"WHOA!" someone cried overhead and Tink lurched back from the large mass of fur, flittering away and nearly knocking over a nearby wagon of tools as the squirrel recoiled at the sight of her and fled back in the direction he had come, his tail upsetting barrels and crates in his wake.
"Sorry! Sorry, sorry!" Fawn yelled, zipping past her friends and racing after the mammal. "Baby squirrel coming through! Make way! Look out!"
Clank yelped, grabbing an armload of acorns and diving away from the scurrying creature. Bobble simply grabbed his hammer and stepped away from the chaos, allowing both the squirrel and the animal-talent to pass, and then quickly went to grab the seeds spilling from Clank's hands with a long sigh.
"What in the Hollow's name is goin' on over here!" Fairy Mary exclaimed, rounding the bend just as the squirrel approached. She reacted accordingly, leaping back out of the way and watching the furry creature take off for the far end of the Nook. "Oh, oh my goodness! What is-how is-?"
"Sorry, Fairy Mary!" Fawn shouted, zipping after her escaped convict. "Squirrel on the loose! No time to explain!"
"Guess he's feeling a little...squirrelly...today," Angus remarked from the safety of a tree, earning a sharp and unimpressed glare from his guildhead. "A little nuts, some might say."
"Well, I don't say," Mary retorted, turning to fling a stray acorn at her charge and send him ducking to cover behind Lucinda. "Now, let's get this place cleaned up before anything else happens-"
"Sorry, Fairy Mary, excuse me!" Tink interrupted, throwing down her tools and chasing after Fawn. "I gotta stop that squirrel!"
"Of course, ye do," was the last thing she heard as she darted out of the Nook and on to Spring. No doubt Fairy Mary was sighing and shaking her head with the most forlorn expression imaginable. "Well, don't just stand there dotting about, you two!" she snapped at the sparrowmen lingering nervously nearby, apparently unsure who to be helping. "Help me clean up this mess, would ye!"
"Whoa, whoa, WHOA!" Fawn was shouting as the squirrel took off between the trees and the two fairies raced to keep up. Tink was right behind her, swerving between the knotted branches and trying to get a good vantage point of what was going on. The squirrel was scrambling through the tall grass with no apparent pattern to his movements, which made a lot of sense. He was afraid, this was perhaps his first time around the Hollow-his first time to the mainland-so naturally he would be unpredictable. He wouldn't have been the first after all.
Fawn was right behind the mammal, zigging and zagging with precision Tink had only ever seen with animal and scout-talent. Hollow forbid anyone try to separate the girl from her furry creatures, Tink had seen that with Gruff. She had a plan, of that Tink had no doubt.
Now all the tinker had to do was figure out what that plan was. And fast.
Springtime Square was fast approaching and she had no intention of history repeating itself. Not again. Not with a baby animal (admittedly more favorable than thistles, but still). Never again.
"Fawn!" Tink warned, but the animal-talent was already reacting, swooping in to cut off the squirrel's hasty retreat, arms wide and waving to get the mammal's attention.
"Whoa, buddy!" Fawn called, dropping down in front of the squirrel and bracing herself in case he didn't stop in time. "Take it easy there, Charlie! It's okay! Everything is all right! It was just your own shadow! Could you just slow down a little? I mean, isn't this all a little over-excessive?"
The squirrel-Charlie?-didn't stop at these words...he didn't even slow down.
"He's jumping at his own shadow?" Tink shouted as Fawn spun to the side and permitted the rodent to continue running.
"Yeah!" came the response. "I don't know what happened either! One minute everything was fine and we were working on learning how to collect nuts for the winter and next; he was running away as though something was chasing him! I've been trying to get him to stop for fifteen minutes now!"
Wow, you'd think he'd be running out of energy by now, Tink remarked silently. I know I would be.
But no, the squirrel wasn't stopping. He definitely wasn't slowing down. They were going to need another tactic if they wanted this to work. Both fairies were tiring. They wouldn't be able to keep up this pace for much longer.
"Hey, need a hand?"
Tink spun around at the arrival of a third voice, gruff and yet, unforgettable, and she leaped back to avoid colliding with the blur of gray and orange that hurtled past her and onto the shoulders of the squirrel.
"Yikes!" Fawn exclaimed, zipping out of the way as both squirrel and fairy barreled through the trees, tumbling paws over wings into a thick collection of bushes off to the side of the trees. "Well, I guess that's one way of stopping him," she added, slowing and rounding, coming back to hover beside Tink in observance of the struggle emerging and retreating from the shrubbery as the two continued to struggle.
"Okay, that's quite enough!" cried the fairy as the squirrel leaped from the bushes, looking prepared and ready to run again. The animal-talent broke through the leaves a second later, plucking twigs from her hair and wiping dirt from her cloak. "Don't," she added, pointing a warning finger at the mammal. "Just. Don't."
Charlie froze, twitching his nose but not daring to move again. He flicked an ear in Fawn's direction and gave the two fairies lingering nearby a questioning stare-a look of; are you serious? This madwoman just jumped on my back and rode me like a horse!
"Scarab!" Tink called, the first to recover from her shock. She glided down to hover beside the sufficiently bruised animal-talent. "That was incredible! Are you all right?"
"Nothing wounded more than a few bumps and bruises," the girl replied loftily as she removed one more leaf from her hair and turned to address the squirrel. "Well, now that that excitement is over, what do you say we go back to practicing? We're leaving for the mainland in the morning, and I want to make sure you are ready. We wouldn't want to be left behind until next summer, would we?"
Charlie shook his head quickly.
Scarab snorted. "No, I didn't think so. Fawn," she added, spinning to her guildmate, slightly catching the younger girl off guard. "I trust I can leave this little guy in your care now?"
Fawn nodded. "Yeah, thanks."
The former Protector nodded curtly. "Good. Well, if that is all, I think I'll be on my way now. It's...been quite a while since I have been to the mainland. I've...almost forgotten what it's like."
"Yeah, that makes sense," Tink remarked as the squirrel carefully wandered over to Fawn and the brunette rested a soothing hand on his head. "Considering you were in hiding for almost six-hundred years."
"Which also makes me wonder; did you ever get to meet Gruff?" Fawn interjected.
Scarab blinked. "Who?"
"The Neverbeast."
"The what now?"
"So, I take it that's a 'no'? No eerie green skies or comets or big lightning storms?"
Scarab snorted and folded her arms, shifting her weight from one leg to the other. "The only big lightning storms we ever got where the ones I accidentally created when I first found out I had powers," she replied. "Big surprise there. It was...as your allies would say...quite a shocking revelation."
The girls laughed.
"You've spent too much time around Iridessa," Tink remarked, smothering a giggle.
"Hmmm...you may be correct."
"Well, I agree with you on that," the tinker went on, still finding it so weird to be having a normal conversation with the very fairy who almost destroyed the Hollow (twice) and the one who stole Bobble's flight. "The human's world has changed so much since the last time you were there. It's beautiful."
Scarab stared. "Wait...you've been to the mainland?"
"Yeah!" Fawn interjected before Tink could answer. "She even befriended a human! Her name's Lizzie. You'll love her!"
"Wait...you're letting me come with you?" She sounded genuinely surprised and the two friends could only smile.
"Yeah, of course we are!" Fawn continued. "How else are we going to convince Shade to put his tinkering genius to work?"
"You're...letting Shade come too?" Her voice hitched. "But...what if we...hurt someone again? We've been...in control ever since...you know...but what if it is only temporary? What if whatever came over us before comes back?"
"It won't," Tink assured her. "You were corrupted because of your love for one another. You wanted Shade to be loved and he wanted the same for you. That won't happen again because you both belong now. Everyone is happy that you are here. You don't have to be afraid anymore." Besides, the bracelets are broken. You have no more talents...no more reason to be feared.
Scarab still seemed unsure, but she smiled weakly. "Thank you, Tinker Bell. You're a very wise talent, you know?"
"Ha!" Fawn joked. "You should have seen her when we first met!"
"No, she really shouldn't have," Tink interjected quickly. "Thank you, Scarab," she added, giving Fawn a look. "That means a lot. And I'm sure you'll be ready too. You've done this before. It's not any different. It'll all come back...like...like driving a mouse cart."
Scarab grinned. "Tinkers and their weird colloquialisms," she said with a shake of her head. "I never understand them, but I think I get the gist of this one. Thank you. Now, I must take my leave. There's still a lot to do before sunrise."
"Fly with you, Scarab!" Fawn called as the animal-talent zipped off and the two were left standing there with an incredibly apologetic squirrel. "All right, mister," she went on, turning to the furry creature with a frown and putting her hands on her hips. "You heard the lady. Let's get back to work."
"Oh, that's my cue to go too!" Tink added. "Fairy Mary will have my head if I don't get back and help clean up the workshop!"
Fawn grimaced. "Oops, yeah, we should probably get back to that, huh?"
The Queen stood silently in the largest room of the Pixiedust tree, her hands clenched tightly behind her back as she gazed out at the Hollow-once more at peace-once more the way it was supposed to be. But yet...one thing still bothered her. One thing that, no matter how much she tried to forget...did not seem to fit into the rest of the puzzle correctly.
The Bracelets of Destiny.
Every Protector was bonded to them at a level of subconscious; they were the very thing that gave them their powers in the first place.
And they had been destroyed. Shattered when Shade and Phineas overrode Scarab's corruption and brought her back to the side of Life.
There was no reason for her to be feeling the way she was.
She had seen them. She had helped the others bury the pieces somewhere no one would ever think to look for them-someplace where they could never again be used for selfish purposes. It should have been impossible for her to be feeling the discomfort that surrounded her...an unease that...everything may not have been the way it should have been.
That...somewhere out there...the source of the real darkness and evil of Death resided and it was drawing closer by the day.
Someone in the Hollow held one last secret...
One bracelet remained intact, unblemished from the final battle, and it was the most dangerous one of all.