Love at First Sight

Chapter 36

"It's an emergency. The pixie dust tree is in trouble. The dust stopped flowing over here and there's a freeze moving in over the warm side. Periwinkle and two of her friends are trying to frost the tree to protect it but they're never going to make it. Dewey sent me over here to come get you. He's rounding up as many fairies and owls as he can and meeting them on Snowflake Lake but we need our leader. And before you open your mouth to say that this is insane and you're not doing it, this may be the only way to save the tree. Clarion's tried everything and this is her last desperate attempt. If you won't do it for me, do it for her." This was all it took to get Milori motivated and he ran outside and whistled for Hercules. Hercules landed in front of him and Milori jumped on and they took off.

"Where to Master?"

"Snowflake Lake. And hurry." When they got to the lake Milori started directing people and before he knew it, they had a whole fleet of fairies ready to go. He mounted Hercules and took off with everyone else behind him. Dewey was on one of the owls to Milori's left and Snow was on his right. When they got close to the tree Periwinkle flew up to Milori and said

"Lord Milori."

"We've come to help."

"Now you didn't think I was going to let you do this all on your own did you?" Asked Dewey. Peri smiled and turned back to Milori.

"The tree should be our top priority but any fairy we can spare should try to frost the other seasons." Milori looked over at his sister and said

"Sis, I'm trusting you to lead the other half of this team. Start at the freeze line and spread out to spring and summer." Then he addressed the group as a whole "The rest of you, cover the tree."

Sled and Snow took as many owls as they could get and flew them over the autumn woods. Snow gave the signal and the baskets opened to reveal more fairies. As the fairies dropped over the autumn woods, they frosted as much of the season as they could. Much of it had already been lost to the freeze so there was a small squad in autumn. Most everyone was spread between Springtime Square and the Summer Meadow. Over at the pixie dust tree there were about 20 fairies spread across the whole thing. Milori flew by on Hercules with two other fairies beside him. In five minutes they had frosted whatever hadn't been frozen yet. Milori flew up a little ways to survey the situation and said "We've done all we can. Go and join the others." The two fairies that had been beside him flew down to join everyone else inside the tree and Milori followed them. When Hercules landed inside the tree, Milori jumped off and approached the crowd of warm fairies. He said to them,

"The freeze is upon us. You must take cover." All the warm fairies darted off to go find a hiding space except for one. Clarion remained behind. Milori could see the worry in her eyes and he approached her to say something comforting. As he came close, Clarion asked him

"Will everything be alright?" With those four words she had shot Milori's intentions of calming her down out the window. Unable to lie to her, he said

"I don't know. I've never seen anything like this before. She shivered from the cold and Milori, acting out of love and instinct, took his owl feather cape off and gave it to her. He usually wore that cape to conceal his broken wing since no one but Dewey and Snow knew about that situation. Clarion thanked him for the cape and he said "Please, take cover." She turned and began to walk away and he did the same. Just before she left, Clarion turned back for one final glimpse of the man who was saving her people. As she did so, she was overcome with guilt. She had seen his wing and it brought back all of the painful emotions from right after the breakup. She sighed and retreated as he joined the others.

"Winter fairies, stand guard." Every fairy stood up a little straighter and lined up in a circle around the tree. They watched as the freeze crept closer and closer and braced themselves when they felt a very strong wind. The freeze encased the tree in seconds and within a minute, all of the warm side was covered in a thick layer of ice. Milori hoped that what they had done would be enough as he stood guard. There they all stood for many hours. Every fairy had a different reason to fight. Some stood for glory or honor, others stood out of respect and obedience towards their leader. Milori, he stood in the name of love. Love for Clarion, love for her people and love for the land that his sister held so dearly. After about two hours of waiting and wondering, the sun came out. The warm fairies began to emerge from their hiding place and the winter fairies joined them. Milori immediately went directly to Clarion to make sure she was okay. Everyone watched anxiously as the ice began to melt. It was starting to look like the frost hadn't worked when suddenly, a light trickle of dust made it through. Within 5 seconds, that trickle had turned into a gushing roar. Everyone began flying around in excitement except for one fairy. Tink was still on the ground with her coat on. Her friends yelled for her to come celebrate with them but when she didn't, Periwinkle came down to meet her sister. Peri asked what was wrong. Tink turned around and removed her coat to reveal her broken wing. Everyone was shocked and saddened by this revelation. Milori looked over at Clarion, only to see guilt and pain in her eyes. This couldn't have been easy for her. He placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder and said

"This happened because we tried to keep you apart."

"But never again," said Clarion "You belong together."

"Just like us," Milori thought. As the girls said goodbye, they turned their backs to one another and slowly lifted their wings together. This created a bright flash that not only startled the girls and caused them to jump apart but it also began to slowly repair Tink's wing. When the two noticed this, they put their wings together again. There was a bright light and an echo of a baby's laugh and when the light faded, Tink's wing had been repaired. All of her friends eagerly crowded around her. Mary was obviously shocked and Dewey was excited to have found something else to write about. Milori was happy for the girls but all of his attention was on Clarion at the moment. He tenderly took her hands in both of his, silently asking for permission to act on the impulsive thought that had just popped into his brain. He wanted to kiss her. She must have been thinking the same thing because when they locked eyes she lovingly placed one hand on his chest, closed her eyes and reached up to kiss him. From beside them the two heard Mary and Dewey's shocked reactions including Dewey's "I guess they're telling people now." They were so happy to be able to truly show each other off the way they'd always dreamed of.