Disney's Tinker Bell in Storybrooke
A Disney Fairies / Once Upon A Time Crossover
Season 1, Episode 3, Chapter 3
PIXIE HOLLOW, NEVER LAND (The Interregnum Period on the Mainland)
To be properly presented to the others in her guild, Vidia was first taken to the dressmakers. A clothing talent sized her up immediately and asked if Vidia knew what style of clothing she wanted. Vidia wasn't sure yet, so the clothing fairy quickly made up a pretty purple two piece outfit. A pullover top with no sleeves and a dress with petals for a hemline. Lastly, a pair of shoes with the toes slightly curled up finished the ensemble.
Vidia wasn't sure about it. "A dress doesn't exactly feel like me," she said.
"Don't worry about it," Festus told her. "Once you figure out your style, the clothing talents will make it for you."
"And it will be a perfect fit every time," the dressmaker said.
~O~
From the dressmakers the trio flew off towards the piney woods. Here, situated high up in the trunks of the pine trees was the fast flyer's home village which they referred to as The Nest. Holes with doors indicated homes for the fairies. Each of the flyers dressed in purple.
"It's our guild colors," Swift explained.
Running between the many towering trees were catwalks, though hardly anyone used them. Surrounding the trunks where a door was found were planks of wood making a porch with a railing. On these porches Vidia found personal touches and decorations. Plants, feathers, tapestries and anything else that helped make each house a home for its resident flyer.
Vidia was shown to her place, a large one room apartment. It had several amenities available to her including a bed, sofa, table, chairs, a recliner, running water in a sink and even a kitchenette. Two windows on opposite sides let in the morning and evening sunlight. The place, however, was rather bland. "It's yours to decorate as you please," Festus said.
"Who made these rooms?" Vidia asked.
Woodpeckers under the guidance of the animal fairies carved out the rooms. The walls, floors and ceilings were smoothed and finished by the tinker fairies. They even included several flourishes like a carving in the wall with the fast flyer guild symbol.
"They did all of this?"
"Uh huh, they even make the furniture for us," Swift commented.
"Fascinating, if I couldn't be a fast flyer then I would want to be a tinker," Vidia said with awe.
Both Swift and Festus nearly choked on their own tongues. "You do not want to be a part of that nasty guild," Swift told her. "Trust us. They are the last guild you want to be born into. Worse than even the animal fairies."
"Really? Why?"
"C'mon, you'll see."
"I thought we we're going to meet with the other fast flyers?" she asked.
"Yeah, but right now we need to educate you on the perils of being a tinker fairy," Festus answered.
STORYBROOKE, MAINE
Barely an hour after arriving at the renovation house and just before her scheduled lunch break, Claire received a call from the sheriff. Her thoughts immediately went to Valerie, but the girl was hard at work slathering mud on dry wall.
"Mrs. Kensington, you're needed at the Collingsworth place," he told her. "She has a complaint."
In the background she could hear an extremely irate Desiree Collingsworth screaming, "You're damn right I've got a complaint. That woman is a thief."
"I'll be right there, Sheriff." In a flash Claire was back in the truck and on her way. Mrs. Kensington was worried. This was the house with the bad sewer line that the hired help just finished replacing. Hopefully the work wasn't faulty. She would have to pay out of her own pocket to fix it. She couldn't afford such an outlay.
Desiree Collingsworth was a minor celebrity in Storybrooke. She was one of the hosts of Storybooke This Morning, the early morning talk show that Claire watched while cooking breakfast for Val and Tina. Desiree had money and a public forum to express her discontent whenever she felt like it and she often did. The woman was the demanding, aristocratic type with a fiery temper to match her red hair and screechy southern drawl. She held back nothing and could wither even the staunchest soul. Only Mayor Regina Mills or Mr. Gold could frighten this woman.
When she arrived at the large house Claire could see the irate tv host standing in her backyard talking with the sheriff. Next to the law officer was a well-dressed African American gentleman. That was Sidney Glass, the lead reporter for the town's newspaper, The Daily Mirror. It wasn't enough that she might get a bad review on television, but the newspaper might do a story on it. Talk about a double whammy.
"Hello, Sheriff Graham. Hello, Mr. Glass. Good morning Ms. Collingsworth," she greeted, a worried smile on Claire's face. "What seems to be the problem?"
"The problem?!" the Collingsworth woman screeched. "The problem? I'll tell you what the problem is, Mrs. Kensington. You're a thief is what the problem is!"
"I beg your pardon?"
"Ladies, ladies please," Graham said, trying to intercede. "Let's not do anything we might regret."
"She already did, sheriff," Desiree yelled. "Arrest her for Grand Larceny. For Grand Theft. For Grand something."
"What did she supposedly steal?" Mr. Glass asked the angry redhead. "My iPad, that's what. I use it to prepare and coordinate for my show. I need it this weekend so I can be ready for Monday morning and this little weasel stole it from me."
"Enough!" Graham insisted. "Did you see Mrs. Kensington steal your tablet computer?"
"No, it wasn't her directly," Desiree said. She told the sheriff that yesterday, the workmen were backfilling the hole they had to dig up to replace the old sewer line. One of the men needed to come into the house to use the facilities. Collingsworth was certain he was the person who stole her precious iPad.
"Maybe he fancies himself a modern day Robin Hood," Desiree cooed. "You know, steal from poor little rich girls like me to give to the great unwashed masses. Like her."
Claire stiffened at the insult.
Desiree went on to say how with the job complete she went to work this morning and couldn't find her iPad. She spent the better part of the day exhaustingly make her personal secretary search the studio and then the large dream house. The Collingsworth woman always seemed to emphasize that her home was "large" and a "dream house." However, despite all the work that the secretary had done, the iPad was nowhere to be found.
"I know one of her people stole it," Collingsworth yelled. "They work for you so I'm holding you responsible. Don't you do things like background checks on your people before hiring them? If my property can't be found then I'll take this matter to court where I'm sure I'll be able to get my say."
She's said enough already, Claire thought.
Graham asked Mrs. Kensington to produce a list of her employees. Embarrassed, Claire had to confide in the sheriff that she had used day labor. Ever since Charlie's death, Claire had much difficulty running the business and had to cut costs by letting go the regular workers Charlie relied on. She would call them in on an as needed basis. For work like this, where the digging didn't need trained individuals who would charge a high hourly rate, she hired day laborers.
"YOU WHAT?" Desiree screeched again. "Day labor? You let those mongrels on my property? In my house? I'll sue, so help me I will."
"That's enough," Graham instructed Ms. Collingsworth.
"Your husband would never let day laborers dirty up his good reputation," Collingsworth stated. "God rest his soul, but if he could see you now that man would be sorely disappointed. I know I am."
"Ms. Collingsworth that will do," Sheriff Graham said with forcefulness in his voice. He turned back to Claire and asked for a list of all the people she had hired the last few days. She pulled out a notebook with all the names on her payroll. It listed what days were worked, the number of hours and rate of pay. Graham thanked Claire for the cooperation and set about to investigate.
"And what about Ms. Collingsworth's tablet computer," Sidney Glass queried.
"Most likely whoever stole it might try to pawn it at Mr. Gold's shop." Graham would have the pawnbroker contact his office with information. He got a list of all distinguishing marks from Collingsworth, including a serial number and the fact that it was engraved on the back. That should make it easy to recover.
Sidney then tried to pester Claire for a comment on the accusation. She would only give a no comment before getting back into her truck. Claire was shaken by the ordeal. This had the potential to drastically hurt her business. The reputation her husband had worked so hard to build up had been slowly fading since his death. This would be the nail in the proverbial coffin.
Mrs. Kensington was at wits end. She had already dealt with her ever increasingly defiant daughter earlier this morning. Now there was this accusation of theft which could become a front page news story. She felt her already fragile standard of living slipping away. If this broke into a scandal, and in this town it was a scandal, her days as a contractor would be over. She could lose the house before the end of the year. It would make for the worst Christmas her family had ever suffered.
What hurt more, however, were those awful words. Charlie would be so disappointed in her. Would he? She was letting down her husband, her two children and herself. It all got to her while she was driving back to the renovation house. Claire started to breath erratically and her vision wasn't right. She wasn't exactly certain where she was anymore. Anxiety set in. Anxiety of the present and an uncertain future began overwhelming her.
PIXIE HOLLOW, NEVER LAND (The Interregnum Period on the Mainland)
"Smell that?"
Vidia, Swift and Festus all took a deep breath. All three nearly wretched.
"Oh, what is that?" she asked wincing.
"That, sweetie, is the sweaty, steamy smell of the tinker fairies," Festus told her.
"Tinker fairies? They should be named Stinker fairies. Woo, that's bad," Swift joked. "Notice that they live and work in a big hole in the ground?" Vidia nodded. "Know why? It's so that their disgustingly horrid B.O. doesn't foul the rest of Pixie Hollow. I mean who wants to smell that all day?"
"I hear some of them don't even take baths," Festus added. "They just build up layer upon layer of dirt and sweat and never wash it off."
"Ugh, that's awful," Vidia said feeling a bit nauseous. "How can they stand it?"
"I guess you just don't have any sense of smell when you're born a tinker," Festus said with a sly grin.
Swift pointed out that all flyers were required to bathe regularly. At least once a day. "Festus here bathes twice a day. Once in the morning and a second time before bed."
"Yup, and I always smell oh so sweet."
It was also required for flyers to keep their wings clean. No one wants to see a fast flyer with dirty wings. So wing washing session were held once a week and attendance was mandatory whether it was needed or not.
"Why so much emphasis on things like bathing and wish washing?" Vidia asked.
"To be the best you have to maintain a higher standard than all the other guilds," Festus told her.
"Yeah, if we don't then it gives these stinky tinkers and animal fairies all the ammunition they need to claim they're equal to us," Swift added.
"And we're not, right?" Vidia half said, half asked.
"Nope, we're better. Superiority isn't just what we do, it's what we're born with," Swift said with emphasis. "But you can't claim to be superior if you act inferior."
"Got it," Vidia said. "I am going to like being a fast flyer."
"Good, now, it's time to present you to your new guild mates."
~O~
Vidia was taken from Tinker's Nook to a large structure built into the thickest tree in the piney woods not far from The Nest.
"This is our tavern, The Happy Flyers Wind Riding Club" Festus pointed out. The three went inside. Vidia saw several fairies wearing purple. Each of them had longer wings compared to the other fairies who were also there. The extra length meant flyers could grab more air and move through the air faster.
Every guild had a watering hole like this, Vidia was told, and each one was open to every guild in Pixie Hollow by order of the queen. But the fast flyers didn't like sharing their space with the others, so every night they would shut the doors to the other guilds, allowing only the flyers to have the hall entirely to themselves. Swift told her, "It's what we like to call, taking out the trash."
"Attention everyone, attention!" Swift yelled from atop an empty table. "I would like you all to meet our newest guild member, Vidia. She also has the distinction of having the greatest talent glow ever seen at an arrival ceremony. And she is ours. So the rest of you poor saps can just eat your hearts out."
The flyers in the club stood up and cheered. They whooped, hollered, applauded, and banged their cups on the table and pretty much made a huge racket to welcome their latest addition.
"Do us proud, Vidia," one flyer shouted.
"We'll help you all we can," another said.
"You ended up in the right talent guild," a third yelled.
"Okay, okay. Now, who wants to be the first to buy this lovely lady a drink?" Swift asked. Every sparrow man in the room, even those from other guilds, jumped up out of their seats practically begging to be her first benefactor.
"Welcome to the Fast Flyers' Talent Guild, Vidia," Swift told her. "Get used to people doing your bidding, it's what we strive for."
Thanks to Tabithaeconwood, Clarionromance23, I Luv Milarion 1201, Milarionized, Larki13, Milarionfan, Julie662 and Rosie0522 for all of your wonderful reviews. Thanks to everyone who has been reading my story. I am ever so grateful for your loyal readership.
Note: The name for the Happy Flyers Wind Riding Club was inspired by the real life Happy Bottom Riding Club where test pilots used to hang out during the days of test flying jets at Edwards Air Force Base. It was featured in the film The Right Stuff.
If you haven't looked it up on Wikipedia yet like I did, The Interregnum Period in England occurs between 1649 and 1660 during which England suffered through quite a bit of political unrest and upheaval beginning with the removal of a monarch and ending with the restoration of the monarchy. It makes for a good read, but don't take my word for it.
Lord Milori / Hartley Winter will be featured in the next chapter.