Wings of Change

Chapter 8: Adding One More

Three months had passed since Phineas' incident at the border. It had long been put behind them and the girls scarcely brought the topic up, and on the odd chance that they did, it was usually by accident, and they never mentioned his breaking of the rules. But the urge did not leave him completely, and at night, he would sit on his front stoop and stare off at the distant peaks, mulling over what had happened and what the strange light had been.

And it was a clear night, just like that one, when something unusual happened.

Now, having been part of the Pixie Hollow Community (as Fawn liked to call it), he had heard of several new arrivals at the Pixie dust tree, but he'd always been so far behind on his work that he'd never gotten a chance to attend.

This time, it was different.

Even as the laugh filled the hollow, Phineas was already on his feet. As he looked around for a source of the laugh, he heard several of the other tinkers stick their heads out of their houses and murmur something he didn't quite catch. But there was one thing he knew for sure, they hadn't reacted like this to any of the other arrivals.

Maybe that means this one will be a tinker! He felt a swell of pride at the thought. Several of the other talents had been fortunate to receive new hands. According to Iridessa, there had been two new arrivals for Winter--a frost fairy named Spike, and a glacier-talent named Sled, along with a new animal sparrowman (much to Fawn's delight) called Hedge, and a storm talent named Zap. There had yet to be another tinker arrival, and Phin was more than excited at the possibility of being able to attend.

The streak of gold flashed overhead moments later, and Phineas took to the air, heart thumping excitedly as he saw several other members of the guild to the same. He flew quickly to the tree, forcing himself to travel slow enough that he would not seem out of place, even going so far as to let some of the others pass him.

He arrived at the tree before the new fairy, and landing, quickly picked his friends out of the crowd. Iridessa was already sitting on a ledge with her talent, and Fawn and Silvermist were saying their goodbyes. Even without meaning to, Phineas felt himself shifting toward them and away from his own talent.

"Whoa!" Rosetta caught him by the arm and swung him around to face her. "And where are you going, mister? Your talent is over there."

Phineas felt his heart sink. "I have to stand with 'em?"

"'Fraid so," Rosetta replied. "But it's only for a couple of minutes. You'll be fine." She gave him a smile and he sighed, knowing he was defeated.

Several snickers came his way as he shuffled back toward the other tinkers, most echoing from an overgrown fungus where a group of gossipy females had gotten together to whisper amongst themselves. Phin heard them mutter something about him 'preferring to stand with another talent' and how he was such a weirdo and 'why didn't he act like all the other tinkers?'.

He ignored them, sitting quietly on a root near the base of the ring, folding up his legs and wrapping his arms around his knees, waiting.

And then, out of nowhere, golden light flooded the tree. Several fairies gasped and drew back, whispering excitedly to one another. Phineas continued to sit quietly, noticing how the others had managed to inch away from him, leaving him alone once more. He brushed it off, not caring what they thought of him.

A dust-talent Phineas didn't recognize stepped forward to pour the Pixie dust. The golden light faded, revealing a sparrowman dressed from head to toe in white. He looked around, brown eyes shimmering in confusion, but that quickly faded as he gave the watching fairies a friendly smile. He had longish dark hair and was larger than Phin. The redhead glanced toward his friends and swore he saw a flash of an unreadable expression cross Silvermist's face.