Secret of the Wings

Chapter 1

Milori guided his owl downward to watch the snowy owls deliver the last snowflake basket of the season. The newest owl seemed to be having trouble with the basket, weaving and losing control. The basket finally proved too much for the new owl, flying from its talons and skidding across the icy pond as it knocked a few already-filled baskets over.

He saw his winter fairies scatter as the basket slid to a stop on its side and guided the owl to land in the center of the pond.

"Lord Milori!" Sled exclaimed as Milori dismounted from his owl.

"And what happened here?" Milori asked with a laugh, looking all the fairies and baskets over to ensure the fairies' safety and check the baskets did not need to be repaired.

"A bit of a bumpy landing." Sled replied sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's only his second drop off."

The owl twittered nervously, as though it understood they were talking about him.

"As long as the basket made it, I'd say he did just fine." Milori said, walking across the frozen pond to where a pile of snowflakes needed to be re-placed back into a basket. One of the female fairies handed him a snowflake from the pile as he turned back to face Sled. "How was the crossing?"

"Four bunnies, two weasels, and a marmot."

"And they all crossed safely?"

"Yes. I met up with them on the north side."

"The snowflakes are looking quite beautiful." He changed the subject.

"No two alike." the female fairy giggled, pleased with the hard work they had done this season.

"Ambitious." As Milori turned back to his owl, satisfied that all was okay despite the rocky delivery, he felt an object hit his foot and glanced down to find a book on the ice. "Hmm," he mused, bending to pick it up and reading the cover Wingology: The Keeper. "Now that is odd. It must've been left in the basket by accident. Return this to the Keeper." He handed the book to Sled and walked back to his owl. "He can send it back to the Warm Side with his next delivery."

Although he brushed the book off as an accident, not wanting to seem paranoid or alarm his fairies, he worried that a warm fairy had brought the book with them, and could be wandering on their side of the border. Considering what had happened last time there was a border crossing...he shuddered internally. No fairy should have to go through that. It was too high a cost.

••••••••••

Although he had spend the last few hours rationalizing how the book was a fluke and a warm fairy couldn't possibly be in Winter, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was off.

He jumped on his owl and flew towards the mountain where the Keeper was working, writing new books with fairy knowledge to share amongst the Warm and Cold sides. He pushed open the large ice doors and walked inside. "Hello? Keeper, are you in?" He called, walking around the entrance. "Keeper? Are you here? Where are you?"

"Come back later!" Milori heard Dewey, the Keeper shout from above. He was atop a giant snowflake, and Milori didn't even want to know what kind of research he had gotten himself into this time.

"I need to speak with you." Milori yelled upwards.

Dewey slid off the side of the snowflake and fluttered down to Milori's level. "I'm right here, Lord Milori."

"Did you receive that wing book?" He asked, already on edge about it after waiting several hours. For a warm fairy in winter, the hours he had waited were already too many.