Gold | Disney Descendants

Chap 10

Zarina was sitting quietly at the table, her hands kneading the dust satchel. She'd been quiet too long. Twyla had been wringing her hands for the last five minutes, her nerves had practically vibrated all the pixie dust off of her. Finally, Zarina drew in a long breath.

"You want to go looking for a necklace that hasn't been seen in decades, that you don't even know exists. And you're going to talk to ravens, a bunch of birds that could eat you?"

Twyla nods quickly, glancing over her shoulder briefly at the other three, still standing outside. Zarina sighs, jaw tightening.

"I ... don't know, Twyla."

Twyla whines, grabbing her mother by the hands, kneeling in front of her: "Mum please! This is important, this could solve all my problems. Please!" Zarina took Twyla's face in her hands staring down at her intensely. Twyla was pulling all the stops; her wings droop, her bottom lip juts out, her brown eyes are wide, her pointed ears twitch. Zarina sighs again and pinches Twyla's cheeks.

"Fine. But you take some dust with you, just in case."

Zarina barely has a chance to get up from her seat before Twyla is yanking her into a tight hug, spinning the both of them around. Twyla was glowing all over again. Without the light-talent dust this time. Zarina's smile was still tight and nervous as she was released. She gave Twyla one more tight hug, then shifted away to go next grab a few bags of dust. As she did, the other three flit into the room. Zarina shoves pouch upon pouch into a bag, then shoves it into Twyla's hand.

She gently reaches for Twyla's face again.

"Be careful, okay?" Her gaze is quickly drawn to the other three companions, "You guys too. Can't lose four fairies in one adventure, can we? And please, if the ravens don't know anything, just come home and don't go on some wild search?"

The four just nodded quickly. She snatches her sword from the corner of the room, shoving it into the sheath at her hip. Kissing her mother's cheek, Twyla turned and practically shoved Elspeth, Saffron and Copper out of the little house.

—— §

They stood on the edge of Pixie Hollow, wings flitting nervously as they stared out.

"I've never left Pixie Hollow," Elspeth said quietly, kneading her hands together. Beside her, Saffron and Copper made sounds of agreement. Twyla just beams, grabbing Elspeth and Copper by the hands.

"Come on, it's an adventure! We're gonna have so much fun!" With that, she yanked them over the border and almost tripped over a rock. She made a noise of pain and annoyance, rubbing her foot. "You know ... this walking thing is gonna get old real quick. It's a real thorn in the pentunia."

Saffron tugged her hair back, pulling the brown curls into a tight ponytail. Her arms crossed easily as she glanced around. She strolled over, knocking against Copper's shoulder.

"Okay, storyteller, where are we heading first?"

Copper yanked the map out of his bag and Elspeth leans onto Saffron and Copper's shoulders to peer onto the map. She reaches her hand out and walks a fingertip over it. She moved from Pixie Hollow to a large tree, just off Peter Pan's Hide Out: "Right here would probably be a good place to start. I've seen the ravens flying that way sometimes."

Twyla claps her hands together, leaning over to stare at the map. "Then that's where we start. So let's go!"

With that she was quick to start off in the direction of the tree.

—— §

It wasn't as easy as she'd like to think. Without flying, everything took so much longer. Saffron barely allowed thirty minutes of flying time before they were stuck walking again. On the forest floor, everything seemed especially huge. The tree, the rocks, even the flowers. And Twyla had thought it was bad on the Isle where everything was clumsy-sized, but in Neverland, where everything was unnaturally big anyway, it was dozens of times worse.