Thanks for all the feedback on this story so far. I wanted to only take half the month to update, but that didn't happen. Still, it's been less time than normal! Only 20 days, yay! :)
You know, I really don't think I have anything to ramble on about right now. Weird, right? Except for that the wand and the second star to the right wound up having pretty much the same personality. Oops. Actually, it kinda fits in my mind, since they're both messing with Tink/Peri/Anna/Elsa.
Oh, one thing you'll need to know for this (if you didn't know it already) is that seasons are permanent areas in Pixie Hollow. Obviously there are the Winter Woods, but there are Spring, Summer, and Fall in the warm section.
So on to Chapter 23. (This chapter is more emotion/thought based than action based. Sorry everyone who likes action- that includes me!- but I think it's necessary.)
Peri didn't trust herself to speak. Not that she would have known what to say. Which is just as well because she felt she might start crying. What Tink had just told her was worse than anything she'd expected to hear. The worst she'd imagined was the wand not being able to reverse Anna's accidental wish and then she'd feel awful when they were overcome with homesickness (or maybe worse, if they decided Pixie Hollow was better and forgot about their other home, which would somehow make her feel bad too).
Peri sat hugging her knees. Tink sat next to her but left her alone, for which Peri was grateful. Right now, she just needed to be with her thoughts. So apparently, this was a win-lose situation. Anna's fairy wish couldn't be reversed without reversing Peri's wishes. So she could benefit at their expense or they could benefit at hers. Reversing the accidental one about the princesses being accepted as fairies wouldn't matter, since they wouldn't be fairies once the wishes were reversed. Those wishes were pretty much merged together. It was Peri's intentional wish about her magic that mattered. If that was reversed, she'd go back to losing her talent whenever Elsa intentionally used her magic.
Going back to that system wouldn't have been too bad, since she'd lived with it since Elsa had started controlling her magic years ago, except that the wand said that Elsa would have all the magic one day. Peri had guessed that, considering that her talent had been gradually decreasing over the years like water slowly draining from a bathtub (whereas Elsa's metaphorical bathtub was getting fuller as her magic got stronger). But there had always been a little voice in the back of her head telling her she could be wrong about losing it all.
Now that little voice couldn't really tell her that, because the wand had said otherwise. Wands had a knack for knowing things. They could know what someone was going to wish for well before it was wished, even though they couldn't grant it until they were waved. Peri suspected wands could see all the problems with a wish, too- why someone would regret it, or how it would corrupt them.
Both fairy twins looked at Elsa and Anna, since they weren't ready to look at each other and looking at the girls wasn't as boring as staring at the floor or the workbench. The girls were curled up on a spare mattress of Tink's. Anna had one of her knuckles in her mouth, which was cute in a a five-year-old's body but lost all of its charm now that she looked like a young adult. It was easy to forget Elsa and Anna's true ages when they looked the same age as all the other fairies. Sometimes their appearances even overwhelmed the fact that they sounded and acted like the children they really were.
Peri thought back to when they were in the woods surrounding Arendelle. Anna and Elsa had been trying to get home before being taken to Neverland. Sure Neverland had distracted them for a while, but that would happen to almost anyone. But it was clear they loved their home and their parents (even if said parents didn't like Elsa's magic too much). Maybe if they were older, it would be different, but eight and five were too young to be away from home forever.
Anna and Elsa's desire to be Clumsies again was certainly increased by the fact that they knew they weren't really supposed to be fairies.
Peri sighed miserably. If she wanted them to be happy, which she did, she'd have to give up her complete talent (thus not being able to use hers when Elsa intentionally used magic) and eventually lose her talent altogether. Talents defined fairies, and they filled their days practicing and honing them. Fairies loved their talent, and to lose it would be like losing part of themselves. Peri desperately wanted the wand to be wrong about her losing it, but she doubted the wand had made a mistake.
Tink was furious with the wand. She wondered why it couldn't just reverse one wish. When she thought about it, though, the wand had reversed every wish last time- except for Prilla's wish about completing Sara Quirtle. (Prilla's laugher had been incomplete and just sat there sadly until the wand completed her). So it could skip reversing wishes, it just wasn't going to this time. Tink was furious with herself, most of all. Why couldn't she make the wand reverse only Anna's wish? It was like trying to fix a machine that broke your tools when you tinkered with it. She'd tried everything that had worked last time, only none of it had worked this time.
Reversing all the wishes would make everything that had happened pointless, Peri thought. If she just went back to having an incomplete talent, there would have been nothing gained in bringing Elsa and Anna to Neverland.
Well, no, that wasn't true, she amended. Even if she lost all the gains in terms of her talent, bringing the princesses to Neverland had been far from worthless. She'd gotten a lot closer to them, especially Elsa whom aside from being her laugher and having a previously connected flow of magic, had been Peri's almost constant companion since arriving in Neverland.
She wondered, if she selfishly kept her complete talent and Elsa and Anna had to stay fairies forever, would she be able to live with herself? Fairies, in general, had a very hard time doing something that would make a child sad. One reason was because most fairies were nice. But they also were born from babies' laughs, and thus had a special connection with children, not to mention they relied on children believing in them to keep from dying out entirely.
But Peri wanted Elsa and Anna to be happy because of more than just Elsa being her laugher (though that helped). She wanted them to be happy because they were her friends. Sure she and Elsa were connected, but she'd chosen to be friends with her; it wasn't required.
Finally the silence was broken. "Could I wish my wish again if we reverse it?" Peri asked. That would get rid of the whole problem. Everyone would get what they wanted and it would be a nice, happy ending. When she raised this idea, she was unsuccessful at keeping the hope out of her voice. Tink unfortunately didn't confirm that would work, but she didn't say it wouldn't work either. Nobody had tried wishing the same wish twice.
Tink sprinkled more Happy Dust on the wand, picked it up, and entered its mind again. "Would you let Peri wish her wish again after it was reversed?" She asked mentally. The wand didn't answer, instead choosing to just spout some gibberish in its annoying singsong voice. Tink kept asking it, and but the only thing close to an answer was "Maybe, maybe not."
Tink screamed in frustration. Why was it being so uncooperative? Honestly, the wand was worse now than it was last time. It was hard to believe it had completed Sara Quirtle out of the goodness of its heart, since now it seemed bent on being as annoying and hard hearted as possible. Maybe being with Kyto so long had corrupted its mind.
Tink refrained from hurling the wand across the room, or worse, and went back to her bed, which was in the part of her room farthest from her workbench. It took a couple minutes for her anger to subside.
"You know," Tink began once she'd calmed down "The wand didn't say how long it would take for Elsa to... reach her full strength." Peri knew there was an implied "get all your powers" but she appreciated Tink not saying it out loud. Tink was right, Peri thought. If the rate by which her talent had been decreasing these past eight years was anything to go by, Peri could have another ten or fifteen years before her talent disappeared completely.
Neither of them slept much that night. Peri was too busy thinking about what to do. Tink, whose bond with Peri was quite strong, almost felt as if she was going to lose her talent too. She also spent a lot of time mulling over why the wand was being so rebellious. Elsa and Anna, on the other hand, slept through the entire night. Considering Anna's normal sleep habits, there wasn't too much doubt in anyone's mind that Zarina had put them to sleep with poppies.
By sunrise, Peri had made her decision. She'd have her wish reversed if it meant they could reverse Anna's wish and let the princesses return home to Arendelle.
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Peri flew through the warm section of Pixie Hollow, her personal flurry trailing above her. Her decision certainly wasn't the one she'd like to make, but she felt it was the right choice, regardless. And while she didn't like the possibility of potentially losing her talent, she wasn't going to be a poor sport about it.
She'd thought about Tink's reaction to getting a broken wing, a little after they'd first met. Tink had been rightfully sad, but she hadn't complained at all. She'd just arranged to meet Peri at the border the next day. Tink's wing had been fixed through their bond a couple minutes later, but she still set a good example.
Of course, as soon as she thought about this, hope sparked in her mind. Maybe her bond with Elsa could complete her talent again if the wand refused to, like it had made Tink able to fly in cold weather. But if that could happen, wouldn't it have already occurred? The hope that had just appeared withered down into almost nothing.
She hadn't had a destination in mind when she was flying and she ended up in a field in the autumn section of Pixie Hollow. She sat on the leafy ground, her wintery appearance contrasting violently with the red and yellow leaves. It took her a minute to figure out why she'd decided to stay here: she was alone.
She started frosting the blades of grass around her. She had no idea if Elsa was using her magic right now, but that could change soon. She continued frosting things for a couple minutes while twirling one of her bangs around her finger.
Suddenly a fairy appeared out of thin air. After nearly jumping out of her skin, which made a small cloud of snow explode around her, Peri figured out who it was. Prilla, who was back from one of her blinks on the mainland.
"Hello," Said Prilla, who was more like a Clumsy than any other fairy. She did an aerial handspring and asked "What are you doing out here?"
"Thinking," Peri replied. Although she had wanted to be alone a couple minutes ago, she suddenly felt like talking. "You had the wand complete your laugher, right?" Prilla nodded, not really caring that this wasn't exactly a normal conversation topic, and said "Yeah. Sara Quirtle. Aannd?"
Peri took a deep breath and asked "You can keep a secret, right?" Prilla confirmed this. Peri told her about completing her talent with the wand, and how she might become incomplete or even talentless if the wishes were reversed. Prilla listened empathetically- everyone had thought she was talentless at first, before she'd discovered her blinking-over-to-the-mainland-talent.
"What's it like, not having a talent?" Peri asked. Prilla didn't point out that she had had a talent but didn't know it. She'd been treated as talentless, so she had been in the same situation Peri could end up in.
"For me, it was lonely because I didn't have a group of fairies sharing my talent to connect with. But you have a talent and friends and everything now, so you don't have to worry about that. And even if you lose your talent, I bet everyone will still think of you as a winter-talent. I would." Peri hadn't thought of that. Her friends weren't going to reject her just because she couldn't make snow or ice anymore.
It would be nice talking to someone who understood what she could end up going through. She could express her worries freely, in a way that wasn't griping. Prilla was quite frank about everything, not bothering to skirt around voicing the possibility that Peri could lose her talent. To her surprise, Peri found she didn't mind this.
But even if she couldn't get her wish again, it would be a while before she lost her talent entirely. Prilla and Peri parted ways pretty soon. Peri flew back to Tink's room and knocked on the door. Tink let her in, and Peri saw Elsa and Anna were still asleep. Zarina had definitely used poppies on them.
"I've decided. We can reverse the wishes, even if I don't get mine again." Peri told her twin. Tink had known Peri's decision before she left that morning- she'd seen it on her face. Peri continued. "I think Elsa and Anna need to go home more than I need a complete talent."
Tink was smiling, a sad sort of smile. She was proud of Peri for being selfless, not that she had expected anything different from her sister. Peri told her about her talk with Prilla- though Tink didn't agree that Prilla's former situation was similar to Peri's possible future.
Tink thought for a bit. "Now, I'm not sure this will work, but I have an idea." She said, trying to avoid getting Peri's hopes up. She emphasized the not-sure-it-will-work part a couple times, until Peri said "I get it already! What's you're idea?"
"You can have an artificial talent. Maybe." Peri still looked a little confused, so Tink added "You know, Zarina's talent-switching dust... the stuff I used to become a water-talent when we visited Kyto."
Comprehension dawned on Peri's face. How could she have forgotten about that. It wasn't that long ago. Was it? No, Elsa and Anna had only been fairies for a couple weeks.
"Isn't that stuff banned?" Peri asked, before remembering that Tink had used it to get the wand. Which was sort of embarrassing, because Tink had literally mentioned it seconds ago. "If you're wondering about whether you'll be able to use it if Elsa gets all the magic," Tink said, knowing that obviously was what Peri meant, "The answer is yes." A brief, embarrassed look crossed over Tink's face, and she said "I went to talk to Lord Milori about it when you were gone. I knew you'd want to do this. He agreed to it."
Another fairy might have been annoyed at Tink discussing their business with Lord Milori, but Peri was actually sort of grateful she didn't need to have that conversation. And she was grateful that Tink would do something like that for her (though she would've done the same for Tink).
"Go on, ask about it. Zarina's probably free. I'll stay here, since the girls should wake up pretty soon." Tink said, almost shoving Peri to the door.
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Zarina opened her door, glanced at her visitor for a second and said "It's Periwinkle, isn't it?" Peri nodded and said "You can call me Peri." She might as well prepare for the worst if the wand wouldn't give her her wish back. It was a little ironic she was considering this idea, because they'd gone to get the wand so she wouldn't have to try an artificial talent).(somehow, using the wand didn't seem artificial to Peri, even though it was).
"So..." Zarina said as she opened her door fully to let Peri in "does this have anything to do with the wand? Or that whole incident in general?" She was pretty sure it did, because why else would Peri be visiting her? It's not like they were friends- they barely knew each other.
"Yeah... Um, do you know the whole story?" Peri asked, feeling she might as well prepare for the worst. Zarina nodded and proceeded to tell it with a surprising amount of detail. Peri had to admit all the other fairies were good at piecing things together, since she and Tink had never actually told the whole story to anyone other than Queen Clarion and Lord Milori (Peri had just told a good deal of it to Prilla, but she doubted Prilla had spread it around). Maybe Elsa and Anna had unknowingly dropped hints (or knowingly just blurted stuff out).
Peri nodded and tried to ask casually "So, do you still have your talent-switching dust?" Of course, this wasn't very discreet at all, and Zarina knew exactly what she meant. She didn't bother prying for details she knew Peri would be uncomfortable talking about. "In case you ever need some extra winter powers?" She asked. Peri nodded again.
At first, Peri had worried that the other fairies wouldn't approve of her using talent-switching dust, because artificially enhancing or changing talents seemed like cheating. But she could end up giving up her talent to make Elsa and Anna happy, so it's not like they could say she was being selfish.
Peri told her that Tink had talked to Lord Milori about it, and thus Zarina would not get in trouble for giving the dust to her. The Pixie Dust Alchemist seemed relieved by this, perhaps because she'd gotten into trouble for such things before.
Zarina led her over to a cabinet filled with jars of Pixie Dust of many colors, like pink for the garden-talent and purple for the fast-flying-talent. Zarina indicated a row of white ones and said "Those are the frost-talent ones. But I can always make more. Plus, you could always switch your talent..."
Peri didn't think she'd ever want to switch her talent, even for a bit, but the other part sounded wonderful. She thanked Zarina profusely.
"Does it really give you a talent if you don't have one?"
"You won't technically have a talent naturally, but once you're sprinkled with this, you should get the same result. I mean, I made a caterpillar shoot water once with the water-talent dust, so I think so. But I don't know how it'll fit in with your talent being connected to Elsa's magic though... that could throw things off, since it already has thrown your talent off, and there's really no way to see what will happen aside from having it, well... happen. Well, no, it will still work."
Seeing Peri's worried look, which clearly showed she was doubtful it would work, Zarina said "Come one, if it can make a caterpillar shoot water, it should give you your talent even if Elsa steals it." Peri nodded. That had a nice sort of logic that greatly reduced her worrying.
A sudden thought struck Peri. "Why is this called talent-switching dust if it just gives you a talent?" Zarina shrugged. "Well, it would be sort of pointless to give someone their own talent. Present company excluded, anyways."
Peri thanked Zarina a couple more times before turning to leave.
"Wait, don't you need it?" Zarina asked, confused. "No, we haven't reversed the wishes yet. Besides, I might not need it for years. Maybe I won't need it at all!" She paused worriedly and asked "You're not going to get rid of it, are you? You know, just in case"
Zarina laughed and said "How could I get rid of this? It's one of my most infamous creations!" As Peri reached for the door, Zarina tossed her a day's supply of normal Pixie Dust.
Peri left, feeling much better. This situation didn't seem as bad as it had a couple hours ago. Sure, having an artificial talent wasn't an ideal solution, but if it came to it, it was worlds better than losing her talent entirely.
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Elsa awoke to find herself still a fairy. "I guess we're not going home today," She said to herself, not realizing anyone else was awake. Tink was standing behind her, and while Elsa's remark didn't exactly break her heart (Tink's heart wasn't broken easily) it certainly affected her.
Anna awoke after Elsa, which was a shocker in of itself, and had a less extreme reaction to realizing they weren't going home. But she was still disappointed, just not quite as homesick as Elsa. Tink wondered why Anna, the younger of the two, was faring better away from home than Elsa. Perhaps it had something to do with Anna having forgotten Arendelle, so she could think back to when she hadn't been homesick?
Tink spoke, and it was only then that the girls noticed she was in the room. "No, you're not going home today. But you won't regret it, I promise. Unless you would rather skip this really important event..." She had them at that. Both of their eyes were as wide acorn caps (the fairy version of someone's eyes being as wide as dinner plates).
Realizing they were late for the meeting about said important event, Tink flew out the door, with Elsa and Anna following like ducklings. They kept asking her what the event was, but she wouldn't tell them as she flew to the border.
Fairies of all talents were gathered there, so the winter-talents and the warm weather talents were able to converse without crossing over. Lord Milori and Queen Clarion were going over the trip to the mainland. Fairies and Sparrow-Men covered the ground and hovered throughout the air in order to see and hear them.
Elsa was going to be a huge help in bringing Winter to the mainland quickly, because her magic was much more efficient than theirs, as they'd all seen after day one. Considering that she'd basically brought Winter to Arendelle, they wouldn't have any problems bringing it to London with her help. Winter was overdue on the mainland, and they were pressed for time.
But there were other benefits of changing the seasons before reversing the wishes. Peri would be able to use her complete talent for changing the seasons, which was the best thing she could do with a complete talent. In fact, whenever she'd imagined having a complete talent, she'd always daydreamed about changing the seasons with it. If she was unable to get her complete talent back, she would have at least been able to use it on changing the seasons once.
Elsa and Anna, who had really only experienced the everyday fairy life (apart from the trip to Arendelle) would be able to do something especially memorable.
Once they figured out what everyone was talking about, Anna actually screamed in excitement. Everyone turned to stare at her, since she'd done it randomly.
The meeting adjourned, and it was set that they would leave the next day. Elsa and Anna chattered excitedly to Tink and Peri (who had rejoined them there). Anna flew in circles in excitement and their faces looked like they'd split from smiling so much.
Elsa, after a bit, asked "After we change the seasons, Anna and I will go home, right?"
"Yes, then you'll go home."
Elsa and Anna's grins grew even wider.
So, there's chapter 23. I hope you enjoyed it, despite the lame ending. I liked writing it :) It was rather Peri-centric, now that I think about it. So, now we know Peri's decision, but we don't know what her future in terms of her talent will be. So Peri had to explore all the possibilities, which is generally a good idea for big decisions, as you probably know. I hope her scene with Zarina wasn't confusing. Basically, since Peri's talent connection with Elsa is so bizarre (she'll lose it entirely for short periods when Elsa uses it), I was basically trying to convey they're not 100% sure it'll work, if they need it, though they think it's almost positive, since Pixie Dust is pretty amazing.
This chapter wasn't very action-packed at all, was it? That's probably why it was shorter, cause it was just thoughts and feelings, mostly.
Wow, I really don't have anything to ramble on about. It feels quite strange.
I hope I'll be able to update again this month. There are still 2 weekends, which may help.
Well, I'll see you in Chapter 24, which will include changing seasons. Yay!