The gang was waiting for him the moment he stepped from the healing-talent's station, all lingering patiently off to the side of the waiting lobby, some hovering nervously a few inches off of the ground and others lingering against the trunks of trees (Vidia) and playing with the flowers and birds (Rosetta and Fawn). All in all, they didn't appear to mind waiting a little extra before heading off the mainland and for some reason, that made him feel good. He was glad they didn't rush off and leave him behind, but he hadn't actually expected them to wait this long for him to come with them.
"Now, be sure to take the poppy each night before you go to bed," Clara was reminding him as he hopped down the steps (the steps that you would normally fly over, he thought bleakly before forcefully shoving the dark thought away) and came to rejoin the others who all looked up expectantly. He didn't understand why they always looked so relieved to see him. Did they think he was going to keel over and die every time he took a step or something? "They'll help settle the pain and help you rest better. And if you get any more nightmares, you talk to one of the healers over there immediately, you understand? My guildmates have already been informed of your..." she paused, searching for the right words. "Condition, and they will be there if you need them."
She wasn't leaving him any room for argument and so he nodded dutifully. "Aye," he assured her. "I understand."
Clara hummed something that sounded very close to disbelief and instead of simply taking him at his word and leaving him be, she drew her gaze from her patient to the group waiting across the way. Thankfully, the rest of the lobby was clear, the majority of fairies already gathering in Springtime Square to start for the mainland. "Which one of you is the closest to Phineas?" she asked.
"Me," Tink and Clank said together.
"Now let's not answer all at once now," Vidia remarked sarcastically, drifting to the ground and folding her arms impatiently.
"Hmmm," Clara hummed again. "Very well." She folded her hands behind her back. "Then I am making it the responsibility of you two to make sure he takes his medications when he's supposed to. No more skipping out when no one is looking." She gave Bobble a hard stare and he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.
"I'm sure we can handle that," Tink promised, also giving him the look.
She was so much more intimidating than Clara and there was no way he was going to argue with a glare like that. But he was fine! Really, he could take the pain. Why were they afraid he couldn't? Did they really think he was that weak? Involuntarily, his hands balled into fists, and he purposefully looked away from her and off to something vague in the distance-apparently the trees were incredibly interesting this time of day.
"Yeah, no problem at all!" Clank agreed cheerfully, seeming to miss his best friend's reaction entirely.
"We'll keep him on the up and up," Sil added, coming up beside Clank and grinning up at the healing-talent.
"Well, all right then," Clara sighed, perhaps realizing that it would be futile to keep repeating herself. "I suppose you'd better be getting on your way now. It's almost sunset and I'm sure the queen won't want to be kept waiting."
"You're right," Rosetta agreed, much more astute than the rest of their friends, hastily stepping between Bobble and Tink and taking Tink's arm, gently tugging her away from her staring contest while simultaneously giving Bobble the 'you're welcome and you owe me one now' glance. "We'd better hurry or we'll be late again."
"Everyone have your things?" Iridessa added.
"Roger that!" Sil said, spinning a full circle and letting them see her backpack of things. After their first trip, the gang had learned how to pack...lighter. Each of them had a backpack of things they had selected to bring (to save the environment and the poor doves who had to carry it). The rest was already at the camp (some of the talents had already begun preparations and had set up the accommodations for the rest of them the week before).
"Ready to rock and roll!" Rosetta agreed.
Everyone turned to look at her.
"What?" she protested. "It's something Chloe says. It's a garden joke. Ya know...rock?"
"Oi," Iridessa groaned, facepalming and walking away.
"I think we're all ready," Tink affirmed, finally allowing her gaze to soften as she glanced around at the rest of her friends.
"Oh, I can't wait to see Lizzie again!" Fawn laughed. "I can teach her how to talk to the rabbits this year!"
"Yeah, good luck with that," said Rosetta and Silvermist laughed.
"Well, come on, then, everybody!" Vidia called. She was already halfway to the Spring tree-line, impatiently zipping back and forth while she waited. "Let's get a move on! Some of us don't have all day, you know!"
"All right, all right, we're comin'," Rosetta sighed. "You don't have to get so in a tizzy about it..."
Sil flew down beside Bobble to punch him gently in the shoulder. She touched down beside him with a friendly laugh. "Race you to the square?" she offered.
He blinked up at her in surprise. "But...ye can fly," he protested. "Ye don't have to walk with me..."
"Well, no," Sil agreed. "But it'll be a lot of fun. Cooommee onnnn," she zipped around him hopefully. "Just a tiny race? Pleeeassseee? I'll let you play with the tadpoles if you win."
Bobble arched an eyebrow. "Ye know I could do that whenever I wanted, right?"
"Riiight," Sil remarked sarcastically (a truly rare feat for her). "You and all of your water-talent. I forgot about that. Say, didn't that all disappear a few months back somehow? All mysterious and mystical?"
He frowned at her. "Yer layin' that on pretty thick, aren't ye?"
"Maaayyybbbeee?"
Bobble sighed and shook his head. There was no curbing the water-talent's energy and he knew far too well not to even try. And...perhaps it would be nice to have someone to walk with after all. "All right, fine," he agreed. "One race, Miss Sil. I do miss seein' the tadpoles."
Sil giggled and landed a second time, dropping into a running stance. "Yay! All right! On your mark! Get set! GO!"
And then she was off like a shot, physically sprinting through the grass and off toward the others who had come to linger near the edge of the clearing upon noticing that two of their group were not present and accounted for.
Well, I've lost already, Bobble thought, but nevertheless, he took off after her. He'd...honestly never taken much thought into the concept of racing on foot. There had never been a need to. He was a fairy. There would typically be no need for him to travel on foot in the first place, but of course, this was not a normal scenario, and he was very far from being typical, no matter how hard he had tried to be just like everyone else.
Getting your secret powers that you had tried to keep hidden from the world ruthlessly stripped away from you while simultaneously having your wings burned to ruins tended to do that to a fairy.
"Come on, you two! We're going to be late!" Fawn called from somewhere above them as the two hopped and ran alongside the Babbling Brook. Sil still had quite a distance over him, but she was slowly tiring, and he was beginning to make up ground in turn. Neither was very accustomed to running-and definitely not for long distances, but both were determined not to lose.
Silvermist laughed, skipping on ahead and rounding the final bend before to the trees, spinning to face him only when she was completely sure that she had won and grinning as he caught up a moment later, wheezing (only a little, he protested silently).
"Good try!" Sil commented. "But I won." And with that, she laughed and spun on her heels, hurrying after the others.
Breathless, Bobble just shook his head and silently followed.
Springtime Square was abuzz with life by the time they arrived. Fairies of all talents were gathering amongst their collogues and friends, some helping load the last of the supplies onto the doves and others trying to gather the last minute stragglers to meet with the rest of their talent-guild.
"Well, we'll see ya guys there," Rosetta remarked, waving as she broke off to join Chloe and the other garden fairies.
"Yeah, see you in a little bit," Iridessa added as she and Fawn started off as well.
Bobble, Clank, and Tink waved farewell while all sharing a smile. As the only three of their guild to have ever traveled to the mainland, they knew already where to be when the time came. The only thing they had to watch out for was...
"Hey, guys!"
...the only tinker of the group to never have been invited.
All three turned in time to see a young dove swoop down from the heavens and land gracefully in the grass before them, allowing her two passengers to slide from her back and drop effortlessly to the dirt before the three friends. Scarab laughed, pulling her multi-colored bangs from her eyes and running a hand through her windswept hair.
"Whoo!" she exclaimed. "Man, sometimes I forget how much fun it is to be an animal-talent!"
The sparrowman beside her rolled his eyes and brushed a lock of dark hair from his face. "Oh, please, like you don't remind us of it every fifteen minutes."
"Hey!" she protested, smacking him roughly in the shoulder and receiving a weak chuckle in response. "It's at least twenty, thank you very much."
"Hi, Scarab. Howdy, Shade," Clank said, the first of the trio to reign in their surprise at the former Protectors' arrival. "What's all o' this?" He gestured to the dove as Scarab began to unload the bags thrown haphazardly over the bird's shoulders.
"Just...some stuff we thought we might need," Shade replied. "Mainly different types of grains and seeds that Scar wanted to test out for the animals on the mainland."
The animal-talent glanced down from the dove's back. "I thought we agreed not to call me that," she laughed, tossing him a bag and fluttering back down to the grass. "Oh!" she added suddenly, pointing up to the young bird who was rubbing her beak warily with a wing. "This is Angel. This is her...second trip to the mainland. Not nearly as rough this time or so I've heard from some very reliable sources. I thought she might be helpful for...ah...certain fairies."
Bobble noticed how she neglected to look his way when she said that.
"We've also heard that the lord of winter flies around on an owl," Shade added, slinging the messenger bag over his arm. "Is it true?"
"We...haven't had a chance to go to the Winter Woods yet," Scarab confessed. "Much too busy around here. Gotta...make sure everything is up to standard, you know?"
In other words, they were still afraid that everyone would know what they did and would be angry at them for it.
"Yeah, it's true," Tink said. "Lord Milori has a snowy owl now. Ever since-"
"Yeah," Scarab interrupted with a wince. "Clarion told us. We really missed a lot, didn't we?"
"We knew they were in love," Shade added, handing his fiancé her bag. "But this was before the border between seasons was closed. We tried to warn them that it was really dangerous, but we all know how love likes to disregard common sense by now."
"We didn't try to stop them," Scarab explained, stroking Angel's feathers back into place. "It wasn't our place."
"We wanted to protect them, of course," Shade went on. "But they were so determined to risk their own safety that no matter what we said, they wouldn't listen."
"We decided the best thing we could do for them was try to help them," Scarab finished.
"Which is when we found out that I had control over winter talents. I suppose you know the trick about the frost by now?"
"We do," Tink said, with a knowing smile.
"Of course, she knows," Scarab groaned. "Her sister is a frost-talent for the Hollow's sake! Yeah, Clarion told us about that too. My goodness so much has changed in the last four hundred years."
"Six hundred," Shade corrected. "It was six hundred years."
"Yes, well, that too."
"I feel so old."
"You always feel old."
"Well, there's probably a reason for that."
"Oh, you two are definitely in love," Tink remarked, shaking her head. "The only other fairies who can bicker like this are Lord Milori and Queen Clarion."
Scarab smirked. "You sure about that, young tinker? I can think of two more fairies who very much care about each other who tend to argue just as much."
Tink blushed, realizing what she meant.
Clank blinked, confused, and Bobble had the sudden desire to go back and jump in the Babbling Brook.
"What!" Tink protested. "No!"
"Mmhmmm," Scarab hummed, not seeming to believe her at all and now Bobble was blushing too. "If you say so." She then turned to watch as the numerous fairies and birds across the field began to lift off. "Oh, I think it's time to go."
"Yeah, that's the signal," Tink agreed, sounding relieved to have the topic changed, nodding to the Minster of Spring. She then backed away and Clank followed her.
"I have to run," Scarab informed Shade. "I have to catch up with the rest of my guild. I'll see you when we get to the mainland, yeah?"
"I'll...be there," Shade gulped as though just realizing that she wasn't going to be flying over with him.
"Oh, you'll be fine," she laughed, noticing his concern. "They'll get you there in one piece." She gestured to the tinker trio.
"Yeah, don't worry about it!" Clank agreed and Shade smiled weakly.
"Take care of him, would you?" Scarab asked quietly as she passed. "He's terrified of being alone. Ironic for an introvert, right?"
"Of course," Tink promised. "We'll get him there safely."
"Miss Bell, it's time to go," Clank warned, glancing nervously to the number of wings overhead.
"All right," she replied.
Bobble, meanwhile, was cautiously making his way over to the antsy dove, ducking between Shade and Scarab and approaching with caution. At one time, he would have been able to communicate with her, he would known exactly how she was feeling and he would have been able to gain her trust effortlessly. Now he had none of that and he felt like a stranger.
Scarab, noticing his reluctance, quickly pulled back to smile reassuringly at him. "Angel," she said, glancing up at the dove. "This is Phineas. He needs your help to go to the mainland. Do you think you could give him a hand...or a wing?"
Angel cooed, ducking her head and settling into the grass to permit him to climb on.
"Uh, hello," Bobble tried, tentatively swinging himself onto her back and readjusting his bag. "Thanks fer the assistance."
Angel tossed her head in a friendly manner, heaving herself back up and sending the sparrowman teetering forward. Okay, yeah, he had no idea how Lord Milori ever got used to this.
"Look at you getting to travel all fancy," Iridessa teased, flying up as Scarab said her final farewells and darted off to join up with Fawn and Buck. "So, how come you get to travel with the birds while the rest of us have to fight our way through the night?"
Bobble only grinned, recognizing the joke and tugging pointedly at his jacket-something he now attributed in correlation to the withered appendages underneath.
"Ugh," Dessa sighed. "Yeah, it figures. You guys all ready to go?"
"We're ready!" Tink confirmed.
"Yeah..." Shade agreed shyly.
"Oh, perk up!" the light-talent exclaimed, coming over and putting an arm around him. "It's going to be fun!"
"If you're sure..."
But there was no time for him to continue with his frets, for the last of the fairies were now leaving the square. It was time to go.
"You ready?" Tink called up and Bobble gave her a thumbs up, taking a deep breath and securing his bag one last time; the contents clinking loudly against each other as he did so.
"All right, then!" the tinker went on, leaping into the air and signaling for Shade to follow her. "Let's go!"