Hi! I'm back! Obviously I didn't update in a couple days, but two weeks isn't a horrendous update time...

So, I got this book called Tinker Bell: An Evolution and it's pretty much facts about her with lots of drawings. Anyways, since I own that, I can own the Disney Fairies franchise, right? :) (If I did own Disney Fairies, they wouldn't have stopped making the movies).

I'm really happy with how this chapter came out, and I hope you'll like it too. So without further ado, chapter twennty-siiiiiiiix! Drumroll and curtains open

Vilhelm carried the younger princess in his arms, following Thomas, who was carrying "the witch." Thomas seethed about sorcery and abominations that should have never been born. Vilhelm had to admit the events were quite strange. First, the older princess had made a huge blizzard. He had thought it would've ended there, but then two girls had then flown (probably the work of the older princess), they had disappeared for a second, and then they had come hurtling down wearing completely different clothes.

Yes, it was freaky, Vilhelm thought, but it hadn't hurt anybody. Well, they had slipped on the girl's ice, but people slipped on normal ice, too. As Thomas went on a rage about how the witch had tried to kill them with her ice, Vilhelm realized something. The instances of magic had both occurred after the girls were fleeing from them in terror. He pointed this out to Thomas, trying to extinguish some of the other guard's angry biases, but Thomas just told him where to stick that comment, adding that the witch was probably brainwashing him with her evil mind powers.

So they'd found out the secret the Duke had been so curious about- the older princess was magical. Vilhelm guessed that, once they told the Duke this information, they would return the girls home and the Duke would request some enormous payment for their services of "rescuing" the princesses, which he would give only a fraction of to his guards.

By the time they got out of the woods, Thomas was growling about how witches should be annihilated. Thomas unceremoniously dumped Elsa in Vilhelm's arms, which were already full with Anna, but Vilhelm managed not to drop either of them.

Thomas went off to inform the Duke of their success, and Vilhelm stood outside holding the two bundled girls. He just wanted to return them home, get the money, and then get back to his own family.

After ten minutes or so, the Duke and Thomas emerged from an inn (the Duke had refused to stay in the castle that night, insisting he didn't want to be a burden while the queen grieved, but it gave him a convenient excuse not to have to sneak out of the castle).

Vilhelm started to unwrap the princesses, but the Duke hissed "What are you doing?" "Well, we can't just return them like this." Vilhelm answered. The Duke informed him they were going somewhere else, and headed for the docks. Reluctantly, Vilhelm followed Thomas and the Duke.

"These fools are way too trusting. It's a wonder they haven't been taken over!" The Duke exclaimed. "Now, for my plan..."

Vilhelm didn't like the way things were going, especially with the look in the Duke's eyes. Apparently, just getting money to put food on his family's table was too much to ask.

XXXXXXXXXX

Elsa, Anna, Peri and Tink had been bordering unconsciousness due to it being hard to breathe with their faces being covered by cloaks, but they started to fully regain consciousness once their faces were uncovered. They dimly heard voices, a couple thuds and clicks, and footsteps walking away.

When they were fully conscious, they found out they were in a predicament. They were in a cell that contained nothing but a wooden bench (which doubled as a horrible excuse for a bed) and a handle-less bucket as a makeshift toilet. The only light came from Tink and Peri's glows.

Elsa and Anna were both scared senseless. A cell was no place for children, and it was made worse by the fact they had no idea where they were and what would happen to them. Anna was as scared as she'd ever been in her life, and she started whimpering. Elsa wrapped her arms around her little sister, but she wasn't really thinking about comforting Anna- after all, she was barely older than her. She mostly did it because she was also terrified and needed someone to hug.

Tink spotted a small, barred window near the top of the door. She flew up and saw the coast was clear. Judging by the way this whole place was rocking gently, they had to be below decks on a ship. She flitted between the bars into the corridor and went to look at the door. She faintly heard voices, and while the voices quickly grew louder, she still couldn't make out what they were saying. Peri said she'd go spy and see what was going on. Elsa and Anna protested vehemently against Peri leaving, but Tink whispered "I'm still here. You're not alone. I'm going to get you out of here." Sniffling, Elsa croaked out "Okay."

The barricade that prevented it from opening would have been a piece of cake- she could have just put Pixie Dust on it and slid it out- except there was a lock keeping it in place. Ordinarily she would have liked the challenge, but not when her friends were in danger.

Peri reached the end of the surprisingly long hallway and could hear the voices quite clearly. They came from behind a mostly closed door, also below the decks. Peri peeked in the room, which was dominated by a large table in the center. Inside the room were the two henchmen who had chased Elsa and Anna that first day, as well as a short, skinny old man with large glasses and a toupee who seemed to be the leader.

"Those princesses are out to destroy us! Their parents probably set them on us to claim my fortune, and when luring us into the woods didn't work, the witch tried to kill us with snow!" The Duke screeched.

Peri stared, dumbfounded. There wasn't a single part of that whole rant that was remotely accurate. Peri had never even seen Elsa and Anna's parents, and she knew they weren't the type of people to plan something like that. If they were, Anna and Elsa would have been obnoxious brats, not amazing children. Not to mention, the Duke was acting like he'd risked his life in the woods, when in reality he sent his henchmen after two lost and scared little girls. And Elsa had never tried to hurt anyone with her magic, unless you counted playful snow attacks as hurting someone.

Thomas picked up an ax and, waving it threateningly, said "I say the world should be rid of this dangerous magic! This way innocent people won't need to fear for their safety." The Duke, despite looking quite harmless normally, had a very scary look on his face, and it was quite clear he agreed with Thomas' statement. "Witchcraft is an evil that must be purged. Kill them." The Duke ordered, before announcing he would go back to the castle and act like nothing was wrong. He left, so now they really only had to worry about Thomas.

Meanwhile, back down the hallway, Tink was feeling around the lock to try to envision what it's key would look like. She was glad the keyhole was big enough to fit her arm in, because it would have been impossible otherwise. After a minute or two, she had a fairly good idea of what the key looked like. It was fairly simple, a key with a rectangular tooth at the end, containing only two notches. She glanced around for a piece of wire or something to pick it with. Seeing literally nothing, she slid her torso inside the lock (it was that big, or she was that small, depending on how one looked at it) and tried to shape her arms like the key in the hopes she could spring it that way.

In the other room, Vilhelm grabbed the ax and snarled "They're children! Have you lost your mind?!" He tried to wrench it from Thomas' grip but let go when the latter kicked him in the stomach. Vilhelm spat out "You're both insane! Completely insane." He would have ripped apart anyone who tried to hurt his daughter, and if it weren't for the fact he could be hung for treason he would have probably murdered the Duke or Thomas for planning on harming children, or at least beat some sense into them. But his wife and daughter wouldn't fare too well if he was executed for treason, so he didn't.

Although he couldn't actually attack them, that didn't stop him from doing something about it. When the Duke and Thomas weren't looking, Vilhelm slipped the key to the girls' cell in his pocket, buying some time before the girls' probable execution.

Peri had practically fainted when she heard they were planning on killing the princesses. She definitely sided with Vilhelm. What sort of sicko could even think about just hatefully killing... well, anyone, really- but especially children?!

Thomas started forward with his ax. Peri shot an icicle up his nostril with her talent and he screamed out something about the witch. Oops. That probably wasn't the greatest idea, since he thought it was Elsa and it seemed to make him more determined to kill her. While he tried to yank the icicle out of his nostril, she kicked him in the face. Thomas groped around and managed to snag her, while she mentally kicked herself for not avoiding it.

Tink called for her to come over and try to make a key out of ice (Elsa was too scared to help) and Peri would have liked all to well to do that. Thomas didn't see what he was holding, but he didn't care as he squeezed his fist in anger. Peri frosted the inside of his hand in panic, but that only seemed to make him madder. Before Peri could get too worried, however, someone shouted "Close your eyes!" Peri did so and could tell behind her closed eyelids that there was a sudden flash of light. Thomas reflexively shielded his eyes with open hands and Peri escaped.

She started towards the door and was startled to see Iridessa holding a beam of light- along with pretty much all of Tink and Peri's friends. The warm-fairies were still wearing coats and either had their wings frosted or tucked into their coats. They could imitate the way Peter, Elsa and Anna flew, though it was far less graceful than flying with their wings, and they tended to weave around unintentionally (Vidia especially hated this).

"How did you guys get here?" Peri asked, utterly surprised. "We'll tell you later! Just go free Elsa and Anna!" Fawn shouted as she dodged Thomas' swinging arm. So they apparently already knew what was going on, Peri thought as she zipped down the hall with Gliss and Spike to help Tink free the princesses. Vilhelm had lurked off somewhere else, and Peri was pretty sure they didn't have to worry about him.

As they flew out, Peri tried to figure out how much time the other fairies could buy them by distracting Thomas. They got there and Tink was startled to see Gliss and Spike. "We followed you but at first we didn't see you. We saw those two Clumsy men going through the forest at night with struggling bundles, which totally wasn't suspicious or anything, so we took a hunch and followed them and here we are." Spike explained, rolling her eyes at one point, and Gliss added "Did you really think we'd let you go here alone after what happened last time?" (They didn't know about the mini trip to Arendelle when Elsa and Anna were fairies).

"Okay, we need to get this lock open, and I was thinking you might be able to make a key with your frost-talents..." Tink told the other three. "Can't we just cut it open?" Gliss asked. With her talent, she made a small saw out of ice. She started trying to saw the lock apart, but her saws kept breaking and she had to make new ones constantly. Tink was trying to explain what the key looked like to Peri, and Peri was trying to duplicate it. However, the it never ended up looking as it should have, and thus they never successfully opened it.

"No, no! That won't work!" Tink snapped at Gliss, who had just broken her seventh ice saw. "We'd need a something like a huge pair of scissors." She made a cutting motion with her arms to emphasize it. "On it!" Spike cried and began to craft ice with her frost-talent. The result looked like a cross between hedge cutters and bolt cutters. She jammed it shut on the handle of the lock with all her might, but it was also too thin and broke.

Meanwhile, the other fairies were doing everything in their power to keep Thomas from leaving the room, and thus buying time for Tink and the others to free Elsa and Anna. Iridessa shone light in his eyes, Silvermist made the floor slippery with water, Rosetta hit him with a thorny vine she'd procured from who knew where, Vidia unbalanced him with gusts of wind and so on.

Thomas hadn't yet made it too the doorway, but he was fighting it fairly well, and had knocked Fawn out of the air with a lucky blow from his lower leg. Since Fawn's wings were frosted to protect them from the cold, they didn't become waterlogged. (Waterlogged wings are bad news, since they can drag a fairy underwater and make them drown).

After the second pair of ice lock cutters broke, Peri gasped. She was pretty sure she'd just figured out how to break the lock. "Go get Silvermist!" She told Tink. Tink went off to do it, figuring Peri knew what she was doing. Spike and Gliss had a fairly good idea of what Peri was planning, and they readied their talents. Elsa's magic was starting to come out, and ice began to creep up the door and slowly spread over the lock.

Tink dodged through the chaos in the room down the hall. She narrowly avoided being hit by seeds courtesy of Clank and Bobble and almost had a painful encounter with Rosetta's thorny vine. She reached Silvermist without killing herself, however. She grabbed the water-fairy's arm, and Silvermist screamed in surprise and almost soaked her.

"What do you need me for?" Silvermist asked as Tink dragged her out of the room, dodging obstacles along the way.

By the time they reached the cell, Elsa had accidentally frosted the whole door and the lock, but now she was pounding on the door with her magic. "Okay Silvermist," Peri said once Tink had returned with her, "Can you fill the lock with water?" Silvermist nodded and said in her dreamy voice "Sure, but I don't think it's going to help you open it."

"Oh it will. Just keep the water flowing." Peri replied, adding "Elsa? This is really important. Can you please not use your magic right now? We're going to get you out of here." The pounding stopped, and Elsa sniffled in response.

Silvermist shot a stream of water into the lock. A lot of it gushed onto the floor, but the lock remained full all the time since she was always adding more. Peri, Gliss and Spike all unleashed their talents. The water in the lock turned into ice almost instantaneously, and the lock burst apart. Cheering, Tink sprinkled Pixie Dust on the barricade and slid it open. Elsa and Anna burst from the room with eyes red from crying, quite content with the thought of never setting foot in it again. Anna's hood was down and she fiddled with her hair. Tink took one look at them and said "Let's get you guys home."

The fairies zipped off to tell the other fairies fighting Thomas that they were leaving. While they were in the other room, the Duke descended the ladder, followed by Vilhelm, who was trying his best to dissuade his boss from murdering the princesses. "But what about the money? You'd get a pretty handsome price for returning them home."

"Then they'd just have the witch murder me in my sleep and they'd get their money back!" The Duke raged. Vilhelm was amazed the money angle didn't work, as there was nothing the Duke liked more than money. Why did the Duke hate Elsa so much, anyways? He had surpassed paranoia a long time ago.

He noticed Elsa and Anna out of their cell, not missing the fact the door and broken lock were covered in ice, and with surprising reflexes he grabbed the ax that had slid into the hall sometime during the fairies' fight with Thomas and stalked towards them. Vilhelm tried to stop him, but the Duke grabbed him, held the ax up to his face, and hissed "If you don't want your wife and daughter to starve on the streets, don't try to stop me." He shoved Vilhelm into the other room and turned and stalked towards the girls, while Thomas finally managed to fight free of the fairies and emerge in the hall. The fairies followed him, but before they were in the hall, they heard Elsa cry out.

"NO!" Elsa shouted, throwing her arms around her sister and squeezing her eyes shut. There was an explosion of ice and snow, out of the range of her attackers, and hailstones shot towards the Duke and his henchmen.

The good news was that the hailstones hit the Duke and Thomas, knocking them out.

The bad news was that the explosion hit Anna in the head. She fell limply to the ground, unconscious, and a lock of her hair turned a perfect white.

Dun, Dun, Duuunnnn! This is awfully familiar, isn't it?

Okay, so the fight scene in this chapter turned out to be rather nonexistent. I'd written a whole blow-by-blow thing, but that was even worse. It was boring and unnecessary. But I still liked this chapter (even though it's sorta short), it turned out basically how it was in my head.

This is the last time the Duke and his henchmen will make an appearance. In my mind, Vilhelm will just sail the ship back to Wesleton and Thomas and the Duke might have to face consequences for plotting to murder royalty or something, or maybe they just get away with it. Vilhelm was sort of fun to write, because he was in a predicament, since he wanted to help but couldn't without risking his family and his own safety. And he's sort of a good guy who's forced to be bad.

I figured the Duke and Thomas's utter hatred of magic isn't too unrealistic. After all, witch hunts and stuff actually happened (just look at the Salem Witch Trials).

Ok, I can definitely finish this by the end of the summer. I only have three or four chapters left. So hang in there!