Culmination | A Tinkerbell Fanfiction

Chapter 9: Havensguard

The strangled gasp exploded from her mouth before she could stop it and her hands flew upward to try and reign back the horror she felt bubbling to the surface. "We need to get you to a healing-talent right away!" she exclaimed, already taking his hand and yanking him toward the door, continuing with her untameable rampage as she did. "How long have you been hiding this from us? Don't you know what could happen? Bobble, your wings are breaking! Why are you being so reckless?"

That's my job! she wanted to add, but something prevented the words from coming. Perhaps it was the nagging horror that now settled against her chest as she realized that she hadn't even noticed anything was wrong before.

She hadn't noticed.

No one had.

And it hadn't been hard to see either. The only times he had ever really hidden it was when he was in winter helping the frost talents out with one or two of Peri's crazy attempts to be a tinker for a day (though he did it mostly to see Gliss. Not that Tink was jealous of that or anything. Why would she be?).

He had told them once before that he wasn't greatly popular and that fairies never gave him a second glance when hurrying past. Now she understood what he had meant by that.

By the great second star, it was a terrible feeling.

At her firm decision, Bobble yelped and dug in his heels, seizing his blanket and once more throwing it over his shoulders. Tink, unbalanced by this unexpected resistance, nearly toppled forward, spinning back to confront him in confusion. He, in reply, shook his head wildly, staring at her with the most panic-stricken expression she could ever recall him having. "We can't do that, Miss Bell!" he insisted. "They'd just be askin' me how I went and scorched myself and that would do us no good at all. And ye know I can't lie to save a life! We'd just be causin' a bigger problem for everyone by goin'!"

Tink sighed, her shoulders relaxing as she let her temper go from hyperactive-terror to what she was hoping was just a bit more empathetic. "You're afraid they're going to figure it out," she guessed. "Just like I did. Only...you're afraid that they won't be as understanding as the rest of us, right?"

Nyx, especially. She'd probably impale him just for sending her on a wild goose chase for almost a year.

"It's just...ye know," he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "ye never did tell me how ye did it."

"Well, it's just like you said, right? You're a terrible liar. Anybody who knows you knows that and...hold on, were you trying to change the subject?" She scowled at him and he promptly withered again. "While you're at it, you can go ahead and tell Scorpian to just zip up whatever argument he's trying to concoct up there. He's not going to stop me from getting you help. Now stop being such a thistle and come with me!"

"I...I can't..." he tried to protest quietly. "Tink, I can't do that. What if it's somethin' really bad and the healin'-talents can't help...or...or the Queen finds out I've been hidin' this from everyone? It's...it's a secret and if Clara or any of the other healers find out how this happened--"

"And if you don't go?" Tink shot back. "Your wings will only get worse! You've been having more and more difficulty flying since that day. Up until now, we all just thought you were afraid of something and it was holding you back and I guess we were right! Pixie dust doesn't work if you have fear. Terrence taught me that after I had the stupid notion to try and hide the fact that I had broken the moonstone. In a way, I think you've broken your own stone and whatever is stopping you; your promise to Queen Clarion, the possibility that everyone will know who you really are, Scorpion, you need to give it up because it's only going to get worse and it's going to hurt you and it's going to hurt the fairies around you. You could lose your flight and everyone will know that you're the reason the Hollow is safe and they will know about Protectors and isn't that what you're trying to prevent?"