although she knew she couldn't put off explaining the whole point of their trip to Neverland to the girls, it wasn't something she exactly wanted to do. For starters, it might be sort of hard for Anna to translate it if she was confused (and it was probably going to be confusing for them), and if Anna couldn't translate it than how would Elsa know what they were saying? This wasn't exactly something someone could use Charades for; and Elsa had already made it clear she had difficulty reading the tiny handwriting of fairies, so writing notes probably wouldn't work too well either.
Even though it could be difficult, Peri had already decided to just tell Anna and hope she'd translate it correctly for Elsa, and had begun while Tink was still thinking. Starting with the easy part, Peri said "We're going to get a mirror. It's called the Mirror of Incanta." Anna had no trouble translating this, but she had a very confused look on her face, and so did Elsa, who asked "Why do we need a mirror? Do you guys not have one? Besides, it's not like you'd need one to style your hair- your hair looks lovely." Peri took a moment to process this comment, because Elsa hadn't talked about hair before and Peri thought that it seemed out of place for some reason.
Well, here's where it gets difficult Peri thought to herself. What should she try to explain first? That whenever Elsa used her powers, Peri couldn't use hers? That they were going to give the mirror to an imprisoned dragon with a fiery temper? Peri didn't think she should tell Elsa and Anna the wand; she didn't want to know what a five-year-old and an eight-year-old with wand madness would wish for. So it would be best not to mention it and fill their heads with ideas.
"Um..." Peri glanced at Tink for help, but Tink was busy checking the map and compass and didn't look like she could give any, so Peri went on "Well, you know how Tink and I came out of Elsa's first laugh?"
Anna nodded, translated it for Elsa, and then nodded again with Elsa. "Well, every time Elsa uses her powers, I can't use mine." Peri continued, trying to sound nice as to not hurt Elsa's feelings; it wasn't Elsa's fault it happened, and Peri didn't want her laugher to feel bad about her powers.
Anna repeated what Peri had said, word for word, and Elsa's eyes widened. "I don't mean to!" Elsa exclaimed, looking worried and sorry at the same time.
Peri simply nodded in response, so Anna wouldn't have to translate anything. The frost fairy continued "But we're going to try to fix that. We need the Mirror in order to give it to someone who might be able to give me my own powers."
Peri went on to explain as much as she could about Kyto and the Mirror. It took a while, since it would have been hard to explain to anyone, let alone little kids. Peri was trying not to mention the wand, but she did let it slip once. Anna had looked excited and asked "Wands? Like magic wands... magic wands that let you do anything you want?!", with a huge grin on her face.
Uh-oh Peri thought; already she could see the thoughtful looks on Anna and Elsa's faces as they presumably thought about what they wanted.
"Well, no." Peri said in response to Anna's wand question "Actually all they do is fix problems like mine." Maybe that will get their minds off it, Peri thought to herself. Although she hated to lie, Peri convinced herself she was doing it for Elsa and Anna's own good, so they wouldn't make any regrettable wand wishes. For the finishing touches, Peri added to her lie "And they can only be used by fairies."
"Awww," Anna groaned, while Elsa declared "No fair!" Peri turned away so the humans wouldn't see her guilty expression. Flying over to her twin, Peri pretended to help Tink check the map, when in reality the twins were discussing what had just happened. They didn't have much time, because Anna announced that she was hungry, and Elsa added that she was, too. After all, it was the time that they'd normally eat breakfast- well in Neverland time, it was actually night in Arendelle.
When they arrived at a beach, the group flew down so they were level with the trees (they'd waited for a beach because it would be easier to descend there than above the woods). Anna and Elsa each grabbed a coconut that had fallen out of the palm trees. When they looked up from the sand, they gasped at what was on the rocks by the water.
"Mermaids!" both princesses squealed in delight, running towards them. Mermaids had also featured prominently in their fairytale storybooks, though the girls had always liked fairies more. Hearing a splash, the Anna and Elsa noticed that the mermaids were gone.
"Why did they leave?" Elsa asked sadly. Tink answered truthfully that the mermaids on Neverland were rather snobbish and mean. Anna translated this, sounding as if she thought the mermaids should try to be like the nice ones in the stories she'd heard.
After cracking the coconuts open by dropping them onto rocks from midair, the group continued their flight, and Anna and Elsa tried to drink the sweet coconut milk while flying. The ended up just hovering as they drank, and both claimed that they were still hungry after they'd finished drinking and had held a contest to see which of them could throw the coconut shells the farthest.
The fairies led the Clumsies, who now had coconut-milk mustaches, in search of more food. Tink started doing what Peter Pan did on long flights: sneaking up behind birds carrying fruit and other food (not including worms) and stealing the food from their beaks. Tink was glad that Fawn the animal-talent wasn't with them, because she would have been outraged.
Anna and Elsa were not too good at this new game, so Tink and Peri ended up doing most of the stealing. Peri turned out to be very good at stealing food from birds, even better than Tink, and ended up stealing about three quarters of the total food both fairies stole. The frost-fairy would do a little victory dance each time she popped a morsel of food into either Anna's or Elsa's mouth. Peri was, if possible, even happier than her normally bubbly self, and she playfully taunted her twin every time she snatched the food from a bird Tink was trying to rob.
They flew on. To pass the time, Peri told Anna stories and Anna would tell them to Elsa. Occasionally Tink would help, but she was more focused on getting to the pirate ship wreck as soon as possible. Peri told Anna and Elsa of how she and Tink had first met, along with other stories that popped into her head.
There was one point where Elsa asked if only people who didn't have a fairy could understand fairies- after all, she knew Anna didn't have one and Anna could understand them. The fairies confirmed that this was their hypothesis. After that, Elsa and Anna told stories about their life to the fairies, and the fairies were shocked to learn that Elsa was supposed to hide her powers.
When Peri heard this, she was rather annoyed. It was bad enough that Elsa had more control of their powers, but Elsa was being taught that they were something to be avoided and hidden away, something undesirable?! Talk about adding insult to an injury!
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
At last they reached the pirate-ship-wreck. It was just as Tink remembered it- broken masts, shredded sails, rusted cannonballs and anchors, and lots various forms of broken wood scattered around. It wasn't exactly the prettiest sight- actually, it was sort of scary even though it was light outside.
Tink approached the shipwreck with as much courage as somebody about to enter a duel-to-the-death against a cookie. At first glance, Peri's face appeared just as brave as her sister's, but as she neared the ship, she unconsciously started tugging on her bangs (a nervous habit for both fairy twins), her heart rate increased and she swallowed anxiously a couple times. Meanwhile, Elsa hung back, looking apprehensive. Even Anna, who had a reputation in her family for being a fearless daredevil (except when it came to the Duke's guards), didn't look too thrilled with the idea of going inside, but she followed the fairies towards the shipwreck without complaint.
Elsa looked at the foreboding boat, her eyes wide. "Are you absolutely, positively sure we have to go in there? Because I think this looks creepy enough and..." Elsa stopped as she noticed the others had already reached the shipwreck. Elsa decided that waiting here alone was worse than going on the pirate ship. Wriggling her shoulders as quickly as she could, Elsa began to catch up to them, shouting "Hey! Wait for me! Anna? Periwinkle? Tinker Bell? Helloo?! Can you hear me?" Apparently they didn't hear her, because they simply flew down and Anna landed on the deck of the pirate ship; Tink and Peri stayed in the air, but they were eye level with Anna.
Elsa reached the pirate-ship-wreck and tried to land. However, she had no idea how to do this and ended up crashing into the deck. The others turned around, surprised, as Elsa sat up, rubbing her head. Elsa glared at them. "Why did you just leave me there?"
Anna looked confused "We didn't leave you. You just didn't follow us, so we got ahead." Elsa puzzled over this for a moment. Weren't those sort of the same thing? Both of them ended up with her being alone and the others getting far ahead. Besides, even if getting behind the others was sort of her fault, didn't they still end up ditching her by not waiting for her or going back?
Elsa pushed these thoughts away- the pirate ship had so many things to look at- even if it was a bit creepy- so it didn't take long for her to get distracted from those thoughts. Elsa kept her arm around Anna, telling herself that she was comforting her little sister when it was really the other way around. Elsa and Anna poked curiously at some cannonballs, anchors, and rope. Anna stubbed her toe on an anchor, but it didn't hurt that much because her winter boots were rather sturdy.
Tink flew on to a trapdoor that led below the main deck and flew into the darkness of the hold. Peri followed while Elsa and Anna attempted to go down the ladder before they remembered that they could fly, but that didn't make things any easier- both Anna and Elsa accidentally bumped into some wooden beams that they hadn't noticed in the darkness. Once they were all below decks, they made their way down a narrow hallway, opening every door they crossed (the last time Tink had gone to this pirate ship, she'd simply entered through a tiny hole in the side of the ship, but they had to go a new way now so Elsa, Anna and the balloon carrier would fit).
It was a good thing it was dark, because some of the things behind the doors were not suitable for children. Unfortunately, Elsa was the first to arrive at one of the doors towards the end of the hall, where it was a bit brighter. Elsa opened the door and screamed. There was some sort of animal skeleton in there, the skull grinning creepily just inches from her face. Elsa slammed the door shut and tried to stay in the middle of the hallway, not wanting to even touch any of the other doors.
Once they reached the turn at the end of the hallway, Tink realized that opening all those doors had been pointless because they were where they needed to go. The hallway opened up into a cavernous room full of pirate plundered treasure and other random objects, including a piano and fancy porcelain decor.
The room had many places where rays of golden sunlight shone through the cracks in the ship, so it wasn't as scary as the dark hallway they'd just been in. Not to mention the huge pile of treasure had a way of making things seem brighter- literally because the sunlight reflected off of it and figuratively because treasure makes most people (and fairies) happier. Elsa's fear from the hallway and the skeleton disappeared when they entered the room.
Seeing the piano, Anna let out a happy squeal and dashed towards it, with Elsa right behind her, looking just as excited but laughing instead of squealing. The castle in Arendelle had an antique piano, but the princesses of Arendelle had never been allowed to touch it- actually they'd never been allowed in that room- so they couldn't wait to try this one out. Elsa announced that they were going to give "an incredibly amazing concert" for the fairies. Elsa and Anna happily hammered away, and Tink and Peri tried to cover their ears. Needless to say the sounds coming out of the piano were far from musical, and they couldn't even blame that on the fact that it was out of tune.
Obviously the girls were too distracted to be of any help looking for the Mirror, but maybe it was better that they were out of the fairies' way, even if they were bursting their eardrums. At least now they wouldn't mess up the pile of treasure.
Tink had been about to tell the girls to stop, but Peri gave her twin a look that said You're not going to go hurt their feelings, are you? Peri threw in some sad looking Bambi-eyes, but Tink was immune to that look. Tink shot back "Better their feelings than my ears."Peri just gave Tink a don't-you-dare glare, and although Tink glared back, she eventually muttered "Fine. I won't stop them." Peri grabbed Tink's wrist and led her away from the piano, smirking. The frost-fairy was very aware that she was the only fairy who could win an argument against an irate Tink.
"Okay!" Tink shouted to Peri to be heard over the cacophony of mismatched chords and rumbling notes that bellowed from the piano "The Mirror of Incanta should be somewhere over there!" She pointed to the huge pile of treasure in the center of the room, and realized that sorting through it to find the Mirror was going to take a while.
Tink wished that she hadn't let the Mirror of Incanta be buried in a landslide of treasure the last time she'd been here, when she'd been so annoyed at the thing that she'd been tempted to smash it (she was glad that she hadn't). She hoped that it hadn't somehow moved from the pile to one of the numerous treasure chests scattered throughout the room, but it looked like somebody had rummaged through the treasure, so that was a possibility. Tink wished that whoever had looted the treasure hadn't taken the mirror.
The fairy twins fluttered up towards the top of the pile, landed, and and began digging through the treasure. They flung coins down to the deck like discuses and rolled golden goblets down the pile in order to narrow the pile down until they found the Mirror of Incanta. The sound of metal clanking against wood provided an odd percussion section that accompanied the piano rather horribly.
Meanwhile, as if to add to the din erupting around the room, Anna had started chanting in a singsong voice "Snowman fairies fly through the ocean! Fairy snowmen swim through the air!" Tink had thought she'd heard this wrong, and it wasn't until the third repeat that she was quite sure she'd heard correctly- and she still couldn't find an ounce of sense in it.
So far, Peri and Tink hadn't had any luck finding the Mirror of Incanta. There were a couple times one of them thought they saw it, but it always ended up being a false alarm, and another mirror or picture frame or spoon was sent tumbling down the stack.
Anna then started singing about Olaf the snowman, and then Elsa sang to Anna "Do you want to build a snowman?" Anna sang back "Of course I want to build a snowman!" Together they screamed out "Then let's go build a snowman!" before bursting into fits of laughter.
Deciding that her ears had taken enough for now, Peri interrupted before they could start playing again, and suggested that the girls look for the Mirror in some of the treasure chests; this way they'd be helping (and would stop ruining the fairies' eardrums) but they wouldn't be interfering with the pile she and Tink were sorting through.
Tink and Peri found it much easier to work now that their eardrums weren't throbbing; they were able to hold a conversation and ignore the sound of treasure clanking and two little girls laughing and chattering away. About half an hour passed, and Peri and Tink had gotten maybe a quarter of the way through their pile.
Peri turned around to ask Elsa and Anna if they had found the Mirror and burst out laughing before she said the first word. Tink turned to Peri, who was laughing so hard her sides were heaving and she was gasping for breath. Not being able to say anything due to laughing, Peri simply pointed.
Anna and Elsa had apparently been playing dress-up with the things they'd pulled out of the chests they'd looted through. Anna was wearing one of Captain Hook's old coats, which was at least twice as tall as she was, if not more. The sleeves would have enveloped her hands if the sword sheaths she was holding hadn't prevented them from falling down. To add to the look, the five-year-old had pearl necklaces hanging off of her ears, as well as her neck, shoulders, and the sword sheaths she was holding. As finishing touches, she was wearing a pair of old eyeglasses and was scrunching up her face in order to have a large coin cover her left eye like an eye patch.
Elsa, on the other hand, was wearing Captain Hook's hat, which she had to keep perched almost vertically on her head to prevent it from falling over her eyes. She was wearing about twenty necklaces around her neck, along with a bandana. She had managed to keep a large purple crystal sticking out of one of her nostrils, and had a scepter clenched between her teeth. She was wearing a pair of leather boots that had belonged to some pirate with huge feet, because they were so large she was able to wear them over her winter boots, on the wrong feet.
As Anna turned her head, Tink saw a flash of light. It wasn't until then that either fairy noticed what was tucked behind Anna's left ear: the Mirror of Incanta.
"Where did you find that?" Tink asked curiously. Anna replied "In there", pointing to one of the treasure chests that had been emptied by her and Elsa. "Well, Anna," said Peri, "you've found the Mirror of Incanta. Can you give it to me please?" Anna nodded and rushed forwards, only to trip on the captain coat she was wearing and fall to the ground. The Mirror of Incanta and the necklaces hanging over Anna's ears flew off her head and skittered across the floor. Before any of them could stop it, the Mirror fell through a gap in a broken floorboard.
"Oops." Anna said as the four of them listened to the sound of rats moving underneath them and a noise that sounded suspiciously like one of the rats dragging the Mirror of Incanta away. Sure enough, when they peered into the gap, the Mirror was nowhere to be seen.
Far from being annoyed, Tink was smiling a feral sort of smile that she wore whenever she was about to kick some serious butt. Pulling her fairy-sized sword out of its sheath, Tink swung it around experimentally. The blade was rusty, and Tink was a bit worried that her fighting skills would be, too. Not that Tink was concerned she would lose against rats- unlike hawks, rats weren't too much of an threat to fairies.
Without further ado, Tink removed her extra bag of Pixie Dust and her sword sheath before fluttering down into the hole, leaving a trail of Pixie Dust like fairies always did. There was enough room under the floor for her to stand up and even hover a couple centimeters off the ground.
Constantly checking her surroundings while using her own glow as a light, Tink went in the direction she had heard the rats move. She kept her sword in front of her and frequently checked her back to see if any rats were sneaking up behind her. She would have listened for the sound of scurrying, but that was impossible with Anna and Elsa clomping around above her in their winter boots and Peri shouting questions through the hole.
"Will you keep it down? I'm trying to listen here!" Tink called up to the others. Anna and Elsa stopped moving and Tink heard a thud that was probably one of the girls flopping onto their back, bored. Hearing scurrying, Tink followed the sound and saw a tail for a split second before it left into the darkness.
Tink shot after it, hoping to keep it in her light. Following the rat as it zigzagged around was easy for Tink, and she wasn't even as agile in the air as fast-flying fairies like Vidia were. Catching up to the rat, Tink dipped down and grabbed onto its tail just as it was about to slip out of her reach. Clambering from the tail to the rat's back while the rodent was running (and not getting smashed into things as the rat tried to shake her off) was more of a challenge; it took Tink almost a full minute to successfully pull off the maneuver and not get thrown off.
At last Tink sat triumphantly atop the rat's back. Tink held onto its fur with one hand, kept her sword in the other hand and squeezed the rat's back gently with her legs in an equestrian style. If she could get this rat to take her to whichever one had the mirror, that would be a lot easier on her tired wings. Although Tink was an experienced mouseback rider, she didn't know how well she'd do with this rat- it certainly wasn't thrilled to have a fairy on it's back, that was for sure. Wishing that an animal-talent fairy was with her, Tink tried to get the rat to stop fighting her. The rat eventually seemed to give up when it was unsuccessful in bucking her off and it stopped thrashing around.
Nudging the rat with her foot, Tink murmured "Come on, let's move." The rat did move in the direction Tink wanted, but it kept trying to scrape her off on things. Tink almost brained herself on some nails sticking out from the floorboards above her. Eventually, Tink ended up lying on her stomach across the rat's back in an effort to avoid things that could bash her from above if she wasn't careful.
Okay, Tink wasn't kicking butt, but she was still hanging in there.
While she was riding, Tink kept her eyes out for the Mirror of Incanta. At last she saw a flash of metal flicker past the light of her glow. She urged her rat on and chased after the other rat, which did indeed have the Mirror. Her rat steed gradually caught up to the mirror thief, and Tink launched herself from her rat and grabbed hold of the other. However, she hadn't managed to get on its back, and was left hanging off the rat's side. This rat slowed down and focused more of its energy on trying to remove her than the first one had.
Tink realized with annoyance that she was in a lose-lose situation; one of her hands was tied up with hanging onto the rat, while her sword arm had ended up being pinned in between her stomach and the rat's bristly fur. She needed to keep her body pressed up against the rat because if she didn't, the rat would get numerous opportunities to easily smash her into things. But at the same time, she needed her sword, so she had to take the risk.
Bracing herself, Tink fluttered her wings and flew away from the rat. Still keeping a clump of its tangled fur in her left hand, she brought her sword arm into its proper position. Before she could return to pressing herself into the rat, said rat rammed Tink into the wall. Tink gritted her teeth and focused on keeping her grasp on the rat. To her horror, she accidentally let go of her sword and watched it get swallowed up in darkness as they left it behind.
Up above, Anna and Peri heard Tink furiously roar "JINGLES!" (fairy curse-words seem tame compared to human/Clumsy ones), though all Elsa heard was the loud bong sound that a huge bell would make.
Tink's voice drifted out from the cracks between the floorboards, quieter this time but still sounding stressed, and she asked her twin to come down and give her a hand. Peri undid her extra bag of Pixie Dust and told Anna to watch both hers and Tink's, telling the five-year-old that it was a very important job. Peri then descended into the hole and searched for her sister's glow.
She rushed towards her sister when she saw it. She switched between flying and running to avoid the nails sticking out. Fortunately, Tink's glow was moving towards her, and she felt Tink grab her as she shot by.
With her free hand, Tink held onto Peri as the frost-fairy situated herself on the rat's back. Peri then pulled Tink up so she was no longer hanging off the side. "Thanks," Tink breathed as she settled in behind Peri. Tink added, once she'd caught her breath, "You know, that flurry you have is really cold."
"Well really, I never would have guessed. I thought snow was supposed to be warm." Peri teased. "Oh ha ha" Tink sarcastically laughed, before adding non-sarcastically "Seriously, I think my hand is numb."
So Peri was going to be the one to steal the Mirror from the rat (she had, after all, shown a talent for stealing food from birds). Peri leaned forward as Tink wrapped an arm around her, wincing at the chilliness of the flurry, to prevent the frost-fairy from falling off.
Peri tugged at the Mirror, but apparently rats are harder to rob than birds. The rat kept the Mirror of Incanta in its mouth, and refused to let go. Tink pressed the sword into Peri's hand, and Peri began to awkwardly poke at the rat with the blunt blade. Eventually, she began slashing with the sword, yelling at the rat to let go. She unintentionally shoved the tip against the rat's cheek and was able to yank the Mirror of Incanta out of the rat's mouth when it opened in surprise.
Clutching the Mirror in triumph, Peri and Tink left the rat's back and flew out of another hole. Tink checked over the Mirror; thankfully it wasn't scratched, because Kyto probably would have ignored it if it was, and the whole point was to distract him so they could steal the wand. They checked over themselves, too. Tink had a couple bumps and bruises, but neither fairy was injured that badly- Peri wasn't actually injured at all.
They returned to Anna and Elsa, who had removed their costumes, and tied the bags of Pixie Dust back to themselves. Anna said, trying to sound serious and mature "I watched it, just like you said." When Peri told her she'd done a good job, Anna dropped the act and beamed with pride.
Turning to Tink, Peri asked "Am I the only one that thinks this is like child's play compared to what stealing the wand from Kyto will probably be like?"
Well, there's chapter 13. I hope you enjoyed it.
The second part of this chapter was really fun to write, and even though I had been planning more sword fighting from Tink, I think it turned out fine this way. The mental image I had of their dress-up costumes made me laugh, and I'm hoping at least some of you thought it was funny.
This is totally random, but apparently Ariel from The Little Mermaid is one of the mermaids sitting on a rock in the Peter Pan's Flight ride at Disney World.
So next chapter, Tink, Peri, Anna, Elsa and Vidia are going to try to steal the wand from Kyto. That should be an interesting chapter to write. Having Vidia be a major character in that might be a bit of a challenge, because she's sort of a protagonist and an antagonist at the same time.
I really hope I can update soon, at least in the next two weeks but hopefully a lot sooner. I'm not making any promises, but you all probably don't believe me anymore when I talk about update times.