Queen Clarion and Lord Milori were left alone on the bridge. The queen looked up at him, and her eyes grew sad. She turned to fly away.
Without a word, Lord Milori mounted his owl and rose high into the air. But before he headed deeper into winter, he steered his owl to swoop down and knock the snowmaker off the bridge. The machine tumbled into the riverbed below. He wanted to be certain that no fairy would ever try such a dangerous stunt again.
His owl flapped its wings, and they flew off into the cold. As Lord Milori disappeared over the horizon, he didn’t see the machine land next to a waterfall at the bottom of the riverbed. One by one, large chunks of ice began to feed into the grater. And little by little, the ice turned into frosty snowflakes that quietly blew across the border and into the Autumn Forest.
The Keeper was in the Hall of Winter, trying hard to keep his focus. He was supposed to be writing, but he was distracted. He put down his pen and glanced at an open door a short distance away. Periwinkle had been inside that room for most of the day. He went over and poked his head in to check on her.
She was sitting in the middle of the large snowflake, mesmerized by the images projected on the icy walls. Again and again, she watched the story of how she and Tinker Bell had been born.
Just then, Lord Milori walked past Dewey and up to the edge of the snowflake. Periwinkle turned to him, her eyes filled with tears. The Keeper ducked out of the room. He hoped that Lord Milori would be able to comfort the young frost fairy.
At the same time, on the warm side of Pixie Hollow, Tinker Bell was with Queen Clarion in her chambers. She had begged the queen to reconsider her rule. The queen smiled sadly at Tinker Bell. “Long ago,” she began, “when Pixie Hollow was very young, two fairies met and fell in love. One of them was a winter fairy.”
In the Hall of Winter, Lord Milori was telling Periwinkle the same tale. “And the other was from the warm seasons,” he said. “The two fairies were enchanted with each other, and every sunset they met at the border…”
“…where spring touches winter,” Queen Clarion continued. “But as their love grew stronger, they wished to be together.”
“And share each other’s worlds,” Lord Milori said. “So they disregarded the danger and crossed.”
“One of them broke a wing,” Queen Clarion finished quietly. “For which there is no cure.”
“From that day forward,” said Lord Milori, “Queen Clarion declared that fairies must never again cross the border. And I agreed that our two worlds should forever remain apart.”
Periwinkle wiped a tear from her cheek. “And the two fairies?” she said.
“What happened to them?” Tink asked Queen Clarion.
The queen’s gaze fell. “They had to say good-bye,” she whispered.
Tinker Bell’s shoulders slumped. It was no use. She would never see her sister again. Quietly, she walked over to a large window in the queen’s chambers. As she looked outside, she saw a tiny snowflake float down from the sky. She drew in a sharp breath.
Oh, no, she thought.
In a flash, Queen Clarion and Tinker Bell raced through the Autumn Forest. Other fairies followed, including Fawn, Rosetta, Iridessa, Silvermist, Vidia, and the seasons’ ministers. Snowflakes were falling more rapidly now, and fairies throughout the warm seasons were panicking.
“The temperature seems to be plummeting!” the Minister of Autumn cried.
“The hibiscuses are halfway to hibernation!” added the Minister of Summer.
“Now, now, ministers,” Queen Clarion said, trying to remain calm. “Let’s not panic.”
But as they reached the top of a steep hill near the border and looked into the distance, they gasped.
“Snow!” the Minister of Spring cried.
They couldn’t believe their eyes. Snow was billowing up into the sky from the edge of the border, and it was beginning to blanket the warm seasons of Pixie Hollow!
Just then, Tinker Bell heard Clank and Bobble. They were struggling down below in the riverbed by the border. She flew toward the sound of their voices and found them on a ledge near an icy waterfall. They were trying to move the snowmaker.
“Heave ho!” the tinkers cried.
“What happened?” Tink asked when she reached her friends. She pointed to the machine. “How did this get here?” The last time she’d seen the snowmaker, it had been on the bridge.
“I don’t know, Miss Bell.” Clank shrugged. “But it’s stuck real good.”
“Aye,” Bobble said. He pointed to the mound of snow piling high into the sky. “And it’s making that thing bigger by the minute!”
Tinker Bell called to Rosetta and the rest of her friends to help move the snowmaker. With all their might, the fairies pushed and shoved. Finally, the machine broke free. It tumbled deeper into the riverbed and splashed into the water.
“We did it!” the fairies cheered.
“It’s over.” Tinker Bell sighed.
“Uh…I don’t think it is,” Vidia said slowly. She pointed up at the sky.
Though the machine was gone, the snow was still coming down. A cold breeze ruffled the fairies’ clothes and sent chills to the tips of their wings.
“Why isn’t it stopping?” Clank asked.
Queen Clarion and the ministers all looked concerned. “It’s too late,” the queen said. “The seasons have been thrown out of balance.”
“But if the temperature continues to drop, it will freeze all of Pixie Hollow,” the Minister of Spring said.
All the fairies looked to Queen Clarion for guidance. But she remained silent. Just then, a sharp crack behind them grabbed their attention. The fairies watched as a large, frozen tree branch broke and fell to the ground.
The Minister of Autumn turned to the queen with a grave expression on his face. “Queen Clarion,” he said. “The Pixie Dust Tree…”
The queen’s eyes grew wide. Immediately, she flew high into the sky and gazed at the Pixie Dust Tree in the center of Pixie Hollow. Her face clouded with worry. “We must hope the tree survives,” she said. “Otherwise there will be no more pixie dust.” She paused. “Life in Pixie Hollow will change forever. And no fairy will ever fly again.”
The fairies all gasped, picturing life without the Pixie Dust Tree.
The queen motioned to the fairies. “Hurry,” she said. “We must do everything we can!”
Everyone in Pixie Hollow began to prepare for the coming freeze. The fairies needed to make sure that they and all the animals would be able to stay warm until the cold had passed. Iridessa took an armful of fireflies and placed them in a sunflower, which Rosetta closed up around them. Over by Havendish Stream, Fawn escorted a group of frogs into an empty log and patted it closed with moss.
Meanwhile, Fairy Mary was directing the tinker fairies to pile moss onto the Pixie Dust Tree. “That’s it,” she instructed them. “Lay the blankets along the branches, as many as you can. We must protect the tree.”
In her teapot home, Tinker Bell was helping several pillbugs keep cozy. “There you go,” she said, lowering a pillbug onto her bed. “You guys just stay here and keep warm. Everything’s going to be—”
Suddenly, a twinkle from the corner of the room caught Tinker Bell’s eye. She turned to see Periwinkle’s frosted blue flower resting on her table. Rosetta must have brought it to her house after they had taken Periwinkle back to the Winter Woods. Tink flew over to examine the flower. Part of the frost casing had broken away. She couldn’t believe what she saw. The flower’s petals stretched wide in full bloom.
“It’s still alive!” Tink breathed.
Slowly, an idea began to form in her mind. If the frost had helped keep the flower alive, then maybe…
Tink looked out the window, in the direction of the Winter Woods.
“Peri,” she whispered.
Periwinkle raced through the Winter Woods ahead of Dewey. The elderly fairy was doing his best to keep up with her, but the blustery wind was strong and made it difficult for him
to fly.
“Dewey, you gotta see this!” Periwinkle called.
“I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about!” Dewey assured her. But as they reached the place where Periwinkle was taking him, he stopped short. “Oh, dear,” he said.
Periwinkle joined her friends Gliss and Spike at the edge of the Pixie Dust Well. Normally, there would be a steady stream of pixie dust flowing from the root above it. But there was no flow of pixie dust now. There was nothing—not even a trickle.
“There must be something wrong with the Pixie Dust Tree,” Periwinkle said.
Dewey examined the hollow root and tapped his cane on it. One last speck of dust fell into his palm. He furrowed his brow. “Yeah, you might want to worry just a little bit,” he said.
At that moment, Periwinkle’s wings began sparkling.
“Tink?” she asked in shock. Periwinkle flew up and looked out over the white landscape. On the horizon, racing straight toward them, was Tinker Bell! She was carrying her winter coat so that her wings were exposed and she could fly. But they were quickly icing over.
“Periwinkle!” Tink shouted. She fought against the freezing gusts that whipped past her. There was no time to lose. Tink had to reach her sister. All of Pixie Hollow was counting on her! But the cold was just too strong. Before she could get there, Tinker Bell fell to the ground in a heap.
“Tinker Bell!” Periwinkle cried. She, Dewey, and her friends rushed to where Tink had fallen.
Meanwhile, Tink lifted her head from the snow. Something was wrong. She looked back at her wings and gasped. They had turned ice blue! Quickly, she hid them under her coat so Periwinkle wouldn’t see how cold they had become.
Periwinkle and her friends helped Tink sit up. “Are you okay?” Periwinkle asked, her face filled with concern. “Why would you fly here?”
“I had to,” Tink panted. “Pixie Hollow’s in trouble. There’s a freeze, and the Pixie Dust Tree is in danger.”
Dewey looked at the winter fairies. “That explains it,” he said.
A terrible feeling formed in Periwinkle’s stomach. “Our dust here…it already stopped flowing,” she said.
Tink handed them the blue periwinkle flower she’d brought with her. “I think there’s something you can do,” she explained. “Your frost…it kept the flower alive.”
Gliss stepped forward. “Frost does that. It’s like a little blanket. It tucks the warm air inside and keeps out the cold.”
Periwinkle’s eyes grew wide. “We could frost the Pixie Dust Tree before the freeze hits it!”
Tinker Bell smiled. She had known that her sister would understand.
But Spike seemed doubtful. “What about our wings?”
Dewey shook his head. “If it’s a freeze, it will be cold enough to cross.”
The fairies all looked at one another.
“Then what are we waiting for?” Spike asked.
Minutes later, the fairies were flying back across the border. Fiona carried Tinker Bell, while the winter fairies zoomed overhead. As they passed through to the Autumn Forest, they all stared in shock.
“The freeze is moving so fast,” Tinker Bell said, gazing at the frozen landscape. “We have to get to the tree.”
Back in the center of Pixie Hollow, Queen Clarion, Clank, Bobble, Fairy Mary, and all the fairies were hard at work trying to protect the tree. They passed thick, mossy blankets to one another and carefully laid them along the branches. But for every blanket they put in place, the cold wind whipped another one off.
“It’s not working,” Clank called out anxiously to Fairy Mary.
“The wind is too strong!” Bobble added.
The queen’s face was etched with worry. Suddenly, they heard a growl behind them. Everyone turned and watched in disbelief as Tink, Peri, Gliss, and Spike rode up to them on Fiona’s back.
“Tinker Bell?” Queen Clarion cried in surprise when she saw her with the three frost fairies.
“Queen Clarion, they can help,” Tink explained. “Their frost is like a blanket. It can protect the tree.”
Queen Clarion studied Tinker Bell’s face for a moment. Then she turned to Periwinkle, Gliss, and Spike. “Do it,” she instructed them.
The warm-weather fairies all watched hopefully as Peri and her friends flitted from branch to branch and began frosting the tree as quickly as they could. But the freeze was advancing fast.
“We should hand out the rest of the blankets and use them to protect our wings,” Tinker Bell called to Clank and Bobble.
They began distributing blankets to all the warm-weather fairies. One by one, everyone began hurrying inside the Pixie Dust Tree. It would be warm and safe in there until the freeze passed.
Meanwhile, up above, Periwinkle, Gliss, and Spike were growing tired.
“The tree is too big,” Spike panted. She eyed the freeze line. It was getting closer by the minute. “We’re never going to make it.”
Just then, far off in the distance, an owl screeched. Everyone turned toward the sound. Lord Milori was flying in on his majestic snowy owl! Beside him, Dewey was perched on the back of the young owl that had first carried Tinker Bell into the Winter Woods.
And together, they were leading an entire squadron of winter fairies toward the Pixie Dust Tree! There were hundreds of them.
“Lord Milori!” Periwinkle cried in astonishment.
“We’ve come to help,” the lord said in his deep voice when they landed.
Periwinkle quickly explained how they were frosting the tree to protect it, but that the tree was too large for them to cover on their own.
“Understood,” Lord Milori replied. He faced the army of winter fairies. “Start at the freeze line and spread out to the other seasons,” he commanded. “The rest of you, cover the tree!”
Instantly, the winter fairies sprang into action. Sled led a group to frost the meadows and fields while Lord Milori directed the fairies blanketing the Pixie Dust Tree from atop his owl. Soon, all of Pixie Hollow was a glittering landscape of frost. When the last branch was covered, Lord Milori swooped down to the ground.
“We’ve done all we can,” he said to the frost fairies around the Pixie Dust Tree. He looked at Tink and her friends. “You must take cover.”
The warm-weather fairies hurried inside the tree, out of the cold. But Queen Clarion remained outside a minute longer. She looked at Lord Milori and shivered. “Will everything be all right?” she asked.
Lord Milori gazed at the queen for a long time. “I don’t know,” he answered finally. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Queen Clarion shivered again. Lord Milori took off his cloak and gently placed it around her shoulders. “Please take cover,” he said to her.
Before she left, the queen stole one more glance at the Lord of Winter. When her old friend turned, she could see his broken right wing. The legend that she had told Tinker Bell was in fact the story of her love for Lord Milori. Without another word, she joined the others in the depths of the Pixie Dust Tree to wait for the freeze to arrive.
Lord Milori and the winter fairies stood watch as the freeze took hold of Pixie Hollow. Arctic winds swept across the glades, and icy cold enveloped the fairy world. Deep inside the Pixie Dust Tree, Tinker Bell and her friends huddled together for warmth. They couldn’t see the frozen world outside, but they could hear the howling winds and feel the giant tree creaking and swaying around them.
Darkness spread throughout Never Land.
After a long, long while, Tinker Bell finally saw a beam of light shining in through a knothole in the tree. She peered out of her hiding place and gasped. Everything was covered in snow and ice! But the sun was shining brightly.
Cautiously, all the fairies began to emerge from the tree. Periwinkle flew over to join Tinker Bell, and one by one, the fairies moved toward the Pixie Dust Well. They gazed in silence at the frozen stream of pixie dust that had stopped in midflow over the pool. Everyone held their breath. Had their plan worked? Was the tree saved?
Very slowly, the sun began to melt the ice. The pixie dust began to flow!
Everyone burst into loud cheers. Some fairies wiped tears of joy from their eyes.
“What a beautiful sight,” Bobble said, sniffling and wiping his goggles.
Periwinkle turned to her sister, and a wide grin broke over her face. “It worked, Tinker Bell!” she cried.
Fairies flew high into the air, celebrating. Periwinkle spun happily in a circle. They were safe. Their frost had saved Pixie Hollow!
Then Periwinkle looked down. Tinker Bell was still standing on the branch below. “Tink?” Periwinkle asked. She flew down and landed beside her sister on the tree limb. “What’s wrong?”
Tinker Bell smiled sadly at Periwinkle. Then she turned around so her sister could see her wings.
One of them was broken.
“Tinker Bell!” all her friends gasped.
“Oh, no,” whispered Iridessa.
Periwinkle gazed at her sister. “When you fell in winter,” she said, remembering how Tinker Bell had flown to get the winter fairies. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“We had to save the tree.” Tinker Bell shrugged. “Besides, there’s no cure for a broken wing.”
Periwinkle hugged Tinker Bell tight. “I’m so sorry.”
Lord Milori stepped forward. “This happened because we tried to keep you apart,” he said quietly.
“But never again,” Queen Clarion declared next to him. “You belong together.”
Dewey was standing nearby. Tears began to form in his eyes as he watched the sisters.
Tinker Bell looked up. “It’s getting warmer,” she said, feeling the growing strength of the sun. “You should get back to winter.”
But Periwinkle couldn’t let go.
“Hey, I’ll be okay,” Tinker Bell said with a small smile. “I’ll meet you tomorrow at the border. Sisters?”
Tinker Bell: Secret of the Wings Junior Novel Page 5
