— 9th June 2005, Seaborough Beach —
11 days after she was cut off from the rest of the Rainbow Fairies by the pot bombing, Amber had been residing in the scallop shell she found refuge in, finding it completely unbearable. For such an extroverted and hyper-active fairy, she couldn't stand having to stay in one place for one whole day, let alone a week and a half. Worse still was the fact that she was bleeding in several areas, especially in her waist. She couldn't bother to heal the wounds, believing to have lost her magic powers even though the real reason was that the glass shards were still inside the wound. Yet, she knew that any incursion outside would lead to her getting caught and attacked by the mortals, so she had to persist in this unsuitable state, only ever getting out to use some washed-up seaweed as makeshift bandages.
As of now, she was sleeping in the shell, finding it too discomforting and unpleasant. This was not what she was used to, and that thought was repeatedly spinning in her head over and over again. She missed the days when she worked with Sky to wake up an oversleeping Ruby, she missed the days when she drank rum with Izzy, she missed the days when she played with the frogs and hung out with some of the other fairies, she missed the happy-go-lucky life in Fairyland that she thought would last did I do to deserve this? What did WE ever do to deserve this hell?
However, what she thought would be an eternity would end up being just those 11 days when she heard the frog footmen hopping across the beach, recognizable by their ribbits. Her wings perked up, and she immediately went to open up the shell, trying to get the frogs' attention.
"Bertram! Jonathan! It's me, Amber!" She screamed as much as she could, still weakened from the glass cuts.
Almost immediately, the frogs were drawn to the scallop shell. Ignoring how Amber thought Bertram was amongst them, they rushed to the scallop shell that made the sound.
"Don't worry Amber, we're coming!" Stanley enthusiastically responded.
The four frogs gathered around the shell where Amber was desperately trying to pry open from the inside. Then, Stanley and Jonathan put their fingers under the small opening she weakly made to pull from the inside. However, Amber was too weak to continue holding the shell, and her arms gave way, clamping the shell down and crushing their fingers.
"AAARGH! It hurts!" Jonathan screamed.
"Just… keep… nrrghh, pushing!" Stanley responded, wincing as he desperately tried to resist the pain as he pulled up.
Seeing how hurt the frogs were, this motivated Amber to continue pushing, not liking the sounds of the frogs being distressed. And the combined strength of Amber, Jonathan and Stanley (mostly the latter) was enough to fully lift the pot and set Amber free.
Upon being freed, the Orange Fairy immediately collapsed over, hugging Stanley in the process and breathing heavily. "Thanks guys, I thought I was lost forever!"
"No problem, Amber," Stanley said, reciprocating the hug and pulling the weak fairy out into the sand. "It's our pleasure to help you."
Amber sat on the sand, exhausted and weak after 11 days of isolation and suffering. "By the way… where's Bertram?"
"He's with Ruby in the pot, waiting for all of us to return," Cedric answered, "We're here to rescue you and your sisters."
"Finally!" Amber said, slowly regaining her enthusiastic, hyper-active self. "You can't believe how bad it was for the last few days!"
"Please tell us," Francis said, showing concern at the glass shards impaled in her waist and the bloody seaweed wrapped around her arms and torso. "You don't look so great."
"Yeah," Amber said, a sad look on her face as she looked down. "It was pretty bad."
"I was chilling in the pot with the other six Rainbow fairies, but then something blew us out of the air and caused us to fly out. I don't know where the others went, but I ended up smashing into the glass window of some metal carriage."
"So she also knows about them?" Jonathan thought, remembering the truck he and his compatriots stowed on to get to Amber's location quicker.
"And then I eventually got out, but it left some pretty nasty cuts on me," Amber continued, gesturing to the cuts on her waist, glass shards still stuck in most of them. "And I flew all the way to the beach since there were so many mortals and I was scared they'd catch me!"
"Okay so why is there seaweed on your arms?" Cedric bluntly asked.
"Because I somehow lost my magical powers to heal my cuts, so I took some seaweed from outside to make bandages," Amber explained. "That was the only time I went out after I discovered that shell."
"How long was it?" Stanley asked Amber.
"Eleven days," Amber answered.
"You stayed inside that shell for eleven whole days?" Francis said, taken back by what Amber said. "That must've been horrible!"
"Yep," Amber gritted her teeth. "A whole week and some more forced to stay inside a cramped space, bleeding and weak. It was an awful experience."
"So why did you stay inside that scallop shell?" Stanley asked Amber again. "Couldn't you just get out and play in the water or something?"
"I saw a lot of mortals on the beach," Amber replied, clearly worried. "If they saw me, they'd DEFINITELY try to capture me. So as much as I'd like to go out, it was better to play safe and stay in that shell."
"That must've been a tough decision," Cedric added.
"Anyways, can we go back to the pot?" Amber asked. "I don't like the loneliness here."
"I agree with her, Johnny," Cedric said. "I never liked this job, and I don't like it even more now that it's filled with enemies wanting to kill us!"
"I suppose we should. Ruby and Bertram are waiting for us, we can't let them wait any longer!" Jonathan replied, looking at his watch.
"Yay!" Amber enthusiastically cheered.
Soon, the frogs hopped away from the beach, with Stanley holding Amber in a piggyback as they went towards the location of the pot. However, when they reached the place where the frogs rested last night, they stopped, as Jonathan wanted to talk to Amber about the mortal vehicles, Stanley letting Amber down.
"So… about those metal carriages, we had a similar experience with them," Jonathan began.
"How so?" Amber asked curiously.
"Well, when we hopped all the way from the pot to where you were trapped, it was incredibly long and tiring until we discovered the metal carriages you landed in."
"And what did you do with them?"
"We went on one of them until it was closer to your location, and we hopped off."
Amber looked surprised. "Ho-how did you do that without being caught?"
"We just hid in the back," Stanley simply said. "Luckily it was one of those carriages with a trailer to its back, so we rested in the trailer and let the cage unknowingly carry us to you. And when it stopped we hopped off without the driver knowing."
"Huh," was all Amber said. "How long did it take you to get here?"
"Four days," Cedric blunty answered. "Four days of non-stop walking. You could tell we needed that carriage."
"Well, since it took you this long for you four to get here, maybe you could trail on another of these carriages to take ourselves to the pot," Amber said, an idea forming in her head.
"Seriously? Did you know how stressful that was for me?!" Francis protested.
"C'mon, it took us four days to walk here and possibly longer if it weren't for that metal cage," Cedric rationalized. "We have to do this quickly!"
"I agree with Cedric and Amber," Jonathan said. "We should return to the pot as quickly as possible."
"Yeah, don't wanna keep 'em waiting!" Stanley was the third frog to agree with Amber's idea.
Francis didn't comment, only taking a deep breath and closing his eyes.
"I guess we're all set, then," Jonathan declared. "We're hiding on another metal carr-"
Actually, I've heard the mortals calling these things 'vehicles'," Amber interjected, getting tired of the weird terms the frogs were calling them. "We should probably adapt to their terminology if we need to blend in."
"Oh, right, vehicles," Jonathan corrected himself before clearing his throat. "We're hiding in another vehicle to get back to the pot!"
And the frogs continued hopping their way to a nearby parking lot, Amber once again piggybacking Stanley as they sought out a vehicle that they could stealthily stowaway in. And to their luck, they found another van heading for Northrain - a small village on the very north of Rainspell Island - and hid in its back as it drove away.
However, when the van reached the roundabout that would otherwise lead directly to Northrain, Amber and the frogs were met with a shocking sight. The road that led to the pot was closed off, barricaded by several cut trees and what appeared to be a post manned by a mortal in military clothing.
Francis gasped at the sight of this. "They knew! They really knew! They cut off the road to the pot so no one could get in!"
"Oh no, how are WE going to get to the pot?" Jonathan asked, worried.
"We'll just have to play the waiting game, it is…" Francis solemnly replied.
"No, screw that! I didn't hitch this ride just for our destination to close! Ruby's waiting for me, I can feel it!" Amber mustered up some assertiveness to protest against the situation.
"Yeah, we don't have to bend to their will!" Stanley joined Amber. "Let's jump off and go for it!"
"But how are we going to jump off?" Cedric asked. "They're moving at high speeds, we can't survive that!"
"I know," Amber replied. "Stanley, hold my hand!"
Stanley then held Amber's hand, and she used her strength to activate her wings and fly off.
"Oh right, you can fly," Cedric added. "Whatever, let's get going!"
With this, Amber took turns and carried every frog to the other side of the roundabout closer to the pot, and once all of them had made it they ran towards its direction. However, in their desperation and panic they didn't make an effort to hide from the military guard, and he spotted all four of the frogs and Amber, talking into his walkie-talkie about his sightings.
— Rainspell Island National Park —
Back at the pot-at-the-end-of-the-rainbow, still concealed under the willow tree, Bertram and Ruby were sitting in the stick-and-grass furniture they finished, waiting for their frog compatriots to come back with Amber.
"Bertram, when do you reckon your footmen will be returning?" Ruby curiously asked. "It feels rather lonely with just you here."
"I honestly don't know," Bertram replied. "It's been four days, and Jonathan and my crew still haven't returned! Were your associates really scattered that far across?"
"Or maybe the mortal world is really that big," Ruby added. "It's easy for any fairy to get lost there when its inhabitants are the size of giants to us."
"Fair point," Bertram affirmed. "That's going to make things infinitely more complicated. Good thing I gave Jonathan the magic compass…"
Suddenly, they were cut off from any more conversation by the sounds of frogs croaking and ribbeting as they heard Jonathan and his crew rapidly rushing to the pot. Jonathan was the first to reach the willow tree, much to Bertram and Ruby's delight.
"Jonathan, you're back!" Bertram exclaimed. "Did you find another fairy?"
"Yep, we sure did!" Jonathan eagerly replied. "It took us four grueling days, but it was all worth it!"
Ruby's eyes brightened at the response, and she flew to the two, ecstatic at the thought of her greatest wishes in the mortal world finally coming true. "Who was it?"
"Well, I think she's coming right now," Jonathan said, already sensing Cedric and Stanley getting closer.
And indeed, the two remaining frogs leaped under the tree with the others, with Cedric exhausted and collapsing on the ground and Stanley continuing to rush in, with Amber the Orange Fairy piggybacking on him.
"AMBER! You're back!" Ruby cheerfully exclaimed, an expression of pure joy and relief on her face as she saw the greatest hope she ever had fulfilled.
"RUBY!" Amber returned the enthusiasm, having longed to see her associates again after that painful bomb that separated them all.
Bertram and his frog footmen watched as Ruby and Amber flew towards each other and hugged tightly, releasing all their emotions into their hug - the pain, loneliness, desperation, fear, longing and hope - as their wish finally came true.
"I've missed you so much, big sis!" Amber said, letting her heart out.
"Same, I thought you died," Ruby continued, her tears beginning to flow again, "Eleven days of isolation and dread have broken me."
Amber noticed Ruby's tears and moved in to comfort her. "Don't worry, The others aren't dead. They wouldn't be. If I'm still here, then the others probably are as well."
"Yeah, pull yourself together!" Stanley encouraged Ruby further. "We saved her, and we're going to rescue the other five fairies as well! Nothing is over!"
"Rest assured, Ruby, they'll be safe," Jonathan told Ruby. "They're all going to be safe in the end."
"Thank you, thank you," Ruby said gratefully, but when she turned to look at Amber again, she was shocked at the seaweed bandages and glass shards impaled. "Oh! What happened to you?"
"It's a… long story," Amber replied. "When I landed, I got stuck in some glass that cut me pretty badly. I was able to get out, but it left some pretty bad cuts on me. I couldn't heal them with magic, so I used some seaweed nearby to bandage them."
"Oh, this is not good!" Ruby panicked, her maternal instincts kicking in at the sight of one of her associates so wounded. "We need to heal you, quick!"
"Come on, it wasn't so bad," Amber remarked.
"Really? You collapsed in our arms when we got you out of that shell," Francis reminded. "Remember: blood loss makes you weak."
"Exactly," Ruby said, worried about Amber's safety. "You spend countless days alone and in danger, I can't risk seeing you die after all my longing for you!"
"Alright," Amber affirmingly said.
However, before any more conversation could be had, Ruby, Amber and the frogs were interrupted by repeated loud chopping sounds from outside the Willow's tree's embrace, and the sound of people running and saying military commands. Amber and the frogs were confused at the sounds, but Ruby's eyes widened in horror as she knew exactly what they were and what they wanted.
"What's going on?" Amber asked.
"Oh no…" Ruby said in fear. "It's them. Hide!"
"Oh right: the mortal forces," Cedric realized. "Apparently Ruby got attacked by them when the mortals landed."
"Wait, wha-" before Amber could fully comprehend what was happening, Ruby hastily picked her up and flew towards the back of the pot in a combination of her maternal instincts and a trauma response. The frogs immediately hopped to the back with them.
"So who's the one who's going to see what's going out?" Cedric whispered.
"I don't know," Francis answered. "None of us is willing to strip here."
"I will," Bertram spoke up.
"You?" Jonathan asked.
"It seems no one's going to make the move to leave, so I'll do it then," Bertram declared. "As risky as it is, we need an accurate visual of the mortals who are hunting the Rainbow Fairies so we could prepare, and someone has to take the risk."
"Very brave," Stanley applauded.
Then, Bertram stripped himself of his tailcoat and leaped out of the willow tree's deep branches, hiding and climbing himself up another tree to get a good look at the invading forces.
What he saw left him perplexed. There was a giant, dark green metal object floating in the air by two large rotors on its top (a Puma HC2 helicopter), and on the ground were 6 mortals holding futuristic weapons and armor, scouting the place while talking to a black brick-like object.
"Sir, the pot's gone missing!" One of them said, holding the object to his mouth. "Any orders?"
"Then that means that the fairy inside must've escaped. Lure her out."
"Roger," the soldier said, and he aimed his weapon towards the ground and fired shots. Several lead projectiles hit, sending mud flying everywhere, the sound starling Bertram that he nearly fell off the tree.
"My goodness, the mortals really are hunting us!" Bertram thought in terror as he looked on edge at the mortal forces. "This isn't good at all…"
"Nothing's working! She isn't coming out!" Another soldier said in frustration. "We're just wasting ammunition on nothing!"
"Just keep looking!" The voice in the object beckoned. "You'll find her eventually."
"Okay," the mortal said with uncertainty.
The mortal then let go of the shooting weapon (L85A2) slung on his person and pulled out a smaller shooting weapon (Browning Hi-Power), aiming it wherever he could find. Bertram looked uneasily, desperately hoping they wouldn't find the pot. As much as he wanted to fight back, to distract them and drive them off, he was just a frog, and the mortals would instantly reduce him to shredded roadkill.
"Please don't find it, please don't find it, please don't find it…" He thought, finding the suspense nerve-wracking. And even more so when the mortal fired into the trees. Bertram could take a little comfort in the fact that the willow tree was indeed doing a good job hiding the black pot.
That was, until the mortal fired directly into the willow tree, and a metallic clang sound could be heard from within, causing him to notice it.
"Sir, we've found the pot!" The mortal reported to the object.
"Great! Now move in!"
Bertram's heart sank.
The mortal's shot had gone through the willow tree and into the inside of the pot, startling everyone who had taken refuge behind its overturned bottom.
"I don't like this at all," Amber whispered, now worried for her life. "Wh-why are they trying to kill us?"
"I don't know," Ruby replied in worry. "They think we're some sort of threat to us."
"That's crazy!" Amber shouted. "I'd never hurt a fly-"
But she was immediately shushed by Francis, who was now made tense by the bullet shot. "I think they're coming in. Hide!"
"O-okay," Amber said as she, Ruby and the frogs went into a nearby bush to conceal themselves further. Amber, Ruby, Stanley and Cedric completely enveloped themselves in the bush, while Stanley and Jonathan peeked their heads out to watch as the mortal soldier walked into the willow tree.
As he walked in, brushing the drooping branches aside, he holstered his pistol and held the rifle again in search of the fairies, only to look in confusion at the pot, which was empty apart from some chairs and a table made out of sticks and leaves.
"Sir, no sign of any supernatural creatures," he reported to his radio. "The pot is empty. And they've made some weird… grass furniture?"
"Dammit, where have they gone?" The soldier asked in frustration. "We can't find them anywhere!"
"Ah, forget it, they've probably hidden away," Campbell's equally frustrated response came from the radio. "Retreat back to the base. Next time we return, equip yourself with thermal scopes. We can still search for the other five."
"Roger that," the soldier said, and he left the willow tree. If it weren't for the tenseness of the situation, Jonathan would've breathed a sigh of relief.
Bertram continued to watch from the treetop as the mortal went out of the willow tree's enclosure and went back to the other five soldiers.
"The fairies are nowhere to be seen," he declared. "Mission aborted. The general says we have to go."
"Well that sucks," the other said.
"Finally," Bertram thought as the mortals went inside the cage before it activated its rotors and flew off. "That was a close call."
He then leaped down the tree and hopped back into the willow tree, where the frogs and fairies had already left the bush and rested in the pot.
"That scared me," Amber said. "Who exactly were those guys?"
"Those were the mortal forces who cornered and attacked me when we first landed in the mortal world," Ruby sorrowfully explained. "And judging by what they were saying, it seems they are still hunting us."
"That's terrible!" Amber said, worried about their fates. "Saffron and Fern and Sky and Izzy and Heather are still in great danger!"
"This is bad, very bad," Francis said, his constant worrying growing with all the information on the mortal forces hunting them down. "Do we know what they look like?"
"Yes," Bertram said solemnly. "When I went out to spy on the mortals, I recorded everything I saw with my magic spectacles. See for yourself."
Everyone then followed Bertram to the side of the pot as he laid down his glasses (after having redressed himself, obviously) and then squeezed them, causing what he saw to imprint himself on the pot like a film camera.
"Oh my goodness," Ruby said, finally seeing the mortal's advanced technology - their modern armor, the new weapons and their flying machines - things she would never have even conceptualised. "How could they ever make those things?"
"The long, long passage of time," Jonathan declared. "We never thought they would ever be able to create these kinds of objects until now."
"Makes me wonder how long we've left them for," Cedric said. "We should bring Claude down. He knows how to think about questions like these."
"Titania did say she was going to bring more frogs down," Bertram added. "He's probably going to be coming soon."
"Well this sucks. How can we fight these guys?" Stanley grumbled. "They've got indestructible metal!"
"By not fighting them and avoiding them by all means necessary?" Jonathan replied in an annoyed tone.
"Have you seen them? One of these buggers nearly discovered us!"
"Now, now, let's not resort to violence, boys," Bertram immediately broke up the argument before it could begin. "Teamwork is necessary here. We've been set up as a crew to rescue Fairyland's most important inhabitants before Jack Frost destroys our home."
"Yeah," Francis added, agreeing with his leader's statement, "what he did was right. It's a rescue mission, not an invasion."
"Wait, so does that mean we can go home now?" Amber butted in.
"No, unfortunately," Ruby sadly answered.
"Why?"
"Without our presence, Fairyland has become a dull, cold wasteland that is slowly wasting away. And when the frog footmen returned me, I started to fade away before they returned me to the mortal world," Ruby explained. "It seems Jack Frost's spell cannot be undone unless all seven of us are here."
"Awwww," Amber said, disappointed. "So what can we do?"
"We have to stay in the pot for our safety," Ruby continued. "It's clear that the mortals are going to hunt us down if they ever spot us. And with such unfathomably advanced technology, we have no chance against them."
"And you, frogs? Are you going to do anything?" Amber turned her attention to the frogs.
"We're staying in here until reinforcements arrive," Bertram replied. "After the encounter with the mortal soldiers, we need some frogs to guard the pot from any dangers."
"Good," Jonathan replied. "We need you to lead us for the next expeditions."
"I hope they come soon," Cedric grumbled under his breath.
As such, the frogs and the fairies spent the rest of the day in the pot, converting it into a nice little fairy home for the Rainbow Fairies to wait out their banishment. Ruby had healed Amber's wounds by taking out the glass shards, and reminded Amber that she didn't lose her magic powers, while seven beds (one for each fairy) and a carpet floor were created by Ruby and the frog's work. The frogs soon found their own place to sleep in a nearby swamp, and when the sun set everyone was sleeping safe and sound, minds full of wishes and plans to fulfil in the days to come.