The next day
Another bright and sunny day had dawned for the Mainland. A gentle breeze was blowing through the air and all around the Mainland; fairies were at work bringing the summer season to the Mainland. Some animal fairies were painting butterflies in the home tree; other garden fairies were helping the flowers in the fields and garden bloom. A few light fairies were around the garden of the cottage, bringing light to the flowers and plants to make them grow.
In Lizzy's room, Lizzy was showing Tinkerbell something of her fathers she had borrowed from his study.
"We're here, Tinkerbell," she explained.
What Lizzy was showing Tinkerbell was a globe of the Earth. She was pointing to a small island at the top of the sea called the 'Atlantic', a name which Tinkerbell had never heard of before. The island was called Great Britain, which Lizzy explained was made up of four countries which were England – where they were now – Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Tinkerbell was amazed at this. Never before had she, or probably even any other fairy, knew that there were other main lands, or countries as Lizzy called them, across the Earth. They had always thought that Great Britain was one big country that covered much of the world. It was amazing to know that where they were was only a tiny spot of the landmass on the Earth.
"Wow!" Tinkerbell said, resting a hand on bottom of the south Atlantic area of the globe. Gently she spun it with her hand and the world turned slightly, coming to a halt with South America facing Tinkerbell. "I never knew there were other places in the world," she muttered to herself.
"It's amazing, isn't it?" Lizzy said to Tinkerbell, as if she knew what she was saying, who replied with a nod and looked back at the globe, gazing at the countries that made up the continent of South America, which were recognizable as they were mapped out with colours and had their names written on them. One big country in South America called Brazil was green and covered a lot of the landmass.
Tinkerbell hovered gently up the globe and came to a halt above another large landmass. There was one big country that caught her eye. It was a dark orange colour and seemed to dominate much of the northern landmass
"What's this one called?" Tinkerbell asked, pointing at the country.
"That one's called America, or the United States as my father keeps correcting me," Lizzy said. "It's a really big country, isn't it?"
Tinkerbell nodded. Wow! She was learning a lot about the Earth already. This made her look up at Great Britain and a new question popped into her head.
"Uh, Lizzy?" she asked, hovering up to Great Britain. She pointed at Great Britain and waved her hands around in front of her face, then pointed at her and Lizzy and then at Great Britain on the globe. At first, Lizzy was confused at what Tinkerbell was trying to say, but after a few tries she managed to work out Tinkerbell was saying "Where are we in Great Britain?"
"Oh, hang on a moment, Tinkerbell," she replied, and she walked over to her bookcase and began rifling through her books.
As she did, Tinkerbell looked at the globe again. She lightly turned it with her hand and the globe spun round slightly. She pushed it again, this time with both hands and it spun round a bit more. She chuckled a little; enjoying her little game. She pushed it again and again, this time continuously. The globe spun around quicker and quicker, faster and faster. Then, Tinkerbell slammed her finger down onto the globe and it came to a halt, her finger pointing down on Great Britain.
"Ah, here we are!" Lizzy said from her bookcase and she came back over holding a book that was titled: Map of Great Britain and Ireland. She set the book down the table and turned some of the pages until she finally came to a map of England. "Here we go, Tinkerbell," Lizzy said and her fairy friend hovered over and set down next to the book. It was dotted with small grey patches and greenery, which she recognized as forests, and tiny rivers and mountains, each grey patch, forest and river had a name below, above or next to it. "We're here," Lizzy said, pointing onto a small green area not far to the north of a large grey patch on the page called London. "Very close to London," she added.
Tinkerbell looked at where Lizzy was pointing and then at London. She remembered that city name well. Last year, that was where Lizzy's father had taken Vidia and had almost gotten to the science laboratory or whatever it was he called it. Tinkerbell and her friends had sprayed pixie dust over Lizzy, enabling her to fly, and she had flown them to London after her father and Tinkerbell had managed to stop the car Martin was travelling in. She had changed from trying to be devoted to his work from then on and spent more time with his daughter from then on.
It was then Tinkerbell noticed something on Lizzy. On her other hand was a small gold bracelet made up of tiny little wands and small stars, each one glimmering in the light from outside.
Lizzy heard Tinkerbell jingle and she looked down at her hand to see her lift up the bracelet with her tiny hand, a smile on her face.
"Lovely, isn't it," Lizzy said and Tinkerbell nodded. "My mother gave it to me last year when it was my ninth birthday. I loved it. It's probably the best gift I have in my fascination with fairies,"
"Wow," Tinkerbell said, admiring the bracelet with her blue eyes. It was really beautiful. She had never seen anything like this before.
A sudden loud bang/backfiring sound from outside startled the two. "Father's back," Lizzy said and she walked over to the window, Tinkerbell flying alongside her.
They rested on the windowsill and looked down the dirt road that ran past the house to see a car pull up outside the front garden gate. Her father was sitting in the seat, a newspaper on the seat next to him. He climbed out of the car and picked up the newspaper.
"Morning, father," Lizzy shouted down to him, waving to him.
"Ah, morning, Lizzy," he replied, waving back up at her. "Morning, Tinkerbell," he added and she waved back down at him.
He walked up to the house, saying hello to a group of light fairies bringing light to a pot of flowers near the gate, and entered the house.
"Time for a cup of tea," he said to himself, switching on the kettle.
When the kettle was boiled, he poured himself a cup of tea and added a bit of milk and three sugars and walked up to his study. He heard Lizzy talking to Tinkerbell and he chuckled quietly to himself and opened his study door and stepped inside. He sat down at his desk, quickly staring up at the now bare wall behind him. Most of the display cases he had he got rid of on Lizzy's request when she told him that the fairies did not like seeing them as it made them nervous. Those that he had, he kept out of sight of the fairies, mostly in his drawers in his study.
"Right, let's have a look and see what's going on in the world," he said as he opened the paper and taking a sip of his tea.
For a few minutes, he flicked through the paper, looking at the headlines that were presented. There was not really much going about at the moment. Just mainly sport, a car accident in London and about a new village fete taking place somewhere up north.
It was then, as he flicked back onto page four, he noticed a headline at the top of the page. It was titled 'Green Lights'.
"Green lights?" Martin muttered to himself as he read the headline but before he could read what it was about…
A knock at the door made him jump and he spilled a bit of tea onto the desk. He wiped it up with a tissue from a box on the desk and looked over at the door.
"Come in," he said.
The door opened and Lizzy stepped in. "Hello, father," she said. "One of the field mice that works with Tinkerbell's friends has arrived with them and they're asking if you could give him a few sugar cubes,"
"Oh, yes, Lizzy," he said, getting up. "I'll get them," and he walked out of the study after his daughter to the kitchen, leaving the mysterious article behind.